Re: [HOE] Junker Powers

["Kai Tave" <kaitave@harborside.com>]

I have the two that a
>friend and I made, Irradiate and Lifesupport, but I can't find the
>others like Transform and another someone made for elixir like stuff I
>believe. Any help would be appreciated.


Here are mine, posted...over a year ago I think.

Booster

Associated Spirits: Computer, Tool
TN: 7
Components:
 Chemical: None
 Electronic: 15%
 Mechanical: 20%
 Structural: None
Drain: Number of Steps raised/minute (per round for cybernetics)

While lots of junkers like to let their machines do all the work, some
techno-shamans like to take a more ?hands-on? approach.  Booster allows
junkers to create devices that augment the physical abilities of their user
beyond that of a normal human.  If the junker happens to know the
biomechanics power, he can use it to make cybernetic implants that can
supercharge someone?s body.
Unlike powers such as agility, reflexes, or super strength, booster
increases Traits by Steps rather than setting the Trait at a flat rate.  A
brainer with a Strength of 2d6 might benefit from a super strength-built
device with d10?s in Strength, but the waster with 3d12 Strength doesn?t see
any improvement.  A device that raises the user?s Strength by 2 Steps,
however, benefits anyone who uses it.  Unlike super strength however,
booster can?t be used in unmanned devices; anything powered by booster has
to have a human operator to augment.  Because of this, most gadgets made
with booster usually take the form of wearable objects, like suits of
powered armor or performance-enhancing exoskeletons.

Pumping Up
Booster can be used to augment four physical Traits: Strength, Quickness,
Deftness, and Nimbleness.  Any Trait modified in this way augments anything
associated with that Trait as well.  For example, enhancing your Nimbleness
will increase your Pace and all Nimbleness-related skills accordingly.  This
power can only increase the die type of a Trait, not the Coordination.
Each Step a Trait is raised requires 10% of the frame?s slots.  Each Trait
can only be increased by a maximum of five Steps.  After that, you?ve pretty
much reached the limit of how far the human body can be augmented; any
further, and you might as well just let the machine do all the work itself.
The total Drain for this power is equal to the number of raised Steps per
minute.

Going to Pieces
 Physical augmentation is a double-edged sword.  If used improperly, your
newly enhanced body can tear itself apart.  If your right arm is powerful
enough to lift a car, but the rest of your body isn?t, problems can arise.
 Normally, devices built with booster are designed to encompass the user?s
entire body, with the exception of the head (unless it?s imperative that
your brainer has a bite of steel).  Partial devices can be built, but the
body becomes unbalanced.  Each Step of difference between the boosted
Deftness or Nimbleness of the device and the rest of the body?s Deftness or
Nimbleness causes a -2 penalty to the user?s Quickness.  Each Step of
difference between the boosted Strength or Quickness and the rest of the
body?s Strength or Quickness causes 1d6 Massive Damage each time the
operator uses his enhanced Trait.  Also, boosted Quickness can only be used
for drawing Action Cards if the user?s entire body is augmented.  If your
arm is lightning fast, but the rest of your body is slower than toxic sludge
in winter, you probably won?t be getting the drop on anyone.

?We can rebuild him??
 If your junker also knows the biomechanics power, he can use booster to
create performance enhancing cybernetic implants.  Everything is handled
exactly the same, with two minor differences.
 First, the enterprising junker now has the ability to reinforce the body
against stresses caused by unbalanced augmentation.  This internal
reinforcement takes up 5% of the frame?s slots for each location enhanced in
such a manner, and prevents penalties caused by using partial enhancement
(again, you can ignore the head).  Everything else works just as previously
described.
 Finally, because the comparatively small cybernetic implants have to put
out the same level of performance as their larger counterparts, any implants
made with booster have a Drain equal to the number of increased Steps per
round.

***

Chem

Associated Spirits: Tool
TN: 9
Required Components:
 Chemical: 50%
 Electronic: None
 Mechanical: None
 Structural: None
Drain: None

 From high-carbon steel to ultra-lightweight polymers to WD-40, chemistry is
as important to technology as any other science.  Chem allows your junker to
whip up all manner of chemical compounds, from simple household cleaners to
tailored drugs.  All it takes is a few simple steps, and your waster can
begin enjoying a better life through chemistry.

