Crafting in EFU: City of Rings

[ShadowCharlatan]

This thread briefly describes the crafting system in EFU: City of Rings.

Crafting in City of Rings will be familiar to everyone who enjoyed crafting in EFU:A and EFU:M, but with many changes.

How crafting works, in short
Crafters put items into specific crafting placeables. Those items are consumed in the process of an experiment. The results of the experiment can be good (a nice item), meh (nothing happens), or bad (monster, or spell effect). You also need to succeed on a crafting skill roll to get the nice item.

There are four crafting systems in EFU:CoR.

Alchemy – Combining the study of nature with the arcane to produce semi-magical and miraculous products.
Herbalism - Combining plant and animal parts to produce beneficial salves and concoctions, like antidotes and cures.
Cooking – Combining edible ingredients and procedures to create food and drink – simple and exotic alike.
Tinkering – Combining materials and exploiting their physical properties to create everything from everyday tools to heavy weaponry.

Crafting calculations
The calculation for skill in the crafting systems is as follows:

Alchemy skill = 1/2 Lore Skill + 1/2 Spellcraft Skill + Wizard levels + Sorcerer levels + EFUSS Alchemy
Herbalism skill = 1/2 Lore skill + 1/2 Heal skill + Druid levels + Ranger levels + EFUSS Herbalism
Cooking skill = 1/2 Lore skill + 1/2 Concentration skill + EFUSS Cooking
Tinkering skill = 1/2 Lore skill + 1/2 Craft Trap skill + Rogue levels + Wizard levels + EFUSS Tinkering

Changes to the overall crafting system

Crafting recipes are unique to each player character. No one can use the same crafting recipes between different characters. When you share in-character lore about the system, you can do it in a flavourful way, rather than talking about specific recipes.

Crafting stations are no longer portable. You need to find an in-game laboratory to do crafting. This eliminates exploits. It also means crafters need to travel to potentially dangerous areas. Some laboratories might be in far-flung places, but others will be more well-travelled than you might like. Some crafting stations even have very significant bonuses that will ensure you will almost always succeed in your rolls. NOTE: One minor exception to this is that Campfires (created by oil flasks) continue to offer cooking system access with a small negative modifier.

Monsters summoned by crafting do not go away. Monsters no longer despawn after a short while when alchemy or herbalism go awry. However, crafters often consciously decide how much risk they want to take on. I hope there will be no Balors on the streets of Ring 99.

Sundering is no more. Sundering items into elemental shards is no longer a feature of the crafting system.

Colour coded items. Effort has been taken to make the system very transparent, so it is friendlier to crafting noobs. Items that can be used in crafting are usually colour coded according to which system they belong to. Guidance is also provided in the item description.

Getting crafting items is part of the challenge. Crafting limitations are now based on item scarcity. You need to somehow supply yourself with the resources to do your crafting. There are module-wide systems of item distribution which we have put in place and can adjust to provide more or less items if we feel things are out of hand. In addition to these murky systems, you might find crafting items in some quests or explorables or stores as appropriate.

No more downward spiral of nerfing. DMs have multiple ways to adjust the system to keep things in balance. It is unlikely we will return to days of week-old alchemy masters, and DMs nerfing items in the system until it's dead.

Changes to Alchemy
There are two ways to do alchemy.

The first way is elemental alchemy. This involves extracting, combining, and empowering the four fundamental elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.  As well as Positive and Negative Energy. Alchemists who engage in elemental alchemy frequently seek out items linked to these elements, as well as magical fuels which can increase the risks and rewards of their experiments.

The second way is complex alchemy. This involves experimenting with rare and unique items that possess unusual alchemical properties, which can lead to discoveries considered more subtle and sophisticated than those obtained through manipulation of raw elements. However, magical fuels provide little benefit in complex alchemy, unlike their role empowering elemental alchemy.

In-game, you will find items associated with an element, or items with more complex and indefinable properties – such as troll warts, or mummy dust.

If you find something elemental, you can use magical fuels to empower your alchemy and reach into higher tiers of risk and reward.

If you find something complex, the rare item allows you to access an alchemy theme that already contains some nice items and maybe some dangers as well.

Changes to Herbalism
Herbalism is very much the same as it was. It has been expanded with new plants and new crafting themes. As usual, it works hand-in-hand with the gardening system.

Changes to the Gardening System
New plants. Several new plants are available in gardening. Old favourites will be recognisable from past chapters.
Gardening zones. In the past, gardening was an area-wide affair. In the City of Rings, there is only so much space suitable for cultivating plants. You must now plant your seeds in gardening zones. You will find some public places and some secret places to do your gardening.

Changes to Cooking
Cooking-specific changes have been minimal. Cooking was Underdark themed for EFU:R. Now it has returned to a more 'surface' flavour. Some of the more unique and interesting cooking options are now more visible and available.

Introducing Tinkering
Tinkering is the new addition to the crafting system.

Tinkering involves finding packs of materials to unlock crafting themes based on civilisations (e.g. lizardfolk, drow, etc.) or technologies (ammunition, throwables, traps, etc.). Items are found in-game from module-wide loot tables and potentially specific ruins and areas derived from a certain kind of civilisation.

Tinkering allows you to make random loot items (repurposing those materials to create or repair weapons and armor and such), or to make more specific tech (grenades, contraptions, traps, siege weapons, etc). You just need to find the bundles or schematics to do this stuff.

Finally...
As always, while we have tried to make this a bug-free experience, this system has been revamped and may contain unforeseen bugs. Keep an eye out and post a bug report if you find anything strange.

We are also highly aware that the crafting revamp is very new and untested. So don't panic if something doesn't feel right, or if it's a struggle to get started. We welcome constructive suggestions and feedback.

Many thanks to the DM team and players for their patience.

Enjoy.