Support weapons act in a similar fashion to vehicles, having a set number of crew members to properly operate the weapon. As long as the support weapon has a full complement, it operates as normal. Once the crew has been reduced to half or less, the support weapon loses its ability to perform sustained actions, any reload require-ments are increased by 1, and any ability to move (if the support weapon can be moved) is reduced by 1. Each additional crew member missing below half the required number increases reload times by 1 and reduces any move associated with the support weapon by 1.
A crew member who dedicates no actions to the support weapon during any particular round is treated as missing.
Therefore, if one crew member is seriously injured, and a second decides to use his actions to perform medic on his wounded battle buddy, the support weapon would be treated as if it were missing two crew members until they return their focus on the weapon. This includes crew
members who are too far away (generally 2 to 3 meters or more) from the weapon, or who are engaged in close combat or actively engaging in long-ranged combat with more than one action. Essentially, serving as an active member of the crew requires at least one action be spent on crewing the weapon even if no specific action is declared.
If the support weapon has reload, at least one crew member must perform this action. Additional crew mem-bers may assist in the reload at the cost of other actions to reduce the reload cost by a maximum of 1. If the weapon has recharge, no additional help will reduce the time required. If the support weapon crew is reduced to a point where the weapon is suffering reload penalties, the extra crew cannot be used to reduce reload times.
ENHANCEMENTS
ADDITIONAL USES
Type: Gadget (this can only be used on Gadgets created by characters using the Gizmoteer Special Ability).
Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank permits the Gadget to be used in one addi-tional scene after it is created.
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Chapter 6: GEAR & EQUIPMENT
AUTOMATED USE Type: All
Rank Cost: 5
The gizmo can be used without a character controlling it. When this happens, the dice pool used for all actions concerning the gizmo is equal to twice the Rank of this enhancement (the enhancement Rank serves as both the Characteristic Rank and the Skill Rank).
CHARACTERISTIC BONUS Type: Character
Rank Cost: 5
The gizmo increases a character’s characteristic by 1.
DAMAGE Type: All Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank in Damage gives the item 1 point to put into damage against one type of target (Infantry, Vehicle, or Aircraft). The attack already starts with Damage 0. If the item has more than one type of target it can hurt, the highest value costs 1 per Rank while the other values cost .5 points each.
DAMAGE BONUS Type: Weapon Rank Cost: 1
The weapon has one damage category increased by 1.
Damage is used for building new weapons. Damage bonus is used to alter existing weapons or to later upgrade a gizmo to have a higher damage.
DAMAGE SPECIAL Type: Weapon Rank Cost: 1
The weapon’s Damage Special abilities are improved.
Each Rank permits the damage to be treated as one of the following: Spray, Laser, Phaser, Mental, Spiritual, Fear, or Autofire. If you select Mental, then the initial Rank only changes the damage type. If you take a second Rank and select them a second time, then it adds the second category of damage (so it can cause Mental and Physical damage for example; see multiple damage attacks).
DURABLE
Type: Character or Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank increases the item’s Armour Grade by 1 or Capacity by 2. If applied to a character scale gizmo, the gizmo is limited to 3 Ranks in this enhancement. All items begin as Armour Grade 1.
FAST Type: Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
Fast lets a vehicle double its speed for one round.
Additional Ranks only prolong the duration of the double movement and do not increase the actual speed any further. While using Fast, the vehicle may perform no other actions (just a double move action). This includes passengers or crew trying to use weapons.
INCREASED CARRY CAPACITY Type: Vehicle
Rank Cost: .5
Each Rank permits the vehicle to carry 1 passenger.
Double this number if they are considered Tank Riders instead of passengers (see Vehicle Combat).
IMPROVED HANDLING Type: Vehicle
Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank provides an equipment bonus of 1 combat die to all piloting/driving rolls involving the vehicle. These bonuses cannot exceed the pilot’s skill Rank.
