*Rare and Ultra-Rare crafts have an additional requirement of investiture in the item. When crafting something of such high quality, the craftsman is putting a piece of themselves in the work. For each action spent on crafting, the craftsman must spend a Willpower point that does not grant an automatic success. Assuming the Craftsman spends one action per day crafting, this comes out as a net even balance as he regains one Willpower point per day automatically. Any more than that and he will start to suffer Willpower loss.

**Masterpieces have their own unique system and requirements which is detailed below in its own section.


The crafter may work on as many projects at once as he desires, however as a static number of Downtime Actions must be spent, this is simply dividing his time between his projects, and each will still take the full amount of time required for the item in question.

As crafting takes place over an extended period of time, no blood expenditures will be permitted. The roll at the end of the process represents weeks of work, not simply a single action. By the same principle Willpower may not be spent to gain an automatic success. Attribute bonuses that last for extended periods of time such as those gained from certain transformations may be allowed at ST discretion, but only if they would not hinder the ability to craft (a Gangrel in Cheetah form may have +3 Dexterity, but a cheetah is not going to be a very efficient craftsman).

A crafted item’s Appearance rating is equal to one half of the successes scored to create it (rounding up). Any item with an Appearance of 4 or higher is considered Entrancing as per the Toreador flaw.

When crafting an item, you must declare your intent to create a given level of quality before the process begins. If you fail to reach the required level of success, the item is a total failure. Likewise, if you overshoot and get far more successes than necessary, you do not gain additional Features that you would have gained for a more ambitious work, though the extra successes will still raise the item’s Appearance.

Leadership may be used on crafting rolls, representing the aid of assistants or apprentices on a larger project. However, the aid of apprentices does not affect the quality of the item and as such does not add dice to the roll as normal. Instead, for every success on an Intelligence + Leadership check to delegate minor tasks and organize assistants, the required number of actions is reduced by one. This check is made at the beginning of the Crafting process if so desired. As usual with Leadership, each assistant must have at least one dot in crafts to aid, and each assistant who attempts to aid must spend a single downtime action to grant this aid, regardless of whether their aid is actually incorporated based on the Leadership roll of the crafter. The crafter must be the one to make the Leadership roll in this case.

Some items such as expendable ammunition and chemical compounds may be made in larger batches. In such cases assume a standard of 10 items per craft check, though this may vary depending on the individual craft involved.

Before a Crafting project can even begin, the appropriate materials must be gathered. These will vary based on the project and quality, but one truth remains universal: it takes higher quality materials to make a higher quality item. The ST will always be the final arbiter on what materials may be necessary for an individual crafting project, though some common examples are given below. Materials will always be expended when the final test is made, whether the project succeeds or fails.

In addition to materials, a proper crafter will always need the appropriate tools as well. Just as with materials, it takes higher quality tools to make higher quality pieces. Tools are not expended after each crafting project unless the roll botches, which will result in at least one broken tool, possibly more depending on the severity of the botch. These tools may be purchased or made as their own crafting projects by the crafter themselves. To make appropriate tools necessary to craft a certain quality of item requires a crafting project one level lower than the project would require. So in order to craft an ultra-rare statue, rare-quality sculptor’s tools must be acquired first. Sometimes these may be made with the same crafting method as the project itself (as is the case with blacksmithing) but other times the required craft for creating the tools may be completely different from the craft needed for the project (as with leatherworking or painting).

Below is a list of some sample craft styles and appropriate tools and materials for each level of quality with approximate costs. The specific tools listed are not always required, but assume that something of equivalent quality and cost will be:

Note: Crafting by technology through modern science will ALWAYS be far more expensive in tools and materials than hand crafting.

