� I thought I had a thread on this already, but I didn't see.� So here are the current rules on inventing.


So you want to invent something?� �Not so fast!� �There is a bit of accounting you have to deal with.� �I know,� munchkin, you just want the light sabre now.� �Its my job as GM to foil your plans every step of the way with silly rules.

So...
Step One. Do you know how to do it?� If you want to make a light sabre, what Knowledge areas do you have?� �You and I will go over your knowledge and see if you have the brains for it.� �How about physics, engineering, computers, optics?� Sound good?� � Ok, you have the necessary� backrounds.

Step Two.� Do you have a full inventing point?� This is pretty simple.� �Either you do or you don't.� If you don't, and someone else is willing to give you the difference ( See brainstorming) then its all good.

Step Three, how much does it cost?� And do you have the materials?
� �� This is pretty much the meat of it all.� �My players deal with money by having a wealth stat.� �That is the cash, jewels, and such that they� possess.� Its the sum total of the value of all their stuff.� � So you then roll vs your Wealth.� If you make the roll, then you have enough to create your thingie.� Keep in mind, I am evil.� If you are going to inventing something that doesn't exist yet,� I may assign a penalty to this roll.� In the case of a light sabre, I just may be a jerk about it and give you a -10 to your wealth score for this.� �I am just that much of a thingy.

Also, do you have a place to work?� A science lab is a good place to work on inventions.� I also assign a stat to your lab.� � The local park may have a lab stat of 2, your mom's kitchen a 5,� �the physics lab at community college a 9,� and so on till you get to Reed Richard's lab� which is about 18-20.� �� � You then roll against your lab stat with the same penalty that I gave you vs your money. You thought I forgot about that, didn't you?� I only forget about things that help you, never things that hinder you.

So you spent your IP,� made both your wealth and Lab rolls and its on to the next thing to mess with you.

Step Four:� �Now you make your inventing roll.� Again, include all penalties.� �Did you make it?� � Cool.� Its time to whip out your light sabre, right?� ��


Not so fast!

Step Five: It takes time to create things. How much time?� �� GM dickery powers activate!� �

50 days per invention!


But I can't wait 50 days!� �Well is� a good thing I am� just and benevolent GM then, despite what Paulie says.� �� You get to subtract one day per success on BOTH the wealth and lab rolls.

Example; Your weath is 15, your lab is 12.� You rolled a 3 and a 7� �So 15-3= 12. amd 12-7=5� So your success is 12+5=17� �� 50-17=33� It will take you 33 days to create your light sabre.� �

If you wish to SPEND wealth and or lab points, you can substrate the number of days equal to the score of the point lost.� �

Example� You can't wait 33 days! You want it now, so you spend one point of wealth, so you go from a 15 to a 14.� That gives you 33-15=18� �18 days!

But I want it now.� Ok Veruka,� you also spend one point of your lab score.� You are canibalising your stuff.� Your lab goes from 12 to a 11� so 18-12=6� � 6 days to get your freaking toy!� �You can deal with that, can't you?

Well you can spend more wealth or more lab points, but that kind of screws with future inventions, doesn't it?� �I don't care, I enjoy your frustration.


I am toying with the idea of keeping your inventing roll a secret.� Only when you� �actually test the finished product do you find out if it works or not, or better yet, if its a breakthrough, or a catastrophic accident.� �I am leaning on this.� And you all know why.� Cause I am an asshole. That's why.

Now feel free to post your complaints, nitpicks and whiney pleads to make things easier to be a muchkin.� �Then type this in as your answer,

"eat shit", your humble and awesome GM-John

I gotta say that was a pretty fun read.  I'd find it amusing to read an entire rulebook written in this style. 

A one shot is a slapped together thing.  So the only difference would be the amount of time.   Instead of 50 days, it would be 50 hours to make one.


If you wanted to make it permanent later,  same.  But the difficulty would probably be less then the first time do to what you learned.

