The Mechanics of Crafting

Let me tell you something boy, every quality you want to see in yourself can be found in the blade if you know how to make it well enough; swiftness of response, strength of character, endurance, resilience; if there is enough love in your work you will find it.

lysandra taylor (Master Crafter) to her Apprentice, Bung.

The Principles of Crafting explain the tools that are used to make Crafting work and how they will impact the game as you use them. In this section the Mechanics of Crafting will explain the parameters that govern Crafting along with explanations of resources and what schematics mean to a Crafter.

Timings and Roleplaying

• Whenever you are working on either a Design on a Schematic roleplaying is needed to bring the process to life.
• Whether that be frenetic description or stoic complaints whilst designing or excessive hammering or quiet brewing whilst crafting they are needed to give power to a scene.
• As a rule of thumb a Schematic that was 1 Skill Square difficulty is going to take 1 minute to build increasing per difficulty point by 1 minute.

The Dangers and Joys of Design Work

• Any completed schematic, made on event, will function for a scene, even if you failed your crafting check but not if you Critically Failed your check.
• A Failed attempt with a working device may throw up some unexpected side effects or downsides that will be handled by your ref team.
• Any item that is created with a Success of a Critical Success will allow you the chance to take away a schematic so that you can build more things of the same design that you have learned.
• These schematics can be used on event or in downtime to be ready for the next event.
• However: When completing a Skill Square Challenge you may leave empty squares on the board.
• The largest concentration of squares is known to artificers as “The Worker’s Pivot” and denote a huge area of concern in later designs.
• If the Worker’s Pivot has more than 5 holes in it the design will not work and you may not even attempt a skill check to see if you can make the item work on event.
• For every square not covered in the The Workers Pivot your schematic will have a Design Defect that will be added to the schematic of the thing that you are making
• For example a Wand of Shoot that bloke over there with a Fire Bolt three times per day with two holes in the Worker’s Pivot would have two Defects:
  • When used you may call a Fire Bolt against a target up to twenty feet away however you feel an odd tingling and immediately after using the wand draw Backlash 4 and a Wound Card for Mystical Wounds.
• To take that option they pay cost to create a Schematic is the cost in materials again that were used in the design portion of the crafting phase and must also roleplay the time again that they took to create the item again.

Tiered Levels of Schematics

• Any Schematic and ergo product crafted from it is given a rank between 1 and 10
• This value exists purely to benefit the mechanics of the game and in character could be referred to as follows:
  • 1-2 – A Simple Product
  • 3-4 – An Apprentice Made Product
  • 5-6 – A Journeyman Made Product
  • 7-8 – A Mastercrafted Product
  • 9-10 – An Exceptional Product
• The level of the schematic gives an idea of how much that product might be valued in an open market and could be flat traded for.
• Every product is provided with a label that indicates its effect, the effects are written on both sides of the label with one side being noted as trained and the other as untrained.
• A character who is trained to the correct level of the item gains the effects of the trained product whereas someone who is not trained uses the untrained side. 

Interacting with Other Craft

• On event a Crafter may encounter Craft that they have not made themselves.
• This could include broken dirigible engines or unholy artifice
• A Crafter may attempt to interact with these products using their craft.
• This method will usually take the form of a Feat Sheet or QR Code that they can scan with a tool from the Cerebration Device.
• The nature of the interaction will be revealed through these means and should not require a ref
• However the player may find that they need to spend resources and complete Skill Square Challenges to proceed with their interaction.

Materials

Materials are, in essence, the building blocks that crafters use to create items. Resource 

• Materials are grouped into types that reflect crafting specialisations. 
• Each material spent during a Skill Square challenge provides a number of shapes equal to its tier. 
• Crafters can take skills providing additional shapes depending on the tier of material they are used to working with. 

Artisan & Engineer

Artifice

Herbs

FAQ

• How big are the Grids used in the skill square challenges?
  • 5 by 5
• If I pull a Critical Fail on one of my skill checks is that any different to a “normal” failure?
  • It is not – Crafting is the only skill in the system that requires a definitive card pull to succeed or fail with no other options; coupled with the resource cost for losing we have removed any Critical Success or Critical Failure
• If I pull a Critical Success on one of my skill checks is that any different to a “normal” success?
  • It is not – Crafting is the only skill in the system that requires a definitive card pull to succeed or fail with no other options; coupled with the resource cost for losing we have removed any Critical Success or Critical Failure
• Can I place shapes within the grid such that they overlap, either with another shape or over the edge of the grid?
  • With the appropriate skill – Yes
• Do I need to own, and use, Tool props when I am Crafting?
  • Phys Rep Tools are needed to phys rep craft but they can be whatever you think that your crafter will look amazing with.

Last updated byHolly Goodall