Monthly Archives: March 2018

Starfinder Species in Really Wild West

Starfinder Species in Really Wild West

Mar 31

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When running a Really Wild West game, which takes Starfinder Roleplaying Game concepts and sets them in a weird west version of the real world in 1891, one of the questions that can come up is where the nonhuman species come from. Given how much cultures and nations and lone people can interact, overlap, and move around, any individual character can obviously be from anywhere—in real-world history it’s easy to find Japanese expatriates in Manila and Mexico in the early 1600s, so ethnicity, nationality, and geography aren’t always as linked as typical examples of each might suggest.

But a question remains of where the most common cultures and ethnicities of various nonhuman species are found. It’s a bad idea to replace entire real-world ethnic groups with nonhumans, since that erases the possibilities of real-world options and may tell a player that their actual ancestry isn’t important enough to keep, but if we are presenting a world where dozens (or even hundreds) of species are sharing the planet, it makes sense to consider where our fictional species fit reasonable well with real-world culture, and key those as major cultural and population centers for kasatha and lashutna and others.

This is especially important for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game species. It’s easy to place dwarves, elves, gnomes, haflings, half-elves, and half-orcs in the European areas that inspired them and that lots of fantasy and modern games have drawn from to build fictional cultures for them. You can assume they all overlap with humanity 100%, or make the major population centers line up with the countries you think make interesting matches—perhaps dwarves are German and elves are French. Or perhaps dwarves are French, elves are Germanic, and gnomes Russian or Scandinavian, and orcs Spanish. There’s enough fiction and game material with those races to make it easy to build or match cultures to serve as backgrounds for them.

But there’s not nearly as much material to draw on for androids (especially as Really Wild West envisions them), vesk, or ysoki, and even less for kasatha and lashunta. Since the Really Wild West is set in an alternate version of the real world, if I want to place these new species somewhere I need to either think of places where I can add them to the existing populations, or add new places. I could slap a few new small continents—Atlantis. Lemuria, and Mu come to mind—in the middle of oceans to give me new space for new cultures if I wanted to, but that’d take a lot more effort than I am looking to do just to create some cultural touchstones.

It seems perfectly reasonable in a campaign setting that adds multiple new sapient, sentient species to a fantasy version of the real world to have those species be tied primarily to specific regions or cultures, so that is the approach I took here. That leaves the question of where to place each of these species primary population centers, and for that I looked at each in turn to determine what core feature or concept helps define each and how those can be integrated into existing real-world regions.

I used real-world art references for the art order representing clothing and styles for these new species. That’s not to suggest that all of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game species come from only these regions or look like the characters below, but it’s a baseline to give GM and players something to draw from.

Over the next few posts I’ll give some details where each of these new species is being centered in the world of Really Wild West, and why, beginning with the androids.

RealWildWest-Races-color-01

Android

Androids in the Really Wild West (far left) are visually and culturally notably different from androids in standard Starfinder Roelplaying Game campaigns. Given the 1890s aesthetic of the RWW, androids are presented as old-school robots, closer to Metropolis than Blade Runner. They could never pass for human. They function with the same rules, but the definition of android in this campaign is closer to “humanlike in form” than “machine that passed for human.”

Complex machines claiming to be automatons and clockworks did exist in the era, perhaps the most famous of which is the chess-playing automaton created in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen of the Hapsburg Empire, who usefully for our purposes also created a speaking machine. While von Kempelen’s chess-playing machine was not a true automaton (it hid a chess player in its integral cabinet), that looks a fine origin for our manlike machines. If the first automatons were created in 1770 in the Hapsburg empire, they can easily have spread to be much farther and wider by 1891. The Austro-Hungarian Empire that formed out of the Austrian Empire that followed the Hapsburg Empire is a European melting pot, and numerous immigrants from that region moved to  New York City, Pittsburgh, and Chicago early in the 1800s, and then were part of the century.

