Looking for playtesters for houserules and homebrews

Mutant Chronicles
21

Yumi

Description: While many may scoff at the prospect of using such an archaic weapon and hard to learn weapon when they could use a gun, if using modern materials and ingenuity a bow can still be a deadly weapon in modern warfare, especially for the stealthy Shadow Walkers, but warriors as dedicated to fighting and history as the samurai of Mishima have found use for them as well. Though most opt to focus on swordsmanship, there is a strong, but silent, minority that also choose to engage in archery and it’s been that way for centuries, but only after the Neronian Heresy and rise of Cybertronic have they been given the opportunity to use a bow fit for modern combat. Named after the traditional ancient Japanese wooden bows, the Yumi and it’s specialty high-tech monofilament tipped arrows are created mainly by a branch of the Mushashi family, who use Cybertronic materials and tech in the manufacturing, and ingenious design to make it as deadly and versatile as possible. While the family branch of Mushashi that makes these Yumis are small, they are not any less talented or dedicated in their art, and following the same rules as for Mushashi blades, a character can obtain a Mushashi Heirloom Yumi. As well, a Samurai can replace a ranged weapon they gain from one of their careers with a Yumi. Using a Yumi without being trained in bow use increases the Repercussion Range by 2 and Difficulty by 1

Restriction: 4

Cost: 10

Range: C

Damage: 1+3

Mode: Semi-automatic

Encumbrance: 3

Size: 2-H (cannot fire arrows if not using two hands)

Reliability: 4

Qualities: Collapsible, Custom Arrows, Muscle Powered, Silent, Unforgiving 1

Custom Arrows: The Reloads for custom Mushashi arrows that are used with a Yumi have a Restriction of 3 and a Cost of 4 for every Reload and the Yumi gets Armor Piercing 2 and also gains M for it’s Range as well as having C Range. Samurai are able to purchase special arrows for use with the Yumi and it’s Ammo Quality, which use use the Restriction (+1), Cost (+2), Damage code (if none, use the normal code), Qualities (as well as those of a Mushashi Arrow), of the grenades and missile types in Chapter 21 of the Core Rulebook and any others that would be applicable in Sourcebooks. These arrows are also still considered Munitions, so once used that Reload is consumed. Due to the slow handcrafted nature of the custom grenade arrows, each purchase of Reloads only provides 2 Reloads, instead of 3.

Collapsible: With a Standard Action, a character can collapse and uncollapse a Yumi. While a Yumi is collapsed, it’s considered a cudgel with Hidden 1 and has an Encumbrance of 1.

Muscle Powered: A Yumi can also gain the Damage modifiers for high and Supernatural Brawn (or Strength) as well as for Awareness.

Silent: A Yumi is almost completely silent when being fired, so when one is used to attack only characters with high Awareness (12+) or Supernatural Awareness can make a Test to hear the bow string be used, which calls for a D5 Observation Test.

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Sherman .74 M15 ‘Bolter Rifle’ Designated Marksman Rifle

Description: Created by Sherman to bridge the gap between assault rifles and sniper rifles in the Capitol Military, the M15 is basically an expansion of the Sherman company’s famous M13 ‘Bolter’ to have greater range and hit even harder. It comes with an integral bipod (PG 258) and telescopic scope (PG 259).

Restriction: 4

Cost: 9

Range: M

Damage: 1+5

Mode: Burst

Encumbrance: 5

Size: 2H

Reliability: 2

Qualities: Unforgiving 1, Vicious 1

23

X-Ray Eye (Cybertronic, EYE-Tronic upgrade)

Encumbrance: -

Restriction: 4

Cost: 12

Maintenance: -

Description: Thanks to a small black box implanted in the upper torso with a titanium sheathed cord leading up into the users EYE-Tronic from it, the EYE-Tronic is capable of seeing in X-Ray vision, up to a distance of Long Range. The vision is black and white and slightly blurred, making it poor for precision based tasks. Depending on the density of the material, the X-Ray vision can only penetrate so far, with up to 5 centimeters for dense metals, such as lead. While active, Tests that require precision, such as shooting firearms, picking locks, typing, ETC. have their Repercussion Range increased by 2.

