Crafting
Crafting is the art of refining, cleaning, and shaping mundane materials – cloth, stone and metal, wood, glass or gemstones – into useful forms. Skilled crafters can make items of greater quality or special properties, or temporarily improve or enhance normal objects. Crafting is also ideal for preparing items or materials to receive magic, via Invocation, Ritual Magic or other forms of investment.
Crafting Skills
There are three main crafting skills, each of which paves the way for two or more specialised archetype skills:
Artisan
A character with Artisan skill can refine bone, cloth, glass, leather, paper, stone or wood from the relevant raw materials. They can also craft any superior quality items other than weapons, armour, jewellery and mechanisms, per the tables at the end of this chapter, or identify any item made with this skill or any of the below skills.
Artisan is a prerequisite for the following archetype skills:
- Carpenter: A carpenter can craft mastercrafted items from wood.
- Glassblower: A glassblower can craft mastercrafted items from glass.
- Papermaker: A papermaker can craft mastercrafted items from paper. Papermaker is the prerequisite for Printer, which allows them to make and operate printing presses.
- Sculptor: A sculptor can craft mastercrafted items from stone or clay. Sculptor is the prerequisite for Sapper, which allows them to destroy structures in battle.
- Tailor: A tailor can craft mastercrafted items from cloth, leather and fur.
A character with three of the above specialisms can also learn the skill Jury Rig, which draws on the breadth of their knowledge to improvise structures and simple devices in the field.
Blacksmith
A character with Blacksmith skill can refine metal, wood or leather from the relevant raw materials. They can craft any superior quality weapons or armour, or most items made from base metal, per the tables at the end of this chapter, or identify any item made with this skill or any of the below skills.
Blacksmith is a prerequisite for the following archetype skills:
- Armourer: An armourer can craft mastercrafted armour and shields. Armourer is the prerequisite for Hardening, which allows them to craft armour resistant to the damage call Through.
- Weaponsmith: A weaponsmith, can craft mastercrafted weapons. Weaponsmith is also the prerequisite for Metallurgist, which allows them to craft weapons out of silver alloy.
Jeweller
A character with the Jeweller skill can refine copper, silver and gold from the relevant ores. They can craft any superior quality jewellery and mechanisms, or identify any item made with this skill or any of the below skills.
Jeweller is a prerequisite for the following archetype skills:
- Gemcutter: A gemcutter can cut gems to make them more magically accessible and increase their value. Gemcutter is the prerequisite of Gem Cleansing, which allows them to polish gems to focus and enrich their magics.
- Goldsmith: A goldsmith can craft mastercrafted jewellery.
- Locksmith: A locksmith can craft mastercrafted locks. This skill is also the prerequisite for the skill Mechanician, which allows them to craft mechanical traps and other mechanisms.
Identifying Crafted Items
Any crafter can, after a few seconds’ handling and examination, identify crafted items as follows:
If the crafter knows how to make the item, they recognise exactly what it is, including its quality, the materials and work units required to make it, and any specific mechanical effects it has.
If they don’t know how to make the item, but it lies within their skill tree (e.g. a character with the Artisan skill examining an item that requires the Carpenter skill to make), they can identify its quality, and a brief summary of its effects.
Any crafter examining a signature item made with any skill within their skill tree can recognise the crafter’s distinctive style.
- Example
- Torja the Mighty has the skill Weaponsmith but not the skill Hardening, and is examining a suit of mastercrafted armour hardened to resist the call Through three times per day. She knows it’s mastercrafted, and that it has been reinforced in some way, but not the specific mechanical effects.
Workshops
Any use of crafting skills that expends work units or study units, including creation, alteration, repair or research, requires the use of a suitably equipped workshop.
As with all equipment, a standard quality workshop has no in-character cost; all that’s needed is a physical representation. Higher-quality workshops must be bought or made in play and provided with item cards. Research specifically requires a superior or higher quality workshop.
There are five standard types of workshop, corresponding to the general skills required to use them: an alchemist’s laboratory, an artisan’s workshop, a blacksmith’s forge, a jeweller’s bench or a surgeon’s bed.
Although consisting of several parts, a workshop is treated as a single item in game; a higher quality workshop receives a single item card to track its existence, which must be attached to the work surface (table, bench etc.).
Representing a Workshop
At minimum, a phys rep of a workshop must consist of a surface to work on – a table, bench or bed, or even a roll-up mat or blanket – and at least three appropriate tools or fixtures, as follows:
- Artisan’s Workshop: Tools and fixtures for a workshop vary hugely depending on the materials the Crafter is working on, including chisels, hammers, saws and files, lathes and vices, potter’s wheels, crucibles and blow irons, needles and thread, looms, frames and shuttles.
