Gadgets & Gear

From blaster rifles to anti-gravity belts, teleportation rings, and battlesuits, heroes and villains develop all manner of gadgets. Villains are forever coming up with doomsday machines and fiendish deathtraps while heroes use all sorts of gear to aid them in their fight for justice. This section looks at various sorts of devices and equipment game terms. It also describes vehicles, headquarters, and constructs, ranging from zombie minions to giant robots.

For examples see example Gadgets & Gear.

Devices

A device is an item that provides a particular power effect or set of effects. While devices are typically creations of advanced science, they don't have to be. Many heroes and villains have magical devices such as enchanted weapons and armor, magical talismans, wands and staves of power, and so forth. Some devices are products of alien technology so advanced they might as well be magical, or focuses of psychic or cosmic power beyond the understanding of both magic and science. All devices work the same way in game terms, regardless of their origin or descriptors.

Generally speaking, devices are powers with the Removable flaw applied to them (see Removable in Powers), meaning the power is external to the character. Take away the device, and the wielder loses the ability to use those powers. So if an armored hero loses access to his battlesuit, for example, he also loses access to the powers tied-up in it. The same is the case of a hero loses a cosmic ring, magic helmet, or alien artifact, which is why Removable is a flaw for those powers.

Just like other powers, devices cost Character points (albeit reduced some by the Removable flaw). Characters who want to have and use a device on a regular basis have to pay Character points to have it, just like having any other power. The device becomes a part of the character's abilities. If the device is lost, stolen, or destroyed, the character can replace it, given time, since the device is considered a permanent part of the character. Only a reallocation of the character's Character points will change this, and Gamemasters should allow characters to reallocate Character points spent on a Removable power if it is somehow permanently lost.

In other cases, characters may make temporary use of a device. Most devices are usable by anyone able to operate them, in which case characters may loan devices to each other, or may pick up and use someone else's device (or even steal a device away from someone in order to use it against them). The key concept here is the use of the device is temporary, something that happens during a single scene or, at most, a single adventure. If the character wants to continue using the device beyond that, he must pay Character points to make the device part of his regular abilities. Otherwise the GM can simply rule that the device is lost, reclaimed by its owner, runs out of power, breaks down, or whatever, and is therefore no longer accessible. Characters with the Inventor and Artificer advantages can create temporary devices for use in an adventure.

Gamemasters may require characters to spend a Victory point to make temporary use of a device that doesn't belong to them, similar to performing a power stunt without suffering fatigue. This helps to limit the loaning and temporary use of devices.

Battlesuits

A common staple of comic books is the battlesuit, also known as power-armor. It is an advanced suit of technological (sometime magical) armor, giving the wearer various powers. Battlesuits commonly grant the following powers:

Armor: Protection is the foundation power for a battlesuit. Whether it is armor plating, metallic mesh, flexible ballistic material, or some combination of these and other cuttingedge technologies, a battle-suit protects its wearer from damage. Some battle-suits provide Impervious Protection and some have Sustained Protection in the form of built-in force fields or the like.

Attacks: Battlesuits are typically equipped with some kind of weapon or weapons, based around various attack effects, particularly Damage. A battlesuit with an array of weapons may have a primary attack effect and several others as Alternate Effects (see the Alternate Effect modifier in Powers).

Immunity: A part of the protection a battlesuit offers is a sealed environment, offering Immunity to various conditions and hazards.

Movement: After defense and offense, battlesuits typically allow the wearer to get around, whether it's hydraulic-assisted Leaping, boot-jets or anti-gravity repulsion for Flight, turbines for Swimming, or some other movement effect.

Sensors: Battlesuits often come equipped with a suite of sensors providing Senses. Darkvision, direction sense (possibly from a global positioning system), infrared vision, radio, time sense (from a chronometer), and ultra-hearing are all common battlesuit sensors.

Strength: A battlesuit might have servomotors or other mechanisms to magnify the wearer's Strength. This is typically a combination of Enhanced Strength and Limited ranks of Enhanced Strength to increase sheer lifting ability.

Costumes

In addition to being stylish, costumes may be padded and armored making them tougher than ordinary clothing, allowing them to provide a Protection effect. Costumes may have other properties and can even be the source of a hero's powers, such as in the case of battlesuits (previously).

