Item Quality
From Sagataflwiki
This article is about the phenomenon of Item Quality, the fact that items made using crafts skill, such as Smith: Swordsmith, Bowyer, Ropemaking, and so forth, are not all equally good.
Average Item Quality is denoted Q3, better-than-average is Q4, Q5 and so forth, and lower-than-average is Q2, Q1 and sometimes lower. Beware of anything lower than Q2, because it is truly shoddy (and shitty).
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Subject
Item Quality is a stat, with an average value of 3, this being an item that is good enough for craftsman's pride and formal guild standards. When a craftsman character can make these consistently, he should be givn the rank of journeyman (but of course this rarely happens in many guilds, since they're often fanatical about time-in-grade requirements and inclined to ignore individual skill). Average quality is denoted Q3.
Better than average is Q4, Q5 and so forth, although for some item categories not all Quality values may be possible. For instance it may be the case (this decision has not been made yet, as of October 2010) that armor and shields can only have qualities of Q3, Q6, Q9 and Q12, in-between values simply not being possible within the setting.
Worse-than-average is Q2, and sometimes also lower (Q1, Q0), although that is fairly rare. Items with negative quality are practically nonexistent; if you sneeze, they're likely to crumble to dust. Q2 is already dangerously bad if you're likely to engage in high-danger activities on a regular basis (such as RPG-style adventuring), and there's not much of a market for Q1 items except clothes and footwear.
For many item categories, there'll be pick lists, and each Quality level above 3 allows for the choice of one pick worth of option from the list appropriate for the item category (e.g. the Sword List, the Armor List, the Skill Kit list), with some options costing more than 1 pick. As an example, a Q5 Lockpicking Skill Kit is two Quality levels better than average, and so allows 2 picks. These can be used to purchase 2 options each costing one pick, or one option that costs 2 picks.
Basically the options are bonuses and upgrades, such as RD bonuses to skill rolls, lowered Action Point cost to use combat items (1 or several Speed Factors, applied to a weapon or shield), Durability bonuses, and similar.
For most item categories, there are similar option list for below-average Quality. An item of Q1 is two quality levels below average, and so two picks worth of negative options must be chosen. These may include reduced Durability (unless Durability automatically drops with below-average Quality - this might be the case for some item categories), a skill roll RD penalty, increased mass (the item is heavier), or severe lack of esthetic appeal (i.e. the item is embarassingly ugly).
Most item categories should allow the exchange of positive and negative picks to a limited extent, e.g. for a Q5 Skill Kit item, instead of choosing 2 positive picks worth of options, 3 positive picks worth of options and 1 negative pick worth of options is legal.
Allowing the choice of more than 1 or 2 negative picks, to pay for some more positive stuff, on an above-average Quality item, can lead to problems. The system is not generally geared for that, so each item category must specify how much of such "exchange" is allowed.
(Note that players should almost always be free to put additional negative options into their equipment without compensation, e.g. if a player wants to play a warrior whose sword happens to be spectacularly ugly. The limit is only on negative optins that give compensatory picks.)
Advice
Item Quality matters!
Chances are, the character you are creating is a professional. A professional at something. Maybe a pro warrior. Or cave explorer. Or dragon-slayer. Or special operations forces soldier. Professionals want good gear. Yes, good gear costs a lot of money, but it's worth it, and in Sagatafl, making a character well-equipped at gamestart doesn't cost a lot of points.
Many item categories will have recommended options, and usually these can be safely followed, unless you have something special in mind. Medieval swords, for instance, were not parrying tools (although try telling that to the Kelts of the Ärth setting); you used shields for defence. As such, if you are making a non-shield-using character and you follow the recommendation, your character will be entering a world of pain (unless he has a high Dodge skill). For such a character, spend at least some of the picks, and maybe all of them, on increased Durability.
The Skill Kit item category probably won't have recommended options, because there is no single "best" choice. It all depends on what your character values: a skill roll RD bonus, damage bonus, improved armour piercing, a bonus to range, increased Durability, special resistances (when possible, e.g. fire-resistant, moisture-resistant), or reduced size and mass (to improve concealability and portability), or even having the skill kit camouflaged as something else (a disguise kit that looks like a makeup kit, so people won't suspect your character is a spy). Generally, a skill roll bonus is good, but if your character carries a lot of gear, or wants to carry the gear into places guarded by people who aren't shy about frisking down visitors, reduced size & mass is good, and if your character is going to travel far from re-supply, Durability is good because if your kit breaks you probably don't be able to repair it.
Esthetics can also be more important than one might assume. Roleplaying gaming isn't always about fighting and conflicting directly with people. Sometimes you want NPCs to heed your character's advice, or even become his followers, and they're much more likely to do that if your character carries shiny beautiful gear. Likewise, you can avoid a lot of dangerous combat (and some dangerous non-physical conflict) if you look like a serious kind of person, i.e. if your gear looks cool.
