[BNW] Gadgeteers - and new tricks

[Kirk Monsen <munchwolf@yahoo.com>]

I just picked up my copy of BNW a few days ago
although  I've been lurking on this list for a while
now.  I know the topic of gadgeteers has been covered
before, but presently can't find the posts in the
archives.  Personally I think they get the short stick
in that they can only maintain 1 device at a time. 
IMO there shouldn't be a limit on how many devices
they can maintain.  Having the rules that they must
spend 1 hr maintaining a device every 24, and that 8
hrs must be spent overhaulling a device that hasn't
been maintains is pretty tough punishment.
Theorectically without the 1 maintain rule, 1
gadgeteer could maintain about 10 Armageddon suits
(for a delta squad).  That's approx 10 hrs a day
(considering everyones on an orderly schedule, which
never happens).  Doesn't leave much time for a social
life or adventuring.  Course then this all depends on
your viewpoint of what a gadget is. 
Would a simple freeze gun require the same maintance
as a full Armageddon suit?

Well this is all moot for this post (except I'd like
to hear what rulings other Guides have made).  What
I'd like to present are ideas for some Gadgeteer
tricks:

Mothballing-  With an extra success on an easy
tinkering role the hero can put a gadget in storage. 
While in storage the device does gets a longer life
than usual.  Instead of needing maintaining or
overhauling in 24 hrs, it can be stored for 24 days. 
Each day that passes removes an hour from it's life
expectancy.  At any time the device can be removed
from storage, and resumes it's usual life expectancy
(maybe even require an hour spent to remove the gadget
from storage). 

example:  Not needing his special water suit, Captain
Socketwrench places it in storage.  7 days later the
aquarians stage an uprising, prompting the Captain to
pull his suit back out of storage.  It's still good
for 17 hrs before he'd need to overhaul it again.


Well, I had some more ideas for tricks, but they
mostly fit under gadget design rules (for which there
seems to be a lack of).  How are other people handling
gadget design?

Ideas for gadget design:  Make a simple tinkering
(maybe science) roll.  One success lets the Gadgeteer
make a device that emulates a Delta power.  For each
additional success they can apply a design trick, or
add a simple function (armor, normal weapons, simple
stat boosts), so the power armor listed in the rule
book would require 3 extra successes to be created,
while a freeze gun only requires the base success.

Quick upgrade- For each extra success on a simple
tinkering roll, the overhaul time spent is reduced by
1 hr.

Design tricks can be used when the gadget is created
or when it is overhauled.  Note the effects are not
combined.  So to improve upon an existing gadget they
would have to have more successes on the overhaul roll
than on the creation roll.  This does not mean that
the device functions less well on an overhaul roll,
just they can't make it better.

Stable structure- for each extra success the life of
the gadget is permanently increased by 12 hrs.  So
let's say Captain Socketwrench is maintaining his
Aquasuit and he had one success from stable structure
added to it.  He would need to maintain it every 36
hrs  (not including bonuses from fine tuning, which
are temporary).

Multifunctional- each extra success lets you add an
additional Delta power to the suit (say he wants it to
fly, and shoot energy beams).

Group project- each extra success lets you link
another gadgeteer to the device.  Although you are the
main maintainer for the device, any linked gadgeteer
can help maintain the device.  The idea behind this is
that a group of gadgeteers can upkeep a small Delta
Prime squad.  If something should happen to one of the
gadgeteers, the squad won't suffer.

Any more ideas, or opinions on these ideas?

-Munch Wolf



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