[ycleption]

(apologies if this is rambling and only half thought out)

On a related note, how will the MMO control crafting leveling?

As I see it, there are two basic ways in fantasy worlds that people make better equipment (although obviously they can be combined): They can become better crafters (Hittori Hanzo and Domingo Montoya used normal metals, mjolnir was made from iron, etc.) In this scenario, the things Gulynr talked about become much more important. The little tircks and tips of the trade that someone who has worked their whole life to perfect are more difficult to learn on one's own. While some people in the current game (myself included), have RPed apprenticeships and whatnot, I think the aspect of -learning- a trade could become much more interesting in this type of scenario. RP becomes the means to control crafting progression - who will take a half-giant on as tailoring apprentice? At least before there are PC masters, it might take some sort of scripted quest, or even DM intervention to entreat a master to take them on... and of course, given competition between crafters, maybe it would be less likely that PCs would be able to learn multiple crafts, which would help create an economy between crafters, rather than people teaching themselves "lines" of crafting. (Tanner A supplies leathers to Leatherworker B, and of course would be cutting out his own business if he tought B's apprentice the art of tanning)


The alternative is to use better materials, (Bilbo's mithril chain shirt, Roy Greenhilt's starmetal sword, Sir Artegal's Adamant sword). Now, in most computer games, this provides the biggest way to control leveling in crafting... somehow, mysteriously, big bad guys always are guarding the best materials, and yew trees won't grow outside their native soil, and no monarchs oust the gnolls and set up armies with private mines (after all, adventurers aren't the only ones interested in materials). Aside from the implausibility of the arrangement, it has the drawback of making it very difficult for someone to play a pure crafter, since the only way to obtain the materials becomes to hire someone skilled enough to beat the baddies guarding the materials. Also, this system requires that better materials be universally more difficult to work with... which is often true in RL, but certainly not universally. On the other hand, this kind of system provides the motivation for characters to meet each other and team up for material gathering, which is certainly a positive in an RP oriented game. Certainly, a game could orient itself around buying materials from npc merchants, where better materials reasonably cost more, or some other means of making it difficult for crafters to amass high level materials to make high-level items. And yeah...

So. How will the MMO control crafting leveling?