24

Trench Knife (Imperial)

Description: The Imperial trenches are unsuited for melee combat with anything longer than a knife or shortsword, and a simple knife was deemed not optimal for the Trenchers and urban melee combat. Barely reaching the size of a shortsword, trench knives have high quality serrated blades with equally high quality steel knuckles affixed to the handle. The serrated blades are very important to the fighting in the trenches, due to the high likelihood of the bleeding wound becoming infected from the dirt and grime that collects on them. A key tactic is to dirty the blade beforehand, and when in a melee with an opponent they stun them with a strike from the knuckles and follow up with a near fatal slice across vital blood vessels, then run away. It’s expected that the injured soldier leaves the field to receive medical attention, but by then the wound usually becomes infected and days of recovery turns into weeks, logistics becomes more burdened, and it’s not unheard of for field hospitals to be filled by those injured from trench knives and died without being able to receive treatment. Imperial brings a slightly different meaning to “fighting dirty” with this tactic, and it works to their benefit, being the second smallest corporation and using whatever they can to win.

Restriction: 3

Cost: 6

Range: -

Damage: 1+4

Mode: -

Encumbrance: 2

Size: 1-H

Reliability: 5

Qualities: Grievous, Piercing 1, Steel Knuckles, Unforgiving 1

Steel Knuckles: The Trench Knife’s tempered steel knuckles count as a second wielded weapon for the purposes of making a Swift Action attack with them, and has the following profile for making an attack with them:

Damage: 1+3

Qualities: Stun, Vicious 1

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Blood Hungering Soul (Algeroth; melee weapons and throwing weapons only)

Description: The souls of spiritually powerful, bloodthirsty and psychotic extra dimensional creatures whose lust for blood kept sated make for effective and versatile enhancements to melee weapons, as seen by the Jahkts and Vasshts. However, if the spirits are abused and kept unfed for years they can go permanently insane with hunger and anger and become the ideal soul for an Ashreketh, but while being more powerful they lose a lot of versatility. Sane Hungering Souls give an imbued weapon an extra damage die, three more Corruption Factor and a point of Vicious and three of the following options:

Vicious: Grants the weapon a point of Vicious. Can be taken twice.

Vile: Grants the weapon the Vile Quality.

Strength Sapper: Grants the weapon the Knockdown Quality.

Thrown: Gives the weapon the Thrown Quality. If the weapon already has the Thrown Quality, its range is increased a step while also keeping the original Range. When thrown, the weapon returns to the owner.

Prey-Seeking: choose either to re-roll 1d20 rolled on an attack roll or ignore the target’s cover bonus if the weapon is thrown.

Symbiotic: For every 3 points of damage the weapon deals, the owner heals 1 wound, with Critical Wounds healed first, then Serious Wounds and finally Light Wounds.

Sane Blood Hungering Souls lose their benefits when used by somebody that has not fed it blood every day.

Insane Blood Hungering Souls are barely controllable and will wreak havoc on any weapon with complex mechanical components, but the simple weapons they are imbued with become much deadlier, but less versatile, than if their sane counterparts were imbued. Insane Souls give an extra CD, 5 more Corruption Factor, 1 point of Armor Piercing, 2 points of Vicious, Dreadful, and one of the options below.

Rending of Mind: The weapon gains the Mind Breaker and Stun Qualities

Rending of Body: The weapon gains the Gruesome and Vile Qualities

Rending of Soul: The weapon gains the Corrupting 3 Quality

Load: -

Encumbrance: -

Reliability: -

Restriction: -

Cost: -

Maintenance:-

26

Little Black String (General Gift)

Difficulty: 1

Action: Restricted for short and simple messages, Standard for long and complex messages

Target: Anywhere within Close Range

Duration: Indefinite

Base Effect: The Heretic uses the Dark Symmetry to create symbols and words invisible to the average human eye, only being able to be seen freely by those with access to this Gift, giving them an effective method for secret communication in public.

Bleed: For 1 Momentum/DSP, the use of this Gift cannot be detected by any character with less than 7 points invested in the Insight Skill.

