Advanced Rules for Crafting
by Christopher CherringtonThese optional rules are to cover what an NPC or Player Character can do with their selected Craft Skills. We will cover the difference from General Skills and Craft Skills that are developed through roleplay. For starters, the General Skills are to be used for character knowledge, basic skill work, appraisal in the selected skill, and player background. Craft Skills are advanced rules to utilize when a character plays a significant emphasis to that General Skill and wish to master that skill. NPC’s utilizing these optional rules are in a guild or clan that specializes in the chosen skill. All the advanced rules means that an NPC or Player Character are either a member of a guild/clan or are receiving training from a guild/clan. Depending on the campaign, most guilds consider their skills and training as guild secrets and may not be very keen in allowing outsiders in on their secrets. An optional variant is to allow characters to have received familial training. Knowledge of secrets being passed from father to son, for an example. Natural talent should not be utilized without guild involvement in some way.
What does the skill score mean? Here is a brief synopsis of what the scores mean.
• 3-5 Very basic skill ability. Can do undemanding tasks (ones not requiring checks) Often fails difficult tasks.
• 6-8 Fair grounding in skill. Can do competent work. Often fails difficult tasks.
• 9-12 Solid grounding in skill. Does good work. Can train apprentices. Often succeeds in hard tasks.
• 13-15 Excellent command of skill. Can train journeymen (especially skilled apprentices) Almost always finds work. Usually succeeds in hard tasks.
• 16-17 Marvelous command of skill. Can train masters. Almost always finds work. Can act as efficiency expert. Usually succeeds hard tasks.
• 18+ Genius command of skill. Can train masters. Always finds work. Can act as efficiency expert. Uses skill with amazing results (masterpieces and classics in his field).
A character can always add skills to the same slot to increase their knowledge in that skill. You can have as many different general skills as you have choices, but you can only have one Craft Skill. If the guild you belong to has more than one type of skill, then you can have more Craft Skills as the guild has but only one can be the primary.
If characters choose to follow the optional Craft Skills, the following is applied as a Skill Class:
• An unadjusted skill is considered one class above Apprentice (Ap), Junior Journeyman (JJm).
• Adding a skill choice to the same skill, makes the skill class a Journeyman (Jm).
• Adding 2 skill choices to the same skill, makes the skill class a Senior Journeyman (SJm).
• Adding 3 skill choices to the same skill, makes the skill class a Master (M).
• Adding 4 skill choices to the same skill, makes the class a Craft Master (CM).
• No further improvements warrant a class. Guild Masters (GM) are CM but have earned the highest rank in their guild through years of mastery, intrigue, and fame.
Skill classes need to be trained and vetted by their guild. A character can still increase his proficiency in the chosen skill but cannot gain skill class advantages until trained and vetted.
Training takes money and time from their guild, based on the following:
| Level of Class sought | Time (weeks) | Cost per week (gp) |
| JJm | 1 | 100 |
| Jm | 2 | 250 |
| SJm | 4 | 500 |
| M | 8 | 750 |
| CM | 12 | 1000 |
Vetting has a percentage chance of success. It does not cost money and time unless the first and subsequent attempts fail, then the character must train again.
| Student’s Class | Trainer’s Class | ||||
| JJm | Jm | SJm | M. | CM | |
| JJm | 60% | 80% | 95% | 99% | 99% |
| Jm | 1% | 50% | 70% | 90% | 95% |
| SJm | - | 1% | 40% | 60% | 80% |
| M | - | - | 1% | 30% | 50% |
| CM | - | - | - | 1% | 20% |
Once vetted, the character is recognized for their mastery as a rank within their guild for their primary Craft Skill.
NPC’s can increase their skill by rolling equal to or less than their INT score, every 5 years. Player characters can increase their skill per created profit of 200,000sp over the course of time using the skill.
It is generally frowned upon to leave and join other guilds. You run the chance of losing any vetting (but not the benefits). Some guilds may choose to train and vet a non-member if they show they have a natural talent but will request they have exclusivity of their wares.
When rolling for success in General Skills, the character rolls a d20 and attempts to roll under their score with bonuses and penalties adjusting the score. The result is success or fail.
When rolling for success in Craft Skills, the closest to without going over the adjusted score is a greater success. This is where Skill Class comes into play. Based on the character’s Skill Class, they can adjust the roll result to get closer to the target wanted. A failed roll cannot be adjusted. They can add +1 to their successful d20 roll for each class above JJm. The character does not have to add all the class bonuses and can make the adjustment after the roll.
Items created will fall within the following categories:
| Quality | Bonus/Penalty | Penalty |
| Improvised | -1d4 | - |
| Inferior. | -1 | - |
| Fair | - | - |
| Excellent | Value is 10% more | -2 |
| Superior | Value is 20% more. | -4 |
| Master Work | +1, Value is 100% more | -6 |
Improvised is an item not crafted out of its typical material or with the proper tools to create that item.
Inferior is an item that meets the requirements of a Fair item, but is lacking in true skill. Generally, only an Ap creates items in this quality, if they do not roll to success or fail.
