Lutki/Pastry Magic

[CottbusFiles]

Howdy,

one of my players decided to change her character to a Lutki Changeling. Lutki are small gnomish fey from our local folklore.
In a previous adventure the death of the baker that gave them bread drove them into a fury and they used their limited magic to make all the bread and pastries in the city disapear.

My player likes the idea of pastry magic to create potion cookies. This would be the Ritual ability (like Cobblers have).
I on the other hand would like it if she could use Craftmanship to determine the strengh of her potions. Should this cost her a point of Refresh (swap skill stunt) or should i give this to her for free ?
Craftmanship seems to be a weaker ability anyway so i think she would get this for free. Paying 3 Refresh should give her a limited form of sponsored magic in my mind.

Your thoughts ?

[devonapple]

Craftsmanship is a weak ability when it isn't brought into the game by the GM. Someone with a high Craftsmanship may be hoping for a bit more MacGuyver/A-Team construction-montage-related problems to solve, and even if they aren't getting them, it is easy to leave Craftsmanship behind. Craftsmanship has utility in all sorts of other scenarios, if the player can apply it creatively, if nothing else, to make Declarations. But without the GM playing to a character's strengths, certain character-defining skills *can* seem like a waste of points.

Which is not to say I perfectly challenge every player's top-tier skills on a recurring basis in my own games. But I try to.

So, all things being equal, it should be a Stunt to use Craftsmanship for the Lore requirements of Rituals. Lore is still representative of magical knowledge. If Craftsmanship is going to persist as a dud skill in your game, though, you may opt to give it for free.

One in-between option is to make sure the character has an Aspect that reflects their abilities, so it can be tagged for a Fate Point to give a +2 bonus to the Potion.

I do like the concept! Maybe later the character can purchase Channeling to summon killer Dwarven Scones.

[CottbusFiles]

The idea with low lore was to have a character that is not so knowledgeable about the supernatural. With an aprentice wizard and a emassary of power in the group there is place for a not so supernatural experienced character.   

[devonapple]

The idea with low lore was to have a character that is not so knowledgeable about the supernatural. With an aprentice wizard and a emassary of power in the group there is place for a not so supernatural experienced character.   

Maybe have an Aspect "Not So Great at the Kenning" which the player can self-Compel to automatically fail those Lore rolls which would be outside their purview, but to still maintain a high Lore for creating magic items.

But it still sounds like a Stunt needs to be built, either a Trapping Swap to let Craftsmanship work like Lore as you suggested, or even a Skill Bonus which grants a +2 to +3 to Lore for the purposes of making enchanted items. As the GM, you would have latitude to grant a full +3 rather than the +2 most other GMs would grant in this case, if indeed this is such a small effect that you are willing to grant it for free.

[tetrasodium]

Craftsmanship is a weak ability when it isn't brought into the game by the GM. Someone with a high Craftsmanship may be hoping for a bit more MacGuyver/A-Team construction-montage-related problems to solve, and even if they aren't getting them, it is easy to leave Craftsmanship behind. Craftsmanship has utility in all sorts of other scenarios, if the player can apply it creatively, if nothing else, to make Declarations. But without the GM playing to a character's strengths, certain character-defining skills *can* seem like a waste of points.

Which is not to say I perfectly challenge every player's top-tier skills on a recurring basis in my own games. But I try to.

So, all things being equal, it should be a Stunt to use Craftsmanship for the Lore requirements of Rituals. Lore is still representative of magical knowledge. If Craftsmanship is going to persist as a dud skill in your game, though, you may opt to give it for free.

One in-between option is to make sure the character has an Aspect that reflects their abilities, so it can be tagged for a Fate Point to give a +2 bonus to the Potion.

I do like the concept! Maybe later the character can purchase Channeling to summon killer Dwarven Scones.

Agreed, it's not like we are talking about an "important" skill like athletics/endurance/presence/etc with lots of applications or a handful of big applications, craftsmanship is pretty much an "extra skill.  You could give someone +5 craftsmanship ant not see significant problems in most games, making it a little more important for this player isn't going to hurt things much, if at all.

[wyvern]

Personally, I'd just swap the skill, no extra charge.  Moving an existing trapping from one skill to another costs a stunt; but creating a variant Power is, well, a variant power, not a pre-existing skill trapping that needs to be moved.  Then again, I also have someone in my game with "Rituals" re-flavored as the ability to make bizarre technological devices using craftsmanship...

That said, the decision to create such a variant power should remain in the GM's hands only; for another example, when I was statting up a very physically-based creature that used fists and endurance skill for its spellcasting, that ability cost it quite a bit of refresh...

[Haru]

Maybe have an Aspect "Not So Great at the Kenning" which the player can self-Compel to automatically fail those Lore rolls which would be outside their purview, but to still maintain a high Lore for creating magic items.

I'd love the aspect "piece o' cake" for this. Can be invoked for baked spells and compelled for every other magical knowledge. It might even fit the characters general attitude.

The craftsmanship skill can still be put to great use to create lots and lots of aspects. At the very least, you can create a "cookie dough" aspect for every cookie based potion you are creating. If you go further, you can add decorations, icing, etc. with the craftsmanship skill (and a baking stunt to boot). That might even be better, because the base skill for the potion and the aspects skill would be separate.

[sinker]

Keep in mind that potions can be boosted by aspects, but enchanted items can not. If she ever wanted to create something more permanent she might have a hard time if she had been relying on craftsmanship aspects to boost a low lore.