27

Muawijhe Gift

Forgotten and Alone

Difficulty: 5

Action: Standard

Target: Touch

Duration: Permanent

Base Effect: With a single touch the victim is almost entirely erased from the memory of every living thing that has met him. This gift only wipes the memories of living creatures, any proof of the victim’s existence, such as pictures, videos or writing do not get wiped away suddenly and those closest to the victim have very vague feelings towards the victim they used to have and constantly experience moments of deja vu when with them and while it is possible for them remember certain strong memories, it is only possible with a Difficulty 4 Willpower Test and they will only remember fragments of those memories.

28

Land Mines

Every faction makes use of their own specialized mines and mine detection tools, but what is presented here are generic models.

Land mines are mainly hidden from plain sight on the ground, usually camouflaged to blend with the environment and explode when a certain amount of weight is applied to them, but given the many methods a mine can be made and activated, there’s room for creativity if one can afford the cost. There 3 tech level variations for triggers: low-tech, average-tech, and high-tech.

Low-tech activation is the default among most of the corps and has the Cost and Reliability in their profile, and are usually purely activated by weight or by triggering a fuze when a pin is removed, but occasionally there are remote detonators that are sold with them that add+1 Cost.

Mid-tech typically uses directional laser or motion sensors to trigger their explosions for anti-personnel mines, and acoustic sensors for anti-vehicle mines, on top of weight activation and a detonator is included by default (+2 Cost and -1 Reliability).

High-tech mines are only widely used and sold by Cybertronic, but there are some black markets and criminal organizations that sell high-tech mines. Such mines have cameras that can see through most covering camouflage and use limited Identify Friend Foe and visual recognition technology to avoid triggering on the wrong person, as well as being able to be manually detonated by EYE-Tronic or Cellular Link if unable to use a remote detonator (+4 Cost and Reliability -2 or double Cost and Reliability C if Cybertronic bought. Requires only a Restricted Action to set, and requires D2 Science to disarm and Mechanics disarming becomes D3).

An Acquisition of the mines below only provides two Reloads instead of three. A character can use unaltered grenade profiles with the activation methods above to represent small mines, and those provide 3 Reloads when purchased.

Anti-Personnel Mine (All)

Description: Anti-Personnel mines described here are large explosives compared to smaller mines, often a circular metal-cased object up to 18 inches (457 MM) in diameter, and using high explosives and fragmentation they can wipe out a large group of people or destroy a light vehicle when one is set off, usually due to being surprised.

Restriction: 5

Cost: 8

Range: -

Damage: 2+6

Mode: Munition

Encumbrance: 2 each

Size: Unbalanced

Reliability: 3

Qualities: Armor Piercing 1, Blast (Close), Area Denial, Set and Forget, Spread 1, Vicious 2

Set and Forget: Instead of being used as a standard ranged weapon, mines are usually placed on the ground, and hidden if desired. Setting a mine is a Standard Action and it’s placed within Reach, hiding it requires another Standard Action, which will prompt the character to make a Stealth Test against D0 to set the Difficulty for the Observation Test to detect the mine. Deactivating a mine requires a D2 Mechanics Test. If an object that meets the mines requirement for detonation activates it, then an attack is triggered against them, which is automatically successful, but if the affected aren’t surprised then Response Actions can still be used against a set Difficulty of 2.

Area Denial: Anti-Personnel Mines are guaranteed to do damage in a large area when they detonate. Anti-Personnel Mines generate 1 Momentum that must be used towards the Blast (Close) Quality when they explode.

29

Here’s a huge one (in both ways) to feast your eyes on. I had spat of low motivation over the past couple of weeks, but since I have been able to actually play and test some things in the past week, I’ve been feeling a lot better and managed to knock this out in 3 days.

Romanov-Fieldhausen Goliath Mega-tank

Description: The Goliath is a class of tank long in the making, but was impossible to create until mankind left Earth to strip the solar system of resources to make such monstrosities as the Goliath. While the modern Goliath is a shadow of their original high-tech models, they managed to be adjusted to a lower tech level mostly fine. Weighing almost a thousand tons, reaching several stories high, bristling with high-class weaponry, and armored to the gills, Goliaths are almost considered a weapon of mass destruction and rarely brought long distances without being towed, mostly due to the massive amount of fuel consumed by them. The times they ever go farther than a few kilometers on their own is when they are used to trample large swathes of Venusian jungle for Bauhaus soldiers and vehicles to advance quickly.

