Crafting

In 2nd Edition AD&D, PCs could learn proficiencies such as bowyer/fletcher, armorer, and weaponsmith, which allowed that PC to make bows and arrows, armor, and weapons, respectively. But making such things took up time, and rarely would a party of adventurers allow one of their characters to spend months making a suit of armor when they could simply buy one in five minutes.

This is not so on Avlis. In Avlis your character does not even have to fight monsters to gain XP if he wants to. Thanks to Avlis' crafting system a PC can spend his entire career being a blacksmith, a weaponsmith, an armorer, a jeweler, an alchemist, or even a tailor. Or he could spend some of his time doing the deeds a "traditional" adventurer would do and use the rest crafting items.

PCs of any class can be crafters. To craft an item only two things are needed – the proper ingredients and the proper place at which to craft. For example, a blacksmith would first need to find some iron ore and smelt it at a forge. Then perhaps he would flatten that iron into sheets on an anvil. After that he might use those iron sheets along with other ingredients to form a suit of armor.

Gathering ingredients can be both easy and difficult. In the blacksmith example, the blacksmith might have to enter a mine and gather ore. Or perhaps he would enlist others to do so for him, or perhaps join a group of people and enter the mine together, for it is often the case that mines are inhabited by all sorts of creatures come up from the underground world. And the blacksmith might find that he can't just pick the ore from the walls of the mine by hand – he might need some kind of hammer to knock the ore out. Finding a place to work the ingredients is usually a case of common sense. Blacksmiths use forges and anvils. Bowyers might use a sawhorse to work the wood they have found or cut.

Actually, there is one other thing a crafter needs to make something – its recipe. There are many ways to find the proper recipe needed to make an item. One is simple trial and error. Many of the item recipes follow common sense. Another is to ask another PC. Of course, the PC may not know, or he may not be inclined to tell you. A third way is to do some in-game research. You might find certain item recipes in book, or you might learn an item recipe from a DM as a reward for good roleplay. And yet another way is to join a crafting guild. You probably have to pay some sort of fee or dues to the guild, but in exchange you will learn their recipes and have access to their crafting supplies and work areas.

When you attempt to craft an item you may not always succeed; indeed, your chance of success depends on the difficulty rating of the item you are trying to craft. Whenever you successfully craft an item your PC will gain two types of XP – standard XP and crafting XP. Standard XP is the same type of XP you get for killing monsters and completing scripted quests; it goes toward advancing your character level. Crafting XP goes toward the type of skill associated with the item you made. If you smelt ore, you will gain XP in blacksmithing. If you make a potion, you will gain XP in alchemy. If you spin cotton into fabric, you will gain XP in tailoring.

Levels can be gained in each of the different types of crafting. As a PC gains crafting levels the difficulty of making things goes down – items that were once impossible for him to try and craft become merely difficult, and formerly difficult items may become easy to craft. To keep track of your crafting XP it is a good idea to buy an item called a Book of Tradeskills. This item, which is sold by many merchants, can tell a PC how much crafting XP they have in each crafting skill.