Strike Force Zero Gadgets

Weapons

Raiden Heavy Electrolaser

Part of the push to make death rays coincidental, the Raiden is a significantly downgraded derivative of the hypertech plasma cannon, although it works on only tangentially related principles. Using a laser to ionize the air into a conductive channel, and then a powerful electrical charge through it, the Raiden is an impressive weapon to see in action and devastating against most targets.

Uses Dex + Firearms, Dex + Heavy Weapons, or Dex + Energy Weapons to fire.

Damage is adjustable from 1-10 Bashing or Lethal. Every point of Bashing costs 1 power, and every point of Lethal costs 2. If the Raiden deals any levels of unsoaked damage, the target is stunned and is at +1 difficulty to all actions for his next action.

Battery has 40 power. Rate 1, Range 150.

UV Knife

Anti-hemophage melee weapon as a last-resort for agents, using a binary chemical to create a brief but intense burst of UV light. Attacks as a normal knife, but causes additional injury against creatures vulnerable to UV. Due to its use of a blade made of tempered glass and transparent plastic laminate and the side effects of the reaction, a successful attack shatters the knife and renders it useless as both a cutting tool and a UV delivery method.

Dex + Melee/Dex + Athletics, Damage Str + 1L (+2 levels versus sunlight-vulnerable creatures), single-use.

Ultrasound Grenade

Anti-shapeshifter grenade that creates a high pitched ultrasound burst. Although capable of dealing significant damage, their primary use is to drive away supernaturals with superhuman hearing ranges which can hear the burst itself.

Ultrasound Grenades deal 8B damage at impact point from ultrasound, which ignores soft armor. If a living creature (or something similar enough to living like a vampire) takes more than 1 level of damage, it is deafened for the scene. 3 levels of damage or more make this permanent without supernatural healing.

Against supernatural creatures who can hear ultrasound (werewolves are the most obvious ones here), they are automatically deafened for the scene and must make a WP or Rage (whichever is higher) roll at Difficulty 8. A failed roll means that the supernatural must spend the next turn whimpering in pain.

A successful WP/Rage roll allows the supernatural to act. If Rage was rolled, the shapeshifter goes into a berserker frenzy.

Sun Bomb

A modified high-tech flashbang, the Sun Bomb uses the same spectrum of light as natural sunlight to cause psychological disability in hemophages. Sun bombs come in thrown, 40mm, or even shotgun-fired variants. (the latter have half normal damage and radius). Although mostly harmless against humans, close proximity to the flash can cause minor to moderate sunburn as well as blunt trauma injury.

The Sun Bomb is a flashbang which has similar effects to the solar flashlight on vampires. Damage is 8B at point-blank, and the light radius is sufficient to fill a very large room (20-30 yards).

Impact Gloves

Another weapon allowing SF0 members to defend themselves against hemophages and suchlike in close combat. Electrically charged strike faces cause significant additional injury from hand to hand attacks, and the gloves themselves are armored enough to parry blades and claws.

Punches now do Strength + 3 (Lethal) damage, may parry lethal attacks, fully compatible with Brawl/Do.

Seburo Arms MT-5

A compact pistol firing 5.7x28mm. Standard issue for SF0 members.

Difficulty: 6 Dmg: 5L Rate: 3 Clip: 12+1 Range: 40

Seburo Arms Striker (MT-8)

A heavy pistol design by Seburo which fires 11x30mm ammunition. The heavier rounds increase damage but are primarily intended to support specialist ammunition types more easily due to its larger caliber.

Difficulty: 6 Dmg: 6L Rate: 2 Clip: 8+1 Range: 35

ARES 'Earthshaker' Heavy Revolver

This oversized revolver is loaded with custom .600 rounds. Cumbersome and difficult to use, but with very impressive terminal ballistics. Imported from America!

Difficulty: 8 Dmg: 10L Rate: 1 Clip: 6 Range: 50

Seburo Arms MN-6

Another fine weapon from Seburo Arms. As a sub-machine gun it uses the same 5.7x28mm as the MT-5 with a compact 30-round magazine. Its high rate of fire coupled with the low recoil of the round make it easy to control in automatic fire modes. It is commonly assigned to agents desiring more firepower than the MT-5. Several variants have been built, including one built in to an attache case and one with thermoptic coating.

