Mano a Mano:Manufacturing and Modification

Manufacturing and Modification

Some abilities can be used to create or modify items or even other characters. A game's equipment list will describe how each ability is used. (See Game Design/Abilities/Craftsmanship.)

Craftsmanship can be used to create armor and weapons from an equipment list, to modify armor and weapons, or to create new items designed by a player or GM.

A game might have a "robotics" ability that allows you to build a lunar rover robot, or modify such a robot by mounting a gun to it.

Difficulty Modifier

Find the character point (CP) value that the item or character will have after it is created or modified. The difficulty modifier is one percent of this CP value, rounded to the nearest whole number. For example, the difficulty modifier for creating a spear worth 1950 CP is 20. (See Game Design/Equipment/Equipment Lists and Game Design/Equipment/Equipment CP.)

Characters created by other characters are called artificial characters. Examples from popular fiction include the monster created by Dr. Frankenstein, and Robby the Robot created by Dr. Morbius. When the new artificial character is a unique life form or machine requiring a new template, increase the difficulty modifier by 2.

Some modifications affect things the character inherits from their template such as limbs, natural weapons and armor, speed, agility, power and health modifier. Use the template CP rules to determine the CP value of the modifications. For example, if an extra limb is added to a character the CP value is the difference adding the extra limb would make to the CP of the character's template.

If the character is in a culture where this kind of item or artificial character is rare, add 1 to the difficulty. If the culture deliberately avoids creating this kind of item or artificial character, add 1 more to the difficulty modifier. For example robots might be unpopular in a high tech culture (+1 difficulty) or weapons might be forbidden in a pacifist community (+2 difficulty.)

The difficulty modifier is increased by 2 if the type of technology being used to create the item or character is undeveloped compared to the culture's other technology. For example, the Inca empire had many well-developed technologies for it's time, but it did not have steel for making certain types of equipment, like swords and plate armor. A character making those kinds of weapons among the Inca would have a +2 difficulty modifier as a result.

Difficulty Modifiers for Artificial Characters (in addition to 1% of the new character's CP)

Difficulty Modifier:		Additional Factors:
+1		The type of artificial character is rare in this culture, or if the culture deliberately avoids this kind of character,
+2		The artificial character unique life form or prototype, or if technology used is underdeveloped compared to other technology in culture

Success Modifier

The success modifier is the modifier of the ability used to create or modify the item or character plus technology and tool quality modifiers from the following table. Add 1 to the success modifier if the character is in a culture where similar items or methods of creating characters is common. Add 1 more to the success modifier if the character is in a culture which specializes in making this type of item or character.

Modifier		Technology		Tool Quality		Culture Specializes		Common Methods
+0		Stone age		Makeshift / lacking materials		no		no
+1		Bronze age		Low quality / cheap		yes		yes
+2		Iron age		Typical / mediocre
+3		Steel age		High quality / expensive
+4		Industrial		State of the art / very rare
+5		Mechanized
+6		Cybernetic
+7		Futuristic

Time Modifier

If the success modifier is greater than the difficulty modifier, then the time modifier is 0. Otherwise the time modifier is the difficulty modifier minus the success modifier. Use the chart below to find the time required to create the item based on it's time modifier. If the time modifier is greater than 8, then the character cannot create or modify the item or character.

If the modifications to an item or character will only increase it's CP by 100 CP or less, the modifications take half as long. If the modifications to an item or character will increase it's CP by 101-200 CP, the modifications take 25% less time.

Modifier		New or more than 200 CP added		101-200 CP added		1-100 CP added
0		15 minutes		15 minutes		15 minutes
+1		30 minutes		30 minutes		15 minutes
+2		1 hour		45 minutes		30 minutes
+3		2 hours		90 minutes		1 hour
+4		4 hours		3 hours		2 hours
+5		8 hours		6 hours		4 hours
+6		16 hours		12 hours		8 hours
+7		32 hours		24 hours		16 hours
+8		64 hours		48 hours		32 hours

Surgery

When a character performs surgery, a success roll is required. The surgeon's medicine ability is used for the success roll, and the difficulty of the surgery is added to the roll against success. Superficial operations like cutting hair or sharpening claws, which only affect non-living tissue, do not require a roll. Surgery which does not directly affect vital organs has a difficulty between 0 and 5. Surgery which affects vital organs or involves other major changes has a difficulty between 5 and 10.

