Non-Scientific Gadgeteers

[Armitage]

A gadgeteer normally has various Powers bought through Foci, or a variable Power Pool with the Focus Limitation.  That's generally for use in combat.  A GM will often allow a gadgeteer to create out of combat devices using various Skills.  The character could be selling gadgets to wealthy customers to justify their own Wealth Perk, or the player may be attempting to introduce new technology to the consumer market, wanting to have a lasting impact on the campaign.

 

e.g. Inventor, Mechanics, Weaponsmith, and SS: Polymer Chemistry are used to create and market a pistol that fires cartridges containing a rapidly expanding incapacitating foam (Entangle).

 

However, in some settings gadgeteers work differently, such as the Wild Cards novels or the Goldberg Science power in the Godlike RPG.  These gadgeteers create devices that don't operate on actual scientific principles, and probably don't even contain working technology of any kind.  Instead, the gadgeteer has the superhuman power to create devices that do what they want them to do.  The creator probably has relevant skills, but nowhere near the level that would be needed for the "technology" they create, and probably not appropriate specialties.

 

If such a gadgeteer can create devices that can be used by the general public, as if they were actual technology, what Skills would be used to determine their creation?  My initial thought is the bare minimum, based on what they perceive themselves as doing.  For example, a force field belt could be created with Inventor and Electronics, even without SS: Force Field Physics or SS: Magnetics, since they're just creating an "electronic" device that does what they want.

 

There would be no difference in cost; a pseudo-gadgeteer wouldn't need a Perk.  It's like the difference between a Personal Focus and a Universal Focus.  Pseudo-gadgets are easier to create, but they can't be reproduced and they can only be repaired by the original creator.  It's not something that would have an impact in routine play, so there's no cost.

 

 

Adventurer's Club #21 had an article entitled "The Schimmelhorn Effect", in which gadgeteers and mad scientists have the ability to warp reality with their beliefs, like Mages in the World of Darkness, allowing impossible gadgets to work, but such devices stop working forever if examined by a normal scientist, and they suffer instability and side effects over time as reality attempts to reassert itself, and that's not really what I'm looking for.  

[Grailknight]

Have you seen the Wearing the Cape series by Marion G. Harmon. The science and magic of that series work on a similar principle to what you describe.

[Tasha]

It is one way to explain how in a world that has ray guns, powered armor, flight packs etc, why the regular world's technology level is the same as the Real world. It's actually a common trope. The "Mad Scientist" effect. That the scientist believes in their theory so much Physics warps itself to make the item work. You can have that work both ways. That super gadgets are all one off things that work for everyone, but cannot be copied and mass manufactured. Because they don't work on real world physics. You can also have folk who have gadgets/technology that only work for them. Their belief in the items fuels its functionality. (Warhammer 40k takes this to an extreme with Space Orcs, who have technology that only works for Orcs because they believe they work. So their guns, planes, bombs etc are totally non functional in the hands of anyone else.

 

When you come down to it Mad Science Gadgets aren't really that different from Magic Items. They are just packaged differently. Gadgets LOOK like Technology, Magic Items look like Fantasy Props.

 

A character could make them with a "Power" skill with the right name. Extra skills like Inventor, Science Skills, Electronics, Mechanics, weaponsmith are nice, but technically not needed ex as flavor.

[Spence]

"Sparks" from Kevin Rau's H.E.R.O. novels has exactly this power.   She builds devices that function using rubber science only she appear to understand.  But other people can use them depending on their function.  In other words if she builds a device specifically for one person, it will only work for that person.  But if she "just build something" anyone can use it.  

[Armitage]

In the campaign I'm working on, there are five documented types of Gadgeteers.

 

Type One Gadgeteers have superhuman intelligence and inventive ability.  The basic Reed Richards or Tony Stark.  They're the ones who are largely responsible for elevating the world's technology level in the twenty years since superhumans have come into existence (also technology reverse-engineered from the alien invaders).  It's not post-Governor Strike Force, but it's not "Reed Richards Is Useless".  In Star Hero terms, the general population of the US is ATRI 8 and the government has reached ATRI 9.