Difficulty: 6 Dmg: 6L Rate: 5 Clip: 30 Range: 75, recoil suppression -1.

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Seburo Arms MN-23

A high-tech assault rifle build almost entirely out of lightweight hyperalloys and impact plastic and chambered for 6.7mm caseless. Includes integral electro-optical sight with wired smartlink, along with external rails for added equipment. The high price tag and limited availability of both the weapon and ammunition have kept it from being adopted by any military units. To-date, its primary customers have been special police squads. The US Special Operations Command has expressed interest and consequently a 'commando' variant including thermoptic coating has been prototyped.

Difficulty: 6 (5 w/ smartlink) Dmg: 7L Rate: 4/FA Clip: 30 or 50 Range: 200

Varis 'Eliminator' High Impact Weapon System

This long-recoil cannon is specifically designed to knock out armored vehicles in an urban environment and was acquired with the emergence of the Boomer menace. Its depleted uranium 20x102mm cartridges are highly effective against anything short of an MBT and its weight limits it to the cyber-augmented soldiers of SF0

Difficulty: 8 (6 vs vehicles) Dmg: 12L (AP) Rate: 1 Clip: 5 Range: 1000

Armor

Samurai Powered Exoskeleton
[1]

A prototype 'Urban Protection Exoskeleton', the Samurai is an eight-foot, one-ton powersuit, generally used only in specialized assault situations due to its bulk, expense, and inconvenience. Officially it is used during SWAT operations, replacing conventional wheeled 'assault vehicles' on an experimental basis. In practice, it is deployed as a heavy weapons platform, carrying an automatic grenade launcher or heavy machine gun to deal with shapeshifting mutants or other targets who require heavy firepower to put down.

Fine manipulation is done by a pair of secondary armoured sleeves extending from the cockpit, as the suits own heavy arms are intended only for carrying loads or forcing breaches, and are unsuited for fine manipulation. The use of hydraulics and servomotors instead of the more advanced synthetic musculature of Alanson and Martinez powersuits give the Samurai slow response times, and add to its weight. The heavy steel armor helps makes for (relatively) easy repair but also weighs the suit down. Its primary vulnerability, however, is the large battery powerpack, which if damaged renders the user immobile.

Hardened Armor at 6d, cannot jump or run. Visor provides 2d armor and can be targeted at a +3.

The suit is too large for direct feedback, and unless using the manipulator sleeves, must be operated with Drive (at a +2 difficulty) or Pilot. The weapons use Firearms (at +2 difficulty) or Heavy Weapons + Perception. They cannot be used at all as unskilled.

Replaces user Str/Dex with Strength 8/Dexterity 1, runs out of power after 3 hours.

Called shots to the rear-mounted battery packs (at +3) can render the user immobile. The powerpacks have 4 HLs and are protected by 3d of non-hardened armor but can only be attacked from behind.

Normally armed with either a .50 MG, Mk. 19 grenade launcher, or 2.75 in Rocket Launcher (capacity 6). All weapons found in Technomancer's Toybox, p. 92

The use of conventional high-density lithium batteries gives the stock Samurai a relatively short operational period. For this reason they are transported to and from crisis locations in special support vans that include full recharging facilities.

Linear Frame

Heavy weapons personnel normally use this partial exoskeleton to carry heavier weapons. Unlike the Samurai, it is far more dextrous but pays for that by being essentially unarmored. The wearer almost always uses heavy body armor in addition to the minimal protection the linear frame gives.

Linear Frames add +1 strength to the user and a -1 mobility penalty (which does not affect firearms use) that is cumulative with worn armor. However movement is slowed by the exoskeleton, and the user can no longer move at more than half speed or jump.

The Linear Frame's artificial skeleton gives 1d armor (cumulative with worn armor) over the front and 2d (again cumulative with worn armor) over the back.

Exoframes have powerpacks with similar HLs and protection as the Samurai Powered Exoskeleton, but have a full 12 hours of power.

A disabled exoframe has a -3 mobility penalty and no longer gives additional strength, but can be disengaged in one action via the use of its fast-release systems.

Shear-Thickening Armor

Replacing ceramic trauma plates with shear-thickening fluids creates concealable ballistic vests that are very protective and can be worn under most clothing. However the nature of the fluid makes it more vulnerable to edged weapons.

