Cybernetics in the Dark
Last session, our gang of Shadows stumbled across a shrine to That Which Hungers, a forgotten god under whose ambitious influence the Ironworks has been driving its factory workers to death in the name of industrial progress.
In the ensuing fight Targos, our gadget-enamored Tycherosi Sharpshooter, was attacked by the ravenous revenant of a factory worker and took a Severe Wound to the arm before suffering Trauma and falling into the effluent canal.
We took the opportunity to talk about Healing rules, and Targos mused that it wouldn’t take longer to invent and craft him a cybernetic arm (we had covered Invention & Crafting for Vey, the Akorosian Artificer earlier in the session).
It makes a lot of sense for Targos to want a gadget arm, and their Artificer seemed interested – she’s been the slowest to establish herself and I would love to help her figure out her place in the game – but I’m not sure how to handle it.
Healing is actually pretty quick, so for this to be a realistic option it shouldn’t be too slow. Under normal circumstances, I would tend to suggest that it requires knowledge of medicine, mechanisms and ghost binding to achieve but at this stage in their career that would probably seem like too high an obstacle.
Earlier in the session, she showed interest in building mechanical beetles capable of flying into rooms and recording sound (I suggested she invent a listening device first, then modify it for autonomy as another project) so there’s a good chance of Hulls in our future if she continues on this path…
What do you guys & gals think?
Ah damn, this is absolutely in the wrong section.
Could a moderator move it into Hacks and Add Ons or Game Questions for me?
It’s not just a mechanical arm. It’s a mechanical arm fueled by refined demon’s blood and controlled by the scraps of spirit the arm left behind when they removed it.
I’m sure absolutely no trouble could come from such a device.
A slightly different way to approach it might be to set the mechanics of the arm’s creation to be just within the PC’s abilities, and then have “outside help” show up with a super convenient offer of help – perhaps detailed plans, a bottle of some unknown essence, even the finished arm component. If the PCs are likely to recoil from something that screams “bad idea” so loudly, you could lend expertise from a powerful faction that likes and/or wants to use them… in exchange for favors.
More grist for the plot mill, essentially.
Scott Macmillan So you mean make it a choice between doing it themselves (at the cost of time and resources) or accepting help (and getting near-immediate) results?
Do you happen to have a rough draft of the expectations of the arm (in regards to tier quality) and what they’re thinking it would cost? I’m interested because in another game I played my fellow player worked up a spread sheet with the expected costs for a legitimate high tier hull with all its components and its a lot of coin. And depending on how lenient you want to be about it there’s room for alterations but comparing it to a hull if you want to look at the components of a fully functioning arm you’re probably looking at the creation of clockwork actuators to simulate joints and movement (which a hand is extremely complex and intricate so to even be able to do something like hold a pencil you’re probably looking minimum tier 4-5) and them you’re still dealing with an expose arm of gears with no shell covering it.
Renaud van Strydonck Sorry, I wasn’t clear there – yes. You could use the outside help as an excuse to lower the difficulty / time / cost as you see fit, to make it something they can accomplish in a timeframe / cost reasonable to your plot.
Chris McDonald we cut the session shot before getting too deep into it.
My general thought at the moment would be to suggest to her that she start with a fleshbag-quality cybernetic with the aim to upgrade it later.
Even then, I would tend to agree that probably hovers around Tier 4-5.
I really dig Scott Macmillan’s suggestion, and it would be lovely to give the Leech some tinkering-related plot to chew over too, most of their game is labor disputes and arcane conspiracies at the moment.
I got your back Renaud van Strydonck (updated the category).
Thanks Stras Acimovic!
So after a rather chaotic few months, we finally had another session… after losing our Artificer to a new job in Scotland.
After some deliberation, Targos decided he still wanted a mechanical arm, so he got in touch with a Railjack mechanic by the name of Morlan, who agreed to help him in return for Coin and salvage from the Lost District.
We agreed that it would work just like Recovery at first, but he would have the option to keep upgrading his arm once it was fully healed.
So after spending some Coin and a lot of negotiation, Targos is the proud owner of a mechanical arm only slightly worse than a normal one (since he still has 1 Harm).