Normally clothing is never damaged to the point of indecency. Often powers will cause little (if any) damage to their clothing despite being normal attire. Clothes don't burn, tear, or otherwise suffer damage when the wearer changes size or shape, bursts into flames, freezes, and so forth. The GM can assume this is a property of the universe: it costs no points, since everyone is affected. In a more realistic setting, Gamemasters may wish to make Immunity to wearer's powers a 1-point feature and require characters to pay for it if their characters have such a costume. Otherwise characters have to make do with ordinary clothing (which may be damaged or destroyed when they use their powers or during combat).

Enhanced Equipment

Some devices are otherwise normal equipment with special properties. Magical items, normal equipment imbued with magical properties, are examples. Magical weapons may have greater damage bonuses or grant attack bonuses while magical armor imposes no penalties and provides greater protection. Such enchantments move archaic weapons and armor from the realm of mundane equipment to devices. The same is true of equipment using super-alloys, bulletproof cloth, and other wonders of super-science.

Weapons

Weapons are common devices, ranging from super-powered versions of ordinary weapons like swords, bows, or guns (see Enhanced Equipment) to more exotic weapons like magic wands or alien power rings. A weapon device usually has one or more attack effects but may provide virtually any effect the player wants to include. Weapons often have several different attacks as Alternate Effects. One example is an array of magic rings, each with its own effect, but only usable one at a time.

Other Devices

The full range of devices characters can create and use is limited solely by your imagination. Essentially any item with a power is considered a device. Players and GMs may well come up with devices beyond those described here. Use the guidelines here and in Powers to handle any new devices and their capabilities.

Inventing

Characters with the Inventor advantage can create inventions, temporary devices. To create an invention, the inventor defines its effects and its cost in Character points. This cost is used for the necessary skill checks, and determines the time required to create the invention. Inventions are subject to the same power level limits as other effects in the series.

Design Check

First, the inventor must design the invention. This is a Technology skill check the GM should make in secret. The DC is equal to the invention's total Character point cost, including all modifiers except Removable, which does not apply to inventions, as they are temporary by nature.

Designing an invention requires an hour's work per Character point of the invention's cost. You can make a routine check to design an invention. You can reduce the rank of the design time, taking a -2 circumstance penalty on the check for each -1 time rank reduction.

If the check is successful, you have a design for the invention. If the check fails, the design is flawed and you must start over. With three or more degrees of failure, the designer is not aware of the design flaw; the design seems correct, but the invention won't function (or at least won't function properly) when it's used. For this reason, the GM should make the design check secretly and only inform the player whether or not the character appears to have succeeded.

Construction Check

Once the design is inhand, the character can construct the invention. This requires four hours of work per Character point of the invention's cost, so an invention costing 10 points takes 40 hours (about a week's work normally, or working two days straight without rest) to construct. When the construction time is complete, make a Technology skill check. The DC is equal to the invention's Character point cost and you can make it as a routine check. You can reduce the rank of the construction time, taking a -2 circumstance penalty on the check for each -1 time rank reduction.

Success means the invention is complete and functional. Failure means the invention doesn't work. Three or more degrees of failure may result in a mishap, at the GM's discretion.

Using The Invention

Once the invention is complete, it is good for use in one scene, after which it breaks down or runs out of power. If the character wishes to use the invention again, there are two options.

The first is to spend the necessary Character points to acquire the invention as a regular power, part of the character's traits; in this case, the device qualifies for the Removable flaw and, once purchased, can be used again like any power.

The other option is to spend a Victory point to get another one-scene use out of the invention. Each use costs an additional Victory point, but doesn't require any further skill checks.

Although it's possible to prepare certain one-use devices in advance, the GM should require the player to spend a Victory point to have a particular previously constructed invention conveniently on-hand during an adventure.

Example: Your hero needs to whip up a mind-shielding device to confront the bad guy, who has seized control of his teammates. 1 Rank of Resistance to Mind Control cost 3 Character points, so the Technology check is DC 3 and takes 3 hours. Your hero's skill bonus is +5, so he succeeds automatically. The construction check is also DC 3 (the device's cost). It takes 12 hours. Your hero again succeeds automatically on the check. However, that's 15 hours total to build the mind-shield, and the bad guy plans to send his new "puppets" into action in just a few hours. Even taking a -6 check penalty to cut the time to one-eighth only takes it down to just over three hours. Your hero needs that device right now, so he's going to need to speed things up...

