Crafting Principles

That victory had my Maker’s Mark all over it. That counter cut that took his bonce clean off? Either would have been a piece of piss to step away from, cause it would have been too slow or wouldn’t have made it through the neck guard if I hadn’t folded the steel a hundred and sixty odd times.

iphor tain (Master crafter 1884-1976) talking to his apprentice, the now renowned lysandra taylor

Crafting in CODA necessitates understanding a sequence of principles which allow you to create an item or items that will affect the world around you through the application of some game mechanics. In order for these mechanics to work the principles of crafting are outlined below. At each stage we explain a basic concept whilst referring to steps that are found further down the path; don’t worry these will be explained as you read through. 

Finally it is important to note that these are mechanics, devoid of fluff and story and are really brought to life as part of the game when you reach the Crafting Briefs for the fields of Crafting that you can choose from. 

General Principles for Crafting

• Crafting is the catchall term for the method used by a crafter to turn resources into designed and then fabricated products.  
• There are four clear fields of crafting each of which has several subsections of final product.
• Crafters can invent a product on the spot, which can be dangerous, or craft a product from a predesigned schematic.
• Crafting can be time consuming and relies on design work and the expenditure of resources.
• Each form of the four Crafting Methods uses different principles and focuses on different resources for success. 
• When a character attempts to invent they utilise a system provided device, which is IC called a Cerebration Device and OOC is a well dressed Tablet, which allows them to attempt a challenge based on their skills to see if or how well they succeed.
• A sequence of crafting on event is at its core as follows:
  • Examine a situation and consider how your crafting can affect its conclusion and whether you believe that the risk of invention and/or the cost of resources makes the crafting worthwhile to you.
  • If you have a schematic for something that you think would help and the materials to make it you may immediately begin that process.
  • If you do not have a schematic; decide what you want to craft and input this information into your Cerebration Device thereby directing this information to the system and your ref.
  • The system will then return the difficulty level of the challenge rating between 1 and 10. 
  • Perform a Skill Square Challenge which will involve spending resources to fill a grid with different shapes; the more complete the grid the less defects will appear in your final schematic.
  • A successful challenge produces a prototype schematic from which you may craft the product you desire.
  • Following the schematic craft and then utilise your product.
• An invented prototype schematic may be added to your portfolio for future crafting. 

Core Crafting Mechanics

• Crafting is divided into four categories: Alchemy, Artificery, Artisanry and Engineering.
• Each category uses the same game mechanics.
• Crafting is made up of four mechanical factors: 
  • Theory
  • Design
  • Crafting
  • Outcome

Theory

• The Theory section of the mechanics denotes the period of a scene where your character decides if they wish to attempt to create something that they think will affect its outcome.
• They will use their cerebration device to enter the parameters of what they want their creation to do as specifically as they can.
• They will rely on their Crafting Brief to inform them as to what they should be able to achieve.
• The system will then provide a Difficulty Rating out of 10, with 10 being the most difficult, to the cerebration device.

Design (Skill Square Challenge)

• To simulate a character designing a complex schematic for the product that they wish to create, the system provides a Skill Square Challenge to the cerebration device.
• A Skill square is an empty grid of squares which the player attempts to fill in using different shaped pieces.

• The size of the square is dependent on the difficulty of the challenge and will be provided by the event system.
• Shapes are obtained by spending resources, with the amount of shapes gained depending on the skills of the player and the tier of the resource being used. 
• The better the resource and/or the better skilled the player the more and varied shape of piece the player will receive.
• Players will then attempt to fill the square with the shapes (spending more resources as required) until the square is completely filled in or as close as the player can make it. 
• If there are more than 5 uncovered spaces on your Skill Square Challenge it is considered an auto fail
• Once the skill square has been completed or the player is unable to complete the square, or chooses not to, for whatever reason (lack of time or resources for example) the player carries out  a skill check against their specialisation skill to see if they are successful in crafting that item. 
• The player makes one skill check with the following parameters for success:
  • Critical Failure – The thing that the character has tried to craft does not work and all resources are lost.
  • Failure – The thing works for this scene but no schematic can be gained at the end of the event.
  • Success – The thing works for the scene and the player may take their schematic home with them at the end of the event.
  • Critical Success – The thing works and one defect that may be present is removed.
• If all of the checks are successful the player has designed a viable schematic however for every square left unfilled on the Skill Square Challenge later craftings of this design will have 1 Defect introduced.
• These defects will be explained to the player when their schematic is sent to them in post game.

Crafting

• Once the Skill Square Challenge is complete a Schematic is formed
• Equally a character may already have a schematic and will have skipped past the Design Phase.
• A Schematic will detail the following features
  • Time to build
  • Resources needed to build
  • Effects of product when completed.
• These factors can be affected by skills that the character may have acquired. 
• Players will roleplay crafting their product within the time frame and expending the resources that are required with the caveat being that resources are unnecessary if they were spent in the design phase.
• When crafting is complete the system will provide the player with an approximate  phys rep of what they were crafting. 

Outcome

• At the end of the crafting sequence you will have a crafted product
• Any resources expended in the crafting and a record of what you have crafted is recorded by your cerebration device and downloaded to CODA Central in post event.
• If you designed the product on event; your Cerebration Device will record materials spent, success parameters, product parameters and similar notes that will be downloaded to CODA Central in Post Event.
• Successful Prototyping will also be recorded and a schematic for your new product will be added to your character in Post Event.
• Prototypes crafted on events never survive the event and are considered unreliable and trashed in Post Event or before if your storyteller indicates so.

Crafting Guidelines 

What follows are the very basic concepts of Crafting: Examples and specific rules for each can be found elsewhere

• A Characters Skills and abilities are uploaded to the Cerebration Device that is going to be provided to them in pre-event.
• Resources that are held in the characters “stock” need to be physically represented on event 
• Their expenditure will be recorded by the Cerebration Device and deducted from their “Stock” in Post Event.
• Players may repair an item by the following methods:
  • If they own the schematic for the product; their Cerebration Device will provide them with a skill square that they can complete by expending materials which allow them to roleplay repairing the item.
  • If the players have discovered a product and do not have a schematic for it they may use a Cerebration Device tool to “Scan the QR Code ” which will provide a Skill Square Challenge for them to complete by expending materials.

Last updated byHolly Goodall