John,

  Being that you are such a Benevolent GM, how would you tie in Brain Storming Rule to this? Could anything be used to reduce the time if several individuals got together for the Invention besides the partial inventing points?

John wrote on Apr 9^th, 2013 at 9:33pm:


I like this idea.

Dick Dante needs to re read this,  I over charged him cause I thought it was 50 weeks, not days.
 
So Jimmy adjust his wealth stat.

I love the idea of discover through play...

28 days later... BOOM you have no face... The Crusader Citadel is on fire and Evergreen's trees are burning, a bookcase fell on Dreamweaver, the building generator just failed it's save,  a piece of debris severed the elevator cable with Blizzard with Laserfire riding up in it... Oh and the hovercraft was blown out the wall and is hurtling down to the street, with Enforcer sitting in the driver's seat replacing the previously ruined control panel... Manta Man spilled hot coffee on himself too!

...way to go asshole!

Thunderbolt wrote on Mar 6^th, 2015 at 9:42am:


I'd probably do it just for ease of play.

I wouldn't do it for the same reason that an increase in strength wouldn't make me go back and recalculate how much damage a punch inflicted in a previous fight. The increase isn't retroactive.

Somehow I'm not seeing it how you are, TB.  I don't believe in any other situation that we go back and retroactively give somebody something that they didn't earn until the level they get it at.

And the situation you described has never come up in any of the games I've run or played in.  Not even close.  When players go to invent, they always have an abundance of Inventing Points.

If my Magnetic Powers goes up because I just hit Level 3, I don't go back and figure that a magnetic blast I did a month ago (when I was Level 2) should have been for more?

As for the character who was still working on an invention, just like anything else, their formula would be based on their new (improved) Intelligence/Inventing Percentage, because that's what it is now (just like everything else, there's nothing retroactive).

{Shrug}.. wow... if I have to explain why you both sound like your proving MY point about recalculating invention points at the level you are at... just like everything else is recalculated.. there's no point.

You see things your way.. and see them my way.

Maybe there is something missing.

Regular Hero starts with an Int of 9 at level one and is only training in Intelligence. He is not inventing anything since his chances are low. Inventing points would start and total as follows as I see it.

1st Level .9 Total
2nd Level 1.9 Total
3rd level 3 Total

He now has three inventing points and an Int of 11 at level 3. He is going to try to Invent with a 33% chance and see how it goes.

I thought I stated it pretty clearly up above but TB dismissed it as silly. Glad to see I'm not alone in finding TB's position perplexing.

John wrote on Mar 6^th, 2015 at 10:11pm:


Sounds like the next DC comics Crisis-themed crossover event...maybe this is what happened to Superboy and Wonder Girl.

Actually if your trained INT for 2nd level that would give you a 10 INT and 1.9 invention points. If you trained INT again for 3rd level you would be at 11 INT and 3 invention points. You would gain 1.1 invention points per level after that assuming you didn't train INT again for other levels.

I understand you are using some house ruling, and that's cool.  No two V&Vers play the same way.

But the rule for IP is pretty cut and dried.   Each level you get one tenth of your I in IPs.  So if  your intelligence is 12, you get 1.2 each level.

So at fourth level you would have 4.8.


If you trained in I, then at 5th level you would get 1.3.   You get one tenth of your I when you level up, regardless of what you did in the past.   So assuming you never spent any IPs your total would now be 4.8 + 1.3= 6.1.

Again, use any house rule you want.  Who am I to say anything.  My house rule booklet is bigger than the official rules.

No Problem John and Matt.. thanks for explaining it to me!  I can understand it better now and see where my misunderstanding was.  The RAW support your views...and I'm always for supporting the 'rules as written' and I only use house rules where their are glaring inadequacies in the RAW.  But I'm always open to new ideas... and ways to view something new.  Thanks again!

How are you going to pay for it?  How are you going to use up your library to compensate for having a zero wealth at the moment?  You can spend the inventing point, and you can use the library roll, but the wealth nothing right now.