Salutations board goers. Short time lurker, first time poster. Thought I'd start making some contributions.
So, the issue of how Craft canonically is separated into a plethora of different Abilities has been at issues several times on the forums, and I wanted to present my solution. It isn't really novel, but resembles a synthesis of what several members has put forth, even though I developed it independently before even reading the posts. Great minds think alike, I suppose. ÂÂ
 At any rare, C&C are welcome. What follows is how I plan to handle Craft in an upcoming Chronicle:
Rather than handling Craft as the whole gamut of industry and artisan-based skills, in my game craft will now represent a broad and robust aptitude for hands-on applications and activities.  It represents mechanical inclination, ingenuity and problem solving as it pertains to planning, building, repairing and understanding physical items. A character with Craft 1 would be better than the average person at making minor repairs on a familiar item, and might be able to occasionally posit clever means of 'rigging' items to function when disinclined to. Just as a person with 2 of an ability is considered able to practice at a professional level (for a mortal) someone with Craft 2 might be a handyman or an assistant to a scavenger lord. Similar in the way Lore was very deftly described by Jakk Bey, Craft in my game breaks down like so:
Craft
Craft 1:  You rarely break familiar items by casual handling them, and can occasionally manage to 'rig' simple and familiar broken items to be relatively functional again. You come up with a novel solution to a mechanical problem once in a while. You could function well as an unskilled laborer with this level of Craft.
Craft 2:  You almost never damage familiar things by casually handling them, and can usually repair common items to be as good as new. You can occasionally puzzle out unusual items functions. You regularly have novel solutions to mechanical problems. You could function as a village handy-man at this level of Craft, and would be a good candidate for apprenticeship in many professions.
Craft 3:  You never break things in casual handling, and manage to regularly fix even unfamiliar items.  You are quite adept at figuring out what strange items do, so long as they aren't inherently magical, as many First Age wonders are. You come up with truly ingenious solutions to mechanical problems from time to time. At this level you could function as a professional crafter of some talent, or as a very skilled tinker. By this point most anyone will have acquired some professional, specialized training (see below).
Craft 4:  You would almost never break even the most esoteric and fragile of contraptions, and could understand and (possible) fix almost any item whose functioning isn't entirely magical. Hell, sometimes you can even get simple First Age antiquities on their feet, without the help of a savant. You regularly posit ingenious solutions and designs, and your genuine flashes of inspiration border on wonder-working. You'd become renown in any profession you applied yourself to, and could make a killing as a tinker under some Scavenger Lord's patronage. As a professional, you'd produce goods of very high quality indeed.
Craft 5:  You could handle otherworldly First Age wonders without fear of damaging them, and regularly manage to fix simple wonders of that long gone age. You are a walking repository of mechanical inclination, and great cities sometimes beg for you to come and examine the First Age infrastructure, in the hopes you could plan repairs. Savants come to you in hopes you can puzzle out the function of items with no recorded function or history, and few leave disappointed. In a profession you could produce the highest quality goods made by mortal hands, and your wares would make stunning gifts fit for the likes of the Perfect, Deathlords, or the Empress herself (were she still about to receive them.)
With that robust and broad range of skill established, it's obvious that this isn't Craft from the core book. It's something more, and then entirely less. The way in which a storyteller seeking to employ my system needs to see craft is free of canonical rating usage. Craft 5 (Weaponsmith) in canon would be a legendarily good weaponsmith, but s/he should not be allowed to work at repairing silk, building a ship, or in a more esoteric example, hybridizing rare plants of the Dragon Kings, even at reduced dice pool. I handle professions differently, and this is the key to seeing how my system is a compromise between the multiple craft solution of the canon game and the there-is-ONLY-craft solution + specialties others have posited.
