Miakoda
Oct 26, 2016
By the way, you have numerous things like blood, eggs, etc. which also may have their own attributes like the gems above. The following list is just a suggestion, and of course you can add things to it as well. And once again, there is going to be overlap. After all, a bat's blood might be used in a potion of flight, but the blood of a hawk could work as well.
Bat - darkness, flight, location
Bear - strength, healing, growth, sleep
Deer - plant magic, speed, fear
Eel - ambush, electricity
Lion - mastery over animals (yeah king of beast thing)
Firefly - light
Fox - stealth and camouflage
Hawk - air, flight detection, command over birds
Human - Powers over the mind, other people
Maggots - this could be good for necromancy
Mole - powers of earth
Owl - Wisdom, knowledge
Porcupine - armor, defense, protection
Snake - Poison, stealth, surprise
Spider - master of insects, trapping/ensnaring
Squirrel - maybe food magic?, storage/preservation (what they do with nuts)
Wolf - tracking, hunting, and attack
Pace675
Oct 26, 2016
You forgot about the most important animal!
Bunny! - fertility, luck, um potency
, speed
jack1974
Oct 27, 2016
Thanks, having items associated to specific sort of magic is a good idea. Will also update the wiki accordingly
DarkWolf
Oct 27, 2016
Something else I would recommend is try to establish a guide where certain gems/herbs/etc. tend to be used with a specific sort of magic. Not that you have to adhere to it 100%, but Alchemists did study things, and group them by their supposed 'magical' attributes. This can also make it a little easier for the game if you have an idea to look for.
For example, with Gems you might use (this is pooled from various sources). Others will be suggestions since I don't think you want to add more gems Finally, some of these will have overlap.
Agate - focus, concentration, protection
Amber - reversal, change - I would also recommend plants (jade normally would be that), but since amber comes from trees...
Amethyst - Clarity of the mind, influencing others, possibly clairvoyance and healing
Beryl - element air, fights, creativity, intelligence
Coral - if pearl is used for women, maybe coral could be used for men. It has also connotations of immortality,
Diamond - Strength, durability, the element of earth
Emerald - inspires extreme emotion (love, passion, etc.) and reproduction. This could be used to make copies of stuff as well
Garnet - Spheres of luck and pleasure
Malachite - amplification, change, some protection as well
Opal - sympathy, compassion, faith and love, foresight
Pearl - purity, women, and the element of water
Quartz - moon, sexuality, deception, madness, illusion
Ruby - justice, the element of fire, destruction, blood
Turquoise - corruption, putrefaction, necromancy, darkness
The one Gem I left out of the above is Azurite since it isn't commonly mentioned. Maybe it could have control of Magic. Sources I do have say it is good for traveling out of body and channeling. Maybe it could also be used for summoning/banishment.
"Azurite has a transformative quality that stimulates an increase in communication skills, intuition, creativity and inspiration."
http://crystal-cure.com/azurite.html
Also regarding Quartz it is actually believed to have different effects regarding on it's color as Quartz comes in many different colors, in general Quartz is believed to be power amplifier during magic.
http://crystal-cure.com/blue-quartz.html
Also an interesting info regarding Amethyst, I had read that in old Egypt Amethyst was more expensive then Diamond or Gold.
BobTheMob
Oct 27, 2016
As Miakoda said about various things w/ animals:
Crab - I've heard of shells being used in spells as a reversal thing (crabs walk backward and so their shells reverse something done)
Nests from stinging insects (wasps, hornets, etc.) - protective powders/potions (enemies/thieves become leery of people/property and are less likely to target)
Jellyfish - same basic concept, esp. out at sea; also to make warships more powerful (there was even a real-life variety of warship known as the Man-o-War used by the English in the 16th-19th centuries; a dangerously poisonous species related to jellyfish came to bear the same name)
---------------
Real-life thing: the waste, blood, bone, and feathers from animals are all used for making fertilizers/boosters/flower-color changers (ex.: making hydrangeas turn from white to blue) if Amber will be making anything for agricultural people
Miakoda
Oct 27, 2016
And something else to bear in mind is that alchemists will certainly come up with different recipes which may create similar potions. Not that you have to go to in depth on this, but it could be interesting if Amber might compare recipes to someone else.
I mean, someone from a far northern area (like in Seasons of the Wolf) will have different recipes than someone that might come from a tropical island, but could achieve the same ends.
jack1974
Oct 28, 2016
Yes if nothing else because they wouldn't have the same ingredients available. Even with Dingirra's "commercial portals" wouldn't be easy
Miakoda
Oct 28, 2016
*grins* And looking at the recipe list/ideas, it really makes me want to include a 'bareskin rug' as a trap.
It would look like a regular bear-skin rug, but it would be enchanted to teleport someone's clothes/armor/weapons away upon stepping on it
jack1974
Oct 30, 2016
A problem I'm facing now that I'm defining the various gems, is that for gameplay reasons I need to have tiers. Obviously at the 7th (top) tier there's Diamond and Ruby. However, doing this seems that for example Turquoise, which is tier 5th would be less powerful (tiers measure the crafting difficulty). Which means necromancy could be less powerful than destruction (Ruby) and that is OK, but at same time necromancy could be more powerful than Beryl (intelligence, creativity etc).
I think I'll solve this by having the easiest to craft gems having difficult/rare other ingredients to balance everything.
