Crafting Skills
Crafting Skills are used by characters to create new items that may be used, given or sold to others. There are many kinds of items, and each are made using various different Crafting Skills.
Items start as raw Commodities, such as metal, wood, food, textiles or leather. These Commodities are acquired through Gathering Skills, and then used by artisans to create Components, which go on to become useful Goods.
(Read more about Gathering SkillsT1)
(Read more about ProductionT1)
Most Goods (the final, useful product of crafting) are made from Components, and these Component pieces are often made using several different Crafting Skills. A final product is rarely made by a single artisan, instead groups of crafters working as a team to fulfill each other’s orders. These artisans often form trade unions called Guilds to help control the market, and Guilds have special legal rights by Imperial Law.
(Read more about Trade Guilds)
Effort
Effort is an abstract representation of time, labor, and energy expended by an artisan. It is a component of Production recipes, with more complex items requiring more Effort. Artisans have access to a certain amount of Effort per production cycle, which they can spend as they choose. Effort is represented as physical tokens that are granted to the player to turn in with their Production Action. These tokens are returned in full at the end of an Action Cycle so that they can be used again during another.
(Read more about Actions)
The amount of Effort that an artisan can put forth during a Production Action is determined mostly by their Crafting Skill level. Each Crafting Skill grants Effort to be used for that Skill’s recipes. Other Game Effects, such as tools, may increase or decrease the amount of available Effort for an Action. Effort cannot be transferred unless a game effect specifically allows it. Unspent Effort does not carry over from one cycle to the next.
At the 5th level of most Crafting Skills, the artisan reaches mastery and gains a Maker’s Mark – a special Effort Token that is used in the creation of Master level recipes. Masterwork items bear the creator’s Maker’s Mark somewhere on them as a sign of the artisan’s craftsmanship.
The Maker’s Mark is special in that it may be temporarily transferred to others and can be used as up to 3 normal Effort, which represents the master offering some of their advice and expertise to another artisan. When the token is used, it returns to its original owner at the end of the Cycle. This usually represents a Master and Apprentice relationship.
- Blacksmithing
- Carpentry
- Needlework
- Apothecary
- Engineering
Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing is the crafting of metal items. Metal is in high demand as the material of choice for durable tools and weapons of war, where life and death depend on the quality of a soldier’s equipment. As well, the revolution of Engineering is forever hungry for metal, precision made to their needs. Consequently, Blacksmiths are in high demand, though the forge is forever hungry for more precious fuel, so the work does not come cheaply.
All uses of Blacksmithing recipes require a fuel source (Charcoal or Coal).
Rank 1: Smithing Basics
The smith gains 1 Blacksmithing Effort and may create and use Blacksmithing Service Items.
Rank 2: Ironwork
The smith gains 3 Blacksmithing Effort, and may use Basic Blacksmithing recipes.
Rank 3: Forging
The smith may now use Advanced Blacksmithing recipes.
Rank 4: Adept
The smith gains 8 Blacksmithing Effort. Once per Scene when successfully delivering a Game Effect with an Advanced or Masterwork item that they have personally created, the smith may become Inspired.
Rank 5: Master
The smith gains a Maker’s Mark and may use Master Blacksmithing recipes.
Carpentry
Carpentry is the working of wood and timber into useful goods. Carpentry includes the arts of woodworking, charcoal burning, fletching, bowyering, joinery, architecture, creating all manner of wooden goods that are essential components in Heavy Weaponry, Archery, and furniture used in city buildings.
Rank 1: Woodworking Basics
The carpenter gains 1 Carpentry Effort and may create and use Carpentry Service Items.
Rank 2: Carving
The carpenter gains 3 Carpentry Effort, and may use Basic Carpentry recipes.
Rank 3: Joinery
The carpenter may now use Advanced Carpentry recipes.
Rank 4: Adept
The carpenter gains 8 Carpentry Effort. Once per Scene when successfully delivering a Game Effect with an Advanced or Masterwork item that they have personally created, the carpenter may become Inspired.
