Talent/Spell of the Week: Mechanician

[Bill_in_IN]

I have seen where having a Mechanician in the party would be nice. However, this is true for every talent that the party wishes were present when needed.

In my corner of Cidri, there is a bit of a military industrial complex being established. A team of mechanicians to build and maintain siege weapons/equipment such as arbalests, catapults, wall gates, etc. would be a must in maintaining the defense of a village fortress. Most of these mechanicians would be NPCs. However, this would provide a scenario where a PC could create a mechanician and their job would be to work within this group. Of course, they could be allowed some time off for adventuring.

[TippetsTX]

I've always thought the existence of the MECHANICIAN talents (as well as an organized and widespread guild for like-minded gearheads) was a clear implication that there could be more to Cidri's level of technological potential than most fantasy settings.

At the very least, I think it's worth developing a few rules around the creation of gadgets and mechanical do-dads... not unlike those we have for chemists and alchemists. If there's a talent for it, the PCs deserve to have something they can do with it.

[Shostak]

What are some things that Mechanicians could build that would be useful on typical adventures?

Lighters
Oil/gas camp stoves
Double-bow Crossbow
Synchronized watches


???

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by Shostak

What are some things that Mechanicians could build that would be useful on typical adventures?

Spring-loaded weapons
Clockwork toys (to create distractions)
Timing device
Mechanical limbs
Grabber attachment on the end of a quarterstaff
Automatic lockpicker
Grappling gun
Nightvision or telescopic goggles
Spring boots

[timm meyers]

Originally Posted by Shostak

What are some things that Mechanicians could build that would be useful on typical adventures?

Lighters
Oil/gas camp stoves
Double-bow Crossbow
Synchronized watches


???

6 shot repeating longbow bebe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6-UotZevrs
fast forward to the 22:50 time to see it in action.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

Spring-loaded weapons

Other than a crossbow or switchblade, what might these be?

Nightvision or telescopic goggles
Spring boots

I don’t think night-vision goggles are so much a mechanical tool, but an electronic one. Or magical. Binoculars and telescopes should be possible, though, assuming you have access to lenses and mirrors.

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Other than a crossbow or switchblade, what might these be?



I don’t think night-vision goggles are so much a mechanical tool, but an electronic one. Or magical. Binoculars and telescopes should be possible, though, assuming you have access to lenses and mirrors.

The mechanicians in my corner of Cidri are working on making some portable looking glasses (small telescopes) for longer distance observation. Nothing completely new in Cidri but parts availability is low and have to be made. Good lenses are hard to make. It's nice to know that I remember a little optics from my atomic physics text of many years ago.

I concur that night vision is more electronic or magical in Cidri. In our classic TFT days, we converted D&D module, Barrier Peaks, into TFT. After that adventure, we had a wide array of techno gadgets floating around. But that all had power sources that needed to be conserved so they weren't used too liberally either. There was a set of goggles that had several types of light spectrum based vision available. These were usually one of a kind things because it was beyond the ability of the engineers and mechanicians to duplicate.

[Axly Suregrip]

Mechanician tinkering will need rules similar to magic item creation rules. Well, at least in concept similar, in that it requires a sustained effort that requires a lab, costs time and money to then produce a lasting permanent item.

There can be plans (like known books for spells/potion/magic items) for known items but also a set of rules to develop a plan for a new item.

This will be a bit of work to write these rules. You don't want mechanicians to be too easy or powerful as it can create a imbalance in the game, but still good enough to reward a player that goes this path. So a automatic reloading crossbow seems a simple thing, but a crossbow that fires twice as fast is so much more powerful than a magical +1 crossbow. So, the process and expense for even this simple a thing should take the mechanician a lot longer than it would take a wizard to enhance a weapon. And at more cost. And finally the product must have some downside. Say the automatic crossbow weighs twice that a normal crossbow and thus requires 1 more ST to handle.

[hcobb]

Mechanician shouldn't craft from tables as magical items are common and all of our unique artifacts are mechanical.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by Axly Suregrip

Mechanician tinkering will need rules similar to magic item creation rules. Well, at least in concept similar, in that it requires a sustained effort that requires a lab, costs time and money to then produce a lasting permanent item.

That might be true for very complex items like an Antyikthera Device or timepiece, but I think the RAW rules suffice for building a basic trap that might snare, injure, or incapacitate someone, assuming the needed materials are at hand. Those are still going to take several hours.