Creating Magical Items
This is partly house rules, partly a summary of canon rules.
For all +jobs, once rolls are finished, please add the following in another comment:
- Type of Item
- Name of Item
- Level/Gnosis/Willpower/etc as needed of Item
- The Effect
- How Many Charges the item has (if applicable)
- Difficulty/Damage/other expenditures
- How many successes you obtained on the rolls (This can be just one or two rolls, or might have several. Please list individually)
This will greatly speed up your approval on the items you are requesting.
Sphere Crafting Information
General
- These are general limits that apply in addition to canon rules:
- How many items can a character create and still get other things done?
- How many items can a character use and not have anything backfire?
- These apply to items that work permanently (until/unless somehow destroyed or otherwise ruined, including items that have a limited shelf life but are reusable until it expires).
- These do not apply to items that work only once (e.g. talens, alchemical products), nor items whose sole effect is to ICly justify an XP spend (e.g. Acute Vision).
- Also, some items are not important enough to be worth tracking. Staff is not worried about every single tool in your toolshed, making your grandmother's favorite vase unbreakable, etc. If in doubt, ask.
For building/carrying limits, Occult may be interchanged with:
- Rituals (typically shifters)
- Gremayre (typically changelings)
- Hypertech (typically Technocrats)
- Science or Technology (Sorcerer-psychics using extraordinary science or techno-sorcery)
- Crafts (Malefactor demons)
Types of items
- Items must be spelled out in a book (e.g. a specific fetish) or emulate a specific power (or combination of powers)
- Items may require conversion (e.g. if a gift costs Gnosis, then a treasure emulating that gift may cost Glamour instead)
- To emulate a power from a different game line, the creator must have at least 3 dots in the relevant Lore (or Hypertech if relevant)
- Emulating a power restricted to a subset of another race may be restricted at staff discretion
- Emulating a ritual (i.e.: Shifter Rites, Vampire Rituals) is not allowed. Sorcerer Rites not included.
Level and genre
- The level of an item emulating one or more powers is the sum of the levels of those powers
- The genre of an item is based on its creator's race/subrace
Edge cases
- Mage spheres can only be emulated by mage items (too broad otherwise).
- Specific mage-created items (particularly fetishes/talens) may be emulated at staff discretion.
- Possessed/bygone powers can't be emulated (don't follow usual 1-5 scale).
- Changeling arts are still limited by user's or target's Banality (whichever is higher), making them nearly useless for other races.
- If a level N power doesn't directly produce an effect, but only creates an item that produces an effect (e.g. Enchantment numina, Enchant Talisman), then it only contributes N-2 (minimum 1) to the item's level.
- Multiple powers producing essentially same effect with different targets (e.g. Thaumaturgy wards) only contribute once (highest level), not multiple times.
Examples
- A magical item that captures Potence:2 is a level 2 item.
- A magical item that captures Celerity:1 and has Ward vs Ghouls (level 2) and Ward vs Kindred (level 4) on it is a level 3 item (1 for Celerity, 2 for Ward vs Kindred contributing 4-2=2).
Creation
- Each creator gets (Occult (max 5) * 2) tokens per month
- Successfully creating an item uses a number of tokens equal to its level
- Upgrading an item uses a number of tokens based on the upgrade, even if it partly overlaps with existing powers (e.g. mage spheres)
- Tokens do not roll over from one month to the next
- Exception: Saving up for a specific item declared in advance
- Exception: If staff takes several weeks to process a request, tokens may be taken from any month within that time, player's choice
- Single-use items don't use up tokens (staff will house-rule some limit if/when someone tries spamming them badly enough)
- Items with limited shelf life (but reusable until it expires) don't use up tokens, instead you can have one such (non-expired) item in existence per dot in Occult
Carrying/use
- Characters are limited by how many multiple-use items they can use in a scene.
- The limit is compared to the sum of the item levels.
- Characters can have dumpsters full of magical items at home, and can use all of them in a scene there.
- +equip does not track what you normally keep where. You may want to set a +note and ask staff to approve it.
- To use an out-of-genre item, a character must have at least as many dots in Occult as the item's level.
- You may substitute Rituals, Gremayre, or (if relevant to the item) Hypertech.
- If the item requires spending something (e.g. Gnosis), then the character must also have that thing.
- All items are considered out-of-genre for the 'Other' group below.
- Receiving an item made by another PC does not require buying background dots.
