Crafting in the Edge: General Information

I personally enjoy most crafting sets in NWNs modules. I enjoy them because they give me an opportunity to do something besides crawl thru a dungeon and kill things. I also like most crafting opportunities because it gives players a chance to roleplay "normal" roles instead of Hero/Adventurer/Theif/Homicidal Maniac or general World Domineering Egotist. Being Cook or a Tanner or a Hunter or a Farmer or a Smith are suitable choices in any RPG world. Unfortunately, most crafting systems are put into play with the idea of enabling only merchandize being available from those systems. Crafting becomes all encompassing to the player base. Everyone is doing everything in order to become the Hero/Adventurer... ect ect. I've used both ATS and UOAbigail in various module since 2002. I've played on servers which included versions of ATS and some with handcrafted modes of just bits and pieces of either smith crafting, mining, tanning ect. After the repeative boredom kicked in I found I would rather have a craft system that "enhanced" roleplay but wasn't the ONLY way to get things accomplished. Therefore I've taken a vastemajority of what was the UOAbigial system, pruned out crafts we would not use and adjusted ones that could easily be adapted to suit just the roleplay style of our server. At present, we have a fully active Farming, Brewing, Beekeeping, Mycology, Lumberjack, Fishing and Skinning functioning crafts in the Edge. These skills require set items in order to be fully used. They are frequently interdependent with another skill. Brewing, Beekeeping and Farming for example need each other to produce most alcohols. Lumberjacking is intergrated with our rest system to produce firewood for making campsites. Lumberjacking is also used to pick Tree nuts and fruits. All food items in game in game give a small benefit to the Player if eaten. Some require cooking before you can gain that benefit. Cooking is NOT a part of the UOAbigail system, but is a conversation of choices in your resting campfire. Food is not essential to gameplay, but its nice to have the opportunity to roleplay with real props. Food can be gained from ANY of the Tradeskills. This includes Fishing and Farming.

What is not included as Tradeskill are:
Smithing - we have numerous gem controlled forges throughout the server that make any skill set redundant and unsatisfactory. Also our world is still too "magic heavy" to be satisfied with any single weapon or armor smithing resource out there at this time.
Fletching or Bowery - - same as above. We have too many merchants that will meet any Archers needs. Of course the NWN crafting engine is still in place and I've set items to drop NWN craft items. So if you wish to craft arrows with the standard craft engine... go right ahead.
Mining - Since we don't have Smithcrafting I felt it unnecessary to include mining on a whole scale range across the server. There ARE elements of mining in certain spots that gain you "special" material which can be used with special NPCs to create special items. This would be mithiral in Moria as an example. I am open to suggestions for more uses for other minable opportunities... as I see this as a way for Dwarves to enhance their roleplay. Please feel free to post suggestions in the Suggestion Forum.
Jewel Crafting - - at present we have a little over 3000 different rings/amulets ect that can be found or purchased in the Edge.
Tanning/LeatherCraft- same as Smithing. We have minor Leather crafting in Bree similar to the forges around the rest of the server.
Alchemy/Scribing/Enchantment - the systems I've seen in places all have the same limitations. The ingredients are either too much or too little which stymies gaining levels in skill to make it worth the trouble. Also, once again, we have an unlimited source of merchants with magical enchanted potions/scrolls and items of mindboggling amounts in the server at present. Added a redundant system to make the occassional strenght potion or healing draught seemed too much. Instead I've enhanced some of the foragable items and added in some "creature" items that when presented to the correct NPC will gain you bonuses not commonly found in the Edge. Such as Heal Potions or Greater Restoratives. I do have a rather "fun" alchemy set I could put into place that has the opportunity to have strange or disasterous drawbacks. This would be making potions that are actually poisonous instead of what you "intended" to create. Or spells that turn you into a boar by accident.

I'll break down how to use the Crafting Skill we do have in separate posts.