The making of gear and stuff

Characters like gear, especially when it is well-made, reliable, and offers some sort of advantage. I'm talking about gear quality--aspects of a piece of kit that sets it apart from the norm (for good or ill). Think of a fighter with a superb blade that retains its edge, a cleric whose armour is a perfect fit, or a thief using a superiour set of lock picks.

The quick-and-dirty system below provides a means for reflecting an item's quality, subject to the whims of the creator. While tailored for the Chimera RPG, it's easily adapted to other systems.

Manufacturing

Your campaign is no doubt filled with artisans who craft weapons, armour, and everyday items. The typical artisan is merely competent and capable of manufacturing items as found in your system's various equipment rosters. This requires a "manufacturing" roll, typically against some skill that lets the guy make stuff. In Chimera, this is covered by the Profession skill, which is a catch-all for ability in any livable trade. The Profession skill is tied to an Attribute score (e.g., Strength for blacksmiths and masons; Dexterity for locksmiths and watchmakers; Intelligence for computers and gun scopes; etc.). Much GM latitude is expected here, so don't get bogged down in what Attribute goes with which profession--just pick something that makes sense and go from there.

When the artisan attempts to make something, he has to make a manufacturing roll. The artisan may also have a Skill Bonus, which is a modifier reflecting his Professional ability. For example, Armoursmithing +2 means that the craftsman adds +2 to his roll when forging armour.

Manufacturing roll results are interpreted as follows:

• Critical Failure (CF): Manufacturing fails; item is worthless and materials are lost
• Normal Failure (NF): Poor quality; reduce Quality by 1d2 points
• Normal Success (NS): Average quality; item properties are normal
• Critical Success (CS): Superior quality; improve Quality by artisan's Skill Bonus

The time required to make an item varies tremendously. Use the following guidelines, depending on what's being made (manufacturing rolls are made at the end of the duration cited):

• Light Armour: 1 week, plus 1 day per point of protection (use PV in Chimera, AC for most other games)
• Medium Armour: 2 weeks, plus 1 day per point of protection
• Heavy Armour: 4 weeks, plus 1 day per point of protection
• Small Weapon: 1 week, plus 1 day per Encumbrance point below zero
• Medium Weapon: 2 weeks, plus 1 day per Encumbrance point below zero
• Large Weapon: 4 weeks, plus 1 day per Encumbrance point below zero
• Fixed Weapon: 8 weeks, plus 1 day per Encumbrance point below zero
• Equipment: 1 week, plus 1 day per Encumbrance point below zero

Construction Materials

Most items can be made from different materials, typically to improve either its performance or aesthetic value. To reflect the expertise required to work various materials, apply the following adjustments to the Professional skill roll during the manufacturing process:

• Cloth, paper: DL –1
• Wood, glass, unfinished stone: DL +0
• Finished stone, raw metal: DL +1
• Refined metal, crystal: DL +2
• Rare material (GM’s discretion): DL +3

DL is Difficulty Level, which adjusts the Action Roll's Target Number by 4 points on the d20. For example, if the Professional skill roll's Target Number is 12, using raw metal increases the TN to 16 (DL +1 equals TN +4). Difficulty Level is strictly a Chimera thing; if you're using another system, just remember that each DL is equivalent to +/- 4 points on the d20, or an adjustment of 20%.

Gear Quality

Normal failures and Critical Successes on the manufacturing roll adjust the quality of the item. Each Quality point may be applied to various characteristics, at the creator’s discretion. Each point may be spent as as follows:

• Reduce Encumbrance by 1 (minimum Enc +0)
• Improve armour PV by +1 (or AC in other systems)
• Upgrade weapon’s base damage by one die (e.g., d4 shifts to d6, d6 to d8, etc.)
• Improve missile weapon’s effective range by 1”
• Improve equipment Durability by +1
• Improve performance by +1 (e.g., a set of lock picks that grant a bonus when used, or a warm cloak that grants a bonus against cold-based fatigue rolls)

Use the same scale for reductions in quality (e.g., reduce armour PV by –1, reduce effective range by 1", etc.). When quality improves, cumulatively double the item's cost for each Quality point applied. When quality is degraded, cumulatively halve the item's cost for each point.

Final Words

Like I said, this is a quick-and-dirty system, and you'll need to tweak it a bit for your own game. But the benefit is you can incorporate items whose superiority is based on workmanship rather than arbitrary magical plusses and enchantments (which makes this system well-suited for low- or no-magic campaigns).