Hey team!
I've searched all the books I have from the old companions up through the new RMU pdfs, but I can't find rules for the crafting of standard items. I've come up with a workaround for now, but if there are current rules I would love to see them (from any system, really). Below are some W's:
What: "And a 10' Poll" provides a lot of useful info on time to craft, weight, and cost of many items. the various treasure and spell laws have rules for the cost of crafting magic items....but what if I just want to craft a stick? RMU Treasure law goes into the most detail when it talks about making a high steel scimitar. to cut it short, it more or less says that you add the cost of the material to that of the old base cost, so 30 sp + 3 pounds of high steel, which was about something like 1.4 sp, so the new sword is 31.4 sp to buy using the simple method.....
Why: but why the extra 30 sp? I am starting a game where the player "characters" are more akin to kingdoms, with the "players" playing as the rulers; a very political game featuring trade, war, and resource management. But what if a player wants to make their ships?
My thoughts so far:
They begin cutting down trees to build ships.....a 30' boat is marked as weighing ~2000 lbs, so they need a minimum of about 2,000 lbs of the desired wood. It takes 30 days to make, so they need to pay the laborers 30 days worth of wages.....RMU marks pine and ash as 0.007 sp per pound of material. Castle Law marks a contractor's labor as anywhere between a few copper and a gold depending on their level. so at about 5 bronze a day per person, for a team of 15 skilled workers working 30 days is 22.5 gold.
22.5 gold (labor) + 1.4 gp (material) = 23.9 gp to craft that standard 30' ship.
I was also going to add in a modifier to the labor cost based on the workability of the material:
labor cost*(1-workability)=new labor fee.
treasure law marks pine as +25 workability, Ash as +0, and Iron Wood as -30.
There for the cost of making 1 Pine boat, 1 Ash boat, and 1 Iron Wood boat would be:
Pine: +25 workability, 0.007 sp/lb
22.5*0.75+1.4= 18.275 gp
Ash: +0 workability, 0.007sp/lb
22.5*1+1.4 =23.9 gp
Iron Wood: -30 workability, 0.009 sp
22.5*1.30+1.8 = 31.05 gp
All of these are cheaper than buying the ship from another person, and if Ash (the +0) is our gold standard, and 10' Poll is our base cost, it costs 23.9 gp to craft the 30' boat, you sell it for 40 gp, and make a 16.1 gp, or a 67% profit.
Currently I am thinking of having the required labor force be = to the number of people that can use an item at a time. ex: the 10' boat is said to hold 4 people, so it needs a labor crew of 4 people to craft it in the recommended 8 days. 2 people could make it in 16 days, and 1 person in 32. A 30' boat has a crew of 16 people and 30 days to craft, so 16 laborers= 30 days, 8 laborers = 60 days, etc.
tldr: are there crafting rules for non-magic items? If so, where? If there aren't rules, does my work around seem fine? any alternative suggestions?
