UPB question

[Claw-o-form]

Do UPBS need a crafting station to make items?

[Gary Bush]

Looking at page 235 of the CRB, "Crafting items requires you to have access to tools and a workshop or similar space.", I would say yes.

Is this related to Starfinder Society or more of a general rules question?

[GM Blake]

Yes. The crafting requirements are listed on page 235.

Crafting Equipment and Magic Items wrote:

Crafting items requires you to have access to tools and a workshop or similar space.

EDIT: Ninja'd

[Meadow lark]

Starfinder society.

if effect, i I have 1000 UPB's

Can I use a handful to make a blank swipe card without a Crafting station?

RAW states in Crafting
"Crafting items requires you to have access to tools and a workshop or similar space."

however under UPB
"Each UPB is a tiny multifunction component, not much larger than a grain of rice, capable of being configured to act as a brace, capacitor etc etc and dozens of other constituent parts"

So does this mean
I can use UPB's to make the components - casing, witcuits, but not actually the swipe card?

or can I make the whole swipe card -

either way do I need a "workshop"?

[GM Blake]

You need a workshop to craft. Anything. Full stop.

If you need an in-setting explanation, think of the UPBs as dormant nanobots that require the equipment in a workshop to program to do certain tasks and fashion components. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. UPBs are vaguely defined on purpose, and all that matters is the rule on page 235.

[Meadow lark]

I win... I mean thankyou GM Blake for explaining it for me :)

[Ascalaphus]

Follow-up: how big is such a workshop? Is it something you can own? Can it be carried?

The only workshop I could find was the Tech Workshop expansion bay for starships, but that one mentions it halves the crafting time. Since you always need a workshop, the fact this one halves the time implies it's more-than-required, and that there might be a smaller one that still allows crafting in the regular time.

[BigNorseWolf]

Or similar space. you know, a bench a chair a couple of vices.

[Belafon]

Lau Bannenberg wrote:

Follow-up: how big is such a workshop? Is it something you can own? Can it be carried?

The only workshop I could find was the Tech Workshop expansion bay for starships, but that one mentions it halves the crafting time. Since you always need a workshop, the fact this one halves the time implies it's more-than-required, and that there might be a smaller one that still allows crafting in the regular time.

CRB Page 235:

Quote:

Crafting items requires you to have access to tools and a workshop or similar space. Most starships have an appropriate area set aside, and such space can be rented at the same price as lodgings in major cities (with the size of the lodging being equivalent to the size of the workshop, which limits the size of items that can be constructed and how many people can work on a single item at one time).

In other words... workshops are everywhere, but not man-portable.

(This section also discusses crafting time)

[Meadow lark]

Crafting time is something of contention, a small item cannot take 4 hours like it says,

[Shaudius]

Meadow lark wrote:

Crafting time is something of contention, a small item cannot take 4 hours like it says,

Why not?

[Styrofoam]

For a rules example, look to one of the ships described in Dead Suns book 1. There is a small workshop in the engineering area. So when I GM SFS, I figure that there are small workshops in all Society starships in engineering, but limit it to one person/item at a time.

[Castilliano]

Shaudius wrote:

Meadow lark wrote:

Crafting time is something of contention, a small item cannot take 4 hours like it says,

Why not?

Expanding on this, crafting in SF w/ UPBs requires engineering or mysticism, so it's more advanced than just sawing or drawing. The nanobots aren't just shaped, but programmed or magicked into different materials too. There's no real world correlation here, so our sense of reasonableness doesn't factor in. It takes four hours because the magic widgets need four hours of (fill in the blank) whether it involves circuitry, spells, or just making a useful rock.

[Justin Norveg]

Preheats oven to 450 degrees and 928 thaums....

[EC Gamer Guy]

I was thinking of UPBs as a kind of advanced material (a balance of plastics, organics and metals) for a 3D printer. But the printer can rearrange the molecules as needed when it prints.

[GM Blake]

EC Gamer Guy wrote:

I was thinking of UPBs as a kind of advanced material (a balance of plastics, organics and metals) for a 3D printer. But the printer can rearrange the molecules as needed when it prints.

UPBs are defined quite extensively while simultaneously vague in the Equipment section.