MTH:Equipment Merits

EQUIPMENT MERITS

New equipment which is unique to the character or requires it's own part of the system is appropriate to create a merit for. 'Generic' superhero stuff isn't. For equipment, check the Super Equipment section.

Airship (special)

PREREQUISITES: Base, and combined Resources 10+ or Unlimited Resources. Characters who share a Base pool their Resources to achieve this minimum.

EFFECT: Choose one: the character's entire Base is mobile in defiance of all physics, or the character's Base has an additional detachable room. In either case, the Airship flies as fast as a typical passenger plane, making travel easier but mostly just looking cool.

If the Base and Airship are one and the same, this merit costs as many dots as the Base to which it applies. Such an Airship cannot be upgraded later unless both merits are upgraded at the same time.

If the Base and Airship are separate entities, treat this merit as another Base with one-quarter the surface area. Such an Airship cannot have more dots than the Base that services it.

If for some reason the prerequisites are no longer met, the Airship is grounded.

Note that an airship as this merit describes it is a base of operations with the needed amenities for living. If the character(s) simply want a flying vehicle with gadgetry, they should look to the Tricked-Out Ride Merit.

If the player characters are expected to regularly travel beyond the reach of a simple airship, through time, or even to parallel universes, the Storyteller may allow the Airship to take them there at no extra cost, but if they don't need such a thing, they can't possibly buy it.

Base (* to *****; special)

EFFECT: A Base is a safe, secure location in which a character can train, plan his actions, recuperate from injuries, or simply rest while he's not saving the world. Perhaps there is a cave beneath his house in which he's set up a lair, or he has access to a special penthouse in a skyscraper.

All Bases are not created equal. A warehouse might have sufficient space, but might not have sufficient security to drive away intruders. A hidden basement in the character's house might be hard for others to breach, but might offer barely enough space to hold the character's specialized equipment. Great time and effort is spent in finding appropriate Bases, and their value is represented by two factors: Size and Security. See the "Sanctum" Merit from Mage: The Awakening or the "Haven" Merit from Vampire: The Requiem for rules to apply to Bases.

If using the God Machine Chronicle rules update, use the Safe Place merit in place of Base.

Demolitions (**)

PREREQUISITES: Effective Strength, or Intelligence 3+

EFFECT: Through force of personality or natural talent, your character seems particularly inclined toward property damage. When the character would roll to see if they damage and object, subtract Power Level from the object's Durability.

Enhanced Item (* to *****)

PREREQUISITES: Varies. The ST will most likely veto certain forms of equipment, and will want a background story for most. Players should avoid simplistic enhanced item rationals, like 'It's just a really good gun'. Signature gear should have a tale to tell. Based on the rational provided the ST may require a certain amount of a given merit (such as resources or status).

EFFECT: Magically or technologically improved objects are not uncommon in the world of MTH. Any object can be enhanced to increase there equipment bonus by one per dot, or improve their durability by two per dot. Likewise, penalties to a normal item can be removed on a two-per dot ratio as well.

Equipment Theme (** to ****)

PREREQUISITES: An equal level of Resources or the Gadgetry Foresight merit. Characters may pool their Resources to achieve this minimum if they share a theme.

EFFECT: The character has a substantiated theme running through their gear, and this theme either reinforces their resolve such that it actually manifests in better performance, or the character just knows how to make/choose/use quality stuff. Most likely they have a Code Name and powers related to the theme, and will almost always have their costume patterned toward their theme (armor ratings are not enhanced by this merit, but other special traits of a costume might be, at ST discretion).

Effectively, the equipment has an enhanced equipment bonus when used for its intended purpose by the character with this merit. This bonus is equal to the rating in this merit minus one. The equipment must have the character’s ‘signature look’. A signature look might include painting the equipment in the colors of the character’s costume and placing their personal insignia on it (batarang, bat-shield, bat-underwear, ect), or almost any other set of descriptors the player can devise (with ST approval). Themed equipment must be prepared as such. This means themes cannot be applied to items found in the field unless they are substantially reworked.

