Inventing new Items / Item System

By Dutzen, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Posted at

Hey :)

I noticed the talent Inventor from Outlaw Tech these days, which says: "When creating new items.." This catches my attention and so i was thinking about an item system and some House rules to catch the invention process of new items.

Here is what i was planning. I hope you can give me your thoughts and help me to improve it.

Especially the flat value of some attributes, because i am not that familiar with it's impact in the game (i am quite a noob to EotE ;) )

And ofc it needs some fine tuning :)

Dice Roll

At first the PC tells the GM what kind of weapon he is trying to invent and what rarity it shall have.

The rarity defines the Pool size of the item and the difficulty to invent it.

Any attributes left, like Encum, Price, Skill is up to the GM cause these are unique items :)

Pool size Difficulty (Challenge dice, Diffuculty dice)
Rarity: 0: 50 -
1: 150 0,1
2: 250 0,2
3: 350 0,3
4: 450 0,4
5: 550 0,5
6: 650 1,4
7: 750 2,3
8: 850 3,2
9: 950 4,1
10: 1050 5,0
  • Each additional Success adds 10pts to the pool.
  • Each remaining Advantage adds 5pts to the pool.
  • Each remaining Disadvantage decreases the pool by 10 pts.
  • Each Triumph adds 1 stack of the superior quality or the accurate attribute to the item. (decision by the GM)
  • Each Despair adds 1 stack of the inferior quality or the inaccurate attribute to the item. (decision by the GM)
If an item reaches the Range [x00 - x99] of another rarity, it's rarity will be up- or downgraded automatic.
Costs:
Damage (flat):
Each damage costs 25pts + 20% of its costs.
Example:
Damage: Cost:
0 0
1 25
2 60
3 90
4 120
5 150
6 180
7 210
8 240
9 270
10 300
11 330
12 360
13 390
14 420
15 450
16 480
17 510
18 540
19 570
20 600
Each additional Damage (Melee) costs 100pts.
+1 100
+2 200
+3 300
+4 400
+5 500
Range
Costs percentage of damage costs.
Engaged: 5%
Short: 10%
Medium: 15%
Long: 20%
Extreme: 25%
Note: I made it percentage cause a strong weapon (with high base damage) is more worth with a long max range than a weapon with medium range.
Critical
Each weapon has a base critical rating of 6. The cost for reducing the crit rating is the sum of its previous costs with a base of 10pts.
Example: 6 Crit rating: 10pts.
5 Crit rating: 10 pts + 10pts (base)
4 Crit rating: 10 pts (6 Crit) + 20pts (5 Crit) = 30pts
3 Crit rating: 10pts(6 Crit) + 20pts(5 Crit) + 30pts(4Crit) = 60pts
2 Crit rating: 10pts + 20pts + 30pts +60pts = 120pts
1 Crit rating: 10pts + 20pts +30pts +60pts + 120pts = 240pts
Note: I made this to a sum formula, cause the more crit you want, the more it should costs you.
Hard Points
1HP: 40pts
2HP: 80pts
3HP: 120pts
4HP: 240pts
5HP: 480pts
Cumbersome
Increases the pool by the sum of its previous costs with a base of 20pts, 50pts, and 100pts.
Rank 1: 20
Rank 2: 50
Rank 3: 100
Rank 4: 170
Rank 5: 340
Rank 6: 680
Note: I pre-defined rank 1-3 because this is a regular Brawn value. So if you want to carry a heavy weapon with cumbersome 4+ you have to invest in Brawn.
Accurate
Can only be applied by Triumph
Autofire
200% of Damage costs
Note: It costs 200% of the Damage costs, because in a average fight you can trigger Autofire twice
Blast
150% of Damage costs
Note: 50% more than 1 instance of damage would cost, because it affects all engaged targets.
Breach
100pts
Burn
125% of total Damage costs
Note: 125% because its a passive damage effect. With Burn 1 it is less worth than damage but with Burn 2, it will last for a second round and deal the same base damage without doing a damage based action.
Each instance of Burn costs 125% of your total Damage costs.
Example: Item has 9 Damage = 270pts, A Burn (2) ability would cost you 337,5 + 337,5 = 675 pts
Concussive
50pts
Cortosis
60pts
Defensive
100pts
Deflection
130pts
Disorient
40pts
Ensnare
30pts
Guided
40pts
Inaccurate
Can only be applied by Despair
Inferior
Can only be applied by Despair
Ion
0pts
Knockdown
30pts
Limited Ammo
Up to the GM
Linked
100% of Damage costs
Pierce
20*rank + 40% of its costs
Note: Damage cost 25pts. Ignoring 1 Soak is alsmost equal to 1 extra damage. But you need also Damage to be valuable.
Prepare
-50pts
Slow Firing
-15% of Damage costs
Note: if you have slow firing (2) you deal damage every 3 rounds, which cuts your damage by 33% (in an longer fight) so i will return 15% Damage costs for each rank.
Stun
30pts
Stun damage
20pts*rank + 20%of its cost
Note: Cause it afflicts strain.
Sunder
Reduce the pool by 30% for melee weapons and 50% for ranged weapons.
Note: I reduce the whole item pool by 30% cause i think sunder is a major attribute which has a big impact on an item
Superior
Can only be applied by Triumph
Tractor
50pts
Vicious
50pts
Additional Rules:
  • Concussive and Ensnared combined needs a minimum rarity of 4. Each Additional Rank in either of the two attributes needs 1 additional rarity. Also their base costs are increased by 100%.
Example: Concussive (2) and Ensnared (3) needs a rarity of 7. (4 for both, +1 for seconds Concussive and +2 for 2 Ensnare ranks) and costs 200pts + 180pts = 380pts.

