Things made of hedgespun are low-powered, accessible magical items for changelings and their friends. These rules lay out some guidelines for their power level and appropriate costs.
By book, the creator of a hedgespun item does not need to pay any XP to gain its benefits. Other characters must pay a single XP, since they did not do the work to make the item.
That rule is fine most of the time, even though it technically allows a lot of cheesy BS. If your group has players who are abusing that fact, an alternate rule is to allow hedgespun to cost 1 XP per dot for everyone, including the creator. This cost is manageable and fair for what hedgespun typically grants to its owner.
By book, hedgespun weapons are extremely difficult to create, because they start at such a low damage code. To make these sorts of fantastical weapons more common, all hedgespun weapons now start with a damage code appropriate for an average example of their type. So, a hedgespun knife starts at 1L and a hedgespun pistol at 2L, etc.
A byproduct of this is that only a single dot of the hedgespun can be used to raise its damage code.
Complex creations like firearms still require a second dot to represent the precision of interlocking components needed to make them work.
By the book rules, a hedgespun pistol with a typical damage of 2L needs three dots: 1 to exist, 1 to be a firearm, and 1 to raise the damage from 1L to 2L. Under the revised rules, it's a 2-dot item. Similarly, the book rules make a plain hedgespun rifle into a five-dot item: 1 to exist, 1 to be a firearm, 3 to raise damage to 4L from 1L. With the revised rules, it's also a 2-dot item.
This table has some ideas of hedgespun abilities and the dots each one requires. It's far from a comprehensive list, but should provide some guidelines for the cost of different levels of power.
| Enhancement | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Damage | • | Raises a weapon's damage by 1. Can only be purchased once. |
| Unique Appearance | • to •••• | Artistic enhancements to the item's appearance. Each dot makes it more impressive than the last. |
| Utility Feature | • | Basic, but useful addition to the item, like a lab coat that's very hard to stain |
| Expanded Magazine | •• | Fit a few more bullets into a ranged weapon's ammo storage |
| Concealing | •• | The item folds or contorts itself when not in use, reducing its size category by 1 |
To craft a hedgespun item, it's a darn good idea to have a recipe in mind. There are two ways to go about this. The simplest is to just put together a recipe yourself, as a player, in your spare time. The second is to use an in-character skill test to avoid the work.
Due to the wanton nature of the hedge, recipes for hedgespun items do not allow crafters to gain the Rote benefit. They do make it much easier to create similar works and replacements. The recipes can also be traded around if another character wants to build off of your previous work.
If you like a bit of excitement in your crafting life, you can also make hedgespun without a recipe at all. Mashing hedge bits together with a dash of intent guarantees that you'll get something out of it, and that it'll be the right shape. More than that, who knows!
It takes time to work out exactly the right hedge ingredients to use and the perfect way to combine them. The blueprint or recipe that a character makes this way is reusable and may provide bonuses to foraging or bartering for ingredients, since the recipe spells out every detail of what's needed.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult
Action: Extended
Interval: 1 hour
Target: 2 successes / dot
Dramatic Failure: The recipe is rubbish. Anyone who attempts to use it is led astray and may not re-roll 10s while using the recipe.
Failure: You make no progress.
Success: You make progress.
Exceptional Success: You make quick progress
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | Hedgespun specialty in Craft |
| +1 | Occult library with extensive info on the hedge |