So, I am about to start a game and one of my players want to be a Vanir blacksmith. I am looking for rules regarding creation of items using Craft skill but I did not find much if any at all.
What kind of rules could I get here? Set a standard difficulty (say, D2) then with eventual additional momentum (in addition to making the item faster) allow them to make the item better? Like 2 momentum for a +1CD or something.
They are very new to the system so I don’t think they would find a way to abuse it so soon.
Any other ideas I could consider in this situation?
I strongly recommend against granting CD to weapon damage at the cost of momentum, as characters can generate insane amount of momentum with single check (such as getting max pool with Doom and ensuring 2 successes with Fortune Point). Combining weapons with much higher damage than regular ones with talents later on, that increase or allow for damage re-rolls will make preparation of challenging encounters much harder. The characters in Conan are very capable from the beginning, capable of taking group of enemies.
Instead, I would suggest the following:
Difficulty for crafting weapon is equal to D1 + availability of the weapon
Require raw materials to be purchased with Gold at half the weapon’s price
Bonus momentum can be spend for creating items faster, reduce raw material spend by 1 for every 3 points of momentum spent
To balance the crafting in campaign where you will have numerous downtime periods of unknown length, you might introduce carousing activity related to crafting, so characters don’t craft weapons for whole army, then sell and further ruin your plans. Or decide how much time each weapon category takes to craft and then give that amount of rolls based on such table (such as small arms take 1-2 days, big weapons 5 days etc.)
It might be worth discussing what the player wants out of crafting. Is it just “I want to make stuff” or is it “I want to make stuff that’s better than in the book” or is it “I want to make things to sell to become very wealthy”. Crafting can have a significant impact on any game and the why is important to keep in mind.
Often players want to be crafters so they can make things cheaper so they can save money or to sell them to gain more money. Both of which seem to be antithetical to the spirit of Conan.
The Craft skill is very useful for actual adventuring, for destroying fortifications or taking down structures, building cover on the fly, repairing sacrificed armor etc. - All fitting for Sword&Sorcery adventuring.
But “crafting”, like working to produce a manufactured product, usually to sell it for providing the crafter with income for their livelihood - that is really the “anti-Conan”-type of character. This is a NPC, not a PC.
I agree that all of this is “anti-Conan” but, if you really like the subject, have a look at the “Exiles sorucebook” where crafting if further detailed with more rules and more talents (to mimic what is happening in the computer game).