Trialling some new environmental standards

Shrug. "There are a lot of totems, then, or did you just use some up and then remake them?"

Gabe waves his hands as to signal "A little of column A and a little of column B". "I spent some to build things and some to attack the wisps. I do have some with me in my trunk."

"… I don't suppose there's a crafting mechanic here, is there?"

"Mechanic? You can use the totems to create things in the shape you want. And at some point, you get a quest to find a book to create craft recipes that makes the steps sort of automatic?"

"I sort of meant crafting recipes, yes! But more like – I dunno, Minecraft?"

"...I don't play video games," the young man in a loincloth says, sounding embarrased.

"– Like, you put various materials into a grid and then something magically pops out the other end which probably shares vague resemblance to what you put in? Ish?"

"Ah, there is no grid. Once you have the skill thingie, you can do this thing where you decided you're going to create a recipe and then you do the thing the long way once and don't need to do it again. Like, to create a window I needed to think the shape of each component and where they would go and so on. But after that I had the recipe and could do it by just going 'I want to create this window and I am going to use this many totems to do it' in like one single step."

"That's weird."

"Weirder than Minecraft?"

"Well maybe maybe not? I'm pretty sure it's not a mechanic that Minecraft has."

Shrug. "It's practical to make repetitive things."

"Any particular examples that are useful?"

"Doors, windows, anything with cushions, anything with... mechanisms. I use to make brick walls for the aesthetic and other decorations too."

"You still need appropriate quantities of – well, I suppose if you're making it with totems then not so much, but you need the totems to create things, can't just use the pattern itself?"

"What patterns?"

"The – recipe things or whatever, for making stuff."

"I am not sure what that is different from what I am saying? You do the thing the long way once, to create the recipe, then you can do it over and over by just having the totems on hand."

"I was asking if the totems were wholly necessary after that point or not. Ascertaining exactly how cheaty it is."

"Ah, yes, they still are."

"Can you do a whole house as a recipe? And then would you have to go through all the steps again to modify part of it, or is it more convenient than that?"