Only the Elector Houses and Great Houses own more than one Goliath, and the Romanovs are the only House that gives one to every member of the main bloodline when they choose to join the military. The top of every Goliath has an observation deck made of Fessilite imported from Capitol, which allows the main commander, usually the owner of the Goliath, an unobstructed view from the top of the tank and coordinate the large mortar further back in the deck and admire the destruction their metal monstrosity wreaks while they shout inspiring words through the radio that is also connected to loudspeakers on the outside of the mega-tank. Further down, a secondary commander helps coordinate all the gunners and makes sure nothing bothers the main commander. As well, the main commander usually brings their retinue with them inside of the Goliath, usually a few servants and a couple of squads of Order Guards (from their own House, naturally)

There are a few variations of the main Goliath model, such as the ones used to clear jungle, the “Venusian Razor”, which really only just have saw blades between the treads to aid in removing brush and belligerent Venusian monstrosities standing in their way (Saw blades add +3 Dice to Impact damage and Spread 2, Vicious +2 added to Impact Damage). A few less seen are the “Moles”, a variation that replaces the front side turrets and main hull cannon with industrial grade mining drills with modifications to make them military worthy, as well adding a pair on the top front sides, and are used mainly to make tunnels through mountains for shortcutting, assisting in sieges, or with a bit of help recently from Cybertronic technology (before, the poor damn infantry had to lay the groundwork for a starting tunnel), the Moles can drill downward and emerge in the center or rear of enemy lines and cause havoc with their still sizable arsenal and squadrons of vehicles following behind (Drills add 3+6 Impact Damage and Armor Piercing 6, Spread 2 and Vicious +3 to Impact Damage). A Special variation was given to the Brotherhood as a gift and is called the “God Killer” and was made specifically with the Brotherhood to be one of the greatest weapons to bring to bear against the Dark Apostles, (All weapons have Pious 2, and the commander’s observation deck and the rear turret have been expanded to hold Brotherhood commander’s thrones that add the following: While seated upon the commander’s throne, a Mystic gains three bonus Momentum on his Mysticism Test when casting any damage dealing spell. There’s probably more, but that can be it’s own profile, like with the Frigates in the Brotherhood book)

Restriction: 5

Cost: 100

Maintenance: 12

Reliability: 4

Qualities: Enclosed, Gun Ports, Massive, Ponderous, Reactive Armor, Rugged, Tracked, What Has Man Wrought? (3)

Cruising Speed: 30 KPH

Combat Maneuverability: 0

Crew: 2 commanders

1 pilot and 1 co-pilot

20 gunners

Carrying Capacity:

18 Passengers

200 Enc

Soak H: 18 MS: 12 W: 10

Surface Damage H: 25 MS: 16 W: 12

System Damage H: 18 MS: 8 W: 6

Critical Damage H: 15 MS: 8 W: 6

Impact Damage: 5+8 (Knockdown, Vicious 1)

Armaments:

Hull Mounted Cannon:
K-300 “Dragon Annihilator’’ Cannon (Ranged): E, 5+10, Munition, Armor Piercing 5, Blast (Close), Knockdown, Slow Loading 2, Unforgiving 2, Vicious 3.
Manned by 2 crewmen, a designated loader and gunner, but the two are equally trained and can switch positions or the gunner can assist to load the cannon in one Round. There are 12 Reloads for the K-300

Commander’s Observation Deck:
350mm Mortar: Range E, 3+8, Munition, Blast (Medium), Dreadful, Knockdown, Slow Loading 1, Vicious 2.
Manned by 2 gunners, an assistant gunner loads while the gunner is directed by the commander in the deck to position it and then fires the Mortar. There are 15 Reloads for the 350 mm Mortar

Front Facing Main Turret
Twin K-180 Cannon: Range L, 3+7, Semi-Automatic, Armour Piercing 2, Spread 1, Unforgiving 2
230mm Mortar: Range L, 2+7, Munition, Blast (Close), Dreadful, Knockdown, Vicious 2
Both weapons are each manned by 1 gunner. There are 15 Reloads for the Twin K-180. There are 20 Reloads for the 230mm Mortar.

