[Torg] Weird science question?

[Kansas Jim]

Steve Crow wrote:

> How do skill gadgets work?

Poorly? :p

> Presumably they work like attribute gadgets, but we're a little unsure 
> on that, too...

Yes, if you are building a gadget that possesses the skill then it
works like a gadget which has an attribute, you use the value of the
skill/attribute to determine how the gadget functions, it operates
independently of the user's values. When building such a gadget you
would use the Limit Values given on p84 of the Nile SB.

But from the discussion that's not what your player wants, he wants
a gadget which boosts the user's skill, in this case he wants to boost
Fred's Evidence Analysis. The rules technically do not allow this, in
order to apply a booster to a system you must know the maximum value
of the system being boosted but skills do not have maximum values.

After a number of false starts, here's what I'm currently thinking. We
treat Fred's Evidence Analysis skill at the time of construction as a
"plus rated" tool, like a melee weapon or armor. This way we can fudge
a maximum value for the skill. The plus value is the +2 adds he has in
the skill, the maximum value is his Perception Limit Value of 13 plus
the adds, so 15. For building the booster, we use this 15 as our DN.

(For simplicity's sake I'm ignoring the possibility of Nile characters
using a limit value of 14 as mentioned on p81 of the Terra SB.)

(The Terra SB also says on p84 to use the plus value as the DN when
you're increasing the plus value, but to me that makes it too easy to
generate large push results. I prefer using the original rule in the
Nile SB on p78, the max value is the DN for increasing either the plus
or the max value.)

So let's say that Fred generates a Weird Science total of 20 to build
the booster. That's 5 RPs so we get a push result of +2(1). We'll slap
on a compensator to get rid of the shock damage (smooth down those
sharp edges!) and voila, we have a magnifying glass which gives a +2
bonus to Evidence Analysis skill with a maximum improvement to 15.

So when Fred uses it his skill value is raised to 12, but if it was
borrowed by Mary Ann McCay (Infiniverse Update #1) it wouldn't help her
out any since she has a skill value of 20. If Fred over time increases
his Evidence Analysis skill up to +6 adds (so skill value 14), he'll
find that the magnifying glass doesn't help him as much as it used to.
Perhaps it needs a new focusing element (ie, another booster) to raise
its limit value....

How does that sound?

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html