Aberrant 2.0 Gadgeteering
Basics
To create a gadget, a character rolls Intelligence + (Science or Engineering, choose lower). Biological gadgets replace this with Intelligence + (Science or Medicine, choose lower), while software gadgets use Intelligence + (Computers or Engineering, choose lower). If the character has a relevant power (such as Matter Creation for hardtech gadgets, Biomanipulation for living, or Cyberkinesis for software) add the power rating in dice to the roll.
Each roll is roughly 1 week of work time. Each success on the roll becomes 1 NP, which is used to purchase attributes, abilities, and powers for the gadget. All gadgets start at Quantum 0 and have no Quantum pool. A gadgeteer is limited in the power of the gadgets he or she builds as well-a gadgeteer cannot build a gadget with a Quantum higher than his (Mega-Intelligence + 1) or Quantum, whichever is lower, and may not spend more NP on powers, attributes, abilities, and Mega-Attributes than 2*[Intelligence + Relevant Ability] for a non-autonomous gadget, or 3*[Intelligence + Relevant Ability] for an autonomous gadget. She may spend as many successes as she wants on increased duration or quantum pool, however.
If a gadget is defined as an autonomous system, it requires at least 1 dot of Intelligence to interpret commands and/or act autonomously. An autonomous gadget may only use its own dice pools.
Gadget Items
Many gadgets have mundane origins which provide their own benefits-an enhanced suit of full plate which projects a forcefield, an assault rifle with a few special firing modes, so on and so forth. A gadget retains these mundane benefits, such as armor soak, mundane offensive ability, and so on. Furthermore, a gadget may potentially be built tougher or do more damage than its mundane counterparts, via the proper use of Enhancements, "Body Modifications", and powers. Although powers typically enhance both the user and the gadget, body modifications modify the gadget itself.
Item Durability
Gadgets are typically as durable as the item they are built off of. A gadget suit of platemail or a gadget war-gorilla have the abilities, attributes, and other basic qualities of the item in question. These can be further enhanced by powers or body modifications.
Note that improvements to gadget "health levels" only affect the gadget by increasing its durability-they do not improve the user's durability. Armor gadgets gain +1 to their Destruction rating for each extra "health level" they gain.
Augmentation
Non-autonomous gadgets are often used to augment, rather than replace, a user's prowess. Therefore, it is possible for a character to pay a surcharge of +2 NP for an attribute or ability to have it add to, rather than replace, the user's rating. For example, a Nova gadgeteer might make a suit of powered armor, paying 3 NP to have it add +4 to strength and another 4 NP to have it add +1 to Mega-Strength. A gadgeteer may even pay 7 NP to have a gadget which amplifies his or her Quantum score. Note that enhanced quantum score does not allow the user to buy powers with a higher quantum minimum than their normal score.
Limits
A Nova may not possess enhanced Mega-Attributes above (Quantum + 1) or their attribute rating (whichever is lower), and a character may not add more to Strength, Stamina or Appearance than their (Mega-Intelligence + 1) via this enhancement, and may not add more to any other attribute than (Mega-Intelligence/2), round up.
A Nova may also not possess enhanced powers above (Quantum).
Difficulty
The gadgeteering roll is +0 difficulty by default. For every power the gadgeteer desires to add which he or she lacks at the desired level but can study in a lab, add +1 to difficulty. For every power the gadgeteer desires to add which she cannot study in a lab, add +2 to difficulty. Increasing the gadget's lifespan past 1 month adds +1 or more difficulty. To make a gadget easy to maintain, halving its effective NP for maintenance purposes, add +2 difficulty. A gadget with more individual Quantum powers (including Mega-Attributes) than the gadgeteer has Mega-Intelligence adds an additional +1 difficulty to its roll.
Remember, difficulty subtracts from the successes gained from each roll.
Powers
No power on the gadget may have a rating higher than the gadgeteer's (Mega-Intelligence + 1), or the rating the gadgeteer possesses it at, whichever is higher (although the maximum rating of a power is still limited to Quantum or 5, whichever is higher). Powers the gadgeteer lacks may not be rated higher than (Mega-Intelligence) or the rating of the studied subject, whichever is lower.
A gadget must fuel its abilities from its internal battery, and requires it for normal operating. If it lacks such a battery, a Nova may fuel its powers from his own Quantum Pool, but this requires double cost. Furthermore, a gadget without a quantum storage system of some sort costs the Nova 1 quantum point whenever the Nova wishes to take advantage of its abilities, attributes, or enhancements above and beyond any costs for powers. Recharging a gadget's Quantum pool costs 2 Quantum per point of Quantum it possesses, although gadgets slowly regenerate Quantum at 1 point/hour.
Maintenance
A gadget's lifespan is considered to be 1 month by default and is increased by 1 month per success allocated to lifespan. As an alternative, the character may attempt maintenance, using the same pool that he or she used to create the gadget to repair it. Maintenance requires a gadgeteer to roll as many successes as the gadget has NP to fully refurbish it for another interval of lifespan, but the interval of the roll is days instead of weeks.
A character can alternatively invest some of their will into keeping the gadget coherent, giving it a stronger false informational template. Such an action requires the investiture of 2 points of permanent Quantum Pool. Gadgets cohered in this fashion have an infinite lifespan and will only degrade from damage.
Failure
After a gadget's lifespan is up, every time a gadget is used, a gadget takes 1 unsoakable, unhealable aggravated health level. Furthermore, a gadget takes an additional unsoakable, unhealable aggravated health level every week. Armor with a Destruction rating loses 1 point of Destruction rating per "use" (note that wearing armor is always considered a use) and another point every week until it is fully destroyed.
New Background: Gadget
A character may possess a gadget at character generation, paying background points for the gadget. Given the power of this background, gadget background dots cost triple-Gadget 1 costs 3 background dots, Gadget 3 costs 9, and so on. The background costs are given for non-autonomous gadgets. Autonomous gadgets can be purchased with this background, but gain +5 NP for buying basic attributes/abilities and have no maximum item cost, although the ST should veto building autonomous gadgets off of expensive objects such as superfighters without a very good excuse. The system is supposed to let you buy robot girls, quantum powered gun drones, and other toys, not get yourself a flying battleship.
Note that Gadgets cannot take powers Tainted, and start with a Quantum pool of 0, which must be bought up for the gadget to be useful without a Nova user.
Ratings
- Gadget *: The character has a trivial gadget with 10 NP, built off of any item with a cost of *** or less. A gadget of this rating may possess up to two separate Quantum powers or Mega-Attributes with a rating no higher than ** in any.
- Gadget **: The character has a minor gadget with 15 NP, built off of any item with a cost of *** or less. A gadget of this rating may possess up to three separate Quantum powers or Mega-Attributes with a rating no higher than ** in any.
- Gadget ***: The character has a moderately powerful gadget with 20 NP, built off of any item with a cost of **** or less. A gadget of this rating may possess up to three separate Quantum powers or Mega-Attributes with a rating no higher than ** in any.
- Gadget ****: The character has a powerful gadget with 25 NP, built off of any item with a cost of **** or less. A gadget of this rating may possess up to four separate Quantum powers or Mega-Attributes with a rating no higher than *** in any.
- Gadget *****: The character has an extremely powerful gadget with 30 NP, built off of any item with a cost of ***** or less. A gadget of this rating may possess up to four separate Quantum powers or Mega-Attributes with a rating no higher than *** in any.