>>DR-Persida: As of this time, it is in fact the rule, and GMs doing the alterations are not allowed to break it. It is simply not something at their discretion.

Does the design have to include the mark as it is originally described, or can it be changed as long as it includes the elements of the mark? For example, if the original mark is, "You see the initials 'C. M.' impressed into the surface of the metal," could the design be written as something like, "The initials 'C. M.' are engraved along the blade"?

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>>Does the design have to include the mark as it is originally described, or can it be changed as long as it includes the elements of the mark? For example, if the original mark is, "You see the initials 'C. M.' impressed into the surface of the metal," could the design be written as something like, "The initials 'C. M.' are engraved along the blade"?

>>I've never tried to get a marked item altered before. Does it have to have that "You see the initials "whoever" impressed into the surface of the metal." line at the end? Is incorporating the initials into the item's description not allowed?

>>Any similar questions

You do NOT have to keep the exact wording "You see the initials 'C. M.' impressed into the surface of the metal". You can change it to something similar as long as the mark and initials remains on the item.

Examples:
"The initials 'C.M.' adorn the hilt"
"The initials 'C.M.' are pressed onto the pommel"
"The blade's maker's mark bears the initials 'C.M'."


-Persida

<<And the mark shouldn't be required in the alteration or count towards the character limit imo.>

<<The character limit on looks is a system limit not a rule we set. We actually cannot make it longer. It gets cut off.

Yet another reason why this rule needs revisiting.

<<Plus, I dunno, when you have a big long fancy look on something, then two big bold letters just stamped on at the bottom, it's always struck me as a bit tacky and somewhat detracts from the overall design in general.

Two more cents added. Back when makers marks were really cool, I liked being able to make sure they were in the alteration. Initials are rather lame.

Glad I got my crafted stuff altered before this rule.

~~~
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Whether you agree with the rule or not, it's easy enough to get stuff without it being marked, thus circumventing the entire problem. I've made stuff and not marked it because someone told me they wanted to alter it someday and it was no big deal.

I personally disagree that this should be the rule for the reasons mentioned above, but at the moment it is, and there's an easy enough workaround.

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Pink sapphires and thrusting blades. Nothing out of place there.

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It really should be automatic pink sapphires in everything he does, but alas. Had to do it myself.

>what's the issue with leaving the mark information in?

For me, RP wise it completely defeats the purpose of getting an alteration.

It makes it look like the craftsman/woman did the alteration themselves, and sours the time and effort it takes to get the alteration done.

Also, there's already so much push back when it comes to alterations... many times I've spent days or weeks to come up with ideas only to go through the process and come back with something 100% different than what I actually wanted.

This is just another layer of that.

That said, I think the purchaser shouldn't be able to just willy nilly remove the marks either.

I like the idea of allowing the original crafter to be able to remove or undo the mark themselves.

I was alerted to it at the time over emails, but am often too busy and just happened across this thread tonight....

Every game has its history and the reason for why things happen. I personally found it very interesting to know that a crafted item would forever have some indication of who originally made it. Slowly gaining in skill until I could afford crafted goods - and later, marked goods was quite exciting. You got to know who the good crafters were and sought them out. There were also several incidents where marking-fraud that will infamously live on in DR history...

I could come up with a dozen IC explanations for why marked items should forever carry some representation of the mark and who crafted it. However, IC reasons - even good ones - mean nothing to some players.

I'm going to propose a craftable Alchemy acid wash that can allow a crafter to remove his or her own maker's marks from items. This will only work on unaltered items, but will forever erase any trace of who crafted it. That should resolve the issue without requiring GM involvement, right?

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Fantastic idea :)

I'm a little sad that my altered items cannot get this treatment, but that is life. Thanks for the response and solution.

>I think it is kinda sad that maker marks would be removed from items. And in RL it would drastically reduce the value. Maybe make it so it lowers some of the stats when you do it? lol

1) No.

2) Real life items which are valued based on maker are typically not prized for function (regardless of whether they might have been at one point in time or not), so the argument is more logically if you stamp it, it should raise the appraisal value and lower the stats because it's now a 'display' piece.

3) No. Just no.

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<<3. I like your compromise though. If the maker mark is removed, it should drop the value by 10%, and since you are using acid on the weapon, at a minimum the durability of the item should be lowered a tiny bit. Good call!

You do realize that all this will do is make a crafter far less likely to mark anything except throw away stuff for prestige farming? More so the rarer the material gets.

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>>You do realize that all this will do is make a crafter far less likely to mark anything except throw away stuff for prestige farming? More so the rarer the material gets.

I will continue to mark every piece I make, as I do before regardless of the availability of some other device to remove such. That said, I'm perfectly willing to leave the mark off if I can be made to feel so inclined.

Samsaren

<<I will continue to mark every piece I make, as I do before regardless of the availability of some other device to remove such. That said, I'm perfectly willing to leave the mark off if I can be made to feel so inclined.

It's not the availability of some device to remove a mark, it is the addition of a penalty to the item's stats when removing a mark that will make it less likely for someone to mark a weapon in the first place. Given two identical weapons, one with a maker's mark and one without, the one with a mark is inferior because the unmarked weapon will never be able to have its stats reduced. A buyer has more incentive to buy the unmarked one, and so the price of marked weapons will end up being lower than unmarked ones and the market will tend towards stocking unmarked weapons as opposed to marked ones.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea to disallow removal of marks - I actually don't have an opinion on that topic either way - but attaching a penalty to mark removal essentially also attaches that same penalty to marking in the first place and isn't the best way to go about providing an incentive to mark a weapon. Much better options that do not devalue a mark can be thought up, I'm sure.

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I would be very much in favor of this. I prefer to have my mark on it, but more than once I've agreed to leave it off and forgotten by the time I made it. Annoying to have to reforge it.

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I think the acid wash is a cool idea provided it's only usable by the crafter. I'm a huge fan of maker's marks, as they give a small amount of credit where credit is due in regards to these awesome items that everyone has to have. I don't think a few initials on the look of an item is an unfair price to pay to have something that, without the crafter, you wouldn't see outside of quest runs. To those who say it seems unnecessary, I recommend spending months to years making ingots and completing work orders so that you can acquire the skill to make the items yourself so that you have those few extra character spaces to add that extra gem in your alteration.

>>I like to pay homage to my crafting buddies.

You see the initials "S. L." impressed into the surface of the metal.
You see the initials "S. R." impressed into the surface of the metal.

>I was wondering about being able to have the mark somewhere other than the look

Depending on the alterer, it's possible to get the mark fancied up, or even moved to the READ.

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