Character | Carrying limit | Notes |
---|---|---|
Vampire | (Highest discipline + Occult) x 2 | |
Shifter | (Rank + Rituals) x 2 | |
Mage | (Arete + Occult) x 2 | Technocrats can use Hypertech instead of Occult for relevant items Technocrats with Soulless flaw (cannot have Arete) use Hypertech x 4 instead |
Sorcerer/Psychic | (Highest Numina + Occult) x 2 | |
Changeling | (Highest Art + Gremayre) x 2 | |
Wraith/Risen | (Highest Arcanos + Occult) x 2 | |
Demon | (Faith, max 5 + Occult) x 2 | |
Mummy | (Balance + Occult) x 2 | |
Other | Occult x 2 | Includes Mortal, Ghoul, Subrace:Kinfolk, Subrace:Kinain, Possessed, Bygone |
Discrepancies
- Need to decide on in-between limits for items that work for a fixed duration (e.g. one month) but are reusable within that time
Changeling
Reference: WW92041 Changeling: the Dreaming (20th Anniversary) Staff is in the process of updating the Changeling Sphere rules to 20th rules, adjusting as needed for City of Hope and Mushing in general. Questions on how any of this works should be put into a +request.
Materials
Staff has implemented a new background for Changelings called: Dross. This background is a measure of a PC's chimerical wealth. This stat will be equivalent to the same level of: Resources, but for buying minor chimerical goods. A player can spend xp to buy Dross as per +rules XP Costs.
To harvest raw materials from the landscape:
Large items may require extra raw materials at staff discretion. Average 'volume' for 1 success is about 12 pounds, but this varies by type of material.
Crafting
Once you have determined what you are making, open a +request with the following:
Staff will reply with an affirmative or any suggestions for modifying. Once settled, you will be given the diff to roll 'Dexterity + Crafts.
Modifiers
Nockers/BoggansReferences: WW92047 Changeling: The Dreaming Player's Guide (20th Anniversary) pg.#184-186 Only Nockers and Boggans have access to this art.
|
Demon
Enhance Object (Forge 1)Demon Player Guide 142-148
Enchant Object (Forge 4)Demon Player Guide 148-159
Demonic RelicsDemon Player Guide 159-166 (to be filled out) |
Mage
General note: Primal Utility (Syndicate Revised 79-81) may be substituted for Prime, same levels unless otherwise noted.
Artifacts/InventionsIMPORTANT:
Charms/GadgetsIMPORTANT: All the warnings under Artifacts/Inventions also apply here, though these are somewhat easier to create.
FetishesIMPORTANT: All the warnings under Artifacts/Inventions also apply to Binding here, except the part about being vulgar.
Talens
PeriaptsIMPORTANT: All the warnings under Artifacts/Inventions also apply here, except the part about being vulgar. 'Usable only by creator' is currently under review (existing items will be grandfathered if relevant).
Talismans/DevicesIMPORTANT: All the warnings under Artifacts/Inventions also apply to Imbuing Arete and Imbuing Powers here (mostly the latter).
Grimoires/Principiae
Creating Grimoire/Principia
Creating Primers
Using Grimoire
|
Sorcerer
Enchantment/AlchemyEnchantment and Alchemy (see these links for further details):
Naming FormatsAs of September 2021, we are changing the names of some of the Alchemy and Enchantment Rites to a standard format. It makes it easier for you and for staff as a whole. All enchantments will be called Charms All alchemy will be called Potions
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. This is in process and will continue (slowly) over the next few weeks while we get things shuffled over. Spirit Awakening
Fetishes
Talens
|
Vampire
Not an exhaustive list. For methods found in canon but not listed here, please check with staff. Entrap Ephemera (Thaumaturgy path: Spirit Manipulation 4)
Enchant Talisman (level 5 Thaumaturgy ritual)
Splinter Servant (level 4 Thaumaturgy ritual)
Bind the Familiar (level 3 Thaumaturgy ritual)
Chanjelin Ward (Mytherceria 4)
|
Werewolf
FetishesHammer and Klaive chapter 2 (pages 41-59) Note: Some rites do not use the usual dice pool for their type (WtA 155, "Rites Chart" at upper right) Step 1: Decide what your fetish will do
Step 2: Optional modifiers to Rite of the Fetish difficulty
Step 3: Decide what type of spirit to summon (WtA 298-301, Axis Mundi)
Step 4: Perform Rite of Summoning (WtA 161)
Step 5: More optional modifiers to Rite of the Fetish difficulty
Step 6: Perform Rite of the Fetish (WtA 161)
Using a fetish (WtA 240-241)Fetishes from Werewolf: the Wild West may be allowed at renown crew's discretion.
Multiple spirits per fetish (H+K 57)
Talens
Rite of the Pain Dagger (Ratkin 70-71)
|
Wraith
(to be filled out in more detail) Creating Relics:
Creating minor Artifacts:
Creating major Artifacts:
Wraith20 329 has rules for an item's Corpus levels. See also Book of Oblivion 15-21 |