Type Of Booby Trap Modifier
Simple -0 Average -1 Complex -2 Very Complex -4 Extremely Complex -6 Devilishly Complex -8
the bomb’s damage by +1 Damage Class, the radius of the explosion by +1”, or the like.
Disarming Explosive Devices
A failure when disarming an explosive device usually worries a character more than one when setting it, since that’s more likely to result in a big ka-boom that separates a character’s component parts in a swift and bloody fashion.
If the character’s trying to find out if there’s a booby trap on a bomb, failure by 1-3 means he doesn’t spot one (if it exists) or can’t be sure there isn’t one (if one does exist). A bad failure (by 4 or more) means he’s convinced there’s one when there isn’t, or that there isn’t one when there is.
When the character’s actually trying to disarm a bomb, failure by 1-3 means he can’t do it — the bomb remains primed and ready to explode. He can try again subject to the usual rules for repeated Skill attempts. A bad failure (by 4 or more) usually means the feared result of causing the bomb to go off right then and there. If the GM prefers not to subject characters to that cruel fate, a bad failure can have some negative consequence that makes a second roll to disarm harder. For example, the timer on the bomb might suddenly go into fast-for- ward mode (reducing the 30 minutes the character had to do the work to, say, one minute) or the char- acter might “jiggle” the booby trap, making it even more sensitive (and thus increasing the penalty for the next roll to disarm the bomb).
BASE TIMES
Demolitions tends to be time-consuming, painstaking work. For creating an explosive device from scratch, the Base Time is 1 Hour, though building a truly complex bomb may take much longer. Setting an explosive device and triggering it usually requires at least 1 Turn, if not more time; the complexity of the device and the task determine the Base Time. For example, preparing a building for demolition and rigging the explosives in the right order throughout the structure can take weeks or months even though the actual act of triggering the resulting explo- sion requires just the press of a button.
Examining a bomb to determine if it has a booby trap requires a Full Phase Action. Disarm- ing a bomb usually has a minimum Base Time of 1 Turn. At the GM’s option, that Base Time applies only to a Simple booby trapped-device; it increases by a minimum of +1 Turn for each step down the Booby Trap Table from “Simple.”
SUBDIVIDING DEMOLITIONS
If desired, you can subdivide Demolitions into two distinct Intellect Skills, Setting Explosives and
Disarming Explosives. In some ways this actually
mirrors real-world experience nicely, since person- nel trained to set up explosives and trigger them aren’t necessarily trained in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), which is what bomb squads know how to do.
DEMOLITIONS BY GENRE
Demolitions has no applicability in pre-gun- powder societies, such as most Fantasy games. Primitive gunpowder is described in Chinese texts as early as circa 850 AD, though the Chi- nese didn’t necessarily use it for weapons at first, but for firecrackers and the like. In 1044 Ceng Gongliang published three recipes for gunpow- der. By the early 1200s the Chinese used bombs that relied on shrapnel; earlier attempts at explo- sive weaponry depended mainly on the loud noise for effect. A few decades later Roger Bacon became the first European to describe gunpow- der in writing, though his work wasn’t published until 1733; a Syrian text describing it appeared in 1280, and there’s Japanese artwork showing a bomb exploding that dates from 1292.
The first modern explosive, dynamite, was patented by Alfred Nobel in 1867 in Britain and in 1868 in the United States; it derived from his work with nitroglycerin beginning in the early 1860s. (Nitroglycerin itself was invented by Ascanio Sobrero in 1846.) In 1876 he patented blasting gelatin. The related explosive TNT was invented in 1863 by J. Wilbrand. The earliest plastic explosives predate World War II, and during and shortly after that war many others (including C4) were devel- oped. Semtex, a form of plastic explosive popular with criminals and terrorists, was invented in 1966 in Czechoslovakia.
Future developments in explosives, such as might be found in Cyberpunk or Science Fiction campaigns, could further increase the effective- ness and safety of working with them. For exam- ple, in a Star Hero campaign characters might have access to lightweight and massively power- ful antimatter explosives that contain antimatter in a magnetic bubble, then trigger an explosion by shutting off the bubble and letting antimatter and matter come into contact.
Fantasy
In games set in the early gunpowder era, this Skill is often renamed Sapper, to highlight the Skill’s primary use (in siege warfare) or Gunsmith (in con- junction with the appropriate Weaponsmith Skill).
DISGUISE
Type: Intellect Skill (roll: 9 + (INT/5) or less) Cost: 3 Character Points for a base roll, +1 to the
roll per +2 Character Points
This Intellect Skill allows a character to change his appearance with makeup, costumes, body language, facial expression, and the like. He knows about the different types of makeup and other equipment used to create disguises, how to apply/use/remove them, and so on. The character knows something of the history of the art of disguise, including who’s who both historically and currently in the world of changing one’s appearance.
Disguise alone isn’t enough to pull off a perfect impersonation — all it does is let a character make himself look like someone else. To act like someone else requires Acting; imitating someone else’s voice requires Mimicry. All sorts of Skills, including AKs and PSs, may be Complementary to Disguise if they provide the character with information about a person he’s trying to impersonate. Cramming can be helpful in this regard; it lets a character “study up” on someone extensively and take a KS specifi- cally about him so he can more easily pass himself off as that person. Forgery (Documents) helps a character create a fake “paper trail” to support his false identity.
