Charity Carpenter: Homemaker

[JoshTheValiant]

Anyone else ever bothered by the complete lack of the cooking, cleaning, sewing, and general homemaking trappings in every RPG ever?

No?  Didn't think so.  But here's a new skill I dreamt up to answer the question that no one but me asked, free to use if you like my drift, and feedback is always appreciated.

Homemaking

Homemaking is the skill of making a home warm and welcoming.  From cooking good meals that warm the heart as easily as they fill the stomach to making handcrafted quilts and sweaters which add color to a room and wrap a person in love, Homemaking is a skill very much about showing love in a variety of forms.  Homemaking is not normally taught in schools, at least not extensively, but rather handed down through family, strengthening the bonds of love and care that the skill naturally lends itself to.  People with high skill in Homemaking include kindly old grandmothers, favorite uncles, and the dorm master you actually liked.

*Cooking
Homemaking is used to cook a good meal that is not only filling and nutritious, but comforting.  Cooking normally takes up a scene to do, either as an excuse for a conversation (or rarely, a social conflict), or as an excuse to be absent for a scene while other work is done.  Actually eating whatever was made, be it a Thanksgiving feast or a batch of chocolate chip cookies is the trigger for a Declaration, made at the Homemaker's skill, which applies an Aspect either to the eater or to the scene as a whole.  Such Aspects are inevitably linked to an emotional reaction to the food or the company held or the symbol of what the food stands for.

*Handcrafts
Similar to Cooking, knitted, quilted, sewed, or woven knickknacks and clothing are the result of time spent crafting or Declarations that the work has been done on them, and their primary role is making Declarations about the emotional impact of the item made.  However, Handcrafts can also be used to mend damaged items of the same stripe, restoring them to their original form.  This is often just flavor, but it can occasionally be important to have items in their whole form.  Besides, who likes holes in their socks?

*Personal Touch
Anything created by Handcrafts has one metaphysical note of importance: the time and care put into such handcrafted tokens creates a mystical bond between maker and receiver, in addition to leftover yarn and material always being viable for sympathetic links between the pieces of the whole.

*Thresholds
The big metaphysical muscle of Homemaking is in the creation and fortification of Thresholds.  In addition to any Aspects of legacy that are a factor in a location's Threshold, half the Homemaking skill, rounded up, of the chief resident of that building (i.e. whoever runs the household and spends more time living there than anyone else) is used as the base for computing the Threshold of a building.

STUNTS

*A Mother's Wisdom - A life of gentle care lends itself to an understanding ear.  You may use Homemaking with the Shoulder To Cry On Trapping from Empathy justifying recovery from Social and Mental consequences.
*Master Seamster - You're flat out magic with a needle and thread.  Treat any handcrafts you create as two steps higher for determining quality and beauty.
*Kitchen Witch - Cauldrons are the implement of choice for brewing potions, and it's no wonder that the first potions were created as food.  You may use Homemaking to determine potion strength instead of Lore.
*The Bane Of Skinned Knees - There's no minor injury you haven't seen, and fewer that you can't fix with a needle, thread, and a bottle of peroxide.  You may use Homemaking instead of Scholarship for First Aid.

[Silverblaze]

Wanted to have a character that was good at cooking in a game being run actually.  We kinda decided to use performance or scholarship for that as a catch all for skills ungoverned by other skills.

Though then that character is also very smart/scholarly or very musical in some fashion.

Not a perfect solution by anymeans.

I am wary of adding skills to the skill tree, it throws the system off a little.

[Mr. Death]

I'd put cooking under craftsmanship, personally.

[LordDraqo]

I have a character with the Aspect "Cooking is demolition without the Boom." who uses Demolitions for Cooking. However I'm seeing this as useful for an Alfred Pennyworth kind of butler.

[Sanctaphrax]

Looks unnecessary to me.

Performance can cover cooking, and is generally restricted by field so being a Superb chef doesn't make you a Superb singer.

Handicrafts are just Craftsmanship.

Thresholds are mostly fiat. (Also, your formula would make the standard 2 point Threshold really rare.)

Really, I don't see the point.

[SunlessNick]

It may not be necessary, but homes are a big deal in the Dresdenverse, so a skill to represent homemaking is definitely in keeping.

[Sanctaphrax]

Lots of important things shouldn't have skills. For example, there's no skill for sworn oaths or for True Love.

[JoshTheValiant]

It may not be necessary, but homes are a big deal in the Dresdenverse, so a skill to represent homemaking is definitely in keeping.