- Blacksmith’s Forge: Tools and fixtures for a forge include hammers, tongs, files and anvils, crucibles and moulds, and furnace and bellows.
- Jeweller’s Bench: Tools and fixtures for a Jeweller’s bench include hammers, pliers, vices and dowels, crucibles and moulds and Jeweller’s loupes.
Tools do not necessarily have to be constructed to the same standards as LARP weapons, but should be safe and suitable for use in play, e.g. sharp scalpels, saws or needles must only ever be used in camp, at the creator’s workshop, and away from areas where fighting is likely to occur.
Very enthusiastic players may wish to bring phys reps that incorporate real fire, moving water, smoke or other practical effects. Anything along these lines must be submitted to the player’s Faction Command and members of the Event Team to ensure they are safe and that suitable precautions (including e.g. access to fire extinguishers) are being taken, and must never be left unattended.
Note: The intent is to promote an engaging and immersive experience, not to present an insurmountable barrier! As with all phys reps, any sincere effort will be accommodated, and other players and staff may be able to lend props or give advice on how to source them.
Transporting a Workshop
Transporting a workshop (e.g. to steal it) does not require any special skills or numbers of people; as long as the players carrying the workshop can physically move it, they can move it in character. This requires transporting the table, bench or mat and at least three tools or fixtures, although it is permissible to pack it up or carry it in parts.
Workshop Quality
Like all equipment, workshops vary in quality. A higher-quality workshop can be configured by its owner, optimising it for their use. A configured workshop grants the crafter who has configured it (only) bonus work units. Other characters can use the workshop (i.e. can make use of the phys rep), but gain no benefits from the workshop's quality unless and until they reconfigure it for themselves.
To configure a new workshop, the owner must register it with a Crafting Referee, and then spend a day using it without any benefit (as they work out how to arrange it best, etc.). The benefits come into effect the next day.
- Standard: As with all standard equipment, a standard workshop is un-carded and has no in character cost; the player need only provide suitable props to represent it.
- Superior: A superior workshop allows research. Once configured by its owner it grants the owner 3 bonus work units per day.
- Mastercrafted: A mastercrafted workshop may be configured by its owner, granting 6 bonus work units per day.
With research, a Crafter may learn to configure a workshop to give different benefits for specific tasks.
A damaged or broken workshop becomes unconfigured; once repaired, it will need to be configured again as though new.
A stolen workshop, or one that has been sold or traded in play, can be reconfigured by its new owner to benefit them. In both cases, this requires the owner (or new owner) to register the change with a crafting referee and use the workshop for a day without benefit. The new owner of a stolen or traded workshop cannot start reconfiguring it until the day after acquiring it.
Making a Workshop
Any crafter can make their own higher-quality workshop, at a cost in materials and work units.
| Workshops | Skill | Costs | Work Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superior Artisan’s workshop | Artisan | 2 wood (O), 2 metal (H), 5 metal (O), 7 Charcoal | 40 |
| Mastercrafted Artisan's workshop | Carpenter, Glassblower, Papermaker, Sculptor or Tailor | 2 wood (O), 9 metal (H), 9 charcoal | 70 |
| Superior Blacksmith’s forge | Blacksmith | 2 wood (O), 2 metal (H), 5 metal (O), 7 charcoal | 40 |
| Mastercrafted Blacksmith’s forge | Armourer or Weaponsmith | 2 wood (O). 9 metal (H), 9 charcoal | 70 |
| Superior Jeweller’s bench | Jeweller | 2 wood (O), 2 metal (H), 3 metal (O), 2 glass (O), 5 charcoal, 2 sand | 40 |
| Mastercrafted Jeweller’s bench | Gemcutter, Goldsmith or Locksmith | 2 wood (O), 6 metal (H), 3 glass (O), 2 glass (H), 6 charcoal, 3 sand | 70 |
| Superior Alchemist’s Laboratory | Artisan | 2 wood (O), 2 metal (H) 4 glass (H), 2 charcoal, 4 sand | 40 |
| Mastercrafted Alchemist’s Laboratory | Glassblower | 2 wood (O), 3 metal (H), 6 glass (H), 3 charcoal, 6 sand | 70 |
| Superior Surgeon’s Bed | Artisan | 2 wood (O), 3 cloth (O), 1 metal (H), 3 metal (O), 4 charcoal | 40 |
| Mastercrafted Surgeon’s Bed | Carpenter or Tailor | 2 wood (O), 3 cloth (O), 6 metal (H), 6 charcoal | 70 |
Note: All designs using charcoal yield 1 unit of ash as a byproduct, and all designs using metal yield one unit of powdered metal.
