Tinkering

Tinkering is the process by which material reagents recovered from the sky are converted into useful Technology. Characters with the Basic Tinkering Trait can attempt tinkering if they have reagents to use.

It is known that attempts to scale up production of tinkered Technology have usually met with abject failure. Trying to mass-produce or farm out the creation of Technology results in it working badly, if at all, so the best method that’s been found has been to allow individual Tinkerers to do things their own way. Even trying to create multiples of the same piece yourself in quick succession is unlikely to work.

Creating Technology

Attempting tinkering can be done at interactives; if you haven't had a chance to do it at interactives, you can do it in downtime instead.

An example Tinkering Result card.

To create a piece of Technology, you must use three reagents. Hand in the reagents to a ref and tell them what you are trying to make. You can use more than one of the same reagent. Then conduct at least two minutes of appropriate roleplaying as your character attempts to construct the item. The ref will return one of these results:

• It works! Here is your item, plus a Tinkering Result card that may indicate some sort of event, or danger, or exhaustion caused by the Tinkering process.
• You can make something close - do you want to do that instead? If yes, go to It works! If not, skip to failure.
• You can't make it with this - but you could if you got X item or reagent instead. Then go to failure.
• Failure: It doesn't work. You get the reagents back, and optionally have experienced some kind of dangerous experimental failure.

You can only make each “recipe” like this once per event - you can’t make more than one of the same item.

There are five kinds of standard reagents available. Each has different resonances if they are used in making a piece of Technology.

Type	Object	Resonances
Metal Reagent	Metal Cog	Strength, Hardness, Intricacy, Precision
Life Reagent	Green Leaf	Healing, Growth, Stamina, Resilience
Power Reagent	Metal Lightning Bolt	Power, Fire and Lightning, Transference, Light, Dexterity
World Reagent	Amber Bead	Stability, Earth, Widespread Effects, Blood
Balance Reagent	Yin-Yang Symbol	Balance, Entropy, Order, Inversion

Sometimes, rare and unique reagents will be found with varying resonances. These can also be used for tinkering, but the items created cannot be replicated, and will often be single-use.

Limits

Technological items have a limit to their usage.

• Some items will break when they are used. This means that they are destroyed and cannot be repaired.
• Some items will exhaust when they are used. This means that they have depleted their energy and need to be repaired or reloaded. This can be done with the Field Maintenance trait by spending a Stamina point or a reagent matching one of the reagents used to make the item.
• Some items will last for one event and then break.
• It is almost unheard of to produce Technology that doesn't eventually break down.

Example

An example Technology card.

Charsi wants to make a medical device.

1. Her player finds a ref and hands in her resources to use - "Here is one Metal for precision, one Power for lightning, and one Life for healing. I want to make a defibrillator glove.”
2. The ref goes and determines the result.
3. Charsi conducts some appropriate Mad Engineering roleplay.
4. The ref returns and says “It should work - but it’s dangerous. Do you want to keep going?”
5. She says yes, and the ref draws a Tinkering result - “You take a CLEAVE to one hand as you’re electrocuted working on it. Here’s the item.”
6. The item card reads “Technology. Exhaust to call CURE 4 STUN at touch range on an incapacitated target.”