Front Facing Secondary Turret
Quadruple Barrel AZ-61: Range C, 1+6, Automatic, Ammo (Torrent), Knockdown, Spread 4, Vicious 1
Two K-60 Autocannons: Range L, 2+8, Semi-Automatic, Armour Piercing 2, Vicious 1
The three weapons are each manned by 1 gunner. There are 30 Reloads for the Quadruple Barreled AZ-61. There are 20 Reloads for each K-60 Autocannon

Rear Facing Turret
K-180 Cannon: Range L, 3+7, Munition, Armour Piercing 2, Unforgiving 2
Two K-60 Autocannons: Range L, 2+8, Semi-Automatic, Armour Piercing 2, Vicious 1
The three weapons are each manned by 1 gunner. There are 30 Reloads for the K-180 Cannon. There are 20 Reloads for each K-60 Autocannon.

Two Front Side Turrets
Gehenna Super Puker: Range C, 2+6, Munition, Incendiary 4, Torrent, Vicious 1
Twin Bergdahl LMGs: Range M, 1+6, Automatic, Dependable, Spread 3
Each turret is manned by 1 gunner. There are 10 Reloads for each Gehenna. There are 21 Reloads for each Twin Bergdahl.

Two Middle Side Turrets
ARG-17 Rocket Launcher: Range L, as Grenade +2, Munition, Qualities as Grenade as well as adding Unforgiving 1
Twin Bergdahl LMGs: Range M, 1+6, Automatic, Dependable, Spread 3
Each turret is manned by 1 gunner. There are 10 Reloads (no specific type of grenade/missiles) for each ARG-17. There are 21 Reloads for each Twin Bergdahl.

Two Rear Side Turrets
“Atlas” Megacannon: Range L, 2+7, Automatic, Armor Piercing 1, Spread 3, Vicious 1
Each turret is manned by 1 gunner. There are 30 Reloads for each Megacannon

Two AA Turrets
Twin MG-90 HMGs: Range L, 2+6, Automatic, Spread 3, Vicious 1
AA Missiles: Range L, 2+7, Munition, Armor Piercing 2, Unforgiving 3, Vicious 1
Each turret is manned by 1 gunner. There are 15 Reloads for each Twin MG-90. There are 4 Reloads for the AA Missiles

Notes:
K-300 and 350mm Mortar cannot attack targets within Close Range.
AA Turrets can only hit ground targets that are Long Range away.

The Commander’s Observation Deck is entirely made of Capitolian Fesselite, which acts as a one-way
mirror while being as tough as depleted Uranium, negating Observation penalties from
the Enclosed Quality for the commander and gunners in the deck

The What Has Man Wrought? (3) Quality means that the Goliath has a Fear Rating of 3

The Reactive Armor Quality means that when a Goliath has taken 10 or more points of damage to a location (after Soak), it may reduce it’s Soak in that location to reduce the damage of the attack by half. Soak can only be reduced to 3/4ths of it’s original value (18 Hull Soak can only be reduced to 12. System default is rounding down, remember?)

The Massive Quality means that a Goliath may treat anything within Close range as being within Reach. Further, any creature making a close combat attack against a Golaith increases the difficulty by one step, but any creature attempting a ranged attack against the Goliath reduces the difficulty by one step instead. The Goliath inflicts an automatic 1+5 damage with the Spread 1 and Knockdown qualities on any creature that attempts to make a close combat attack against it and fails.

The Gun Ports Quality means that passengers and crew inside a Goliath can expose themselves with a Restricted Action to be able to attack targets outside the Goliath, but they can be attacked while the gun port is open with the benefit of 8DSD Cover Soak. It is a Restricted action to close a gun port

The weapons cannot attack an enemy already attacked by weapons on the opposite facing (rear facing weapons cannot attack whatever front facing weapons have already attacked, and one side turret cannot attack what a side turret on the other facing has attacked)

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30

Cyberized Venusian Raptor (Elite)