Tools
By default, a crafter’s tools don’t receive separate item cards from their workshop; in game terms, the tools are part of the workshop. That said, some of a crafter’s actions can be performed away from their workshop, e.g. a Blacksmith can repair armour in the field with an armour staple, or an artisan can use the Jury Rig skill to improvise a device; this requires some phys reps of suitable tools, which need not be carded.
A creator may make an individual high-quality tool, if wished (e.g. so that the tool can be enchanted). By default, this has no mechanical effect when using a workshop.
Crafting Materials
Crafting makes use of a range of materials available in the Renewal campaign: stone, wood, metal, leather and other workable substances suitable for shaping as required.
There are three main types of materials in the game:
- Raw materials, which can be gathered in the wild in play using the Gathering skill.
- Finished materials, which may be created in game through the various crafting skills.
- Passive materials, which may be created in game or produced as a byproduct of other processes.
All materials can also be received via the Resources skill, bought from traders, received as a reward in plot or otherwise acquired in play.
| Rarity
A resource’s rarity is a measure of how common it is. Standard creation materials come in four degrees of rarity:
Rarity reflects how easy it is to find in the game, and should roughly indicate value. |
Raw Materials
Raw materials can be gathered in play using the Gathering skill. Crafters can refine these materials in various ways, creating finished materials; some designs for doing so are listed below.
A list of standard raw materials follow. Others exist, but may be harder to source, or require specific in character actions such as harvesting the bodies of fallen foes.
By default, all raw materials expire two years after being gathered, unless refined or used.
| Common Materials | Rarity | Gems | Rarity | Ores | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chalk | VC | Agate | U | Cold iron | R |
| Clay | VC | Amber | U | Copper ore | C |
| Fleece | VC | Amethyst | U | Gold ore | U |
| Hide | VC | Beryl | U | Lead ore | C |
| Ore | VC | Bloodstone | U | Platinum ore | U |
| Rock | VC | Carnelian | U | Silver ore | U |
| Sand | VC | Garnet | U | Tin ore | C |
| Timber | VC | Gypsum | U | ||
| Wax | VC | Hematite | U | ||
| Jade | U | ||||
| Jet | U | ||||
| Moonstone | U | ||||
| Opal | U | ||||
| Peridot | U | ||||
| Topaz | U |
Finished Materials
The following finished materials can be created from various raw materials. The required skills, materials and cost in work units vary, and are listed below.
By default, all finished materials expire three years after being refined, unless used.
| Material | Rarity | Skill | Costs | Work Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bone (O) | C | Artisan | 1 body part, 1 sand | 1 |
| Bone (H) | U | Artisan | 3 body part, 1 sand | 3 |
| Cloth (O) | C | Artisan | 1 fleece, 1 fluid | 1 |
| Cloth (H) | U | Artisan | 3 fleece, 1 fluid | 3 |
| Glass (O) | C | Artisan or Jeweller | 1 sand, 1 charcoal | 1 |
| Glass (H) | U | Artisan or Jeweller | 3 sand, 1 charcoal | 3 |
| Leather (O) | C | Artisan or Blacksmith | 1 hide, 1 cream | 1 |
| Leather (H) | U | Artisan or Blacksmith | 3 hide, 1 cream | 3 |
| Metal (O) | C | Blacksmith | 1 ore, 1 charcoal | 1 |
| Metal (H) | U | Blacksmith | 3 ore, 1 charcoal | 3 |
| Paper (O) | C | Artisan | 1 timber, 1 fluid | 1 |
| Paper (H) | U | Artisan | 3 timber, 1 fluid | 3 |
| Jewellery metal (O) (Copper) | U | Blacksmith or Jeweller | 1 copper ore, 1 charcoal | 3 |
| Jewellery metal (H) (Gold) | R | Blacksmith or Jeweller | 1 gold ore, 1 charcoal | 9 |
| Jewellery metal (O) (Lead) | U | Blacksmith or Jeweller | 1 lead ore, 1 charcoal | 3 |
| Jewellery Metal (H) (Platinum) | R | Blacksmith or Jeweller | 1 platinum ore, 1 charcoal | 9 |
| Jewellery metal (O) (Tin) | U | Blacksmith or Jeweller | 1 tin ore, 1 charcoal | 3 |
| Jewellery metal (H) (Silver) | R | Blacksmith or Jeweller | 1 silver ore, 1 charcoal | 9 |
| Stone (O) | C | Artisan | 1 rock, 1 sand | 1 |
| Stone (H) | U | Artisan | 3 rock, 1 sand | 3 |
| Wood (O) | C | Artisan or Blacksmith | 1 timber, 1 fluid | 1 |
| Wood (H) | U | Artisan or Blacksmith | 3 timber, 1 fluid | 3 |
Gemstones
Jewellers can refine gems in two ways. When gathered in the wild, gems start out cloudy, with a mixed colour (e.g. a topaz is orange-yellow), and uncut, with no facets. The Gemcutter skill allows the Jeweller to cut stones, which makes them useful for certain magical tasks; and the Gem Cleansing skill allows them to cleanse them, which simplifies and aligns the magics within them.
