Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Thelon Fairblade 07-15-05, 08:51 AM	Disclaimer: staling idea entirely from KOTOR computer game. Okay, obviously in a high-tech game, there aren't going to be +3 magical suits of plate armor. So the game gets around this by having different culture's best examples of items have innate traits that are better than the normal stuff you find anywhere. For example, Heavy Armor is AC 10, Max Dex +0. Echani Heavy Armor is AC 10, MaxDex +1. Mandalorian Heavy Armor is AC 11, MaxDex +0, 10% resistance to Energy. Correllian Power Armor is AC 10, Max Dex +3. Etc. So, I was thinking... Neat! No, really, what I thought was more like "Neat, that's what I tried to do in 1e, back in college, with that one campaign..." Basically, at that time, I had nonmagical ranks for each culture. Human was "+1", Gnomes were "+2" (with a beneficial side enchantment, like ropes that coil themselves, or weapons that keep your foe's blood from spraying on you), Elves (and orcs!) were +3, and dwarves (extinct) were +4 (armor and weapons only, +2 otherwise). Obviously, finding a dwarven weapon was a great thing! In 2e, I modified things a little bit. Elven weapons were +2 to hit; dwarven weapons penetrated 2 points of armor, and did +1 damage. The party ranger had a pair of shortswords, one elvenmade and one dwarvenmade; the rogue had a dwarven "doubled" heavy crossbow he called his "gun", because it penetrated 7 points of armor at short range! Okay, moving on. I've seen posts recently (last couple months) from others who have suggested similar ideas. Elvencraft, I think was the last thread I saw. My question here is twofold: 1) Game Concept: How does such an idea fit into a "Standard D&D" world? a magic-heavy world like FRCS? A magic-poor world? 2) Game Mechanics: How do you price such improvements, for general party wealth concerns, and cost-on-the-market? (After all, these things are technically better than magic in most cases, since they can't be dispelled or disjoined, and function in an anti-magic/dead-magic zone.) And there's a combo question hidden there: In a world where a longsword costs 15 gp, a masterwork (+1 to hit only) sword costs 315, and magical +1 (to hit and damage) sword costs 2315... how does a culturework +1/+1 sword factor in for a high-magic or a low-magic world? I guess a fourth question.... I want a mostly-barter world, where the prices in the book don't change, but most people live on a silver and copper level. The average person has a knife or a poor quality dagger as their best weapon; swords are fearsome and wildly expensive for normal folk (a couple years' income) --- who would create, let alone buy, "culturework" items?
Thelon Fairblade 07-19-05, 11:13 AM	:bump: Anyone? Things like "+1 Max Dex", or "DR 1/slashing", or "+1 damage on critical hits"? How much would these little things increase an item's price?