Individuals may share a theme.

God Machine Chronicle Rules Update: Treat the Resources requirement above as an Availability rating.

Fetish Object (*)

EFFECT: Often a religious icon, weapon, heirloom, or all three, a fetish object is of great importance to its bearer or protector. So great is its importance that the character possessing this merit adds two to their effective Resolve when bearing the object or protecting it. The object may also be an Exanimaic Object, if the player pays for them as such.

Gadgetry Foresight (* to *****)

Effect: The character uses this merit when they notice they just happened to have or are able to quickly craft an obscure item that would be useful in the given situation on their person, or, alternatively, if they are in their home or somewhere they frequent, the item is hidden nearby. It was, despite all likelihood, hidden well enough to be missed in any searches and uneffected by events. Some situations may take some rationalization.

The activation roll is Gadgeteer's Foresight + Power Level. If the item is reasonably likely to be possessed by the character and on hand, one success is all that is necessary to confirm it's presence. If the object is rare, expensive, unusual or if circumstances otherwise make it unlikely to be on hand, the Storyteller can apply a penalty to the roll.

This merit cannot produce unique and specific items, such as the specific key needed for a specific door. The item also cannot require any new game mechanics to function, so it must be relatively simple, conceptually. Likewise the item cannot be larger than the level of this merit in Size. Lastly the item cannot be a weapon or armor, and thus cannot be used to cause damage directly.

Dice bonuses granted for Stylish Execution count as double when using this power if the character comes up with a particularly creative way of acquiring the item in question. Items produced with this power break, are consumed, or otherwise become unusable after Power Level turns, at most.

Possible (Cumulative) Penalty Guidelines
A tool used only for a specific job, but which definitely exists (lock picks). -1
A tool which may or may not exist, but physically could (Horse Attracting Whistle). -2
A tool only makes sense in the loose physics of comic books (Bat Shark Repellent). -3
The area/character has already been searched. -1
The area/character has sustained significant damage. -1
If doesn't seem like there is enough room for the item. -2
The item requires exotic materials (Gold, Argon). -1
The item requires established fictional materials (Kryptonite, Adamantium). -2
The item requires unestablished fictional materials (the soul of a ginger). -4

Intelligent Object (*+)

EFFECT: One object in the character's possession has a mind of its own and can communicate with people*. This object can be anything, even a vehicle or building. It has a pool for mental and social actions equal to the character's dots in this merit + 2 + its own equipment bonus if applicable, and can't roll physical actions. An intelligent object has full control over its own functions, but will not move by itself unless designed to do so, and can't attack by itself. This merit can be part of another merit if applicable, such as combining it with Tricked Out Ride, to make a car that talks to you.

It knows one language to start with. It can be given language-related merits by adding that merit's cost to it's own.

Tricked-Out Ride (*+)

PREREQUISITES: Equal or better Resources dots, and equal or better total of the following; Backing (Military), Contacts (Black Market), Allies (Military).

EFFECT: The character has procured a specialized and highly modified custom vehicle. The player selects any vehicle found in any of the WoD books (with ST permission). The ST may choose to limit this selection based on what the character they can normally afford with their resources, and the character's background.

Each dot allows the player to add three dots worth of gadgetry to their vehicle. Each of those dots is equal to one dot of resources if the player where using a normal version of the item. For instance, according to Armory, Caltrops cost **, and an Advanced Security System is ****. Installing them in a car would make the car a Tricked-Out Ride (**).

Vehicles can be 'nested' within other vehicles this way. If your car can eject a motorcycle, use the motorcycle's resources in the example above.

Installation is assumed to be free (and possible).

Characters can pool their dots into a single vehicle if they like.

If the character also has the Equipment Theme Merit, they may treat the dots in that merit as additional dots in this merit as well. In other words, every dot in Theme adds the equivalent of three dots of resources to this merit. All characters contributing to this merit must possess the Theme Merit for this secondary effect to apply, and those effects do not stack. The lowest Theme rating applies.

