Equipment Modifiers

Equipment Modifiers

The quality of your equipment modifies your skill rolls for tasks that normally require equipment: No equipment: -10 for technological skills, -5 for other skills. Note that many skills cannot be used at all without equipment!

Improvised equipment: -5 for technological skills, -2 for other skills.

Basic equipment: No modifier. This is the case most of the time.

Good-quality equipment: +1. Costs about 5× basic price.

Fine-quality equipment: +2. Costs about 20× basic price.

Best equipment possible at your TL: +TL/2, round down (minimum +2). Not usually for sale!

If you have "basic" or better equipment that is not in perfect condition, the following modifiers apply in addition to quality modifiers:

Missing important items: -1 per item.

Damaged equipment: -1 to -3.

Equipment modifiers reflect the quality of:

• Special "tools of the trade," for criminal, military, and espionage skills such as Disguise, Explosives, Forgery, Forward Observer, Holdout, and Lockpicking.
• The contents of your backpack, for outdoor skills like Fishing and Survival.
• Your instruments or lab, for scientific and medical skills such as Alchemy, Diagnosis, Meteorology, Navigation, and Surgery.
• Your shop or toolkit, for Armoury, Carpentry, Electrician, Electronics Repair, Engineer, Machinist, Masonry, Mechanic, Smith, and other skills used to build or repair things.
• Your studio, for artistic skills – Artist, Jeweler, Photography, etc.

Example: For First Aid skill, "improvised" might mean leaves and clean mud; "basic," sterile bandages; "good," a standard first-aid kit; "fine," a crash kit (found in most ambulances); and "best," an entire hospital. Missing antiseptic would give -1, while a first-aid kit salvaged from a wrecked vehicle might give -1 or worse for damaged equipment.

Melee Weapon Quality

Muscle-powered melee and thrown weapons come in several quality grades, described below. Quality influences the odds of breakage when you parry a very heavy weapon; see Parrying Heavy Weapons. The prices listed on the weapon tables buy good-quality weapons at TL6 or less, fine-quality ones at TL7+.

Cheap: A cheap weapon is +2 to break – and if it can be thrown, it has -1 Acc. It costs 40% of list price at TL6 or less, or 20% of list price at TL7+. The mass-produced swords issued to ordinary soldiers are often of cheap quality.

Good: A good weapon has no breakage modifier. This is the standard quality through TL6. At TL7+, good-quality weapons cost 40% of list price.

Fine: Any fine weapon is -1 to break. A fine blade (cutting or impaling weapon) also gets +1 to cutting and impaling damage. At TL6 or less, a fine-quality fencing- or sword-class weapon of any type costs 4 times list price. (Katanas are often fine!) Other weapon types cost 3 times list price if they do only crushing or impaling damage (e.g., a mace or spear), or 10 times list price if they can do cutting damage (e.g., an axe or halberd). At TL7+, all weapons are "fine" at no extra cost.

Very Fine: Only fencing weapons and swords can be very fine. A very fine weapon is -2 to break and gets +2 to cutting and impaling damage. At TL6 or less, very fine weapons cost 20 times list price; at TL7+, they cost only 4 times list price.

Presentation weapons (decorated, bejeweled, gilded, etc.) are also available. This will further increase cost (and resale value) by 5-20 times.

See Also

• Superfine Blade (TL9)