 

Type Two Gadgeteers are similar to Type Ones, but their abilities are focused in a single field, a single device, or a related group of devices.  These are the characters who frequently show up in published books (more in older editions) with 15 - 18 INT, 13- Skills, and a suit of powered armor with force fields, antigravity, invisibility, and focused plasma weapons.  Also someone like Phillippe Moreau, with his ability to create fully sapient humanoid animals, although he has a rare mutagenic element helping with that.  Some people who seem to be Type Twos may actually be Type Threes.

 

Type Three Gadgeteers are the ones I was initially talking about.  They create devices that shouldn't work, but do.  Their powers cause the devices to function, maybe just for themselves, or maybe for anyone.  There's a woman in Chicago (the campaign city) who has a small business hand-making physics defying devices for clients.  (Why yes, she is intended to be a potential ally for the PCs.)  There can be overlap between Type Threes and Type Fives.

 

Type Four Gadgeteers are commonly referred to as "Jockeys".  They use technology that they've obtained from someone else, either purchased, stolen, or received as a gift.  They usually have a limited ability to maintain and repair their own devices, particularly if they came from a Type Three.

 

Type Five Gadgeteers usually don't like being called "Effies" ("F.E.s"), short for "flying elephants".  They have inherent superhuman powers, but believe that their powers derive from an otherwise normal object.  Their "Feather" is a psychological crutch that they need to use their powers.  They're the rarest, since damage to their Feather can easily cost them their powers unless it's repairable, their powers enhance the durability of the Feather, or they overcome their psychological issues.

[Christopher]

Wayward Sons Legends:

http://waywardsons.keenspot.com/d/20100531.html

 

They basic idea is that the Greek (and other) Gods/mythical creatures are actually aliens that got displaced, superpowered but thier technology destroyed.

They had to "reinvent" technology using thier powers.

 

"Type Three Gadgeteers are the ones I was initially talking about.  They create devices that shouldn't work, but do.  Their powers cause the devices to function, maybe just for themselves, or maybe for anyone.  There's a woman in Chicago (the campaign city) who has a small business hand-making physics defying devices for clients.  (Why yes, she is intended to be a potential ally for the PCs.)  There can be overlap between Type Threes and Type Fives."

Warhammer 40k Orcs. Some interpretations say ork weapons lack curcial parts - like Firing Pins and Ammunition! But give them to a Orc and they work.

It is explained that they affect the warp through thier concentrated presence, wich in turn alters reality so that "just works".

 

From TV Tropes:
"Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The Orks' WAAAGH! energy goes a long way toward making their technology work as well as it does, as well as ensuring that red paint actually does increase speed, and also explains why captured Ork equipment is so temperamental in human hands. In early fluff, this was far more pronounced; cross-sections of Shootas showed a mish-mash of gears and bullets in the general shape of a gun, and Ork pirates flew away in stolen spaceships that never had any fuel loaded into them. More recent fluff has severely downplayed the level of this while preserving the general idea that anything that the Orks think is possible is possible, but the more realistic that belief is, the easier it is to make happen. Thus, the better the Mekboy is at making something work properly without help, the more WAAAGH! energy he can (subconsciously) channel into having it make massive explosions or reinforcing the forcefield it generates. This principle may also explain why so much Ork equipment explodes, or why Commissar Yarrick fully lives up to his dreaded reputation, particularly when fighting the greenskins that so fear him."

[bigdamnhero]

If such a gadgeteer can create devices that can be used by the general public... 

My first gut reaction is that they can't - their devices only work for them, or at least only work reliably for them, maybe because they need constant tinkering or the required keypad codes are beyond the abilities of most mortal minds or whatever.

 

But if you want to make said devices available to gen pop, that's fine. I would say they can actually use the same skills as a "regular" gadgeteer, except maybe with a ~ or a "Quasi-" in from to distinguish that their understanding of ~Physics doesn't quite match up with normal Physics, even tho it works for them.

