[UA] Mechanomancy Variant, or a Whole 'Nuther School? YOU Decide!

[RFD]

On Thu, 2005-02-17 at 15:30 -0600, Unknown VariableX wrote:
> This thing has been sitting on my desktop for a month and a half... mocking 
> me... smirking with its .txt extension! Well no more!
> 
> ...er... sorry. Lost control.
> 
> DIYmancy
> 
[really cool idea removed for space]

I think the charging structure is too much like Mechanomancy. This
school isn't about the past, as I read it, it's about possibilities and
the potential of the future. Here's an alternative:

Minor: take a 'bad hunch'... roll the dice, flip-flop negatively and for
the next Major skill check, you have to use that.

Sig: Destroy some future element of your own life. This could be
amputation of a finger, alienating a family member, true love or
lifelong friend. And you have to REALLY do it, and accept the multiple
and severe stress checks.

Major: Personally kaibosh something of someone else's that would change
the world... again this has to be something spectacular. Stopping the
Wright brothers wouldn't do it. Think more along the Hindenberg lines
where it killed airships.

This needs tuning, but I think it's about right.

Now... I think this might actually be better as, combining some stuff
from the replies, Avatar: The Tinker.

The world is full of machines, and none of them work like they should...
like you can make them. Every object is sub-optimal in some way: too
slow, too heavy, too fragile, only works for left-handed people, is too
complex, can't be easily carried. You are one of the few who have the
insight and vision, the skills to make the world better one can opener
at a time.

Taboos: You can't use anything without tweaking it first. Even that fork
needs to have it's tines bent into the right shape, that gun needs a
custom grip or improved aperture sights. Moreover, any item that is in
your charge requires that you personally maintain and tune it at least
once a week. This is also required for continued operation of any
channels used on an item.

Symbols: Tool chest, jumpsuit or similar technician's uniform, dirty
hands, a workshop.

Masks: The Computer Wiz, the hot-rodder, the friendly mechanic.

1-50 Seems to work fine: Simply by examining a malfunctioning device
(the malfunction can't be visible or have a clear cause) and making an
A:TT roll, you can fix it. For more obvious faults (steam escaping from
car, for example) minor repairs will also work as above.
Jerry Rig: Need to make it 30 miles to the next town when your car
breaks? No problem! Get there and try to drive annother 100 yards? Car
catches fire. You can rig a device to function at minimum efficiency to
accomplish one urgent task, after which the orginal fault will have to
be fixed. Pushing beyond that incurrs a disasterous failure that
basically junks the device.
51-70 You can build it. Any extant technological item can be built from
parts. You can improve it: If you work to maintain and improve an extant
machine, it will operate at the peak possible performance.
71-90 You can do better: Your creations are not just the best of the
best, they actually perform outside the envelope. This ONLY works for
things you personally work on and maintain.
91+ Supernatural performance: Anything that is theoretically possible
can be done by a machine of your design and construction. The downside
is that these things don't work unless you are personally operating and
tweaking them.

Anyway, that's where my own mind went...
I tried to think of all the inexplicable things that seems to happen
around talented techies and the myths about them... and the fact that
the moment they are promoted to management (and no longer touch the
things they are responsible for) those abilities vanish.

Now, since you are doing this for fiction and not an actual game, go
with yoru idea as you know the needs of your narrative better than I
could :)

For a name... Technimancy? I know it's done to death...