A Quick Guide to Crafting

Layonara offers a variety of different fields in which characters can hone their crafting skills:

• Alchemy
• Armor Crafting
• Enchanting
• Fishing
• Food Crafting
• Gem Crafting
• Infusing
• Musical Instrument Crafting
• Poison Making
• Scribing
• Smelting
• Tailoring
• Tinkering
• Weapon Crafting
• Wood Crafting

Before your character rolls up their sleeves and takes up a trade, however, consider whether they need to craft at all. Crafting requires many hours of materials gathering and hundreds (or thousands) of failed crafting attempts to achieve proficiency - and not all characters would have the patience needed, nor the inclination, to craft. There are many other craftspeople in the world, and it might be more in keeping with your character - not to mention faster - simply to buy what you need.

If, however, you decide your character feels the urge to craft, the Layonara crafting system offers much to satisfy your creative needs.

Hi there! For anyone here who doesn't know me, my name's Reasa Goldenbrook, and I'm a Cleric of The Merchant of Fate. In addition to my clerical duties, I craft on the side, and I've been getting questions about how one might get started in the trades. So, for your enlightenment and assistance, I'll give you a quick guide to Crafting in Layonara.

Most people will start their crafting careers in Center - which is a fine town, though no comparison to Port Hempstead. There, you'll find most of the basic requirements for a career in crafting - though some specialized craftspeople may have to look a little farther afield. On a map of the town, you'll see the Craft Hall clearly marked. Inside, you'll find the machines on which crafting takes place - and a crafting merchant, who will sell you most everything you'll need as a tradesperson (and a few things you don't!)

Getting started:

• First, you'll need a Crafting Certificate. That can be purchased from the crafting merchant - and you're not allowed to use the machines without one!
• The merchant also sells index cards that detail the ingredients of each of the crafting recipes. These can be handy, particularly when you're roaming the lands looking for ingredients.
• You'll probably need supplies from him as well - specialized tools for the various crafts (a smith's hammer, or a pick for mining minerals)
• Then, after you're outfitted, you'll need to go out and find the materials you need to make an item. Be warned, even if you have the materials for a complex item, you might not be able to make it if you're just starting out. Take my advice: start simple, and work your way up!
• Finally, after you have your equipment and the materials you need, you can go into the crafthall and craft up a storm! (Put the necessary materials on the machine, close it, and it should become clearer.)

Aspiring chefs and brewmasters can find the tools of their trade in the back room of the Bull's Eye, an inn in town. If your interests lie in alchemy and magic, you'll have to make the journey to Port Hempstead or Fort Vehl, which have the facilities you'll need. And if you plan a mining or logging expedition, remember that gems, logs and ore get heavy and that Oxen can be very useful.

Just a little more info... it's fun to craft and profitable if you do it right.

Things Not To Do:

• Don't leave your CNR on the crafting devices. This can cause server lag and clutters up the device for whoever's using it next!
• Don't leave water buckets in the well at the inn. If you don't want them, just toss them in the trash!
• Don't camp CNR sites - this falls under the Player Rules
• Don't abuse the AI and do follow the Rules for Harvesting.
• Don't hog CNR sites (There are more trees in the forest then just one. Don't stand there waiting for someone to be finished as it's rude.)

Note: If you do leave CNR on a device, it may not be there when you get back.

Things To Do:

• Make sure you equip the right tool for the job when mining or chopping wood. That expensive longsword of yours was meant for combat, not banging against rocks or trees - you're liable to break it!
• Form a party to go out CNR hunting, and make friends!
• Make money - through fair and equitable trade, of course.
• Go on quests - some involve the location and retrieval of CNR, or the acquisition of crafted items!
• Get involved with the community. Someone may need something you can craft - so find them, and sell it to them! The Trade and Market Hall is a great place to buy and sell CNR and crafted goods.

Some crafts are harder to do than others or are limited to certain types of people. For example, Infusing requires having experience crafting gems (or knowing someone that does!) Bards are the only people with the training to build musical instruments. Scribing is only the domain of those whose deity or skill with magic allows them to cast spells on their own - and so forth.

There are thousands of things to make, and virtually limitless experimentation to be done - so if you've got a yearning to create, get out there and start crafting!

- Reasa Goldenbrook, Halfling cleric of Deliar