Jury-rigging Devices

An inventor can choose to spend a Victory point to jury-rig a device; ideal for when a particular device is needed right now. When jury-rigging a device, skip the design check and reduce the time of the construction check to one round per Character point of the device's cost, but increase the DC of the check by +2. The inventor makes the check and, if successful, has use of the device for one scene before it burns out, falls apart, blows up, or otherwise fails. You can't jury-rig an invention as a routine check, nor can you speed up the process any further by taking a check penalty. You can use a jury-rigged invention again by spending another Victory point.

Example: Needing to get the mind shield device ready right away, you decide to spend a Victory point to jury-rig it. You skip the design step altogether and reduce construction time to 3 rounds (18 seconds). The DC of the construction check increases to 5, but still well within your hero's skill; you only needs to roll a 0 or better. You roll a 6 on the check and, half a minute later, you have a makeshift mind-shield you hope will protect your hero from the bad guys power long enough to try and free his teammates from the villain's influence.

Mishaps

At the GM's discretion, three or more degrees of failure, or a natural roll of -3, on any required inventing skill check may result in some unexpected side-effect or mishap. Exactly what depends heavily on the invention. Inventing mishaps can become a source of adventure ideas and put the heroes in some difficult situations. They may also be setbacks, suitable for Victory point awards.

Magical Inventions

For magical, rather than technological, inventions, use the normal inventing rules, but substitute the Expertise: Magic skill for the Technology skill on the design and construction checks. For the sake of description this can also be called a Magical Ritual: pouring over ancient scrolls and grimoires, drawing diagrams, casting horoscopes, meditating, consulting spirit-guides, and so forth. Note that the final product still needs to be removable (a device) such as being placed on a totem or talisman.

Available Equipment

What Items Do You Pay For?

Just because a character happens to own a cell phone, laptop computer, car, or a home does not mean the character is expected to have ranks in the Equipment advantage. Broadly speaking, characters are only expected to pay for adventuring equipment, which is to say items that have a direct impact on their roles as heroes. The rest is just background color, perhaps encompassed by ranks in the Benefit advantage for heroes with a lot of wealth and material resources.

So, for example, a hero pays no equipment points for the fact that, in his secret identity, he lives in a nice apartment or owns a computer and a cell phone. He does, on the other hand, pay equipment points for a hidden fortress or high-tech lair, where he keeps various dangerous items and trophies collected over his career. Likewise, a hero with Benefit ranks reflecting great personal wealth pays no equipment points for a sprawling mansion or penthouse apartment, nor for a collection of classic sports cars. She does pay equipment points for things like smoke bombs, boomerangs, and other weapons and crimefighting tools, as well as for a hidden base of operations or souped-up vehicles used in costume.

As with many cases, when in doubt, the Gamemaster can make a ruling whether or not a particular item should count as equipment. If it is something the character regularly uses as part of his or her heroic identity, then it probably should. If a player wants to bring some cost-free background element to bear on the adventure in an important way, the GM can assess a Victory point cost to do so. See Victory points for more information.

Equipment Cost

Equipment is acquired with points from the Equipment advantage. Each piece of equipment has a cost in points, just like other traits. The character pays the item's cost out of the points from the Equipment advantage and can thereafter have and use that item.

Equipment Effects And Features

An item's cost is based on its effects and features, just like a power (see Powers for more information), so a ranged weapon has a cost based on its Ranged Damage rank. Equipment often provides the Features effect, including some specific equipment Features. Indeed, some items of equipment provide only Features.

Alternate Equipment

Just as with power effects, there is a diminishing value in having multiple items with a similar function, or a single piece of equipment with multiple functions, usable only one at a time. Equipment can have the Alternate Effect modifier (see Extras section of Powers), such as a weapon capable of different modes of operation, or a reconfigurable tool. Characters can also have Alternate Equipment, an array of items usable only one at a time. This is typically a multi-function item, or a kit or collection of various smaller items. The classic example is the utility belt (see its description later in this section). Alternate Equipment can also include things like an arsenal of weapons the character can swap out, providing different sets of weapons, with only a limited number usable at once.

