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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9547263" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Not to overly contradict the premise of the thread, but there's a reason why materials are the focus rather than processes.A process is almost always repeatable. Unless it involves some kind of special sacrifice (as the One Ring did, or the Silmarils, or indeed pretty much any of the truly amazeballs artifacts of the Legendarium), you can do a process over and over. That means the players can just...do that process over and over again until everyone is outfitted with a certain baseline of amazing gear.Now, this doesn't mean you can't still do it with processes. But if you don't want to open Pandora's box of magic-item crafting, you're probably going to need to include some special conditions, randomness, or very lengthy steps as part of these processes. Hence, some ideas:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Forgeboon weapons and armor. These are randomly created from the mixed slag in a forge. Each forgeboon item is more or less unique. Roll on various tables to determine what special properties it may have. Not all of these properties will be what the players are looking for, so forgeboon is a gamble, but it's a gamble you can repeat if you want. You might allow an attempt to influence the results (e.g., allow to roll twice and take the preferred result) if they spend time calibrating the ratios of various materials intending to pursue a particular end--but the result is still always uncertain.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Celestial phenomena. A sword first quenched under the "light" of a solar eclipse. Solar eclipses in general are actually quite common, but solar eclipses are rare in any single, specific place. This allows a process that can potentially even make multiple items (quenching can be done relatively quickly), but you have to time things just right.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tapping other unpredictable/uncontrollable phenomena. Perhaps wind-bound blades can only be produced if the Jinnistani script is enameled onto the blade while in the eye of a hurricane, or some kind of earth-related enchantment must have an earthquake occur during the forging process in order for the result to retain its magic permanently. Natural disasters, wars, coronations, and other "major" events could easily fill this role.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Swearing a covenant. Promises in many traditions have sacred or magical power (consider the geas from Irish myth, or Samson's strength). Your first covenant item might require only a mild oath, but each successive one you make might require a greater, more difficult promise than you have made before--and if you break a covenant, the item itself breaks too.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragonfire is often held to have special properties beyond the nature of normal fire. (After all, Gandalf genuinely believed that at least some of the great dragons of Middle Earth's history could've destroyed the Ring, even if the chance was remote.) This process has a built-in limiter, as it's unlikely that the party will have a pet dragon they can just squeeze a gout of flame out of every time they want to make a magic item.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Semi-controllable/predictable natural phenomena. Lightning is a great example here, but tides, lunar phases, and seasons are all stuff that can be predicted or tracked, and which one could theoretically use as the power source, physical or magical, for creating a magic item.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rune magic. Pretty straightforward here, but just...putting magic words on objects is a common way to make that object magical. Here, the trick is getting the "grammar" right. An incorrect inscription should probably do nothing, and two magic swords, even if they're meant to do exactly the same thing, might need subtle differences in inscription. Two swords that actually do different things--to say nothing of, say, a suit of armor adorned with runes or a fine silk robe embroidered with them--should need distinct inscriptions, meaning the limitation is needing to learn to use the magical language effectively.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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