- Dutzen -
Edit
  • Didn't notice there is already such items like flame granades, so i deleted my rule
  • I have to rethink the costs of Blast and Burn (Theoretical it looks fine, but comparing to existing items it's not working :(
Edited by Dutzen
Posted at

I get what you're going, but it seems limited (why only weapons?) and, assuming I'm reading it right, risky.

In the system someone with a good skill is likely to get a hot roll, and a hot roll could end up with something totally broken.

Let say I make a slugthrower pistol and have a skill of 4:4. I roll vs. Rare 3, and get 2 success, 3 adv and a triumph. I can now make a pistol that is damage 7 and has breach and accurate. My pistol can now obliterate Stormtroopers, and even punch through light vehicle armor. Rivals and even some Nemesis are only 2 attacks for me.

While I expect a system in the Mech book, for now may be it's better to just go with what feels good for any given moment.

Posted at

Wow. Way crunchy. This is going to need a spreadsheet or three to run the probabilities.

IMO, this is much more complex than anything else in the game. I certainly don’t think that the FFG developers would go for something this complex, and I doubt that you’d get many takers in the community.

I see what you’re trying to do, but I think a good bit of this complexity could be removed by not trying to cover all possibilities.

There’s already an existing attachment/modification system, so you could use that for many things — you’d just need to assign how many Hard Points the object would have, and if they want to add Superior or something, then they could do that.

As for something like Breech, I would say that should be right off the table in terms of anything that a player could construct. NPCs could theoretically do that, but unless you’re talking about ship/vehicle scale weapons, it would be OP for almost all cases not already covered by the game.

Posted at

Maybe some of those characteristics could use some tweaking, maybe some of the more powerful attributes could only be applied to two-handed weapons.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good idea. A good set of rules while we wait for the Technician Sourcebook

Posted at

Just to add to my previous; it's also kinda limiting to the most extreme example, namely weapons. There's a lot more kit out there.

It seems like a cleaner solution would be to set up a difficulty (basing it on rarity IS a good start). Modified by part availability (Junkyard gives you a few boosts, cannibalizing something unrelated gives you setbacks). Determine cost of parts (pretty flexible here... perhaps "box of random wires, circuit boards, and metal bits" will be an item all its' own) and then cap it off with a Threat/Advantage chart.

So I want to make a tracking bug out of parts I find in my ship. Tracking bugs would be difficulty X, +3 setback since I'm building out of starship components, cost is 0 since I'm making it out of junk I already have... 2 success, three threat = It works fine, has a range of 2 km, and is the size of my fist... also I'm a wookiee...

Edited by Ghostofman
Posted at

Maybe Successes could increase the base damage, Failures could decrease it (or something)

As for an Advantage/Threat chart, I had some ideas:

1 Adv/Tri - Add 25 to the pool

2 Adv/Tri - Add 50 to the pool

3 Adv/Tri - Add 75 to the pool

1 Tri - Decrease Encumbrance by 1 to a minimum of 1

2 Tri - Pick 1 Special Quality. That Quality gains 1 to its rating or loses 1 (when fits best)

1 Thr/Des - Subtract 25 from the pool

2 Thr/Des - Subtract 50 from the pool

3 Thr/Des - Subtract 75 from the pool

1 Des - Pick 1 Special Quality. That Quality loses 1 to its rating or gains 1 (when fits best)