#glowinthedark
The Junker
This one’s for all the Bruce Spence fans out there. 🙂
The Junker should probably feel Leech-y, although instead of the set effects provided by the bandoliers and alchemicals, the playbook has a Tempest knockoff called MacGyver that uses a combination of stress and “scrap”. Scrap takes load, but the idea here is that you can scrounge up some more if you have time to spare and that you’ve got limited “shots” beyond stress if you’re in a dust-up.
I don’t have much experience with Tempest, though, so is having a scrap prerequisite redundant given the stress cost?
Anyway, here are the abilities. I also worry that Blackfinger steps on the toes of Percussive Maintenance – do you see situations where you could have both and use both?
MacGyver: You can hack together surprising effects from random-seeming scrap. Take stress equal to the magnitude of the results (0-6).
Percussive Maintenance: When you thump something that’s not working, pay 1 stress to make it start working.
Organic Mechanic: You know proper surgical techniques take finesse, not butchery. You may use finesse to treat wounds instead of hack. When you do this, your patients get a free recovery action each downtime.
Mechromancer: You gain potency when you create, repair, or destroy vehicles, robots, and drones. If you’re building one from scratch, it has +1 quality.
Blood, Sweat, and Gears: You know every weld, screw, and wire like they are your own flesh. When you use things you’ve personally modified or created, add +1d.
Boom Shakalaka: Sometimes it’s easier to destroy than create. When you use explosives, choose an additional effect: increased scale – terror – precision – potency
Buried Treasure: You know where to look for the good stuff. When you scrounge for assets, you get +1 effect level.
Blackfinger: As long as you are personally attending to a mechanical or electronic device, it will keep working.
I always enjoy the junker/scrapper archetype. Awesome. I am a fan of the scrap cost for MacGyver. Your rationale makes sense.
I wonder if Blood, Sweat, and Gears will result in +1d for every action before too long. I can also see your concern about Blackfinger + Percussive Maintenance. Blackfinger almost makes it less likely for you to actually take action with the skills at which you are best. I wonder if it might be good to instead have an ability that boosts downtime activities like construction-based long-term projects or Gain an Asset. Or possibly an ability that improves resistance rolls against gear-based consequences.
Mechromancer’s a long-term kind of ability, except when you’re using its benefits to wreck stuff. I had that one written out more specifically to add 1 progress tick and give quality to completed projects (and it originally didn’t help a Junker fight robots), but I like the broader language and the double-sided benefit.
Buried Treasure’s the “gain an asset” booster, as long as you’re using Scrounge to do it.
My “best case” for Blackfinger, in my head at least, is how awesome it’d be to have a Junker riding on a truck or something that’s just completely perforated with bullet holes, on fire, half the wheels gone – quite clearly “broken” in cohort terms – but it keeps. on. going. Also kind of ridiculous, but the engineers in Battlefield games who run behind a tank with their little blowtorches.
I wonder if you’re getting the Blood Sweat and Gears bonus for everything if you’re doin it rite? 🙂 You’d have put in enough LTP to get that across the board.
Thinking about dropping Blackfinger in favor of a reskinned Rook’s Gambit, Junk of All Trades. The Junker seems like the playbook that would keep surprises like that in its back pocket. It gives them a little more heist-time oompf and makes the ability proactive. Blackfinger, as written, is largely reactive (you need something in danger of being wrecked for the ability to work) and it takes your agency away (using you as a living band-aid).
If you can’t tell, I really soured on Blackfinger since I posted. 🙂 But I like the name, and I might rename MacGyver to get that ability slightly more in-setting.
I think that Organic Mechanic should work the other way around: Finesse seems the obvious choice to heal someone if you don’t know what to do, while the Junker can hack people (litterally) with surgery, even “hacking” their bodies with postapocalyptic prosthetics.
PS: I’m really loving your crews/playbooks so far.
Also, Percussive Manteinance is awesome!
Been busy lately, but I’ve been meaning to go back through your playbooks and make comments. Starting here because I love leech types.
You’re great at naming these abilities, I think I need your help with mine.
Macguyver works for me, but it’s not clear to me how much scrap something takes? Is it one per use? Depends on how big of an effect? Also is the effect one use or can they make something and use it repeatedly? If you’re looking for another name, how about One Man’s Scrap, or you could do Another Man’s Treasure.
Percussive Maintenance is awesome, keep that and ditch Blackfinger
Organic Mechanic – So I can use this on a score one time and then my patient gets one free downtime every downtime until their clock is healed? At least I think that’s what this says. Seems very potent. Maybe it needs to be a downtime action? I trade one downtime action now so you get more later? Also prevents the Junker from patching up his whole team at once without spending.
Blood Sweat and Gears – Does this work with stuff that they macguyver?
The rest looks good if you’re replacing Blackfingers with Rooks Gambit.
All in all a sweet playbook.
Thanks all!
Mark Griffin it was my intent for MacGyver to take 1 scrap per invention. I should rephrase it to “pay 1 scrap and then pay stress etc.” I think Blood, Sweat, and Gears would apply unless I changed B,S,Gearsto be something like “choose one item that you modified or created”; limiting it like that but letting you swap what it applies to between scores might work.
Organic Mechanic needs another look. I need to make sure it makes sense with how you approach recovery.
Ugh, I’d write more but I’m on my phone. Thanks for understanding.