Crafting

Crafting is a patient dance of intellect, dexterity, and willpower. A blacksmith labors before a forge, sweat streaming as the rhythmic clang of hammer on anvil shapes molten steel. Meanwhile, an alchemist’s unwavering focus may guide arcane energies into a new staff, runes swirling with raw magic. Each step - Design, Material Selection, Extended Testing, and final adjustments - reflects a deliberate and often communal endeavor, steeped in risk and opportunity.
Concentration underlies all this: the mental resilience to maintain high standards or attempt feats beyond the average artisan’s reach. With each hour of labor, the crafter’s reserves ebb, forcing them to rest and recuperate before returning to finish their masterpiece. When combined with the proper materials, advanced knowledge of shaping, and maybe a little luck, the result can be an item that stands among the finest in the land.
Throughout, the GM should integrate story elements into every step, weaving personal quests for rare materials, social challenges to secure skilled assistants, and the tension of whether a single misstep might ruin months of labor. But for those who succeed, the tangible rewards are matched only by the intangible prestige of producing an object truly worthy of legends.

Crafting Process

Design Phase

Envision the Item

Before forging a blade, stitching a cloak, or constructing a complex device, the artisan conceptualizes their creation. The player describes its form, intended function, and any special touches (engraved patterns, hidden compartments, or mechanical triggers).

Determining Base Cost & Difficulty

The GM sets a base cost (often in silver shillings) tied to material rarity and an initial difficulty level for the crafting checks. Simple or utilitarian pieces might start at Average (+20), while intricate or exotic creations could be at Hard (–20) or worse.

Investing Concentration

Reducing Extended Test Levels: During the Design Phase, an artisan may expend 150 Concentration to reduce the total number of successful checks required in the Extended Test by 1, up to a maximum reduction of 3. The design work can be spread out over multiple sessions, but each increment of Concentration demands more time:

• 1× 150 Concentration: +1 additional time units, –1 Extended Test level
• 2× 150 Concentration: +5 additional time units, –2 Extended Test levels
• 3× 150 Concentration: +10 additional time units, –3 Extended Test levels

Time units: Each time unit may represent hours, days, weeks, or months of work. The GM can scale this depending on the size and complexity of the planned item. Planning a simple item may take a day; the appropriate time unit would be an hour. For creating an intricate automaton a time unit might represent a week or a month.
Who can spend Concentration:

• Novice crafters lack the necessary focus to reduce the test’s required levels.
• Adept crafters can spend Concentration but will deplete their reserves quickly, forcing them to rest before continuing.
• Master and Legend crafters have enough Concentration to employ this technique while still retaining resources for crafting.

Spending significant Concentration at this stage represents meticulous planning - sketching out blueprints, testing small prototypes, and mentally rehearsing each step.

Concentration

The concept of Concentration represents a craftsperson’s mental reserves, painstaking focus, and experience. By intentionally committing some of this energy, artisans can achieve greater feats without necessarily facing an increased test difficulty. Once spent, Concentration replenishes at a rate of 10% of the artisan's maximum Concentration per day.

Concentration Tiers

• Novice: 100
• Adept: 250
• Master: 500
• Legend: 1000

Although characters of any rank may attempt to craft, only those with sufficient Concentration can harness these reserves to speed the process or enhance the outcome. Spending Concentration is not mandatory, but it often distinguishes masterworks from mundane items.

Material Selection

Once the design is established, the artisan gathers or purchases the required resources. Materials are divided into five tiers: Common, Scarce, Rare, Exotic, and Legendary. Each tier influences availability, base cost, and crafting difficulty. When deciding how rare or fine your crafting materials should be, consider both the narrative implications and the mechanical impact on difficulty and final item quality. Procuring Rare or Exotic materials might require quests into hostile territories or dealing with secretive merchants - integrating valuable roleplay hooks for the table.

• Material Properties: The inherent qualities of metals, woods, leathers, or arcane components factor into the item’s final capabilities.
  
• Value Check: The combined value of materials must at least match the base cost.
  
• Acquiring Rare Resources: Locating or harvesting Exotics or Legendary resources can become an adventure in itself - ideal for weaving narrative depth into the crafting process.

Quality Adjustment

Items may possess quality levels like Poor, Acceptable, Refined, Superior, or Exceptional, reflecting both the artisan’s capability and the quality of components used.
Improving Quality: A crafter striving for Refined, Superior or Exceptional results raises the difficulty of their Extended Test. This typically increases the test difficulty by one or two steps, e.g., from Average (+20) to Challenging (+0), Difficult (–10), or Hard (-20).
Downgrading Quality: Lowering the overall quality (e.g., to Acceptable or Poor) reduces test difficulty, but imposes Flaws on the final product. This might be done intentionally to craft a disposable or decoy item quickly.

Crafting Time

Every project requires a certain investment of hours or days:

• Base Duration: Determined by the complexity of the item and the tier of materials. The time units should be the same as in the Planning Phase, if the planning took months, the construction also will.
• Skill Margin: For every 2 points by which the crafter’s skill roll exceeds the required SL, total crafting time is reduced by 25% - to a maximum of 75% reduction.
• Realism & Pacing: The GM may extend or compress this time to suit narrative flow or campaign pacing.

