GURPS/Smithing

Legendary Smithing

These rules are an expansion of GURPS Campaigns for the creation of items (weapons and armor) by the hands of PCs and NPCs. They were created with a medieval setting in mind.

Canon effects of high quality:

Weapons of "fine" quality cause +1 to damage and are 4 times more expensive if they are swords, three times more expensive if they only cause crushing / impaling damage (maces, spears and hammers), and 10 times more expensive for any other weapon (axes, halberds) (Rules pC274).

Long-range weapons of "fine" quality have a 20% increase in their range, 1/2D and Max, and are four times more expensive.

A weapon "fine" quality is made with an "Armoury" skill roll at -4.

Weapons of "Very Fine" quality cause +2 to damage and cost 20 times more. They are made with an "Armoury" skill roll at -8.

"Fine" quality armor have a DR increase of 1 and weigh 25% less. They cost five times more and are made with a "smith" skill roll at -4. Armor of "very fine" quality have a +2 increase to DR and weigh 25% less, OR weigh 50% less and have a +1 increase to DR. They are made with a "smith" skill roll at -8.

Shields of "fine" quality have DR +1 and +10 in their HP. A shields' DB does NOT increase with quality. Shields of very fine quality have RD +2 and +20 HP. The same skills penalties (-4, -8) and cost multipliers (x4, x20) apply in creating shields of "fine" or "very fine" quality.

The penalty for creating an item of fine or very fine quality does not influence the determination of enhancement points that can be spent on an item (see below).

Materials:

The skills "weaponsmith" and "blacksmith" in their default values allow for the creation of materials made of iron. Iron is the "default" material used in all forge activities. However, other materials can also be used, of varying quality. Thus, the character must learn a material-specific "blacksmith" skill, at level 15+ (or spending a character point, whatever costs more). Therefore, to create an Adamantium armor, for instance, the character must have a "blacksmith (Adamantium)" skill on level 15+ (or spending a character point, whatever costs more), and the "blacksmith (armor)" skill at any level. The roll used in the creation of the item is that of his "blacksmith (armor)" skill.

If the character has no skill with the material in question, he will be subject to a skill penalty of -5.

Time for Creation:

A melee weapon is created in a time which equals its weight (in kilograms) times 16 hours. A long-range weapon takes a time equal to its weight times 24 hours. Thus, a two-handed sword takes on average 40 hours to be created (about 5 working days), and a composite bow takes 96 hours (12 days).

Armor takes a building time equal to its weight in kg times 2 hours, if made of metal, or four times its weight if made of leather or fur. Thus, a steel breastplate takes 36 hours to be created (about 4 1/2 days), and a leather armor takes 40 hours (5 days).

The same time to create armor is used in the creation of shields.

A character can change the creation time or weapons or armor to get a bonus or penalty in their creation roll. A 100% increase in the creation time grants a bonus of +1, and each 8% reduction in time yields a -1 penalty. Thus, a character with "Armoury" on skill level 10 could create a two-handed sword (which takes five building days) of fine quality rolling against 10 if he spends 16 days more to create it.

The maximum bonus or penalty that can be achieved with time modifications is 10, which corresponds to a 10-fold increase in time or a decrease of 80%.

Legendary Quality:

If a character has a skill level in blacksmith or gunsmith that equals or exceeds 15, it can improve even more an armor or weapon that he creates, achieving effects that go beyond those allowed for the "very fine" quality.

For each skill point above 15, he can place on the weapon an "enhancement point". These enhancement points can be used to buy modifiers for the item, so that it becomes much more effective than even a weapon of very fine quality.

The skill level used to calculate the enhancement points is the raw skill level in blacksmith, before considering any bonuses or penalties for the quality or creation time of an item.

Enhancement points can only be placed into weapons and armor of "very fine" quality. If the blacksmith / weaponsmith is not successful in creating a weapon of very "fine" quality, all enhancement points are wasted and the weapon or armor in question breaks near the end of the creation process.

Each enhancement point increases the final cost of the weapon by 25%. Remember that the weapon that receives an enhancement point already costs 20 times more(!)