Professions
Professions are a modification to specialties that I have devised to be the new root for professional, specialized training in any given 'craft.' They only go to 4, and represent training in a specific profession. (They remind me of 'certifications' in Star Wars Galaxies, though after closer examination I can't really tell why. ) No comprehensive list could be created, such is the myriad nature of the Second Age, but professions range from the normal and common (Tailoring, Armorsmithing, Architecture) to the forgotten, exotic, or forbidden (Dragon King Herbology, First Age Weapon, Soulsteel, Fleshcraft) The xp cost of professions is 3 for the first point, 6 for the second, 9 for the third, and 12 for those rare few with the fourth. These costs are halved, rounded up, for Twilight Caste Solars and others, where appropriate. The system for professions is as follows:
Profession 1 [apprentice]: With this level of training in a given craft, you are highly unskilled and largely dependant upon your master (or if you've misplaced your master, someone better trained. Or your just largely useless.
 ) You know how to make some things related to your craft, usually poorly, but have gained the necessary basics required to one day become a genuine craftsman in your chosen profession. [All Craft rolls made at -1 die. Storytellers should disallow or further penalize difficult or esoteric crafting attempts.]
Profession 2 [adept]: With this level of training in a given craft, you are a handy assistant who can be trusted to maintain the production quota of the workshop in your master's absence. You understand all but the most esoteric and difficult aspects of your profession, and your skills are only limited by your overall level of mechanical inclination (your Craft rating.) You could go into business for yourself, and depending on your overall craftiness, might make a very good living. [No dice penalties for most rolls. At the storyteller’s discretion, as for most other skills, trying to create exotic items or use rare materials might carry a penalty.]
Profession 3 [master]: You are a master of your craft. Rich merchants pay well for their children to be your apprentices, and your wares are regarded to be peer to almost any mortal craftsman, and thus are quite valuable. You and your like are the living heart of commerce in this Age of Sorrows, well respected by the Guild and others who live on commerce. [+1 die on Craft rolls. May now, at the storyteller’s discretion, specialize further in Craft, for instance, an Armorsmith might be singularly famed for skill at horse barding. I would not let players get carried away though. Personally, I think they would have to focus to an absurd degree to warrant even a 1 point specialty.]
Profession 4 [legendary]: Your work is nearly the ideal perfection of your craft. Your name is spoken of with awe, or whispered in fear. You re-define your craft with each experiment you undertake, and very often manage to improve it with methodology lesser minds could never have imagined. You might enjoy the patronage of those crafter gods who oversee your chosen work, and no doubt your work is often an equal to theirs. The wealthiest of guild factors buy their children and favored grandchildren apprenticeships, if you can even be bothered with such a thing. If your profession is even reasonably lucrative then you are wealthy beyond the aspirations of the lowly apprentice you once resembled. The other great powers of the world might well have designs for you, depending on your craft, and if you are mortal, you had best ingratiate yourself to favorable powers-that-be, lest one of the dangerous forces playing at this broken world steal you away as their new favorite toy. [+2 die on Craft rolls. Even in the First Age, crafters with this level of skill, mortal or otherwise, were valued more than their weight in Orichalcum. Given time to work, this legendary crafter may help bring about the forgotten heights this craft enjoyed in that forgotten age. Or, in some profession's case (think Soulsteel) help being about the final annihilation the craft exists to facilitate.   ÂÂ
The most important thing, in my mind, to appreciating this system is how robust Craft becomes at higher ranks, by corollary how rare higher ranks should be, and further how rare master and legendary professionals are. Your average mortal artisan has Craft 2 and is rated as an adept in his chosen profession. Some few in any given population will be masters, usually the centers of their commodity or profession’s business in the city or region. Many master artisan have Craft 3, though not all, a few have 4. Craft 5 professionals would be as rare as Sidereals, and would work wonders by the Second Age’s standards. That is something my system (and thus my vision of Craft in my game) emphasizes, and I use the die bonus’s from professions to facilitate: Craft 4 and 5 are rare, and most mortals never develop that level of mechanical inclination, largely because they don’t need to. They instead become masters in one given field. Craft 4 and 5 are really the provision of professional tinkers and non-mortals, be they Twilight Caste, crafter gods and demons, Sidereals, etc.
Well, I could write a bit more on the subject, but for now I think this is sufficient for initial C&C.