If the roll succeeds, healing from the surgery only affect the character's performance for a few days. If the roll fails, the character must spend an extra month healing. If the roll fails by more than 5, the character dies.

We should get more specific about the impact and duration of healing.

Modifying organic characters requires surgery.

This should be part of the modification rules or the mechanical vs. organic character definition.

Difficulty		Type of Modification
0		no living tissue affected (sharpening claws)
2		no significant effect on organs, muscles or bones (implanting an explosive device.)
4		modifications to non-vital organs (removing an appendix)
6		significant muscle or skeleton modification (amputation, limb lengthening)
8		modification to vital organs or peripheral nervous system (heart transplant, new limbs)
10		major modifications involving central nervous system (add a new head and spinal column)

Make an Item - Equipment Generation Example

We will use our Steven character from the character creation example to make a new weapon. (See Character Creation/Make a Character.) Steven has craftsmanship ability with a modifier of 2.

1. Design the weapon

We decide Steven is making a "machete". The mass of the machete is 0.5 kilograms, worth 1 CP. The machete's 5 power is worth 50 CP. The machete's 3 heft is worth -30 CP. The total CP is 21 so far. (-30 + 60 + 1 = 31.) Having no shots feature (not requiring ammunition or reloading) is worth 20 CP. We add 20 CP for the sharp feature for a final total of 61 CP. In other words, Steven wants to make this machete:

machete (81 CP, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, sharp)

2. Find the Maximum CP We start with Steven's craftsmanship modifier (2). We subtract 1 from this because Steven is only taking a few days make the machete. We add a circumstance modifier of 1 because his culture specializes in making machetes. We multiply the result by 50 CP because Steven is in a culture that has "ancient" technology. The maximum CP is 100 CP: (2 craftsmanship ability - 1 time modifier + 1 circumstance modifier) × 50 technology CP.

3. Compare Maximum CP to the CP of the Designed Weapon

Since the maximum CP (100) is equal to or greater than the Machete's CP (61), Steven is able to make it.

Modify Weapon Example

1. Design the Modified Weapon

The evil alien steals one of Modre's ice blades with intent to modify it for his own evil purposes:

Item Name	Special Modifiers	CP	Mass	Heft	Reach	Pwr	Shp	Cvr	Abs
Ice Blade	(no special modifiers)	750	0.5 kg	4	1.0 m	3-6	2

The evil alien wants to elongate the handle to give the weapon more reach, so that it will be this weapon:

Item Name	Special Modifiers	CP	Mass	Heft	Reach	Pwr	Shp	Cvr	Abs
Ice Blade	(no special modifiers)	850	0.5 kg	4	1.5 m	3-6	2

This modification uses 100 CP to to add 1/2 of a meter reach for to ice blade, making to total 850 CP.

2. Determine Difficulty Modifier

Because the Ice Blade's CP is 850, Modre's difficulty modifier for making it is 8.5.

3. Determine Success Modifier

We start with the evil alien's +1 craftsmanship ability modifier. We add a +5 modifier for his access to this "futuristic" technology (for a total modifier of +6 so far.) The lazer press he uses is "typical" for his futuristic technology, giving him another +2 modifier and making the total modifier +8.

4. Determine Time Modifier

The Time modifier is the Difficulty Modifier with the Success Modifier subtracted from it. The evil alien's difficulty modifier is 9 (rounded from 8.5), and his Success Modifier is 8, so his Time Modifier is 1 (9 - 8 = 1.) Looking at the modification time modifier chart, we see it will take the evil alien 15 minutes to add 0.5 meters reach to the stolen Ice Blade.