Loader image
Loader image
Back to Top

Blog

Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Crafting in D&D miscasts my cantrips

Crafting in D&D miscasts my cantrips

Lurking in the Shadows with a D&D spy character
WizKids D&D Minis Get Raw with Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures and Deep Cuts Miniatures

There are a lot of odd trends and desires within the tabletop roleplaying game hobby and I think that comes with the territory of imagination and group storytelling. One of these odd trends, and a crazy common request at my table, is the idea of player-controlled crafting rules. Within Dungeons & Dragons, a game with the obvious design intent of exploring dungeons and battling dragons there is an overwhelming cry from thousands of players around the world for more robust crafting rules. I want to explore and generate conversation on why I believe this might be and why I have such a hard stance against crafting in D&D.

2.5D Dungeon Tiles

Crafting in D&D: what is it good for?

I’d like to start this internet mewling with the caveat that — probably shouldn’t have to be stated, but will be just in case — you are not having fun wrong. If your table enjoys playing Baker Simulator Year 689, then by all means, bake that bread. This is simply me trying to figure out what is going on and help any of those out there that might share a similar frustration. Not to mention, it never hurts to have a discussion about why we enjoy aspects of our hobby. With the obligatory “you do you” disclaimer out of the way, let me purpose my case regarding crafting in D&D.

Dungeons & Dragons is and has always been a game with a primary focus on adventure, to include but not limited to, dungeons and or dragons. The spirit that has grown out of its simple war gaming days, in my estimation, is one of exploration and the excitement of facing the unknown and the sense of achievement made from overcoming ordeals. These are really core properties to a lot of other hobbies and genres. Adventure and power fantasies can be hugely rewarding.

crafting in D&D

If characters are set on gathering components and crafting their own items, Creature Components Vol. 1 from Playground Adventures is a supplement detailing the use of spell components taken from fantastic creatures to power spells and magical items.

But it leads me to ask… Where does crafting fit into this? The most credible argument leveled at me so far in regard to my opposition to crafting in D&D was levied by my dear wife, who stated, “It’s simply a way for some people to flesh out their character.”

At first glance, this is a sound argument, but when looked at with any sort of scrutiny, falls apart. I believe that crafting in D&D (or other adventure-based RPGs) is in direct opposition to the spirit of adventuring. What if I said that my character likes to stay at home baking and smoking on his pipe on the porch?

Most players and Dungeon Masters agree that the non-adventurer is a terrible trait and takes away from the point of playing. I say crafting does the same thing, but in a more subversive manner.

When you craft, especially when talking about magic items, you are spending time not adventuring and gaining something without being tested for it. You throw some gold, time and some skill checks then — boom! Magic item is ready to be used.

But what did you risk? What excitement and story came from this act? You simply just have something that makes you better now with no narrative boon. There can be an argument made that going and collecting the components for crafting is the adventure, but at that point do we want there to be any mechanisms in place for the crafting portion?

Skill checks are only in place if there is a realistic risk of failure. Do you really want the capstone to an adventure to be that you screwed up tempering a blade and now the resource is useless? It deflates the entire adventuring endeavor. If there is no check, then it’s really just a piece of narrative that required no rules, which I really think is where crafting should be — relegated to story elements by NPCs using their learned skills, further exemplifying that the NPCs do not have the skill to fight like the party, but can still actualize their support of the party’s cause.

Crafting is a scheme

More often than not I find players trying to incorporate crafting as simply a means for them to generate a statistical bonus to their character with minimal risk. A common mantra I still maintain is, “The DMs primary duty is to save the player’s from cheating themselves of fun”.

They want an easy way to get those coveted pluses on their character sheet but human desire convinces them to try and do so without trial. Rarely do I hear a player saying, “Oh man, I wish I had mariner’s armor so I can talk to fish more easily so that we can find cool fish adventures.” It’s usually wanting a magic item to give them more power or to make up for a weakness they have. This is not an inherently negative drive but something I do believe needs to be recognized. The drive for a magic item can make for a spectacular adventure hook and leads into some wonderful sessions.

