I've always hated that people's marks appear on things they create. It's neat in some ways, but when you make a weapon for an enemy, your mark is on it. When someone gives you an item they shouldn't, everyone else can see their mark is on it.

There needs to be an artifact to remove personal marks.

Look at this:

(Lance description)
It has 203 months of usefulness left.
It weighs about 10 pounds.
It bears the distinctive mark of Archon Richter Carthan.

If I wanted to give that to someone, but not have everyone else in the world know it was mine at one point, maybe I'd want to get rid of it.

Or, why in the first place, does it contain our mark. THAT should be an artifact, allowing you to mark your items. Or, tailors, to tag their items.

Also, look at this:

(Net description)

It has 62 months of usefulness left.
It weighs 10 ounce(s).
A finely-woven snake net is holding:
Nothing.

There's no mark on it, but I made it. Not only are marks a pain sometimes, but the way in which they're applied is inconsistent.

I suggest either reworking how marks are created, or having an artifact that will let you mark/remove marks/etc.

I agree entirely. As it is, any hopes of selling lances to the enemy are brutally and heartlessly crushed by the incriminating mark of the traitorous blacksmith.

Okay, how about crow cloaks? I have 21 of them right now, with no hopes of distribution, I can only let people borrow them for influencing right now.

Yeah, my post was a bit sarcastic, but I really do agree. It would add a whole group of customers for most of the tradeskills and various other things, provided the salesman and customer have no problems with the moral aspect.

Yes please.

Sorry, but it makes perfect sense for crow cloaks. For exactly this reason.

Richter, you have too many credits on hand. Go bash to Demigod.

But that takes far too long.

I think this is a pretty good idea because it can open up an entire new mercantile base. But, what I think is, why make it an artifact? I can understand making it one so you could get rid of a mark. But, I think what they should do is that if you are at a high enough skill in whatever trade you are working in, you can choose to put your mark on it. That way, I think this ability is win-win.

Because I can't see them recoding skills for it. Hey, maybe they will.

You know, if you ever invade a country with a bunch of nukes, and go, okay, who the hell sold these to you, and then you look and they bear the mark of something like, oh, France, France would be screwed. But they're not quite dumb enough to do that, are they?

But what if Belgium bought it off France then sold it to the invaders?

Meh. Crow cloaks should be more available but should also drain health and give insanity when worn by those not of the Glomdoring commune. That's a side rant though.

I guess that holds a valid point in the real world. But when you think of it, if you are careful enough you shouldn't get in trouble for having these weapons. But if the person was that afraid of having them and the person making them was that afraid of selling them, why would they do business in the first place? It seems like having this idea promotes more shady dealings.

And now we're all on the same page. The thread may continue.

Richter has a point.

In the real word (and I know 101 people will go "this isn't the real world) apprentices are not allowed to mark their work until they reach a certain level of expertise.

Perhaps all marks of future items should be removed and at Master skill level (or even adept) you gain a skill in your trade call Marking that you can just MARK to call it your own.

I'm just enormously disappointed by the anticlimax that is this thread given its highly exciting title.

yeah but you know what would be an awesome artifact idea...making the Wand of Ice and Wand of Fire collections to the artifact shops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No.

And if that happens, Toadcurse needs a nerfing.

Richter = Shady

what...?? toadcurse is the only viable kill for the upper levels. it's already not even guaranteed, you can't scry a toad to see where they are so those with gems can get out easy. they can move two rooms to any one stomp so it's very easy to lose them, it's got a flipping cure. wielding it the wand means you give up your shield or athame, if you give up the shield you lose riposte. it can only be done indoors and ground elevation so a toad in the tree goes away free from icewalls. you already pay 300 credits to get toadcurse and then another 400 for the wand so 700 to make a kill easier, but still not guaranteed because someone can cure it.