Players guide to the Artisan
The Artisan career can be taken in several directions, though perhaps surprisingly it is very light on social skills. It is well set up to become a pretty good fighter early on, especially for a non-warrior career, gives you a clear profession and place in the world, gives you a reason to play with the crafting system during downtime. The combination of being silver tier and being a crafter means that even gold tier equipment is within fairly easy reach given enough downtime. Overall, the artisan should be a comfortable and fun career to play.
All the origins allow you to be an Artisan, so go ahead and roll randomly to get that sweet XP - or pick whichever one you like. They all have their pros and cons.
If you want to craft your own weapons (which you probably should, we’ll get to why), your origin may influence what trade you choose. Halflings in particular with their low maximum strength and good ballistic skill are going to love bows, crossbows and guns (though you can’t start with Blackpowder lore, unfortunately) but have less use for what can be produced with smithing.
All the characteristics can be good for you, so feel free to roll to get that XP - but remember that if you know you’re going to want to increase three non-favored characteristics, picking them here will save you more XP in the long run than you get for rolling.
The favored characteristics of an Artisan are Strength, Toughness and Initiative. For your picks, Weapon Skill is a good bet - you start with a melee weapon, and as we will see you are well suited for kitting out as a frontline warrior. If you prefer ranged combat (or want to do both) Ballistic Skill is also great. Agility is good if you plan to use Athletics to defend in combat (and generally useful otherwise as well), and Fellowship is almost certainly going to come into play. Reason seems the least useful to an artisan, funnily enough.
But starting with a higher Strength, Toughness or Initiative isn’t bad, and lets you lean into what you are good at sooner, so don’t feel bad about rolling if you want to - or if you don’t know where you want to take your character.
As mentioned, you get Strength, Toughness and Initiative as favored characteristics, meaning they are cheaper to increase using XP.
Strength is generally very useful to any character, affecting damage in combat, how many weapons you can carry, the ability to hit in unarmed combat, performing feats of strength and so on. To you, it can be even more important, as it governs the Toil skill, which can be used for some crafts - smithing being the most notable example.
Toughness is amazingly important in OWRPG, as it directly influences Resilience, which determines if you are wounded or merely staggered when you take a hit - a high resilience can easily mean the difference between life and death in combat, and every point is noticeable here. As if that wasn’t enough, it governs the Endurance skill, which is often tested to resist hazards, diseases and so on - and is tested every single day that you have taken a wound to avoid being infected with festering wounds. It also governs the slightly less critical Survival skill, which can still be quite useful.
Initiative is arguably a somewhat less important characteristic than Strength and Toughness, but it may be important to you as it governs the Dexterity skill, which is used for any crafting that doesn’t use Toil. If you’re using a trade that the rules don’t explicitly list for one of the skills, check with your GM. (Engineering and Smithing explicitly use Toil, the others are up to the GM to decide - in general, “finnicky” crafts are likely to use Dexterity.) Initiative also governs Awareness, which may be important if your GM is the kind that like to ambush your party, and it can help in social situations if you use the Scrutinize action. (Missing clues is not an issue in this game if the GM plays by the rules, as he’s not allowed to hide them behind awareness checks.)
For skills you get +1 to four out of Melee, Brawn, Toil, Endurance, Awareness and Dexterity. Unless you know you are building a ranged specialist (hello halflings), you should probably pick Melee. You should also pick whichever out of Toil and Dexterity is used for crafting items with your trade lore. Beyond that, Endurance is probably a mandatory pick to avoid nasty effects like festering wounds. For the final one, pick whichever of Brawn and Awareness you like the most.
You get one Lore out of either Smithing, Arts, Textiles or a custom trade lore. The word custom is easy to miss here, but important: It means you can’t pick one of the pre-defined ones apart from Smithing, Arts and Textiles. So no Blackpowder or Engineering for instance. Of the ones mentioned, Smithing is the obvious best choice for most campaigns, though Textiles and Art could possibly be good in a social campaign (Textiles more than art) - and Textiles might be excellent if your GM agrees it is used to craft slings. For custom lores you must discuss it with your GM - but a later section of this guide will offer some suggestions. If you plan to use bows, Woodworking might be a good choice.