Finally there's camouflage. Maybe your character benefits from being underestimated? A disguise kit camouflaged as a makeup kit is the most obvious options, but a very good sword can also be made to look superficially rusty and generally of shoddy make, in spite of being quite sharp and very Durable, and lockpicks can be disguised as hair pins (which is distinct from hairpins being used as improvised quality lockpicks).
Please note
It is necessary that each item category has its own list of pick options, even going so far as to divide some sub-categories, such as melee weapon, into indivdual types, sword, axes, maces, because these sub-categories are mae in different ways and have different combat functions.
Mini-FAQ
sub-section
Q: A: Q: A:
The world
It is the case in most worlds that craftsmen, any characters with crafts skills (regardless of species and sex), take some degree pride in their work. Remember your grandmother, who knitted socks or mittnes for you as Christmass gifts, year after year? That's craftsman's pride too, albeit on a small scale.
Thanks to the Plateau Effect, the vast majority of craftsmen in the setting never become very good at their skills, to the point where they can routinley make much-better-than-average items with minimal effort. Nevertheless, they are pride of their consistent Q3 items and very few will have Q2 items in stock. These are made to order. Or if a few are in stock, they're hidden away somewhere, with the craftsman reluctant to admit it. also, most such craftsmen will flat out refuse to produce Q1 items, or claim (untruthfully) that it is physically impossible for them to do so.
The exception is clothes, which are often produced at Q2 and even Q1, for use by beggars and other very poor people. Note, though, that most Q2 and Q1 clothes are actually recycling, either just continuing to use Q3+ clothes after they have deterioated in Quality due to normal or abnormal wear, or else true recycling where used Q3+ clothing is dismantled and re-assmbled into Q2 or Q1 clothing.
Cheapskates are disinclined to opt for purchasing (or having wives or servants make) newly-made Q2 or worse clothes, however, because they don't last very long. In terms of the ratio of cost-to-lifespan, Q3 clothes are actually cheaper. They're more expensive as an investment, but last much longer, thus once again proving the old saying that it's expensive to be poor. Some misers might opt to purchase used clothes, althoug that's often still Q2, because Q1 lasts for such a short while that the miser will have to open his purse too frequently to re-purchase.
World impact
As mentioned above, the Plateau Effect means that average-attribute characters can continue practicing a craft for decades without becoming particularly good at it. Individuals with high values in relevant attributes will become notably good, and may get local or even large-scale fame (in the form of Reputations), depending on what kind of item. As one might expect, skilled sword-makers are much more celebrated than skilled weavers.
Higher Quality items also - usually - take more time to craft, and require more expensive raw materials, so even a very skilled character won't constantly produce items that are as good as he can make them, although a fairly skilled craftsman may consider Q4 his comfort level, and be reluctant (even very reluctant) to make anything of lesser Quality, and a famous expert might routinely make Q5 or even Q6 items. Anything better, if it can be made, is by special order (and note that many such craftsmen are not self-employed, but work for kings, warlords, or high priests), or made with the intent of being given as a gift to a specific individual.
Some such craftsmen may well have a few high-Q items in stock, especially of item categories that are very popular in their high-Q forms such as swords, but if adventurers come around asking for such items, it's very much a seller's market.
The Ärth setting
There's very little that is special about the Ärth setting, with regard to Item Quality. All cultures have respect for skilled craftsmen, although slightly more in some than in others. The Norse revere swordmakers slightly more than other craftsmen, and are very fond of those rare few individuals who can create mail armour, whereas the Kelts are muchly into swordsmithing, even to the point of regarding swordsmiths and also all other blacksmiths (and most other metalworkers) as members of the druidic social class. They do the same with shipwrights, but consider other craftsmen to be commoners by default.
More or less pacifistic cultures tend to value swordsmithing and other blacksmithing slightly less, compared to peaceful crafts, but thoroughly pacifistic cultures are rare in the violent 10th tentury. Parts of the Arabic Caliphate, perhaps, and most Jewish enclaves, and Constantinopolis inside the great walls.
Quick mini-glossary
Mass = consider this the formal term for weight. Mass is measured in kilograms, grams, or tons, or sometimes kilotons or megatons. If the campaign takes place on a planet with a gravity of 1.0g, and most non-science fiction campaigns do, then you don't have worry about the distinction between mass and weight.
Durability = A stat that most items have, denoting how physically durable it is. If an item is subject to potential damage, a Durability roll is made, and if this roll Fumbles the item will lose some Durability (1 or maybe 2 points) or instantly become more or less destroyed (either destroyed-but-repairable, or destroyed-and-only-fit-for-materials-recycling).
Iron = The game-mechanical term for medieval quality steel, which is much inferior to renaissance-era steel (game-mechanically "Steel") and later steels (starting with "Advanced Steel). Note that some medieval era blacksmiths or metallurgists know how to make Steel, and a few can even make Advanced Steel.
Deterministic = Denotes, in Sagatafl, that a process is free of randomness. For a crafting process, if everything is as usual, then the resulting item Quality will always be the same. Some crafting processes involve a skill roll or a random roll; thus they're non-deterministic.
