Inventor alpha

Description

++ Intelligence / + Luck

You are a hands-on tinkerer and creator of gadgets, capable of transforming scrap, broken machines, and engineering mishaps into something new, sometimes even something useful. An Inventor rarely has exactly what they need on hand, instead scrounging up what’s available, disassembling things for parts, and jury-rigging up a barely functional contraption.

Grounding:

  • Angus MacGyver (MacGyver)
  • Kaylee Frye (Firefly)
  • Emmett “Doc” Brown (Back to the Future)
  • Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (How to Train Your Dragon)
  • Entrapta (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)
  • Wallace (Wallace & Gromit)
  • Winry Rockbell (Fullmetal Alchemist)
  • Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
  • Gyro Gearloose (DuckTales)
  • Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)

Challenge Level: Low

Edition: Advent v2

Public: Yes

Owner: detour

Signature Gear

Base Gear

Portable Workbench

Base

A compact case or container that unfolds into a surprisingly complete workspace.

  • Stocked with specialized tools, clamps, measuring instruments, and testing equipment.
  • Secure an object to the Workbench and spend a Low Duration examining it to gain a BoostH to Deductions concerning its construction, function, or current condition.

Multitool

Base

A compact handheld tool able to rapidly reconfigure itself into an enormous variety of mundane implements.

  • Pitch forms effective at opening, disassembling, adjusting, fastening, cutting, connecting, and otherwise working directly on mechanisms and constructed objects.

Engineer Apron

Base

A battered apron packed with an assortment of spare parts, hardware, scraps, and miscellaneous components.

  • A Grab BagL for mundane engineering materials useful for building or repair, such as wire, fasteners, tubing, springs, connectors, small components, scrap material, etc.
    • Cannot provide specialized components.
  • Provides a WardL against heat, electrical discharge, corrosive materials, and explosions.

Elective Gear

Unstable Power Cell

Elective

A compact but dangerous universal energy source, covered in improvised connectors and warning labels.

  • Functions as a Power SourceM.
  • Once per mission, it may be overcharged while connected to an internally-powered object, dramatically increasing the object's outputH for a Low Duration.
    • You must Pitch a serious malfunction to occur by the end of the effect.

Personal Assistant

Elective

A small, fragile mechanical assistant.

  • It can follow simple instructions independently.
  • Equipped with a collection of small Pitched ports, probes, manipulators, and measuring instruments.
    • When connected to a device, you may QueryL diagnostic information about it.
  • It is poor at improvisation but exceptionally reliable at repetitive work and calculations.

Monkey Rig

Elective

A collection of straps, cables, pulleys, braces, grips, and compact mechanisms worn about the body.

  • You may Pitch a reconfiguration of the rig for a specific mode of personal traversal such as climbing, rappelling, swinging, gliding, or crossing unstable terrain.

Abilities

Piece Together

Quickly jury-rig a device from whatever materials you can get your hands on.

Essence Cost
Low
Cooldown
Low

Paired Action: Gather materials and explain how you physically combine or modify them to produce the intended function.

  • Assemble available materials into a mostly-functional itemL designed to perform a specific task. The resulting device works, however improbably, though it must have a logical relationship between its components and intended function.
  • The device is temporary and unreliable, typically lasting only long enough to accomplish its intended task or for a Low Duration.
    • You may take additional time to construct a more capable device, adding a DelayL to increase its Impact and Essence Cost by up to Mid.
  • You may Pitch materials you could plausibly find nearby.

Eureka!

Throw yourself at a pressing problem, working intently until a sudden breakthrough reveals the key detail you’ve been missing.

Essence Cost
Mid
Cooldown
Mid

Paired Action: Feverishly work on the problem while thinking aloud, testing theories, and interacting with its subject. When inspiration strikes, dramatically announce your realization and immediately begin acting on it.

  • Enter an Altered State of obsessive focus on the problem at hand. You become increasingly preoccupied with solving the problem, ignoring distractions, danger, discomfort, or even your own wellbeing.
  • After examining, tinkering with, or experimenting on something involved in the problem, make a Query H about how it works, why it is behaving as it is, or how its properties could be exploited.
  • Altered State persists as you act upon the breakthrough, ending when the problem is solved, clearly becomes impossible to solve, or the ability ends.

Chaos Breeds Innovation

When a device breaks down, malfunctions, or proves unsuitable, cannibalize it into something useful.

Essence Cost
Low
Cooldown
Low

Paired Action: Frantically dismantle, reroute, or reconfigure the failing device, calling out what you are salvaging and what it will do instead. “Oops the coolant hose popped out! Well we can just route that onto the overheating engine for extra cooling!”

  • Target a device you have been actively using, building, repairing, or modifying that is currently malfunctioning, breaking, or failing at its intended purpose.
  • Pitch a substantially different functionL-M that could be produced by quickly repurposing its component parts. The new function must meaningfully differ from what the device was originally intended to do.
    • Impact of the new function scales with the Impact of the target device, but has a maximum of Mid.
  • The repurposed device is unstable and only lasts long enough to perform its new function or for a Low Duration.