Tinkering and You: The Engineer's Art

[Tofflesby]

Tinkering and You: The Engineer's Art
By Bennett Brass

[This book appears to have been written in some sort of sleep-deprived manic state]

Introduction

My congratulations on choosing to pursue the noblest craft. Ideally this guide is to be read prior to beginning your career, though of course it is useful to Engineers of all skill levels and experience. It is critical to understand proper procedure before you begin, for practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent.

You may be wondering at this point - is this like Alchemy and Herblore? What if I fail? What if I fumble a part? Will that open a rift to the dimension of grinding gears and summon a beast to beat the tar out of me for my failures? Will it turn me into a screw? Blessedly, the answer is generally a resounding 'no'. Outside of a few specific schematic types, tinkering is perfectly safe, and carries no risks of planar incursion, feral beasts, or other such horrors.

You may well pinch your fingers, though.

A special thanks to Orin Vossar, whose guide to alchemy inspired me to finally get this written up.

Chapter 1: Schematics and Parts

When assembling much of anything, you will need parts to assemble it from. Thankfully, most every tinkering station is stocked with all manner of screw and washer and bolt and nut and any other minor bit you could need, so fret not about those. Instead, what you will need are a Schematic, to focus your efforts and provide critical components, and Parts to fill it out.

Roughly speaking, a Schematic determines the 'theme' of whatever it is you create. Schematics can be obtained in one of two ways, generally speaking. They can be encountered while out and about, found in the packs and pockets of your fallen foes. The other way is to use your own creativity and draw one up yourself - this can be as simple as a few doodled notes on a napkin [OOC: This is done via the Crafting menu in your radial]. While you can't draw up just any sort of schematic, since you cannot simply pull specialized materials out of a hat, you can at least make any of the basic five (covered later in this guide). You will, as a general rule, use precisely one schematic per craft. While there are things you can make without one, they are generally shoddily made and not particularly worth the effort.

A Part on the other hand, is anything that you need to make the craft happen. I myself happen to favor using paper as a Part, for it's cheap and gives me plenty of extra space to iterate on designs and complete calculations. Any given project WILL fail if you use fewer than three parts, or more than eight. The more Parts you choose to use, the more stable the outcome tends to be - but at the cost of every iteration and experiment being a larger financial drain. Some commonly used parts may include oil flasks, gemstones, worm meat, animal sinews, or even food and drink if you really find that works for you. What is important in selecting a Part is ease of acquisition, and price point.

It is important to note that the order you add your Schematics and Parts to the workbench is CRUCIAL. The same list of Schematics and Parts can produce wildly different results by simply swapping the order of two components, and will produce different results for every tinkerer. The steps I take to create a firebomb could be followed by you, but would almost certainly yield a different outcome - perhaps nothing at all. For this reason, sharing specific recipes is largely pointless, though sharing what you've made with a specific schematic might inspire another to find their own way to make something like it.


Chapter 2: The Art Itself

To actually craft an item, you will of course first need a place to work. The Astronomers have their own laboratory in the Well (though you will need to track down and likely pay a nadiri for access if you are not a member yourself). There is additionally one that may be purchased in Tlonsiyya, which I hold at the time of penning this, and I am generally amenable to granting upcoming engineers keys to it. If neither of those sound attractive, there is a hidden laboratory within the Sandworm Tunnels, though I will leave unearthing its precise location as an exercise for the reader.

You will also need a notebook with which to record your work. The brain is notoriously fallible, and you will not recall all of your creations by memory alone. This also prevents you from retreading old, failed experiments.

To begin, plan what you will do before you put anything on the worktable. I find organizing my Schematics and Parts beforehand to be both meditative and practical, as it will keep you from panic-adding items you may truly regret using. As mentioned before, for each project you will need

One(1) Schematic
Three(3) to Eight(8) Parts

Once you are ready, and have the components at hand, add them one at a time to the workbench. Follow any instructions indicated by the schematic closely. If the specific combination is a winner, and you have the skill to follow through - you've done it! You've successfully tinkered! Success or failure - WRITE IT DOWN! Remember, the only difference between science and messing about is recording your results.

Chapter 3: Schematic Catalogue

This section covers the schematics you are likely to encounter more than once in a blue moon.

