Craftsman questions

[Kidwynn]

Actually I have the same question

[McEwan]

Hope this clears things up on the reality of the situation.

Not really. I am tremedously not worried about lone wolves or uber lewt. My concerns are two-fold. ( please keep in mind this is in the combanation of the craftsman and political rules)

One: To the best of my knowledge there are three orginizations outside of the house.
A: The Orks; They are all set with crafters, but being non-human and (for the most part) savage, they will have VERY little political clout.
B: Atrum's Guild; May or may not have a crafter, but smaller than most of the guilds that make up the house, let alone able to compete with the house as a whole.
C: The Griffin; There is a crafter, but he did not show last event soooo...And once again a small guild.
My concern here is that in order to sevive politically these smaller orgs. will be faced with the choice of either join the house or join together to form a new house.( It may be worth noting here that The Cresant Moon and the Griffin are in a close race to see who the orks hate more.) So it looks like the most vocal section of the community will be getting the short end of the stick<shrug>

Two: Recruting will be rampant. This is a good thing, however, new players, unless they are a crafter of some kind (privlaged, or Druid) will get "Join X orginization, or you will have nothing.". I'm sure it will be voiced nicer, but they will come into the game with that hanging over there heads befor they really get a chance to know what going on.

Niether of these are nessasarilly bad things, but I hope the GM's don't have anything major planed for the first event, because, up to and includeing the end of the world will be ignored in the wake of the power wrangling that will insue.

[Peace420]

All these items except qualty armour has an upkeep of a commodity. A commodity costs a house 4 different resources.

This is what I thought when I read the description but then I thought to myself, they wouldn't tie weapons to having a house, apparently you have. Can I ask why? I realize you guys want to encourage organizations but if I can come across a super sweet weapon IG I need to beg a house to upkeep it for me?

Good points McEwan.

[WayneO42]

So are there limits too how many upkeep tags a craftsman may buy?

Nope

Are there expiration dates on a upkeep tag?

Nope...Every event when a player turns in their tags, we look at each tag and then "x" out the appropriate number/type of upkeep stickers stuck to the tag. Then the tag goes into the players check in folder.

Could say a craftsman buy enough to upkeep an entire guild's stuff for the year after the first event of the year and have everthing taken care of for the entire year? (I understand the significant amount of resouces this would take, I'm just asking.)

Yep

[Onimaster]

My question is that if a weapon, or armor, isn't used during an event does it still take the same amount to upkeep it?

[Lambic]

My concern here is that in order to sevive politically these smaller orgs. will be faced with the choice of either join the house or join together to form a new house.

Can you explain this further? examples, please?

Two: Recruting will be rampant. This is a good thing, however, new players, unless they are a crafter of some kind (privlaged, or Druid) will get "Join X orginization, or you will have nothing.". I'm sure it will be voiced nicer, but they will come into the game with that hanging over there heads befor they really get a chance to know what going on.

This seems to be assuming that craftsman and women in the House of the Cresent Moon won't be willing to trade with groups outside the House. In my opinion this would not make since economically. And in such a tumultuous environment as the Haven, it would seem like bad business to gouge anyone too badly. Now that doesn't mean its going to be at cost but.... Plus it does depend on other things.

[McEwan]

My concern here is that in order to sevive politically these smaller orgs. will be faced with the choice of either join the house or join together to form a new house.

Can you explain this further? examples, please?

Tho crafting for the most part will not be a direct problem.However, with the opption to outbid other guilds for traid routs, it is with in the realm of possablity that the house (with their dramatic advantage in TP) could just deside to claim the other guild's traid and leave them twisting in the wind and scrambleing to find alternate sorces of material

Two: Recruting will be rampant. This is a good thing, however, new players, unless they are a crafter of some kind (privlaged, or Druid) will get "Join X orginization, or you will have nothing.". I'm sure it will be voiced nicer, but they will come into the game with that hanging over there heads befor they really get a chance to know what going on.

This seems to be assuming that craftsman and women in the House of the Cresent Moon won't be willing to trade with groups outside the House. In my opinion this would not make since economically. And in such a tumultuous environment as the Haven, it would seem like bad business to gouge anyone too badly. Now that doesn't mean its going to be at cost but.... Plus it does depend on other things.

It strikes me that a simple, but effective power play by the house leaders would be to just tell their crafters NOT traid with persons outside the guild.

P.S. Playing the devil's advocate here, so intentionally trying to look at the worst case senario

[WayneO42]

This is what I thought when I read the description but then I thought to myself, they wouldn't tie weapons to having a house, apparently you have. Can I ask why?

Having a weapon has not been tied to a house at all. Where did that come from? Weapons and Armour are upkept with either Hide or Steel. Hide can easily be obtained without even a guild. Wilderness survival gets hide.

Exotic weapons that the craftsman can make are tied to commodities, this is true. It is one of the advantages of a house. Like Chris said, they take the place of the house skills that were in place before.