We can assume that older androids are from the Austria and Hungary regions, and newer ones likely constructed in the big cities of New York City, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. At some point some form of Turing Test has developed, and androids have won recognition as “people” in the United States, Mexico, and most industrialized nations of the world. But they lack strong family roots, and are often looking for opportunities to make a life for themselves.

We’ll address the kasatha, lashunta, shirren, vesk, and ysoki soon!

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More Gunslinger Abilities (for Starfinder)

Mar 28

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To add on to yesterday’s gunslinger abilities, here are some drawn from a gunslinger archetype (one of which requires you take the Gunslinger Feat to access… at least for now). These work for normal Starfinder Roleplaying Game campaigns, or the Really Wild West setting hack.

While I’ll release full rules for these as an actual product, for now note that whether you use the archetype or feat to access these, you can only select abilities with two different possessive title forms. In other words if you take a “Gunslinger’s X” and “Ace Shooter’s X” abilities, you can’t also take an ability titled “Blatherskite’s X” (as there will be many more possessively titled abilities in the final product).

New Gunslinger Abilities:

Ace Shooter’s Resolve (Ex): [3rd level] As long as you have at least 1 Resolve Point, you can make a ranged attack as a standard action and ignore the effects of concealment (though not total concealment) and cover (other than total cover) against that shot.

Ace Shooter’s Vigilance (Ex): [7th Level] As long as you have at least 1 Resolve Point, your ranged attacks to not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Ace Shooter’s Pinning Shot (Ex): [15th level] When firing a small arm, longarm, or heavy weapon that uses darts or arrows (such as a crossbolter) you can make 1 attack as a full action to give the weapon the entangling special weapon property.

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Really Wild West Gunslinger (for Starfinder)

Mar 27

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So, of COURSE, the Really Wild West has to have gunslingers, and since RWW is a setting hack for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, that means I need gunslingers for that game… at least up to 10th level (RWW’s current cap).
That said, a big part of the fantasy gunslinger class is that it gives access to firearms, and makes them less-terrible and less-unreliable choices. Since small arms, longarms, and sniper rifles aren’t terrible choices and are easy to gain access and proficiency with, there’s no need for a class that takes up a lot of its abilities fixing those fantasy-rules-related issues. Also, RWW is the kind of setting where a mechanic, mystic, or even solarian could all be gunslingers, so why restrict the concept to just one class?
I’m working on a longer version of the Starfaring Gunslinger rules that will cover some archetypes and go to 20th, but that’s likely to actually be a full product. This is a preview.

There are two ways to get gunslinger abilities: the gunslinger archetype, and the gunslinger feat. You can use both, if you wish.

Gunslinger Archetype
You are more than proficient with guns, you are focused on them to a degree most gun users can neither duplicate nor understand.
Special: You must be proficient with small arms, longarms, or sniper rifles to take this archetype.
Gunslinger Ability: At 2nd, 4th, and 6th level you may choose to take gunslinger abilities as alternate class features (using the normal archetype rules).
If you make this choice more than once, each time after the first that you make it you gain two gunslinger abilities, rather than one. (Thus if you selected this option at all three level, you’d have five total gunslinger abilities.)

Gunslinger Feat
You are a master of slinging guns.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with small arms.
Benefit: Select one gunslinger ability.
Special: You can select this feat more than once. Each time, you select a new gunslinger ability of your character level or less.

Gunslinger Abilities
Regardless of how you gain your gunslinger abilities (feat or archetype), you can only select a gunslinger ability of your level of less. Unless it specifies otherwise, you can’t select a gunslinger ability more than once.

Gunslinger’s Dodge (Ex): [1st Level] You gain an uncanny knack for getting out of the way of ranged attacks. Once per day when a ranged attack is made against you, you can move 5 feet as a reaction; doing so grants you a +2 bonus to AC against the triggering attack. This movement is not a guarded step. Alternatively, you can drop prone to gain a +4 bonus to AC against the triggering attack.
Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you spend 1 Resolve Point to regain Stamina Points taking a 10-minute break, or regain your daily abilities. You can also use this even when it is expended by spending 1 Resolve Point.