I mean is normal that some gems are more precious, but there shouldn't be a really big difference between the others.
Another solution could be that you need a powerful magic to activate the gem anyway. So an archmage could be more powerful with a beryl ring than an apprentice with a ruby talisman, etc.
Maybe I'm overthinking it
Miakoda
Oct 30, 2016
A problem I'm facing now that I'm defining the various gems, is that for gameplay reasons I need to have tiers. Obviously at the 7th (top) tier there's Diamond and Ruby. However, doing this seems that for example Turquoise, which is tier 5th would be less powerful (tiers measure the crafting difficulty). Which means necromancy could be less powerful than destruction (Ruby) and that is OK, but at same time necromancy could be more powerful than Beryl (intelligence, creativity etc).
I think I'll solve this by having the easiest to craft gems having difficult/rare other ingredients to balance everything.
I mean is normal that some gems are more precious, but there shouldn't be a really big difference between the others.
Another solution could be that you need a powerful magic to activate the gem anyway. So an archmage could be more powerful with a beryl ring than an apprentice with a ruby talisman, etc.
Maybe I'm overthinking it
Something to also consider is that if you have gems related to certain areas, then a given Gem might be more powerful than a rarer one...essentially allowing for a higher tier if you want. Take the above example. A Diamond could be a good, general tier gem, but a Beryl might actually prove more powerful if it is used in an item/enchantment to make Intelligence.
The other thing to consider is that for most magical items, a gem is just one part of it. So if you have 'rarer' other ingredients used, that could also make it more powerful. After all, the blood of a dragon is bound to be more powerful than a blood of an orc...
jack1974
Oct 30, 2016
Yes this last part is what I meant, since for crafting I must have all ingredients in tiers, and tiers should be associated with prices (the rarest, the more expensive) the diamond will never be cheaper than beryl, or require less jewelcrafting skills. But for the items creation, it all depends on the other ingredients indeed.
This is was more a thought for future RPGs with crafting but yes it's a bit too early to worry about this now
jack1974
Oct 31, 2016
Hmm facing another small issue. For all the gems I use the method: (bigger)nugget->refine=pebble->refine=crystal(smaller)
However for both the pearl and the coral, the terms nugget/pebble/crystal doesn't really make sense
I was wondering if anyone could come with 3 alternate words for it? I have no idea how to call them in English!
Anima_
Oct 31, 2016
Fragments and shards maybe?
jack1974
Oct 31, 2016
I was thinking instead of "nugget" to use "lump". Fragments and shards maybe could work for coral, but for pearl, not sure.
Or I might just replace those two with two new "standard" gems, and use coral/pearl without the need of "refinement"
pahldus
Oct 31, 2016
For pearl, I would use bead!
Franka
Nov 03, 2016
I don't think we have bombs yet, but you can't have played an Atelier game without bombs! So here's a list of suggested pallette swap bombs.
All bombs need a container (bottle, sack, tube, whatever) and some ingredients that are typically volatile.
Elemental and Quasi-Elemental Bombs
Explosive
Burning
Water/Quenching
Snow
Dust
Mud
Smoke
Lightning/Shocking
Vacuum/Imploding
Non-lethal Impeding Bombs, most could use one of the above bombs as a base ingredient
Blinding (ink)
Hallucinating/Dream (your favorite fantasy drug)
Loud/Deafening
Itching (chili powder + sticky oil)
Tickling (feathers + living oil)
Sneezing (pepper)
Coughing/Choking
Numbing
Paralyzing
Vomiting (rotten meat) my personal favorite
Slippery (grease)
Sticky (glue)
...and probably more I can't think of right now. Bring the bombs!
jack1974
Nov 03, 2016
Haha those looks good
As said I'm not sure how much stuff I'll put into this game but since the system will be the same for future RPGs, I can use the recipes in future for sure
jack1974
Nov 03, 2016
Today was "ballbreak day". However, I made the healing potions, and thanks to Miakoda post about the animals I'm going to make several ones (like Snake blood=Resist poison potions etc).
I'm not sure what to use for the Mana/Energy potions though. Do you have in mind any animal that could work? I was thinking maybe birds (hawks, eagles) but not sure. Or maybe for energy couldn't be an animal but something else...
Miakoda
Nov 03, 2016
I'm not sure what to use for the Mana/Energy potions though. Do you have in mind any animal that could work? I was thinking maybe birds (hawks, eagles) but not sure. Or maybe for energy couldn't be an animal but something else...
Most animals associated with magic directly often also represent wisdom. Although if you are talking actually storing energy, you might also look at say animals who may go hibernating or a metamorphosis (the latter could be a bear or caterpillar/butterfly)
Animals I know which have been associated with magic as well...
The first is the owl. It is known to represent wisdom, but was also associated with Hecate, a goddess of magic/necromancy.
Some African people held the snake in reverence as well as a teacher.
Spiders could work...and for that matter, Ravens could as well (I'm thinking of a couple of Native American stories, as well as the association of ravens with Odin...who was a god of magic (runecrafting))
jack1974
Nov 03, 2016
Since Energy potion replenish SP (usually in my games I mean) they're quite powerful. The animals you mention are interesting but for a reason or another I don't think they fit well, so I am thinking to just go with some fantasy animal
Unicorn, griffon fang, etc. Some "magic" or "mythological" animal.