What enhancement points can purchase:

Melee Weapons:

Effect:	EP Cost:
Extra Cutting Damage	2 per each +1 to weapon cutting damage
Extra Impaling Damage	2 per each +1 to weapon impaling damage
Extra Crushing damage	1 per each +1 to weapon crushing damage
Reach increase	2, increases range by 1 hex
Parry (flags scale: 'No' -> -1 -> '0U' -> '0' -> +1)	2 per change in parry scale
Less weight	1 per each 15% reduction, max = 90%
Lower minimum ST	1 per each less point of ninimum ST

Long-range weapons:

Effect:	EP Cost:
Extra Damage	2 per each +1 to damage
Accuracy	1 per each +1 to accuracy
Range	1 per each 20% increase
Weight	1 per each 15% reduction, max = 90%
RoF	2 per each extra shot per turn
Shots	1 per turn, less time to prepare a shot
Lower minimum ST	1 per each less point of ninimum ST
Bulk	1 per each +1 to bulk

Armor:

Effect:	EP Cost:
Extra RD	2 per each extra point of DR
Less weight	1 per each 8% reduction, max = 80%

Shields:

Effect:	EP Cost:
Extra DB	3 per point of DB. Max for any shield: +3
Extra DR	1 per each extra point of DR
Extra HP	1 for each HP multiplying factor
Less weight	1 each 15% reduction, max = 90%

Extra HP in shields work like this: For 1 EP, shield HP is multiplied by 2. For 2 EPs, it is multiplied by 3. For 3 EPs, it is multiplied by 4, and so on. Each EP increases the multiplying factor by 1 point.

Negative quality:

Blacksmiths can also add negative quality in the weapons they make in order to create better effects in some aspects, but worse in others. A weapon, for instance, could be heavier, but yield more damage. Or have a bonus in parrying, but cause less damage.

Thus, a blacksmith could put negative enhancement points on a weapon or armor, and balance them with the positive points he gets out of those. The sum of enhancement points, positive and negative, of an item, can never exceed the enhancement points that a blacksmith can usually put on an item. For example, at skill level 15, the sum of quality points of a weapon can not go beyond 0. On skill level 17, the sum can not exceed 2, and so on.

The maximum number of negative enhancement points that can be placed on an item equals his skill level - 10 up to skill level 15. From skill level 15 on, that number is -5.

If the sum of the enhancement points of an item is negative, this influences its price as if it were positive, but for less.

Negative enhancement points may be placed on any item, not just weapons of "very fine" quality. Such items can have their quality be balanced until a sum of 0 quality points, regardless of the quality.

Legendary Weapons:

Blacksmiths with a skill level of 20 or higher can add more effects on an item, infusing it with features that are clearly supernatural. By creating an item of legendary quality, these characters can spend enhancement points on effects that go beyond what can be naturally explainable, magical by nature.

The powers of legendary items are considered, for purposes of magic, an enchantment of power 20.

When a blacksmith with a skill of 20 or above picks a legendary weapon in hand, he is able, with a few moments of observation, to tell who made that item.

The magical features that can be placed in a legendary item are:

Danger Warn - 4 points: Whenever the user of this weapon is in danger, even if he is unaware of it or about to be completely caught off guard, he will unconsciously draw his weapon or prepare his bow, so that when danger comes, he will always be prepared. If he is unable to prepare his weapon, he will still feel an inexplicable compulsion to do so.

Perfect balance - 4 points: This weapon is so perfectly balanced that it is never unprepared after an attack, even if it is a heavy weapon like a halberd or warhammer.

Focused Weapon - 3 points: If the blacksmith has Focus Points, he is able to put these points into a weapon. Each focus point requires 3 enhancement points, and the blacksmith can not put in a weapon more than half his focus points (rounded up).

Deadly Weapon - 5 points: When using this weapon, a roll of 5 or less is considered a critical hit, and should be checked in the critical hits table.

Lethal Weapon - 7 points: When using this weapon, a roll of 6 or less is considered a critical hit, and should be checked in the critical hits table.

Fatal Weapon - 9 points: When using this weapon, a roll of 7 or less is considered a critical hit, and should be checked in the critical hits table.

