A Karmic Magic Item Creation Walk-Through

 Crafting magical items in Karma is a cooperative process between the storyteller and the player.  The player determines what the item is actually supposed to do, and then the storyteller determines the exact requirements to achieve the goal. 

To help players and storytellers better understand the process, we've created the following scenario.

James, the wizard, really dislikes riding his horse in bad weather.  But being an adventurer makes it impractical to drag around a full size carriage everywhere.  He decided he'd like to have a portable carriage that can be stored away in his backpack when not needed, and activated when he wants to ride it in without getting soaked.  So he decided to craft an enchanted carriage.

An enchanted carriage resembles a small figurine of a noble's carriage.  It stands about six inches high and weighs one pound.  When activated, the figurine transforms into a full size carriage large enough to seat four people comfortably.  The carriage is enclosed, protecting the passengers from the wind, rain, snow, etc.  The carriage, however, does not include horses or a driver.

The carriage, when activated, is a normal carriage in all regards.  It has a PR rating of 2 and 20 DT.  If reduced to 0 DT, the magic of the carriage deactivates and the carriage reverts to its original form.  Individuals and items inside the carriage at the time are expelled. 

Item Creation Point Costs:

Item of Power:  10 pts

Alteration Enchantment, temporary:  7 pts per application.

The key question is, how many times do you need to stack the alteration enchantment to achieve the desired result?  If the figurine is an actual fully functional scale model, a storyteller may say only one application of the enchantment is required, because all the enchantment is actually doing is transforming the carriage from one size to another.  If the figurine is merely a replica and not a functional scale model, then the storyteller may declare that two applications are required.

James likes the idea of having an actual scale model, so he finds a crafter and gives him detailed instructions as to what the carriage is suppose to look like.  A skilled craftsperson earns a Sarder a day.  The storyteller decides it will take the craftsperson three days to craft a fully functional scale model of the carriage to James specifications.  He pays the craftsperson three Sarder and has to wait three days.  Of course, James can go about his business and doesn't have to wait in town.

Once he has his scale model, he can begin the creation process.  He will have to spend 17 item creation points to craft the carriage.  So he'll have to allot 34 hours to crafting the carriage.  He has to spend a minimum of 4 hours a day working on the item, but if he is in a hurry he can push himself to work 10 hours a day and complete it quicker.  He has a week of downtime in the city, so spreads the hours out over the week.

The Alteration Enchantment requires a difficult gem, and is an Air Element enchantment.  Any difficult Air-affinity gem will do, and he has a nice pearl in his possession.  So at the end of the process, he affixes the pearl to the model, expends ten mana, and completes the process.  He now has his enchanted carriage.

Alteration, however, is a temporary enchantment.  As such, he needs to spend one mana per ten minutes the carriage is active.  Of course, James can plan ahead and simply prepare a mana stone to store mana to activate the carriage, so as not to have to tap into his own mana.  He has an emerald mana stone, and so he can use that to store 10 mana (enough to power the carriage for one hour and 40 minutes.)

James' carriage is fine for traveling along safe roads or in cities, but offers little real protection in dangerous and hostile regions.  Also, the inside is a bit small for his liking, particularly when all of his companions decide they want to ride inside as well.   So later on he decided to upgrade it. 

James wants to add the Shielding enchantment to the carriage.  Though normally meant for garments or armor, since the carriage is meant to provide protection to those inside it, the storyteller allows the enchantment to be added to the carriage as well.  Though Shielding can be either a temporary or permanent enchantment, there is no need to make the enchantment permanent.  The shielding only needs to be active when the carriage itself is activated.  This will allow James to spend fewer item creation points, as well as use common gems.  The same is true with the Bonus DT James want to put on the carriage.

Since he's making changes, he decides it would be great if the carriage didn't need to be pulled by a horse at all, and wants to add the animated enchantment as well.  And to get more distance out of the carriage while it is active, he also plans on adding the Speed enchantment.  And to deal with the cramped space, he also applies the interdimensional enchantment to expand the interior area by about 5 feet.

Item Creation Point Costs:

Item of Power:  10 pts

Animated, temporary:  10pts

Bonus DT, temporary, x5:  3 pts per application

Interdimensional, temporary:  10 pts per application

Shielding, temporary, x3:  3 pts per application

Speed, temporary:  3 pts per application

It will cost James a total of 55 creation points, and 110 hours, to make all of the changes he wants to make.  He already has the base item, so he doesn't have to spend money on that.  However, he now has to acquire gems to power the other abilities.  The animated and interdimensional enchantments require difficult gems, but everything else requires common gems.  James badgers his companions to help, since they benefit from the carriage as well.  Between then, they have 9 quartz and opals.  Since both gems have natural affinities to all of the elements, they will be fine for powering the lower enchantments.  The animated enchantment requires an Air affinity difficult gem, while the interdimensional requires either an Aether or Void affinity difficult gem.  James has to purchase the gems, as he doesn't have anything appropriate.  Since he is in a city, he is able to find a gem vendor willing to sell two Lapis Lazulis (which have affinities for both Air and Aether) for a Crown each.  James spreads out the work over two weeks, and at the end of the process affixes the gems and expends ten mana.  His Enchanted Carriage has now become a Carriage of Defense.

A Carriage of Defense resembles a small gem encrusted figurine of a noble's carriage.  It stands about six inches high and weighs a little over one pound.  When activated, the figurine transforms into a full size carriage large enough to seat five people comfortably.  The carriage is enclosed, protecting the passengers from the wind, rain, snow, etc.  The carriage moves on its own, as directed by the owner, at a speed of 15 mph (though the owner can chose to move at a slower pace)

The carriage, when activated, resembles a normal carriage.  It has a PR rating of 5 and 30 DT.  If reduced to 0 DT, the magic of the carriage deactivates and the carriage reverts to its original form.  Individuals and items inside the carriage at the time are expelled. 

      The carriage remains active for ten minutes per mana spent. 

And to clarify one rules point.  When determining how much mana is spent, it is based on activating the entire item, not each individual power.  Because all of the powers are activated at the same time, only one mana is spent.  James doesn't need to spend a mana to activate each individual enchantment.