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Old 08-14-2015, 05:20 PM   #31
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

To be honest, using margin of success for weapon quality is the wrong way of going about it in the first place -- while you do require somewhat more skill to make a better weapon, a lot of the requirement is just better materials and spending a whole bunch more time (much of which time is likely spent by an assistant).
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Old 08-14-2015, 06:01 PM   #32
simply Nathan
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

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Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker View Post
Solid silver quarterstaffs anyone? That's $400 apiece. Be sure to melt them down and resell the material for $4000!
That would get you a quarterstaff where the two steel end-caps were replaced with silver; the CF for silver weapons is to change the metal components, not the shafts. And that's only if the GM was aware of the shodding and allowed that modifier at all.
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Old 08-14-2015, 08:10 PM   #33
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

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Fair enough, but you run into the problem of cost factor increases not representing the labour and/or materials needed each time you enhance weapons that are very cheap. Doesn't really matter if you use CF or multiples. Solid silver quarterstaffs anyone? That's $400 apiece. Be sure to melt them down and resell the material for $4000!

At one point any such system will have to address either item weight (for changes in material composition) or crafting time of the additions per se. Making an axe Ornate +3 really should be no cheaper or faster than making a greatsword Ornate +3. It might even be more expensive relatively, because the axe has less "stylishness" to start with.
I never heard of quarterstaffs gaining popularity among the elite(some peasants' weapons did in fact; stylized saxes and axes have been found in graves). It might have been better if they had, as fewer quarrels would have ended in death and more in a few bruises and a drinking party to make up afterwords. Actually that sounds more like something a Caithness noble would be into then a Megalos if you put it in Yrth.

Even if they had, a solid silver weapon of any kind is hard to picture. Bullets are a bit different. They would at least work about as good as lead.

Silver decoration on the other hand, especially for hilts, sheaths, and other places not expected to be at the business end is acceptable.

As far as staffs go, I would less expect to have a gentleman with a quarterstaff and more one with a cane that has iron on the straight end for thief discouragement and maybe silver on the handle.
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Old 08-14-2015, 10:59 PM   #34
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

The problem might be that it's being boiled down to a single roll, and thus the crafting design being distorted by players naturally stacking everything possible into that one roll.

What if we split up the crafting roll?

Warning: Idea I just thought up this minute, may be utterly flawed.

Have a quality score, basically cumulative MoS. Reach a score of X and you made X quality product.

Roll your skill normally, but multiple times. Don't add material quality into the mix.

You get to roll as many times as the material quality itself grants. Bog iron might let you roll twice, while crucible steel may give you 5 rolls. Maybe craft secret perk gives you an extra roll on whatever material or product the perk is for. So a Craft Secret (Bog Iron) would allow 3 crafting rolls, letting the smith make great... bog iron swords.
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Old 08-15-2015, 06:49 AM   #35
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

Basically, you're looking to turn it into a long task or extended skill check. Not a bad idea, but note that splitting a task up into multiple rolls tends to push results towards the average - it's going to make it a lot harder to make a good sword with the bog iron, and a lot harder to make a bad sword with crucible steel.
My impression is that you can make a good sword out of bad iron, it's in fact what Japanese sword smithing specializes in. It's just a rather fiddly business.
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Old 08-15-2015, 06:56 AM   #36
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

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Even if they had, a solid silver weapon of any kind is hard to picture. Bullets are a bit different. They would at least work about as good as lead.
Silver bullets of any use are nearly impossible to make, at least via casting - and bullets are normally made via casting. The big problem is that silver contracts irregularly as it cools, and you end up with a silver bullet with pits and dings on it, and a distinct lack of aerodynamics. Like, missing at 20 feet and no idea where the bullet went sort of bad aerodynamics.
It's a much worse situation than just the mold lines you might get on regular lead bullets, although you can have those too and the metal is harder so it's much more work to get rid of them.

You can make them by lathing the bullet out of silver rods and then doing a hell of a lot of polishing, but that produces a pile of silver turnings that you'll then be spending the rest of the day chasing around your shop to try and recover and melt down again, because that's just spendy. This is a much slower and skill-intensive process than bullet casting, with a different skill set.
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Old 08-15-2015, 08:30 AM   #37
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

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Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Silver bullets of any use are nearly impossible to make, at least via casting - and bullets are normally made via casting. The big problem is that silver contracts irregularly as it cools, and you end up with a silver bullet with pits and dings on it, and a distinct lack of aerodynamics. Like, missing at 20 feet and no idea where the bullet went sort of bad aerodynamics.
It's a much worse situation than just the mold lines you might get on regular lead bullets, although you can have those too and the metal is harder so it's much more work to get rid of them.

You can make them by lathing the bullet out of silver rods and then doing a hell of a lot of polishing, but that produces a pile of silver turnings that you'll then be spending the rest of the day chasing around your shop to try and recover and melt down again, because that's just spendy. This is a much slower and skill-intensive process than bullet casting, with a different skill set.
There was a very long, very neat article about this - I'll see if I can find it.

Found it.
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Old 08-15-2015, 01:00 PM   #38
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

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As far as staffs go,
Staffs? Staves? Now I'm uncertain.
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Old 08-15-2015, 01:08 PM   #39
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

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There was a very long, very neat article about this - I'll see if I can find it.

Found it.
AHA! Good to hear you actually can do it, but like lathing the bullets, that seems rather outside the usual skill set for casting bullets and requires some serious equipment.
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Old 08-15-2015, 01:18 PM   #40
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Default Re: Crafting Masterwork, Fine and Balanced Weapons

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Staffs? Staves? Now I'm uncertain.
Staves is more formally correct especial for weaposlns. but staffs is commen enough.
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