01-17-2017, 02:13 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
I will be GMing a new campaign soon and the setting is basically a reworked Roma Arcana (with the supernatural hidden as opposed to openly practiced and observed by everyone) mixed with Monster Hunters. The characters will be a little less powerful too (about 300 points instead of 400). One of my players wants to play a gadgeteer/inventor, which I think is a good idea--I definitely will allow things like invention of oil based incendiaries (usually TL3). However, in thinking about this, I am unsure about what other kinds of fun toys he would be able to cook-up. I tend to think that manufacturing traps to help ambush monsters could be effective, as well as poisons and delivery systems that might be tailored to specific threats. However, there are no electronics, no guns, no steam power, etc., so what will he be building? I know this is really up to him and then I can okay it or not, but I am wondering if "gadgeteer" would really be a good way to go.
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01-17-2017, 02:18 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: New Orleans, LA
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
I'd take inspiration from people like Archimedes. Maybe some primitive steam stuff wouldn't be out of line.
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01-17-2017, 02:23 PM | #3 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
I don't know if its a good option, but if he's roman you should probably give him TL3. They had access to an aweful lot of TL3 stuff.
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01-17-2017, 02:39 PM | #4 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
There's lots of stuff in GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality that would be appropriate. Available from the mighty abacus of Warehouse 23.
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01-17-2017, 03:08 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
I'll second that and add that you should look up more detail on Roman tech levels (there is a strong argument that Rome is higher than TL2, especially is some areas)
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01-17-2017, 03:33 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
There were Roman experiments with storing energy for catapults as compressed air. Maybe a gadgeteer could get a good enough seal to make them work.
You could also go for early invention of Greek fire.
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01-17-2017, 03:45 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
A good tip for this sort of question is to just go through the relevant tech books, and pick a few things of one or two TLs higher. That should provide a lot of inspiration.
In this case, since he's TL 2, let's look at what Low Tech says for TL 3 and 4. In "Ages of Technology" (Low-Tech p. 6) it mentions that distillation, counterweight mechanical artillery, and early black powder weapons are TL 3, while early synthetic medications and cannon are TL 4. All of those sound like they could be super-useful for a Monster Hunters game - distillation lets you create easily-ignitable alcohol, for instance, not to mention one of the best disinfectants around at the time, while synthetic medication could prove greatly helpful in dealing with those pesky supernatural infections. I trust I don't need to explain how black powder or cannon could be helpful. :-) Looking a little deeper into Low-Tech, here are some more things that could be useful to have:
Fantasy Tech 1 will also produce a lot of interesting things to build, though you may have to allow for a certain amount of "superscience" to allow some of it. |
01-17-2017, 04:55 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
To add to Kelly Pedersen's wonderful post, there are classical sources on incendiaries which could be applied at night and caught fire as soon as the sun came up. That is cool enough for a Monster Hunters game whether or not its true!
There is at least one folding multitool from a Roman site.
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01-17-2017, 05:10 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
Wow, thank you for the ideas, this was really helpful stuff! I don't know why I did not simply think about TL3-4 stuff from LT (except for incendiaries), I guess I had my brain fixed on the weird sort of gadgets that the TL8 MH Techie makes. I definitely have a great direction to go now.
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01-17-2017, 05:14 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: LT Gadgeteer Ideas for a TL2 Monster Hunting Game
Quote:
This is, however, the sort of thing I have no idea how to handle with the gadget and invention rules. It is not something for which there is a list cost to use for the invention rules, so do I just estimate what I think it should be? I must confess though, gadgeteer was never a character concept that interested me personally, so I am barely familiar with the mechanics for inventing and building gadgets. Now that I will have a player running one, I guess I will need to get a lot more familiar with the rules. Last edited by phayman53; 01-18-2017 at 09:49 AM. |
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Tags |
gadgeteer, monster hunters, roma arcana |
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