View source for Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)

== The Book of Gears ==

=== Introduction ===

Cooperative Storytelling is essentially all about artifice. The stories we create are ''created'', the shared narrative is an illusion which fills our mind and pushes us forward. So it is no surprise that creating things within that narrative is so very contentious. Building a house in the game or creating an illusion in the story is a level further from the players than anything else in the game.

An illusion is something that isn't real inside a story that isn't real. Forging a sword is creating something within a tale that is being created around it. These actions, while very integral to the source material upon which our cooperative storytelling games are based, are yet one more step removed from reality when contrasted with the old standards of pretending to be a knight who kills imaginary dragons to save fictitious princesses.

So it seems not at all surprising in retrospect that the rules we have used to represent the creation of stuff within the game world have historically been extremely unsatisfactory. Creating things takes time, which is a problematic concern in a game where time passes narratively. That means that the time a character spends nailing boards together for his dream house may be spent in a montage that ends in subtitles reading "six months later" and it may happen interspersed with a rollicking adventure where seconds count and the hammering essentially never gets done.

The result has been that previous editions have attempted to put additional or alternate costs on crafting of all sorts. From Constitution points to years off your life to XP, D&D has experimented with about a dozen different rubrics by which characters could trade one part of their character for more magic items. In almost all cases this allowed players to trade things they weren't using anyway for powerful artifacts that allowed them to conquer worlds, although in a few cases the flip side showed up making item creation so crappy that people seriously didn't do it at all. Needless to say, this has been unsatisfying, and it is our intention to help remedy these problems.

The rules presented here present a different take entirely. Creating magic items is something that takes only time, and adventures can be expected to be completed without ever doing it at all.[[Summary::This sourcebook presents an entirely different take on magical items and created beings to make the rules governing them more satisfying.| ]]

=== Contents ===

[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Character Advancement|'''Character Advancement: Power and Wealth''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Character Advancement#XP: Beer Me|XP: Beer Me]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Character Advancement#Reach for the Stars: Character Advancement|Reach for the Stars: Character Advancement]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Character Advancement#Strategies of Advancement|Strategies of Advancement]]
[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Crafting|'''Crafting''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Crafting#Why a Revision to the Crafting Rules?|Why a Revision to the Crafting Rules?]]
[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Dangerous Locations|'''Dangerous Locations: When the Floor has a CR''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Dangerous Locations#Location CRs: Quality and Quantity|Location CRs: Quality and Quantity]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Dangerous Locations#WWMD? Disabling Traps|WWMD? Disabling Traps]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Dangerous Locations#I Live Here: Setting Off Traps|I ''Live'' Here: Setting Off Traps]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Dangerous Locations#Facing the Architect: The CR of Locations|Facing the Architect: The CR of Locations]]
[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Playing the Game|'''Playing the Game''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Playing the Game#What's that Noise?! Playing at Low Level|What's that Noise?! Playing at Low Level]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Playing the Game#The Rigors of Command: Playing at High Levels|The Rigors of Command: Playing at High Levels]]
[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Magic|'''Magic''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Magic#Illusion Magic: I Don't Believe This Crap|Illusion Magic: I Don't Believe This Crap]]
[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Magic Items|'''Magic Items''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Magic Items#The Core of Magic Item Design: Don't Do It Like Diablo|The Core of Magic Item Design: Don't Do It Like Diablo]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Magic Items#Magic Items with Class(ifications)|Magic Items with Class(ifications)]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Magic Items#Magic Item Creation|Magic Item Creation]]
[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Treasure and the World|'''Treasure and the World''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Treasure and the World#Finding Treasure|Finding Treasure]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Treasure and the World#The Three (or so) Economies|The Three (or so) Economies]]
[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Created Monsters|'''Created Monsters: Forged and Bred''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Created Monsters#Vermin: Remnants of a Fallen Empire|Vermin: Remnants of a Fallen Empire]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Created Monsters#Constructs: Durability at a Price|Constructs: Durability at a Price]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Created Monsters#Denizens of the Planes of Law|Denizens of the Planes of Law]]
[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Mechanics with Class|'''Mechanics with Class''']]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Mechanics with Class#Base Classes|Base Classes]]
:[[Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Mechanics with Class#Prestige Classes|Prestige Classes]]

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Completeness	4 +
Identifier	3.5e Sourcebook +
Rated By	DanielDraco +
Rating	Rating Pending +
Summary	This sourcebook presents an entirely different take on magical items and created beings to make the rules governing them more satisfying. +
Title	Book of Gears +