Intuitive Parry - 6 points: The user of this weapon gains the ability to parry an attack even if it is normally impossible to parry, like a bullet from a gun, a dart from a crossbow or a knife thrown from behind (by surprise). When parrying projectile attacks with this weapon, the user gains a +2 bonus when it comes to diminishing the penalty effects due to the difficulty of the parry. If used with "Danger Warning", this effect creates a weapon that always protects the wearer from any danger, even dangers of long distance attacks, such as "sniper" archers.

Killer Weapon - 4 points per level: Each level of this effect gives the user a modifier in rolls made on the critical hit table: -1 if the original roll is 10 or less, or +1 if the original roll is 11 or more when a critical hit occur. In a critical error, weapon gives +1 in critical error rolls when the original roll is 9 or less, and -1 when the original roll is 11 or more.

Treacherous Weapon - 4 points per level: Each level of this advantage gives the user's opponents a 1 point penalty in his parries or blocks (not dodges) when defending against this weapon.

Defending weapon - 4 points per level: A weapon can only be invested with this effect if it already has the effect "Parry +1" placed with legendary quality. For each level of this effect, the weapon gains an additional bonus of +1 in your parry.

Localized Damage - 4 points per level: This weapon always affects its targets in a way as to cause more damage. It ignores 1 point of DR per level of effect (even if the DR has no weak spots or is magical).

Spirit of the Masters - 4 points per level: This weapon was imbued with the spirit of old warfare masters, and gives its user a +1 bonus to its attack your rolls with it.

Presence of the Masters - 6 points per level: The presence of the spirit of old martial arts masters in this weapon is so strong that it facilitates use of impossible acts of martial prowess. Each level of this advantage gives the user a +1 in all his cinematic skills and maneuvers.

Loyal Weapon - 5 points: This weapon is faithful to its owner, and always finds a way back to him. If it is lost or stolen, the events around them will elapse in order to bring it back to its rightful owner, or his direct descendant if he has died (if he has no living direct descendants, the weapon will belong to whoever picks it up first). It just "changes" its owner if he offers it as a gift, and the presented is accepted (to sell it is also a way to get rid of it).

Enduring Weapon - 2 points: This weapon lasts for ages. It does not lose its sharpness or quality due to the action of the elements. It does not rust and is not eroded over time or fights. It is not even scratched, and is always with the appearance of being new, never needing maintenance. If it is directly attacked, it will be damaged normally and and even break, but if its ever repaired, it always stays like new.

Versatile Defense - 2 points: With this weapon, the fighter is able to spend two energy points and perform a normal attack in a turn where he has made a total defense. He can spend this energy as much as he wants and perform extra attacks in the turn, with the usual penalties.

Bloodlust Weapon - 2 points: With this weapon, the fighter is able to spend an energy point and defend normally in a turn which he has made a full attack. He can spend this energy as much as he wants and perform more defenses with the usual penalties.

Defender of the Gods - 15 points: When using this weapon, a fighter always rolls his defense rolls with an extra die (effectively rolling 4D), and choosing a die to remove from the roll after its made.

Perfect Weapon - 15 points: With this weapon, a fighter is able to attack rolling an extra die (actually rolling 4D), and choosing a die to remove from the roll after it was made.

Pushing Weapon - 5 points: This weapon pushes the fighter forward, allowing it to move its full movement in one roll, and still being able to attack normally.

Determination of Champions - 10 points: When using this weapon, a fighter feels a strong drive towards battle. This weapon prevents its user from losing 1 energy point per turn of combat.

Precise Weapon - 3 points per level: With this weapon, a fighter is able to aim at specific points with ease. It reduces the penalties of hit-location attacks by its "Precise Weapon" level.

War Amulet - 5 points: This weapon is lucky, and protects the owner of fatalities. While using it, he will never be the target of the effects of an enemy's critical hit. This counteracts the advantage "Mortal", "Lethal" or "Fatal" that an opponent's weapon may carry.

Magic Scourge - 2 points per level: Harmful spells do not touch this weapon, or its wielder. Each level of this advantage gives the user a +1 point of selective magic resistance - it only affects harmful spells. This advantage also gives the user a point of DR against any magical damage per level.

