[Grim Tales / Slavelords of Cydonia] Mastercraft items?

[Flynn]

Wulf or The All-Knowing Grim Tale Gurus,

In reading Slavelords of Cydonia, mastercraft items are mentioned several times apparently as a replacement for magical weapons. There are no rules for them, so I am just asking to make sure I understand: do they follow the usual rules for creating the magic items they duplicate? Or did I miss something that described how they work and are created?

Just curious,
Flynn

 

[Imperialus]

Wulf or The All-Knowing Grim Tale Gurus,

In reading Slavelords of Cydonia, mastercraft items are mentioned several times apparently as a replacement for magical weapons. There are no rules for them, so I am just asking to make sure I understand: do they follow the usual rules for creating the magic items they duplicate? Or did I miss something that described how they work and are created?

Just curious,
Flynn

I know next to nothing about Slavelords but some of the coolest low magic "magic" items I've seen came from the Black Company setting. Basically there are 5 degrees of masterworked items that serve as "slots" for various abilities such as increased accuracy (attack bonus), better protection from critical hits (in the case of armor), to bonus's on intimidate or diplomacy checks when waving the item around. Heck you can even make an item ornate simply as a means of showing off wealth. Quite cool and adds a lot of veriaty to different peices of equipment. Also makes discriptions of treasure more interesting since as opposed to discribing a +1 sword as simply feeling "right" or "easier to use" you could discribe the accurate deadly longsword they just found as having a beautifully carved pommel which was carefully designed so the sword could be ballanced on two fingers at the hilt with a long serrated blade coming serving as the buisness end.

 

[Flynn]

Found mastercraft items under Techie in D20 Modern...

Wulf or The All-Knowing Grim Tale Gurus,

In reading Slavelords of Cydonia, mastercraft items are mentioned several times apparently as a replacement for magical weapons. There are no rules for them, so I am just asking to make sure I understand: do they follow the usual rules for creating the magic items they duplicate? Or did I miss something that described how they work and are created?

Just curious,
Flynn

I have found references to Mastercraft Items in D20 Modern, under the Techie Advanced Class description. Since Grim Tales doesn't do Advanced Classes, I'm curious as to how to create these items using GT characters. I am having problems finding references to such in either the main book or Slavelords. I suspect that I'll be introducing either a new feat or two, or a new Talent Tree to support this. I wonder: which would be the better approach? Talent tree or feat chain? Or is it already in GT and I have just missed it?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and input,
Flynn

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

My GT book is still packed somewhere, but IIRC it's under the Craft skill in the Skills chapter.

Pretty much just like a combination of D&D and d20Modern in the creation of them.

I too level a vote for BCCS mastercrafts, though. I used them once in a magic-heavy game and they went over quite well, replacing the lower-tier of magical weapons.

--fje

 

[GlassJaw]

In reading Slavelords of Cydonia, mastercraft items are mentioned several times apparently as a replacement for magical weapons. There are no rules for them, so I am just asking to make sure I understand: do they follow the usual rules for creating the magic items they duplicate? Or did I miss something that described how they work and are created?

Yeah, they just follow the same rules as masterwork items. Check the Craft section in GT.

As far as the BC mastercraft items go, I actually thought they were too powerful for a low-magic campaign. Who needs magic items when your mundane items can be just as powerful? Just because you call something mundane or non-magical doesn't suddenly make it less powerful.

 

[Imperialus]

well the BC is low magic I cirtanly wouldn't discribe it as low powered. Heck by 5th level my group's mage is capable of casting spells that would put any 3rd level fireball to shame. He might burn almost half his hitpoints in doing so but none the less he can do conciderable damage. D20 doesn't seem to do a good job of simulating low power though I'll have to wait until I actually get a copy of Game of Thrones before I pass final judgement.

 

[Flynn]

Mastercraft, not Masterwork...

Yeah, they just follow the same rules as masterwork items. Check the Craft section in GT.

I did, and masterCRAFT items are not mentioned there at all. Only masterWORK items are mentioned in the Craft section of GT.

Sadly, masterCRAFT items are different from masterWORK items. MasterWORK items are detailed under the Craft skill description and under appropriate entries in the Equipment section of the GT rulebook, just like they would be in D&D or D20 Modern. MasterCRAFT items are not mentioned in the Grim Tales rulebook at all.

MasterCRAFT items are mentioned only in Slavelords, and have pluses up to +3, so far as I've seen. This seems consistent with the rules for creating masterCRAFT items under the Techie Advanced Class in D20 Modern, but GT doesn't support advanced classes, and therefore there are no rules in print that I've found that handle the creation of masterCRAFT items in Grim Tales.

I think I'll turn the Mastercraft special ability of the Techie Advance Class in D20 Modern into a Talent Tree, and I would like to ask Wulf to consider filling in this gap in his rules set in some future publication, or perhaps as a web enhancement for Slavelords.

Thank you all for your time and input,
Flynn

 

[Baragos]

Dark legacies also have some nice Masterpiece rules.

For weapons for instance, you could have a Fierce Wounding Longsword. Fierce adds +1 to damage and Wounding makes it 18-20/x2. The weapon costs around 1000 gp total.

A Full Plate could have Extra Plating for +1 AC. I can't remember the cost at the moment though.

These abilities stack with any magical bonuses of the item, but magical equipment is generally very rare in Dark Legacies, and often comes with some drawback, so the rules are fairly balanced, at least when not used in a standard setting...

 

[BryonD]

Mastercraft is the term that replaces masterwork in D20 Modern.
Mastercraft items can provide bonuses of up to +3 (D20 Modern page 94).

It appears one term may have been used in one book and the other in the second.

SHRUG

They are the same.

Mastercraft is high quality workmanship. It is exactly the same thing. D&D simply limits the value to +1.




Being as Wulf got married about 30 hours ago, I wouldn't hold my breath on a personal response real soon.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Where's his sense of priorities?

Gah!

As to too-powerful BCCS mastercrafts ... *shrug* Guess it's a personal flavor thing. It's pretty hard to get more than, say, 3 Bonuses/Double Once on an item. My players all had at least a single bonus to attack with their personal weapon. I found that getting bonuses was lower down their scale of needs when "magic" was taken out of the equation. Then again, anything past +1 in D&D should be in special effects anyway.

--fje