Fair is the normal item.
Excellent is an item that stands out in its craftsmanship.
Superior is an item that not only stands out, its artistic or embellished by its craftsmanship.
Master Work is an item that not only stands out and is artistic, it works better giving the user a bonus in its use.
The Penalty to make Excellent to Master Work items are for use of the General Skill, Craft Skills can ignore this penalty if the item is in their codex (explained later). When attempting to craft an item in General Skills, the character must take the penalty to their roll in the attempt to create that item. Also, the General Skill needs to be 18 or higher before they can even attempt to create Master Work items. Craft Skills that roll equal to their adjusted score create a Superior Item. If they roll within 1 point per skill class above JJm of their needed score, the item is Excellent.
Creating Master Work items requires more time but will adjust the roll to be the same as creating a Superior item (with the same chance of Excellent items being Superior). The table above may be adjusted by the DM to better fit their campaign or better fit the craft. For example, an engineer can make a superb castle, but not a master work.
Note, when crafting magical items, the item to be enchanted needs to be Superior or Master Work in quality. Master Work items give a bonus of 5% to the enchanting process.
The Codex
Making items under the General Skill are all general items. Making items under the Craft Skill require a codex for anything that is not a general or Fair item. The codex is a book of recipes, diagrams, charts, blueprints, etc. General items are assumed to have been taught while an Ap and could be listed in their codex. A codex is not needed for making general items but is needed to make difficult items and/or items of Excellent or greater quality.
Making items without a codex will give the Craft Skill a penalty based on the quality and/or difficulty of the item. The difficulty of a new item for the codex is based on the level of the item in question as assigned by the DM and is between 1 and 9. Generally an excellent item has a difficulty of 2, while superior will be 4, and master work being 6. The character will spend time and money to create the new codex item. This is an investiture of materials to practice and any tools to create the item. The time needed is 7 days plus one day per level. It will cost 1000sp per level and 1000sp per day beyond 7 days.
The character has a percentage chance of success based upon their skill plus character level times 2, minus 3 per difficulty level (or 5 per difficulty level if it’s a completely new item). Any roll of 95% or higher is an automatic failure. Any failure will mean that the character must start from the beginning if he fails a skill check. The character gets a penalty of 1 by every day spent (minus the initial 7 days). If the skill check is successful, he can restart after the initial 7 days. Characters can gain exp on the codex, at the rate of 1000xp per difficulty level. If it is a completely new item, he gets a 50% bonus, if he gained a new codex from treasure, he only gets 50%, if gained through theft or trade, it will be 10%. If the codex is given to him by his guild, then he only gets 25% of the exp. If he failed to create a new codex, he only gets 10% of the exp, on the failed attempt. If the codex is lost or stollen, all codex items to replace will have no exp value.
Once a character has a codex for an item, they do not need another codex for the same item (except when it deals with more difficulty or changing the quality). In this case, give a bonus of 5% per skill class above Jm to the success roll. So, a 10th level character with Weapon Smithing SJm, 15 from INT and +2 from SJm training, is trying to make a superior silver sword. They already have a codex for a silver sword and the DM determines the difficulty is 5 (4 for superior and 1 for the difficulty of crafting silver into a weapon). Since SJm is only one class above Jm, they would get a 5% bonus to their skill + level x’s 2, for a total of 59% chance of success. It will take 11 days and cost 9,000sp. If successful, the character will also gain 5,000xp and now has a codex to create superior silver swords.
Treat the codex as a spell book for a mage. The character may scribe his codex in code, requiring read magic or a cypher skill to decode. If the character is a spell caster, he may even add magical curses or traps to his codex.
Workshop and Tools
As mentioned in the codex, initial research is in components and tools necessary to create the item. The character should give a value to their workshop based on these investments. A proper workshop will be worth 4,000sp to do any initial research on level 1 difficulty for their codex. Another 2,000sp will need to be added for each subsequent difficulty level needed. Take 10% of the value of each added codex and add it to the value of the workshop. For every 2,000sp of value of the workshop needed above the minimum required, add 1% to their chances of codex research to a maximum of 10%. To gain these advantages, the character must own the workshop. All guilds will own workshops that the character can lease, and this should be roleplayed.
Time and Money Except for improvised quality, the general skill and a JJm can create 1 item or set (determined by the DM) per day per 100sp in materials. One day is the minimum time needed. For each class skill above JJm, they can create one more item or if the item is expensive, they can reduce one day per each class skill above JJm, with the minimum of one day. For excellent quality, add 1 day, for superior quality add 3 days, and for master work quality add 7 days. Cost in materials needed are 50% of the base item wanting to craft. Each class level above JJm can reduce this cost by 5%. Components needed can be purchased or foraged. Foraging for needed materials needs to be stated to the DM and the DM sets the difficulty. Its easier to forage for a glass blower in a desert than a wood carver. The DM may opt to give characters a 10% chance of finding components needed in treasure. If found, take 10% of the value of the treasure and convert it into raw ingredients.