Most of what Luke described are not Morrowinf game native stuff but mods or cheats. They are not really in the game. And in any case not available before a very high level (when they become already irrelevant).

I don’t feel the need for magic (items) in a Modern/sci-Fi setting, because as you said : technology already covers it all.

In fact, “magic items”-like things are already in these settings. In Fallout, any energy weapon, most big guns and small arms and power armors could be considered like magic items. It doesn’t “feel” magic, but the effect is the same: more damage, more range, more accuracy, more damage reduction. Instead of the flaming sword, you get the light saber. Instead of the fireball spell, you get the flamer. Forget the +1 full plate, say hello to portable energy fields.

Fallout 3 doesn’t lack magic, it lacks useful item variety. There’s quite a few guns, but I basically spent half the game with only two weapons : a hunting rifle and a combat shotgun, and later upgraded to Lincoln’s Repeater and A25 Plasma Rifle. That’s four weapons for the whole game, not much. Ammo is so plentiful and other weapons felt so underpowered that there’s really no reason to use something else.

Fallout 1&2 didn’t have this problem as ammo was a lot scarcer (so you can’t use your most powerful gun for ants), and upgrades more frequent and useful : for instance, small guns first come in single shot pistols, become burst capable with a SMG, get better ammunition (.44, .223, armor piercing rounds), more range, more power, more ammo capacity, faster firing rate, etc…

Anyway, from reading you post, it seems what you lacked most was an expanded crafting system to abuse. These systems are very hard to balance, and Morrowind and Oblivion are good examples of them going completely out of control. 100% invisibility, all the time ? Sword of 100 fiery coldy thundery draining doom ? Complete immunity to damage ? Please… are the games any fun with these items ?

I don’t want to spill too much, but I’m working on a rules modification for D&D 4th edition which uses the idea of a ‘tech level’ to simulate the boost in stats granted by magic items. Basically, the campaign is set at a given tech level, and any salvage the characters find which has a tech level higher than their own is considered superior enough to grant a bonus.

It’s just a cosmetic change for now; I’ll be testing it out on my players soon to see if it needs any deeper tweaking.

By the way, for a post-apo world like fallout, here is my blueprint for the scope:
* two bolts
* one steel pipe
* a pair of old glasses
Necessary tools:
* optic equipment (rare and/or expensive)
* basic tinkering kit (like a drill and a couple of pinchers, which are very cheap and easy to find).
Basic requisite:
Any weapon with a barrel longer than a pistol’s one.

You don’t need that many changes from the Alchemia of Morrowind/Oblivion in a modern setting. Replace the magical ingredients by natural (bio-)chemical effects (acids, bases, solvents, salts and other toxins or drugs) and with the appropriate laboratory equipment (oven, test-tubes, etc.) you could allow the character to create powerful enhancing drugs, poisons, gaz, medications and so on. You mentioned the bandage patch in another post, I believe (or maybe it was on the Oblivion’s forum). I think this is typically something that could be implemented the same way.

It could be visually interesting too: a bio-chemist skill could allow to create a medicine pill, visually in the game, and its effect could be, instead of the magical aura of Morrowind, a feverish colored vision in a futuristic RPG. While a more basic first-aid skill would allow the creation of bandages and patches with some simple ingredients: cloths, antiseptic and so on. The visual could be a bandage roll and a patch on the wounded part once applied. Nothing really hard to make nor to simulate in game statistics.

And creating a fireball is nothing else than a molotov cocktail. The base ingredients: a liter of gasoline, a glass bottle and a piece of rags. The tinkering skill or any other similar one could be used to show the efficiency (or a blueprint based system). Of course, if you want more SF-like sophistication, go with an advanced set of technology skills (like the different Morrwind types of magic) and learn more blueprints instead of the spells/alchemy potions. With a little bit of imagination and/or the socketted elements you already mentioned, one could even imagine going one step further in realism than the Oblivion system. One skill would allow you to create one type of basic tools, weapons, drugs or objects. But knowing more skills would not just allow you to create more types but also to combine them (via the socket system or via more advanced blueprints, usable only for users of the multiple skills).

A basis for this is already present in Morrowind, where enchanting is actually nothing else than a socketting of enchantable objects to add spells (from the other Magic skills) to this object. Replace enchanting by whatever futuristic technology you deem reasonable, replace the bascic sword with your favorite universe laser gun and replace the spells with an optical scope blueprint or a chenically improved ammo and voilà…