Clairvoyant Weapon - 4 points: When using this weapon, a fighter can attack without penalty an opponent that is not visible, or who is with concealed due to low visibility. This does not prevent penalties due to size, speed and distance and other factors - just visibility.

Fleet Weapon - 2 points per level: Each level of this advantage gives the weapon a +1 bonus on initiative when it is used. If the weapon is wielded in the middle of a fight, the fighter's initiative should be adjusted to the new value.

Familiar Weapon - 3 points: This weapon looks familiar to everyone who touches it. A fighter can use it with any similar weapon skill, even though he doesn't have the exact skill for the weapon. A two-handed sword, for example, could be wielded with the "short swords" skill without penalty. A spear could be used with the staff skill, and so on.

Items of Power:

If the smith is REALLY skillful, he can surpass the limits of plausibility and invest truly supernatural powers on a particular weapon (and also jewelry, armor, or anything made of metal).

From skill level 30 and above, and for each skill point above 30, the blacksmith gets a "power point", which can function as an enhancement point, if he so chooses, or as points that allow him to give the weapon a specific supernatural advantage.

Each "power point" equals to 5 character points in a supernatural advantage.

Thus, with skill level 34 (5 power points), the blacksmith could create a weapon that gives its user "360-degree view" (a 25 points advantage). On skill level 31, he could make a weapon that grants "High-Pain Threshold" (10 points).

This applies not only to weapons: With skill level 33 in jewelry, he could make a ring that allows the user not to breathe.

These benefits can be created with enhancements and limitations. They only work while the user is actually holding the object (or while the item is touching its skin). This limitation should not be counted in the cost of the advantage.

It is assumed that all the powers gained by an Item of Power are magical by nature. Do not account for this limitation on the cost of the power.

Objects of power take longer to be made. The time it takes for an object to be finished is multiplied by the number of power points used, squared.

For example, a two-handed sword usually takes 40 hours to be made. If it can grant the user the "See Invisible" power (3 power points), it would take 40 x 9 hours: 360 hours (45 working days).

A sword that would provide the user the "Unkillable 1" advantage (50 character points - 10 power points) would take 4000 hours to be made: 500 days.

No item of power takes less than eight hours to be made.

Different powers can be placed in the same object, as long as the crafter's skill level is enough to put them all at once. The time required equals to the sum of individual times.

For example, a 2-handed sword that gives the user "See Invisible" and "Unkillable" needs 13 power points (skill level 42), and would take 500 + 45 days to be made.

For the purposes of magic, these items are enchanted with a single spell (which has merged all magical properties in one magical effect), with power equal to the craftsman's skill level.

The master is the final arbiter in determining what powers can and can not be placed on an item. A craftsman could not, for example, create an object which confer "status" to its user, or "allies", but could create one that confers "charisma" or that could mentally dominate others.

Tolerance:

Items of power do not like each other - they interfere with the powers that each other emanates and end up cancelling out. When one person uses more than one item of power at the same time, none of them work.

Unless they tolerate each other. The craftsman can use its enhancement points to add "tolerance" to an item of power.

3 enhancement points each give the object a point of tolerance.

A user will only be the target of effects of items of power whose tolerance is greater than or equal to the number of items he is using.

New Advantages for Legendary Smiths:

Transcendent Smithing: 10 points
requires: Blacksmithing skill level 20+

This advantage allows a blacksmith to derive from his vast knowledge in metalworking the way to work with any other material there is. It allows a blacksmith to purchase any crafting skill (such as jewelry, leatherworking, weaponsmithing, glassblowing, etc) as defaulting to his blacksmith skill -8 (thus, with level 20 in blacksmith, all crafting skills start out at the default of skill level 12). Such skills will also benefit from the uses of enhancement points or power points normally.

New Materials

All the above rules are for dealing with iron. Different materials provide modifiers to these rules, easing some attributes, complicating others. Some result in better quality, others in poorer.

All materials also have enhancement points (called: Material Enhancement Points, or MEP). These can be positive or negative. You can not change the enhancement points of a material, they are an intrinsic characteristic of it. You can indeed develop new materials, but this is a costly and time consuming effort that, once completed, can result in the discovery of a material of better intrinsic quality (regardless of a smith's ability to manipulate it).

