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The difficulty of the object is then set. The higher this difficulty, the finer the object. Consult the table for Simple Rolls, and divide the numbers by two (so that a difficulty of 11 indicates a Very Good object). If the quality of the item is to have game effects, take a base difficulty of seven, and add 2 for every point of bonus that the item gives to rolls (beyond the bonus normal for that type). If it adds to or subtracts from resistance totals, add 1 to the difficulty for every point. An item which gives a penalty may be made by subtracting instead of adding. Note that some kinds of items may have higher or lower base difficulties: determine these from the basic bonuses that they give.
For example, a poem praising a king which is supposed to give a bonus of +2 to the performance roll would have a difficulty of 11. A fine sword giving a bonus of +1 to acting total and +2 to effect total would have a difficulty of 13.
Subtract the difficulty from the character's crafting total. If the result is zero or less, the character cannot make the item. If it is one or higher, the character accumulates that many points every time period. Whenever a number of points equal to the difficulty of the item is accumulated, one is made.
The time period should reflect the size or intricacy of a project, rather than its quality: that should be reflected by the difficulty. For example, a mason might want to build a wall, a small house, a manor house, or a castle. Each of these could be built with differing qualities, but the castle would take longer. The base times of a week, month, quarter, and year might be chosen in this case. (Medieval building projects took decades because the builders kept running out of money, not because they were basically slow.)
The time periods for some things will be set by rules, and the GM is advised to keep a note when he does set periods, so as to remain consistent. If rules for magical crafting are written, time periods must be specified, since nobody can use common sense to set them.
If the items are different, work out how long it actually takes the character to produce the first one. Subtract the difficulty from the crafting total, and divide the time period by the remaining points. Each point of difficulty of the item takes this long. The procedure can then be repeated for the second item. The smith, above, takes 13 days to make each item. Note that this gives the same result as the above method for items that are the same, and the first method is easier to apply.
A high quality suit of armour may reduce the penalty or increase the protection. For every point by which the penalty is reduced, add two to the difficulty, and for every point by which protection is increased, add 1.
A text is written for an audience with a specific level of knowledge. This level is the target. A text with a quality of five and a target less than or equal to half the writer's score in the subject has a difficulty of seven and a base time of one month. The quality increases by one point for every point by which the difficulty is raised, and the target may be raised above half the author's score by raising the difficulty by one point for every point. Any given person may only study a text once. The effective quality is reduced by five for every point by which their score differs from the target, whether higher or lower.
For example, Halemar has a score of 8 in Geology. A text with a target of 4 and a quality of 5 has a difficulty of 7 for him. A target of 5 would increase the difficulty to 8. A quality of 6 would add one, so a text with a target of 5 and a quality of 6 would have a difficulty of 9 for him.
Treatises are not written for any particular level of knowledge: they simply set out information about a certain area of learning. A treatise with a quality of 0 has a difficulty of 7, and the quality can be increased by one point by increasing the difficulty by one. The base time is one month. An author may only write a number of treatises equal to his score in the ability, and a given student may only study a particular treatise once.
Theses are summaries of all that a scholar knows about a subject. The base time is a year. Each thesis has a level equal to the author's score in the ability at the time of writing the book, and can be studied by anyone with a lower score. The quality is 0 at a difficulty of 7, and can be increased by increasing the difficulty on a point-for-point basis. The level cannot be changed. A student may study a thesis repeatedly, as long as his score in the ability is less than the level of the thesis.
Note that a bard may learn songs written by someone else: see under Ability Improvement. Once a song has been written, it takes a negligible amount of time to write it down, if the composer has the necessary abilities, including the ability to write musical notation.
Weapons may be made of higher quality by increasing the difficulty, according to the standard rules. In addition, there may be types of weapon with higher qualities, which take longer to make. Increasing the base time to one month gives the weapon an overall bonus of +1, a quarter gives +2, and a year +3, all at difficulty seven. This may be rationalised as desired: secret manufacturing techniques, for example.
Copyright David Chart 1995-1998