I'm DMing the Yawning Portal for my group and they completed the Forge of Fury adventure and figured they'd gain access to the forge and crafting items. Looked up a lot of different things online, taking some inspiration from Flutesloot.com, a few different forum posts; Reddit, Giants playground and here and came up with this: (Let me know if the link doesn't work)
I have taken consideration from Sane Magical Prices and just listed them all for the full 'buy' price, with the DM option to charge only half or even a quarter if the PCs will be crafting an item from scratch.
Basically, the 1st page of the excel file is a list of most of the items with the schematics/blueprints like the DMG suggests is needed when crafting. I intend for each item to require 2-5 components but I admit a lot of the items are missing. Just ideas and random components I thought would make sense on a given item as I think of them.
I REALLY want to avoid non-monster dropped equipment/materials (Fluteloot has a lot of 'sand from the furthest desert or a pearl harvested during the full moon in Autumn in the land of Tarshish type components and crafting instructions. I left it but I REALLY don't want those type of things). I want the players to pretty much get what they need from their encounters and I admit I'm not much of a world builder so don't plan on creating an entire resource pool of wood, minerals and herbs and their locations. If the players need a specific part from a specific monster than so be it but it's not a video game where they need to go back to zone 34 to harvest that specific mineral node for the next 81 hours.
The 2nd page in the file are material components. So far in my campaign, they beat the forge of fury and we discussed a crafting option will be available but the dwarves have just gotten access to their ancestral forge and even with the Dueger using it, it's understocked and the Dwarves need to get more artisans, and the players need to get schematics because after so long, they don't know how to make anything any more (blah blah, just a way for them to go out, get schematics, materials, and frankly give me more time to refine it. And now they completed the 3rd adventure, they're ready to go back to the forge with the schematics and random materials they've found). I added Legendaries on the list but dont want to really allow players to find them until the last tier of gameplay. MAYBE if they roll like a nat20 and top modifiers on research rolls (read below)
You can see that I started just listing random monster parts but then in the 'properties' column I did try to organize them somewhat. I figured instead of having each and every monster have separate purposes, I'll categorize them. low level fiends would be T1 gear and be used for infernal or fire based equipment, higher would be T2 or T3. Undead would be for necrotic, or darkness related things and so on. I may tell the player that they harvested the hide of a specific beast just because but it'll still be considered 'T2 monstrosity hide' or whatever when it comes down to crafting.
I've tried to take 'legitimate' things into consideration, things explicitly stated in a magic item's or monster's description. Like the Jaculi hide being used in Boots of Springing and Striding and the Cloak of Invisibility or the Flail Snail being used in Spellguard shield and Robes of Scintilliating colors. I've also tried to attribute a specific monster's materials with what they do. Like a Yuan-Ti and some fiends have magical resistance so I put 'magic resist' in their property column and would use one of those materials as a component in a magic resistant granting magic item and so on.
Lastly, (or firstly), the players would usually find the schematics in the wild, random loot, rewards, etc but considering the downtime activity: research as a solid way to either find schematics outright or find where they can find more.
Using the research option as a guide, I would have them roll 3 d20s. First one determining if they found and how well they can find and the 2nd d20 showing what they actually find. The first 2 rolls can also be modified by their INT & their 50 gp per +1 resource like suggested but maybe, a max of +8 that can be distributed between the first 2 d20s. and the last d20 would be a complication roll (not straight complication but the chance it happens)? It may also be changed per Tier that the players are on, with a higher chance for higher quality items. Something like this:
T2 (where my players currently are at) - 1st d20 - find schematic %
Check Total -- Outcome 1–5 --------- No effect. 6–10 -------- 1-2 common. 1-2 uncommon 11–20 -------- 1-2 uncommon, 1-2 rare 21+ ----------- 1 rare, 1 very rare
T2 Rarity and quantity of what they found
Check Total -- Outcome
1-5 ------ 1 common found
6-10 ---- 2 common & 1 uncommon found
11-15 -- 2 uncommon &/or rare
16-20 -- 1 rare &/or Very rare
21-29 -- 2 very rare
30+ ----- Legendary??
My final thoughts on how it's going is that it can cause the players to just run all over the place looking for new schematics, or more like specific monsters, not even thinking that they may find them as they progress (which they may or may not). In general, Yawning Portal is a VERY linear 'campaign' so I'm trying to make it more sandbox-y but I don't want to turn this campaign into something that would make it triple the amount of time to now complete.