Puttin? Things Together

 Before you get started, be aware that chem works slightly differently than
most other junker powers.  When putting a chemical formula together, the
total slot size you get is the cost for one helping of the chemical.  Note
that this slot size doesn?t represent physical size, but the complexity of
the formula.  Chemicals can be made in batches like bullets; just multiply
the slot cost by the desired amount of doses, then find the minimum Frame
size that the batch?s slot size fits in.  This is the batch?s Frame size.
Add this to the chem TN to determine the Target Number for that batch of
chemicals.  The structural components required for each Frame are used to
construct a distillery.  These distilleries can be reused to make additional
batches of chemicals as long as the batch to be made isn?t any larger than
the original batch.  Note that Instability applies to the entire batch of
chemicals created.  If one dose of the chemical becomes unstable, so does
the entire batch.

Basic Chemistry

 The first thing chem can be used for is creating basic household chemical
products.  These include cleaning products, dyes, adhesives, lubricants,
insecticides, and so on.  These are fairly simple to create, and have a slot
cost of 4 slots per four ounces of product created.

The Good Stuff

 Chem can also be used to create a variety of performance-enhancing drugs.
These drugs can pump up a brainer?s mind and body, but they can also have
dangerous side effects.  Some less-than-scrupulous junkers make a living out
of creating and selling these concoctions.
 To create a drug, you have to choose that drug?s characteristics from the
lists below.  Each characteristic can be taken multiple times, up to a
maximum of three times per characteristic.

Strength, Quickness, Deftness:
  +2 Bonus:     0.3 slots/level
  +1 Step:     0.5 slots/level

Cognition, Knowledge, Smarts:
  +2 Bonus:     0.5 slots/level
  +1 Step:     0.7 slots/level

Wound penalties:
  Ignore one level of wound penalties:  0.3 slots/level

Next, you need to determine the delivery method, onset time, and duration of
the drug.  Onset time is linked to the delivery method; taking the drug in
an ingested form increases the onset time as the chemical has to make its
way through your body, while injecting the drug directly into your
bloodstream works much faster.  Injectors that hold a single dose of any
drug can be made for one structural and one mechanical component.  Larger
auto-injector systems can also be built into other devices.  These cost one
slot and one structural component for each dose of the drug to be stored,
plus two slots and two mechanical components for the delivery system and
switch.  The duration is simply how long the drug?s effects last in minutes.
All drugs must have a duration of at least one minute.

Delivery method:
  Ingestion (2d6 minutes):    0.1 slots
  Ingestion (1d6 minutes):    0.5 slots
  Injection: (2 rounds):    1 slot
  Injection: (1 round):    3 slots

Duration:
Per minute:     0.5 slots

Now that you?ve got all that stuff figured out, you have to see how
addictive your formula is.  All performance-enhancing drugs made with chem
are addictive to some degree, either physiologically or psychologically.
Corners can be cut, and drugs can be made cheaply and quickly, but such
creations tend to be highly addictive.  The side effects of such drugs can
be lessened, but doing so requires extra care and refining.
Each drug has an Addiction code comprised of two parts: a Target Number and
a severity.  Each time a waster takes a dose of the drug in question he has
to make a Spirit check against the Addiction TN of the drug.  If he fails,
he develops a hankerin? for the drug.  The severity of the Addiction
indicates just how bad the hankerin? is.  This acts just like a normal
hindrance, and can be bought off with Bounty Points just like normal.

Target Number:
  Foolproof (3):     1.5 slots
  Fair (5):     1 slot
  Onerous (7):     0.7 slots
  Hard (9):     0.5 slots
  Incredible (11):     0.3 slots

Severity:
  Mild:      1 slot
  Severe:      0.5 slots

 Take all the slot costs for each part of the drug, add them together, and
you have the slot cost for one complete dose of the drug.

The Silent Killer

 Now that we?ve made chemicals that help folks, let?s talk about chemicals
that harm folks instead.  Chem can be used to create various kinds of
poisons, from slow, lingering toxins to instant killers.  To create a
poison, you need to first determine how deadly it is.  Use the tables for
the ammo power to determine the potency of your formula, then use the slot
cost for that damage level as the base slot cost for the poison.  From
there, simply determine the delivery method, onset time, and duration.
Poisons do their damage at the beginning of each minute of their duration.
The victim must roll a Vigor roll against the poison?s damage level.  If he
fails, he takes the difference in damage to his guts.
 The junker can also create paralytic toxins that incapacitate rather than
kill.  These poisons have a maximum damage type of d6, and only do Wind
damage.  If the target is reduced to 0 Wind, then he is completely
paralyzed, except for simple things like blinking and breathing.  Even if
the target isn?t completely paralyzed, he suffers a -2 penalty to his
Nimbleness, Quickness, and Pace until the effects wear off.  Wind lost in
this manner returns at a rate of one point every 10 minutes.
 If your junker also knows the ammo power, he can manufacture injector
rounds that can be fitted into most firearms.  To do this, he has to choose
what size round he?s making, then add an extra 10% structural and 20%
mechanical components when making the ammo.  Regardless of size, injector
rounds only have damage levels of d4.  Each injector round holds a single
dose of any chemical.