If the vehicle is destroyed the merit is lost. The character(s) may repurchase the merit, but 'training time' time is still required to build the vehicle. Even characters with Unlimited Resources can't order something like this 'off the shelf'.

If using the God Machine Rules, replace references to Resources with Availability.

Unlimited Resources (*****)

PREREQUISITES: Resources 5

EFFECT: The character has access to vast wealth: at least $1,000,000 a month in disposable income and millions, billions, or even trillions of dollars in assets. The character might be the beneficiary of a huge trust fund, the heir to a massive hereditary fortune, the owner of a multinational corporation, or some combination of these. For this character, it's not a question of whether or not she can afford any given item, it's a question of how soon she can get it.

Generally, it isn't necessary to quantify exactly how much the character is worth unless the player or Storyteller desires to; in game terms, the character is able to temporarily increase their Resources merit by spending Verve, on a one to one basis. This increase applies to only one purchase. Exactly what is available to be bought is, as always, in the hands of the ST. As a guideline, the ST may require the player to have other merits to help justify where the character found someone who could sell the item at all.

Purchases made with this merit are assumed to be temporary by default. Either the item is rented or must be returned, requires maintenance the character can't manage, or is just fated to end up being detonated. Story elements will remove it from the character's hands one way or another. If the character wishes to hold on to the item, the player must pay the applicable exp costs.

Note, however, that being richer than God does not equate to being God; even a character with this level of wealth can be held accountable for her actions, and a character who uses her fortune to cause trouble (and even those who don't) will almost certainly attract the attention of other powerful characters. Furthermore, the Storyteller should reserve the right to restrict the character's use of Unlimited Resources, or even remove the Merit altogether, if the character foolishly squanders her fortune, or even if it would just derail the narrative.

Note that Verve is not recovered between games, and that this forms a limit to how much this merit can be used in-between sessions.

God Machine Chronicle rules update: If using the rules update, this merit is replaced by the Ascendent Acquisition merit. This merit is identical to the Unlimited resources merit, except that it boosts the character's effective Acquisition rating, and has the following prerequisites: A total of 7 in any combination of Allies, Backing, Status, Resources, Larceny, Politics, Computer, or Power Level. Note that if you acquire an item temporarily (you didn't pay exp for it) and that item is destroyed or lost in the course of play, the ST may rule that you are Leveraged by the owner of the item.

Walking Armory (* to *****)

PREREQUISITES: None

EFFECT: Usually a character is limited in what gear they can carry by the common sense limitations for physical space. With dots in this merit, the character has learned to alter their gear and/or create hyper-efficient ways of carrying it on their person, so as to circumvent these limitations.

At one dot, no form of ammunition or fuel the character carries ever seems to run out without a specific reason. The player simply never needs to keep track of how may bullets, throwing knives, packets of web-fluid or etc the character has used. The ST may make exceptions to this for rare or particularly hard to carry objects. Likewise, this merit doesn't do anything to stop an enemy from taking action to steal or sabotage the character's supplies.

Players should outline how this carrying capacity is created, as it is vulnerable to tampering. For instance, the character never runs out of her special smoke bombs, unless someone swipes her utility belt.

At two or more dots the player divides the amount of space the character has used up by their number of dots in this merit. Essentially, when judging how much a character can carry, use each dot in this merit beyond the first as if it was an additional person. With three dots, for instance, STs should look at the character's gear and ask themselves, 'Could three people carry this?' If the answer is yes, a character with three levels in this merit can carry it.

This merit doesn't represent the physical means of carrying so much as a knack for figuring out how to pack a personal armory. If the character's gear is permanently stolen, they only lose the benefit of this merit until they can re-stock. Likewise, the thief only benefits from the theft until they empty out the cache.

While there is no precisely defined limit to how much a character can carry in terms of gear, the ST can use the rating in this merit to help act as a guideline.

• Merits and Flaws