Description: As part of Cybertronic’s Drone Implementation Program, they have moved onto converting wildlife into cyborg drones, with mixed success, but finding the Venusian Raptors to be the most successful subjects for conversion. Cyber Raptors are not infertile after being cyberized and with extensive genetic engineering and selective breeding, the current generation of Cyber Raptors (Clutch 10) are exquisite specimens, even before they receive their implants, and Bauhaus Nobles squabble during hatchings to purchase one. Hatchlings are reared in relative safety near Cyberport, but as soon as they reach adolescence, they receive their implants. While the obvious implants are represented in the mechanics below, Cyber Raptors received a few revolutionary prototype implants in their surgeries, among them are the Dynamic Recycling System, and Sentience Enhancing via Cybernetics. The DRS is part Cybernetic and part Nanotech, essentially implanted throughout the entire body, and allows for the recipient to consume material adjacent to their physical makeup and recycle it within a central processor, which is then quickly distributed via nanomachines, allowing for quick damage recovery in the field without destabilizing the subject’s metabolism. The SEvC is essentially a low-tier uplifting of the recipients’ brain and due to the nature of the enhancements and the Drone Remote Control System, there are fail safes that can render the recipient braindead in case of problems with their sentience. Because of the SEvC, Cyber Raptors are partly considered employees of Cybertronic and are capable of understanding fluent Luna Patois and the basics of the other main corporate languages, but depending on where they are expected to go, they learn fluency on all local languages, as well as being able to speak using a cybernetic vocalizer.

The Cyber Raptors are a hugely popular media sensation since their inception 25 years ago, especially spawning pan-corporate fandoms around the hit movie series, based off of Cybertronic combat records from their Raptors, Riptor vs X (the most popular one being “Riptor VS Megython”)

AG: 12 (+1) AW: 10 (+) BR: 13 (+1/2) CO: 10 (+) INT: 6 (+) MEN: 12 (+) PER: 10 (+)

Combat: 3/2 Fortitude: 2/2 Movement: 3/2 Senses: 2/2 Social: 0/0 Technical: 0/0

Wounds H: T: A: L: S: 11 C: M:

Soak (Titanium Scaling and Thick Hide) H: 4 T: 4 A: 4 L: 4

Corruption Soak: C

Attacks:

Plasma Claws: 2+7, Armor Piercing 1, Incendiary 3, Vicious 1, Vile

Titanium Serrated Teeth: 2+8, Armor Piercing 2, Gruesome, Vicious 1

Integrated Gehenna Puker: 2+8, Range C, Munition, Incendiary 4, Torrent, Vicious 1

Integrated PR4000: 1+8, Range M, Burst, Incendiary 2, Vicious 2

Special Rules:

Drone Remote Control System: A Cyber Raptor can be remotely piloted and guided by an operator from their EYE-tronic with a specially made program, or for a more personal experience, possession through a subreality connection. DIANAs can instantly form a subreality connection, thus being able to transfer between NPC possessing Drone Remote Control Systems as a Free Action at any point. Control via EYE-Tronic has more room for error from the pilot, incurring +1 Repercussion Range to all physical based Tests. If possessing a Cyber Raptor, there are no penalties to any Tests made by the Possessor. Regardless of controlling or possessing, the character may use their Mental Ability Scores and Talents in place of the Cyber Raptor’s, and can be assisted by them if the character has not made their consciousness become dormant while in control.

Clever Girl: When they are in an environment that they are programmed to excel in, Cyberized Venusian Raptors gain an additional point of Expertise and Focus in Senses and Movement.

Grasping

Inured to Pain

Night Vision

Supernatural Agility 1

Supernatural Brawn 1/2

Rip and Tear: Cyberized Venusian Raptors reduce the cost of the Swift Strike Momentum spend by 1 if their next Action is an attack or movement Action and can make a 2nd purchase of the spend if it’s with an unused attack. As well, when they consume large amounts of meat, either as a dedicated Action (such as eating a corpse) or as part of their attack with their teeth, they gain Fast Healing (1) for the Scene, stacking up to a max of 3. As well, they may re-roll up to 3DSD for both melee and ranged attacks.

What has Man Wrought? (2): Considered to have Fear (2). Regardless of seeing one in the movie theater or not, encountering a Cyber Raptor that’s going to kill you is still a terrifying experience.

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A1 Detective Wannabe

Description: If there is one thing that is universal across all walks of life, it’s that detectives are pretty dang cool. Of course the context changes between cultures, the Capitolian gumshoe and loosecannon archetypes portrayed as heroes are seen as an antagonists in Mishima culture, where the law-abiding Watchmen and Magistrates often straddle the thin line of law and justice to catch their criminal, but they are always somebody that a child somewhere looks up to and want to become. Of course reality is harsher than that, as most parents don’t want their kid to become a detective, and would rather have them slave away in a corporate cubicle or direct people slaving away in the cubicles. A few of the many poor kids that really aren’t able to receive a formal education from their parents or a school, the kind that grow up on a farm or learn from the streets, grow up in a fantasy world where they are a detective and learn from it as they grow up, usually following up into private investigation or formal police work when they’ve (usually) become bitter and nihilistic adults.