On-hand Equipment

Characters may not necessarily carry all their equipment with them at all times. The GM may allow players to spend a Victory point in order to have a particular item of equipment "on-hand" at a particular time. This is essentially an equipment "power stunt"--a one-time use of the item for one scene--and the Gamemaster rules whether or not having a particular item on-hand is even possible. For example, a hero out for an evening in his secret identity might have something like a concealed weapon or other small item on-hand, but it's unlikely the character is carrying a large weapon or item unless he has some means of concealing it.

Restricted Equipment

The Gamemaster may rule some equipment is simply not available or that characters must pay for an additional Feature (or more) in order to have it. This may include certain kinds of weapons, vehicles, and anything else the GM feels should be restricted in the series.

Damaging Equipment

Most equipment can be damaged like other objects (see Damaging Objects), based on its Toughness. Equipment suffering damage loses some effectiveness. The item loses 1 Feature or suffers a -1 circumstance penalty on checks involving it each time it is damaged. These penalties are eliminated once the item is repaired.

Repairing And Replacing

Repairing an item requires a Technology check. You can also affect jury-rigged repairs to temporarily restore the item to normal (see Technology in Skills ).

Unlisted Equipment

Not every possible equipment is listed on this page. Feel free to use Feature or other powers to make equipment. However the equipment should be inspected by the Gamemaster to determine if it should instead be a device. For example armor with Protection 2 is acceptable because it is between 2 example equipment armors. A sword of Damage 2 or 4 can be justified as low or high quality. However a Knife of Damage 3 needs to instead be a sword and Damage 10 would need to be a device. Also see the side bar "Devices vs. Equipment" at the top of page.

Equipment Limitations

In addition to their amazing devices, characters often make use of various mundane equipment--ordinary things found in the real world--ranging from a simple set of tools to cell phones, laptop computers, and even common appliances. These items are known as equipment to differentiate them from devices.

The Limits Of Equipment

While equipment is useful it does have its limits, particularly when compared to powers or devices. Equipment is less expensive--it's cheaper to have a handgun than a Damage power or even a super-science blaster weapon--but equipment is also more limited. Keep the following limitations of equipment in mind.

Technological Limits

Equipment includes only items and technology commonly available in the setting. The GM decides what is "commonly available," but as a rule of thumb assume equipment only includes things from the real world, not battlesuits, anti-gravity devices, shrink rays, and so forth. Those are all devices (see Devices).

Availability

Ownership of some equipment is restricted and the GM decides what is available in the setting. For example, guns may require permits, licenses, waiting periods, and so forth. Also, equipment can be bulky and difficult to carry around. Gamemasters are encouraged to enforce the limitations of carrying a lot of equipment at once. Players who want to have an unusual item of equipment on-hand must either remember to bring it along or use the guidelines for on-hand equipment. Devices are not so limited and characters are assumed to have an easy means of carrying and transporting them.

Bonus Stacking

Equipment bonuses are limited compared to the bonuses granted by other effects. Generally, they do not stack with each other or other types of bonuses, only the highest bonus applies. Thus a hero with a high Protection bonus doesn't get much, if any, advantage from wearing a bulletproof vest. The only exception to this is Strength-based weapons, and there are limits on them as well (see Melee Weapons).

No Extra Effort

Unlike devices, you do not have the choice of suffering the strain of extra effort when improving equipment, the equipment always takes the strain. You can push your equipment to the limit (eventually causing it to fail) but trying real hard on your part isn't going to make your car go faster or your gun more effective. You also can't use extra effort to perform power stunts with equipment. instead, you must spend a Victory point to do so. The GM can always disallow extra effort with equipment if the item is one that is not capable of exceeding its normal operating limits.

Damage And Loss

Equipment is subject to damage, malfunctions, and loss, even more so than devices with the Removable flaw (see the flaw description in Powers). Equipment may be lost or taken away from the character with impunity, and the GM may have equipment fail, run out of ammo or fuel, or otherwise malfunction as a complication.