'scuze the formatting - I just joined the list and am cutting-and-pasting from the archives to reply here... > I'd suggest a design allowing *any* skill to be used, instead of just those. > So, if we later decide to create new skills, we'd just have to add related > formulae into the formulae list. Probably each formula should schematically > look like: > > [skill] [formula] [effect] > > instead of the current [formula] [effect] > pattern. > > Maybe we could add some kind of tag for 'alchemical tools' (Cauldron, > Worbench, etc), marking them as suitable for a specific alchemical skill. > (For example, it could be something like "alchemy [skillname]" in the object > archetype). This too would result in an easily customizable system. I very much like this idea. In addition to the obvious "making useful items" this could be further extended to create "special effects", especially if either the "alchemical" definition specifies the "alchemical tool" required (and not requiring any tool if not specified) or if the skill can be defined as to whether or not it needs a "tool" (or, alternatively, have a definition that allows the player's inventory to be the "tool") As a silly example, you could then have a "litterbug" skill, and a wandering NPC with it that applies it to the pattern litterbug food => garbage litterbug water => empty_bottle to represent eat/drinking and throwing the empties around, or something like illusionism pixie_dust flint_and_steel => puff_of_smoke (fog) for a stage-magician, or degrade_metal platinacoin => goldcoin degrade_metal goldcoin => silvercoin degrade_metal silvercoin => pile_of_sulphur for an odd metal-digesting wandering monster... Just some thoughts. I just recently compiled up crossfire on my system again to play around with, and last night started tackling "adding new things". I'm impressed with how easy it seems to be so far with the flexible system that's in place now (I created a new race as an experiment - I couldn't find any documentation describing what was involved, but about an hour of poking around the existing arch's and I was able to easily slap a new one together...)