Spawn guaranteed low-grade workshops each reset.

[Egon the Monkey]

So, I know Solipso (Doc Larc) has started picking a fight with the random encounter generator in character, by shouting for the person responsible for the tinkershop sabotage to show themselves. Because the low spawn rate of Tinkering Workshops anywhere near Ring 99 has led to our characters coming up with paranoid conspiracy theories as to why, in order for us to get some entertainment out of it.
- "It's a cabal of tinkerers that want to eliminate all competition!"
- "Its a fanatical Changeling anti-tech cult causing magical cave-ins!"

It's a real shame, because I came back to find crafting so much more fun. Having that bit more direction to get started means it's less frustrating, and personalised recipes means you don't have to stonewall on future characters or avoid discussing ideas with other PCs to prevent spoilers. I've seen one okay Tinkering workshop in the last couple of weeks, but the spawn rate appears to be kind of low.  Especially for Tinkering, but also for crafting workshops in general. I don't know if that's to do with having quite a lot of resets ,or just bad luck on when either of us choose to go scouting. 

For Alchemy or Herbalism, there's a big bonus to being the first person to find it after a reset, as the lab won't have someone else's accidentally-spawned monster sitting in it. The fact that monsters now don't despawn means the risk/reward of cleaning up someone else's mess is terrible, so people just NOPE out of the lab and it's effectively been disabled. I think the monsters could be balanced out by putting in weaker monsters, but more monsters. A lab full of Imps or Slimes is a credible threat to a solo wizard doing some experiments, but low risk for a team to clean out. That would allow failures to generate more roleplay in terms of "I am paying a team to clean up this mess so I can get back to work" as opposed to "well I went down a hole and a 12 foot demon was waiting at the entrace to clobber me because someone else did a recipe wrong".

Even as a PC with maxed Lore,  reasonable gear,  pure Rogue levels and the Apothecary perk, it's hard to get by in Tinkering without a boosted workshop. I'm reaching a tinkering score in the low to mid 40s and reliably running into skill checks of DC 55-60 without even experimenting with super rare stuff. Tinkering in particular has its own set of issues that Alchemy and Herbalism don't,

• Craft Trap gear is uncommon compared to Heal and Spellcraft and a lot of it is hammers, which are unusuable to Rogues and Wizards.
• Craft Trap gear gives relatively low bonuses and doesn't usually have an equivalent Lore bonus too. Whereas I have loads of gear that boosts either 2 or even all 3 of Lore, Spellcraft and Heal on the same item.
• Craft Trap gives you no benefit anywhere else. Even setting up a siege weapon is an undocumented DC8 Carpentry check, not Tinkering or Craft Trap.  You can't really spare the skillpoints just to get about +5 Tinkering, and Craft Trap items are dead weight outside of Tinkering. Whereas Spellcraft items boost your spell saves and Heal ones boost your healing ability.

So what this means is players who want to have fun with this Tinkering are either:

• Burning resources at one of the no-bonus workshops, in order to get a list of valid recipes and have the ability to move unencumbered.
• Hoarding giant sacks of stuff and praying to the random encounter table for deliverance from their burdens

What might be good is to have a more common (even guaranteed) spawn of a +10 workshop for each system that charges you per crafting session, like for the cook at the Open Door. And resets like a Quest Area when you leave. Which means you pay to gain access to a workshop that is frequently there and  isn't being spawn camped by someone else's Abyssal Slag. But because it's a random location you still have to look for it each reset.

Or a guaranteed +5 workshop, which is a good but not great bonus, and lets you feel the scouting actually pays off. Going from a 1 in 2 chance of success to a 3 in 4 is worth it, for example.