Aberrant RPG - Gadgeteering in Aberrant - a Step-by-step

[Kirby1024]

This is predominately for James "Prodigy" Meehan, but hey! Maybe some other people will be able to figure out how to do this sort of thing by watching. Remember to have your book handy as you read this, because I ain't putting the whole rules down here.

Teknokat (Int 5, M-Int 1, Sta 3) Engineering 5, Quantum 4), decides that her catsuit armour is not enough to protect in this dangerous day and age, and thus decides to create a small force-field generator for her own protection.

Uses per scene: 'Kat decides that the generator will have to be able to survive extended combat. However, she does not want this to be too complex, so she compromises to give it 5 free uses per scene (she'll put a battery on it to give it extra uses later on). That 1 success each for the first three uses, then 2 successes for the fourth, then 4 for the fifth use, for a total of 9 successes.

Dice Pool: (Please note: 'Kat does not know that she is in a game. We're just using the game terms from this point forward) Teknokat decides that her own Stamina is perfectly enough for the dice pool. The first 2 dots of stamina cost 1 success each, the third costs 2 successes, for a total of 4 successes.

Effect Level: 'Kat wants the device to provide a goodly amount of protection. She spends 4 successes to cover the Quantum minimum (ie 2*2 successes, as Force Field has a Quantum Minimum of 2), then decides to add 3 extra power levels. The first of these levels cost 2 successes, the seconds costs 4 successes, and the third costs 8 successes, for a total of 18 successes.

Quantum: Since Force Field has a Quantum minimum of two, Kat keeps it to that. She need spend only 4 successes, two for the first, two for the second.

Power Rating:Teknokat doesn't have Force Field, but fortunately she is able to convince a contact to demonstrate it in her lab. She could put 4 dots of Power Rating if she wanted to, but she feels that's probably going a little overboard, so she just adds 3 dots. That's 6 successes (3*2 successes).

Quantum Storage: 'Kat decides that the Battery should be fairly large. She has a Q-Pool of 28, so she could give it up to 14 Q-Pool. She decides that's probably unnecessary, and restricts it to 5 Q-Pool points. She wants the points back, so that adds an extra success to each point she wants to add. She also wants the battery to be able to recharge, so that adds another success to each point. That's 3 successes per Q-Pool dot, for a total of 15 successes.

Versatility:'Kat considers allowing the device to be handed over to other people. She ultimately decides that the risk for misuse is too great, and restricts it to herself. She spends no successes here.

Duration: By default, the generator will last for 10 months (12 - Gadget's Quantum, or 2). 'Kat decides to bump that up to a full year. She figures that by then, she'll probably be smart enough to come up with a better model. She spends 1 success per month, or 2 successes.

Durability The device's cover is made of a soft metal. The default soak and HL for this is 8HL, and 5 Soak, so the gadget has 7HL and 5 Soak. 'Kat considers this alright, considering the device is designed to be very small anyway. She spends no successes here.

Grand Total: All up, that's (9 + 4 + 18 + 4 + 6 + 15 + 2), or 58 successes. She has a dice pool of 10 dice plus 1 Mega-Dice, as well as the Engineering Prodigy enhancement, but she won't be able to work around the clock on this. This is likely to take a few weeks of work until it comes online. When it does come online, she'll be able to roll 6 dice, for which success will give her +6 B/L soak. This, in addition to her catsuit armour, should allow her to survive most combat. She'll be able to use it 5 times without going to the battery, and an extra 5 times before draining the battery completely.

Admittedly, this is probably a little off the "official" set. But, it does work, trust me!

[Guest]

Waitaminute...in that case, what do the effect levels actually DO?

NB: It's 3 successes per two QP for self-recharging quantum pool; that means the battery should have 6 charges and the device should need 7 less successes.

[Kirby1024]

Ah! So it is! So, subtract 7 successes from the total and you've still got 51 successes to build this thing.

From what I understand it, The effect levels are effectively the amount of successes you're going to give it. Because Gadgets are supposed to have the same effect everytime you use them, you have to specify exactly what that level of effect is, and ELs are how it's done. You have to divide the ELs between the Quantum rating, and the normal successes for the power. Since Force Field actually accounts for Quantum Auto-Successes, these aren't wasted, although for some powers, they probably would be.

In the Force Field Generator example, I bought 4 ELs. Two of them go to the Quantum, Two go to normal successes. If you'll remember the soak that Force Field gives is determined by (Quantum + 2/success). Thus, I have given it 2 soak via the Quantum, and 2 via regular successes. In this case, also, additional successes on the activation roll don't add anything to the EL. So, while you can never make it truly better, you can always depend on it having the same effect each time you turn it on.

In some cases, It's very confusing, especially with the Permanent Powers. I mean, do you need ELs for Armor? You don't roll! Same with Invulnerability. Then, there's the question of how many successes are required to add an extra (My house rule on that, BTW, is 1 additional power rating dot). If WW ever decide to make a second Edition, I hope they either redesign the damn gadget rules, or at the very least make them easier for the majority of people to understand.

[Dr. Arcturus]

Gadet rules are the spawn of Hell.

I use "Gadgeteering" as a power. If you dont have it, too damned bad!!

[Hugin]

Thanks Kirby m'man. Got a specific example.

I want to create a quantum blaster.

Now, quantum blast, the power, gets the following. 3*Quantum in levels of damage and 2*Dots of the power in dice of lethal damage (I'm doing this from memory, I think I may have lost my rulebook, damnit). So a Q3 with 3 dots Quantum Bolt gets 9 levels of Lethal Damage+ 6 Dice of lethal damage. How many effect level does this work out to?

I wonder because it seems that it is easier to make a device with the equivilant to a Disintigrate Gun (Damage is Q + Successes only) rather than a Quantum Blaster (more levels and dice, but with soak very likely to do less damage.)

Thanx if you got an answer.

QP-You would make Kraig Blackwelder a very happy man.

[Kirby1024]

Quote:

Originally posted by James 'Prodigy' Meehan:
Thanks Kirby m'man. Got a specific example.

I want to create a quantum blaster.

Now, quantum blast, the power, gets the following. 3*Quantum in levels of damage and 2*Dots of the power in dice of lethal damage (I'm doing this from memory, I think I may have lost my rulebook, damnit). So a Q3 with 3 dots Quantum Bolt gets 9 levels of Lethal Damage+ 6 Dice of lethal damage. How many effect level does this work out to?

That would be 3 ELs for the Quantum, and 3 ELs for the Power Rating. Although, it's still in dice form (ie, you have to roll for the damage still, which seemed odd to me at first). Oh, and you got the Q & PR multipliers mixed up. It's [Q*2] + (PR*4) for Lethal Damage Quantum Bolts.

Quote:

I wonder because it seems that it is easier to make a device with the equivilant to a Disintigrate Gun (Damage is Q + Successes only) rather than a Quantum Blaster (more levels and dice, but with soak very likely to do less damage.)

It seems that way at first, but then you have to remember that Disintegrate has a Quantum Minimum of 5, and unless you have a Quantum of 6 or above, giving a device that amount of Quantum will tend to be expensive. On the other hand, Quantum Bolt only has a Quantum Minimum of 1, or two successes in 99% of cases. Since you can give the device more ELs than the Gadget's Trait, this does count for a bit. Also, You'd have to tie up 10 successes in Quantum for a Disintegrate gun, whereas you'd only have to tie up 2 for a QB gun. This is especially useful for a QB gun, since Power Rating ELs are by far more cost-effective in terms of dice to roll, and you can't have more than (gadgeteer's Quantum * 2) ELs in total.

Quote:

Thanx if you got an answer.

Happy to help!