= Quest of the Forgeborn
A roleplaying game about crafting magical objects.

== Background
The Sword of the Red Phoenix.  The Flamewright Hammer.  The Nightfall Cloak.
The Boots of Nythrial.  All crafted by masters.  Masters of what you hope to
become.  Born and raised in the Forge Citadel, you've apprenticed with the best
of their crafts.  You spent months on leatherworking.  Years on smithing.  The
past decade, you dedicated yourself to the art of reagency: extracting
intangible properties from a powerful material.

Using this art, you can take the lightness of a Xorguinae feather and give it
to a greatsword.  You can pull the cold from an ice golem's heart and give it
to a shield.  The Forgeborn protect these secrets carefully from those who
would seek to use the art against them.

== Masters
Each player creates a master.  A master has a _focus:_ the specific reagent
that they've spent their lives working with. perhaps dragon fire, or mandrake
root, or moonlight.  They have the final say about how this reagent is
harvested as well as its properties.  A master also understands related things
-- fire, roots, or reflections, for instance -- but only in relation to their
focus.

.Sample reagents
====
- Cocatrice Feathers.
- Phoenix Tears.
- Dragon's Breath.
- The North Wind.
- Harpy's Laugh.
====

== The Quest
People don't come to the Forge for a simple dagger.  You have distributors for
apprentice practice work -- it supports the Forge more consistently than the
more ... interesting requests.  When such a request does come in, the masters
are called up.  These requests have a form (spear, breastplate, ring) and a
function (pierce solid rock, block bullets, silence footsteps).

.Sample requests
====
- A sword for dueling angels
- A shield to protect against dragon breath.
- A helmet for a battle commander.
====

Choose a player to act as the client.  They'll be the effective DM for the life
of the request, and then step down to swap with someone else for the next
client.  If someone feels like their master's focus isn't useful for a request,
they might act as the client.  Otherwise, the person who came up with the
request in the first place should probably take the role.

Each master should suggest something that would improve the item -- perhaps the
Master of Dragon's Breath thinks some black dragon scales would really improve
the reliability of that plate armor.  The Master of the North Wind feels like
the flexibility of silent reeds would make the rapier particularly dangerous.
The Master of the Harpy's Laugh is certain that the piercing cry of a griffin
could be applied to the dagger's point.  Write these suggestions down as
encounters on a piece of paper, separated by space to write about them.

An encounter has the form "harvest [reagent] from [place] for [property]".

.Sample encounters
====
- Harvest black dragon scales from the Devil's Hole for their strength.
- Harvest silent reeds from Aesgarth's Castle moat for their flexibility.
- Harvest a griffin's cry from the Black Swamp for its piercing nature.
====

== Resolving an Encounter
Step through the three parts of an encounter one at a time:

1. How do you get there?
2. How do you conquer the defender?
3. How do you harvest the reagent for its property?

For each part, the client describes the dangers, challenges, temptations,
hardships, etc. that act against the masters.  These add dice to the opposition
pool.  The masters describe skills, knowledge, tools, helpers, etc. that they
use to overcome this opposition.  Each of these adds a d6 to their pool.

Once both sides are done forming their pools, each is rolled, and fours, fives,
and sixes count as hits.  Sixes also explode (count their hit and reroll them).
If the masters have more hits, they succeed without compromise and continue to
the next step.  Otherwise, masters must mark down conditions to eat up the
difference.  You may not take the same condition twice.  Conditions (and their
value) are given below.

1. Sad or angry, tired or distracted.
2. Hungry or thirsty, sick or dizzy.
3. Wounded.

A master may also sacrifice themselves to cancel the rest of the difference, no
matter how big.  As with all conditions, describe the sacrifice.  Before any
part, the masters may decide to quit the encounter in order to better prepare.
If they do, they'll have to repeat the earlier parts again.

If the masters make it through all three parts, they've made it back with the
reagent and add it to the item.

=== Using Your Focus
The Master of the Harpy's Laugh can help cheer up the others using their
knowledge of what the world finds funny.  The Master of Phoenix Tears can
create drinkable water from practically anything to quench someone's thirst.
The Master of Cocatrice Feathers can mold stone into a brace to help heal a
wound.

Describing a solution doesn't instantly erase the condition.  You make a mark,
and the next time dice are rolled, you can spend any 6s you roll to erase
marked conditions.  Spent 6s are re-rolled.

The same solution can't be used twice on one encounter.  Such is the nature of
magic -- every person reacts differently to the acid of the black dragon, or
the soft release of bottled wind.  You must use different techniques to solve
the same problem.  In time (the next encounter), an old technique will become
useful again.

== The Return
After you've collected the necessary reagents, you craft the item.  Imagine a
hammering and forging montage.  Name the item, and write it down.  The client
should give a short epilogue about the most famous time it was used, and for
what.

== Session End
Players whose masters died should create new ones.  Those who lived should
record something they learned about their focus.  Time passes in the Forge.  A
new client approaches, with a new request.

== Campaign Play
Over time, a client may come back for repeat business -- who are they, how do
they affect the world, how do they come across enough wealth to make a request
from the Forge Citadel?

Over time, a weapon might be created purely to fight a piece of armor you
created.  Is the Forge Citadel neutral?  Will the surrounding nations accept
its neutrality, or do they fight (politically or otherwise) for its allegiance?
If you make weapons for both sides of a war, what kind of fallout comes of it?

Over time, the surrounding area might change political boundaries such that
what was once an accepting kingdom becomes an overbearing state.  Does the
Forge Citadel hold back its best work for such a time?  Are people trained in
the art of combat, or just craft?  How do you protect the freedom of the
Forgeborn?