USING DISGUISE
The primary uses of Disguise include chang- ing a character’s appearance, making a character look like a specific other person, creating fake injuries, hiding Distinctive Features, changing clothes quickly, and improving Comeliness. The character can apply disguises either to himself or to other characters.
Altering Appearance
First and foremost, characters use Disguise to alter their appearance. Typically they want to make themselves look different so they can hide from someone or something, avoid drawing attention to themselves, or the like. In this case, the disguise doesn’t have to look like anyone in particular; it may involve only a few cosmetic changes (the addi- tion of a fake scar or glasses, altering hair color), but it could be a complete makeover. In other cases the character doesn’t want to look like any specific person, but like a “generic” member of a particular group — a cop, an orc, an Imperial Star Marines sergeant. In that case the disguise often requires more effort; the character has to make sure his clothing, mannerisms, haircut, and the like conform to those of the group. This involves research and preparation that aren’t necessarily required for just changing one’s appearance.
“Realistically” it’s often harder for a person to apply a disguise, particularly an elaborate one, to himself than to put it on another person. (In some cases a character might even need to have Contortionist to do things like apply skin dye or stippling to his own back.) In “realistic” cam- paigns the GM may rule that a character putting a disguise on himself cannot use a roll higher
than 13- no matter what his Skill Roll normally is or what modifiers apply. In cinematic campaigns none of this is a concern.
A character can also use Disguise to remove elaborate disguises without damaging them so the pieces can be re-used again. (People without Dis- guise just have to rip them off, ruining them.) This requires one-fourth the Base Time as applying the disguise and a Disguise roll. If the roll succeeds, the “parts” of the disguise are in good enough condi- tion to use again (perhaps with a bit of touch-up); if it fails, they’re ruined.
Impersonating People
The most difficult task performed with Disguise is to make a person look like another specific person. This is the height of the dis- guise artist’s art, and thus more likely to expose him to discovery if he’s not careful. Doing this involves a minimum -1 to -3 penalty (and often more) that the GM determines by assessing sev- eral factors. First, how closely do the character being disguised and the person being imitated resemble each other? The Disguise Modifiers table accounts for things like gender, size, spe- cies, and the like; these are in addition to the “impersonate a specific person” penalty. What the GM should consider here are more specific aspects of appearance, such as build, hair and eye color, facial structure, and the like. Second, how well does the observer know the person being imitated? Fooling an observer who knows the
subject well is very difficult, but someone who doesn’t know him may not be much harder to deceive than with a general disguise.
False Injuries
Creating a realistic-looking false injury, typi- cally for use in combat medic training, movie spe- cial effects, and the like, is somtimes referred to as
moulage. In game terms, a fake injury may allow
a character to trick an opponent into getting close enough for the character to make a sneak attack, bolster a standard disguise, and so on.
Concealing Distinctive Features
A character can use Disguise to change or conceal many types of Distinctive Features (such as scars). If so, the Feature usually qualifies as “Concealable With Effort.” The GM determines what Distinctive Features the Skill can affect, and to what extent.
Quick Clothing Changes
Disguise allows a character to change his clothes rapidly (this assumes he has something to change into, but most characters with Dis- guise prepare for such eventualities). Typically this takes 1 Turn; changing clothes in 1 Phase imposes the standard -3 penalty for performing Skills more quickly than normal. If the clothing being changed into or out of is elaborate, there’s a -1 to -2 penalty; if it’s extremely elaborate, the penalty rises to -3 or more.
Increasing Comeliness
Part of Disguise involves applying makeup and knowing how to present a particular appearance, and sometimes that involves making a character look better. (In fact, that’s often the entire point of putting on makeup.) A character with Disguise can use it specifically to improve his Comeliness as long as his makeup remains unmarred. If he makes the roll by 1-3, he can add +1 COM; if he makes it by 4 or more he can add +2 COM. Once his makeup is removed (either on purpose or not) the COM bonus fades.
Manufacturing Disguise Materials
Characters with Disguise know how to make various items used as parts of disguises, such as wigs, fake scars, fake wounds, and the like. (This does not include animatronic pieces; that requires Electronics, with Disguise as a Complementary Skill.) Sometimes this is simply and quickly done (such as making a fake moustache out of crepe hair) but doesn’t always look so good (and thus imposes penalties on the Disguise roll to change appearance). At other times it can take many days (such as making the same moustache with real hair attached to lace) but looks much more realistic (and can be reused more).
Creating a disguise item requires a Disguise roll with a Base Time listed in the Disguise Times table. (For longer tasks, characters usually break them up over time, putting in a few hours or days here and there until the work’s done.) If the roll succeeds, the character has the item in question. If it fails he does not; if it fails badly, he thinks he’s created a proper item when in fact it’s obviously fake to anyone else.
To a limited extent, Disguise also allows a character to sew, equivalent to having PS: Sewing 8-. More skilled disguise artists buy PS: Sewing as a separate Skill.
SENSES
Disguise typically changes a character’s appear- ance — in other words, how he’s perceived by the Sight Group Senses. Changing a character’s voice (how he sounds) requires the Mimicry Skill (see later in this chapter), not Disguise. How a character smells can be changed with Disguise at a -2 modifier. How a character feels to the touch can be changed with Disguise, though this may require elaborate full-body makeup and prosthetics that take hours to apply. Dis- guise cannot change how a character tastes if some- thing decides to eat him, nor can it change how he’s perceived by Radio or Mental Group Senses.