Page 104 - Chronicles of Darkness

The Storyteller may rule that some equipment is too such as a car or a business, with an extended action. In this
complex to be Jury Rigged. case, the time between rolls and total successes required
Roll Results should match the effort involved. Building a car may take
a week between rolls and require 15 total successes, for
Dramatic Failure: The character fails outright, and suf- example. Storytellers should keep in mind, however, that
fers some negative consequence. It could be taking damage it’s usually much easier to acquire such equipment in other
from an explosive reaction, gaining a negative Condition like ways, like stealing or purchasing a car, or using Social
Embarrassing Secret or Leveraged, or leading a supernatural Maneuvering to convince a potential business partner to
threat directly to the character’s location. The Storyteller take the bait. As a result, building this kind of equipment
should devise a consequence appropriate to the circum- with extended actions should only be done if the player
stances, although in some cases, the natural consequence of really wants to make it from scratch.
the character failing to get himself out of a pinch is enough.
Success: The character successfully builds the equipment, Examples of Play
Failure: As dramatic failure.
but it carries the Fragile or Volatile Condition (see above). Meghan plays Cassidy, who’s trapped in a warehouse with
Exceptional Success: The character successfully builds something that has huge teeth and red eyes. She stumbles
the equipment and anyone can use it as normal. across a crate filled with office supplies, and Meghan declares
Repair, Modifications, that Cassidy wants to jury rig a makeshift chain weapon us-
ing rubber bands and staplers. Since the chain has a weapon
and Upgrades modifier of +1 (see “Melee Weapons Chart,” p. 269), the
Build Equipment roll takes a one-die penalty. Cassidy has
A character may want to fix or alter a piece of equip- Wits 3 and Crafts 2, so Meghan rolls four dice for the Build
ment that already exists. These actions usually only apply to action and achieves one success. The Storyteller decides that
physical objects, though exceptions are possible. Doing so the newly-built “chain” has the Fragile Condition and will
constitutes making a Build Equipment roll as usual, but the therefore fall apart after just two uses. On Cassidy’s next
penalty applied equals the difference between the object’s cur- turn, she successfully uses the weapon to grapple the crea-
rent state and the bonus or benefits the player wants to add. ture, and keeps it pinned with the chain while she smashes
Broken objects are considered to have an equipment bonus a window to get out. Unfortunately, after one more turn of
of 0. Partially-functional objects may have a bonus only one the creature’s struggles against the chain, the rubber bands
or two dice lower than their usual bonus. So for instance, if snap and the creature chases Cassidy out of the warehouse
a computer would normally grant a +2 to research rolls but and down the street. Meghan earns a Beat for resolving the
won’t start and is therefore currently at a 0, the roll to repair Fragile Condition.
it would suffer a -2. A Storyteller character has been captured by a crime lord,
To modify or upgrade an object by increasing its traits or and the player characters make plans to rescue him. They
giving it new functions, simply treat each modification as a decide to build a plan as equipment to help them out, and
+1 equivalent. A character can replace one function with an- the Storyteller rules that they must roll, since they only have
other at no penalty — for instance, reversing the function of a two hours before the crime lord makes his move. The play-
walkie talkie to cause interference instead of receiving signals. ers describe a general idea of the plan, with a part for each
Modifying vehicles is beyond the scope of these rules character to play in the rescue, and the Storyteller decides the
and uses a different system, detailed on p. 99. plan makes good sense and will grant a +2 to everyone’s rolls
in execution. The character with the best Wits + Composure
Taking Your Time pool is the primary actor, and everyone else contributes with
teamwork. The Build Equipment roll takes a two-die penalty
A player may choose to build equipment as an extended and, with five dice left over, fails to produce any successes. The
action rather than making the usual single roll, taking no Storyteller and players agree that the plan carries the Volatile
built-in penalty to any of the rolls. Instead, the target number Condition, and the rescue proceeds as planned. During the
of required successes equals the total intended bonus and rescue scene, one of the players fails a roll to sneak past a
benefits of the equipment + one. Typically, players do this to guard despite using the plan’s two-die equipment bonus, and
avoid taking large penalties for complex equipment, or when it automatically becomes a dramatic failure. This resolves the
they have small dice pools to begin with and don’t want to Condition and causes the guard to sound an alarm through-
risk a chance die. The Storyteller determines the time between out the crime lord’s mansion. The players each gain a Beat
rolls as usual. See “Extended Actions,” p. 70, for further for Volatile’s resolution, and the player who failed her roll
explanation. Overall success and failure work as normal for gains another for the dramatic failure. The “equipment” that
the Build Equipment action. was the plan is now done for, and the players must improvise
The Storyteller may also allow a player to build equip- to face the new complication.
ment that normally lies beyond the scope of this system,

103
Building Equipment