This is the real reason why I bothered to throw the skill together at all.  I play with systems habitually, tweaking mechanics and skill lists and what have you until I get something I like better, and I've learned in my efforts the value of broad skills and the danger of superfluous skills.  That being said, the Threshold trapping was a big light bulb moment for me, since it's so iconic for the series, and in fact, the REASON why I put that in there is because I preferred a non-fiat way of determining Thresholds.

I agree that Performance can be used to cover cooking... but it FEELS weird that cooking and singing should have anything at all to do with each other, and another thing I've learned through my game tweaking is that a game that feels weird or stale often stops being fun.  (This is the same reason why in my game I redivorced Scholarship into Academics and Science as it was in Spirit of the Century.  Sure, their trappings are all the same, but their subject matters are radically different.)  It's the same argument for Craftsmanship covering sewing.  Yeah, technically the rules cover it, but the leap between sewing and carpentry makes me go  .  Being judicious with specialties could alleviate the problem, but that seems antithetical to the actual spirit of a limited skill list.  Do you necessitate specialties for Weapons?  Guns?  Burglary?

So in the end, the skill is all about flavor and the new Threshold trapping.  Now that my poor offended ego is calmed down, thanks everyone for making me reevaluate the reasons for the skill.  Good feedback is good. 

EDIT:  True point about sworn oaths and True Love.  On the other hand, those are sort of all-or-nothing questions, much more appropriate to be the result of a Declaration or Aspect.  And I would use Conviction to judge the veracity of either.

[devonapple]

*Thresholds
The big metaphysical muscle of Homemaking is in the creation and fortification of Thresholds.  In addition to any Aspects of legacy that are a factor in a location's Threshold, half the Homemaking skill, rounded up, of the chief resident of that building (i.e. whoever runs the household and spends more time living there than anyone else) is used as the base for computing the Threshold of a building.

This trapping may appear to remove the GM fiat element of a Threshold, but one must understand that GM fiat isn't a bad thing, not always, and certainly not a thing to be automatically dismissed.

Setting aside GM ego for a moment:
Making this a skill trapping could open up the possibility for a player to subvert the canonical narrative nature of a Threshold. What if Harry (who knows why) had this skill, took super duper care of his apartment, without the help of brownies, but was otherwise the same bachelor with few emotional ties? What will keep a player from using this to make a Threshold where the setting really wouldn't support a Threshold being valid? By the current rules, all one has to do is be the primary resident, and in a household of one, that isn't hard to keep up.

The GM has to assess the player is home often enough for this trapping to apply. The GM has to factor in the legacy of a house. All the safety checks to make sure such a skill isn't inadvertently misused are.... GM oversight.

[sinker]

Honestly I like it. Sure it's unnecessary as those trappings can be covered by other skills, but it's always been clumsy for them to do so. I have recently been thinking along the lines of what skills are (because a friend is struggling with the same question for a system of his own design). How many you need or don't need. Too many and you wind up with skills like "Use Rope" or "Roundhouse Kick" and too few and you wind up with carpenters that can also cook and sing and a dozen other things that are extraneous to carpentry. I have come to the conclusion that they should be... Professions? Roles? A person who is a carpenter should take one skill that would allow them to do that (and which only contains what is necessary to be called carpentry). A person who is a homemaker should likewise. Anyway I've been digging the thematic approach lately, and so I like this.

Devon's got a point though, some GM fiat ought to remain in the thresholds. I don't see why we can't work with both though.

I am wary of adding skills to the skill tree, it throws the system off a little.

Not really. There are several other Fudge/Fate systems that have different skill lists (SotC and Bulldogs off of the top of my head), they're still Fudge/Fate. It does tend to alter the setting somewhat, but I would argue that this is actually more in line with the setting.

[JoshTheValiant]

This trapping may appear to remove the GM fiat element of a Threshold, but one must understand that GM fiat isn't a bad thing, not always, and certainly not a thing to be automatically dismissed.

Setting aside GM ego for a moment:
Making this a skill trapping could open up the possibility for a player to subvert the canonical narrative nature of a Threshold. What if Harry (who knows why) had this skill, took super duper care of his apartment, without the help of brownies, but was otherwise the same bachelor with few emotional ties? What will keep a player from using this to make a Threshold where the setting really wouldn't support a Threshold being valid? By the current rules, all one has to do is be the primary resident, and in a household of one, that isn't hard to keep up.