MOVEMENT
Type: Character or Vehicle Rank Cost: .5
Each Rank provides the gizmo with 2 in Movement (Character) or 1 in Movement (Vehicle). Once a vehicle reaches Movement 12, each Rank provides +2 movement instead of +1.
RANGE BONUS Type: Weapon Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank improves the weapon’s base range by 2 meters or 10% (whichever is greater).
SENSORS (GOOD) Type: Character or Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank provides a +1 to the character’s dice pool for the use of Awareness (Sensors).
SKILL BONUS Type: Character Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank provides a +1 to the character’s dice pool for the use of one skill.
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SPECIAL DEFENCES Type: Character or Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank applies a -1 Difficulty for either one type (type refers to attack types, such as fire, laser, tesla, etc.) against the item or -1 against all attacks for one round.. Each additional Rank increases the penalty and the number of rounds the protection is good for. Additional Ranks also allow for protection against extra attack types. In this way, you can build resistance to various attack types over a longer duration of rounds.
SPECIAL POWER Type: Character or Vehicle Rank Cost: 3
Each Rank provides 1 Rank in a Special Power (see Special Powers).
SPECIAL SENSORS Type: Character or Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank provides a +2 to the character’s dice pool for the use of one Awareness Advanced Skill (may include such things as radar, sonar, infrared, or night vision such as that provided by the Axis Vampyre Scope).
STREAMLINED CREW Type: Vehicle
Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank reduces the vehicle’s base crew requirement by 1. It cannot be reduced below 1.
STRENGTH
Type: Vehicle or Character Rank Cost: .5
Each Rank gives the gizmo the equivalent Physique for a single purpose (such as lifting or carrying).
VEHICLE SIZE Type: Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank for a walker increases its size by 1 category and, in turn, doubles any Strength Ranks the vehicle may have for the purposes of carrying cargo and crew. 1 Rank is light, 2 is medium, 3 is heavy, and 4 is super heavy.
FLAWS
ACTIVATION Type: All Rank Cost: 1
The item is extremely complicated to use and requires a single action to activate it. Once activated, it may be used for the entire encounter. The Difficulty of the Activation is equal to the Rank of the Flaw. The appropriate skill used is Knowledge (Item) with the item being specified as the Advanced Skill. The Flaw may be increased by 1 Rank if an action is required to activate it each round.
BULKY Type: All Rank Cost: 1
The item is extremely large and clumsy. It suffers a penalty of 1 per Rank for purposes of concealment, camouflage, stealth, piloting rolls, and other actions based on the GM’s final decision. Bulky weapons suffer the penalty to initiative as well. Bulky items cannot be used in reactions other than Hit the Dirt. Gizmos with 3 or more Ranks in Bulky cannot Hit the Dirt. As a side effect, every 2 Ranks improve the item’s Capacity by 1.
CREW Type: Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank requires 1 additional crew member to operate the gizmo without penalty.
FATIGUING Type: All Rank Cost: 1
Use of this item is exhausts the wielder/pilot. For each use, the operator suffers 1 Capacity of damage per Rank.
Armour or Damage Resilience does not reduce this damage. Normally, this damage is Non-lethal (N) but may be changed to Physical (P) or Mental (M) by increasing the Rank by 1.
FRAGILE Type: All Rank Cost: 1
The item reduces its total Capacity + Armour Class by 1 per Rank in this Flaw.
HAUNTED Type: All Rank Cost: 1
Be it gremlins, supernatural spirits, or just poor construc-tion, the item tends to malfunction and act on its own
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Chapter 6: GEAR & EQUIPMENT
when the character needs it the most. In every encounter the item is used, roll 1 combat die per Rank of this Flaw.
Each Target Symbol rolled indicates one action where the item just doesn’t work. The GM can pick any actions they like, as long as it involves the item that is Haunted.
The GM makes this roll in secret.