For trappings, you have to choose between a warhammer and a sword, both silver tier one-handed melee weapons. Warhammers are better offensively when your enemy is staggered, swords are better defensively when you yourself are not staggered and you use defence to parry attacks. (Meaning that if you are planning to use Athletics to dodge instead of using Defence to parry, the warhammer is strictly better). Pick whichever one you like (or are more likely to remember to apply in combat).
Beyond that choice, you get burghers apparel (useful for haggling with other silver tier people), workers leathers (which are surprisingly useful, giving bonuses against hazards) and trade tools to match your trade lore.
For assets you must choose between Workshop, Armoury or Shop:
The workshop is arguably the best general choice here, as it will clearly give you a +1d to your crafting checks during downtime. As a silver tier character, your workshop belongs to the Guild - which means you probably belong to the guild, which gives you a nice tie-in to an organization in the game world, which is awesome. Should you choose to downgrade your social tier to Brass, you either have a workbench or are an apprentice at the guild - I would definitely choose being an apprentice to keep that nice tie-in to an organization.
An armoury gives you access to state troop facilities and weapons and armour, and smiths to keep things repaired - indeed you are likely to be one of those smiths. So at least for smithing, this can probably also be a good place to ply your trade to get that +1d to craft checks. It also gives you a nice tie-in to the game world, as you’re clearly employed by the army. This asset will probably allow you to get access to nice weapons and armor for your party without paying, though excessive borrowing of this sort may of course have consequences. The armoury is possibly less nice if you downgrade your social status to Brass, as it will mean you only have conditional access to the armoury, meaning you’re either sneaking in or need permission from your lord. This could be an interesting tie-in to the game world, but it might mean it is sometimes not available to you when you want it to be.
The shop is my least favourite asset here, as it is simply a small storefront, probably in your home. You could probably get your GM to agree that you have enough tools and facilities in your shop to get that +1d to crafting, but it doesn’t give you any tie-in to the world, and is mostly a liability because your enemies can target it, and there is no organization to defend it. I guess it does give you a private place to store contraband or harbor fugitives if that is something you think you’ll have a need of. Still, if you want to be a small business owner, here it is. Being Brass or Silver tier here doesn’t matter too much, you’re assumed to sell less valuable goods if you are Brass tier.
As a Silver tier career, you can choose to downgrade to Brass tier. This will get you 1XP, which is awesome, and can give you good roleplaying opportunities - for the Artisan, my favourite is simply that you are still an apprentice, but you could also be down-on-your-luck, thrown out of the guild, or something like that.
Being Brass tier as an artisan isn’t too bad - you can still fairly easily create Silver tier items within the limits of your trade lore, given enough downtime. But that is going to take time, and if you want to be a melee fighter you’ll need armour sooner than that. And as a silver tier craftsman you can create Gold tier items, which may easily be the best way for your party to get that kind of gear - Silver gear isn’t that hard to get a hold of, and Silver careers are fairly plentiful, but Gold tier gear may be harder to come by. But then again, if another character is silver tier, they could provide you with the materials to create gold tier gear, so lowering your social status could give you a reason to cooperate more with your fellow players - always a good thing.
In other words, there are pros and cons to lowering your social tier - it’s not a good enough deal that I’d recommend it for an Artisan, but it does open some nice roleplaying opportunities - and of course the XP is nice.
You can get comrades in arms or the common folk (or one of each). I would make at least one roll on comrades in arms, as that table contains both powerful and interesting characters.
I’d talk to my GM about customizing the relationships a bit. Getting the Hunter Lord or Lieutenant probably show who you’re selling your wares to (or who your employer is, if you chose the Armoury asset), while Manfreda could be a customer - but not all of the relationships reflect this in a nice way. But it is fairly easily rectified - if you get “You worked together once to defeat a common foe” with Manfreda, perhaps the way you worked together was that you loaned them the equipment they needed to do so. If you get “You saved their life in battle” with Danya, perhaps it was the armour you customized for them that actually did that, or the nice new uniforms you produced that made her troops recognize each other, rather than you actually having been there in the battle. (Of course, if you prefer having been there, there’s nothing wrong with that either.)
