Crafting Mundane Items

[Gandalf970]

I was wondering if there are rules to create mundane items in HERO.  I have a player who is a blacksmith and wants to create armor and weapons.  Is this a facility of spending gold and making a PS:Blacksmith roll and that is it.  How long does it take and the materials required as well as the difficulties would be appreciated.  Would he have to spend XP for adding mithril to it?

[Chris Goodwin]

Mostly, it depends.  

 

If a PC wants to craft mundane items, then it's usually pretty abstracted.  Buy materials with money, make your roll, spend the time.  Time can be pretty variable; probably a day or two to make a sword, a few weeks to make armor.  A lot of that will be done during down time.  

 

Difficulties that might apply would be if the crafter didn't have the right equipment, materials, workspace, conditions, or time.  Most of those would be handled by abstraction and roleplaying.  

 

You wouldn't necessarily spend points for mithril; you'd spend points on something significantly better than mundane equipment (effects based).  So if it were let's say armor, mithril might make it lighter for the same DEF value than steel.  It would be up to the GM whether to pay points for it.  If it had other properties, then it would be more likely that you'd pay points.  

 

I know this wasn't a very helpful answer; in Fantasy Hero the answer is pretty much "that's up to the GM."

[Ninja-Bear]

Well you could look at Transform.

[Duke Bushido]

You are quite right, but the problem with Tform is that you have to pay points for that ability.  Now you can take it and pile limitations on it about time limits and work stations and raw materials, etc., but you are paying points to do what the points you spent on "smithy" or "forge"  or "boatwright" already say you can do. 

 

And of course you've still got to pony up for tools, station, time, and material. 

 

Then you have to decide what sort of a T-form this is.  Is "ore to sword" minor, cosmetic, or major?  How long before it turns back?  In one hundred years, will my glass bottle be sand again?  Do I watch as my house slowly takes root and sprouts leaves to become a tree because I only bought my T-form recovery rate at X level? 

 

I hate to say this, because of the digression it can result in, but this is one of the points HERO has never successfully nailed down.  In this case, however, the system doesn't break down as much as do the players.  Our zealous insistance on defining not just our characters and abilities in game terms, but every tiny thing in our universes, means that everyone will now and forever have their own unique take on the "right" way to do something, and generally have some sort of sound reasoning behind this belief. 

 

Now if you're just asking opinions, I don't fall into the "if it can be broken it must be statted-out camp.  I also tend to come down heavily, particularly in Heroic games, that if it can be done with a skill, then it _should_ be done with a skill.   Not to say I won't allow some sort of magician to raise a house of stone from the ground beneath his feet (definite T-form there; no "summon: houses" in my games    )   but the one built with a skill is going to be a real, permane t-until-it-rots house, while the other can be dispelled or will turn back within the rules of the particular build used.

 

A horse you break and train yourself is going to have more benefit to your character in the long run than the one conjured up with Summon: trained riding horse. "

 

 

That's just the way I tend to run things, of course, and I cannot (and will not) tell you it is any better or worse than any other. 

 

It also means you don't have to be a wizard to build a house.   

 

And of course, someone went to a great deal of trouble to establish and refine the skill system (such as it is) for us to devalue it by insisting that we shouldn't use it any time it's appropriate. 

 

 

 

[Ppaddock]

I would recommend looking at the Jolrhos Field Guide from Kestrel Arts, who also frequents the forums. His crafting system is quite good and I’m looking at adding it into my game myself. 

[mallet]

The 6th Edition Hero Skills book (anf the 5th edition) have all the rules and time charts and modifiers for building weapons and armor under the Weaponsmith and Armorsmith skills. 

The 6th Ed Fantasy Hero book has advanced rules for building fantasy weapons and armor starting on page 207.

 

As for non-weapons & Armor crafting, the Skill book under the Mechanics skill has rules and charts for building and repairing mechanical devices, which could be adapted to crafting other items and such with just a bit of effort.