By default, cut or cleansed gems expire three years after being cut or cleansed.
Passive Materials
Already largely stripped of magic, passive materials and ingredients have use to both crafters and alchemists – blacksmiths burn charcoal to melt metal, tanners use cream to make leather, alchemists use fluid or oil as a base for their potions.
Costs and materials to produce passive materials are listed below. Many passive materials are also produced as a byproduct of other processes: cutting and polishing gems yields powdered gemstone, burning charcoal produces ash, working metal yields powdered metal etc. Byproducts are listed under the respective designs.
By default, all passive materials expire two years after being produced, unless used.
| Material | Rarity | Skill | Costs | Work Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ash (3 units) | VC | Artisan or Blacksmith | 1 timber | 1 |
| Charcoal (3 units) | VC | Artisan or Blacksmith | 1 timber | 1 |
| Ink (3 units) | VC | Alchemist or Artisan | 1 charcoal | 1 |
| Powdered bone (3 units) | VC | Artisan | 1 bone | 1 |
| Powdered dye (3 units) | VC | Alchemist or Artisan | 1 herb | 1 |
| Powdered gemstone (3 units) | C | Jeweller | 1 gem | 1 |
| Powdered metal (3 units) | VC | Blacksmith | 1 metal | 1 |
Note: Any herb can be used; this has no mechanical effect unless specified otherwise.
Making Crafted Items
A crafter may make any of the items known to them per their skills, or any unique designs they have learned through research or teaching. If a crafter wishes to produce a common item not listed in these rules, they may usually do so without special research; discuss with a crafting referee.
Every design has a cost in work units and materials.
Roleplaying and Logging Work
To craft on any day, the player must engage in at least 30 minutes’ suitable roleplay at their workshop either all at once or spread out over several tasks through the day. Roleplay includes using their phys reps to mime cutting, sewing, grinding, polishing, melting etc. as appropriate to their craft.
They must then log their work with a referee, who will confirm that the character knows how to craft the items (checking design cards, if relevant), confirm any benefit they get from using a configured workshop, collect the resources consumed, and note how many work units the crafter is using.
A crafter may produce an item over more than one day to spread the cost, handing over all required resources when they start working; they don’t need to finish one item before starting the next. In this way, they can have multiple projects in progress at a time.
Completing the Design
Once the crafter has accumulated enough work units to complete the project, the referee will confirm any features or signature style the crafter wishes to add to the item and then issue an item card for the item. Every crafted item must be represented by a suitable phys rep, to which the card must be attached.
Note: By default, superior and mastercrafted items expire after three years, degrading (e.g. rusting, blunting, fading, cracking etc.) to uselessness. Crafted items may be maintained before expiring, at a cost in materials and work units, extending their useful life. Expired items may be restored by a crafter with the skill to create the original, at the same cost in materials and work units as making the item.
Features and Details
Generally, purely cosmetic details of a crafted item needn’t be noted on the item card; but if the crafter wishes (e.g. if it is important for plot purposes), they may stipulate an item’s appearance, colour or other details, which will be recorded on the item card. Any crafter may add a “maker’s mark” to an item at this time, to show it is their work, although note that such a mark can be imitated by others.
Very skilled crafters can research how to make signature items, crafted in highly distinctive style that is unique to them, and which can be readily recognised by characters with the Evaluate skill, even without a maker’s mark. A crafter’s signature style cannot usually be imitated by another crafter.