Extended Test

The heart of item creation is an Extended Test using the appropriate Trade skill (e.g., Trade (Smithing), Trade (Carpentry), Trade (Engineering), etc.):
Number of successes required: Determined by the item’s complexity, quality goals, and any adjustments from Concentration or special talents. Each successful test contributes to the total. Failure can set back progress or waste materials, depending on how the GM chooses to handle partial or botched attempts.
Test Frequency & Time: Each test may represent hours, days, weeks, or months of work. The GM can scale this to campaign pacing. Passing the test by 2 SL or more might accelerate progress by 25%, reflecting extraordinary breakthroughs.

Optional: Additional Concentration

During the Process: Skilled artisans may commit small amounts of Concentration to reroll a failed crafting test or to gain a temporary bonus (e.g., +10 for one test). The exact cost in Concentration is determined by the GM (often 50 points per reroll or bonus). This optional usage can be life-saving for projects that use costly or irreplaceable materials, but may take additional time.

Item Properties

Upon successful completion, the item may bear additional properties:

• Qualities & Flaws: If the crafting roll was exceptionally good (or marred by complications), the GM may add relevant item Qualities or Flaws that reflect a near-perfect forging or subtle defects.
• Upgrade Slots: The final item may contain gem sockets. Generally, higher-quality or complex items gain more slots. Adding additional sockets later is complicated and expensive.
• Reference: To fill these slots with runes, gems, or inscriptions, follow the Enhancement Rules provided separately.

Special Crafting Rules

Magical Items

For items that tap into the Winds of Magic:
Lore (Magic) Tests: You may need additional checks to harmonize arcane energies with the crafting process.
Extra Steps or Rare Components: Magical items frequently call for special reagents or rituals performed at auspicious times or places.

Technological Items

If your campaign includes advanced or experimental technology:
Integration: The GM can decide that each new invention requires a partial research phase or blueprint design.

Collaborative Crafting

Multiple artisans can collaborate:
Shared Skill Rolls: Different skills (e.g., one character with high Trade (Smithing), another with strong Lore (Magic)) may share tasks.

Optional: Concentration Pooling: The GM might allow partial contributions of Concentration among participants, though typically each artisan manages their own reserves.

Economy and Balance

Material Value and Crafting Costs

• Selling raw crafting materials yields roughly half their market value, reinforcing that it’s more profitable (and more challenging) to create finished goods than to trade raw components.
• The total cost of a crafted item generally shouldn’t exceed (the highest Career level among PCs × 60) silver shillings - though the GM can adjust based on campaign economy.

Time Investment

• Higher-tier items (Rare, Exotic, Legendary) require significant time and skill, ensuring that purchasing or finding such treasures remains a viable alternative for many characters.
• This balance prevents the market from being flooded with powerful gear overnight, ensuring supply and demand remain relevant.

Example Blueprints

Resource List

See Resources article.

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Crafting in the Cypher System

Core Mechanics Adaptation

• Crafting Difficulty: Replace WHFRP’s percentile rolls with Cypher’s difficulty ladder (1–10). Each +10% in WHFRP translates to a 1-step decrease in difficulty (e.g., a 60% skill becomes difficulty 4 in Cypher).
• Time Investment: Use Cypher’s time tiers (minutes to months) based on assessed difficulty, similar to the concept used above.

Crafting Process

• Define Item Level: Align with Cypher’s cypher/artifact levels (1–10). WHFRP item quality tiers (Common, Good, etc.) map to Cypher levels (e.g., Common = level 1–3).
• Materials: Use WHFRP’s component lists but treat rare materials as assets (-1 difficulty).
• Skill Checks: Convert WHFRP’s Trade Skills (e.g., Apothecary, Smithing) to Cypher skills. Trained = -1 difficulty, Specialized = -2.

Modified Example: Crafting a Sword

WHFRP Rule	Cypher Adaptation
50% Smithing roll	Difficulty 5 (base)
Masterwork Tools	Asset (-1 difficulty)
Rare Steel Ingot	Asset (-1 difficulty)
Final Difficulty	3 (roll vs. target 9)
Time	4 hours (per Cypher table)

Failure Consequences

• Partial success (minor flaw) or loss of materials, per WHFRP’s "Critical Failure" table, but avoid complex WHFRP conditions—use Cypher’s GM intrusion system instead.

Key Differences from WHFRP

• Eliminate gold cost calculations; focus on narrative resource scarcity.
• Replace extended crafting timetables with Cypher’s scalable time blocks.
• Simplify "Crafting Points" to a single roll per stage (e.g., shaping, finishing).

For gear with special effects, treat them as cyphers/artifacts with level-based scaling (e.g., a "Runic Weapon" might be a level 5 artifact). Use WHFRP’s flavor but adhere to Cypher’s streamlined resolution.