3d/-0 penalty normally, -1 penalty if armor is hit before movement, concealable under properly tailored clothing. Soaks blades at Difficulty 8 v. Difficulty 6.

Anti-Specimen Combat Suit (ASCS)

Cutting-edge materials science and cutting-edge electronics converge to create full body armor that's nearly as smart as the wearer. Experimental mental reinforcement procedures assist in protecting against hemophage/psion abilities to some extent, and an onboard medical computer assists medics in treating and cataloging any wounds as well as administering drugs. Its only disadvantage is that it's expensive and only issued for high-risk assaults.

4d/-1 penalty (does not penalize firearms). Called shots at +2 can target weakpoints such as the neck and joints (soak at 1d) but the user has 100% coverage even across the face.

Integrated tactical optics system (visorless, using cameras in the event of powers based on eye contact).

Onboard medical systems reduce wound penalties by 1 while wearing it, filter atmosphere, and reduce the difficulty of any Medicine rolls to treat the user by 2.

Integrated mental shielding increases the difficulty of mental effects/reduces resistance difficulty by 1.

Adaptive Camouflage

Designed by a Russian technological development house, Adaptive Camouflage uses light-emitting diodes and light sensors woven into armor or a uniform to blur the wearer's signature into the background. Its main problem, though, is that the phenomenally complex computer programs it requires to process the environment are finicky and crash more than a Paradox game. Especially when you really would prefer to have them not crash.

Can be integrated with any full-body armor or in BDUs.

+2 difficulty to any Alertness rolls made against the character when still, +1 when moving. Being able to see in non-visual spectra will negate this difficulty modifier.

In less permissive environments than, say, Tokyo or the US, it may crash when exposed to rapidly changing environments, such as firing an unsuppressed weapon, moving at more than a walk, or any other fast movements (like dodging or anything that requires an athletics roll). Crashed adaptive camouflage can be restarted on a successful Wits + Computers roll.

Noncombat Equipment

Sensor Glasses

Simulates Rank 1 sensory magics at a 1-success level. Most common are Forces 1 (Nightvision), Life 1 (Heartbeat sensor), Mind 1 (Bioelectrical monitoring). Sensor glasses are cheaper and far more discreet than tactical optics, and can even be found in contact or cybernetic/biotech implant form.

Tactical Optics

Tactical Optics come in various forms such as large wraparound shades, futuristic night vision goggles, and so forth. Their primary benefit is the integrated motion vision system (-1 to alertness difficulties to detect a moving target) and its integrated targeting assistance when coupled with a firearm with the proper electronics (-1 to firearms difficulties). Typically tactical optics will have at least one or two sensor glasses options.

Wound Closure Gel

Wound closure gel is basically "tissue glue" with a powerful topical analgesic and disinfectant ability that can hold wounds together, allowing for a wounded operative to maintain combat effectiveness. Wound closure gel is particularly easy to use to hold wounds together in the short term, allowing even minimally trained agents to attempt to stabilize wounds.

When used on a person, any Medicine rolls to stabilize a wounded person are reduced by 1 in difficulty, and that person's wound penalties are reduced by 1.

The ease of using wound closure gel allow an agent with Medicine 0 to attempt to stabilize wounded, although such agents do not gain the difficulty break.

Disposable Lockpick

A disposable lockpick uses a explosive polymer that can be molded and hardened by electrical currents, greatly easing intrusion attempts. This gives a SF0 agent several options for breaching a locked door, from quietly picking the lock to blowing it apart.

Disposable lockpicks reduce the difficulty of any roll to pick a mechanical lock by 2, and allow even untrained users to attempt to do so (but at normal difficulty).

If subtlety is unnecessary the explosive polymer can be detonated, automatically ruining most mundane locks and allowing entry in a single action.

Intrusion Kit

The high-tech tools of an intrusion kit contain an automatic hacking computer, smart lockpicks, and a ID card spoofer that greatly ease covert entry through mundane security. Although useless against more overtly supernatural forms, being able to infiltrate a hemophage's lair without triggering the perfectly normal security alarm he has installed can sometimes come in handy, and more than a few hemophages use computers nowadays...

An intrusion kit reduces the difficulty of all Security rolls by 2, and reduces the difficulty of Computers rolls to crack passwords by 2 as well.

