Crafting (and Wages)

[Scott Adams]

At 09:02 AM 3/28/02 -0500, you wrote:
>||>Presumably, an established armorer will have apprentices, allowing him to
>||>get items created in half or one-third the time (but at double cost or
>||>triple cost, to cover the apprentices).  Larger armories will have
>multiple
>||>armorers and apprentices working on large projects.
>||
>||I'd think the apprentinces would be more for the fancy stuff like jewel
>||implacement and decoration of the hilt.

opps that should be reversed...the apprentinces do the hard grunt
work (banging) while the craftsman does the fancy stuff..

>
>I can also see apprentices doing a good portion of the grunt work, leaving
>him free for the really hairy tasks that require his experience.

Yeah my bad..revsersed it...

>
>||If I were to come up with a formal system i might separate it into
>||groups like
>||
>||weapons
>||clothing
>||home goods
>
>Well, at the present I am mostly looking ahead toward armorcrafting and
>weaponsmithing.  Making chairs and bunk-beds can be worried about later. :}

Right.  Wasn't there some dragon magzine article one time on weaponsmithy one
time?  Maybe someone can find it..

>
>||then subdivide it into formula for each area rather than one global thing
>||for everything.  


>
>I figured it would have to be a different formula for each class, most
>certainly a differing one between weapons and armor.  The global thing was
>just a quick toss for an idea.

Understand.

>
>||For weapons you could base it on say a per WSB/FV # basis rather than
>||hours or weight/cost.  Various things like that.
>
>Figuring the time based on (sale price - material cost)/8CC has the
>advantage of cutting min-maxers off at the knees.  With the given rules one
>can create chainmail worth 16GC in 25 days, effectively giving the munchkin
>PC armorer a pay of 16GC per month (as opposed to 2GC per month).  This
>makes sense only if the average armorer sits on his thumbs for 7 months
>afterwards. 

Yep.  This is why you see major wars take up to 2 years for it to get going in
some places due to the build up mobilizing time.

>
>With "Time is money", your characters can indeed make a suit of chainmail
>for themselves at 40% cost, assuming they don't value their time.  But they
>won't be seduced into raping the rules.  Presumably the time is a rough
>idea...an Armorer skill roll may be used to determine actual time (+/- 10%
>from the base) in addition to the one used to determine the quality of the
>armor (or weapon).  And Armorers who are also merchants can try and use
>their Merchant skill to try and haggle down the material costs, and thus
>improve their margins.
>
>However, before I can figure out the creation times, one needs to determine
>wages, so let me segue into a different thread from here...wages for jobs.
>
>The following are from my missive on soldiers and on building construction
>(which also uses a "Time is Money" idea for determining the cost of walls
>and such):

Also remember wages vary.  A smithy in X land won't get the
same pay as in Y land due to various aspects.  Some are specilized
and some aren't.  
>
>--------------
>Name             Weekly Wage    Monthly Wage         
>Bearer               2CC              10CC 
>For general carrying and lifting.  Can move 500 pound/miles per site per day
>(250 pound/miles for a single direction of carrying), maximum of 50 pounds
>at a single load.

If you needed a labor force you could use PA as some form of criterion for pay
as
well?

>
>Laborer          2CC          10CC 
>Used for menial tasks

Same above.

>
>Thatcher                 3CC          15CC 
>Can create up to 1,300 pounds of thatching per day.
>
>Quarryman                3CC          15CC 
>Can quarry up to 3,300 pounds of stone rubble or up to 600 pounds of cut
>stone per day 

Same as thatcher?  They get killed alot more from rock slides and such...
hazard bonus? :)

>
>Lumberjack               4CC          20CC 
>Can produce up to 100 board-feet of lumber per day (160 pounds)
>
>Brickmaker               5CC          25CC 
>Can produce up to 50 cubic feet of fired brick per day (6,000 pounds),
>provided he has a kiln.  Can also produce 100 cubic-feet of dried mud block
>per day (9,600 pounds)

3 tons of brick a day!?  That's a bit high to me...
When I was in a medieval city (ok..williamsburg though not medieval it
was pre-colonial) the smith there did about a half to a ton...if i recall...

>
>Carpenter                8CC          40CC
>(oops!  I never did figure out how much wood these people can chuck!  have
>to check my archives)

I'd say they could do a chair in 3 days depending on style and a house if
working alone in 3 weeks?

> 
>Mason                  10CC           50CC 
>Can create stone walls (again, I need to check notes and get rate of work)

Could do 36 cubic feet of wall in 3 hours  not that too hard...?


>
>Architect                40CC         200CC 
>Required to oversee any construction project, at least 1 per 100 craftsmen.

80% slack time 10% overseeing and 10% work :)

Should add a supervisor like we see in roads so they can stand and
do nothing :)

>
>Soldier          4CC          20CC 
>Basic Warrior I, provides primary weapon and basic armor.
>
>Scout                  3CC            16CC 
>Basic Scout I

Wouldn't the scout get more since they are specilized trained to stealth
operations and such?

>
>What do other people use for occupation wages?  Blacksmith, fletcher?
>Healer?  Everyone post and I'll try and put together a comprehensive
>document together for Wout's pages.
>           -- Burton

But it all depends on various factors like lands, supply/demand and
such.  So it is a case by casie basis for me.  A lumberjack would
get zilch in Clima unless hes sent to their oversea lumberjack facility
but a quarryman might make decnet amount on clima.  But
it would be the reverse say for the Great Forest
the lumberjack could find plenty of work but as a oversupply they
might make less..



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