I always advise increasing skills rather than getting a random asset or talent here. If you’re going to be fighting in melee, consider Defence (or possibly Athletics if you want to go the Agility route, though I don’t think that’s the best choice for an Artisan). Improving Toil or Dexterity (depending on your trade) might be good too, or Awareness, Leadership or Charm if you want to improve your social skills.
If you have XP to spend, I would increase relevant attributes - remember that your favored ones are cheaper to increase. But you could consider a talent instead.
If you have Initiative 4+ and 3xp to spend, and you expect social interaction to be important in this campaign, consider Intense Scrutiny that will turn you into a lie detector. For 3xp with no prerequisites, Armor Bane could be a thematic choice for a smith, as you know how to hit an enemy to destroy their armor - it would require you to switch your starting weapon for one with bonuses against armor though. And if you only have 2xp and want to be able to do a bit of magic, Touched by the Winds can be a fun choice.
If you have the full 4XP for rolling everything randomly (meaning you ended up with this guide being relevant by pure chance) and reducing your social tier to Brass, Faith is an excellent choice that can be both powerful and give you a very strong tie to the religious side of the setting. Sigmars favor is mechanically very strong, and you can start with a warhammer, and as his cult is forbidden in the default setting, being a secret worshipper can give you amazing roleplay opportunities. If you prefer not to hide your faith, Myrmidia is another excellent choice - great combat-relevant bonuses for fighting with a spear and shield, which is a good combination, and both items could conceivably be made with the custom Woodworking trade lore that we’ll detail further down. There could be roleplaying opportunities here as well, as the Myrmidia-worshipping Knights of the Blazing Sun are based in Talabheim. Perhaps you work in their armoury or are related to one of them?
The artisan is all about their trade lore, and their career talent Trust your tools gives you bonuses when you use things you have created yourself. For general trappings, it will prevent you from the GM making complications when you only barely succeed at something - the usefulness of this will depend on how often your GM likes to make complications, and how much of your gear you can make - and how good you are at arguing that you’re using it. More tangibly, you get +1d on the first attack each combat with a weapon you craft yourself - meaning you probably want to be able to craft weapons.
To start with, you have either Arts, Smithing, Textiles or a custom trade lore. (If you wanted to make things with Blackpowder or Engineering, go to the Engineer career. Farming or Cooking? Labourer. Concoctions? Apothecary.)
Arts means writing, painting, sculpturing or another art form - and you have to choose one when taking the lore. Probably not writing, as you’re not literate as an Artisan, no calligraphy masters here. The lore lets you critique artworks and recognize influential artists, interpret messages a piece of art is meant to convey or forge replicas of others creations. All good roleplaying opportunities in a very particular kind of campaign, but it’s not going to come up that often, and it’s going to be hard to find opportunities to get anything out of the Trust your tools talent here. I would recommend staying away, unless your GM allows you to take Engraving as your art form and letting the Trust your tools talent work with any item you’ve engraved - but that is a stretch, and not really playing to the intent of this trade. Avoid this trade lore as an artisan.
If you want to be an Artist, I would recommend working with your GM to create a custom career for it, or at least switch out the Trust your tools talent for something else, such as the Secret Bloodline, Vouch for them or Keen Eyed talents, or preferably something custom - perhaps “Well known artiste”, which would change social expectations of you to be very eccentric and artistic, and also gives you +1d on persuasion attempts to get you into gold tier social situations.
It is also a bit strange that Arts has to be broken down into individual art styles, while trade lores like Engineering and Smithing are allowed to be extremely broad. Especially given such in-universe polymaths as Leonardo da Miragliano, and the limited usefulness of Arts in most roleplaying campaigns. As the GM, I would definitely roll all the art forms into one, and let someone with the Arts trade lore be good at all of them (except writing if you don’t have Literacy). It would be a very rare campaign where this would be game breaking. The player would of course be allowed to limit or specialize themselves, but there is little reason for the rules to do so for them. This is as silly as D&D5e requiring bards to pick only 3 instruments, while fighters can use all weapons.
Smithing lets you work metal to produce weapons, armour and tools. Now, most weapons and tools are likely to be only part metal, but we’ll assume that you can make anything that has significant metal parts - which is almost anything. (The alternative, that you can only make things that are predominantly or entirely metal, are likely to be way too restrictive to be fun - but as always, check with your GM.)