[Christopher]

My first gut reaction is that they can't - their devices only work for them, or at least only work reliably for them, maybe because they need constant tinkering or the required keypad codes are beyond the abilities of most mortal minds or whatever.

 

But if you want to make said devices available to gen pop, that's fine. I would say they can actually use the same skills as a "regular" gadgeteer, except maybe with a ~ or a "Quasi-" in from to distinguish that their understanding of ~Physics doesn't quite match up with normal Physics, even tho it works for them.

A contuniation of the WH40k Orc idea above:

What if there was only limited amount of "psychic inpropabiltiy energy" avalible for all these Gadgeteers? There is sort of a finite resource to go around. And how much your works have, depends on how well known you are (your brand, firm, you as designer).

So you had to be famous (to some degree), but also keep the devices rare (to not exhaust our supply to quickly). It might even be nessesary to manage the inpropability consumption carefully. Somewhat like Fashion and Poetry have a limited market. People might have to become superheroes/-villains just to maintain thier devices.

 

That would also allow these Gadgeteers to have different skill levels. Some are able to produce less inpropable devices, and thus can produce more of them or need less personal attention for them to function.

The lower end would be franchised workers - because there the designs are pre-given and the brand itself recieves the energy (rather then the specific creator). While the higher end would be stars like Carl Lagerfeld/similar conteporary.

 

With the way how art is often only apreciated long after it was made, maybe some realy old guy made some devices that just lacked the attention to work back then. But now are literally overflowing with inpropabiltiy energy, now that they are the DaVincies of the history?

[massey]

I don't think you have to have a justification saying that Reed Richards' science doesn't actually work, just to prevent him from flooding the campaign world with new tech and making 1960s America look like the world of the Jetsons.  There are a lot of existing barriers that you can put in his way without making him a mad scientist whose inventions work only because he thinks they do.  Now, if you really want to go that route, I guess that's fine, but sometimes I get the feeling that people think it needs to be that way to prevent some sort of major changes to the campaign world.  I don't think that's the case.

 

First, I'd say that super-gadgeteers are fairly rare in the source material.  Let's say that supers are one in a hundred thousand.  So there would be a little over 3000 superhumans in the US today (and for whatever reason, in comics, non-USA countries have a far lower percentage of supers).  That's common enough to have one-shot villains who appear and then you never see again, and prevents you from running into the Saturday morning cartoon problem where you fight the same group of villains every single week.  But even with 3000 superhumans, what percentage are gadgeteers?  Maybe 10%?  And of that, how many of those are omni-gadgeteers who invent a new thing every week, as opposed to a Captain Cold type who invented just one thing?  Maybe a further 10%?  So you'd really be looking at having about 30 super-gadgeteers active at any one time.  That's not really that many people out there inventing crazy stuff day in and day out.

 

Second, assume that at least half those guys are villains.  They're not out there curing cancer, or making the world a better place.  They're building death lasers.  And they certainly aren't sharing.  They horde that technology, and build in self-destruct mechanisms to prevent people from stealing it.  So this takes you from 30-ish super-gadgeteers down to maybe a dozen who actually have the motivation to help people.

 

Third, I'd say that at least some of these guys are careful about their inventions "falling into the wrong hands". Just because Doc Brown invents a time machine, that doesn't mean he's looking to share it with others.  He goes off with his buddies and has fun, and he's always worried about someone else getting it and misusing it.  So just because there are heroic characters out there inventing stuff, this doesn't mean that they're giving it to the public.  Most of the time they're keeping a tight grip on it.

 

Fourth, most super-gadgeteers are relatively busy.  They don't live the life of a conventional scientist, they live the life of an action/adventure hero.  They're exploring strange lost dinosaur valleys and other dimensions and things like that.  Even if they aren't a PC, they're living the life of a PC in their own campaign.  So they don't really have time to sit around and get inventions mass-production-ready.  To continue the Doc Brown example (although he's really not a super-gadgeteer -- the time machine was the only thing he ever invented that actually worked), he knows how the time machine works, but that doesn't mean anybody else does.  It requires very rare components (either plutonium, or Mr. Fusion, a device from the future that cannot be produced in 1985) that a normal person doesn't have access to.  Doc Brown is too busy being in the movies, and having adventures, to work all the bugs out, or engineer it to an easier-to-manufacture form.  Remember that the thing didn't even run that well just as a normal car.  It kept dying and didn't want to start.  And he had to make adjustments to the car after almost every trip.  For most super-gadgeteers, people who not only invent one thing but a hundred different things, they don't have the time or the inclination to make all the little adjustments necessary to mass produce these things.

