Crafting in a survival situation

[Faolán Maiali the Azure Abjurer]

Simple premise: The GM is running a game in which the characters are on a deserted island. None of the players has an axe for chopping firewood, so one of the players wants to make a makeshift axe.

Now, I'm familiar with the general rules of crafting in a downtime scenario in which the party is in town and has access to workshops and the like, but:

What would the procedure be for being on a deserted island and wanting to craft something like a makeshift tool?

What would the process be for gathering raw materials needed to make an item when you cannot buy the raw materials?

What of the timescale? Crafting with downtime takes days of work, but characters also need to Subsist, explore the island, etc.

[Finoan]

There aren't hard and fast rules for such things. Only combat has rules as rigorously specified as what you are asking for.

So you are looking at homebrewing a long-timeframe skill challenge. The first part of that is to decide what the purpose and intent of this challenge is. Is it the main plot of this section of the campaign? Is it a minor event that will take a session or two to play through? Is it a trivial narrative event that can be handled with a couple of rolls?

For a major plot point of the campaign, I would run it as a Victory Point challenge. Probably one that takes one roll per day and lasts for many days. Characters can use Survival, Nature, Perception, or appropriate Lore skills to gather resources. Forager could be used for auto-success at gathering a subsistence living. Crafting would build tools or shelter. Athletics or even Fortitude could be used to assist someone crafting. As the party gains points for their rolls, they can reach thresholds that allow them to improve their makeshift settlement.

For a more minor plot point, it could be a few days of downtime. Have crafting without tools take a -2 penalty for improvised tools. And crafting tools may be one of the first things that they want to create.

For a trivial narrative event, I would just have the crafting take a -2 penalty for not having appropriate tools.

Note: I'm picking a -2 penalty for such things because I don't want to completely lock out the players from even attempting things. The Pick a Lock rules mention allowing the check with improvised picks which are treated as a Shoddy lockpick set. And the Shoddy equipment rules say to use a -2 penalty.

[NorrKnekten]

The first thing that comes to mind is

Improvise Tool wrote:

You can jury-rig solutions when you don't have the proper tools on hand. You can attempt to Repair damaged items without a repair toolkit.

If you have the raw materials, you can Craft a basic caltrop set, candle, compass, crowbar, fishing tackle, flint and steel,hammer, ladder, piton, rope, 10-foot pole, replacement thieves' picks, long or short tool, or torch as if you had their formulas.

Remember, Even without the feat or formula you can craft these things so when it comes to materials its going probably going to be an earn income using either nature, survival or crafting depending on what the player wants to get.

An axe for example would simply be some kind of flint and a haft with some additional fibres holding it together so gathering such materials can be entirely nature or survival. I agree that this axe should probably be Shoddy.

For timescale we do have multiple hints in the books that one day of downtime activity is typically 8 hours(such as Traveling Workshop). Leaving atleast 8 more hours for whatever else needs to happen such as cooking, meals, preparations, travel and so forth. They cannot do more downtime activities but might still end up helping someone elses preparations. Instead of subsisting one could hunt as a combat scenario with someone needing to dress, butcher and dry the meat afterwards to get rations. Someone would still need to get water and so on.