Materials are specified according to some properties: "Modifier Weight", "Modifier SL", "Modifier time to manipulate", "EP modifier" and modifier in the penalty for handling the material without knowing it (which defaults to -5). These are built according to the following:

Property:	PQs:
Modifier Weight:	3 per 25% more or 10% less
Modifier SL:	2 per +1
Time to handle modifier :	one for every 10% more or 5% less
Modifier EP:	3 + 1 per
Modifier in the penalty for untrained use	1 per +1

• The minimum weight modifier is 90%.
• The maximum penalty for untrained use is -10.

When a material has a modifier in the penalty for untrained of use, this modifier is applied in the minimum blacksmith skill level required to use the item without penalty. Thus, a material whose penalty is for untrained use is -3 can be used without penalty if the character has the blacksmith skill in the appropriate material on skill level 13 or above (or one point spent, whichever is highest). If the penalty were -7, the minimum skill level would be 17, and so on. That is, the minimum skill level to use the material is equal to 10 plus the module of its penalty.

The weight modifier of a material does not affect the time to manipulate it (calculated from the weight of iron for each weapon). This time is changed by the parameter "time to handle".

The EP modifier is a modifier in Enhancement Points on any item made of that material. Thus, items made out of different materials have different qualities.

The "SL modifier" is a modifier to the blacksmith skill level in making anything from that material. This modifier does NOT affect the Enhancement Points of items created. It only indicates an ease of working with the material in question.

The "time to handle modifier" affects the time used to create items from the given material. This modified time is the time that should be used as basis for calculating a bonus or penalty in the blacksmith skill level to use that material. For example, if an iron knife takes eight hours to be made, a copper (-20%) would take 6.4 hours. For a blacksmith to gain +5 bonus in his roll to make that knife, he should spend 5 times more time to create it. Therefore, the total time for him to win this modifier in NH is 6.4 + 6.4 * 5 (38.4 hours).

The EP modifier of a material grants enhancement points that can (and should) be used by any blacksmith, even though he may not have enough skill level to earn some enhancement points.

Each material has a final cost in MEPs that can be positive or negative. This cost indicates the difficulty of finding, creating and developing the material.

Sample Materials:

Copper (-1 MEPs): Weight: +50% (-6) NH: 0 (0) Time manip.: -20% (4) FP: -1 (-3) Penalty: 0 (5)		Brass (0 MEPs): Weight: -10% (3) NH: 0 (0) Time manip.: -10% (2) PQ: -3 (-9) Penalty: -1 (4)		Bronze (0 MEPs): Weight: 0% (0) NH: 0 (0) Time manip.: -10% (2) FP: -1 (-3) Penalty: -4 (1)
Lead (0 MEPs): Weight: +75% (-9) NH: +5 (10) Time manip.: -30% (6) FP: -4 (-12) Penalty: 0 (5)		Steel (0 MEPs): The EPs of steel can only be used to reduce weight, increase the DR of armor, or the damage of weapons. Weight: 0% (0) NH: -1 (-2) Time manip.: +10% (-1) PQ: 1 (3) Penalty: -5 (0)		Adamantium (8 MEPs): Adamantium is a metal created by magic, specifically through the use of the "Essential Earth" spell in the creation of metal. The EPs of Adamantium can only be used to reduce weight or increase the DR of armor. Weight: 20% (6) NH: 0 (0) Time manip.: +100% (-10) FP: 4 (12) Penalty: -5 (0)

Developing new materials

A character with geology and metallurgy can try to develop new materials. There are two possible types of development: new alloys and new elements.

New alloys are new ways to create a material from already known elements. They are different ways to use known resources, and may result in materials that are slightly altered from a pre-existing one.

New elements are entirely new materials, developed either by the discovery of new minerals or new techniques of combining existing minerals.

The character must determine what he is searching, a new alloy or a new element, and the development rules differ according to the type of research.

For research, the character always need a forge and equipment. He needs the Metallurgy skill for the research itself, and "Geology", to know where to get materials.

New alloys

An alloy is a modification of an existing material, but not of another alloy. To develop an alloy, it is always necessary to use another material as a base, and not an alloy derived from it. Only in exceptional cases, such as with Iron and Steel, an alloy can be considered an entirely new material.

