Crafting

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 or other forms of investment.

There are three main general crafting skills, each of which paves the way for two or more specialised archetype skills.

Mundane Cosmology

Crafting, alchemy and surgery aren’t exactly like real-world science or engineering. The world of Renewal is a magical one, and while the creator’s mechanical actions – cutting and moulding, sewing and staining, smelting and grinding – directly shape the objects of their work, it’s ultimately the creator’s will and intent that changes their underlying pattern. That is, both the physical act and the will of the creator are essential.

And since all things are made of magic, what mundane work does, in the end, is move magic around: crafting tends to strip magic out to clear impurities; alchemy tends to concentrate magic to enhance its properties; and surgery does neither – since magic constantly flows through the body – but blocks, dams or redirects magic to change the body’s functioning.

This tends to affect how the products of mundane work interact with magical skills. Crafted objects, being low in magic, are eminently suited to receiving magical investment, while it is notoriously dangerous to try to add more magic to already magically-dense alchemical brews.

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.

• Mason: A mason can craft mastercrafted items from stone. This skill is also the prerequisite for the skill Sapper, which allows them to destroy structures in battle.

• Papermaker: A papermaker can craft mastercrafted items from paper. This skill is also the prerequisite for the skill Printer, which allows them to make and operate printing presses.

• Potter: A potter can craft mastercrafted items from clay.

• Tailor: A tailor can craft mastercrafted items from wood.

• Tanner: A tanner can mastercrafted items from 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. This skill is also the prerequisite for the skill Hardening, which allows them to craft armour resistant to the damage call Through.

• Weaponsmith: A weapons, can craft mastercrafted weapons. This skill is also the prerequisite for the skill 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. This skill is also the prerequisite of the skill 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.

Example: Torja the Mighty, a blacksmith specialising in weaponsmithing, 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.

Any crafter examining a signature item made with any skill within their skill tree can recognise the crafter’s distinctive style.

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 three standard types of workshop, corresponding to the general skills required to use them: an artisan’s workshop, a blacksmith’s forge, or a Jeweller’s bench.

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.).

Note: All the rules in this section apply to an Alchemist’s laboratory or a Surgeon’s bed as well.

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.

Workshop Quality

Like all equipment, workshops vary in quality. A higher-quality workshop can be configured by its owner, optimising it for their creative method. A configured workshop grants the crafter who has configured it (only) bonuses for certain actions. Other characters can use the workshop (i.e. can make use of the phys rep), but gain no benefits from the configuration 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 uncarded and has no in character cost; the player need only provide suitable props to represent it.

• Superior: A superior workshop allows research (p. 00). It may be configured by its owner to a specific specialism (e.g. the Armourer or Carpenter skills). This grants the owner 3 bonus work units per day, which must be used for tasks governed by that specialism; and reduces study units targets (p. 00) for research involving that specialism.

• Mastercrafted: A mastercrafted workshop may be configured by its owner to a specific specialism, as above, granting 6 bonus work units for tasks governed by that specialism and reducing study units targets for research involving that specialism.

With research, a crafter may learn to configure a workshop in ways other than by specialism, e.g. for efficiency (granting a bonuses to all lower-work unit tasks), precision (granting a bonus to all higher-work unit tasks), or research (granting a higher research bonus but no work unit bonus).

A damaged or broken workshop becomes unconfigured; once repaired, it will need to be configured again as though new.

Reconfiguring a Workshop

A workshop can be reconfigured by its owner, changing the specialism for which it grants its benefits; in the same way, a stolen workshop 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, as above.

Note: The new owner of a stolen workshop cannot start reconfiguring it until the day after stealing it.

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.

Note: Transporting a workshop 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.

Making a Workshop

Any crafter can make their own higher-quality workshop, at a cost in materials and work units.

Item	Skill	Costs	Work Units
Superior Artisan’s workshop	Artisan	2 wood (O), 2 metal (H), 5 metal (O), 7 Charcoal	20
Mastercrafted Artisan's workshop	Carpenter, Glassblower, Mason, Papermaker, Potter, Tailor or Tanner	2 wood (O), 9 metal (H), 9 charcoal	40
Superior Blacksmith’s forge	Blacksmith	2 wood (O), 2 metal (H), 5 metal (O), 7 charcoal	20
Mastercrafted Blacksmith’s forge	Armourer or Weaponsmith	2 wood (O). 2 metal (H), 9 charcoal	40
Superior Jeweller’s bench	Jeweller	2 wood (O), 2 metal (H), 3 metal (O), 2 glass (O), 5 charcoal, 2 sand	20
Mastercrafted Jeweller’s bench	Gemcutter, Goldsmith or Locksmith	2 wood (O), 6 metal (H), 3 glass (O), 2 glass (H), 6 charcoal, 3 sand	40

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 two main types of materials in the game: raw materials, which can be gathered in the wild in play; and finished materials, which may be created in game through various skills, 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.

Raw Materials

Raw materials can be gathered in play using the Foraging and Gathering skills.

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.

Crafters can refine these materials in various ways, creating finished materials; some designs for doing so are listed in the next section below.

Rarity

A resource’s rarity is a measure of how common it is. Standard creation materials come in four degrees of rarity: very common (VC), common (C), uncommon (UC) or rare (R).

Rarity serves as a general indicator of value; as a very rough guide, very common resources are worth around 1 copper coin each, common resources around 1 silver coin each, uncommon resources around 3-4 silver coins each, and rare resources around 9-12 silver coins.

Material	Rarity	Material	Rarity	Material	Rarity
Common Materials		Metal Ores		Gems
Chalk	VC	Cold iron	VC	Agate	U
Clay	VC	Copper Ore	R	Amber	U
Fleece	VC	Gold ore	C	Amethyst	U
Hide	VC	Silver ore	C	Beryl	U
Ore	VC			Bloodstone	U
Rock	VC			Carnelian	U
Sand	VC			Garnet	U
Timber	VC			Gypsum	U
				Hematite	U
				Jade	U
				Jet	U
				Moonstone	U
				Opal	U
				Peridot	U
				Topaz	U