Painting

Basic Tools: Easel ($20), paintbrushes ($10), basic palette ($5)
Basic Materials: Paints ($10), Canvas ($10)

Uncommon Tools: High quality Easel ($120), Full set of horse-hair brushes ($300), high quality mixing palette ($50)
Uncommon Materials: High quality oil paints ($50), stretched and treated canvas ($80), distressing solution ($50)

Rare Tools: Custom easel ($500), complete set of distressed Italian horse-hair brushes ($1000), artisan’s palette ($500)
Rare Materials: artisan’s treated and aged canvas ($500), hand-mixed oil temper paints ($1000)

Ultra-Rare Tools: Custom adjustable easel built for you personally ($1000), brushes crafted to fit your hand with each bristle individually selected and placed ($3000), Master’s palette custom made for you ($1000)
Ultra-Rare Materials: Lamb-skin canvas treated and aged perfectly to your needs ($2000), Full palette of custom-mixed handmade oil tempers made to exact shades ($3000)

Sculpting

Basic Tools: Hammer ($10), Chisel ($10)
Basic Materials: Average stone ($20)

Uncommon Tools: Set of 3 sculptor’s hammers ($100), Set of 5 sculptor’s chisels ($400), Miscellaneous sculptor’s brushes and knives ($100)
Uncommon Materials: High quality stone like gypsum or alabaster ($100)

Rare Tools: Full set of artisan’s hammers and mallets ($1000), Full set of artisan’s chisels ($2000), Full set of brushes and knives ($500), sanding and smoothing equipment ($1000)
Rare Materials: Hard stone like marble or granite ($1000)

Ultra-Rare Tools: Custom made master hammers and mallets ($3000), Custom made master chisels ($5000), Custom made master brushes and knives ($1000), Sculpting workshop with all necessary power tools and treating equipment ($5000), Laser carving tool or water-cutter ($10,000)
Ultra-Rare Materials: Very hard stone like Corinthian marble, Serpentine or Jade ($5000)

Blacksmithing

Basic Tools: Smith’s Hammer ($20), Anvil ($25), Basic forge ($200)
Basic Materials: Average steel or iron bars ($50),

Uncommon Tools: Set of hammers, clamps, tongs, bellows, cutters and other miscellaneous tools ($500), Large quality anvil ($100), High Quality forge ($800), Welder’s mask ($100)
Uncommon Materials: Good quality steel ($300), 3 different hardness of temper mixes ($100)

Rare Tools: Artisan’s blacksmith’s tools with hammers, clamps, tongs, bellows, cutters and other miscellaneous tools with copies made of different metals ($3000), Set of different quality and weight anvils ($500), Artisan’s ultra-high temperature forge ($5000), Divided and temperature controlled quench tank ($1000), Artisan’s mask ($500)
Rare Materials: Ultra-high quality steel, perfectly fit to the project at hand ($4000), perfectly mixed quench solutions of differing hardness ($500)

Ultra-Rare Tools: Custom made blacksmithing toolset with multiple versions of each tool ($5000), Master’s Forge designed perfectly for you ($10,000), Set of anvils for every occasion ($2000), Automated quench tank with controllable temperatures and mixes ($3000), Master’s mask with adjustable visibility ($500)
Ultra-Rare Materials: Iridium infused meteoric iron-forged steel or other such ridiculous quality metal ($50,000), hand-mixed and proven quench solutions perfectly mixed for this project ($1000)

Other crafting styles will have their own requirements but the above examples should give a general sense of scale. Whenever possible, Emerald Coven Chronicles will operate on real-world prices for available tools and materials.

Items to be crafted are loosely grouped into four main categories. These are Combat items, Art pieces, Tools and Equipment, and Gadgets. Each has its own set of available features as outlined below in their own sections.

When an item reaches a sufficient level of quality, you may choose a feature from the list appropriate to that item type. These features can improve the items in various ways to make them more effective. The lists below are examples, not an exhaustive list and players may always propose new features to staff for consideration.

Items of Uncommon quality or greater will always count as sympathetic focuses to their creator for the purposes of Blood Magic.

You may also build flaws into the item to justify additional features. Flaws are serious disadvantages such as Half-Clip size, Losing an existing feature such as automatic fire, requiring Strength 7 or higher to use, a car that only has enough fuel capacity to drive 50 miles, etc. Even greater disadvantages may yield two features instead of one, such as a gun that only fires a single shot, a weapon or armor that requires Strength 10 or higher to use, or a racecar that expends all of its fuel within 5 miles.