Stan the Junkman wants to make some injector rounds for his trusty 10mm
pistol.  A normal 10mm round does 3d6 damage, so Stan figures each round?s
size to be 0.6 slots.  However, each round only does 3d4 damage.  Stan makes
a batch of 20 10mm rounds, which costs him 2 chemical components, 3
mechanical components, and 3 structural components.

 In order for the chemical to be injected, an injector round must cause at
least one wound to the target.  Injector rounds are stopped cold by anything
heavier than light armor.  Injector rounds may not be made armor-piercing or
anti-personnel.

Take two of these, and call me in the morning

 If your junker knows the healing power, he can use chem to create chemicals
that bolster the body?s defenses against toxins or disease.
 These drugs boost the Vigor of the patient in an attempt to combat the
affliction.  First, choose how powerful the medicine is.  A +2 bonus costs 3
slots a level, while a +1 Step bonus costs 5 slots a level.  Then, choose a
delivery method and onset time, but not a duration.  The duration depends on
what kind of medicine it is.
 Antitoxins immediately cause a contest between the poison and the boosted
Vigor of the patient.  If the patient wins, the toxin is neutralized.  If
the poison overpowers the antitoxin, the antitoxin was ineffective and the
patient takes the difference in damage to his guts.
 Antibiotics last 24 hours per dose.  They help the patient fight of
diseases and infections, and add to his Vigor for those ailments only.
However, the same drugs that strengthen your immune system can ravage the
rest of your body.  Every 24 hours someone is on antibiotics, they need to
roll an unmodified Vigor roll against a TN of 5.  If they fail, they suffer
a -2 to all their physical attributes for the next 24 hours.

***

Filter

Associated Spirits: Tool, Appliance
TN: 5
Required Components:
 Chemical: 10%
 Electronic: 10%
 Mechanical: None
 Structural: 10%
Drain: Special/hour

 Irradiated ruins, toxic sludge, corrosive rain, leftover biowarfare
agents?the world left in the wake of the Last War isn?t a very friendly
place.  Junkers with the filter power can make surviving these hazards just
a little bit easier.
 Filter allows your junker to create devices that block, screen, or
neutralize hazardous substances and effects such as radiation or toxins.
The slot costs and Drain of these systems depend on what kind of hazard you?
re trying to protect against.

NBC

 Filter can be used to create hostile environment protection gear, or make
additions to other devices, in the form of nuclear, biological, or chemical
hazard screening systems.  These systems protect the user against the
various types of hazards encountered in the wastes.
  Radiation screening takes up 20% of the Frame?s slots.  The device must
encompass the user?s entire body for it to be effective.  This kind of
radiation protection is enough to keep out the harmful background radiation
that your waster might encounter when tromping around the remains of
bombed-out cities, but high concentrations of supernatural radiation, such
as Doomsayer miracles, remain unhindered.  Radiation protection has no
Drain.
 Chemical and biological toxin filtration systems can also be constructed.
These take up 15% of the Frame?s slots and protect the user against gasses
and inhaled airborne toxins.  For an additional 5% of the Frame?s slots, the
device can be completely sealed, protecting the user from all types of
chemical or biological hazards.  Fully sealed devices must also encompass
the entire user.  These systems have a Drain of 3 per hour per person.

I?ll drink to that

 Finally, filter can be used to create water purification systems to screen
out harmful chemicals and impurities.  The Drain and size of a purification
system depends on how much potable water needs to be produced per hour; use
the table below to figure things out.  Water purification systems use up 50%
of the slots available for their Frame size.

Output  Frame  Drain
One quart     2      1
Two quarts     3      2
One gallon     4      4
Two gallons     5		    8
Five gallons	    6		   16

***

Enjoy.

--Kai Tave