In situations where the agent cannot concentrate on cracking security, the intrusion kit can automatically attempt to crack security systems at a pool of 4d.

Solar Flashlight

Mountable on most flashlight rails, a solar flashlight is not solar-powered (although it can be). Its primary use is that the spectrum it lights targets up in is almost entirely identical to natural sunlight. Although it doesn't actually harm hemophages for some reason (internal theories in SF0 abound) it can cause them to go berserk or run away in fear, which can be very useful but very risky.

Solar flashlights can cause frenzying in kindred and may have similar effects on Kuei-Jin.

Operations Digital Assistant

A hardened and durable 12x18x4cm computer, the ODA is configurable for a wide variety of tasks. It can be used for field hacking, access to SF0 servers via military-grade encrypted wireless, or any number of tasks with the right peripherals. Built-in features include near-superconductive wiring grid, zero moving parts aside from controls, and multiple wireless adapters and connectors.

Basic units allow for a -1 difficulty to all hacking/data access rolls, +2 difficulty to hostile EM attacks, and the computer has an addition 2B/2L soak against physical damage.

Sniper variations give real-time wind and temperature corrections, as well as a rangefinder that can be attached to the sniper's weapon. This reduces the difficulty of sniping by -1, but requires a full action of setup.

Biometric variations include a fingerprint scanner, a high-gain microphone, and an advanced digital camera, resulting in -1 difficulty to identification rolls.

DNA Analysis variants use a simplified immunoassay component to identify known mutant genetic material. This require a replaceable one-time use custom antibody-coated slide, but allows for the classification of genetic material as any type of mutant known to SF0 with a successful roll.

Cybernetics

Replacement Limbs/Organs

Although SF0 medical technology is sufficient to repair most tissue damage, grievously maimed agents may often require significant overhauls to restore full functionality. At that point, most agents prefer to have enhanced functionality mated to their replacement limbs or replacement organs, hopefully preventing the need for further replacements.

Replacement limbs are reinforced and have 3d of armor for damage to that limb only and are obviously artificial. Disguised limbs use "soft" armor and reduce the armor bonus to 2d of additional limb armor.

Most replacement limbs can safely use an additional +1 strength over and above what the agent himself possesses. In desperate emergencies an agent can use the replacement limb's full strength of 6 no matter his natural strength, although in that case failure means at least 1 or more unsoakable levels of bashing damage and botches can be crippling.

Paired replacement legs increase Dexterity by 2 for purposes of movement and Strength by 1 for purposes of jumping.

Replacement organs generally incorporate features such as filtering toxins and chemicals (for replacement lungs/livers), +1 stamina for the purposes of endurance (for a replacement heart), boosted Initiative (for synthetic nervous replacements), or multispectral vision (for replacement eyes).

Enhanced Prosthetic Limb

Enhanced/Weaponized Prosthetics are modified to store internal weapons, such as concealable SMGs, single-shot grenade launchers, or other armaments. These limbs are generally arms-legs are generally at most modified with internal storage space.

Internal Storage allows an agent to carry most items with conceal J and any item with conceal P without difficulty.

Weaponized Prosthetics may mount any weapon with conceal J or less and some weapons with conceal T, as significant portions of the weapon casing can be removed while mating the weapon to the limb itself. For weapons with a minimum strength requirement these weapons benefit from the bonus strength of the prosthetic in question.

Overdrive Network

Implants added to critical points in the nervous system read from a primary battle computer in the brainstem bypass the meat-slow nervous system with light-speed reaction, while combat drugs boost physical performance and eliminate pain. The benefits are immense, more than enough to be worth the terrible cost of skeletal and muscular damage that inevitably follow pushing one's body so far beyond its limits.

An agent using an overdrive network gains +1 to all physical attributes (which can go above 5), takes no wound penalties, and reduces all multiple action penalties by 1.

At the end of the scene, the agent takes one unsoakable level of bashing damage from the strain and a cumulative 1B damage (soakable via Stamina only) for every turn it was activated. If the soak roll botches, overdrive network damage becomes lethal instead.

