Progressive Mode

A crafting check returns a numeric value that is spent to “buy” results in order of their difficulty.

Rules

Exactly one ingredient set
Exactly one result group with ordered results
A crafting check is required
The check reports either a success with a numeric value or a failure
Each result points to a managed component with a difficulty of at least 1
Results are taken in order, and the check value is spent against each result’s difficulty

Award Modes

The system’s award mode setting controls how the check value is spent:

Mode	Rule	Partial Credit
Equal	Award when the value left is at least the difficulty	No
Exceed	Award only when the value left is greater than the difficulty	No
Partial	Award when the value left is at least the difficulty, and the last result gets partial credit if any value is left over	Yes

Example with Equal mode

Check value: 15. Results in order:

Result	Difficulty	Remaining Before	Awarded?	Remaining After
Iron Filings	3	15	Yes	12
Steel Ingot	5	12	Yes	7
Fine Steel Ingot	5	7	Yes	2
Masterwork Ingot	8	2	No (2 < 8)	2

The player receives Iron Filings, Steel Ingot, and Fine Steel Ingot.

The Check

A progressive check rolls a skill check and reports a numeric value (the total of the roll) on success, or a failure. That value is spent against the ordered results. See Crafting Checks for how checks work and what they report.

What Players See

When a player opens a progressive recipe, Fabricate lists that recipe’s result stages in the order they will be produced. Each stage shows its position in that order, its component, and — where the component has one authored — its difficulty. Progressive stages carry no quantity: a stage is produced once or not at all, so there is nothing to count.

Where it can be worked out, a stage also shows a Reached at value. That is the lowest check value that reaches the stage, taking the earlier stages and the system’s award mode into account. It is not a plain running total of the difficulties above it, because each award mode spends the check value differently. A stage whose component has no valid difficulty is never produced, so it shows no Reached at value rather than a misleading one.

Player Result Re-ordering

Each recipe carries an Allow player result re-ordering setting, which you author on the recipe’s Results tab. It is on by default.

When it is on, a player can put that recipe’s result stages into the order they prefer. They can drag a stage, or move it with the keyboard using the move up and move down controls on each stage. Each move is announced for screen readers, and the Reached at values update to match the new order.

A player’s chosen order is a standing preference, not a one-off choice for the next craft. Fabricate remembers it and uses it every time that player crafts that recipe, until they change it again. The order is remembered per player and per recipe, in this world only. Other players are unaffected, and the same player in another world starts from your authored order.

When you turn the setting off, the stage list is shown in your authored order, marked Order set by the GM, and players cannot rearrange it. Turning it off does not erase any order a player already chose. Their order is simply ignored while the setting is off.

Adding a new result stage to a recipe never displaces a stage a player has already ranked. The new stage goes to the end of that player’s order, so it is produced only if check value is left over.

Re-ordering and Salvage

Components configured for progressive salvage carry the same Allow player result re-ordering setting, on the component’s salvage setup, and it is on by default. Players re-order those stages on the Salvage tab of the Inventory inspector, exactly as they re-order a recipe’s stages here. A salvage run fixes the order it will use at the moment it starts, so a run that finishes later, over world time, still awards the order it began with. Once a salvage has resolved, its stage list locks, with a note explaining that the roll has already run down it rather than the Order set by the GM note used here.

See Salvaging From the Inventory Tab.

Creating a Progressive Recipe

A progressive recipe has one ingredient set and one result group whose results are listed in difficulty order. For example, this means Iron Filings, then Steel Ingot, then Fine Steel Ingot, then Masterwork Ingot. See the API reference for the methods that create and configure recipes.

Each result must point to a managed component with a difficulty of at least 1.

Setting Component Difficulty

A result’s difficulty is a property of the managed component it points to, not of the recipe, so you set it on the component itself. When the system’s recipe resolution mode is Progressive, you can set it from the GM admin panel without the API. Open the Items tab, open a component for edit, and scroll to the Progressive difficulty card. Enter a whole number of 1 or greater, or leave it blank to clear the value. The difficulty is staged with the rest of your edits and is written when you save the component.

A component with no difficulty is excluded from progressive results, so every result component needs a difficulty of at least 1.

When to Use Progressive Mode

Progressive mode is ideal when:

Higher skill checks should yield more and better results
You want a “spend your roll” mechanic
Crafting should feel like a graduated outcome, not just pass/fail