Crafting

Crafting skills are Advanced Skills. See the referenced article for more information.

Crafting in Asternova can be a somewhat complex process. A character must make a Skill Test using the appropriate Advanced Skill against the item's crafting TV. If the Skill Test succeeds, the item's completion is increased by 1. For every 5 points that the Skill Test beats the TV, the item's completion is incremented by an additional 1. Once an item's completion reaches or exceeds its Crafting Level, it's completed and can be used normally. An item's crafting TV and Crafting Level can be found in it's appropriate table. All base item crafting starts at a completion of 0.

The cost for crafting an item is determined by what is being crafted. The crafting cost presented is the table below is the portion of the item's base cost. A character must spend an amount of Ir equal to the crafting cost divided by the item's Crafting Level for every increment of completion the item gains. These are typically purchased in whole as parts before construction begins, but can be bought as-needed as well. If a character does not have the required amount of parts to cover a critically successful crafting test, only the completion increments who's cost can be covered will be added.

If the crafting Skill Test fails, no progress is made. For every 5 points that the crafting Skill Test is below the item's crafting TV, its total completion is reduced by 1, signifying a drastic failure or that a part broke. The character is refunded 1/2 of the cost for each increment lost in this way in parts.

An amount of time is required to make each crafting Skill Test. The specific amount of time is determined by the crafting skill being used. On a failed roll, the time that the next Skill Test can be made is halved, meaning an item that usually has an 8 hour crafting increment will only have to wait 4 hours before another Skill Test can be attempted.

An Engineering Toolkit can give a +2 modifier to all crafting Skill Tests.

When crafting or modifying items, Crafting Skills are considered trained only. When repairing or salvaging items, Crafting Skills are considered untrained.

Skills
All crafting skills must be trained separately.

Repairing Items
There comes a time when something breaks and someone's going to have to fix it. Similar to Crafting Levels, a broken object will have a Damage Level depending on the severity of damage it currently has. Instead of starting with a base completion of 0, however, repairing an item actually removes 1 from the Damage Level and increments like crafting Skill Tests. Failing a repair by 5 or more adds 1 onto the Damage Level for each increment failed. Typically, any item with a Damage Level cannot be used until it's repaired. If an item's Damage Level meets or exceeds its Crafting Level, the item is considered irreparable. Larger vehicles such as starships usually have a number of subsystems that can be damaged rather than the entire ship itself. This means that the entire ship won't stop working just because one system is damaged. This can obviously be a serious problem if the damaged system is something like Life Support, however.

Repairing an item costs 1/10th of its base crafting cost per Damage Level. The default crafting time increment for repairs, unless otherwise stated, is 4 hours. Advanced systems require longer time increments while simpler repairs typically take less. Minor repairs can be done without a cost so long as the Damage Level is no more than 1 on a particular item. Repairing items in this way incurs a -3 penalty on the crafting Skill Test but costs no parts to repair. Alternately a character may use a Repair Kit for the specific category of object to repair up to a Damage Level 2 without a penalty and without having to use additional parts.

Modifying Tech
Adding modifications onto weapons or starships is a very similar process to crafting an item. Firstly, you must have the appropriate skills trained in order to modify the object. Second, you must actually possess the modification you're trying to add. These can either be purchased outright or salvaged from similar items that have the mod attached. The Crafting Level for a base modification is 1, unless otherwise specified.

To modify an object, make a crafting Skill Test against the target object's TV. The crafting time is located in the appropriate table for the modification being installed. By default, there is no crafting cost unless otherwise specified. Mods may also have additional prerequisites that must be met before they can be installed such as skill requirements or a limitation on what they're allowed to be installed on. On a successful Skill Test, the mod is attached without incident. On a failure of less than 5, no progress is made and can be reattempted normally in 1/2 of the base crafting time. On a failure of 5 or more, something broke. You must spend 1/10th of the base cost of the mod for each increment of 5 in order to continue working on it.

Salvaging Tech
Salvaging an item refers to dismantling it into its most basic parts. A salvage Skill Test is equivalent to a crafting Skill Test for that item, performed using the item's applicable Crafting Skill. It only requires half of the base crafting time and does not have a cost. The completion for any salvaging attempt is based solely on the objects Crafting Level. An object's completion always starts equal to the Crafting Level, unless otherwise specified.

On a successful salvaging Skill Test, the objects completion is reduced by 1 and an additional 1 for every 5 points beyond the TV. Any successful salvaging Skill Test renders parts equal to its base crafting cost divided by its full Crafting Level, rounded down. For example, a ballistic weapon that has a crafting cost of and has a crafting level of 5 can be salvaged piece by piece for  worth of ballistic weapon parts per success.

These parts can be used to repair objects of the same type or can be reassembled into the base item appropriately, using the parts to cover the crafting and repair costs or a portion thereof.

On a failed salvage attempt, parts are still collected, but at 1/4 of the original value of the parts. An object's completion is reduced by 1 regardless of the result.

Salvaging an object that is mid-construction reduces from the object's current completion level.

Optionally, a character may wish to salvage a specific modification from an object, rather than the entire object itself. For this, the salvage uses the mod's Crafting Level instead of the objects. On a successful salvage, the character receives the completed mod instead of its parts. On a failed test, however, the mod gains 1 point to its Damage Level. All rules for damaged objects apply normally. Once removed, the damaged mod must be repaired before it can be fitted again. If the mod becomes irreparably damaged through salvaging, the character simply receives parts equal to 1/4 of its base cost.