Gunslinger Initiative (Ex): [3rd Level] As long as you have at least 1 Resolve Point, you gain the following benefits. First, you gains a +2 bonus on initiative checks. Furthermore, if you have the Quick Draw feat, your hands are free and unrestrained, and the small arm is not hidden, you can draw a single firearm as part of your initiative check.

Gunslinger Specialization (Ex): [3rd Level] When you take the attack of full attack action with a small arm, without using any class feature or feat that increases attack rolls or damage, you add damage equal to 1-1/2 your level to damage done with small arms (instead of Weapons Specialization’s normal bonus for small arms of half your level).

Pistol-Whip (Ex): [3rd Level] You can use your small arm, longarm, or sniper weapon as a melee weapon. Select a bludgeoning basic melee weapon with an item level lower than your ranged weapon. Treat your ranged weapon as this melee weapon for purposes of threatening spaces, making attacks of opportunity, and dealing damage, but grant it the knockdown critical hit effect (replacing any critical hit effect it normally has). When used in this way, the weapon still benefits from any weapon fusions it has that would apply to an unpowered bludgeoning melee weapon.

Utility Shot (Ex): [3rd Level] If you have at least 1 Resolve Point, you can perform all of the following utility shots. Each utility shot can be applied to any single attack with a ranged weapon, but you must declare the utility shot you are using before firing the shot.
Blast Lock: You make an attack roll against a lock within the first range increment of your ranged weapon. A Diminutive lock usually has AC 15, and larger locks have a lower AC. The lock gains a bonus to its AC equal to its item level. Hold portal grants a +5 bonus to the AC of a lock against this attack. On a hit, the lock is destroyed, and the object can be opened as if it were unlocked. On a miss, the lock is undamaged. It can still be unlocked by successfully performing this deed, by using the Computers or Engineer skills.
Scoot Unattended Object: You make an attack roll against a Tiny or smaller unattended object within the first range increment of your ranged weapon. For this purpose, a Tiny unattended object has an AC of 5, a Diminutive unattended object has an AC of 7, and a Fine unattended object has an AC of 11. On a hit, you do not damage the object with the shot, but can move it up to 15 feet farther away from the shot’s origin.
Stop Bleeding: You expend one usage of a ranged weapon and then press the hot barrel (or hot energy vent, or power cable, or some other part of the weapon that heats when it uses energy or fires) against yourself or an adjacent creature to staunch a bleeding wound. This ends a single bleed condition affecting the creature. You can do this in place of an attack (as a standard action, or part of a full action allowing multiple attacks).

Dead Shot (Ex): [7th Level] As a full action, you can expend 1 Resolve Point to make a single ranged attack, rolling your attack twice and using the better of the two results. This functions with Gunslinger Specialization and can be combined with the full action to aim and fire a sniper weapon, but does not work with any other class feature or feat that increases attack rolls or damage.

Startling Shot (Ex): [7th Level] If you have at least 1 Resolve Point left, when you successfully use covering fire or harrying fire against a creature, you also cause it to be flat-footed for 1 round.