Assuming a reasonable GM, you’ll be able to make any weapon except Staffs, Slings, Bows and guns (which may have significant metal parts, but appear to be quite clearly part of the Blackpowder lore in the OWRPG ruleset). I would probably allow crossbows, but check with your GM for that one. Spears is another borderline case, but I’d allow it. Metal shields are historically a thing, and should be possible. Light armor can be metal (chain shirts are listed), so all kinds of armor are possible.
Smithing is also clearly suitable for making tools for smithing (such as tongues, anvils and even hammers), and other items you are likely to use - horseshoes, musical instruments, cooking pans… Given enough time and imagination to make it all (and a reasonable GM), you should be able to apply Trust your tools to a great many kinds of tests. Try to be reasonable yourself as well though - that you made your horseshoes yourself does not mean you should be able to use Trust your tools when controlling the horse… But maybe if you also made all the metal parts of the harness and saddle?
Textiles let you create clothing and footwear, specifically to make sure you give a good impression, and to provide better coverage and protection. It specifies you can make secret pockets and produce disguises.
For weapons, only the Sling is likely to be something you make with this trade lore, but the Sling isn’t a bad weapon for you, as Strength is a favored attribute for the Artisan and a max-strength dwarf, elf or human will do more damage with a sling than a firearm. (Though Textiles is probably worked with Dexterity, not Toil, so it’s not a perfect fit.) A reasonable GM may allow you to use Trust your tools with a bow where you made the bowstring yourself - it is fun, and hardly overpowered.
You should be able to make light armor with textiles, as gambeson is a thing.
The big upside here is clothing. It is very easy to find ways that clothing could be influencing a very wide range of tests, which can make the “prevent complications” part of Trust your tools very relevant. At the very least, it will apply to the tests relevant for the various types of clothing, check the “armour & outfits” list in the players guide. But it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that a custom-made dress could be “used” for more general checks at a ball, or that your custom “workers leathers” complete with useful pockets and the like could count as part of your trade tools when plying your trade. The Textiles trade specifically says it can be used to make hidden pockets, so if you’re wearing clothing you made yourself you should be able to use Trust your tools when concealing weapons or other items on your body, and making clothes for disguises is also very possible. With a reasonable GM, Textiles can actually be a pretty good pick.
The rules specifically state that you can create custom trade lores. Here are some that I think would be good and useful. But keep in mind you will have to discuss these with your GM before picking them.
Woodworking should allow you to create any weapons (staffs, spears, bows, crossbows, polearms, warhammers and axes) or armor (shields) with significant wooden parts (see my discussion under smithing about how relevant a trade must be to create the item). Some swords have wooden handles - I feel it’s a stretch to allow them, but if smithing can create Spears, Woodworking should be able to create Swords. In the same vein, a lot of tools should be possible to make with woodworking, as handles and grips are much more important than you would think. Beyond that, woodworking could be used in making barrels, wagons, wheels, furniture and buildings - though when the scale gets large enough, you’re getting into Engineering.
It will be tempting for a GM to say that these are several different trades - and indeed in the real world they would be. But in OWRPG, Concoctions can make both medicine, poison and alchemical compounds. Smithing can make both weapons, armour, horseshoes and tools. Engineering applies both to guns, gunpowder, towers and river locks. Allowing a woodworker to make both barrels, wagons and spears seem to fit with the granularity of the game.
Leatherworking is an interesting one. As a GM, I would allow a certain amount of leatherworking to be part of Textiles (see the above note on granularity). But it could be its own thing as well. If so, it could be used to make a lot of different things, and perhaps Trust your tools could be used with anything with a leather grip or a significant amount of straps - swords, tools, some types of clothing, etc.
Pottery might let you make porcelain and various other things, but it is hard to think of how you might combine it with Trust your tools - and it is probably best to roll this into the Arts trade lore.
As a silver tier character who can improve their Strength and Toughness as favored attributes and start with a bonus to melee, and possibly craft your own gold-tier heavy armor, an Artisan is surprisingly well set up to be a front-line combatant. Any origin can do this, though halflings are less suitable. The general idea is to improve WS, melee and defence as much as possible during character creation, and use two of your Silver coins to get a shield and light armor immediately after character creation. Then use XP to improve Strength and Toughness, and use downtime crafting to make yourself heavy armour. (You’ll want to be a Smith for this.)