Some features may be acceptable, but powerful enough that they are “worth” more than one feature at Storyteller discretion.

Features that give numeric bonuses may stack if purchased more than once for the same item.


Deadly Effectiveness – Combat Item Features

Basic Combat items use the statistics presented in the original book. The list of standard features follows below:

Damage +1
Difficulty -1
Concealability -1 step
Quick Draw (Takes no action to ready)
Double Range
Increase Rate by +1
Double Clip
Gains full auto-fire capability
Raise Armor Rating by +1
Lower Dexterity or Perception penalty by -1
Soaks Fire damage
Negates 1 die of armor
Deals 1 extra automatic level of damage for purposes of armor destruction

Vehicles are included as Combat items and have the following available features:

Raise safe speed by 10 mph
Raise maximum speed by 10 mph
Add or Increase armor rating by +1
Raise Maneuverability rating by +1

Beauty in the Blood of the Beholder – Artistic Features

Art is meant to be viewed and to make an impact on the people that see it. Art gains advantages that are less directly mechanical in nature, but powerful and important nonetheless. Art can be viewed, listened to, read on a page, witnessed or otherwise.

Under certain circumstances, Performance or Expression can be used instead of Crafts to create art, but it still requires the necessary crafting time to rehearse and perfect the performance piece. Once created, the Performance can be executed again and again at the successes achieved on the original roll. Thus a dancer could perform her dance to show off her skill at a gathering, just as a painter could display the same portrait again and again.

Any features associated with a Performance are for the performance itself, not the performer. Thus, a singer performing a Haunting melody only has its effects while she continues to sing. The feeling of longing for the song remains, but for the beauty of the song she performed, not the singer herself (though she doubtless will receive some attention as well).

Performances can use Dexterity for dancing and other movement based actions, Charisma for singing and other acts of beauty, as well as for speeches or orations. Charisma based performances will benefit from Presence as any other social action just as Dexterity-based performances will benefit from Celerity.

Features that affect social difficulties do so for mundane uses only, never for discipline activations. This means the social feats of Deception, Oration, Intimidate, Carousing, and so on. The mechanical bonuses from multiple art pieces will stack only for the first time the art is viewed by an individual person, not for any lasting benefit such as multiple Inspiring items carried on your person.

An artist may choose to dedicate their art to one specific person. It must be announced before the piece is revealed, performed or read (such as in the forward of a book). In that case, the person to which it is dedicated to is affected double on the first time they experience the piece (they must know the piece is dedicated to them, however). The artist may only dedicate a piece once, and only to one person.

A Tool or Combat item may also gain Artistic Features in addition to the functional ones. To create an item of quality as both a functional piece and an artistic one, the crafting process must be completed twice, each one recorded as a separate craft project.

The list of Artistic Features is listed below. As with Combat Features, this is not an exhaustive list and players are free to suggest new artistic features:

Moving: The force of the artist’s expression and passion can’t help but reach even the intractable and jaded. The art evokes a specific emotion in those experiencing it that the artist chooses. This may be taken more than once for more complex emotions (Happy as well as Jealous, or Sad and Lonely). Viewers are affected automatically for as long as they experience the art, but they may spend one Willpower to push down an unwanted emotion.

Shocking: The piece dashes aside all good sensibilities and those who experience it can’t help but be impressed and a little intimidated by your boldness, despite themselves. You gain one automatic success on mundane social feats the night the piece is revealed.

Remarkable: The piece is truly something to speak about, and is technically impressive in every way. Whenever it is present, people are reminded of the artist’s great skill and feel inclined to speak well about the item in general. -1 to all mundane social difficulties for the artist as long as the piece is present in that scene, and the subject believes that the person is the artist.

Gorgeous: The piece is a wonder to see and outdoes itself for beauty and impressiveness. The effective Appearance rating of the piece is one higher.

Haunting: This piece is moving and profound, completely unforgettable. It sticks in the heart and thoughts and refuses to be forgotten. The piece creates an effect in those who experience it similar to the first step Blood Bond with respect to that art piece or performance. Additional uses of this feature increase the severity of the bond. This can lead to people literally falling in love with a piece of music or portrait, refusing to harm it or doing nearly anything to possess it. This is not a true blood bond and doesn’t respond to such things as Unbondable or other blood bonds, but does fade over time in the same manner as a real blood bond.

