During my last session a level one character wanted to craft Crossbow Bolt, Fire (CBF) (ideally many) using existing crossbow bolts and some stolen bed linens. The kicker is that we all acknowledged that these would be "improvised" CBFs with the normal -4 penalty.
Normally, a single bolt costs 50 gold. I had absolutely no idea how to adjust that value for improvised bolts. Main question: Is there any kind of RAW or clear RAI for this?
Context - how I handled it in the moment
Ultimately I was far more generous than the rules allow, yet my player still balked at her slow progress. I allowed her to roll once per hour, and she rolled pretty high (I forget the exact total) on her first try; and so I simply hand-waved the monetary calculation and said that she could, with an hour's effort, create one. The idea of her character sitting there and wrapping linen around existing bolts and needing an hour to make one didn't sit well with her, but I stuck to the decision, reasoning that doing this in a way that wouldn't stop the bolt as it departed the crossbow would be difficult.
I'm kind of guessing that there's no clear answer here. RAW and RAI are preferred, but in their absence I'll take any useful suggestions for next time.
