[Basic] Skill of the week: Jeweler and Smith

[johndallman]

Jeweler is the IQ/H TL craft/artistic skill of making jewelery, decorating weapons, and generally working with precious metals and gems. You can also value and identify the things made with this skill, and the materials used for them. The boundaries between this and a relevant specialisation of Artist seem somewhat vague, which is fine, but the craft skill is what you want for items that will be worn daily for decades. The defaults are IQ-6, Smith (Copper)-4 or Smith (Tin and Lead)-4. Metallurgy and those two specialisations of Smith have defaults to Jeweler. Jeweler is boosted by High Manual Dexterity, and comes under the Gifted Artist talent.

Smith is the IQ/A TL craft skill of working metals with hand tools, rather than machines. It has a general default of IQ-5, and requires specialisation: (Copper), or "brownsmith", also deals with brass, bronze and other copper alloys, and defaults to Jeweler-4. (Iron), "blacksmith", also deals with steel at TLs where it exists. (Lead and Tin), "whitesmith", deals with soft "white" metals and alloys, such as pewter, and defaults to Jeweler-4. All the specialisations default to each other at -4. Although the skill is IQ-based, it involves hard physical labour, especially (Iron), and ST is important. Several Armoury specialisations and Metallurgy have defaults to Smith.

Neither of these skills lists modifiers, but equipment and workshop/studio quality and Extra Time would clearly apply. Jeweler obviously deals with engraving on jewelry, and probably provides a default for Artist (Engraving). Gem cutting is included in Jeweler, according to Urban Magics. Both skills appeared in GURPS 1e, although the specialisations of Smith appeared at 4e.

These skills don't seem to see many exciting uses: GURPS PDFs have more references to E.E. "Doc" Smith, Cordwainer Smith and Smith & Wesson than to the skill. They show up on a few templates, such as DF Artificers, and in lists of toolkits, and DF Treasures 1: Glittering Prizes has some uses for them, while Fantasy applies them to enchantments, and uses them in examples of artisan trades. Monster Hunters has some Jeweler tasks in making exotic ammunition and silver-bodied grenades. Low-Tech has details of smith's and jeweler's tools, including the minimum ST requirements, and LTC3 has tasks for both skills and job descriptions for professionals. Magic has enchantment via smith-craft. As usual, PU3 and PU7 have examples for these skills. Thaumatology has magic craftsmen, Chinese Elemental Powers has abilities for metal-working and Magical Styles sometimes include required craft skills. Urban Magics includes an enchantment system based on gem cutting. Ultra-Tech has robot arms for ultra-fine manipulation, and Smith is important for rebuilding in the wake of Zombies.

What's been made with these skills in your games?

[simply Nathan]

I just roll Smith and all Armoury specialties together into a single skill. Jeweler becomes part of the Merchant skill or a specialization of the Artist skill depending on application.

[Eukie]

As a skill, Smith has the disadvantage that many of the more interesting things you can do with it are other skills. For example, if you want to make weapons and armour, there's Armory for that. It has a default from Smith, but just picking Armory is simpler.

[(E)]

Had one campaign where the pcs used jeweler extensively. It tied in with the use of shape stone for gem crafting. In that particular campaign I had gold as a key component in defensive "fortification" magic so maintenence of the defences and "house" enchantments required the use of jeweler.
As the PCs had the skills I allowed the use of jeweler in creating runic magic enchantments.
Also used for mounting those required gems on magic items.

[Phil Masters]

Coincidentally, I ran across a bit about Jean-Baptiste Tavernier recently, and I was thinking about the uses of gemstones as plot hooks in pre-modern historical games, treating them as a bit more than anonymous units of account. Though Tavernier probably had Connoisseur (Gemstones) and Merchant (probably specialised to gemstones) rather than Jeweller as such.

[SionEwig]

Something that I'm seeing is some problems with how Jeweler and the other Smith specialties are defined/considered. Is it Jeweler when you work only with certain precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, etc.) or is it Jeweler when you do fine intricate work in pretty much any metal? Consider how much decoration and jewelry was done in bronze (of various types) from the Bronze age up through the 19th century AD. And that work was just as finely detailed as any that you can find in gold or silver from the same time periods. I would also tend to take issue with Jeweler including Gem Cutting. That is a different skill set and equipment. Perhaps from the beginning Jeweler should specify what metal is their specialty - Gold, Silver, Platinum, Bronze, Pewter, Copper, or Gem Cutting - with easy defaults to one another - more like (-2) or (-1). Most metal working of the generally used metals for jewelry is extremely similar. Platinum was about the only exception until more modern times.

In game use I've seen included a thief who remade all that stuff he acquired. Several characters who made jewelry as hobbies. One who had it as his profession between adventures, mainly repairing damaged items that had been found or damaged in combat.

[(E)]

Historically silversmiths and cutlers had some measure of overlap .
How do fine stone and bone work fit in?

[johndallman]

I think it's Jeweler when you're making adornment, and Smith when you're making practical stuff. You may very well use both skills on the same item.

[RogerBW]

Neither of these skills shows up on any character in my archives.

I'd have thought Jeweler would be important in the Mad Lands, with their gem-injection sorcery, but it's actually one of the banned skills - they're too low-tech, I guess. Still, quite a few books have magic as an outgrowth of craft, and these skills could be important there - or indeed in a campaign that includes earning a living as well as conventional "adventuring" activities. (A jeweler might make a decent hook for an occult investigator, with people bringing strange old family pieces for him to clean up and repair.)

Even so, I think that if I were writing a new GURPS-style game I'd generalise crafting skills under a single heading in much the same way that Artist is handled now.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Even so, I think that if I were writing a new GURPS-style game I'd generalise crafting skills under a single heading in much the same way that Artist is handled now.

Or professional Skills.