Inspiring: The piece is a force to itself, lifting heart and spirit with its momentous presence. It restores a point of spent Willpower the first time someone views it and gives a +1 bonus to Willpower rolls when present. This does not stack; instead, if two or more Inspiring pieces of art are affecting the same person, the higher bonus is conveyed.

Tools of the Traders – Tools and Equipment Features

Anything that is designed to make a given task easier is considered a tool. This can range from the scope on a gun to the climbing gear you wear to scale a wall to the laptop you use to hack the Gibson.

These items still gain Features when created at high quality, but these features are NEVER mechanical bonuses in nature. Instead, you may choose an organic bonus that the item gives you as a special rule that makes the item more versatile. These Features are subject to approval, but can be nearly anything you can imagine. They can give your item new options and abilities, but the Features can never include a number of any kind such as -1 difficulty or +2 dice, etc.

An example list of features is given below:

Gun Scopes

Night Vision – Can function in low light conditions, canceling any penalty for natural darkness

Heat Vision – Can pick out cold targets like vampires from live ones, and sees targets in smoke or even Obtenebration (attacks at +2 difficulty but ranged attacks are possible).

Laser Sight – Gives you the maximum Aiming bonus after one turn of aiming, but may alert the target.

Climbing Gear

Motorized Rig – Allows you to keep your hands free while you climb for shooting or whatever else.

Concealed – Fully concealable in normal clothes and shoes, perhaps with retractable pieces

Hooks and Clamps – Hang from any surface you can reach indefinitely, even hiding on the ceiling.

Modern Magic – Computers

To better fit with Emerald Coven Chronicles’ system for hacking, superior crafted computers have been given their own system. Given the expanded hacking system involving multiple types of attacks and success expenditure, Boolean features that could make one completely immune to hacking only serves to limit story rather than enhance it. As such computers are handled differently than other tools.

In addition to any usual Boolean benefits that can be given to the hardware of a computer, there are a specific set of features that can be given based on the software and setup that fit into the hacking system. These features are:

+1 Defense against a single form of attack (e.g. Locate or Fry)
+1 to Computer Security Rating
-1 Success required to perform a specific attack (e.g. Locate or Fry)
-1 Success required to attack another computer's security

These benefits may also be given by Gadgets (see below) should the crafter have applicable specialty to make software gadgets (some examples would be Computer Programming, Computer Security, Hacking, etc.)

Superior quality computers may only be made with an Intelligence + Crafts + Computers roll, not with a Dexterity + Crafts roll.


Better Unliving Through Chemistry – Scientific Knowledge and Gadgets

Not just construction skill, but also research with new materials and technology can produce improvements to all sorts of items. Players have the option of purchasing new Secondaries of the Science or Technology Knowledge that allow them to create new innovations and inventions through their research. These are narrow fields within either Science or Technology representing specific fields of study.

Gadgets are created with an Intelligence + Crafts + Science/Technology Secondary roll.

Scientific or Technological Knowledges can be things like Photonics, Mechanical Engineering, Hematology, Radiology, Mathematics, Crystallography, Botany, Chemistry, Cellular Biology, Genetics, etc.

Once a character has at least one dot of these Knowledges, he can attempt to create the products of his research called Gadgets.

Gadgets work similarly to Tools, above, in that they are assigned Features at given grades of quality, but unlike Tools, they can be appended to other products or pieces of equipment and they grant all of the Features on the Gadget to that piece of equipment. For example, if someone created a Rare quality Robot with Crafts they would be allowed to choose 2 features that the Robot could do that were exceptional for robots such as:

All Terrain Movement: The Robot can climb stairs and other difficult terrain
Gun Mount: The robot can be fitted with a firearm with Conceal J or lower and fire remotely with the programmer’s Wits + Firearms.