You’re also fairly likely to get a useful talent - Armour Bane, Hardy, Hatred and Resolute are all good for your combat capabilities, and you get two chances of getting one of them.
From the career, pick Melee, Brawn, Toil and Endurance. For skills we care about, you now have Melee 4/4, Defence 4/2, Brawn 4/3, Toil 4/4, Endurance 5/4, Willpower 3/3.
Pick smithing, an armoury and a hammer or a sword depending on your preference.
For final steps, increase Defence and some other skill from 2 to 3 - possibly leadership, this seems like the type of character who’s likely to yell at someone at some point. You end up with Melee 4/4, Defence 4/3, Brawn 4/3, Toil 4/4, Endurance 5/4, Willpower 3/3 for your most important skills.
As soon as you start your game, ask your GM if you can get heavy armor and a shield from the armoury - it’s not really all that unreasonable, but he might limit you to light armor - fair enough, you are only silver tier. If he completely disagrees just use two silver to buy a shield and light armor, and get ready to start crafting heavy armor during your first downtime. Using your armoury for extra dice you will be rolling 5/4 for toil and you’ll need 8 successes and silver coins - so it will probably take you two or three endeavours to make it. (Funnily enough, if it takes 3 endeavours, you will have failed with enough dice that it is likely your toil will increase to 5.)
Even without heavy armor, your resilience will be 7, with heavy armor it will be 8. With defence 4/3 it is very likely that you will get at least one success when defending yourself, meaning an enemy will most often have to do at least 10 damage (including successes on the attack) to harm you. Now, that means you’ll get staggered a lot, so get ready to give ground often.
You should probably get the Defensive Stance talent soon, which will let you remove staggered from yourself when you successfully defend - not when they miss or simply can’t penetrate your armor mind you, but with 4/3 defence you’re going to successfully defend often enough that it is worth the 2xp.
As an artisan, your role in the party early on may be to provide equipment that the party cannot generally afford - but that won’t last forever, and won’t be the case at all if the party includes any Gold tier characters. But you can make a point of being the guy who repairs their equipment, or creates custom orders. I would strongly recommend using your choice of assets and the contacts your rolled to create a strong identity for your character in the world, either as a member of an artisans guild or an employee of the state troops - this will give the GM material to weave your character into the plots of the campaign.
With Strength and Toughness as favored attributes, and having the possibility of Strength also being the main attribute for your crafting, you can very easily become the “tough guy” of the party (as long as you’re not a halfling), so if you go that route you may want to have some thoughts about how you can play into that. Perhaps you’re the “big, kind guy” who everyone can rely on, or maybe you’re the gruff type with a heart of gold who always protects his friends when the going gets rough, but gives a bad first impression.
Here are some characters from history and fiction that may give you inspiration for playing your artisan.
Historical Inspiration
Benvenuto Cellini – Renaissance goldsmith, sculptor, and swashbuckling rogue who bragged about killing rivals and dining with kings.
Matthias Grünewald – Painter of intense, almost grotesque religious scenes; proof that artisans can have a flair for the dramatic.
Josiah Wedgwood – Potter and industrialist who mixed craftsmanship with shrewd marketing.
Andrea Amati – Luthier who made violins fit for royalty, showing that artisans could also be court favorites.
Fictional Inspiration
Gruffi Gummi (Adventures of the Gummi Bears) – Stubborn, cantankerous, and mechanically gifted; never happier than when fixing, building, or muttering about “doing things the right way.” Gruffi would also be good inspiration for an Engineer.
Wayland the Smith (Norse/Anglo-Saxon legend) – Master craftsman with a vengeful streak and a love of artistry.
Tobho Mott (A Song of Ice and Fire) – Exotic armorer in King’s Landing, a master of rare materials like Valyrian steel.
The Tailor of Gloucester (Beatrix Potter) – A quiet, meticulous craftsman aided by mice; in Warhammer, swap the mice for thieving street urchins - or convince the GM to let you take the Familiar talent…
Will Turner (Pirates of the Caribbean) – A blacksmith whose talent is mixed with humility, loyalty, and surprising skill with a blade.
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