Belariath

Woodworking
Novice - The woodworker knows how to pick out the best quality woods and use the grains to their advantage. They may craft staves and shafts for items.
Apprentice - The woodworker can tell a wood type just by examining it. They may now craft table legs and decorative posts for furniture. They have begun to make flat works such as wooden plaques.
Journeyman - The woodworker knows the best oils and polishes to use for different wood types. They may now craft simple wooden tables, and boxes and know how to create and use wooden pegs and tongue-and-groove slots for assembly.
Expert - The woodworker knows which seasons bring the best quality of which woods and where to best gather them. The woodworker can now craft chairs, wooden shutters and more complex goods, and incorporate different material pieces into their works, such as metal hinges, without splitting the wood.
Master - The woodworker knows how to best preserve wood gathered throughout the seasons for stock, be it for crafting or other means. Their crafted pieces are ornate and worthy of the Imperial Palace. They can make nearly anything of wood, including curves surfaces and items such as wagon wheels and round disks, for tables, plaques, and other uses.

My one issue with this as a ranked skill is that there are other ranked skills which inherently involve it, I.E
Carpentry, Shipbuilding, Architect to a lesser extent. I think mayyybe woodworking would be better unranked, so that a carpenter doesn't need to invest 5 points just to consider himself a proper carpenter.
Still, maybe not. I do like the look/skill progression, and given carpentry seems to involve stonework somehow in Belariath, (seems to be a catch-all for building construction, masons be damned) maybe there's a distinct enough line between them.

I agree with Vladimir

That's nice, great thought put into it.

I agree with Vald and Yuka though.

Carpentry is all about constructing an enclosure and roofing. Nothing at all about woodworking items like furniture and crafts, nothing about creating a product.


Architect is about the design of the enclosures, nothing to do with wood at all and no crafting skill. it's a service, as it's a design and not creating a product, unless you could the blueprint as the product.

Shipbuilding.. SHIPbuilding.. Nothing to do with crafted boxes or furniture or such. It's for ships, boats, canoes.


That's why I figured woodworking would work. The only other one that comes close is Sculpting, which allows for carving and whittling but it doesn't pertain to actual woodworking and furniture constriction.


Otherwise I'd be willing to help rewrite the current Carpentry to include the furniture bit. But they're more of separate skills. The Architect designs a building and the Carpenter builds it based off those designs. That's how it reads anyways.

Works for me if Sculpting covers carving and intricate work on wood.

I understand there is a difference between them, but it was what Vlad had said:

other ranked skills which inherently involve it

Do we really need to seperate, breakdown and categorize more skills when what we have works just fine for it? I don't think we do.

Yar, Carpentry is oddly written, seems to be a broad term for construction work which so far as I'm aware is a usage only seen in the Bible. Otherwise it means a woodworker... a guy who builds houses, ships, furniture... any functional wooden structure. I can understand however why that choice might be made; as to be accurate we'd need stonemasons and mortar-men and all makes of specialty crafts.

Still, someone who has the skills to build houses out of wood also has the inherent skills to build furnishings out of wood, if perhaps not having the capacity for ornate carving. Someone who has the skills to build ships also would inherently have the necessary skills to build furnishings, and the skills which represent mastery of woodworking such as curving surfaces are essential basics to constructing a boat.

I think woodworking would be good as an unranked stepping stone to the more specific ranked skills, rather than a ranked skill which bumps shoulders/steps on the toes of existing ranked skills.

Vlad has a better way with words than I do.

I'd welcome it as an unranked skill, though for artisans and laymen and for those of the crafter sort, the ranked skill would add variety. It couldn't hurt. It would be just one more thing for players to spend their skill points on.

That aside, I've also done a mock up of a Carpentry revision just merged with my woodworking proposal.

Carpentry (Any Class)
Novice - Given a design and tools, the character can construct a simple enclosure made of wooden poles or branches and skins. They also know how to pick out the best quality woods and use the grains to their advantage. They may craft staves and shafts for items.
Apprentice - Given a design and tools, the character can construct rudimentary wooden structures, cabins and the like. They can tell a wood type just by examining it. They may now craft table legs and decorative posts for furniture. They have begun to make flat works such as wooden plaques.
Journeyman - Given design and tools, the character can construct complex wooden shapes and form blocks from stone for building, though not decorative shapes. They can make thatched roofing. They know the best oils and polishes to use for different wood types. They may now craft simple wooden tables, and boxes and know how to create and use wooden pegs and tongue-and-groove slots for assembly.
Expert - Able to create simple stone structures, given a design, a tower or keep. Able to make a wooden shingled roof. They know which seasons bring the best quality of which woods and where to best gather them. They can now craft chairs, wooden shutters and more complex goods, and incorporate different material pieces into their works, such as metal hinges, without splitting the wood.
Master - This character is capable of creating a castle or even a palace from the designs given to them. They excel at decorative stonework and woodwork in their buildings. They now know how to best preserve wood gathered throughout the seasons for stock, be it for crafting or other means. Their crafted pieces are ornate and worthy of the Imperial Palace. They can make nearly anything of wood, including curves surfaces and items such as wagon wheels and round disks, for tables, plaques, and other uses.

I can dig it.