Regards,
~Griggori
So, the issue of how Craft canonically is separated into a plethora of different Abilities has been at issues several times on the forums, and I wanted to present my solution. It isn't really novel, but resembles a synthesis of what several members has put forth, even though I developed it independently before even reading the posts. Great minds think alike, I suppose. ÂÂ
 At any rare, C&C are welcome. What follows is how I plan to handle Craft in an upcoming Chronicle:Rather than handling Craft as the whole gamut of industry and artisan-based skills, in my game craft will now represent a broad and robust aptitude for hands-on applications and activities.  It represents mechanical inclination, ingenuity and problem solving as it pertains to planning, building, repairing and understanding physical items. A character with Craft 1 would be better than the average person at making minor repairs on a familiar item, and might be able to occasionally posit clever means of 'rigging' items to function when disinclined to. Just as a person with 2 of an ability is considered able to practice at a professional level (for a mortal) someone with Craft 2 might be a handyman or an assistant to a scavenger lord. Similar in the way Lore was very deftly described by Jakk Bey, Craft in my game breaks down like so:
Craft
Craft 1:  You rarely break familiar items by casual handling them, and can occasionally manage to 'rig' simple and familiar broken items to be relatively functional again. You come up with a novel solution to a mechanical problem once in a while. You could function well as an unskilled laborer with this level of Craft.
Craft 2:  You almost never damage familiar things by casually handling them, and can usually repair common items to be as good as new. You can occasionally puzzle out unusual items functions. You regularly have novel solutions to mechanical problems. You could function as a village handy-man at this level of Craft, and would be a good candidate for apprenticeship in many professions.
Craft 3:  You never break things in casual handling, and manage to regularly fix even unfamiliar items.  You are quite adept at figuring out what strange items do, so long as they aren't inherently magical, as many First Age wonders are. You come up with truly ingenious solutions to mechanical problems from time to time. At this level you could function as a professional crafter of some talent, or as a very skilled tinker. By this point most anyone will have acquired some professional, specialized training (see below).
Craft 4:  You would almost never break even the most esoteric and fragile of contraptions, and could understand and (possible) fix almost any item whose functioning isn't entirely magical. Hell, sometimes you can even get simple First Age antiquities on their feet, without the help of a savant. You regularly posit ingenious solutions and designs, and your genuine flashes of inspiration border on wonder-working. You'd become renown in any profession you applied yourself to, and could make a killing as a tinker under some Scavenger Lord's patronage. As a professional, you'd produce goods of very high quality indeed.
Craft 5:  You could handle otherworldly First Age wonders without fear of damaging them, and regularly manage to fix simple wonders of that long gone age. You are a walking repository of mechanical inclination, and great cities sometimes beg for you to come and examine the First Age infrastructure, in the hopes you could plan repairs. Savants come to you in hopes you can puzzle out the function of items with no recorded function or history, and few leave disappointed. In a profession you could produce the highest quality goods made by mortal hands, and your wares would make stunning gifts fit for the likes of the Perfect, Deathlords, or the Empress herself (were she still about to receive them.)
With that robust and broad range of skill established, it's obvious that this isn't Craft from the core book. It's something more, and then entirely less. The way in which a storyteller seeking to employ my system needs to see craft is free of canonical rating usage. Craft 5 (Weaponsmith) in canon would be a legendarily good weaponsmith, but s/he should not be allowed to work at repairing silk, building a ship, or in a more esoteric example, hybridizing rare plants of the Dragon Kings, even at reduced dice pool. I handle professions differently, and this is the key to seeing how my system is a compromise between the multiple craft solution of the canon game and the there-is-ONLY-craft solution + specialties others have posited.
