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Originally Posted by Nil
Not that I don't agree with you, but how would you go about doing that? I can see questing for strange recipies and such, but that'd pretty much require adventuring to get the information.
I guess reading manuals or ancient tomes from a library could contain the information in story form, but really, most items won't have stories behind them of interest.
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Not soooo! It's easy. Take typical RPG situations and reverse the roles. For example, in Star Ocean 2 you need a merchant sponsor to enter a tournament. The merchant supplies arms and potions, you do the fighting. Another of your party members helps her friend also enter the tournament - none of the shops is to his liking and they have to find a smith to custom forge a weapon for him. They cross blades in the final round.
Reverse the player's role. You are a smith and recieve a work order from a merchant whose usual smith has been ill. In the process you discover what you forged will be used in the tournament by last years champion. You also hear word of a newcomer searching desperately for a sponsor but turning down every shop. Next quest in the chain: forge something that man won't scoff at. Maybe you speak with the various shop owners and find out what he turned down, what he's looking for. He's impressed and you contract with him for the rest of the kit. Perhaps, based on your knowledge of what you were ordered to make for the other guy (and what you get if this guy wins) you create a set to beat that one. If the newcomer wins you get some major props with the local smithing groups and a share of the prize.
Perhaps a tournament doesn't quite work for an MMO without cutscenes. The scale can be smaller-- two men are fighting a duel. Rumors about town will tell you of their strengths and weakensses so your specialization (weapons or armor) may influence who you decide to back. Maybe it becomes a branching quest chain. Perhaps it affects faction. Another example.
Say there was a famous swordsmith-- even his mass produced blades were exceptional --and you can try to replicate his technique through careful observation of one of his pieces (admittance to the castle museum: 10 silver; see the famous "Heaven's Cloud" and gawp at the stats of a mastermaster
masterpiece with no less than seven "positive accidents"!), clues you can find in texts, and your own knowledge of the crafting system. Maybe not even as a quest, but something you can chance upon while experimenting that has some clues pointing towards it. At the end of it you may not be able to match that old smith but you can add X damage and subract y delay from any sword or knife you make for some meager amount of action points.
Smith examples are easiest, but replace the crafter and you replace the client. Someone knowledgable of the lore and workings of the cities should be able to put things together easily. The point is you get the crafting player involved with the current events and lore, crafter style. No need to leave home for that; there's lots happening in the cities or else diplomacy wouldn't exist. Find the niche the crafter fills, find his clients, find their needs. Then make a story.