Targeting (Ex): [7th Level] As a full action, you can make a single ranged weapon attack and choose part of the target’s body to aim at. If you hit, you inflict the following effects depending on the part of the body aimed at. If a creature does not have one of the listed body locations, the GM can determine if it has an equivalent body part or not [and may require a Perception or Life Sciences check (DC 15 +1-1/2 target’s CR) for you to know and recognize such an equivalent]. Creatures immune to critical hits or critical hit effects are immune to this ability.
Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you spend 1 Resolve Point to regain Stamina Points taking a 10-minute break, or regain your daily abilities. You can also use this even when it is expended by spending 1 Resolve Point.
Arms: On a hit, the target takes no damage from the hit but drops one held item of the your choice that it can drop, even if the item is wielded with two hands.
Head: On a hit, the target is damaged normally, and is also confused for 1 round. This is a mind-affecting effect.
Legs: On a hit, the target is damaged normally and knocked prone. Creatures that have four or more legs or that are immune to trip attacks are immune to this effect.
Torso: Targeting the torso causes any critical hit effect your weapon possesses to be triggered on an attack roll of 18 or better (the die shows an 18, 19, or 20) that hits the target’s AC, even though an 18 or 19 is not a critical hit.
Wings: On a hit, the target is damaged normally, and must make a Fly check (DC 15 + 1-1/2 your base attack bonus) or fall 20 ft.

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Social Technomancy for Starfinder

Mar 22

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While the technomancer spells presented in the Starfinder Core Rulebook focus on mixing magic and specific, physical applications of technology, as residents of the modern world we know that technology is much more than a set of devices. Social technologies exist, from things like first aid techniques to social media to advances in the social sciences and philosophies, as well as data organization and storage techniques, metadata analysis, and so on. Surely in a galaxy that has spellcasters blending arcana with other fields of study, technomancy would leak into every aspect of advanced knowledge.

So, here are some technomancy spells that investigate other paces magic and advanced techniques might overlap. It also introduces some new focus rules—elements that are useful to casting a spell, but not mandatory.

Cram (T2)
School transmutation
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range touch
Target one creature
Duration 1 minute/level (see text)
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

With this spell, the caster can take the knowledge from any text-based, audio, or video source and implant it into the mind of the target creature. This grants the subject a number of bonus ranks in one skill of the caster’s choice to bring the target’s total ranks (their own ranks + bonus ranks) equal to half the caster’s level (for Int-, Wis-, or Cha-based skills) or 1/4 the caster level (for Str-, Dex-, or Con-based skills). A caster that has access to an infosphere can generally use this to grant ranks in any skill, or a computer can have sufficiently complete versions of the relevant information downloaded into it for the same cost and effort as adding a secure data module.

Focus: If the target has a source of information on the granted skill on their person (such as a book or a datapad with the information downloaded into it) the spell’s duration increases to 10 minutes/caster level.

Fashion Plate (T1)
School transmutation
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range touch
Target one set of clothing
Duration 1hour/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

This spell transforms the appearance of one set of clothes. The clothes may be transformed into a specific set of normal clothing, or they may be turned into clothes appropriate for a particular group of people. For example, a mage could change his ragged jeans and leather jacket into a business power suit, or skateboarding street gear, or a karate gi. This has no impact on any game mechanical bonuses the clothing offers—a cold weather suit works just as well when it appears to be swimming trunks. This spell ends if the clothing is taken off.

Focus: If the caster has access to fashion information about a specific group (normally available automatically with access to a related infosphere, or compiled with a DC 15 Culture check), this spell can make clothing appear to be perfect for interacting with a specific group or segment of society (such as a specific gang, or a specific social class in a specific city). When wearing clothing perfectly matched for such a group, the clothes grant a +3 circumstance bonus to all Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks made with that group. One set of clothing can only be perfect for one group at a time.

Instant Therapy (M2, T2)
School enchantment (language-dependent)
Casting Time 1 minute (see text)
Range close (25 ft. +5 ft/2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration Instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

This spell removes the confusion condition from the target. It also acts as dispel magic and remove affliction against all fear and mind-affecting effects on the target and moves the target one step closer to healthy on the mental disease track.

Once a creature has been the target of this spell, it can’t be targeted again until it has undergone a 4-hour traditional therapy session.

Focus: If you have a mental health file for the subject, the casting time for this spell becomes 1 standard action. A target can give you a file they have access to, or one can generally be compiled over 24 hours with a recall knowledge Culture check or liberated from modestly-secured infosphere sources with a Computers check (both DC 15 + 1-1/2 target’s level).