Crafting is not the answer. I believe the designers at Wizards of the Coast share this sentiment to at least some degree. The original rules in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, much like many variant rules in this book, are more of a baseline to be used as a springboard for people who want them. The time and financial requirements to craft these items are fairly substantial, taking 200 days and 5,000 gold pieces to create a longsword +2. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything does create a lot more rules, to include reducing our longsword example numbers to 50 or 70 days, depending on how you describe a work week, and 2,000 gp. The added caveat suggested in the guide is having the players discover ingredients based on a challenge rating scale and will likely have mishaps or encounters during long-term crafting projects.

Let’s make crafting in D&D work

crafting in D&D

Bet you thought zimwi was some made up word huh? You can find this giant creature with its stomach of holding in the good ol’ Tome of Beasts from Kobold Press.

The Xanathar’s inclusions make crafting a lot more intriguing as a system but don’t fully resolve every issue. It still calls into question what the other characters are doing while the crafting character is having their fun and the issue that all of this has to be done during downtime. However, I’m not just here to come down on crafting. I’m going to put forward some fix actions beyond “don’t include crafting” so that DMs and players that want to use the concept can do so and get the most out of it.

Firstly, if crafting must happen, it should be done between adventure arcs. It can be a little jarring when the narrative goes from one massive event directly into another. Having a few months where players describe their activities before the next call to adventure can really humanize (humanoidize?) our characters. This is an excellent time for a character with the skills and traits to craft to get down to business. The Xanathar’s crafting system, could even be the catalyst for the next adventure.

Additionally, I fully believe downtime activities should not be done at the table. In this day and age, it’s a fantastic system to be used via texting or even email. Let’s say you’ve planned your story arc to conclude right before winter break. That’s often a few weeks of no D&D while people visit family and enjoy festivities. Why not throw in 5 to 10 minutes periodically during that time texting your DM about your downtime activities to include that sweet bag of holding you’ve been wanting to construct after taking the stomach of a zimwi a few weeks back during a brutal dungeon crawl? Then, when its time to come back, you get to show off all the cool things that happened to your character when they’re brought back together for the next story arc.

Conclusion

I really want to stress that if you enjoy crafting in D&D and the way you handle it in your game, I’m not coming after you. I just like looking at why people do things and what kind of ripple effects it can have. I want to thank you for reading and please, let me know what you think about crafting. Is it something you embrace or are thinking to incorporate? Do you think I’m crazy for being so adamantly against it? Let me know down below. Stay nerdy.

Like this?

Did you enjoy this post? Nerdarchy’s awesome volunteer staff of writers and editors do their best to create engaging, useful and fun content to share. If you like what you find here on our site, consider patronizing us in a good way through Patreon.

On top of reaching our goal of paying our writers, pledging gets you exclusive monthly content for your D&D game, opportunities to game with Nerdarchy, access to patron-only channels on our Discord and more.

With your generous support we’ll continue to create quality content between our YouTube channel and blog, invest in equipment to increase recording quality, and keep creating original publications and products to enhance your tabletop roleplaying and gaming experience.

Thank you for your consideration and as always, until next time stay nerdy!

Share
Jacob Kosman

Child of the Midwest, spending his adolescence dreaming of creating joy for gaming between sessions of cattle tending. He holds a fondness for the macabre, humorous and even a dash of grim dark. Aspiring designer spending most of his time writing and speculating on this beautiful hobby when he isn't separating planes.

4 Comments

  • Megan R. Miller
    June 14, 2018 at 1:18 am

    Amusingly enough, I actually love crafting. I played with a group that played 3.5 for years and we had a big binder full of materials and qualities that weapons and armor could have. We would take a little bit of time before and after sessions to come up with dream weapons. We made up rules for what would go into the enchants and the more extra it was the harder those materials were to find.

    We got so much adventure material out of specifically going on quests to retrieve the materials to make those weapons that we wanted. Weapons that then had names. Weapons that it took several sessions to make in the first place and we still to this day tell stories about.

    After going through all that trouble to acquire the reagents, we’d better. It’s a feeling of accomplishment like anything else, but when you have a weapon that you had a hand in crafting it’s a good feeling. Especially when you had to lovingly go out and delve into all sorts of sordid tombs to get the objects and the right enchanting dusts, and the tail hairs of a unicorn for your bowstring…you get the picture. The crafting /is/ adventuring, you just have to know how to DM for it.