The GM has to assess the player is home often enough for this trapping to apply. The GM has to factor in the legacy of a house. All the safety checks to make sure such a skill isn't inadvertently misused are.... GM oversight.

Sorry to not be clear.  I'm really not throwing out GM fiat, I've grown to understand how valuable the more abstract style of gaming can be (hence why I've switched from GURPS and D&D to Fate), and I really do like narrative freedom unrelated to strict hard-and-fast rules (mostly because I hate book lookup mid-session and math).  This isn't so much about killing the fiat as it is giving a character a measure of control over their base, and helping a GM with more ways to tweak a Threshold.

The game as written doesn't have ANY mechanism for determining Thresholds except for Aspect invocations and a 2 or 3 baseline.  That seems under-developed to me, and again, I really think that a Homemaking skill could be a real, legitimate use of a slot for the character it mattered to.

And frankly, I don't think Homemakers get enough respect anywhere, especially not in a game, and in a game where True Love is a mighty armor and a loving home is proof against the worst monsters out there, there's no reason why they shouldn't have a little more spiritual might than others.

As far as the tidy bachelor goes (not using Harry because I can't see Harry being a homebody), that would be a GM call (see?  totally on the wagon!) but my intent with the skill is less on the actual craftiness and cleanliness of the skill and more on the heart that goes into it.  Essentially, this skill is ABOUT emotional attachment.  (Which actually makes a fair argument for some of these trappings being rolled into Conviction with some Stunts.  But more Stunts aren't ever a bad thing, imo, so I'm fine with that.)

(Paranthetical statement!)

[devonapple]

And frankly, I don't think Homemakers get enough respect anywhere, especially not in a game, and in a game where True Love is a mighty armor and a loving home is proof against the worst monsters out there, there's no reason why they shouldn't have a little more spiritual might than others.

That's certainly true - I see where you are coming from. But it feels like an attempt to give Pure Mortals access to something like Bless This House without taking a supernatural power.

[JoshTheValiant]

That's certainly true - I see where you are coming from. But it feels like an attempt to give Pure Mortals access to something like Bless This House without taking a supernatural power.

.... And?  They get Lethal Blow and Fleet of Foot, too.  Besides that, Homemaking would be a +1 to YOUR Threshold strength for every two skill levels, as opposed to a flat +2 to wherever you happened to be.  I think it's fair.

[SunlessNick]

What if Harry (who knows why) had this skill, took super duper care of his apartment, without the help of brownies, but was otherwise the same bachelor with few emotional ties? What will keep a player from using this to make a Threshold where the setting really wouldn't support a Threshold being valid?

If he did do that, and mean it, his flat's Threshold probably would be stronger than it is now (well, was then, but you know what I mean).  The way I see it, the skill trapping suggests a baseline, but other things - including GM fiat and the number of other people there to appreciate what the homemaker does - would still move it up and down, the latter in Harry's case and the former in Charity's.

Alternatively, you could remove the trapping as a strict mechanical effect and just take it into account as part of the fiat.  Or you could require regular visitors or other residents for that trapping to apply (after all, the OP description is about making the place welcoming).

Lots of important things shouldn't have skills. For example, there's no skill for sworn oaths or for True Love.

Well, no, but those things aren't skills (in the real-world sense) - they don't even imply skills - homemaking is and does.

[Haru]

I don't think a new skill like that is necessary. In fact, I think that a lot of the trappings you mention can be found in different skills depending on the character. A chef in a restaurant would probably use craftsmanship to cook. Someone like Jamie Oliver (or any other TV chef, but he is the only english speaking one I know) could use performance, since it is more about the showmanship than the actual cooking. A mother could use empathy, highlighting the "making the family happy" part of a mothers cooking.

On the whole, I see homemaking as a cluster of skills rather than one skill for everything. Empathy, Craftsmanship, Scholarship, Presence, to name a few important ones. Pretty much like you don't have a skill "magic", but three separate skills for different tasks in a wizards career.

I would put cooking and handcrafts into craftsmanship, make personal touch work as declarations (maybe with a stunt which makes such declarations easier) and remove the threshold thing altogether. If you don't want a "crafty" homemaker, you can move them with a stunt. You could create a stunt similar to "bless this house" based on empathy for the threshold thing, I think that would work better. For a lot of things, I don't really think any skill even has to be too high, since most things should not be too hard. And if you need, you can always invoke the homemaker aspect.

Another thought: Playing things like this out does probably require the most combining of skills. For example helping kids with their homework could combine scholarship and empathy.