Professions
Professions are a modification to specialties that I have devised to be the new root for professional, specialized training in any given 'craft.' They only go to 4, and represent training in a specific profession. (They remind me of 'certifications' in Star Wars Galaxies, though after closer examination I can't really tell why. ) No comprehensive list could be created, such is the myriad nature of the Second Age, but professions range from the normal and common (Tailoring, Armorsmithing, Architecture) to the forgotten, exotic, or forbidden (Dragon King Herbology, First Age Weapon, Soulsteel, Fleshcraft) The xp cost of professions is 3 for the first point, 6 for the second, 9 for the third, and 12 for those rare few with the fourth. These costs are halved, rounded up, for Twilight Caste Solars and others, where appropriate. The system for professions is as follows:
Profession 1 [apprentice]: With this level of training in a given craft, you are highly unskilled and largely dependant upon your master (or if you've misplaced your master, someone better trained. Or your just largely useless.
 ) You know how to make some things related to your craft, usually poorly, but have gained the necessary basics required to one day become a genuine craftsman in your chosen profession. [All Craft rolls made at -1 die. Storytellers should disallow or further penalize difficult or esoteric crafting attempts.]Profession 2 [adept]: With this level of training in a given craft, you are a handy assistant who can be trusted to maintain the production quota of the workshop in your master's absence. You understand all but the most esoteric and difficult aspects of your profession, and your skills are only limited by your overall level of mechanical inclination (your Craft rating.) You could go into business for yourself, and depending on your overall craftiness, might make a very good living. [No dice penalties for most rolls. At the storyteller’s discretion, as for most other skills, trying to create exotic items or use rare materials might carry a penalty.]
Profession 3 [master]: You are a master of your craft. Rich merchants pay well for their children to be your apprentices, and your wares are regarded to be peer to almost any mortal craftsman, and thus are quite valuable. You and your like are the living heart of commerce in this Age of Sorrows, well respected by the Guild and others who live on commerce. [+1 die on Craft rolls. May now, at the storyteller’s discretion, specialize further in Craft, for instance, an Armorsmith might be singularly famed for skill at horse barding. I would not let players get carried away though. Personally, I think they would have to focus to an absurd degree to warrant even a 1 point specialty.]
Profession 4 [legendary]: Your work is nearly the ideal perfection of your craft. Your name is spoken of with awe, or whispered in fear. You re-define your craft with each experiment you undertake, and very often manage to improve it with methodology lesser minds could never have imagined. You might enjoy the patronage of those crafter gods who oversee your chosen work, and no doubt your work is often an equal to theirs. The wealthiest of guild factors buy their children and favored grandchildren apprenticeships, if you can even be bothered with such a thing. If your profession is even reasonably lucrative then you are wealthy beyond the aspirations of the lowly apprentice you once resembled. The other great powers of the world might well have designs for you, depending on your craft, and if you are mortal, you had best ingratiate yourself to favorable powers-that-be, lest one of the dangerous forces playing at this broken world steal you away as their new favorite toy. [+2 die on Craft rolls. Even in the First Age, crafters with this level of skill, mortal or otherwise, were valued more than their weight in Orichalcum. Given time to work, this legendary crafter may help bring about the forgotten heights this craft enjoyed in that forgotten age. Or, in some profession's case (think Soulsteel) help being about the final annihilation the craft exists to facilitate.   ÂÂ
The most important thing, in my mind, to appreciating this system is how robust Craft becomes at higher ranks, by corollary how rare higher ranks should be, and further how rare master and legendary professionals are. Your average mortal artisan has Craft 2 and is rated as an adept in his chosen profession. Some few in any given population will be masters, usually the centers of their commodity or profession’s business in the city or region. Many master artisan have Craft 3, though not all, a few have 4. Craft 5 professionals would be as rare as Sidereals, and would work wonders by the Second Age’s standards. That is something my system (and thus my vision of Craft in my game) emphasizes, and I use the die bonus’s from professions to facilitate: Craft 4 and 5 are rare, and most mortals never develop that level of mechanical inclination, largely because they don’t need to. They instead become masters in one given field. Craft 4 and 5 are really the provision of professional tinkers and non-mortals, be they Twilight Caste, crafter gods and demons, Sidereals, etc.
Well, I could write a bit more on the subject, but for now I think this is sufficient for initial C&C.
Regards,
~Griggori
