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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WalterKovacs" data-source="post: 4317323" data-attributes="member: 63763">There are structures in place to vaguely define how to take the system 'as is' and roughly translate it into a non-magical crafting based campaign.The most important things to 'keep' are the "magical" bonuses from weapons [to attacks and damage] and the magical [and masterwork] qualitiy of the armor.Now, you can easily refluff things so that it is improved quality allowing for the more powerful items. This makes sense, as the RELATIVE costs of the items should stay the same. I emphasize relative because to make it 'fit' in a low-magic setting, and/or a poor setting, having the players receive less money, and not be able to afford [or find] much in the way of magical items, you can reduce the treasure "payouts" ... you just need to reduce costs to a similar extent.The "system" of sell your stuff for 1/5 and/or turn your stuff into 1/5 of the material components for something else should still be used. For example, killing monsters and taking their metal armor, you could melt them down and reforge them into new armor. If it was high quality [i.e. pseudo-magic] you could use your crafting ability to resize the armor, as the enchant magic item ritual allows people to do in a "default" setting.If arcane/divine characters are involved, you'll have to come up with a way to keep their implements "magical" to some extent. Perhaps it's an inherent bonus the casters receive, or implements are some of the few magical items that exist. Removing daily powers from weapons and armor would probably mean you should also eliminate them from the implements for balance, but it's up to you.Speaking of which, the other important part of the economy is the treasure packets. Basically, they allow a DM to give the players items above their level, while a party should rarely be able to afford to buy items above their level because of the combination of costs scaling upwards, and selling items for very little. This gives the DM a control element. They control the "best" items the players get, while the players can choose to buy the exact item they want, if it is of their level [that is what the monetary treasure is for]. So it allows them to be able to share the balance of "power". So the crafting rules will likely be heavily based on the costs. While a skill requirement can prevent someone from making items "above their level" ... it doesn't actually prevent them from making tons of the items they can make. Thus, money is the factor that prevents them from just spamming out the armor ... and the fact that they can't find many people willing to pay them for their work.That would be the final piece of the puzzle. Guilds. Since the PCs are adventurer 'class', and in 4e especially, the class is truly a profession, as even a "full" multiclass taking all the feats, the paragon path of a second class and the epic destiny that allows you to pick powers from other classes ... wouldn't be able to, for example, channel divinity or apply a warlock's curse, or cast a cantrip. So, the PCs are similarly assumed not to have become crafters professionally. They'd have to go through a lot of hoops to actually join a guild. Being part of the guild would allow for cheaper access to materials, as well as the ability to sell at the 10% markup [not to mention being able to buy adventurer's "leftovers" at 1/5 the "worth"].So, the stuff that is in place:The scaling of items at each level, and their relative costs to each other, as well as the bonuses that they give a player to attack and damage [or to AC, etc].The 1/5 value of selling/scrapping an existing item.The 10% markup of buying an item from a vendor.The "refitting" of an item to make it usable by a PC [this may not work as often as the magic item, but in the case of larger items, the ammount of workable material could be 100% of what you need to make an appropriate sized item instead of the normal 20%].The stuff that needs to be added are the time/skill required for crafting [which includes aquiring the specific materials ... of course, they don't have rules for aquiring material components for rituals ... other than buy them, or disenchant an item]. The guild stuff is something campaign specific that could be used if the players want to make money on their items. [See also, a magic user wanting to settle down and set up a magic shop].Ultimately, crafting rules are going to be tied to the campaign setting. Perhaps THAT is where they will appear if given by WotC. [Although they may put a preliminary one, along with the alchemy 'rituals' in the item compendium book].</blockquote>

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