In this alternate system you build resources called Capital - Goods, Influence, Labor and Magic. These are generated using your PC's skills, and certain skills are used for certain types of Capital. Does your skill have to directly relate to the task at hand?
Example: my new PC is a Halfling ranger with Diplomacy, Ride and Profession: Trapper. He wants to start working on building himself a house outside of the city. Does his use of Profession have to mean he's trapping animals to make a house out of their hides to then qualify for Goods?
Anyone on this? Also if someone's using craft, per day, to generate capital...what are they doing? There's very few crafts that actually generate ANYTHING of value in one day, so what then are these crafters "making?"
They are making the usual things they craft. That doesn't change. But the generate capital check represents sales as well. Just because you've made 100 horseshoes doesn't mean you've sold 100 horseshoes.
The examples in the UC, seem to indicate that the skill checks often represent some type of bartering.
It's kind of a "favors for favors" system when generating capital resources.
Real life example #1: Your buddy is building a house and one of his workers calls in sick. You are a nice guy, so you go down and help out for the day. You are not on the payroll. At the end of the day, your buddy is very grateful. Next month, when you're repairing your garage, you have the ability to call your buddy and he can pull some strings and get you some cheap materiel, or call some of his dudes to lend a hand for less than they'd normally charge.
Congratulations, you've earned some Goods or Labor.
Real life example #2: Your buddy is a lawyer, and his secretary/clerk in sick. You are a nice guy, so you go down and help answer the phone for the day. You are not on the payroll. At the end of the day, your buddy is very grateful. Next month, when you find yourself in some legal trouble, you call your buddy and he's happy to help you out for a considerably lower rate than standard legal fees.
Congratulations, you've earned some Influence.
Ok, so this helps explain the general building of capital, but what about when using Craft skills specifically. Your PC is 1st level with a Craft: Jewelry skill. Since he's just starting out he's got 1 rank, 3 from class skill and +2 from Int. He can take 10 and generate 16 x DC 10 = 160 SP or 16 GP worth of simple costume jewelry in the course of a week. However per day (in a 5 day work week) this is a mere 3 GP, 2 SP.
So in this instance I'm having a hard time grasping how this first level guy turns a little over 3 GP into 20 GP worth of goods. He's either a HECK of a salesman or his customers/co-workers/fellow NPCs are all rubes.
Remember, your jeweller still has to purchase those Goods, he just gets to do so at a reduced price.
As to how your first level guy earns more using the capital system than the outright sales of goods, it isn't that his co-workers are rubes, it's that "favors for favors" usually gets you a better return than "favors for money," seeing as people don't like to part with money; they'd sooner part with other things.
Another real life example: I frequent my local comic shop. Like all retail shops, they accept money for sale of goods. Unlike most retail shops, most comic shops will take in goods. This is how comic shops get a lot of their old back issue stock. This also works with other things, like Magic cards; the store will open packs to create a stock of singles, but they will also take in singles people bring in.
If someone was to bring in a comic/card collection for the store and they wanted to do some trading, they would get around 40%-60% of the value of the product they brought in worth in store trade value (depending on what they brought in, condition, supply/demand, etc.) If that same person turned around and said, "I don't want to trade for new cards, I want CASH MONEY," they would get a value less than what their trade would be worth. It's better business for the store to exchange goods than to give liquid cash away all day, so the customer gets a better cut if they don't take the cash.
Same thing with your jeweller. He could work for somebody and get paid in cash, or get paid in favors. His employer would probably prefer if he paid out favors instead of cash, so he can give better favors.