Fixed Response Pattern Software

Occasionally used by agents who require combat expertise and cannot be trained up to spec in sufficient time, Fixed Response Software uses an implanted computer system to override the agent's own mind and use preprogrammed, mechanical moves to engage enemies. Although such software can take a desk jockey and give him the same skill as a trained commando, the uncomfortable sensation of being a puppet in one's own body is more than enough to discourage most to use it.

Response Pattern Software gives an effective rating of 4 in a primarily physical combat skill (Brawl, Melee, Dodge, or Firearms).

However, a botch while using RPS skills is particularly dangerous, as it often causes neural damage or muscle damage from conflicting nerve responses. Botching a roll while using a software-induced skill requires a willpower roll. Failure of this roll takes the software offline and incapacitates the user for one turn, while a botch incapacitates the user for the remainder of the combat due to seizures and deals 3B damage as well.

Brain Wave Analysis Implant

An implanted chip at the base of the brainstem analyzes the user's current mental state. Extremely sudden changes in mental state (such as those induced by non-subtle mental magic, static or dynamic) cause it to notify command and control that the agent may have been compromised.

Brain Wave Analysis Implants can detect if the user is being mind controlled and notify both the user and command. This sometimes allows agents to attempt to resist, but is more often used by command to cut the agent off from information and alert other agents in the vicinity.

Bone Density Booster

Biotech augmentation based on prototyped "wet" nanomachinery and extensive pharmaceutical regimens, bone density boosting increases an agent's durability and slightly increases his mass by reinforcing and hardening his skeleton. Agents with this augmentation have found that their unarmed blows hit harder as well.

An agent who has boosted bone density increases Stamina by 1 for the purposes of soaking damage, deals +1 damage with unarmed attacks and automatically reduces fall damage by 1 bashing level before rolling soak (falling onto sharp objects still does normal damage).

Skinweave

Another biotech augmentation, skinweave deposits aramid-derivative fibers through dermal layers. This light armor gives an agent limited but essentially undetectable protection against blades and small caliber weapons, but is intended to back, rather than replace, body armor.

Skinweave allows an agent to soak lethal damage at difficulty 9, or difficulty 7 if Stamina is 4+.

Vital Organ Shielding

Shielding vital organs with titanium-alloy plates is a fairly simple survivability enhancement which grievously wounded agents are often more than happy to undergo.

The agent gains an additional Bruised health level.

Brain Oxygenation System

The brain oxygenation system is a small device placed at the base of the neck which oxygenates and assists in pumping blood to the brain only, possibly allowing an agent to survive injuries short of brain death.

The agent gains an additional 2 Incapacitated health levels. If fatal damage was dealt by a called shot to the head, these additional HLs are ignored.

Finger Needler

This augmentation replaces the agent's hand with a bionic one (+1 strength for punching and gripping). An integrated coilgun allows it to fire small slivers of metal from its fingers, which can be silver-alloy if creatures vulnerable to such are suspected.

Difficulty 6, Damage 5L, Rate 4, Clip 16, Range 40

Subdermal Armor

Implanted polymer armor under the skin provides 2d of armor with no penalties.

Emotion Suppressors

Emotion Suppressors protect agents using them against Delirium, the Veil, or the Mists. However, they do not remove the memories of these experiences. Agents using Emotion Suppressors often have the Nightmares flaw.

Gills
Wetware gills allow the extraction of oxygen from even tainted environs and can even store and recycle oxygen in a hostile environment.

Specialist Ammunition

HE Rounds

Cutting-edge developments in miniaturized sensors and computers allow extremely small fuses to be built. These rounds use a custom-engineered explosive that masses approximately as much as lead, giving them zero difference in ballistics and a nasty additional punch.

HE Rounds do +1 damage over standard ammunition types with no penalty. However, botches on attack rolls may cause the weapon to explode, dealing half the enhanced damage (round up) to the user.

Multi-Threat Rounds

Some shapechangers are vulnerable to silver, others gold, and there are other esoteric vulnerabilities for various things. A multithreat round combines multiple metal components, generally silver, gold, and cold iron, to provide maximum versatility.

Multithreat rounds have poor ballistics, halving range, and also deal -2 damage. However, they generally are unsoakable for at least two types of supernatural threat.

MTR magazines have 2-4 colored bands indicating their intended targets. They generally are "dumb" and only can incorporate simple elements.