Another friend really didn't like the RNG aspect of finding random schematics AND getting random loot AND the diversion that it will cause the campaign. But this is DND, where almost everything is affected by dice rolls and if it's something a player really wants, i can throw it at them so that much doesn't really bother me.
PLEASE give me your feedback, suggestions.. Even fill in some of my blanks. Offer advice and suggestions on what should the material components be for specific gear, and what should even be a component.
Please keep the file for yourself and use it in your own games too.
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Hey everybody,
I'm DMing the Yawning Portal for my group and they completed the Forge of Fury adventure and figured they'd gain access to the forge and crafting items. Looked up a lot of different things online, taking some inspiration from Flutesloot.com, a few different forum posts; Reddit, Giants playground and here and came up with this: (Let me know if the link doesn't work)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1j0VBZsmGsQJEY4OzUhDx-Nl1f0KpzNZZ
I have taken consideration from Sane Magical Prices and just listed them all for the full 'buy' price, with the DM option to charge only half or even a quarter if the PCs will be crafting an item from scratch.
Basically, the 1st page of the excel file is a list of most of the items with the schematics/blueprints like the DMG suggests is needed when crafting. I intend for each item to require 2-5 components but I admit a lot of the items are missing. Just ideas and random components I thought would make sense on a given item as I think of them.
I REALLY want to avoid non-monster dropped equipment/materials (Fluteloot has a lot of 'sand from the furthest desert or a pearl harvested during the full moon in Autumn in the land of Tarshish type components and crafting instructions. I left it but I REALLY don't want those type of things). I want the players to pretty much get what they need from their encounters and I admit I'm not much of a world builder so don't plan on creating an entire resource pool of wood, minerals and herbs and their locations. If the players need a specific part from a specific monster than so be it but it's not a video game where they need to go back to zone 34 to harvest that specific mineral node for the next 81 hours.
The 2nd page in the file are material components. So far in my campaign, they beat the forge of fury and we discussed a crafting option will be available but the dwarves have just gotten access to their ancestral forge and even with the Dueger using it, it's understocked and the Dwarves need to get more artisans, and the players need to get schematics because after so long, they don't know how to make anything any more (blah blah, just a way for them to go out, get schematics, materials, and frankly give me more time to refine it. And now they completed the 3rd adventure, they're ready to go back to the forge with the schematics and random materials they've found). I added Legendaries on the list but dont want to really allow players to find them until the last tier of gameplay. MAYBE if they roll like a nat20 and top modifiers on research rolls (read below)
You can see that I started just listing random monster parts but then in the 'properties' column I did try to organize them somewhat. I figured instead of having each and every monster have separate purposes, I'll categorize them. low level fiends would be T1 gear and be used for infernal or fire based equipment, higher would be T2 or T3. Undead would be for necrotic, or darkness related things and so on. I may tell the player that they harvested the hide of a specific beast just because but it'll still be considered 'T2 monstrosity hide' or whatever when it comes down to crafting.
I've tried to take 'legitimate' things into consideration, things explicitly stated in a magic item's or monster's description. Like the Jaculi hide being used in Boots of Springing and Striding and the Cloak of Invisibility or the Flail Snail being used in Spellguard shield and Robes of Scintilliating colors. I've also tried to attribute a specific monster's materials with what they do. Like a Yuan-Ti and some fiends have magical resistance so I put 'magic resist' in their property column and would use one of those materials as a component in a magic resistant granting magic item and so on.
Lastly, (or firstly), the players would usually find the schematics in the wild, random loot, rewards, etc but considering the downtime activity: research as a solid way to either find schematics outright or find where they can find more.
Using the research option as a guide, I would have them roll 3 d20s. First one determining if they found and how well they can find and the 2nd d20 showing what they actually find. The first 2 rolls can also be modified by their INT & their 50 gp per +1 resource like suggested but maybe, a max of +8 that can be distributed between the first 2 d20s. and the last d20 would be a complication roll (not straight complication but the chance it happens)? It may also be changed per Tier that the players are on, with a higher chance for higher quality items. Something like this:
T2 (where my players currently are at) - 1st d20 - find schematic %
1–5 --------- No effect.
6–10 -------- 1-2 common. 1-2 uncommon
11–20 -------- 1-2 uncommon, 1-2 rare
21+ ----------- 1 rare, 1 very rare