Crafting
Player Crafting Rules
These are the new player rules for Crafters. These work in conjunction with the Referees guidelines for the creation of non magical items and research into new items or techniques of a similiar nature. Players are reminded that they are presented here for the information of those who wish to play such a character, the following guidelines are not common knowledge to those characters who are not Crafters. Players should also note that Crafting is a demanding activity both in terms of character creation and role playing requirements, but the rewards can be considerable.
Game Mechanics
Crafting is a General Veteran Skill pick, which may be taken several times as detailed below. The ability to undertake crafting activities is expressed in terms of work units and accordinly crafter's ability is expressed in terms of available work units per day. To utilise those work units there is a requirement for a workshop, which in the same way as an Alchemy Lab, must have a physical representation equal to its quality. Unlike alchemy however there is an additional requirement ofr appropriate tools.
The last requirement is for base materials from which to work. These obviously cannot be foraged for like alchemical ingrediants, and so will have to be bought.
The Crafter
There are three realms of crafting and when picking the vetean pick the player must nominate with the crafting referee which has been chosen
| Smith | allowing construction of weapons and armour |
| Artisan | allowing construction of items made of stone, wood, leather, cloth and glassmaking |
| Jeweller | allowing construction of jewellry and simple mechanical objects |
Additionally there are three layers to crafting.
| Type of Crafter | | Build Quality (up to and including) |
|---|
| Level 1 | Crafter | mundane / superior |
| Level 2 | Master | mundane / superior / master-crafted |
| Level 3 | Grand-Master | mundane / superior / master-crafted / ornate (inc. silvering) |
The picking of a higer laer has a prequisite of already having picked the lower layer(s) in the appropriate realm.
Work Units
Work units are the basis of construction and represnt time, effort, commitment and quality in the buidling process.
| Each Crafter gains | 6 Work Units per day |
| Each Master Crafter gains | an additional 4 Work Units per day |
| Each Grand Master Crafter gains | an additional 2 Work units per day |
Workshops
A crafter of any realm cannot work materials without a workshop. When working in a workshop a crafter may have a number of items in the process of construction. A workshop is required to attempt crafting research.
There are three grades of workshop.
| Standard | no bonus to crafting | cost 50sp |
| Superior | +1 Work Unit | cost 100sp |
| Master Crafted | +2 Work Units | Cost 150sp |
Tools
In addition to the workshop which provides the general equipment for a crafter to work with each specific type of work will require specialised tools. Some of these are listed in the exsisting price lists, some may be available after searching in character and some truely specialised ones will need to be researched for the crafter's own use.
The Apprentice
The Apprentice is another crafter who can assist the first crafter in the production of a product or aid in a research project. The apprentice's work units are however only counted as half their normal value.
Materials
Materials are classified as ordinary (O), or high (H) quality.
The most common materials are as follows.
Metal (M) Wood (W) Leather (L) Sand (Sa) Stone (St) Cloth (C) Gems (G) research wil be needed to use these Jewellry grade metal (J)
Charcol is required to work metal of any grade. Each unit of metal must be matched with a unit of charcoal to allow working of the metal. Additioanlly to make glass a unit of sand must be matched with a unit of charcoal.
Material Cost per Unit
The values given below are the general costs of materials. However, these prices will of course vary as the quantity of supplies and the size of demand varies for each material.
| Charcoal | 2cp |
| Non jewellry material ordinary grade | 1sp |
| Non jewllry material high grade | 3sp |
| Jewllry material ordinarygrade | 8sp |
| Jewllry material high grade | 12sp |
It is important to note that a unit is not of any specific size or weight and may vary dramatically especially in relation to wood. Accordingly 1 unit of wood needed to create a flute would be considerably smaller than a unit needed to create the handle of an axe.
Using the skill
Before any use of the skill the player will need to register them self with the crafting referee who will create a unique record of the character and the level(s) of skill(s) that the character has. The character card will only show the number of times that crafting has been taken. The unique record will also show what additional researched or taught skills the character has. Regardless of the number of work units a crafter has available the use of daily entitlement takes 3 hours of role-play regardless of the activityu undertaken.
Initially a crafter may manufacture only the simplest of items, examples of which are listed in the standard price list. Similiar simple items may also be possible to manufactyre without initial reearch, a crafter should feel free to discuss this with the crafting referee who will be able to advise percisely what is required for such manufactures.
Provided all the above requirements are filled, the character (or the lead crafter if in a partnership) takes the cards for both the base material and their work shop to the crafting referee to register their 'product intention' and the times they will be working on this. The referee will then inform them when they can return for the item. Don't be surprised to see a referee check your working hours.
Collection must be made by the same character. Any project involving a duration of more than a single event will be noted on the character's record (both in the case of a partnership) so that any deaths will automatically cuase the termination of any crafting project.
Research
Unlike Alchemy research in crafting is very open ended accordingly this area will develop in response to what players suggest. The key however is as always role play.
Initially players should feel free to inquire about any possible research activity and offer ideas how they think it may be achieved. One key aspect here is not to succumb to modern day prejudices. Do not forget you live in a world where magic is real. Attempts to recreate technological items will at best fail, more likely be the demise of the crafter!
A research target will be expressed as a number of work units a Crafter will need to accrue in order to be successful. Research will also require an amount of role-playing too. This will usually be Refereed and judged, giving a contributory WU value. Research will require a lot of role-playing and not just number crunching.
It is only if an item has been researched that it may be taught. Accordingly a player who has gained an extra layer will not be able to teach skills gained without researching how such items were made. Similarly a person taught such skills would need to research the skill before being able to teach it to others.
Teaching requires the expenditure of Work Units equal to the work units needed to manufacture the item. The same expenditure is required from the student. Only 1 student may be taught at one time.
Cold iron and other specialised materials such as using or working gems always requires research before they can be used.