APDS Rounds

Veteran agents have found that occasionally, the "standard issue munitions" against various threats are mysteriously ineffective or at the very least finicky. These agents swear that higher-velocity, higher-impact rounds are superior to most options.

HVAP rounds reduce target lethal soak by 2 but increase the difficulty of firing multiple shots (whether manually or via FA/3rd burst) by 1.

High-velocity AP rounds require a weapon to have a specially reinforced barrel and chamber. If fired out of a weapon without such reinforcement (all SF0-issued or Technocracy-issued weapons are assumed to have such reinforcement), the weapon is rendered useless at the end of the scene.

Smart Magazines

Smart Magazines have a low power wireless modem and a clever series of micromotors that allow the magazine to cycle ammunition types (and store fired casings, for non-caseless firearms). However, the weapon must be modified to have a feed and a drain, and therefore these magazines are limited to only SF0-modified firearms.

Smart Magazines reduce the magazine capacity by 33% (round down) but allow the user to load the magazine with any combination of conventional or special rounds which can then be selected via touch-screen, voice command, neural interface, or some other system.

Other Stuff

Janus Semi-Automated Sentry Gun

7.62mm machine gun mounted on a remote-controlled platform. Can be set to operate via teleoperation, semi-autonomously (user designates targets, fires with a pool of 4d), or fully autonomously. Only has very limited intelligence-typically set up to automatically fire on any target without human-normal body temperature. Personnel with severe fevers should not walk within its firing arc.

Uses the .30 caliber machine gun stats (Technomancer's Toybox p.92), has a Dex + Firearms pool of 4d when operating autonomously.

.30 Caliber MG: Diff 6, Damage 6/12, Rate 21/5, Capacity 100.

Go Pills

Go Pills are the finest in nearly 100% consensual methods of pharmaceutical enhancement. Designed to significantly tweak a soldier's metabolism, they allow a SF0 operative to stay alert and awake for significant periods of time, boosting their resistance to fatigue and their alertness. Although occasionally used for field operatives, "Go Pills" have become surprisingly popular with the dispatch offices and administrative staff, especially when there's a tight deadline and a deluge of paperwork.

Users gain the "Concentration" merit as well as the 3 point versions of the "Light Sleeper" and "Acute Senses" merit.

The pills can only be used for up to [Stamina] consecutive days with no side effects. Past that the user takes a cumulative +1 difficulty penalty to all mental and physical actions for each day the pills are used. Going "cold turkey" for a week resets the counter, and the difficulty penalty fades at the rate of 1 per day the pills are not used.

Accelerant

A derivative of stimulants such as PCP, accelerants combine potent stimulants and powerful antipsychotics to ensure that a soldier on the field can stand on even footing with hemophages and other monsters which go bump in the night. Accelerants last for 15 minutes.

The drug can be injected in a single action, and will take effect in approximately 1 minute.

Users gain the "Stress Atavism" flaw for the duration of the scene. However, if the WP roll (which is made at difficulty 6) is successful, the user gains the benefits of the Stress Atavism flaw (+2 strength, +1 stamina, and 3 -0 HLs) with none of the penalties.

If the WP roll fails, the accelerants merely have not taken effect. Only if botched does the user suffer from the full effects of the Stress Atavism flaw.

At the end of the scene the user loses a single temporary willpower point.

Endorphin Booster

Another Progenitor-introduced combat drug, Endrophin Boosters (or "Boost" in field agent parlance) are designer drugs which reinforce an agent's will, rendering him difficult to mentally control and incapable of feeling pain. Although the after-effects are brutal, the drugs have no long-term side effects and are not physiologically addictive.

Injecting Boost requires a single action, and the drug itself takes effect in approximately 1 minute.

Users gain the "Iron Will" and "Insensible to Pain" merits for the remainder of the scene.

For the rest of the day, the user suffers a "phantom" wound penalty of 1 greater than his actual (-1 if he is unhurt/bruised, -2 if he has a -1 wound penalty, and so on) and suffers from a weakened will, reducing his effective temporary willpower by 3 for the purposes of spending WP/WP rolls. Note that this does affect the maximum arete a mage can use for the rest of the day.

Endorphin Boosters are only psychologically addictive. Anyone with permanent WP 4 or less must roll WP or become addicted. Anyone with permanent WP 5 or more is entirely immune to this issue.