Rap Sheet (T0)
School divination
Casting Time 1 minute
Range close (25 ft. +5 ft/2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration Instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes

This spell gives the caster knowledge of one target’s legal record. This acts as a Culture check to gain information about the target as if the caster has ranks in Culture equal to her caster level and has access to a relevant database, but only covers information such as arrests, torts, convictions, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and bankruptcy. Only legal records are revealed, and only for the identity of the target as understood by the caster—disguises are not automatically penetrated and actual guilt or innocence is not revealed.

Speaking of Social Magic!

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Updated List of Very Fantasy Words

Mar 16

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The most recent update to the Revised, Partial List of Very Fantasy Words!
Here!

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More Species-Based Insults and Exclamations for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game

Mar 15

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My post on a d6 each worth of species-based insults and exclamations for androids, shirren, humans, and ysoki from yesterday was much more popular than I expected (I picked up three new backers for my Patreon in one day).
So, even though no one asked for them, let’s round out the Starfinder Roleplaying Game core races with kasatha, lashunta, and vesk!

Species-Specific Insults

Kasatha
1. Faceless coward
2. Hat-rack
3. Spikehead
4. Hipless freak
5. Brain-slicer
6. Dust-muncher

Lashunta
1. Mind-peeper
2. Bug-elf (or) Dwarf-beetle
3. Lizard-lover
4. Data-licker
5. Cantrip-Humper
6. Meritrollop

Vesk
1. Heatless lump lizard
2. Pea-brain
3. Deathmongering war-worshipper
4. Walking suitcase
5. Doshclod
6. Cloac-er (Short for cloaca-frudder)

Species Specific Exclamations

Kasatha
1. Lips!
2. Sandhead
3. By the long journey
4. Slivers!
5. Doyen-sucker
6. Waster (or) Waste of Space (or) Useless Waste

Lashunta
1. Ignorance-eater
2. Mindblind
3. Sewer-head
4. LYING!
5. Meritless (or) Unwarranted
6. It’s a Gift of Nothingness, and You Took It.

Vesk
1. Loser (or) Coward
2. Weaponless Wonder
3. Timid Teeth
4. By the Three Blades!
5. Backstabber (or) Traitor (or) Backstab!
6. Cloac-er (Still short for cloaca-frudder)

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Species-Based Insults for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game

Mar 14

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In a podcast I was doing, someone claimed they’d throw Patreon money my way if I’d post 1d6 (each) curse words for Androids, Ysoki, Shirren, and Humans. Not one to pass up a writing challenge that involves making money, I here I am doing that.

But.

I’ve talked about fictional cursewords before and, while I wish it went without saying, it seems prudent to mention that there are pales fictional swearing shouldn’t go. Yes, people cuss. Yes, that can be a useful and interesting part of roleplaying. But especially when looking at species-based cussing, never bring gender, real-world ethnicity, socio-political position, religion, or anything else rooted in reality into it. We should be roleplaying to have fun, and that needs to stay away from language that uses real differences between us as insults or stand-ins for bad language.

No one should be so attached to fictional deity Klono that explaining Holy—Klono’s—Iridium—Intestines!” is going to upset anybody. But as soon as you use any real-world (or even thinly veiled from real world) elements in your cussing, you are risking other people’s feelings in the name of a drop of color for a not-real person, and that’s not cool.

With that said, here’s four d6 lists of:

Species-Based Insults

Androids
1. Piece of Synth
2. Circuitface
3. Custom-built slave labor
4. Milk-for-guts*
5. Rent-a-soul**
6. Digi-brain
*Assuming the android leaks white goo like the ones from Aline/Aliens do. This doesn’t have to be true, just a common cultural opinion.
**Based on dislike of the android renewal process

Shirren
1. Boneless wonder*
2. Spiderbait
3. Hiveless drone
4. Fangneck
5. Chitten-butt
6. Buffet-stuffer**
*Assuming they have exoskeletons
**A suggestion that the shirren is food, and belongs on a buffet.