Ornate Items
The standard costs listed under Crafting Designs reflect the minimum materials and labour to produce functional but plain items; crafters may wish to spend more on materials and finishing to make their goods beautiful. These items are referred to as ornate.
Ornate isn’t a standard trait, but a range of options: bright dyes for cloth or leather, intricate woven patterns and engraving, gold or silver flourishes, gems and cut glass stones. When making an ornate item, the crafter describes the embellishments they wish to add and discusses costs with the crafting referee.
An ornate item’s extra features are described on the item card, and the extra costs are listed separately.
- Example
- Tornak Goldentouch fashions an ornate superior longsword for a wealthy prince. The item card describes it as “a longsword with an engraved blade and a gilt hilt set with 3 gemstones,” and the Evaluate box lists it as “Superior Longsword (10s + 8 WU), Ornate (12s + 5 WU).”
Repairing Crafted Items
Any Crafter can repair any damaged or broken item they already know how to make.
- Damaged: Repairing a damaged item is trivial; the crafter can restore it in their workshop with about 2 minutes’ roleplayed effort (retying straps, welding cracks or knocking out dents etc.), at no cost in work units or materials. If for some reason a damaged item must be repaired perfectly, leaving no sign of the damage, this generally costs 1 work unit and 1 unit of an appropriate resource.
- Broken: Repairing a broken item (e.g. burned, melted or heavily rusted) requires substantially recrafting it, at some fraction of the work units and materials needed to make it, depending on how badly broken it is (minimum 25%, rounded up).
It is not possible to repair a destroyed item.
Repairing an object made up of many easily removable parts (e.g. a workshop) may take longer, and additionally require work units from someone skilled in its use, to assemble and identify components; a referee can give guidance on requirements.
Field Repair
While the above rules apply to repairing any crafted item in a workshop, a character with the Blacksmith skill can quickly repair battle-damaged armour in the field, using a phys rep of smithing tools and consuming armour staples:
- Repairing the armour on one location takes 15 seconds and consumes 1 armour staple
- Repairing a whole suit of armour takes 30 seconds and consumes 3 armour staples.
Maintaining Crafted Items
Crafted items may be maintained at regular intervals to extend their useful life, at a cost in work units and materials. Items must be maintained before they expire (but see below for restoring expired items).
A crafter must have sufficient skill to produce the original item in order to maintain it (e.g. you must have the Weaponsmith skill to maintain a mastercrafted sword), although they don’t have to know the specific recipe.
The cost to maintain a crafted item depends on the quality of the original item:
- Superior items may be maintained at a cost of 60% of the work units and materials required to create them (rounded up).
- Mastercrafted items may be maintained at a cost of 40% of the work units and materials required to create them (rounded up).
The cost of any ornate features, if any, must be factored into the above costs.
- Example
- Keira Ironsdaughter is maintaining a mastercrafted one-handed sword (which cost 6 metal (H), 6 charcoal and 12 work units to make) with a silver inlay design (which adds 1 jewellery metal (H), 1 charcoal and 2 work units to the costs), for a total cost of 6 metal (H), 1 jewellery metal (H), 7 charcoal and 14 work units.
- Maintaining the weapon will cost 40% of the total costs to produce the sword, rounded up, or 3 metal (H), 1 jewellery metal (H), 4 charcoal and 6 work units.
Maintaining a crafted item resets the item’s expiry date to three years after the date it was last maintained.
Restoring Crafted Items
If a crafted item has actually expired, it can no longer be maintained, but may be restored. As with maintenance, a crafter must be sufficiently skilled to produce the original item to restore it, although they don’t have to know the specific recipe.
The cost to restore an expired item, in work units and materials, is equal to 100% of the original cost of creating it in the first place.
Restoring an item will reset its expiry date to three years after the date it was restored.
Apprentices
A crafter can work with the aid of an apprentice, a junior crafter aiding them in their efforts. The apprentice must at least know the relevant general skill (Artisan, Blacksmith or Jeweller) for the project, but does not need to know the design for the project - or the archetype skill, if any, the project is based on. The apprentice does not need their own workshop.
For every 2 work units contributed by the apprentice, 1 work unit is added to the crafter’s total. The apprentice cannot contribute more work units (after halving) than the crafter.
- Example
- Tythus Garmaul spends 15 work units on a suit of mastercrafted heavy armour. His apprentice Genevieve Beauchamps spends 16 work units, which adds 8 work units to Tythus’s efforts, for a total of 23 work units for the day.
A crafter cannot benefit from more than one apprentice on any day, although that crafter and apprentice can work on multiple designs in that day.