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Saturday, July 27, 2019

The Artificer

There's been a recent influx of inventors in the GLOGosphere. B44L's Inventor, Arnold K.'s Kludger, and now I'm throwing my hat in the ring with something I've been working on for a while. Tinkering with it, with allen keys and tiny tweezers, tightening bolts and gluing joints, alloying inks and bytes into a well-oiled machine.

Artificer
"Deus ex machina? Then what does that make me?"

Level 1: Fixer, Inventor, 2 Blueprints, d6 Creation Die
Level 2: Overcharge, Rigger, +1 Blueprint, d8 CD
Level 3: Kitbash, +1 Blueprint, d10 CD
Level 4: Strange Mood, +1 Blueprint of choice, d12 CD

Hit Die: d4
Starting Equipment: Toolkit (inc. screwdrivers, chisels, handsaw, tweezers, wrenches, etc.), crowbar, sketchbook of diagrams, charcoal pens, large backpack (+3 inventory slots) full of 3 slots of materials (roll on table)
Skills (roll 2): 1. Alchemy, 2. Architecture, 3. Art, 4. Clockmaking, 5. Engineering, 6. Lore, 7. Mathematics, 8. Merchantry, 9. Natural Philosophy, 10. Sculpting, 11. Tinkering, 12. Use Rope

Fixer: With the right parts, you can repair mundane items to brand-new. Takes an hour at least if the original parts aren't all there; longer for larger or more broken objects.

Inventor: You've studied how to build complex machines from raw materials. Each machine has a Blueprint, a list of Descriptors, and some Functions. When you roll to learn a Blueprint (either at character creation or on level-up), roll your Creation Die on the Blueprints list.

Blueprints define the basic structure of the creation. Use your CD if you need a damage die or some other measure of effectiveness, roll CD with disadvantage if you're using it outside its functions.

Descriptors are adjectives and phrases applied to the creation, based on the materials used in its construction.

Functions are things the creation can do by default. All creations have a base function listed on their Blueprint, that you can modify. Adding additional functions requires more materials.

When you want to build a creation, select at least as many slots of raw materials as the Blueprint requires and roll your Creation Die for each one. If you roll a 6+ for that material, you can add a Descriptor based on the material to the creation. If you roll a 1 or a 2, you can add an additional Function based on the material to your creation. No matter the results of the rolls, you create it and consume all the materials you used in the process.

Building a creation takes 1 hour per CD. You can choose to do a rush job and complete it in 10 minutes per slot of material, but it will break irreparably within 24 hours or the first time you critically fail while using it, whichever comes first.

Sample Materials
1. Base metal (iron, copper, tin, etc)
2. Refined metal (steel, bronze, etc)
3. Precious metal (silver, gold, platinum, etc)
4. Wood
5. Clockwork
6. Preserved animal parts (leather, bladders, bone, etc)
7. Cut gems
8. Raw gems

Blueprints
1. Tool (3+ materials): Held, lets you apply force to objects. A shovel, a sword, etc.
2. Garment (3+ materials): Worn, gives you a passive bonus. Armor, a cloak, etc.
3. Vessel (1+ materials): A bottle of something. Consumed on use.
4. Gauge (2+ materials): Measures something. An hourglass, a telescope, a thermometer, etc.
5. Launcher (4+ materials): Fires something at range; whether that be a material used in its creation or whatever you put in it.
6. Apparatus (5+ materials): Exists in place, can be disassembled and moved. A shelter, a workbench, a printing press.
7. Transport (5+ materials): Moves under its own power, is directly controlled.
8. Material (2+ materials): Fuses the properties of its components. Always provides a descriptor or a function (your choice) to follow-up creations.
9. Homunculus (4+ materials): Moves under its own power and follows simple directions.
10. Prosthesis (4+ materials): Is fused with a living creature and acts as a limb or organ.
11. Life (6+ materials): A nonsapient creature that moves and acts of its own accord.
12. Mind (8+ materials): An inanimate thinking machine with the reasoning powers of any mortal.

Overcharge: You can destroy an item as you use it to vastly increase its efficacy. Make all rolls involved in its use with double advantage (roll three times, take highest).

Rigger: You can set up networks of tripwires and pressure plates (etc) that activate your creations in response to the environment. 1 slot of materials becomes CD triggers. The materials are consumed, and the triggers break on activation.

Kitbash: With 1 slot of relevant materials to bridge the two, you can combine two of your creations into something greater than the sum of their parts. Each additional creation you add costs additional slots of materials equal to the number of creations already kitbashed together.

Strange Mood: You are Inspired. The plans for something brilliant and utterly new spring into your mind, and from your mind to a dozen notebooks. It is your life's work, your ultimate ambition, an idea so powerful that because it does not yet exist you must work tirelessly to bring it into being. You get to invent something entirely new of your choice. It will work. The GM will tell you what you need to make it. Go forth and do so.

2 comments:

  1. I looks cool, but I'm actually having a hard time getting how the invention processes work. Can you give an example or two?

    ReplyDelete