Maelstrom Rules - Skills: Craft Skills

Key Concepts
Anyone can make a makeshift weapon or suit of armour. To make a crafted item requires sufficient materials, the skills to work the materials and the relevant craft item skill.

The skill of a craftsmen is expressed in the range of items he can make. A master craftsman knows how to produce examples of his craft which are more effective than a common crafted item.

Characters with craft skills will receive lore sheets to help them identify crafted items at events. Information on equipment is in Chapter Nine.

Craft Skills
Craft Item (Type): This skill allows the character to make crafted items between events. You may purchase this skill more than once. Each time that you select this skill you must select a type of item that your character can craft, chosen from the following list:

Axe, Mace, Sword, Great Weapon, Bow, Pistol, Armour, Shield, Ship, Building, Jewellery, Siege Weaponry, Surgeon’s Implements, Telescope.

The craft item skill allows you to make the simplest examples of your craft during downtime. Most craft skills require you to have at least one work material skill to use them effectively. For example, to make a sword you must have craft sword and work iron. The items listed in Chapter Nine are good examples of the items that you will be able to make.

If you have the craft armour skill then you can repair armour. It takes one minute of appropriate role-playing to mend a single point of damage to a suit of armour at an event.

Mastercraft Item (Type): If you have learnt to craft an item then you may purchase the skill to mastercraft that item. You must choose an item that you already know how to craft. For example, if you have craft jewellery then you may purchase the mastercraft jewellery skill.

The mastercraft item skill allows you to make more potent examples of your craft in downtime. These items are more effective than the items listed in Chapter Nine. The items that you can make depend on the skill that you choose and your culture, race and allegiance. For example, if you purchase the mastercraft sword skill and are Kamakuran then you know how to make a tachi, the traditional Kamakuran sword that is particularly deadly when wielded by a skilled swordsman.

Work Precious Metal: The character knows how to work all kinds of common precious metal and gemstones; this includes silver, gold, semi-precious and precious gemstones. You cannot make a crafted item that includes precious metal or gems as a key constituent without possessing this skill. Work precious metal is essential for making crafted jewellery.

Work Iron: The character knows how to work iron as well as most common lesser metals. You cannot make a crafted item that includes iron as a key constituent without possessing this skill. Work iron is essential for making crafted weapons, shields, pistols and heavy armour.

Work Wood: The character knows how to work all kinds of common wood; this includes most hard and soft woods. You cannot make a crafted item that includes wood as a key constituent without possessing this skill. Work wood is essential for making crafted bows, shields, ships and buildings.

And so it began......

Dawn breaks, war looms, the evil Lord is gathering his armies to wage a campaign of destruction upon the free peoples of the world. It is up to I, Sir Maximilan Pegasus to stop him, with my trusted band of adventurers we must gather the enchanted sword of Tek, the Shield of Way-Lem and the amulet of Subsidence and together we shall slay this abomination! “TIME FREEZE” And bam, the fantasy world fades away, the enchanted sword of Tek in my hand is a rubber sword smothered in coloured ribbons with a laminated card cable tied to the hilt, I look down and I’m wearing plastic armour and unflattering heropants, and the magical world of my imagination washes away to reveal a field in Wigan, but you know what? It’s larp and I’m a larper, it’s what I do.
I started larping when I was 17, I’d never role-played before, I’d never played D&D or Warhammer, never played WoW or any form of online game, I’d never even read Lord of the Rings, I feel somewhat privileged that I hadn’t done any of those things, I think it gave me an untainted attitude towards what larp could be, I had no preconceptions about saving the maiden fair, slaying the dragon or smiting the liche, to me it was just a new thing to try.
It was cold, really cold, 10am on a September morning, the rain was battering down and I’d been given a faux fur tunic, a mouldy old sword and been pointed towards a man and told, “You’re monstering, there’s the ref he’ll tell you what to do.” I obeyed, I played wave after wave of zombies, orcs and various line monsters and to be honest, was cold, bored and hungry. That is, until lunchtime, the teams switched sides, I got into the kit I’d scrounged up, as with most first timers, a black trenchcoat. I took the mouldy old sword, stood with my fellow adventurers and it hit me, I’m a god damn hero!
Pow, there it was, a new larper was born.