Attribute Improvements: AG: 1 AW: 2 BR: 0 CO: 1 INT: 2 MS: 1 PER: 1

Mandatory skills: Observation, Insight, Athletics, Persuade, Education

Elective skills: Thievery, Ranged Combat, Pilot

Talents: One from any of the associated Skills above

Free Career: Police

Equipment: ballistic trench coat, fedora, pair of light civilian shoulder pad, Piranha Handgun.

Special: If a player rolls the normal A1 result for Education, Grew Up on the Streets, they can choose this Education instead, otherwise this Education can be chosen as an alternative.

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32

You should do some of these as PDF’s with graphics from Core rules and Source books.

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33

Now that you mention it, the way the designers made the PDFs, I can actually easily copy and paste the graphics and artwork themselves without any text or text boxes into Scribus and with a bit of editing I can fit them in and make a PDF that pretty much would look like an actual book of the line. I just need to focus on a subject until I can make a decent sized book, which would probably first be the houserules, which honestly still need a lot of boring busywork done, mainly filling in blanks from skills that don’t exist in the shortened skill list and reassigning lost attribute points due to Physique and Strength being combined to make Brawn, and universal home brews, which I actually have very little of.

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B5 Conartist’s Child

Description: While you did technically receive an education, the person you truly learned from was your con artist parent. From perfecting your fake smile, fake fortunes and psychic readings, betraying your partners and knowing when they’ll betray you, to establishing a pyramid scheme. You’ve learned so many dirty and unscrupulous means by which you can take what you want, mainly money and attention. While you will likely be convicted of white collar crimes if you continue down that path, you’re going to be so damn rich with your money hidden away that it won’t really matter, if you can’t buy it out, you can wait it out in a cushy prison far away from the serial killers and poor people that wanted to be like you, but couldn’t be you before they were caught.

Attribute Improvements: AG: 1 AW: 2 BR: 0 CO: 0 INT: 2 MS: 2 PER: 3

Mandatory skills: Persuade, Education, Lifestyle, Observation, Insight

Elective skills: Persuade, Command, Willpower

Talents: One from any of the associated Skills above

Free Career: Criminal and Executive

Equipment: 6 Assets

Special: When rolling or choosing the Management Experience Education, you may choose this Education instead. If you roll or choose Langfrey Business School on the Imperial Education table, you can choose this Education instead. If your character ever ends up getting a Criminal Record or similar equivalent, they may instead spend all 6 Assets gained from this Education to negate it, after all, money is power in the corporate world.

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C4 Groomed Assassin

Description: You were raised to be a coldblooded killer, presumably by a criminal organization, but the corporations’ clandestine operations aren’t above doing such things with children. Regardless of being raised by a hitman as part of the “family business” or by Imperial’s Murders and Acquisitions Department, you are silent and deadly, but Cardinal forbid you have to carry a conversation.

Attribute Improvements: AG: 3 AW: 2 BR: 1 CO: 2 INT: 1 MS: 1 PER: 0

Mandatory skills: Stealth, Acrobatics, Close Combat, Ranged Weapons, Observation

Elective skills: Mechanics, Athletics, Thievery

Talents: One from any of the associated Skills above

Free Career: Criminal and Military

Equipment: Handgun of choice, silencer (damage 1), laser sight, Slicer

Special: When rolling or choosing the Officer Training Education, you may choose this Education instead. If you roll or choose Paxton Military School on the Imperial Education table, you can choose this Education instead. (OPTIONAL) Due to your character spending their entire youth learning to be a silent killer, the Difficulty to enter into Iconic Careers that are related to assassinations and stealthy fighting are reduced by 1, down to 0 if possible. However, such an upbringing has left your character’s soul more malleable to the Dark Symmetry, reducing their Corruption Soak by 1, which stacks with “having a criminal background”, possibly bringing it down to 0.

