A PC "recovers" a light blaster pistol that its former owner, an Outlaw Tech, Tinkered, Jury Rigged, and modified.

I know the Jury Rigging goes away. In effect, Jury Rigged items must be lovingly maintained by the Jury Rigger to keep its benefit.

But what about the extra hard point from the Tinkering? The full talent description says that if the Tinkered item is lost, she can apply the talent elsewhere. That's nice for someone with the talent, but what happens to the Tinkered item?

Especially in a case where the extra hard point is in use.

How does it play out?

A) Does the blaster keep its extra hard point and attachment? This could mean someone with the Tinkerer talent can add extra hard points to items all day long as long as she doesn't keep the item.

B) Does the blaster suddenly have an attachment fall off that can't seem to be reattached? Which one? Chosen at random?

Your call, but without the details can't really say what my opinion would be, but in general if it's a PC trying to loophole the rules the answer is no.

I agree with 2P51.

RAW is that the tech can only modify a piece of gear once, and can only modify a total number of items equal to his ranks of tinkerer. So I would let the item stand with the extra hard point and attachment. If the tinkerer is a PC and has left the game permanently then consider it looting "superior" gear. If the tinkerer is still around then it remains as part of his total items tinkered.

But I would definitely not allow a second tinkerer to add a second HP.

I personally would go with 'B' and would chose whatever attachment made the most sense or was the most entertaining to lose (not that it would matter unless they were in the middle of a fight; they could just swap the attachment out with the one they were least interested in).

A PC "recovers" a light blaster pistol that its former owner, an Outlaw Tech, Tinkered, Jury Rigged, and modified.

I know the Jury Rigging goes away. In effect, Jury Rigged items must be lovingly maintained by the Jury Rigger to keep its benefit.

But what about the extra hard point from the Tinkering? The full talent description says that if the Tinkered item is lost, she can apply the talent elsewhere. That's nice for someone with the talent, but what happens to the Tinkered item?

Especially in a case where the extra hard point is in use.

How does it play out?

A) Does the blaster keep its extra hard point and attachment? This could mean someone with the Tinkerer talent can add extra hard points to items all day long as long as she doesn't keep the item.

B) Does the blaster suddenly have an attachment fall off that can't seem to be reattached? Which one? Chosen at random?

This is the point where as a GM I look the player square in the eye as say "What is the REAL question here?". Because most likely the question being asked is "Can I mooch an extra hard point on to this weapon by using some dubious logic and circular arguments?"

My answer would be unless the PCs have a member in the group that has ranks in Tinkerer, and they choose to use it on the weapon in question, it does not get an extra hard point.

Here is the thing. NPC weapons and NPC's do not follow the rules for character or item creation. They can have anything you want them to have. The balancing factor for this is that if the item is taken by the PC's then they get the benefits of the item.

The scope on a rifle doesn't magically disappear that is silly.

As a GM when creating cool devices/weapons/ships make sure you understand that your players may gain access to them, so don't break your game.

In terms of players doing this I view jury rig as a behind the scenes maintenance action to maintain it and without the talent eventually though not right away it would lose the jury rig bonus. I'd probably let it go a session or two and then note that it hasnt been maintained and loses the bonus.

In terms of tinkerer I am fine with the item being perm modified if a player died or left the game, but add a (despair) can make the weapon lose an attached mod/HP or whenever it is damaged it loses the mod/HP.

No, no one is attempting mooches or end-run runarounds. I'm just wondering what happens to an item that has had an extra hard point put on it through Tinkerer and the tech no longer owns the item. What happens to that extra hard point?

Giving it some further thought, though, I think it's a bit like the Jury Rigged. The extra hard point is a benefit as long as the character, be it PC or NPC, has possession of the item and lovingly maintains it.

Once (permanently) gone, the Jury Rigged and the Tinkerer benefits go as well. Narratively, the new owner has no idea how the techie was fiddling with it to have that laser sighting or that blaster actuating module or whatever stay in place, and the attachment keeps falling off. Mechanically, it might even still function as it did - until a Despair (or three Threats maybe) is rolled and the attachment "falls off."

Which attachment falls off? Whichever makes the most sense, as Vorzakk suggests above. A Laser Sight will fall off before a Gene Lock does. Custom Grips will deteriorate before a Filed Front Site grows back.

My GM, who is infinite in his wisdom (I say without any thought going to the facts that he is my dad, he will probably read this and it's about a week before Christmas), plays it that these things need the periodic attention of a character with the associated talents so we play it much as magnus arcanis suggests.

It feels weird that there's a limit on the number of items a character can modify if he doesn't need to pay ongoing attention to the modifications. It also creates weird situations if a modded item is lost or stolen. Does that mod fail? Can the character mod a new one until the old one is destroyed? And if they can, what's the mechanism that causes the old mod to cease working?

We can handwave it and just call it a narrative thing but that's an ugly place to be where you're letting the narrative interfere with the player's verisimilitude. Weird mechanisms and such fare no better. The simplest explanation, at leaset as we viewed it, is that someone with the proper talent has to pay attention to the modded item or the mod will fail.

But ymmv. This is just how we play it. Your group may be fine with doing it some other way and you'd be no less right.

I should get that last bit added to my siggy.

This is the point where as a GM I look the player square in the eye as say "What is the REAL question here?". Because most likely the question being asked is "Can I mooch an extra hard point on to this weapon by using some dubious logic and circular arguments?"

One of my players, as a joke, drew up a little drinking game for my campaign. The very first item was "Take a drink every time James says 'What are you actually asking me?'"

A PC "recovers" a light blaster pistol that its former owner, an Outlaw Tech, Tinkered, Jury Rigged, and modified.

I know the Jury Rigging goes away. In effect, Jury Rigged items must be lovingly maintained by the Jury Rigger to keep its benefit.

But what about the extra hard point from the Tinkering? The full talent description says that if the Tinkered item is lost, she can apply the talent elsewhere. That's nice for someone with the talent, but what happens to the Tinkered item?

Especially in a case where the extra hard point is in use.

How does it play out?

A) Does the blaster keep its extra hard point and attachment? This could mean someone with the Tinkerer talent can add extra hard points to items all day long as long as she doesn't keep the item.

B) Does the blaster suddenly have an attachment fall off that can't seem to be reattached? Which one? Chosen at random?

How I run it: For every day that the item has attachments mounted in excess of its normal limit of hard points, it becomes damaged one step unless it is maintained (no action, just a few minutes of interacting with it in downtime) by the individual that applied the Tinkerer talent to it. This damage cannot be repaired so long as the item remains over its normal limit of hard points.

So, sure, you can benefit from the Tinkerer talent used by the previous owner, but you won't be able to maintain the item for very long in such a state.

How I run it: For every day that the item has attachments mounted in excess of its normal limit of hard points, it becomes damaged one step unless it is maintained (no action, just a few minutes of interacting with it in downtime) by the individual that applied the Tinkerer talent to it. This damage cannot be repaired so long as the item remains over its normal limit of hard points.

So, sure, you can benefit from the Tinkerer talent used by the previous owner, but you won't be able to maintain the item for very long in such a state.

Regretfully, I “... have reached your quota of positive votes for the day”, so I literally cannot like this post enough.