Fletching Arrows

[Albert Sales]

   I've used a slight modification of combat rules to address things like this. Failure would destroy some materials. Simple success would grant 0 Work Points. Moderate would grant 1 Work Point. Each extra level of success would double the number of WP up to 8 at impossible. Difficult tasks would subtract points from this award. (When I say difficult, I mean like adding an extra point of fatigue to a weapon, not making a thousand arrows; that would be involved, but not difficult).
   More fitting to specific skill is to allow 1 for moderate, 1+EL/20 to difficult, 2+EL/20 to very difficult, and 4+EL/10 for impossible.
   These "Work points" are then applied to the task. When using this, I replace all instances of "Days" with Work Points. For arrows, I ussually reduce this to 1/2 WP. A common fletcher (EL 20) would be able to average about an arrow every 1-2 days, wasting a little money to destroyed material. If rushed, and if lucky, he could finish 8 (or 6) arrows in one day. An EL 80 fletcher can easily finish 2 (or 5) arrows every day, and if rushed and lucky could finish 8 (or 12) with an impossible. The 8 point limit makes sense with a fletcher, because some steps can not be sped up. The EL 80 could also try to make BETTER arrows, by sacrificing 1-3 (1-4) WP per day.
   Also, if the craftsman is only trying to work on one standard piece, they can pace themself. They would assign a WP level to test for (Either moderate or difficult only), and roll against 1 level easier. If they pass, they get the number of WP they attempted, if they fail, they gain 0. This actually becomes a factor when trying to modify equipment to be better. (-2 WP per day for +1 FV is -2 WP on a day 0 is scored).
   I've worked out systems of WP and open-ended testing for many skills, if anybody is interested.For hunting, I've found it works quite well at both rewarding good hunters, and detering people from hunting unskilled.

Alex Koponen <akoponen at MOSQUITONET.COM> wrote:
The skill Fletcher states that the time to make an arrow is one day.
Similarly Bowyer has specific times to make specific bows, Armorer has
specific times to make particular AVs of armor, et cetera.

Frankly I think that an EL80 fletcher would be a lot more likely to make a
good arrow AND a lot faster at making it than an EL1 fletcher.

Further, even the same skill fletcher may take X amount of time to make
one arrow, but a lot less than X amount of time per arrow when making a
large batch of arrows. Particularly if he has specialized equipment that
takes preparation and little more preparation for 100 than for 1 (example:
making a pot of glue to glue fletchings on).

Should there be a success roll involved?
What happens with a partial success? With a failure?
Presumably if it is to be enchanted the roll must be a success.

Should the time be variable?
If so, what are the variables?
How much time for what bonus to the roll?
What negative to the roll for going faster?
What modifiers for equipment? For batch processing?

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