 

Fifth, when people who are not super-gadgeteers look at the "not ready for mass production" inventions, they don't understand them.  Evil businessman: "Tony Stark built this thing, in a cave!"  Not-supergenius scientist: "I'm not Tony Stark."  The inventions are so far ahead of normal technology that it would require years, maybe decades of study to start to reproduce it.

 

Sixth, when something cool gets invented that doesn't require a super-scientist to make constant adjustments to it, it is a prime target to be stolen by villains.  There's a near endless supply of small time hoods who want to make it big, who are on the lookout for a force field belt or super-strength ray or whatever.

 

--

 

All these things together mean that you're free to have super-scientists in your world without requiring that they only think their science works.  

[Steve]

One reason why some technologies haven't become mass produced could be government interference. Have a cure for cancer? Well, the FDA needs to test it first. Check back with us in a few years. Do you have a design for an AI robot to help around the house? With the likes of Mechanon running around, it might be illegal to make mass-produced AI robots that the villain could co-opt into an army.

[Anaximander]

The concept makes me think of the old game Tales of the Floating Vagabond which was a comedic RPG based around a bar.  Many of the skills and gadgets defy real world explanation.  One of the options in the game is Shticks which is a gimmick that a character can have that can alter the reality of the game.  One of the Shticks (I don't remember what it is called) allowed the player to question reality as it is presented causing much of the more outlandish things in the game to shutdown for a time.  The concept is based on old cartoons where Elmer Fudd can walk on air until Bugs Bunny hands him a book about gravity.  Perhaps, the pseudo-science engineer can have an opponent who has a wet blanket affect on his otherwise outlandish gadgets.

[massey]

The concept makes me think of the old game Tales of the Floating Vagabond which was a comedic RPG based around a bar.  Many of the skills and gadgets defy real world explanation.  One of the options in the game is Shticks which is a gimmick that a character can have that can alter the reality of the game.  One of the Shticks (I don't remember what it is called) allowed the player to question reality as it is presented causing much of the more outlandish things in the game to shutdown for a time.  The concept is based on old cartoons where Elmer Fudd can walk on air until Bugs Bunny hands him a book about gravity.  Perhaps, the pseudo-science engineer can have an opponent who has a wet blanket affect on his otherwise outlandish gadgets.

 

You gotta be careful, though, because that sort of thing is very genre-specific.  It can be really funny, or it can feel very wrong if it doesn't fit the character concept.  Somebody mentioned in another thread, a guy who could make people fall out of the sky by saying "that's silly, people can't fly!"  Except of course they can fly.  Supers do it all the time.  It should be an accepted part of science in that world.

 

Sometimes doing that, you end up with one guy's special effects trumping another's.

[IndianaJoe3]

I hand-waved it a couple of different ways in my last supers game.

• Supers were a relatively recent phenomenon, and the science behind them was not understood well enough to mass produce gadgets.
• Super-gadgets were so far beyond conventional technology, that only the inventor (or other super gadgeteers) could understand it. 

[assault]

Reed Richards is the reason why the world of the 1960s didn't look like the 1930s.

[Christopher]

One reason why some technologies haven't become mass produced could be government interference. Have a cure for cancer? Well, the FDA needs to test it first. Check back with us in a few years.

They really screwed that part up back in Dark Wick:

http://www.darkwick.com/index.php?comicid=50#comic

 

 

I don't think you have to have a justification saying that Reed Richards' science doesn't actually work, just to prevent him from flooding the campaign world with new tech and making 1960s America look like the world of the Jetsons.  There are a lot of existing barriers that you can put in his way without making him a mad scientist whose inventions work only because he thinks they do.  Now, if you really want to go that route, I guess that's fine, but sometimes I get the feeling that people think it needs to be that way to prevent some sort of major changes to the campaign world.  I don't think that's the case.