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36

B2 Police Academy

Description: From the BLEUs of Bauhaus to the Politsiya of Whitestar, almost no matter where you go in civilization there is law enforcement ready to crack heads and cuff hands. These people are usually trained to take these positions from training at official law enforcement academies where they learn the means to take action against crime, and behind closed doors, how to skirt the line of jurisdiction so a criminal doesn’t think they are safe just because they crossed a corporate location line.

Attribute Improvements: AG: 1 AW: 2 BR: 1 CO: 2 INT: 1 MS: 1 PER: 2

Mandatory skills: Close Combat, Persuade, Observation, Pilot, Education

Elective skills: Willpower, Athletics, Ranged Weapons

Talents: One from any of the associated Skills above

Free Career: Police

Equipment: baton (or bladed nightstick if Bauhaus), faction appropriate handgun, pair of heavy civilian shoulder pads, ballistic nylon police academy uniform.

Special: When rolling or choosing the Technical Pre-career Training Education, you may choose this Education instead. If you roll or choose Hampshire Law School on the Imperial Education table, you can choose this Education instead.

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C5 Espionage Academy

Description: Just like detectives, spies are pretty cool, all the cool corporations use them, and it’s not punishable if they aren’t caught. However, not just anyone can suddenly be a competent spy that’s relied on, those people usually spend years learning it from semi-secret corporate academies. While they do often go into their corporation’s espionage units, some end up going into law enforcement special divisions work such as becoming Luna PD Internal Affairs or Forensics specialists.

Attribute Improvements: AG: 2 AW: 2 BR: 0 CO: 0 INT: 3 MS: 1 PER: 2

Mandatory skills: Insight, Stealth, Persuade, Education, Observation

Elective skills: Mechanics, Science, Thievery

Talents: One from any of the associated Skills above

Free Career: Police and Intelligence

Equipment: Binoculars, Parabolic Microphone, Surveillance Kit, Wireless Transmitter

Special: When rolling or choosing the Managerial Education Education, you may choose this Education instead. If you roll or choose Serenity’s Law School on the Imperial Education table, you can choose this Education instead.

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All of that work, and nothing to bring the obviously broken/unbalanced magic system in line? In fact the only changes I see to the Art are buffs? Am I the only one bothered by the magic economy being based around repucussions that will never happen due to re-rolls and mental wounds that can be removed with more spellcasting?

You even buffed…Swiftness? I mean okay, if that sort of thing feels necessary to you your game is playing out very differently from mine.

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In a group with users of The Art and some Mutants or Enlightened Martial-Artists, non-supernaturally powered characters cannot keep up with this power-level.
But as a GM it is still easy to challenge those characters - though, what would challenge those characters will next to outright kill non-powered characters.

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It’s playtesting for a reason, and as you can see from the lack of responses, I’m not exactly getting to do a whole lot of it. Besides that, I have no direct buffs to Arts besides upping Lightning (it seemed pretty wimpy before, but still needs to be tested, see what I said up above?) and the only side-buffs are small ones that will let them move farther with Swifteness (which they could already do since it’s never specified that a character can only take one movement action), and deal a bit more damage with Inferno, god forbid! Other than that, nearly all the Brotherhood spells that are attacks specify whether they are a ranged or melee attack and benefit from normal increased damage. If anything, Dark Symmetry Powers have become more stronger from my rulings compared to the Arts.

I have pretty much changed nothing in regards to the overall power level tiers, except for cyborg PCs who can now get Supernatural ratings after a ton of investments into ware (which, guess what, I still need to test!) I get it, you don’t like how the devs handled magic, they made an intentional Linear Fighter, Quadratic Wizard scenario. The fixes you want are simple and only take a minute to think over for me, make the Spellcasting difficulties higher by default ( 3s and 4s instead of 1s and 2s, thus increasing Repercussion Ranges and chance of failure) double Repercussion Range for casting Spells, specify that Spells don’t get bonus damage dice, change power controllers so that all they do is make the character take extra Dread instead of Mental Wounds for more D20s (for an in-game option, corrupt or shot them, they are big and bulky, so give a bonus to hitting,) give Swiftness Concentration, or combine all of the above! Of course I’d only do this to balance out a PC playing an Art user with all normies if I wanted a power level closer to the normies.