If the genius behind the Robot were also to possess the Science Specialty of Mechanical Engineering, he could attempt to create a Gadget “Actuators.” If he produced an Ultra-Rare Actuator, he could select three features such as:

All Terrain Movement: As above
Self-Righting Arm: Can return from Knockdown or Prone as a free action
Opposable Digit Hand: Can manipulate objects as if it had hands with Dexterity equal to the creator’s Computer dots.

He could then build the Actuators into the robot in the example above, rendering the Feature that it used for All Terrain Movement obsolete, and granting it a new one in the process. The Robot could be recreated with a new Feature in place of the old, and accept eh Actuators to have a total of 4 features instead of 2 in this example.

There is no limit to the amount of Gadgets that can be attached to an item, but each one must come from an entirely different Scientific or Technological Knowledge Specialty. The above robot has benefitted from the Mechanical Engineering discipline, but could still benefit from Electrical Engineering, Metallurgy, or otherwise. Because these Features are never mechanical in nature, they cannot compound upon themselves to make any particular object overwhelmingly powerful, just overwhelmingly versatile.

Gadgets need not be mechanical or even physical in nature. It can be an enzyme that you attach to a virus to make it spread faster, or render certain kinds of people immune, or it could be a piece of software that you install onto your computer to make sure that it always creates hundreds of isolated backups on private servers around the world.

Gadgets take the full time to create as any other item, and must be installed each time they are created. Installing or removing a gadget from an item takes an amount of time designated by the Storyteller based on the gadget in question (just a few minutes to attach and calibrate a new scope, up to a week to retrofit the drive train on your car) and require 3 successes on an Intelligence + Science or Technology roll as applicable at a difficulty of 5 + the total number of gadgets on the item. 1 or 2 successes are a failed installation that must be attempted again. Failing the roll breaks the gadget. Botching the roll breaks the gadget and the item itself as well as all other gadgets currently attached to the object.

There comes a time in any serious artist or crafter’s life when they feel the need to dedicate a monument to their own abilities – to create an item of such superb and sublime skill that it will outlast even them throughout the ages and speak for itself forever about the power and skill of the one who made it.

Despite requiring incredible skill, creating a true Masterpiece requires a special, masterpiece material which must be found and earned in game. These components will always require a difficult and dangerous quest that cannot be glossed over with rolls or Downtime Actions.

The costs associated with investigating the whereabouts of a Masterpiece component (bribes, paid researchers, the acquisition or translation of highly specialized blueprints or ancient texts) begins at $50,000 and only increases from there dependent on story. Typically, an epic quest of some kind arises from your research, and you must find some way to secure the item once you have located it.

The creation of a Masterpiece item will always have in-character consequences (usually centered around the special component required to create it). Additionally, such high success items may have other unforeseen consequences such as the notice and attention of power NPCs like Church Inquisitors, Mortal and Kindred organizations or cults, State, Local or National Government and/or their associated agencies, Red-listed vampires and other creatures that may be attuned to items of almost religious significance.

Once the special component has been acquired (along with all other components necessary for construction which must be Ultra-Rare quality tools and materials), construction takes 100 downtime actions and requires 12 successes or more. Failure to reach the desired level of success causes the artist to lose a point of Permanent Willpower, but he may try again after completing an additional 50 actions at the same risk if he perseveres. If he is successful on the project on any of these rolls, he regains any permanent willpower he lost to the project and also (from his first Masterpiece only) earns a one-time justification to raise his Permanent Willpower by one point, regardless of current level.

If he falls to zero Permanent Willpower in this way, he gains a permanent Derangement, scraps the project in a catharsis of frustration and regains ¾ of the Willpower back (rounded down). The special component is destroyed. Botching any of the Craft attempts destroys the component and causes the crafter to lose an additional Permanent willpower (figured after he has regained ¾ of the lost Willpower) and may have additional effects based on the component used or crafting process.

Successful creation of the masterpiece creates an object of religious and even supernatural power, a living symbol of beauty and perfection. These items have 3 features as per an Ultra-Rare item of their type and are also treated as a magical object with an ability or abilities decided upon by the Storyteller. Whether through force of Faith, habitation by spirits, the inclusion of the special component, or just perfection of form down to the near molecular level, the item created is truly extraordinary and unique.