[Basic] Skill of the week: Leatherworking and Sewing

[johndallman]

Leatherworking is the DX/Easy craft skill of making, modifying and repairing leather goods. The only default is DX-4, and no skills default to Leatherworking.

Sewing is the DX/Easy TL craft skill of making, modifying and repairing items from fabric. The only default is DX-4, and no skills default to Sewing. Before the availability of cheap mass-produced clothing at TL7, this was a vital skill for every household, but at higher TLs, most people do it at default, although there are still plenty of specialists in the clothing trade.

These skills take the same modifiers: bonuses from equipment and High Manual Dexterity and penalties from Ham-Fisted. Both fall under the Gifted Artist talent. IQ-based Sewing is used to design clothing (Fashion Sense gives +1), and the same rule could sensibly be applied to Leatherworking.

Leatherworking appeared at GURPS 1e, but was IQ-based until 4e. I'm not clear why it isn't a TL skill, given that Sewing is, and both were revolutionised by the sewing machine. Sewing didn't appear until 4e although 3e Compendium I has a Physical/Average Needlecraft skill, for embroidery and other decorative sewing.

These skills show up on assorted templates, including the Banestorm Peasant Hero, who should have Sewing as an option; the Assassin in Crusades; DF Artificers; Fantasy's Peasant Adventurer (again, this should have Sewing as an option), Wardancers, Roman Courtesans and Surgeons. High-Tech has toolkits for both skills, and bonuses for sewing machines. Low-Tech has repair, concealment and construction of armour, and LTC3 adds the Professional Skills of Tanning and Clothmaking, more on making armour, and the profession of tailoring, with either skill. PU3 has a single Talent that includes both these skills, and another for Sewing; PU7 lacks any Wildcard skills where these skills are at the focus. Reign of Steel: Will to Live has Leatherworking on several templates, but not Sewing; Social Engineering has rules about clothing for high Status and making it with Sewing. Supers covers costumes for heroes, and Tactical Shooting has pocket holsters and concealed load-bearing gear. Thaumatology: Magical Styles suggests craft skills for Making and Breaking specialists, and Urban Magics has the Glamour Girl style, and Connoisseur (Fashion).

GURPS doesn't let you specialise Easy skills, or ones that aren't based on IQ. But (Shoemaker), (Saddler) or (Embroidery) seem like sensible specialisations for these skills. A Perk giving the modifiers of optional specialisation -- +1 for a medium category of uses, -2 for all others -- could patch this hole, I suppose.

What have you stitched up in a game?

[dripton]

In the (famously overgenerous) GURPS Fantasy 3E jobs table, Artisan/Crafter required any craft skill at 14+ and paid $80 times skill. Leatherworking is DX-based and Easy, and doesn't require particularly expensive or complicated tools, so it was an excellent pick for a high-DX character who wanted to make some money between adventures. I don't recall it ever being useful during adventures, though.

[Vynticator]

Very important skill in the 'shipwrecked in the Dark Ages' storyline I ran recently. Lots of lesser-used skills came to be much more useful, things like making shoes, clothing and shelter required this kind of skill.

[simply Nathan]

I've put Sewing on a few characters I've made for various threads around here (a catgirl made by a biotech wizard as an intended gestation chamber for future chimeras who escaped to become a free adventurer, a cat-man who escaped the half-dozen lionesses he was arranged to marry in order to become a free adventurer, and every idealized version of myself in the Stat Yourself threads; all of these as part of a "housekeeper" upbringing and all three also had the Housekeeping skill).

[RogerBW]

Sewing sits uncomfortably between Housekeeping (which explicitly covers minor clothing repairs, at least at TL6 and below) and a full-on art/craft skill; see previous comments on Cooking.

This is obviously important to a pirate crew who have to fix up their torn sails, but I don't think it's ever been really relevant in a game in which I was involved; perhaps to recognise a particular stitching style?