D&D 5E What do you want out of crafting rules?

[Dausuul]

Yeah, I imagine something like the crafting systems in a lot of CRPGs. A sword is made of 3 metal, 1 wood, and 1 leather, with an optional rune slot. Mix and match materials of those types to create one with the stats you want.

I would hate that. The last thing I want in D&D is to be keeping track of wolf pelts and iron ingots.

IMO, a good crafting system in D&D would keep the raw materials abstract. When I said I wanted a crafting system that could be used in the field with the materials at hand, I didn't mean you should have to determine each individual material that's at hand and refer to a chart. I meant something like "Spend X time searching and make a roll and if you make it, you find what you need and can craft the thing."

With respect, that's in large part because the game doesn't have rules for other things, not because making things has no place in the genre. And, since Morrus is asking bout what to include in rules, maybe this assertion is not so functional.

I see what you mean, but I also think @commandercrud is touching on a key point: D&D is fundamentally an adventuring game. Crafting mechanics should not interfere with adventuring. If you've got five people in the party, and one of them is a blacksmith, the mechanics should not force the players to choose between "go on adventures" and "the blacksmith makes stuff while everyone else tries to find something interesting to do in town."

That's why I'm interested in crafting that can be done in the field, directly supporting the adventurers' needs at that moment. It makes crafting into part of the adventure, not an alternative to it.

 

[Umbran]

I see what you mean, but I also think @commandercrud is touching on a key point: D&D is fundamentally an adventuring game. Crafting mechanics should not interfere with adventuring.

Let us clarify that somewhat. There's a split here between the narrative, and gameplay.

The idea that, in the fiction, active adventuring is an everyday activity is questionable. Fafhrd and Grey Mouser and Conan were not stealing stuff every day - they hit a big score, and then lived high on the hog for some weeks or months, and then did something else. Continuous action, every day, gets you characters who go from level 1 to level 20 in one in-game calendar year - from nigh apprentice to casting Wish. This is kind of silly, as a narrative, and raises major setting-design questions. So, in the fiction, there should be plenty of time in the interstices, weeks and months between periods of deadly activity, for crafting to occur.

However, in terms of a group of people sitting at a table and playing a game, we do not want sub-systems that take large amounts of table-time focused on a single player resolving complicated actions. If your crafting takes half an hour of a table session in which all but one player is sitting on their thumbs, that's a spotlight sharing issue.

Thus, crafting needs to be part of a robust "out of adventuring time" pillar that includes things for non-crafters, or crafting must be quick to work though, or done out-of-band from table play.

 

[Dausuul]

So, in the fiction, there should be plenty of time in the interstices, weeks and months between periods of deadly activity, for crafting to occur.

This is an assumption that is wildly untrue at many tables. It's very common for a campaign to be built around a single epic quest. During this period, there may be travel time from Point A to Point B, but there is rarely an opportunity for true "downtime" where the PCs stop moving for more than a few days.

Crafting rules that rely on extensive downtime might be great for people who play a more traditional, episodic style; but they would have little value to people who play "grand quest" campaigns.

 

[Charlaquin]

I would hate that. The last thing I want in D&D is to be keeping track of wolf pelts and iron ingots.

I wouldn’t make the materials that specific. You wouldn’t track iron ingots and Wolf pelts, you’d track “Common sturdy metal” and “Uncommon beast hide” or something.

 

[Umbran]

This is an assumption that is wildly untrue at many tables.

It is not an assumption - it is a reasoned conclusion. Even if the game has long travel times, the narrative of "we have travel, and deadly action, and nothing else" still gets weird if you look at it closely.

But let's take what you say at face falue. Is your system criteria "all rules bits must be applicable for all tables"? If not, then you are not presenting an argument against a decent crafting system.

Your GM can say, "Guys, this campaign is unlikely to have long periods of downtime in any particular location - I would not reccomend characters built to use the crafting rules." This deals with your issue in a single sentence in Session Zero.

 

[Asisreo]

The only thing I'd change is that magic casters are the only characters capable of making enhanced swords, period.

Silvered swords work for a good chunk of devils and lycanthropes.

 

[Dausuul]

Is your system criteria "all rules bits must be applicable for all tables"? If not, then you are not presenting an argument against a decent crafting system.

The OP asked "What do you want out of a crafting system?" My table often has this type of quest campaign, which means that as a player, I would have little use for a pure-downtime crafting system. And I'd be sad about that, because I would like the opportunity to have "I'm a blacksmith" matter in play.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think the dichotomy between short-rest-based and long-rest-based classes already leads to some pacing weirdness in the adventuring sequence, so I'd suggest that adding another layer of timing for a character to ''do their thing'' would not be such a good thing.

''Ok guys, can we take 10 days off so I could forge an adamantium dagger before we go rescue the chickens from the Court of the Mad Golem King.''

I think crafting should be counted in terms of long rests that do not need to be sequential.
Ex: crafting my adamantium daggers requires 1000 gp of material (rare minerals), proficiency in and access to smith's tools and 4 long rests without any other activities. I can still adventure in the days, and use my off-screen resting time to create the item. It could requires a test at the end of the long rest to see if progress is made.

 

[tetrasodium]

This is an assumption that is wildly untrue at many tables. It's very common for a campaign to be built around a single epic quest. During this period, there may be travel time from Point A to Point B, but there is rarely an opportunity for true "downtime" where the PCs stop moving for more than a few days.

Commonality is not the same as exclusivity. I don't think a single one of my 5e campaigns went that route.
In contrast, most of those games were about whatever pulpy adventure the players happen to be getting involved in with those adventures generally being somehow tied to or causes by the Last War, political intrigue, The Draconic Prophecy, and or scheming way above their pay grade. There were often a lot of repeat NPCs who rarely were something one could call a "good guy" but they weren't exactly bad guys the world would be better off without either and killing them wouldn't fix things. One good example is a dragon marked heir artificer who once got confronted surrounded by the missing people/ prisoners captured by his fixer guy who just had a brief polite conversation ending with a statement along the lines of "no... that's not happening, because you're going to watch me calmly walk out of here while you... you will be dealing with *points at thing under a tarp that turned out to be a war forged titan*kill the prisoners... come see me for lunch at 2 about that other matter if you survive"

 

[BookTenTiger]

I want crafting to be both quotidian and long-term.

That is, I want to be able to craft during a long rest (you make x number of potions, or you add 1 to a character's armor class).

I want bigger projects that I can work on during downtime.