Now, I think of myself as a pretty inventive narrator, versed in the odd and exciting ways one can frame an extended contest.
I've done my share of metal casting, hammer work on metal, repoussé and other sorts of crafting. I'm no blacksmith, but I know them and I know their processes enough to fake it in a contest.
Even so, I find narrating an extended contest to enchant something just about the most difficult thing to make interesting. Luckily for me I've never had a hero try enchanting iron, whose high AP would make the contest even harder to make interesting, round after round.
There are only so many ways you can say "You got it too hot and need to adjust your fire to try to save the pour,"the fumes of the melting tin make you dizzy", "your hammer strokes begin to lay an eldrich pattern you had not expected or planned" and so on.
And of course, an extended contest is pretty odd in some ways: "You have to get it right this time because your forge is almost out of coke" followed by a big transfer and suddenly you have lots of fuel again?
So if there's some deep reason why we have to leave these as extended contests, the only answer I have is to actually start the contest conceptually far before the magician begins to work with the materials. The first few rounds can be determining the correct auspicious days, gathering the right fuels, getting blessings from the priests, purifying himself and his tools, etc.
But I'm still always tempted to run them as simple opposed contests.
Mike Dawson
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