 

First, I'd say that super-gadgeteers are fairly rare in the source material.  Let's say that supers are one in a hundred thousand.  So there would be a little over 3000 superhumans in the US today (and for whatever reason, in comics, non-USA countries have a far lower percentage of supers).  That's common enough to have one-shot villains who appear and then you never see again, and prevents you from running into the Saturday morning cartoon problem where you fight the same group of villains every single week.  But even with 3000 superhumans, what percentage are gadgeteers?  Maybe 10%?  And of that, how many of those are omni-gadgeteers who invent a new thing every week, as opposed to a Captain Cold type who invented just one thing?  Maybe a further 10%?  So you'd really be looking at having about 30 super-gadgeteers active at any one time.  That's not really that many people out there inventing crazy stuff day in and day out.

 

Second, assume that at least half those guys are villains.  They're not out there curing cancer, or making the world a better place.  They're building death lasers.  And they certainly aren't sharing.  They horde that technology, and build in self-destruct mechanisms to prevent people from stealing it.  So this takes you from 30-ish super-gadgeteers down to maybe a dozen who actually have the motivation to help people.

 

Third, I'd say that at least some of these guys are careful about their inventions "falling into the wrong hands". Just because Doc Brown invents a time machine, that doesn't mean he's looking to share it with others.  He goes off with his buddies and has fun, and he's always worried about someone else getting it and misusing it.  So just because there are heroic characters out there inventing stuff, this doesn't mean that they're giving it to the public.  Most of the time they're keeping a tight grip on it.

 

Fourth, most super-gadgeteers are relatively busy.  They don't live the life of a conventional scientist, they live the life of an action/adventure hero.  They're exploring strange lost dinosaur valleys and other dimensions and things like that.  Even if they aren't a PC, they're living the life of a PC in their own campaign.  So they don't really have time to sit around and get inventions mass-production-ready.  To continue the Doc Brown example (although he's really not a super-gadgeteer -- the time machine was the only thing he ever invented that actually worked), he knows how the time machine works, but that doesn't mean anybody else does.  It requires very rare components (either plutonium, or Mr. Fusion, a device from the future that cannot be produced in 1985) that a normal person doesn't have access to.  Doc Brown is too busy being in the movies, and having adventures, to work all the bugs out, or engineer it to an easier-to-manufacture form.  Remember that the thing didn't even run that well just as a normal car.  It kept dying and didn't want to start.  And he had to make adjustments to the car after almost every trip.  For most super-gadgeteers, people who not only invent one thing but a hundred different things, they don't have the time or the inclination to make all the little adjustments necessary to mass produce these things.

 

Fifth, when people who are not super-gadgeteers look at the "not ready for mass production" inventions, they don't understand them.  Evil businessman: "Tony Stark built this thing, in a cave!"  Not-supergenius scientist: "I'm not Tony Stark."  The inventions are so far ahead of normal technology that it would require years, maybe decades of study to start to reproduce it.

 

Sixth, when something cool gets invented that doesn't require a super-scientist to make constant adjustments to it, it is a prime target to be stolen by villains.  There's a near endless supply of small time hoods who want to make it big, who are on the lookout for a force field belt or super-strength ray or whatever.

 

--

 

All these things together mean that you're free to have super-scientists in your world without requiring that they only think their science works.  

7th, it might need rare materials.

 

You can get a lot of guns or one interdimensional/space portal created by the Cosmic Cube, not both.

[bigdamnhero]

Reed Richards is the reason why the world of the 1960s didn't look like the 1930s.

Considering that only 10-15 years has passed in continuity since the FF's debut, you could also look at it as Reed (and similar geniuses) are the reasons why their world has progressed from 1960s tech to 2016 tech in only a decade and a half. Of course that doesn't really help us from an RPG standpoint.