I realize you guys want to encourage organizations but if I can come across a super sweet weapon IG I need to beg a house to upkeep it for me?

Weapons you come across in game will probably be either
a) Already upkept for a decent amount of events
b) not require commodities but rather "Mystic Upkeep" which will be covered when we post empath and Arcane changes

If they do require advanced upkeep, its politics. You will have something they want and they have something you want...Role-play it out. Look beyond the mechanics. The mechanics dont require you to be in a house but they highly encourage interaction with one.

[WayneO42]

However, with the opption to outbid other guilds for traid routs, it is with in the realm of possablity that the house (with their dramatic advantage in TP) could just deside to claim the other guild's traid and leave them twisting in the wind and scrambleing to find alternate sorces of material

Re-Read the political rules. Houses dont get TP. If individual guilds within the house want to drive out another guild for their trade route, it will effect the outbidding guild as well. They are now paying more TP for the same or fewer resources. The house will not want to encourage more than one of its guilds to do this if they are smart.

Two: Recruting will be rampant. This is a good thing, however, new players, unless they are a crafter of some kind (privlaged, or Druid) will get "Join X orginization, or you will have nothing.". I'm sure it will be voiced nicer, but they will come into the game with that hanging over there heads befor they really get a chance to know what going on.

How is being recruited something hanging over their heads? I dont understand your argument here. If it is about upkeep, When a player comes into game with starting equipment, it will be already upkept for the event.

It strikes me that a simple, but effective power play by the house leaders would be to just tell their crafters NOT traid with persons outside the guild.

Remember, craftsmen may belong to a guild which belongs to a house but they are still individuals. They have their own needs, desires, and internal organs. The upkeep system will cause a lot of interaction

[GM-Mike]

it is with in the realm of possablity that the house (with their dramatic advantage in TP) could just deside to claim the other guild's traid and leave them twisting in the wind and scrambleing to find alternate sorces of material

The House does not bid on trade routes at all. The individual guilds that make up the House do, but they cannot combine their points to bid on a trade route, they would simply be outbidding each other and so that wouldn't happen. Every guild then is on equal footing in that regard. In fact, a House made up of several small guilds may be at a disadvantage for the other bigger guilds can easily outbid them.

Now, exotic weapons give mechanical advantages and are not intended for wide use, which is why they are tied to commodities and Houses. Like someone else said, we took the House skills and turned them into items. Keep in mind that while it takes the craftsman a commodity to upkeep your item, they can be bargained with potentially. Also keep in mind that we will be more conscious about handnig out resource rewards on plots

[GM-Mike]

posted as Wayne was, didn't mean to tag team overkill the respose there.

[GM_Chris]

3 human characters who have stuck with a character for 2 years have 40 AP's a piece. They get upset and form a guild with 120 AP's of trading power craziness.

They are a first level guild with 120 points! They belong to no house.

They have 1 2nd level craftsman in their group because they dont need a 4thj level one since they have all the items they want already they just need upkeep.

This guild of 3 heros can chalange other guilds out there easily for prime trade routes. Infact they could simply threaten a take over for privledged trading.

We then have non human guilds withtheir 25% increase to total trade points. In addition the orcs trading with orcs is going to be in a good possision from hostle take over.

Now if all else fails numbers win..I mean sereously um Corbyn and Aaron's pointy ear freak character are well wimpy it sereously wouldnt take more than a couple people at 1 cool moment to take those son of bitches out of the game.

Chris

[GM-Mike]

I mean sereously um Corbyn and Aaron's pointy ear freak character are well wimpy it sereously wouldnt take more than a couple people at 1 cool moment to take those son of bitches out of the game

Wow, our true colors are showing

[Peace420]

Chris, you make me laugh quite abit. I'm glad you're a GM and not a player or we'd all be dead

[McEwan]

lol I can almost gerantee that, as we speak, Aaron is 3/4 through a new spread-sheet to optimize the house's power and wondering if anything else can be tweeked. One of the points he's prob. looking at is how to mantain the various traid routs and leave a guild with subtalntial TP to compete for other guild's materials

Yes I did read the political rules and understand that a house does not get TP, per say, however, a group of guilds could quite easily be set up to mantain each other and have a guild in reserve for trade "black-opps".

Also correct me if I'm wrong, but the average player will need about 6 or 7 mantainance stickers/event. That's two resourses beyond what is needed for survival (food, cloathing, ect.). I can't speak for anyone else, but McEwan got NOTHING that wasn't demanded for him to turn over to a guild, or gifted to him by a guild. I'm sure that the extra resourses will be suplied by the various guilds, but I'm also sure that upsetting the wrong people (which I appaerntly am wont to do) can easily put a charicter in a possision of chooseing retirement, or "Suicide by Clocktower".

Please keep in mind I'm doing the devil's advocate thing here generally I tend to just deal with what I have to deal with