The character must define what he wants to achieve with his research, namely: what is exactly the change over the original material that he intends to accomplish. This change will be given as the sum of the number of quality points changed (either for more or less).

An alloy must always have the same sum of the MEP as the unchanged original material. So, for example, if steel is a material of 0 MEPs, all steel alloys should also have 0 MEPs.

The character must know beforehand the total quality points he is going to change in the base material. This number will be, as a rule, an even number (because for each MEP he adds, he must always subtract another). This will be the Modification Number (MN) for the alloy, which will influence all its research rolls.

Each month of work, the character rolls his Metallurgy with a penalty equal to 2.5 times the alloy MN. He adds to this roll a bonus equal to his skill level in Blacksmith with the base material minus the minimum blacksmith skill level required to manipulate the material. Thus, if the character has Blacksmith (Steel) skill at level 17, he has a +2 bonus on the research roll, because the minimum blacksmith skill level to manipulate steel is 15.

If the research roll is successful, the character he accumulates a point of discovery. When he adds as much discovery points as the alloy's MN, he develops it, and will automatically earn a skill point in the "blacksmith" skill for the new alloy.

In a failure, the character has wasted that month of research. On a critical failure, he loses all accumulated discovery points.

On a critical hit, he immediately develops the alloy and roll 3D. If this second roll results in a 3 or 4, then he wins one more MEP in the final account of the new alloy, and it actually becomes a new base material.

In the development of new alloys, the character spends money on materials per month: a cost equal to $200 times the MN of the alloy being developed.

New elements

The discovery of new elements is a much slower process than for new alloys, but does not depend on any previous material base.

The research for new materials can be aided by two factors: one is the physical possession of a mineral block of the new material being searched. Another is the use of magic.

If the character has in hand a piece of ore for the material being researched, he may use this material in its research and direct it with ease. However, for that to happen, the character must perform research in a place where the ore is easily found. So, if the character is researching "oridecon" a very rare golden mineral, he must perform the search near a mine or deposit of oridecon.

Furthermore, in researching new materials, the character has no control over what he is researching. The GM builds the material in secret and reveals it to the character when the research is complete.

The character may use magic in aid of the research process. Earth and Fire spells are helpful in this case. Spells aid research a great deal, but the character must have a wizard available to assist him throughout the process (or may, himself, be a wizard), and the final material that is discovered can only be produced with the use of magic.

The default of a research assumes that the character is not a magician and does not have entirely new materials available at hand, and is researching a new element that will be based on a combination of existing elements.

In that case, the character builds the parameters for the material that he wants to research. Two parameters are important in this process: the final cost of MEPs, and the greatest number (negative or positive) of individual MEPs for a single parameter. For example, in the case of Adamantium, the final cost is 8 and maximum parameter is 12.

Every three months of research, the character rolls his "metallurgy" skill with a penalty equal to three times the maximum parameter of the material, plus the final cost (if the final cost is negative, the penalty is mitigated). On a success, he accumulates a point of discovery. When his discovery points reach up to the material's the final cost in MEPs, he develops it. If the final cost of the material is 0, he develops it in the first successful roll, and if the final cost is negative, the number of discovery points needed equal half of the module of the final cost (rounded up).

For example, in the case of Adamantium, the character would roll his Metallurgy with a penalty of ( 3 * 12 ) + 8 = 44.

In a discovery, the character automatically gains a skill point in the "blacksmith" skill for the new material.

If the research is based on a new mineral, available to the character, then the research roll has fixed a +5 bonus.

If the search is aided by magic, the research roll has a +10 bonus, and at the end, the magician also gains 1 character point in a new spell, which is the magic spell used to generate the material (as in "Essential Earth" ). If the magician does not have the necessary prerequisites to develop this spell, then the research does not get any bonus from the use of spells.

In a research roll failure, the character wastes those three months of research. On a critical failure, he loses all accumulated discovery points.

On a critical hit, he immediately develops the material.

In the development of new materials, the character spends cash per month: a cost equal to $1,000 times the maximum individual parameter of the material being developed.