    Picture it. Your character sees a star fall and decides they want a sword made out of it. So first they have to go collect the star in the first place and of course a big bad evil guy wants it too so you have an adventure on the way to get it, and then the only fire hot enough is, bare minimum, the breath of an ancient golden dragon. Who will only agree to help if you rescue his egg from a lich or something like that.

    Of course it’s going to be boring when you boil it down to all numbers and time spent. But when you consider that the reagents themselves are not going to be as simple as walking down to adventure mart and dropping gold pieces? And another thing. Most gaming tables don’t take downtime. We adventure for weeks straight, go through two campaigns, realize it’s only been three weeks in character and laugh about that. But if a character has to take 80 days to forge his starsword in the firey breath of an ancient dragon, that’s a lot of downtime for other people to fill and a super convenient excuse for a timeskip, during which all sorts of things can happen and you can give your players all sorts of prompts to give you even more adventure hooks.

    I don’t think anybody actually wants to RP out every beat of a blacksmith’s forge. They want to do something extraordinary. So give them something extraordinary. Our job as dungeon master is to turn the mundane into something amazing. Be extra. Put them through hell. Make them earn that awesome named +3 sword that does radiant damage because it’s literally forged out of a fallen star. Let them tell stories about all the crap they had to go through to get it and pass it on down the family line. Make it a part of the canon of your world.

      • Megan R. Miller
        June 14, 2018 at 10:37 pm

        “Requesting crafting mechanics is often a player wanting numerical advantage.”

        This is absolutely true, there is a massive difference between someone who wants to craft for the roleplay opportunity and someone whose just trying to get magic items without having to rely on the DM to drop them. I think it’s also fair to point out that you and I tend to play with very different crowds and can expect very different things from our players much of the time.

        It’s also worth admitting, the group I play with now doesn’t have particular standing crafting rules. I have one player whose been taking every mission on the board that there might be skeletons in and collecting their knucklebones, then she came to me and said “I want a whip that can cast chill touch. It’s necromancy, I mathed out how long the average knucklebone is and how long a whip should be and I have enough of them now, what do I have to do to make it happen?”

        We worked it out from there. That is, indeed, very different than having specific pre-written one size fits all rules.

        That said, the way I’ve run it with groups in the past is to give them a list of things that they can definitely make if they have the right items to do it, and then if they want something that isn’t on the list, or they want to make something new, there’s an element of grey area.

        At that point they’re off the reserve. They’re experimenting. Very rarely will I have them outright fail, but very rarely do they get exactly what they expected to get. There’s a good sharp twist; no, you didn’t end up with a vampiric dagger combining lich’s blood with that magic jar spell, but if you get the killing blow on an enemy it does steal a little bit of life force. It doesn’t go to you but it gives you advantage on the next weapon attack you make with that dagger due to the lingering life force. That kind of thing.

        They rarely however, come to me and say “this is specifically what I want”. They come to me and say “I have this basilisk eye, what can I make out of it?”

        And I think you are right, in that those aren’t specific mechanics. Our crafting system is really more of a loose collection of crafting events, but it works for us. We do write some things down for the sake of staying consistent, and a few rote formulas can be more of an enhancement than a detriment, but I feel those shouldn’t belong to anything particularly powerful.

        If someone wants to make healing potions, for instance, I would allow it without much fuss. Sometimes, no one in a standing group wants to play a healer and alchemy makes for a convenient way to cover their butts so no one has to play something they don’t want to.

        On the other hand, I can absolutely think of a few players I’ve DMed for that I would never even dream of handing them open crafting rules. There is absolutely potential for abuse, there, in the hands of the wrong player. It’s an interesting topic to think about. Ultimately I haven’t changed my mind, I do still love crafting, but I can concede that whether it works at the gaming table or not is situational.

        Thank you for your discourse, I knew when you said you were looking for discussion about this that it was going to be a good one;.I always love reading your work and this is one of those topics that whichever side you fall on is going to be for the love of the game. Mature, well thought out debate should not be as rare as it is and I find it fun.

Leave a Reply