Rank 5: Master
The carpenter gains a Maker’s Mark and may use Master Carpentry recipes.
Needlework
Needlework is the creation of garments, leather and padded armors and other useful objects from leather and textiles. Needlework produces Outfits which are used to make an impression socially, Light Armor made of leather or textiles and other useful items for everyday life.
Rank 1: Needlework Basics
The tailor gains 1 Needlework Effort and may create and use Needlework Service Items.
Rank 2: Carving
The tailor gains 3 Needlework Effort, and may use Basic Needlework recipes.
Rank 3: Joinery
The tailor may now use Advanced Needlework recipes.
Rank 4: Adept
The tailor gains 8 Needlework Effort. Once per Scene when successfully delivering a Game Effect with an Advanced or Masterwork item that they have personally created, the tailor may become Inspired.
Rank 5: Master
The tailor gains a Maker’s Mark and may use Master Needlework recipes.
Apothecary
Apothecaries use herbs in order to create drugs, medicines and poisons that have a variety of effects to help or harm. Herbs, gathered with the Survival Skill, can be processed by apothecaries into various compounds.
(Read more about Drugs and Poisons)
Apothecaries may work their raw components into various preparations and delivery methods. Apothecary lends itself well to formal Study, and even more exotic concoctions and deliveries are possible with academic learning. It is said that even the cursed ichor and other unholy harvest of malefic creatures may be used by apothecaries who have the learning and the stomach for it.
Unlike other skills, Apothecary recipes are not split into Basic, Advanced and Master. Apothecary recipes specify the required Skill level, and most concoctions are made using just a few standard recipes that are learned as part of the skill. These recipes’ outputs depend on the traits of the herbs used.
Besides the production of drugs, Apothecaries produce a few other necessities and luxuries of everyday life – notably alcohol, dyes, and preserved foods; these are available through Techniques and other recipe sources.
Rank 1: Powders
The apothecary gains 1 Apothecary Effort and may make Slow-Acting drugs that can be delivered by ingestion.
Ingested drugs have to be swallowed willingly, even if the subject doesn’t know what they are swallowing. Slow-Acting drugs wrack or bolster the body slowly, over several hours.
Recipe – Powders
Components: 1 Effort, 1 Herb
Result: 1 Slow-Acting Drug with the traits of the Herb
Rank 2: Suspensions
The apothecary gains 3 Apothecary Effort, and may create Fast-Acting drugs that produce instant but short lived effects as soon as they reach the bloodstream.
The drugs or poisons delivered by these effects have to be delivered intravenously, usually at the end of a poisoned blade, though sometimes with a treated needle. Fast-Acting drugs produce a quick, sharp effect, which does its business and then ends.
Recipe: Suspensions
Components: 1 Effort, 1 Herb
Result: 1 Fast-Acting Drug with the traits of the Herb
Rank 3: Refinement
While usually limited to drugs that use all of the effects associated with the herb that they are using, a skilled apothecary can use their considerable knowledge to refine their drugs to exclude unwanted effects, or create more powerful effects out of the distillate of many herbs. They gain access to these two recipes:
Recipe: Refinement
Components: 1 Effort, 1 Herb
Result: 1 Herb of the same type, with up to two undesired Traits removed
Recipe: Admixture
Components: 1 Effort, 2 Herbs and/or Drugs
Result: 1 Drug with any three traits selected from the input herbs/drugs
Rank 4: Cementation
The tailor gains 8 Needlework Effort.
Rank 4: Cementation
The apothecary gains 8 Apothecary Effort. As the apothecary’s powers of refinement grow more precise, they may create more powerful distillates and extracts. They gain access to this recipe:
Recipe: Cementation
Components: 2 Effort, 2 Herbs
Result: 1 Fast-Acting or Slow-Acting Drug with all 6 of the combined traits of the Herbs
Rank 5: Synthesis
The apothecary can eliminate all of the waste from their work, understanding the essential reactions intimately. Whenever they create a drug they can produce three doses instead of one. Additionally, long exposure to compounds and toxins grants them Toughness against any Game Effect with the Poison Quality once per Rest.
