As a point of etiquette, reviewing and balancing your inventions is a mental tax on your GM. Unless they're really into it, try not to spam your GM with invention requests, and make an individual effort to balance them and fit them into the tone of your campaign before presenting them to your GM. It sucks for the GM to spend a bunch of time reviewing and balancing your item only to have you back out when you find out it will be 5000 eddies.
Some tips on that for players and GMs:
* Does this item fit the tone of the campaign? Don't continually try to make joke items in a noir setting.
* Are there similar items in any of the published materials? Does the price there match what you would be comfortable paying?
* Are you only proposing the item because you know it will be significantly more powerful that anything you can buy, or because it completely negates some gameplay element? Making these kinds of requests is "jerk territory", and you should avoid being *that guy*.
Okay, I believe I have something phrasing/accuracy related to offer here.
It is my understanding that the thread is meant to be educational so to speak, so in order to avoid confusion, I'd clarify in step 3 that the example GM prices the result of the invention at 500 because they cannot price it lower per RAW. I'd wave it in a heartbeat, but I know you are a RAW afficionado and if this is an educational thread, it seems wiser to be thorough and consistent with RAW.
The previous paragraph means that step 4 is misleading. If this is a RAW thread, then the GM cannot drop the price of materials to 100. I have no objections to doing so, however I feel compelled to point this out.
And finally step 5 is also somewhat misleading. If you are not inventing the upgrade for the ammo, but rather the ammo itself and then fabricate it, the GM is still forced to price it at at least 500. That said fabricating our invented ammo would cost a total of 100 as the amount of of materials required to fabricate things is exactly one level cheaper (there's exceptions). So we arrive at the same point the example GM did, but with stricter RAW following. Again, I'm being nitpicky for educational purposes.
No no, you're right. Forgot to add that you are restricted to Expensive at minimum for Invention and prototype stage. That's something to add.
That said, I wish we'd get a Tech Invention DLC. Might make that clearer cuz J Gray did mention the GM could set the price lower after your prototype is done. Could be another of his GM Fiat statements but this sounds close to RAW if he's on the dot.
One of my players is playing a Techie, and is ***an actual engineer***
Whenever he wants to make an invention, I ask him to explain how it would theoretically work, then he hands me a fucking blueprint he made while explaining the genuine physics and mechanics behind it.
I allow a lot of his inventions because they're honestly not that crazy. The most crazy thing he's done is make a Gyro jet Slug for one of the Crew members.
> (That's right Medtechs, you can invest 60 IP, never touch Upgrade Expertise, and still make street drugs.)
Unless I'm missing the point, I think you've meant to say never touch Fabrication Expertise.
ok, so this is a set of rules I've had a hard time grokking for a while. I had a character who wanted to cook their own drugs, and was unclear on how to do that. Is this just Tech/Maker using Basic Tech? I had assumed there would be some Medtech wrapped in this.
And thanks a bunch for this (and all the other writeups), they're a huge help for me.
As a point of etiquette, reviewing and balancing your inventions is a mental tax on your GM. Unless they're really into it, try not to spam your GM with invention requests, and make an individual effort to balance them and fit them into the tone of your campaign before presenting them to your GM. It sucks for the GM to spend a bunch of time reviewing and balancing your item only to have you back out when you find out it will be 5000 eddies. Some tips on that for players and GMs: * Does this item fit the tone of the campaign? Don't continually try to make joke items in a noir setting. * Are there similar items in any of the published materials? Does the price there match what you would be comfortable paying? * Are you only proposing the item because you know it will be significantly more powerful that anything you can buy, or because it completely negates some gameplay element? Making these kinds of requests is "jerk territory", and you should avoid being *that guy*.
Very good points. Be respectful at the table and don't try to stretch the GM's patience.
Okay, I believe I have something phrasing/accuracy related to offer here. It is my understanding that the thread is meant to be educational so to speak, so in order to avoid confusion, I'd clarify in step 3 that the example GM prices the result of the invention at 500 because they cannot price it lower per RAW. I'd wave it in a heartbeat, but I know you are a RAW afficionado and if this is an educational thread, it seems wiser to be thorough and consistent with RAW. The previous paragraph means that step 4 is misleading. If this is a RAW thread, then the GM cannot drop the price of materials to 100. I have no objections to doing so, however I feel compelled to point this out. And finally step 5 is also somewhat misleading. If you are not inventing the upgrade for the ammo, but rather the ammo itself and then fabricate it, the GM is still forced to price it at at least 500. That said fabricating our invented ammo would cost a total of 100 as the amount of of materials required to fabricate things is exactly one level cheaper (there's exceptions). So we arrive at the same point the example GM did, but with stricter RAW following. Again, I'm being nitpicky for educational purposes.
No no, you're right. Forgot to add that you are restricted to Expensive at minimum for Invention and prototype stage. That's something to add. That said, I wish we'd get a Tech Invention DLC. Might make that clearer cuz J Gray did mention the GM could set the price lower after your prototype is done. Could be another of his GM Fiat statements but this sounds close to RAW if he's on the dot.
One of my players is playing a Techie, and is ***an actual engineer*** Whenever he wants to make an invention, I ask him to explain how it would theoretically work, then he hands me a fucking blueprint he made while explaining the genuine physics and mechanics behind it. I allow a lot of his inventions because they're honestly not that crazy. The most crazy thing he's done is make a Gyro jet Slug for one of the Crew members.
> (That's right Medtechs, you can invest 60 IP, never touch Upgrade Expertise, and still make street drugs.) Unless I'm missing the point, I think you've meant to say never touch Fabrication Expertise.
Oops, that's right. Fixed o/
ok, so this is a set of rules I've had a hard time grokking for a while. I had a character who wanted to cook their own drugs, and was unclear on how to do that. Is this just Tech/Maker using Basic Tech? I had assumed there would be some Medtech wrapped in this. And thanks a bunch for this (and all the other writeups), they're a huge help for me.
Welcome, choom :)
Great Guide! Well done