A few extras for consideration

Worked on reading about Extras and hashing out Mike's powers tonight. Here's what we came up with, which is open to critique or questions:

Extra: Cinematic Invention

Permissions: Aspect reflecting a gadget oriented character.

Costs: Skill points in Craft, plus 3 refreshes.

People with the Cinematic Invention skill are able to use Craft to design powerful weapons and tools, appropriate for the daftest Hollywood blockbuster. They can design ‘laser-beams,’ robots, etc. as is appropriate for their Genre.

Overcome: Use Craft against a static difficulty based challenge to invent new devices. It requires a Fate point to attempt to make non-standard equipment, (gadgets).

Other skills may be required depending on scope: large devices may require Resources checks to scrounge enough parts, illegal devices may require Deceive to prevent the authorities from catching on. (For instance, if Walter White is trying to create sky-blue meth, he may need to make a Deceive check to be sure no one knows what he’s up to.)

Other skills may also be used to give a situational advantage to uses of Cinematic Invention, (Resources to get funding, Contacts to get lab assistants, etc.).

Making an off-Genre device is impossible.

Difficulty: The difficulty is based on two factors: the circumstances the work is performed under, and the desired power of the device.

Circumstantial Difficulty:

Working in a fully stocked lab is performed at Fair, while attempting to make a suit of power armor, in a cave, with a box of scraps, may be upward of Epic.

If the Craft roll fails to meet the Circumstantial Difficulty, no device happens.

Power Difficulty:

Every shift of power the device has costs 1 shift on the Craft roll. Weapon/armor ratings are obtained 1:1. Special Aspects in devices are 1 or more shifts per capability, and include things like:

• Hits a whole Zone
• Ignores 2 points of armor or cover
• Generates a free situational advantage on a strike
• Targets an unconventional defense (a Neural Disruptor attacking Will vs. Athletics or Physique, etc.)
• Additional stress boxes of reliability

If the inventor meets the Circumstantial Difficulty, but fails to live up to the shifts needed for the Power Difficulty, they still get the device, but it each negative shift allows the GM to surprise the player with a negative Aspect, missing ability or reduced Stress Box.

Device Degradation: All created gadgets have a limited shelf life: after each Scene the gadget is used in forces an unmodified roll of the dice, where negative results damage the device. First, they mark off stress boxes, then they inflict Consequences, and finally destroy it. This damage may be reversed with additional uses of Cinematic Invention, (typically at lower difficulty than the creation attempt).

Devices are genre-dependent, and do not work across genres.

Raiding the Armory: Sharing gear is not a traditional mad scientist thing, so other characters who wish to use gear created by a Cinematic Inventor must pay a Fate point to ‘attune’ to the gear.

Example:

Dr. Invento wants to design a shrink-wrap ray, capable of encasing a target in deadly shrink wrap. As envisioned, the weapon is Weapon:2, and also gives the target the situational Aspect Covered in Goddamn Shrink Wrap, which is worth 2 shifts.

He is working in a poorly stocked lab, placing his Circumstantial Difficulty at Good (+3), and he has a personal Craft skill of Great (+4). He spends his Fate point and rolls a +2, meaning that he has generated 3 shifts beyond the Circumstantial Difficulty. Unfortunately, he needed 4 to get the device just the way he wanted it: the GM rules that his Shrink-Wrap Ray is ‘Prone to Jams.’

 There are also a couple of supporting Stunts I offered, which are open to all of you:

Stunt: Omnidisciplinary Competence

Applicable to Craft, Drive, Lore and others.

Your skill is considerably broader in scope than normal. Where a normal character’s Drive would cover cars, yours could handle ‘anything on the ground.’ The limits of this should take their cues from your Aspects, particularly High Concept.

Stunt: Rapid Genre Adaptation

Applicable to Craft, Drive, Lore and others.

Genre shifts mean far less to you than normal practitioners of your skill. Instead of spending days or weeks acclimating to a new environment, you may spend a Fate point to begin using your skill normally immediately..