Humans
1. Mindblind lashunta
2. Worldless
3. Breeder
4. Sweat factory
5. Clawless/toothless/tailless
6. Spunthole

Ysoki
1. Rat-tailed
2. Fleabag
3. Scavenger
4. Hairball
5. Plaguemouth
6. Junk-waffle

And then four 1d6 lists of:
Species-Specific Exclamations!

Androids
1. Slaver
2. Meatbags
3. Genebait
4. Glitching (or) Son-of-Glich
5. Sparks
6. Sagging (or) Wrinkled*
*Since androids don’t show signs of age.

Shirren
1. Swarming (or) Swarmed (or) Swarm-mind
2. Repetitive (or) Predictable (or) just Reps!
3. Thoughtless
4. Parasites!
5. Compound Stupid*
6. Webbing! (or) Webhole (or) Webtastic
*As in, stupid seen through a hundred compound eyes

Humans
1. Frudd
2. Godsdammerung
3. Lose it! (or) Lost!
4. Genejoke
5. Twist (or) Twist You (or) This is twisted!
6. Spunthole

Ysoki
1. Traps!
2. Fleabag
3. Itches (or) Itch-laden (or) Son-of-an-Itch!
4. Hairballs
5. Matted
6. Pinkies

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Falx for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game

Mar 12

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The falx is a weapon so powerful, it forced the Romans to make the only change to their armor (reinforced helmets) that was recorded as occurring specifically because of an enemy weapon. Used by the Dacians and Thracians, the falx was a curved blade sharpened on the inside edge. Contemporaneous accounts suggest it was made in both one-handed and two-handed versions, but the one-handed may also have been used in both hands at least sometimes. It seems to have come in both swordlike and polearm-like designs, and while its most powerful swing appears to have been a devastating overhand chop, it may also have been used to thrust. It seems related to the rhomphaia (as featured on a recent episode of the television show Forged in Fire), and went through many design evolutions. During much of the time it was a popular weapon, creating a long, sharp, strong blade required particularly skilled smiths, so the longer-bladed falx may have been weapons of prestige as well.

In short, it is exactly the kind of weapon rpg players love to argue about by finding specific references or illustrations that support one concept of what it looked like and how it was used, while ignoring others. And there’s just no need for that in an rpg setting. There’s room for lots of falx ideas to all be lumped together in one game mechanical weapon, the same way the pathfinder Roleplaying game combines numerous distinct weapon designs into the broad categories of shortsword” or “longsword.”

(Martial) Two-Handed Melee Weapons Name    Cost       Dmg (S) (M)        Crit         Weight  Type      Special

Falx        75 gp     1d4        1d6        19-20*, x4             8 lbs.     P or S     Disarm, trip

*See description

Falx: A falx is a two-handed martial weapon, but if Exotic Weapon Proficiency is taken with it, it can be wielded as a one-handed weapon. It is part of the axes, heavy blades, and polearms weapon groups. A falx is considered to have a threat range of “20” for the purposes of all abilities that increase threat ranges, but after making all such calculations its threat range is increased by 1. For example, a keen falx doubles its normal threat range of 20 to 19-20, then increases that threat range by 1 (to 18-20).

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Dare Feats in the Really Wild West (for Starfinder)

Mar 8

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The Really Wild West (a Weird West setting hack for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game) is all about daring heroes who face terrifying odds, survive on sheer grit and gumptions, and fight their way back from apparently impossible situations. Of course the heroes game mechanics of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game take care of a lot of that theme, but some heroes are just better at rising to the challenge when they should normally be on their last legs. To help players who want to build heroes who are the linchpin of avoiding disaster when all hope seems lost, the Really Wild West has Dare Feats.

