Crafting
In a pre-industrial society, much of the population will have some form of craft skill, even if only developed as a hobby they enjoy to pass the time. Over the course of character creation, it is very likely your character will invest in one or more crafting-related skills, and perhaps even develop a significant degree of mastery in a crafting-related skill field. With sufficient training in such skills, players will inevitably begin wondering if they can make their own weapons, armour, equipment or even magical items.
The answer is yes.
Craft Skills
There are a total of 16 crafting skills spread principally across 5 Skill Fields, though arguably, in certain contexts there are other skills that can enable crafting, as determined by the Director. The major crafting skills are; Artist (specific), Baking, Basketry, Blacksmithing, Bowyer/Fletcher, Brewing, Carpentry, Chandler/Soaper, Chef, Jeweler, Leatherworking, Potter/Glazier, Stationer, Tailor (specific), Weaving and Writing. These skills are distributed mostly across the Artisan, Arts, Construction, Hospitality and Trades Skill Fields, though some of them may appear in other Skill Fields also.
Materials And Labour
As a general rule, the cost of most goods produced using these skills can be roughly and quickly determined if you can estimate either the cost of the materials or the cost of labour. As a general rule, the costs of materials and the cost of labour each represent about 1/4 of the total cost of any good. After materials and labour, what remains covers overhead and operating costs, leaving a small amount of profit. The Weapons and Armour table, the Equipment tables and the Bulk Goods table are all useful in helping determing these costs.
Example:
A steel long sword weighs about 1.6 kg. A 10 kg Iron Bar costs $200. So the basic material cost for a standard long sword is $32. If the labour cost is about the same, we can imagine it takes half a day for an Apprentice to forge a long sword at $7.50/hr. If material and labour costs - at 25% of the total cost each - come to about $64, then we double that to determine overhead and profit. The price of a typical long sword should be about $128. The list price indicated on the Weapons and Armour table is $125.
Advanced Crafting
While any Blacksmith is likely to have a couple of standard long swords for sale for $125 at any given time, players will always be in the market for better long swords - and not all long swords are created equal. A tempered and carefully honed long sword might do +1 Damage with a Fast Attack. A well-balanced long sword made with a higher quality steel might offer +1 to Fast Attacks and +1 to Block versus Fast Attacks. But what about a tempered and carefully honed, well-balanced long sword made with a higher quality steel? Could such a sword offer all of those bonuses? It can.
Players whose characters have the time, the skill and access to tools and facilities can make these kinds of high quality items by going through the crafting process themselves, expending the time and money to do the crafting and then succeeding at a skill roll. Otherwise, they can commission people to craft items for them. Commissioned craftspeople will deliver items on time and on budget regardless of whether they succeed at their skill roll - failed attempts are included in overhead costs, or eat into profit in extreme cases.
Skilled Craftspeople
Making high quality items is not a job for Apprentices - their contribution to the work consists of support tasks like operating forges, cutting raw material, or performing the other duties that support the more highly skilled craftspeople who are principally involved in making high quality items.
The higher the quality of a crafted item, the more bonuses it can offer, but also the longer it will take to make, and the more expensive it will be. The maximum bonuses that can be crafted into an item are defined below:
| CRAFTSPERSON | Novice | Apprentice | Companion | Master | Grandmaster |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skill Level | up to 13 | 14-16 | 17-18 | 19-20 | 21+ |
| Max Property Bonus | none | +1 per property | +2 per property | +3 per property | +4 per property |
| Max Total Bonus | 0 | +1 | up to +3 | up to +5 | up to +8 |
| Max Spell Power | none | 1 | 2-3 | 4-5 | 6-8 |
Maximum Bonuses
The maximum bonus that can be crafted into an item, as well as the maximum bonus that can be crafted into a single individual property of that item, are limited by both the precise level of the relevent crafting skill as well as by the level of mastery the craftsperson has in the Skill Field.
Example: High Skill, Low Mastery
A character with a 17 Blacksmithing skill might only be an Apprentice in the Trades Skill Field. This would limit their ability to forge a maximum bonus of +1 into a single property of a longsword. We can say that their general knowlegde of their field is not broad enough to take full advantage of their high Blacksmithing skill.
Example: High Mastery, Low Skill
Conversely, another character who is a Grandmaster in the Trades Skill Field might nevertheless have only a 14 Blacksmithing skill. This would also limit their ability to forge a maximum bonus of +1 into a single property of a longsword. We can say that despite being a Grandmaster in their Skill Field, this person's specific knowledge of Blacksmithing is not good enough to make a truly exemplary long sword.
Example: Balanced Mastery and Skill
Finally, another character who is a Master in the Trades Skill Field and has an 19 Blacksmithing skill is able to take full advantage of both their broad knoweldge of their field, as well as their deep, specific knowlegde of their skill. Such a character could forge a long sword with a total bonus of as much as +5, with a maximum bonus of +3 on any single property. They could make a long sword with +3 Strong Attack and +2 Block vs Strong Attacks, or a long sword with +2 Fast Attack, +2 Fast Attack Damage, +1 Block vs Fast Attacks.
Crafting Equations
Crafting high quality, non-magical items involves following a few simple steps to perform the necessary calculations and determine how long the work takes, and how much it costs. The three main equations that need to be considered are:
Base Labour Time = (Base Cost [ or x2 if Silvered ] / 4) / $8/hr
Total Crafting Time = (Bonus + 1[ or +3 if Silvered ] ^2) x Base Labour Time
Total Crafting Cost = 2^ (Bonus + 1) x Base Cost [x 0.5 if Homemade]
Base Cost: This is is simply the price of the basic item being crafted as listed on the various Goods and Services tables. This cost is +100% if the weapon is Silvered.
Bonus: This is simply the sum of all the bonuses applied to any of the items parameters. A long sword that does +1 Fast Attack Damage has a bonus of +1. A suit of Plate Armour that offers +2 Protection, +3 Dodge versus Fast Attacks, and +3 Dodge versus Strong Attacks has a bonus of +8.
Homemade: Homemade items cost half as much. If a character is able to do the crafting themselves, and if they have access to a full workshop, and the tools required (which can be extraordinarily expensive for highly skilled craftspeople), then they don’t need to charge themselves to cover labour or profit. They will, however, need to be able to support themselves for the time it takes to do the work.
Silvered Weapons: Silvered weapons double the Base Cost of the weapon. These weapons are made from an alloy of steel and silver that allows them to be count as magical weapons for the purpose of damaging certain creatures (such as Infernals and undead) who may be immune to non-magical weapons. Unfortunately, these alloys also limit the quality of weapons that can be made with them. Regardless of how much time or skill is leveraged to forge such weapons, the maximum possible bonus that can be crafted into a silvered weapon is +5. Additionally, due to the difficulty in working with these alloys, the time it takes to work the materials is incrementally longer.
Preparing for Enchanting
Crafting high quality items is not only used to add bonuses to weapons and armour - it is also needed to ‘prepare’ items to be enchanted. Crafting an item that will contain and enable the casting of a spell requires crafting the item with enough bonus to contain the Power Level of the spell.
For example, a sword that can cast the Wound spell needs to be crafted with a bonus of +2, and crafting a suit of armour that can cast the Illusory Self spell needs to be crafted with a bonus of +3.
In addition to preparing items for enchanting, high quality gems - known as Focus Crystals - can also be crafted and then enchanted in order to provide power to enchanted items. A Focus Crystal crafted to have a bonus of +5 can provide the 5 Concentration Cost required to cast a Power 4 spell enchanted into an item that was crafted with a bonus of +4.