Skip to main content

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells - Archetypes: The Smart

Artwork by Louis Glanzman
I am away from my computer for sometime, but I am still writing stuff for Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells. Today I am sharing the draft text for the Archetype called The Smart, which is like a do it all technician, scientist sort of guy.

The Smart


If something goes wrong with a computer or engine, it’s you who they call. For some reason, you just have a knack for technology and machines. Even if they’ve never seen a device, it’s usually just a matter of time until they figure how it works and how to fix it. And if they give you a few more hours you can even make some improvements!

The Smart is a character focused on the use of technology and machines. They make great assets to an age where although technology is ever present, it’s not truly understood, and many of its secrets are forgotten. In combat they are invaluable allies, improving the effectiveness of weapons and vehicles, as well as being capable of making repairs to them when they are in dire need.

Prime Attributes: Intellect and Agility
Recovery Roll: 1d6
Special Abilities

  • I Can Fix This: The Smart, somehow, always know what's wrong or can always find a way to make some kind of emergency repairs. In game terms, they always halve the Difficulty when making repairs to technological devices and can make in Combat Jury Rigging adding their Level to the amount of Structure points recovered (see Chapter 7: Vehicles and Starships for more informal on repairing vehicles).
  • I Made Some Improvements: With some time, appropriate tools and creativity, The Smart can make improvements to technological objects. When spending a number of hours determined by the Overlord (based on the object’s complexity), he can make a minor improvement like the ones below. The character can have a number of active improvements equal to his Level.
    • Gain a Positive Die when using the device.
    • Improve the damage caused by the weapon by +1 per dice used (1d6 becomes 1d6+1, 2d6 becomes 2d6+2).
    • Increase the range the object can affect by one increment (close to short, short to medium, and so on).
    • Other minor improvements the Overlord deems appropriate.
  • Machines Speak to Me: Ancient technology is hard to understand, but The Smart have a better chance to understand it. When trying to understand how an ancient technological device works, the character receives a Positive Die.
  • I’ve Read About This: The Smart also specializes in various fields of knowledge, from engineering to xenology, to many other fields in between. Starting at first Level, and again at each odd Level after that, they choose a field of study. These fields grant Positive Die when making knowledge tests relating to them.

If you like what you've just read, check out my books over RPGNow and Lulu.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The Faithful - An Optional Archetype for Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Revised Edition

Work on the revised edition of Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is moving along. This will be a hefty tome, with a LOT of tools and new options to customize your campaign, keeping the style, simplicity and flexibility of the original game. Today I come to present my lateste addition to the draft, a new Archetype for those that want to insert some elements of more tradiotional fantasy into the game. The Faithful is an archetype inspired by the Cleric of more popular RPGs, but with some twist to fit SS&SS better. Following it, there is a sample "God" to use with it. The Faithful The gods have chosen you to represent them in the mortal realm, or at least that’s what you believe. Most of the priests, monks and shamans perform their rituals without any hope to get an answer from their patrons, but you know you are being listened to. Your patron, your god or your ancestors help you and those that they deem worthy through you. Your faith can actually operate miracles. ...
Read more

How to never describe a dungeon!

Artwork by Luigi Castellani I've heard it a thousand times. You probably heard it too. Some people , I don't know why, say that dungeons , especially large ones, are boring . The endless repetitions of rooms and corridors and having to choose to go left, right, north or south depresses them. I don't know why. Actually, I do know why. Because they don't really know how to run a dungeon in play. It seems easy, effortless. Just say what's in the room the PCs are in and where the passages going out of it go. But it's not. They get bored with the "you get to a intersection and there is a door to the north and two passages, one going east and one going west" because that's a terrible way of describing a dungeon environment and gives nothing really useful to the players to choose from. You never describe a dungeon like that . There's a lot more going on that we can initially see. A good referee will take all the context of what the dungeon w...
Read more

Dark Streets & Darker Secrets - Complete Game Text

November was NaGaDeMon (National Game Design Month), and I decided to create an Action Horror RPG using my system (updated with all the modifications of Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells). Inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, X-Files, The Chilling Tales of Sabrina, Grimm and many more TV Shows, comics and books, I quickly worte Dark Streets & Darker Secrets . It is written in a very direct and simple way, similar to Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells originally was, but with uodated rules and a lot of tools and tables to assist the Referee in creating adventures, NPCs, locations, artifacts, monsters and much more. The book itself will eventually be release in partnership with Gallant Knight Games , but the text is already written and ready to be used, so I am sharing it here with you all! There is no official character sheet yet. I am working on it. But a simple Index Card will work just as well! So here it is:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QlFYafvxv...
Read more