Magic items and gear

[RedRobe]

How is the acquisition of gear handled in the DFRPG? I understand having an item of power, which I equate to Sting, Narsil/Anduril, the Staff of Magius (in DragonLance), and other signature items. However, what if the characters run across a crate of grenades, or a knife made from the claw of some beasty? Would these be represented as additional Extras like in Fate Core? If a wizard character makes an item for another character, like an invisibility cloak, would it count as one of the wizard's enchanted item slots, or would the recipient have to devote an aspect or stunt to it? What about characters acquiring an item as loot (like the Colt or the Demon-killing Knife in Supernatural)? Are there built-in free uses per session and then they have to be activated with Fate Points, or are they just useless until recharged by a practitioner? Sorry for all the questions in one post. Any help would be appreciated!

[Taran]

Mundane gear can just be acquired.  A crate of grenades is an nice find.

Anything that has long term use should have refresh dedicated to it.

A wizard giving an item to another player could be done several ways:
- he uses an enchanted item slot
- the player who gets the gift and may not have had justification for a particular power now has an excuse to buy a power with refresh. 

Finding "magic" items is fine as long as they are in line me with mundane items.  One shot items and that kind of thing.  Remember they have the drawback of losing potency when going through a threshold. 

Permanent magic items should be dealt with the same as the example above:
- finding an item gives a player the justification to buy an item of power.  In the short term, has f they don't have enough refresh, they can spend FPs on a 1-1 basis to activate the powers until they can afford to buy the power outright with refresh.  (So activating an item that grants inhuman speed would cost 2 FPs for a scene).  A generous GM might let you do it for 1 FP.

[Sanctaphrax]

You can get a lot of mileage out of Aspects. KNIFE MADE FROM A DRAGON CLAW with one free tag is a pretty solid way to represent a knife made from a dragon claw.

[RedRobe]

So Dresden makes an enchanted item (duster) for personal use and it takes up one of his slots. He decides to give it away to Butters (and gets his item slot back), who gains an aspect of "Dresden's duster" for free and gains a free tag. Butters then has to spend FPs after the free tag until he can add a (stunt? Power?) to represent that the duster is his now? I also read that the crafter can fuel the item with FPs for the recipient instead. Am I getting the gist of it?

[Taran]

So Dresden makes an enchanted item (duster) for personal use and it takes up one of his slots. He decides to give it away to Butters (and gets his item slot back), who gains an aspect of "Dresden's duster" for free and gains a free tag. Butters then has to spend FPs after the free tag until he can add a (stunt? Power?) to represent that the duster is his now? I also read that the crafter can fuel the item with FPs for the recipient instead. Am I getting the gist of it?

Yup.  And when Butters has refresh to spare, he could take Inhuman toughness.   Or a stunt that gives him an extra mild consequence etc... Or the GM could just say the Duster offers armour along with the aspect and run it like a mundane armour that doesn't look like armour but the GM could compel the aspect on the item for Clued in People to realize it's magical.

I often find, with this game, there's no exact right answer.  But you have the gist.

If the crafter leaves the slot filled, it works normally but, remember, an item given to someone else is less powerful.  I'm not sure what the rules are about enchanted items and powering uses with mental stress.  I'm not sure if the wizard who created the item has to spend the stress or if the person who wears it is allowed.  I've never run into that before.

I don't recall if the crafter can use a FP to power the item.  If it has an aspect, anyone can spend a FP on it as long as they know the aspect exists.

[RedRobe]

Thanks for the help! I'm looking forward to finally being able to play the game after having the first two books for almost three years.