So I've been reading Blessing of Steel because one of my players is a smithing-obsessed Kaiu and the ritual is clearly something for him.
All of the effects seem cool, except for Earth. Actually, Earth would be okay too - if it weren't something you can do anyway.

One of the examples for how to use craft skills is a TN1 Earth check to repair a sword after a fight, removing Damaged. Another one is to stitch clothing, at TN2.
So sure, I'm willing to accept that Blessing of Steel allows you to do that to more complex/tough armour, too, but it still seems rather weak compared to the other possible effects.

I'm thinking that it should be switched to something like giving +1 reduction or similar, but would like to hear your thoughts.

Yes, that is kinda odd. Would of course go into house-rule territory, but I'd say while repairing the Damaged condition with a check works, repairing Destroyed would not be so easy. A broken katana cannot be glued together again. That would require reforging by a master smith, or the Caress of Earth invocation - or Blessing of Steel (Earth).

3 hours ago, Myrion said:

So I've been reading Blessing of Steel because one of my players is a smithing-obsessed Kaiu and the ritual is clearly something for him.
All of the effects seem cool, except for Earth. Actually, Earth would be okay too - if it weren't something you can do anyway.

One of the examples for how to use craft skills is a TN1 Earth check to repair a sword after a fight, removing Damaged. Another one is to stitch clothing, at TN2.
So sure, I'm willing to accept that Blessing of Steel allows you to do that to more complex/tough armour, too, but it still seems rather weak compared to the other possible effects.

I'm thinking that it should be switched to something like giving +1 reduction or similar, but would like to hear your thoughts.

Well, you can do whatever you want really, the rules are just "guidelines".

Though, I would especially be weary and very flexible when taking into consideration the examples of skills TN. These whole tables seems to not really have been made at the same time as the rest of the game, as in, they do not take into consideration "techniques" and "opportunity examples".

Also, in the Equipment section, they mention a TN2 artisan check to remove item qualities (like Damaged).

Back to Biting Steel Ritual, well, sure, it makes you able to make the item Durable (but then there is probably an Opportunity example somewhere in the corebook that does the same thing).
And that my friend, is what this game is all about. A wannabe narrative game a la "blades in the dark" clogged by very non congruent rules to make it crunchier in all the wrong areas.

So on rereading, it can also give Durable, which I'm not seeing anymore how else to add (I thought that was a thing).

So I'll probably rule it as "with this tech, TN2 goes for anything other than the simplest stuff, can repair Destroyed, can add Durable, while without, there are TN3+ things, you need more tools and materials, especially for repairing Destroyed amd you can't add Durable".

Thanks, Harzerkatze.

30 minutes ago, Myrion said:

So on rereading, it can also give Durable, which I'm not seeing anymore how else to add (I thought that was a thing).

So I'll probably rule it as "with this tech, TN2 goes for anything other than the simplest stuff, can repair Destroyed, can add Durable, while without, there are TN3+ things, you need more tools and materials, especially for repairing Destroyed amd you can't add Durable".

Thanks, Harzerkatze.

p.329

Skill Examples of opportunity:
Earth, Artisan: spend one opportunity to add durable.

18 hours ago, Myrion said:

So on rereading, it can also give Durable, which I'm not seeing anymore how else to add (I thought that was a thing).

So I'll probably rule it as "with this tech, TN2 goes for anything other than the simplest stuff, can repair Destroyed, can add Durable, while without, there are TN3+ things, you need more tools and materials, especially for repairing Destroyed amd you can't add Durable".

Thanks, Harzerkatze.

Note that any improvement added with Blessing of Steel lasts for only one scene.

The add a quality opportunities are implied by the boxout on p.148 to be when crafting (including restoring) a weapon but as @Avatar111 says there's no specific prohibition about using it with any artisan check.

Blessing of Steel doesn't really do anything for a damaged weapon you couldn't with an Earth check. I'd agree that you've probably got the best way of looking at it - TN1 for removing damaged from a sword specifically assumes nothing but time, a silk and a whetstone - if you have a different weapon that's damaged you're looking at a more significant task with some prerequisites of tools and workshop space; allowing Blessing of Steel to skip this gives it some value.

My main observation is that Blessing of Steel as a technique doesn't have to be reactive. The generic is fine, but as a rule I try and avoid allowing people to make a check 'just because'. I recall a bit of a debate about this way back; some people getting very shirty about the suggestion that they can't just randomly keep performing an Earth/Smithing check until they'd added Durable to their sword.

My view is this:

• to spend an you have to have it as a kept result in a check.
• to have rolled dice in the first place, there needs to be a reason to perform that check.
• the valid reasons to make a check are (p.23):
  • Could the character fail?
  • Could the character possibly succeed?
  • Are the consequences of success and failure interesting and meaningfully different?
• If you are rolling the smithing check only in the hopes of getting a to spend on granting the sword Durable , that is unconnected to success and failure! A "meaningful difference" between success and failure means something good has to happen if you roll sufficient (or something bad happens if you don't).
• If you can't come up with something the GM and PC both accept as a success/failure effect, no meaningful difference, no TN, no check, no dice roll, no , hence no Durable .
• If the sword starts the downtime scene Damaged , then removing the quality is meaningful, and hence you can make the check - and potentially add Durable in the process.
• If it's not, then you can narratively spend the scene cleaning and sharpening your sword, but it doesn't do anything mechanically.
• Blessing of Steel , however, adds Durable as an effect of success, which is a subtle but important difference. Which means using it on an undamaged weapon in preparation to going into battle is perfectly fine.

On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2020 at 11:32 AM, Harzerkatze said:

but I'd say while repairing the Damaged condition with a check works, repairing Destroyed would not be so easy. A broken katana cannot be glued together again. That would require reforging by a master smith, or the Caress of Earth invocation - or Blessing of Steel (Earth).

Repairing a weapon with Destroyed would be a Restore (Earth) smithing check following the crafting rules on p148. Which means you're not in the same league as the TN1 "sharpen a sword" example.

"The TN of this check is equal to the rarity of the item they wish to create, with a reduction to the difficulty based on the facilities available—the wondrous workshop used by the Kakita smiths would reduce the TN by 4, while a small town blacksmith’s facilities would provide a more modest reduction of 2."

So repairing a rarity 7 katana from Destroyed in a village blacksmith would be a rather scary TN5. Hopefully with skilled assistance from the blacksmith themselves, but still.

Probably better to wait until you get back to the master armourer at your lord's castle, right?

Haven't anything to add other than: Yep, that sounds like the right way to handle this in my game. Thanks for formulating it out entirely!

Technically, Blessing of Steel (Earth) only removes Damaged, not Destroyed.

As a house-rule, I would allow it to remove Destroyed, but only for one scene in which the item was used.

Only Caress of Earth or recrafting removes Destroyed permanently.