Forgotten crafting professions

I just moved the two I added to the first post, and I'll add some more, including suggestions from others here. I figure its best to put them all in one place if I can.

Montesquieu,

Scriveners -- yea, scribes, but we had them in Ultima Online. Scribes should also have a related skill of bookbinding and parchment-making, though.

Families would make some of their own clothing at home, usually a house would have a spinning wheel.

 

I don't especially see scribes as having mechanical crafting skills. Two completely different skill sets. I can understand the tempation to put the two together but I'd like to avoid doing that with skills. If any particular craft or 'skill' doesn't have enough to flesh it out to make it a worthwhile skill in-game then I'd rather see them either added to more closely related skills or as an 'unskilled' craft.

 

They were more closely related than you'd think. You would see a "Guild of Scribes and Bookbinders." Book-bindery, paper-making, etc. were all a part of the job at a university or monastery. Remember, scribes in the Middle Ages also illuminated books and manuscripts and also had to make their own ink, too. It was similar for painters at the time; painters would have to make their own pigments.

 

Thank you, Mystic, for moving the Thread to the proper forum area!

 

I suppose that make some sense.

 

I added the information for book-binding and parchment making to the first post, and also put in some more links to pages describing rope-making and net-making (including netting needles). Now I'm going to go over some of the suggestions from others here and see about adding them.

I'll copy here what I added, below.

BOOK-BINDERS, and PARCHMENT-MAKERS.

Scribes, book-binders, illuminators, and parchment-makers would have worked nearby churches, at universities, or at monasteries, since they were the ones who largely used them. Book-sellers, called "stationers," would also have shops near by, on what was called "book street." There is a description of book-making for profit in the late Middle Ages here.



Paper didn't become common until around 1450, so until then books were made with parchment or vellum. Pelts were first soaked in a lime solution to loosen the fur, then stretcched, and scraped using a knife, in a repeated process until the parchment maker achieved the desired thickness. There's a description of the whole process of parchment-making, book-binding, illumination, and writing here in the documentation for an exhibition at the Getty Center, "The Making of a Medieval Book." A more detailed description on book-binding in particular here.

 

The petite lady lights a candle in a vase and tests the temperature of her bath water. She loves the look of the tile floor, and the relaxing aroma of her lilac and rose scented soaps. She admires the lovely glass soapdish, with it's fluted curls. She looks up at the walls her stone mason built with admiration, and her red curls tumble down.

Appreciating the fireplace and the care of her maid in leaving the charcoal, the lady still declines to make a fire. It is too warm, and her bathwater must cool a wee bit before she will enter it. Looking out the top of the window as she waits, she sees her cook's assistant pulling in the net with an excellent catch of fish. The woman turns and puts some freshly gathered potpourri of fresh petals from wild lilacs into a ceramic bowl, and crushes them with a little water, and oil from a vase, to release the scent. After a brief consideration, she opens a locked box and drops some rare spices into the potpourri as well. The lady inhales with pleasure.

Looking over various scrolls and books kept on the shelves for such relaxing baths, the pale woman decides that she is not in the mood for learning, but rather an adventure with a touch of romance. Her fingers reach out for a book, and she lays it upon the bath's iron shelf. Dropping her towel, she slips into the water, and enjoys a half hour of luxury.

**More crafting options? Yes, please! Thank you.

 

Sometimes half the fun in the RP is simply building a life for your character.

 

(slaps head) COBBLERS! (which would include bootmakers) The sole of the traveling adventurer!

 

One way would be to limit the amount of weight and space you can recall with in your bags.

 

Pun intended? :-D


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Yeah, I've pictured a similar system that not only takes weight into account, but "bulk." I mean, 20 baskets may weigh less than my armor, but they'd be a hell of a lot harder to carry. So like, your strength would determine your "weight" carrying capacity, but each item could also have a "bulk" value, and the limit for "bulk" is determined by the kinds of bags, scabbards, belts, etc. you wear. I mean, it doesn't make sense that I could carry 10 chairs in my backpack, shoved in next to the 8 haliberds I've picked up. No matter HOW strong I am.