[Prince Charon]

I've been thinking about the Gadgeteer variants in this setting.

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

The Gadgeteer advantage (Basic Set p56) has four variants in this setting:

Intuitive Engineer, 23 points
A precognitive ability to 'see what will work.'
Statistics: Gadgeteer (ESP, -10%) [23]

Lucky Inventor, 23 points
You tend to accidentally stumble on the right ideas for your problem.
Statistics: Gadgeteer (Probability Alteration, -10%) [23]
Neither of these allow Quick Gadgeteering, and both are limited to mundane technology no more than two TLs ahead of the user - no superscience tech. Outside of this, they are mechanically identical to normal Gadgeteering.

For these two, I'm wondering if 'no superscience tech' should be a specific limitation (it is rather limiting, by definition, especially as the other two in-setting variants do allow it), and if so, how much of a limitation it should be.

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Psychography, 18/35

Also called 'attunement,' this is the ability to create (what appears to be) superscience psi tech. Mechanically similar to standard Gadgeteering, save for the production phase. As all such items are psychically attuned, rather than creating or imitating psi effects through advanced circuitry (which would require TL12 in this setting), they cannot truly be mass-produced. Instead, treat 'production models' as prototypes, save that they are faster to produce, and have no bugs. Appropriate skills include Weird Science/TL6^, Ritual Magic, Symbol Drawing, Herb Lore/TL4^, or Alchemy/TL5^. Pharmacy (Psi)/TL6^ is slowly being developed from the latter two.

Statistics: Gadgeteer (Meta-Psi, -10%; Focused, Psi-Tech, -20%) [17.5/level]

Astral Binding, 11/23

Skill: Astral Binding (Will/Hard).

This is the ability to create a charm or fetish, temporarily or permanently binding an astral entity to an item, and granting the item power as a result. The Concept roll would be based on Occultism (with double the penalty), Hidden Lore (generally Spirits but Faeries, Demons, Angels, or Ultraterrestrials may also be appropriate), or a similar skill to find an appropriate spirit, or Expert Skill (Psionics) and either Autohypnosis or Meditation, to create a thought-form (The Tulpa; Horror p81) for the purpose. If summoning the spirit, use Spirit Communication to call (or go find one, either through Astral Travel or physical travel while using Astral Sight), and social skills to negotiate. The construction skill is Astral Binding. There are no 'production models,' just similar prototypes. In general, charms, being temporary, are much faster to produce than fetishes (divide time by 1d+3), both because negotiations with the spirits (if you aren't simply creating a thought-form) are easier, and because the bindings need not be 'built' to last.

A spirit may be forcibly imprisoned in a charm or fetish, which often leads to great resentment. Roll a Contest of the target's Will against Astral Binding, with the normal Construction penalty.

Statistics: Gadgeteer (Astral Projection, -10%; Based on Will, +20%; Only for Astral Entity containment devices, -60%; Requires Will Roll, -5%) [11.25/level]

(If you have a copy of Monster Hunters 2: The Mission, the Gadgeteering rules on pp24-25 will be useful for anyone with the second level of Psychography or Astral Binding. Just be sure to add a -1 penalty on the Gadgeteering Table on p24, if you don't have Versatile - see text on that page for details.)

For these, I've been thinking that maybe 'Limited mass-production' and 'No mass-production' should be limitations, and again, wondering how limiting they are. This actually fits with a number of super-hero settings, where the gadgeteers and mad scientists create all this neat stuff, but it never comes on the market, or only the prototype (or the results of said prototype, like Captain America) exists. Worm is an example of this, with most or all Tinkers being unable to explain their tech, and non-Tinkers being mostly or totally unable to reverse-engineer it.


Thoughts? Suggestions?