Revision as of 08:06, 5 April 2010

Artifact Creation rules by CrownedSun

Just some rules I made up for my Time of Tumult campaign, and still prefer over the ones in the Book of Three Circles.

Step One – The Drawing Board

This is the step where you decide how exactly your going to make your artifact; there are two general ways to handle this step – Research, with texts and lore, and Experimentation and Observation. Both are valid, though Research tends to be easier in the long run. In the end it depends on what you’d rather roll, however.

Research: Int + Investigation
Experimentation: Wits + Lore

The difficulty of this depends on how much you have to work from. If you are just working entirely from your warped imagination and incomplete notes/materials, you have to roll at a difficulty of 2 + the Artifact rating in order to craft the item. This is the reason Artifact *** is the effective limit most Craftsmen can make in the Second Age!! Feel free to forbid any roll of this nature that has a difficulty above 5, on a case-by-case basis if you feel it’s necessary to preserve the world. However, remember that Solars are powers of Legend!

If you have some form of relevant information, then roll is only against a difficulty of 1 + the Artifact Rating, which makes it much easier. Lastly, if you have a working model of the Artifact in question, the difficulty is simply the Artifact rating itself.

Successes over the minimum required reduce the number of successes needed to build the item, thus making it take less time. Alternately, the ST can have them reduce other penalities that might crop up in various stages of the process…

Step Two – the Raw Materials and Base Construction

The next step involves taking your raw materials, (including any exotic ingrediants that are required build the item) and assembling them into a basic structure. This is still non-magical at this point, but is the foundation for everything that comes afterwards! This is a simple Wits+Crafts roll, with a difficulty equal to the Artifact rating.

Extra successes on this roll add to the roll at the next stage.

Step Three – Enchantment

The last step, taking the basic structure that you created before and actually turning it into an artifact, is accomplished through fairly mundane magics. Even mortals can create magical items of some kind, though only the Exalted can create Artifacts of any real power.

The roll is an extended Int+Occult roll, along with bonuses from the last stage and any other applicable dice bonuses, with a difficulty equal to the artifact rating of the item to be made, and a number of successes required equal to the artifact rating times 10. This raw number is reduced by extra successes from the first stage, and by any extra exotic ingrediants the ST allows on a 1:1 basis.

One roll can be made over a variable amount of time; all of this time need not be spent crafting; the Sorcerer can get up and start on something else, and come back where he left off. Enchanting an item is not subtle, however – the craftsman must commit a number of motes equal to the Artifact Rating for the duration of the Crafting, and his caste mark is in the glittery almost-visible stage for the duration as well.

Failures on this roll are a simple delay. Botches cause unfortunate side-effects in the process, either deleting already-achieved successes or adding unforseen ‘features’ to the artifact itself and how it functions once completed.

Artifact Rating, Rate per Occult-roll

1. Day (1 day)
2. Half-week (4 days)
3. Week (7 days)
4. Month (28 days)
5. Season (84 days)

Artifact Rating, Exotic Ingrediants (maximum w/ extra)

1. One (2 max)
2. Two (4 max)
3. Four (6 max)
4. Six (8 max)
5. Eight (10 max)