Abilities: Crafts

Crafts is a catch-all term for do-it-yourself creations including leather working, pottery, wood-working, welding, and sewing. Many of these trades require access to specialized tools such as kilns, sewing machines, and blow torches, and mastery of such aptitudes often requires a hefty investment in personal equipment. Since custom crafted products are in high demand in the voids of space, public access to such machinery is common, and training is often provided in colony schools for children starting at elementary school age.

Ability Levels:

0	Abysmal: If you can't buy it off the rack or in a store, you won’t be making it yourself.
1	Novice: You’ve been through the high school wood shop and home economics battery of classes.
2	Practiced: You are competent enough as a crafter, carpenter, or tailor to make a living at it.
3	Competent: People bring projects to you when they want custom items for gifts and special occasions. You are busy filling orders most months of the year.
4	Expert: Your custom work is exquisite, and you have mastered several mediums of product fabrication. Your work is desired by the elite and connoisseurs who know quality when they see it.
5	You are a master artisan. People collect your pieces for museums, not daily use.

Arts and Crafts crafting system.

When a character attempts to create an object using this skill use the following system:

• Decide Function or Aesthetics. The character crafting an object must decide if they are making a simple version of the object for day-to-day use or a piece of art that can be appreciated beyond its functional capabilities. For example, is the character making a clay pot because they need a container to hold liquids, or are they making a clay pot with elaborate designs and gold-work that might never hold liquids because that could damage the exquisite craftsmanship? This decision does not require a roll, but a general rule of thumb is that an object created as an art piece will need at least three times the number of successes when compared to a piece that is only intended to be functional.


• Gather the Resources. For most Arts and Crafts projects, a creator will need to gather raw materials—clay for pottery, iron for blacksmithing, animal skins for leatherworking, etc. The quality of the raw materials can greatly affect the quality of the finished product. The Storyteller should assign a maximum threshold for success based on the quality of the materials gathered. This number (usually between 5 and 50) indicates the best possible outcome for a piece of art based on the quality of the raw materials.


• Inspiration: Roll Intelligence + Crafts for your character to envision their concept. (Difficulty = 4 - 10 depending on the idea's complexity. Threshold = a minimum of 3 successes for a functional piece, 9 for an art piece). This roll may be made by the character once per in-game day until they achieve enough successes to cross the threshold determined by the Storyteller. A botched inspiration roll indicates the creative process has stalled with the character losing all accumulated progress.


• Crafting: Roll Dexterity + Crafts for your character to fashion their object into being. (Difficulty = 4 - 10 depending on the tools available to the character). A character with a workshop and ready access to proper tools receives a lower difficulty compared to a character using scavenged resources. If the character is using hyper-tech tools like 3D printers or computer-assisted laser cutters the roll may use Wits + Crafts instead. The Storyteller should determine how frequently the crafter can make this roll. For some projects like creating a simple clay pot, the Storyteller should allow for a roll once per in-game hour. For time intensive projects like sculpting a life-sized statue, a roll once per in-game day or week might be more reasonable. The player may continue making this roll until they achieve enough successes to cross the threshold determined by the Storyteller (see Gather Resources Step). A botched Crafts roll results in the materials becoming hopelessly damaged. In this event, the character must acquire new raw materials and start fabricating their object from scratch.

Possessed by:

Tradesmen, Artists, Glaive Smiths, DIY Enthusiasts, Survivalists, Children.

Sample Specialties:

Black Smithing, Leatherworking, Pottery, Sewing, Upcycled Art, Woodworking, Welding.

Players may choose a specialty at level 4 and gain a second specialty at level 5.