So in the special modifications sourcebook the crafting tables show a specific time it takes to craft certain items. I've tried to find an answer to this on this forum, reddit etc. but no thread ever focused on this specific topic.

I'm really wondering how to apply these time frames? Am I supposed to tell my technician PC who specs into crafting that he can't join the adventure because he needs to actually spend 16hours at the workbench to craft a new rifle? I know most things are at GMs discretion finally but I find these information really confusing. Wouldnt it have been easier to just let your PC craft one item at a time inbetween sessions or, in cases of larger projects like entire armorsuits, between multiple sessions?

Our entire group is new to roleplaying pen&paper, including me as the GM. I would be very appreciative to know how some more experienced GMs handle this.

25 minutes ago, Shizuya said:

So in the special modifications sourcebook the crafting tables show a specific time it takes to craft certain items. I've tried to find an answer to this on this forum, reddit etc. but no thread ever focused on this specific topic.

I'm really wondering how to apply these time frames? Am I supposed to tell my technician PC who specs into crafting that he can't join the adventure because he needs to actually spend 16hours at the workbench to craft a new rifle? I know most things are at GMs discretion finally but I find these information really confusing. Wouldnt it have been easier to just let your PC craft one item at a time inbetween sessions or, in cases of larger projects like entire armorsuits, between multiple sessions?

Our entire group is new to roleplaying pen&paper, including me as the GM. I would be very appreciative to know how some more experienced GMs handle this.

It's pretty much like you suggested, they do it in downtime or travel time occasions. Successes can also reduce the time quite heavily. And for the longer ones they can leave it half done at their workbench on the ship and then get back to it once they're done shooting people or whatever. Also remind them that even droids need downtime to reload, if the time says it takes 72 hours to build it, then that means 72 hours working on it, not just 3 days. So they may very well have to take 4 to 5 days to finish it depending on what else happens.

30 minutes ago, Shizuya said:

So in the special modifications sourcebook the crafting tables show a specific time it takes to craft certain items. I've tried to find an answer to this on this forum, reddit etc. but no thread ever focused on this specific topic.

I'm really wondering how to apply these time frames? Am I supposed to tell my technician PC who specs into crafting that he can't join the adventure because he needs to actually spend 16hours at the workbench to craft a new rifle? I know most things are at GMs discretion finally but I find these information really confusing. Wouldnt it have been easier to just let your PC craft one item at a time inbetween sessions or, in cases of larger projects like entire armorsuits, between multiple sessions?

Our entire group is new to roleplaying pen&paper, including me as the GM. I would be very appreciative to know how some more experienced GMs handle this.

I don't think you want an answer one way or another really. I enjoyed sleeping in between remodeling my floors downstairs. By the same token I'd rather not have a cake where the batter was left on the counter for 3 weeks before you baked it. My answer would be, it depends, putting together a new rifle, I think you can take five and grab some pizza and beer. Mixing explosives? Maybe you don't wanna leave that out for anyone to bump....

Yeah, how time moves in your game is up to the story. You don't have to account for every minute in-game.

So yeah, if there's a week between story points, cool. If you're neck deep in the death star at the end of one session, you probably can't build a new rifle before the next.

Also remember that you can cover a lot of time in game if needed. Say you're staying out a place. One Perception check could cover days or more of taking turns sitting out front watching the place. Plenty of time for the tech to craft something on the side.

In short, figure out what works for you. There is a time to craft, and a time to adventure. And sometimes a time to craft while adventuring.

thanks for your helpful answers! Guess I can just let some days pass inbetween missions for crafting then. Kind of logical when you just came back from a bounty hunt or so to relax for a while and spend all that nice money earned before getting back to work!

I have a couple of players who like to craft. We include a lot of in-game downtime (long rests, waiting for next day) so players can do crafting, maintenance, bandaging...

My players bounce around planets a lot and so they have lots of travel time to these things also.

If a character has too long a break from crafting something then I would have them make a roll to restart the process. Especially if it is complicated.

I would definitely view it as “it takes X time to craft it, but you can pause it to do other stuff”. So you can partake in the adventure, but that won’t count against the time working on it.

7 hours ago, BadMotivator said:

I would definitely view it as “it takes X time to craft it, but you can pause it to do other stuff”. So you can partake in the adventure, but that won’t count against the time working on it.

Exactly. You can easily leave your half-finished blaster rifle clamped to your workbench while you're off saving the galaxy.

We have interpreted to assume it takes that much time to build, including downtime but not including adventure time. This is a standard check assuming you spend at least that much time doing something to provide a reasonable time frame, which includes sleeping and the like (for 24 hour periods or greater). It's just a time period which expresses how long a project takes of "in character" investiment to complete any given project.

We haven't "ruled" this, but we also assume we can only work on one project at a time, so "pausing" one to complete another doesn't usually happen. The only exception might be in star ship design, where a character might design a plan and hand it to the workers to put together but more likely then not won't be present for a large chunk of the construction time. Thus as long as there's spare hanger space, multiple teams could be working on multiple star fighters/components of starships going at the same time. The only real restriction is that the character must be the initiator of that check and spend a reasonable amount of time to get the project off the ground; might be a few hours to just instruct people how you want the project done and draft sciamtics and leave the rest to their capable (incapable?) hands.

I'll go one better, I think that Repairs should take a long time, long enough that they should not be completed in a scene or two in most cases.

On 2/11/2019 at 1:26 PM, Ghostofman said:

If you're neck deep in the death star at the end of one session, you probably can't build a new rifle before the next.

I don't know. They probably have some pretty sweet equipment manufacturing stations on the Death Star. There's just the pesky problem of people shooting at you for those 16 hours.

1 hour ago, Desslok said:

I don't know. They probably have some pretty sweet equipment manufacturing stations on the Death Star. There's just the pesky problem of people shooting at you for those 16 hours.

Well unlike you not everyone does their best work under that kind of pressure.

so in my latest game yesterday I houseruled that inbetween adventures/contracts the PCs usually have a few days off to do trading/crafting etc. but at the same time they also have life maintenance costs for the time being. the hangar bay, fuel, repairs etc must be paid as well as PCs eating, drinking, tending wounds and of course enjoying themselves (we are momentarily on nar shadaa, and life certainly isn't cheap here), so every PC lost 1k worth of credits during that week. I figured it was also a good way to keep the group hungry for work.

1 hour ago, Shizuya said:

so in my latest game yesterday I houseruled that inbetween adventures/contracts the PCs usually have a few days off to do trading/crafting etc. but at the same time they also have life maintenance costs for the time being. the hangar bay, fuel, repairs etc must be paid as well as PCs eating, drinking, tending wounds and of course enjoying themselves (we are momentarily on nar shadaa, and life certainly isn't cheap here), so every PC lost 1k worth of credits during that week. I figured it was also a good way to keep the group hungry for work.

Always a good idea to keep them hungry!