In this section, those schematics that are marked with a (B) are Basic, the sorts that one can simply draw up, and contain no specialized parts. Those marked with (H) are Hazardous, and can backfire in moderately dangerous ways should the process fail for one reason or another.

Tinkering Schematic: Throwable (B) - Used to produce all sorts of basic grenades you're likely already familiar with, including but not limited to your tanglefoots, your chokepowders, your sparks of revelation. In addition to those, however, you can produce a few surprises - grenades of chilling frost, paint bombs, alarm contraptions, and even a secondary schematic: the Advanced Grenade Prototype. A tried-and-true staple, you can never have enough.

Advanced Grenade Prototype: - Cutting-edge grenades. Unlike the more utility-focused sorts found in basic Throwables, these are by and large meant for damage and damage alone. You might pull together firebombs, acid bombs, knifewall grenades (my personal favorite), or even the somewhat unreliable magic disruptor.

Tinkering Schematic: Tools (B) - Quite possibly the widest category of all, these schematics produce all manner of moderately useful mundane items. Generally, it will be faster and easier to just buy a healing kit or a skinning knife or a rope and grapple rather than learning to make one yourself, but learning to make one's own tools is a valuable learning experience. Of note, it is possible to produce featherweight brewing cauldrons with these, which are quite popular amongst mages.

Tinkering Schematic: Missile Weapons (B) - The home of all things ballistic. Ammunition, both mundane and augmented. Crossbows of the combat, grappling, and hybrid sorts. Even a lightning cannon, though thus far I have found no way to make a stable version of them.

Tinkering Schematic: Siege Weapons (B) - The scaled-up cousin of Missile Weapons. These can be used to produce both basic and specialty ammunition for catapults and repeating ballistae, as well as portable versions of the siege engines themselves. Warning - even these scaled-back versions are quite heavy.

Tinkering Schematic: Traps (B)(H) - The weakest in the family of trap-related schematics. Largely not worth the time and effort. Hazards can largely be mitigated or completely ignored with a simple elemental ward.

Hazardous Materials (H) - The middle child of the trap schematics. Has the potential to produce a few traps of intermediate potency. Not particularly worth the effort still, but if you're a diehard trap enjoyer you might find something here of use. Hazards can largely be mitigated or completely ignored with a simple elemental ward.

Extremely Dangerous Materials (H) - The most potent trapmaking tools I know of. Unfortunately, even these are generally more trouble than they're worth, but they will certainly give the best results for your time. Hazards can largely be mitigated or completely ignored with a simple elemental ward.

Uncommon Objects - An unbelievably useful and versatile collection of reactive ingredients. The things it produces are too widely varied to truly lump together, other than that they tend to be limited-use. Produces everything from an amulet that transforms into a potent scanning device, to headwear that allows one to see the invisible, to spring boots that can be rewound rather than breaking (this is one of the only long-term items in the category). That said, many of its more complex outcomes are.. somewhat disappointing. A device to detect traps once is nice and all, but I do have eyes...

Primitive Objects - Sticks, rocks, vines and crystals. Tends to make the sorts of things you'd expect a Sibilant to use, as well as some rather potent throwables - thorny vines in a bag, carnivorous crystals that encase a target in stone. Working with such primitive tools is jarring, but a good way to expand your horizons and develop your skills.

Chapter 4: Additional Tips

It is important to have a wide variety of tools and equipment for tinkering, as many of the creations are exceptionally difficult. Putting a varied toolbox together is a crucial step on the path to success. Crafter's Insight, as it's known, is a star-mage spell that can make all the difference, in addition to simple spells of Cunning. If you're truly desperate, you can invoke a spell of Masochism and try what is known as Paincrafting, though this is tricky and will generally require outside assistance. Often, an experienced craftsman will have some equipment to spare, or can offer advice on where it may be found. To get you started, Raonn Otannuk in Tlonsiyya sells amulets of the Elephant that may be quite useful to you...

If you encounter something that seems too difficult for you to ever make, hope is not lost. While there are many potential methods to creating a specific item, some of them will be what I have dubbed 'Perfect Recipes'. In this case, you have come across a combination and order of parts that takes all of the effort and potential for failure out of creating the item, streamlining the process so heavily anybody could put it together.