Dare Feats

Dare feats only become active when you run out of Resolve Points, and go back to being inactive when you regain any Resolve Points. Each also has a method for restoring Resolve Points, which also causes the feat to be inactive (until and unless you run out of Resolve again).Dare feats don’t have prerequisites—they can be taken by any character from the plucky young librarian searching for a stolen tome in the rough frontier, to the grizzled veteran of the War of the Worlds who has seen too much horror to be shaken when things go south.

In addition to their listed effects, all characters with Dare feats gain a +1 bonus to saves against fear effects for each Dare feat they possess when they are out of Resolve Points.

Frantically Nimble (Dare)
When the chips are down, you gain a surge of evasiveness.
Benefit: While this dare is active, you gain a +1 bonus to AC. You regain 1 Resolve Point when you are attacked and missed in three consecutive rounds by a significant enemy (the attacks need not come from the same enemy) without being hit in any of those rounds.

Out for Blood (Dare)
You can fight like a cornered rat.
Benefit: While this dare is active, if your attack has a critical hit effect, your attack roll is a natural 19 (a “19” shows on the die), and you meet or exceed your target’s AC, your attack applies its critical hit effect (though it does not do double damage as a critical hit normally does). If you score a normal critical hit against a significant enemy, you regain one Resolve Point.

Run Like Hell (Dare)
When the going gets tough, you can really get going.
Benefit: While this dare is active, your speed increases by 10 feet, you are not flat-footed when taking the run action, and you can take the run action even through difficult terrain or when you can’t see where you are going. You regain 1 Resolve Point if a significant enemy takes an attack of opportunity provoked by you moving out of a threatening space, and the attack misses.

Vigilante Shooter (Dare)
You’ll jump through hell to turn the tides of a bas situation.
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Posted in Anachronistic Adventurers, Game Design, Starfinder Development

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Gizmos in Really Wild West (for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game)

Mar 7

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Gizmos
Since no one is expected to wear armor in the Really Wild West setting hack for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, “armor upgrades” aren’t really part of the setting. However, everything that functions as an armor upgrade in the core rules is still available- it just exists in the form of an advanced speculative principles device that builds off stellar alloys, theosophic imbuement techniques, compression gears, heat-ray crystal capacitors, vril, or some other weird science from ancient ruins, Martian wrecks, lost civilizations, or mad scientists.

These are commonly know as “gizmos.”

Gizmos are most common among people who operate on the fringes of society, be they adventurers, bandits, mad scientists, or peacekeepers who have to deal with all those other categories. Gizmos often have a very steampunk aesthetic, with bronze a common material (thanks to its theosophic and anti-corrosion properties), leather straps, buckles, and some nice detail work.

Anyone can use a single gizmo, but it takes skill to use more than one gizmo at a time, or to even have more than one rigged properly to be used simultaneously. You can have ready (and in use at one time) one gizmo, plus one for every kind of armor you are proficient with (the main use of armor proficiency in Really Wild West), plus one additional gizmo per 3 character levels. Armor upgrades that take two armor upgrade slots count as two gizmos for this limit once translated into the RWW. Rigging up a gizmo for use, or putting one way, takes 6 rounds.

Here are the Really Wild West gizmo names and descriptions for Starfinder Roleplaying Game armor upgrades. Each gizmo functions the same way as the armor upgrade it is modeled after (listed in parenthesis), except as noted in each description below.

RealWildWest-Equipment001-color-01

Aetheric Shields (Force Fields)
Aetheric shields are tiny aetheric generators retooled to work in reverse—rather than taking aetheric currents from the ethereal plane and turning them into electricity, they take electricity and turn them into an aetheric flow that surrounds and (modestly) protects the wearer. The power crystal of an aetheric shield turns the color of the force field it emulates.

Amazing Martian Fighting Shield (titan shield)
This is just one example of the names people use when they take a plate of stellar alloy from a Martian fighting machine, and add straps, and turn it into a shield. It’s big and heavy, so if you use it, you can’t do anything else with that arm.

