Background: After reading the short stories and thinking about the books, there are a number of instances where non-magical characters have a single use magic item on hand. Three-eye was effectively a potion. Marcone has a few (). The Warrior has the member of the Venatori
The first place I looked was in the SotC SRD (actually, it was in the DFRPG, but that was a bust). They have cool rules for Gadgets and Gizmos. While they don't limit characters to hard numbers, the equipment goes away after a single adventure unless payed for with refresh (as Personal Equipment). I liked this in a lot of ways. In that game, tinkerers are meant to be at least a little rare. Extrapolating from and adapting those rules got me Option 1:
1. To purchase a Magic Item, you must first know or get a hold of a practitioner capable of making it and willing to sell. This requires a Contacts roll, restricted by Lore (you must know some supernatural channels). The difficulty of this roll should be the Strength of the Item, or number of shifts required to make it. Typically, this takes a day to do, although you may push this up the time chart by adding additional shifts to the difficulty. Most wizards will not sell anything more than a potion or simple single use enchanted item. Once you are able to get in touch with a seller, the cost of the item is equal to the strength of the item. Typically, magic items will have to be made to order. This means that it takes a few hours to make a potion or a few weeks to make an enchanted item (which is why potions are the only ones available for sale). Because of the time required and cost involved, characters should be restricted to one magic item per session at most (often only one per scenario). You may not make declarations related to having magic items because of their rarity and difficulty to obtain.
Now, this seemed clunky and over complicated. It meant that three skills had their hands in the pot. I figured the contacts roll wouldn't have to be modified by Lore. So in Option 2, I stripped this out. Otherwise, it is exactly the same as Option 1.
Still, I want things like this as simple as possible. The less rolls the better. So, in this case I considered just allowing Resources to be restricted by Contacts.
3. Buying magic items is possible, but costly. The cost of the potion or simple enchanted item is equal to the item's strength. Typically, it takes a day to contact the seller and a few hours at minimum to produce a potion (enchanted items can take much longer, up to a few weeks). The time can be decreased by increasing the difficulty for each step up on the time chart, but never to less than an afternoon. Roll Resources, restricted by your Contacts skill. Most practitioners, even those willing to sell, are not willing to sell anything more than a potion or simple single use item. Because of the time required and cost involved, characters should be restricted to one magic item per session at most (often only one per scenario). You may not make declarations related to having magic items because of their rarity and difficulty to obtain.
Now, some would say that this is a new trapping to the Resources skill and thus would require a stunt. Hence Option 4.
Speaking of stunts, I was kicking around a couple and came up with these related to this idea.
Collector of Arcane Goods [-1]
Once per scene, for a fate point, you may declare that you have a potion or other single use magical trinket on hand. It’s strength is equal to your Resources skill.
Arcane Connoisseur [-1]
Your Resources skill is treated as two steps higher when purchasing enchanted items or potions.
Thoughts, criticisms, and praise are welcome (especially criticisms).
Background: After reading the short stories and thinking about the books, there are a number of instances where non-magical characters have a single use magic item on hand. Three-eye was effectively a potion. Marcone has a few (). The Warrior has the member of the Venatori
The two major examples are, of course, backed by the power of plot. They could also be explained by the "players" invoking key Aspects such as Magic-Savvy Crime Lord or Secret Venatori Agent
Which is not to say one shouldn't come up with a way to formalize this. But I do think there is weight to the comment about this being a potential way to have supernatural trappings while sidestepping the restrictions of the Pure Mortal template AND ideal.
When a spellcaster makes items that another person can use, they are still paying the Refresh and using their resources to make the item, and it is generally 1 shift lower (except for potions) for the privilege of allowing that loan. Formalizing this in a way that makes Ye Olde Magic Shoppe a plausible plot element seems likely to cheapen things.
Ultimately, invoking Aspects with Fate Points, or accepting Debt from a supernatural source, seems like the best way to do this without turning this into an AD&D 2nd edition game.