HIGH MAINTENANCE Type: All
Rank Cost: 1
The machine requires near constant repairs and maintenance. Every time the machine is used, roll the Rank in dice. Every Target rolled indicates an increase in Difficulty that must be endured every time the action is repeated until a repair is made. Repairs are a Mind/Mechanic test, taking 1 action per Rank of High Maintenance for a Difficulty equal to the number of Targets rolled. For example, a vehicle with High Maintenance 3 opens fire with its main gun. 3 dice are rolled and 2 Targets scored. All attacks with the main gun suffer a Difficulty increase of 2, until the engineer makes a Difficulty 2 repair test and spends 2 actions (1 round) making the repair.
LINKED Type: Any Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank in Linked fuses one special ability to another, requiring that both be used at the same time. For example, the Allied Medium Walker Steel Rain fires 4.2 Rockets.
The 4.2 Rocket has Salvo and Volley abilities Linked together. Whenever the character using a Steel Rain fires the 4.2 Rockets, they must use Salvo and Volley at the same time or use neither ability. Each additional Rank in Linked adds another ability to the Linked pool of abili-ties. Linked abilities are marked with an asterisk after their name and value (if any).
MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT Type: All
Rank Cost: 1
The gizmo operates from a rare form of special material (such as VK) that the character does not always have access to. When out of ammo, fuel, or other power source, roll 1 die per Rank. If any Targets are rolled, the material is unavailable, and the item cannot be recharged, refuelled, or reloaded at that time.
OPEN-TOPPED Type: Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
A vehicle with Open-Topped does not protect the pilot and crew as well as a closed-topped vehicle would. The pilot or crew can be targeted by ranged attacks with a Difficulty
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penalty equal to the vehicle’s standard armour grade. This penalty is reduced by 1 for each Rank of Open-Topped taken after the first (example, a vehicle that is Armour Class 3 with Open-Topped 1 provides a Difficulty penalty of 2 to any attack targeting the crew, passengers, or pilot of the vehicle. If the Open-Topped Flaw was Rank 2 the Difficulty penalty would only be 1. If Open-Topped was Rank 4, there would be no penalty to target the crew).
PENALTY Type: All Rank Cost: 1
The gizmo causes a 1 die Penalty to all actions that involve its use per Rank in Penalty.
REDUCED EFFECTS Type: Weapon
Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank reduces either the weapon’s damage by 1, range by 25% or ammo rating by 50%. This cannot be used on a weapon without range or ammo rating.
SENSORS (BAD) Type: Character or Vehicle Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank provides a -1 to the character’s dice pool for the use of Awareness (Sensors).
SKILL-BASED Type: Any Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank in Skill-Based must be assigned to a particular skill required to properly operate the gizmo. A charac-ter trying to use this gizmo without said skill at Rank 1 cannot use the gizmo at all. Each additional Rank in Skill-Based can either be a new skill required or increase the Rank needed to operate the gizmo, but if the requirement is higher than Rank 1, and the character trying to use the gizmo has the skill but lower than the Skill-Based Rank requirement, then they can still try to use the gizmo but at a Difficulty penalty equal to the difference in the Rank possessed and the Rank required.
STANDARD ISSUE Type: All
Rank Cost: 1
The item actually belongs to the character’s organisation and to enact any kind of repair, replacement, recharge, or resupply requires reporting to base. The item can be taken away from the character based on performance, attitude, or other situations. They can only use the item on official missions. If this Flaw is taken more than once, the gizmo in question can only be used in one adventure out of a total equal to the Rank of this Flaw. For example, if taken
3 times, it can only be used in one out of three adventures.
It is up to the GM to make sure this Flaw is actually a Flaw, requiring characters to go through inspections, mainte-nance, training events, and periodic certification and quali-fication checks. This may not be taken for Artefacts.
TRACKS AND WHEELS Type: Vehicle (Tracked) Rank Cost: 1
Each Rank requires the vehicle to roll an extra die when suffering damage to determine if the vehicle suffers damage to its Tracks and Wheels. For each Target symbol rolled, the vehicle reduces their move and handling by 1 in addition to any damage the vehicle may have taken.