2.8.0 Crafting and Modifying Gear

Any Expert or Partial Expert PC with at least Craft-1 skill, or any PC with the Artisan Focus, can modify equipment with ancient salvage. Their crafting background does not need to precisely match the gear they’re modifying; the basic principles of using ancient salvage are the same among all disciplines.

2.8.1 Crafting Gear

An artisan requires a workshop that could plausibly build the gear in question. This may be nothing more than a sharp knife for a simple device, or a full-fledged alchemy lab for others. They also require a plausible source of parts for the device. This is usually a given if in a city or other salvage-rich area, but it may not be practical in a wilderness.

Building gear takes a month for a wagon-sized vehicle or a week for a weapon, suit of armor, or other portable complex device. Very simple devices may be built faster at the GM’s discretion.

Crafted gear is made at three levels of quality. Jury-rigged gear takes one-half the time to build and costs one-quarter the market cost in parts. If scrap salvage is available it can be built at no cost but normal build times. As an improvised device, it counts as a mod requiring Craft-0 to keep functional, as explained below in the mod maintenance rules. If it goes 24 hours without maintenance, it stops functioning. Jury-rigged devices cannot be further modded.

Normal devices cost the same amount in parts as the market cost and take the normal amount of time to build. They cannot be built with salvaged parts unless the GM decides the salvage is perfectly suited for it. Consumable devices such as torches must be crafted as normal devices rather than jury-rigged or mastercrafted ones.

Mastercrafted devices cost ten times as much in parts as the usual market cost and take twice as long to build. They are ideal platforms for an artisan’s mods, however, and the first mod their creator installs in them requires no maintenance. Mastercrafted weapons grant a +1 to hit. Mastercrafted armor counts as 1 fewer point of encumbrance, down to a minimum of 1 point. This lightening does not affect the armor’s suitability for a user of the Armored Magic Focus.

2.8.2 Modifying Gear

Crafted or purchased gear can be modified by a skilled artisan. Crafting mods also requires a minimum Fix skill. Without this skill level the tech cannot install the mod or maintain it afterwards.

Crafting and installing mods has a cost in silver and sometimes in arcane salvage. The latter consists of rare monster parts, esoteric materials, and exotic components that cannot normally be bought on the open market, but must be acquired by adventuring or in payment from patrons. Arcane salvage is generic in nature; a given piece can be used in any mod that requires salvage.

It takes one week per minimum skill level of the mod to build and install it. Thus, if the mod requires Craft-1 skill, it takes one week. If the artisan has an assistant with at least Craft-0 skill, this time is halved. If they do nothing but eat, sleep, and work, this time is further halved.

2.8.3 Maintaining Mods

Mods normally require maintenance to keep functioning correctly, and a given artisan can maintain only so many mods at once. An artisan can only maintain mods they have the requisite skill levels to build.

An artisan’s maximum maintenance score is equal to the total of their Intelligence and Constitution modifiers plus three times their Craft skill level. Thus, a tech with a +1 Intelligence mod, a -1 Constitution mod and Craft-1 could maintain up to three mods at any one time.

Maintenance is assumed to take place during downtime and does not require any significantly expensive components. If an artisan does nothing but maintain mods, they can double their allowed number. Such work assumes sixteen-hour workdays.

If a mod goes without maintenance for 24 hours, it stops working. If it goes without maintenance for a week, the item it’s attached to stops working, becoming dangerous or ineffective to use. A maintenance backlog on an item can be cleared by an hour’s work by an artisan capable of maintaining it.

2.8.4 Example Modifications

The mods listed here are merely some of the possibilities for using ancient salvage or large amounts of costly mundane materials. These mods are almost never available on the open market due to the rarity of usable salvage and the difficulty of maintaining the gear. Acquiring the salvage needed to make them usually means finding it as part of an adventure, receiving it in payment from a patron, or setting out on specific expeditions to find it.

Multiple modifications can stack, but cannot increase a hit, AC, or damage bonus above +3, or a skill check bonus above +1. Magical and masterwork weapons and armor can be modified, but mods can’t improve them above this cap.

Arrow Storm (Craft-2): A bow or other projectile weapon automatically generates its own ammunition, albeit the conjured projectiles vanish a round after firing. This mod does not increase reload speed. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces.

Assassin’s Trinket (Craft-2): A one-handed weapon is modified to adopt the shape of some item of jewelry or adornment. It can be shifted to or from this shape by the owner as an On Turn action. Cost: One unit of salvage and 1,000 silver pieces.

Augmented Gear (Craft-1): A tool, medical kit, or other item of equipment is improved for a specific purpose chosen at the time of augmentation. Skill checks made for that purpose gain a +1 skill bonus with the item. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces.

Automatic Reload (Craft-2): A hurlant can be modified to reload itself, if ammunition is available. Once per scene, a man-portable hurlant can be reloaded as an On Turn action. Cost: Two units of salvage and 10,000 silver pieces.

Customized (Craft-1): The weapon or suit of armor has been care fully tailored for a specific user. When used by them, they gain a +1 to hit with the weapon or +1 Armor Class with the armor. This mod doesn’t work with shields. Cost: 1,000 silver pieces.

Flying Razor (Craft-1): A throwing weapon is imbued with various esoteric materials, allowing it to return to the hand of its thrower after each attack. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces.

Harmonized Aegis (Craft-3): A suit of armor is altered to harmonize with the dangerous sorceries of allied casters. Provided the wearer and the caster have had ten minutes to coordinate the protection, the wearer is unharmed by the caster’s harmful spells for the rest of the day, even if caught in their area of effect. Cost: One unit of salvage and 10,000 silver pieces.

Long Arm (Craft-2): A ranged or thrown weapon is modified to double its normal and maximum ranges. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces.

Manifold Mail (Craft-2): A suit of armor is augmented to allow it to shift its appearance to any of five or six pre-set choices, mimicking normal clothing or other armor types as an On Turn action. The armor’s Encumbrance or other statistics are not altered. Cost: One unit of salvage, 5,000 silver pieces.

Omened Aim (Craft-2): Occult components improve a ranged or thrown weapon’s targeting, adding +1 to hit rolls. Cost: 4,000 silver pieces.

Preserving Grace (Craft-1): A suit of clothing or armor is specially altered to preserve the wearer. Once per week, when the wearer is Mortally Wounded, they will automatically stabilize. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces.

Razor Edge (Craft-2): A weapon has been given an improved edge or shifting weight system, adding +2 to the damage and Shock it does, albeit requiring far more care. Cost: One unit of salvage and 5,000 silver pieces.

Tailored Harness (Craft-2): A suit of armor is altered to perfectly fit a single wearer, decreasing its effective Encumbrance by 1 for them only. This does not affect skill check penalties or the Armored Magic Focus. Cost: 5,000 silver pieces.

Thirsting Blade (Craft-3): A weapon is imbued with a fated inclination to harm, adding +1 to hit rolls. Cost: Two units of salvage and 1,000 silver pieces.