Babbage Scope (targeting computer)
A Babbage scope takes readings through numerous small lenses, tracks information through a small built-in brass Babbage analytical engine, and predicts where partially concealed targets most likely are.

Crystal Goggles (Infrared Sensors)
The same crystal technology that makes Martian heat rays possible can be turned into red-lenses goggles, that allow you to see heat. Among the most common of gizmos, since you can make several from a smashed Trip’s heat rays.

DaVinci Wings (Jetpacks)
It turns out with energized cavorite (an antigravity metal that can have its gravity- neutralizing properties boosted with an electrical current) and compression gears, some of DaVinci’s designs for powered flight can function.

Dragonhide Duster (thermal capacitor)
While killing true dragons is rarely both practical and moral, drakes and other draconic creatures can be a serious threat in the frontier, and once slain their hides easily take to theosophic infusion to become clothing that stays warm, but never gets hot.

Doctor Cavor’s Resplendent Repellent Field (deflective reinforcement)
Dr. Cavor, the woman who created Cavorite and who has had the most success with Martial technology involving stellar alloys, has built just a few of these prototype devices, that normally take the form of a large metal gauntlet with several crystals and dials. It can push anything away, rather than just alter gravity as most Cavorite devices do.

Float Pack (force pack)
Though it is extremely rare for one of the few Martian flying machines to have one of it’s floater units removed while still functional, when that task is accomplished, a spectacular backpack-style device that allows amazing flight can be crafted from it.

Gas Mask (filtered rebreather)
The threat of Martian Black Smoke forced every nation of the Earth to seek better ways to protect against airborne poisons. Since Really Wild West doesn’t use armor like the core rules do, this gas mask can be considered to work for 5 weeks (though you can break that down into 35 periods of 24 1-hour increments), and then need significant cleaning and refurbishment (costing 10 credits per hour restored). It only applies to inhaled diseases and poisons, though the same cost could be applied to a Diving Helmet and Suit.

Gun Carriage (Automated Loader)
Of use only to wearers of Iron Soldier suits or Tripods (powered armor), a gun carriage is a system of complex clockwork systems that can eject casings and ammo belts, and reload new ones.

Huckster’s Sheath (quick-release sheath)
A spring-loaded sheath designed to be kept up the sleeve, and often considered a sign of low moral character.

Hush Coat (sonic dampener)
This short, leather jacket has gear-shaped metal studs arranged unevenly along its surface, and a dial control at the wrist. It uses a small aetheric generator and retuned Martian heat-ray crystals to creates sounds that perfectly muffle sounds made by the wearer.

Iron Hercules (load lifter)
The Iron Hercules ™ is a compressed air pistol-driven exoframe powered by an aetheric generator to increase your carrying capacity. Also called a “pocket mule” when built and sold by dastards who don’t have the right to the patent.

Jack’s Spring-Heels (jump jets)
Compressed pneumatic pistols running along the calf (and anchored to protective knee braces) drive down, sending you up (or forward). One of the most popular gizmos first designed by Professor “Gentleman Jack” Jersey.

Leyden Gears (backup generator)
These reverse-engineered compression gears are strapped to the arms or legs (or both), and turn your movement into electricity to recharge a battery. It can be connected to a battery belt.

Radium Belt (radiation buffer)
Designed from devices created by Mdm Curie, radium belts protect you from the “poison metals” called radioactive by learned types.

Storm Grommets (electrostatic field)
Storm grommets are small metal rings that can be attached on outwear, with each grommet connected by a high-conductivity wire to a capacitor battery, allowing you to both absorb electrical damage and create an electrical field that shocks anyone that touches you.

Temporal Adjustor (haste circuit)
Only pocket-watches created by famed punctualist Phileas Fogg are capable to being imbued theosophically with the concept of “saving time” that is so powerful, it actually allows the user to temporarily slow all the rest of the universe.

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