Crafting - not just an afterthought.

Several years ago, I fleshed out a game that would make crafting something that would actually be enjoyable for a player. Not just a side note to gear up. The following is what I have written down from that. The crafting elements are what I would like to focus on here.
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The concept is pretty simple. Think of some of your favorite martial arts and fantasy movies. The weapons themselves can be as famous as the wielder.

"Isn't that the green destiny sword?!? What happened to so-and-so (it's previous wielder)?" (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

"I'm looking for Horatio Hanzo, I hear he makes the best steel." (Kill Bill)

Gollum remembered Frodo's dagger "Sting" even if he did not know Frodo. (Lord of the Rings)

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The game revolves around fame. If you kill something you gain fame. If you kill someone for no reason, or an unworthy reason you gain bad fame, eventually becoming infamous. You protect or save someone you gain good fame. This allows you to become a feared criminal, or a cherished hero.

As you gain fame through gameplay. Your items, specifically your weapon, also gains fame. The person who crafted it, likewise gains fame.

As you get more famous enemies will become more afraid of you.

Enemies may fear your weapon more than you, for example if the weapon has 1,000 kills/fame, and you personally only have 100.

Fame "leveling" is exponential. It grows fast at start and slows down as you progress. Ultra famous = ultra worthy of it.

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As a player uses a crafted item, the crafter gains fame. If the hero becomes very famous, his weapon becomes famous as well, and the crafter becomes famous for crafting such a fearsome weapon. People start to seek out or brag about having a specific crafter's weapons.

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All items will be unique. This will be accomplished through looted components and the crafting process.

Each component will add something to the item.

Possible looted items:
hilts
blades
gems
graphic elements
elemental metals
metals
smith tools
arrow tips
bow string
bows
wood
money
'blueprints' that 'unlock' special qualities

Every crafter will (most likely) become famous for specific parts of their craft. If you unlock a powerful sword hilt recipe, people may seek out your hilt, but go to another crafter for the blade itself.

Each modification (i.e. swing of the hammer) adds damage or speed or whatever. So you can swing your hammer 500 times and craft a very finely tuned blade, or 10 times and make a crude weapon barely worthy of the word "weapon"...

Progress of item will be visible. Half-done items would look half-done.

A crafter can spend days making a masterpiece, or 20 minutes making a crude item.

Everything can be redone. (reforged - repaired) Spent 5 hours on an item and aren't happy with the end result? Fix (reforge) it.

Players will likely have to hire a crafter via escrow. It takes time to make a nice item, and escrow will prevent scamming. (ideally)

 

Crafting has been an interest of mine for a while, and one thing that you mention that really struck a cord with me was the idea that crafters would gain (crafting) fame as their creations are used.

You've probably thought through some implementation details of this, and I was wondering how you see that working for crafting items that are combat based?

 

Example:

A player earns 1000 xp. He would also earn 100 fame.
Any items he is wearing at that time would also earn 10 fame.
The crafter's of those items would also earn 1 fame.

Something like that. The numbers here are just for demonstration of course. It would probably have to be a ratio much higher than 1:10 though. Or else a crafter's fame would skyrocket exponentially based on how many items are in use that they made.

Hopefully I understood your question.

 

This is an interesting concept. I've never considered weapons having fame of their own. But it is definitely a re-occurring theme in fantasy books. Would the weapons also have names? As they do in hobbit/lotr? If so who would name it? The creator or the wielder?

 

I think you will see some major depth in the crafting aspect of SOTA. It was one of LB's passions and really the part he loved about UO so much. So he will undoubtedly give it a lot of attention and not an afterthought. It will be a major part of the game. As he has said many times: there are people in UO who NEVER fight - they are JUST crafters. He likes that.

I like your idea of gaining notoriety for your skill level in crafting. It's kinda like UO is now where if your skill is high enough, your crafted items have your name on them. So if I craft an exceptional spellbook, it says "Exception Spellbook Crafted by Rhiannon". And I think armor that is crafted by extremely skilled crafters have special attributes on them (I'm not into that but have seen the items).

 

@Zaddik - I think they should have unique names. If I were to design it they would become nameable after reaching a high enough 'fame' level. Ideally the names would be moderated within reason. If so the fame level would have to be fairly high to limit the amount of moderation required.

@Rhiannon - *Nod* I guess my thread title is based more on the vast majority of RPG's rather than any of LB's.