How would you rule crafting items in a no-XP system?

[I'm A Banana]

I don't really limit it myself. I use UA's crafting points instead.

 

[Crothian]

Artificiers Handbook by Mystic Eye Games could work here they have a nice system that doesn't use XP

 

[Kid Socrates]

I don't really limit it myself. I use UA's crafting points instead.

I have UA on my bookshelf -- I keep forgetting I have that book. I've got three and a half hours before I can look at it, but I'll take a look tonight. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Kid Socrates]

Are you using action points?

When I wrote Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth, I wanted to allow for magic item creation without requiring XP expenditure. One of the options, which I designed to work with Eberron, D20 Modern, and other games with action points, is to let you trade action points for pseudo XP. One AP = your level x 10 XP. And then there are optional rules for making offerings, sacrificing hit points, skill points, ability points. And sacrificing the souls of the innocent. Just, y'know, so I can cover all my bases.

If you're not using action points, the other options still work. There might also be a way to suck energy out of creatures you kill, or from magical fonts, and to harness that energy for items.

Hey, there's an idea. We are using action points; the player doesn't spend a whole lot of his, so they may be a big help. I'll see what he thinks. I hadn't thought about using action points for that.

We may have some innocents' souls in storage; have to check the reserves on those.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I have UA on my bookshelf -- I keep forgetting I have that book.

I love UA. I think it's the most underrated 3e book that WotC made.

 

[Kid Socrates]

I love UA. I think it's the most underrated 3e book that WotC made.

I picked it up on a whim a while back, wanting a new gaming book to read, and went over it a few times. I don't run a by-the-book game, so a lot of things in there are very helpful. It contains some of the ideas that d20 Modern started, which I use in my game (action points and class defense bonuses are the first two that spring to mind). I'll be reading it again tonight.

 

[Garnfellow]

Artificiers Handbook by Mystic Eye Games could work here they have a nice system that doesn't use XP

Artificer Handbook is a great resource, and now it's available in pdf format on RPGNow.

I use AH mostly for pricing magic items, but if I were gonna restart my campaign tomorrow I'd adopt the item creation rules wholesale.

 

[Altalazar]

Special items all the way. Heck, I use them now with an XP system as a way to reduce XP cost. It makes the whole item creation thing much more fun and interesting in the game.

 

[FireLance]

Possibly the simplest approach is that the item creation feats allow you to create items at 75% of the market price instead of 50% of the market price and some XP costs.

 

[Terwox]

It appears like no one has mentioned Unearthed Arcana's craft points system, if you just remove the goofy feats for creating normal items from it, it can work pretty well. If they use up xp after that point, just start taking xp, but award 12,000 exp when they'd typicall level.

Another simple thing is to just award xp that way and use the normal system. Just give out 12,000 exp at a time and it's pretty close to what you're doing already.