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Tech

You can’t leave anything alone. If it’s near you for more than five minutes, you’ve disassembled it and made it into something new. You’ve always got at least two screwdrivers and a wrench in your pockets. Computer down? No problem. Hydrogen burner out in your Metrocar? No problem. Can’t get the video to run or your interface glitching? No problem.

You make your living building, fixing, and modifying — a crucial occupation in a technological world recovering from a War that broke the back of the supply chain. You can make some good bucks fixing everyday stuff, but for the serious money you need to tackle the big jobs. Illegal weapons. Illegal or stolen cybertech. Corporate espionage and counter-espionage gear for “black operations.” If you’re any good, you’re making a lot of money. And that money goes into new gadgets, hardware, and information.

Your black market work isn’t just making you friends, it’s also racking you up an impressive number of enemies as well — so you invest a lot in defense systems and, if really pushed to the wall, call in a few markers on a Solo or two. You’ve fixed up tech for everybody from black ops Corporate samurai to Ms. Zepada down the block. No one’s ever come back to you with a complaint, but that might be because of the turrets guarding your front door. You’re addicted to technology in all its forms and that’s what makes you a Tech.

This City depends on technology to keep everything from going full-on post-apocalypse. And that means everyone depends on me.
— João “Torch” Barbosa Alvés, Owner of Torch’s Total Repairs

Lifepath

What kind of Tech are you?
1d10 Type
1Cyberware Technician
2Vehicle Mechanic
3Jack of All Trades
4Small Electronics Technician
5Weaponsmith
6Crazy Inventor
7Robot and Drone Mechanic
8Heavy Machinery Mechanic
9Scavenger
10Nautical Mechanic
If any, what of partner do you have?
1d6 Collaborator
1Family Member
2Old Friend
3Possible Romantic Partner
4Mentor
5Secret with gang connections
6Secret with corpo connections
What’s your workspace like?
1d6 Workspace
1A mess strewn with blueprint paper
2Everything’s color-coded but still a nightmare
3Totally digital and obsessively backed up every day
4Everything is designed on your Agent
5You keep everything, just in case
6Only you understand your filing system
Who are your main clients?
1d6 Client
1Local Fixers who sends you clients
2Local gangers who also protect your work or home
3Corporate Execs who use you for “black project” work
4Local Solos who use you for weapon upkeep
5Local Nomads and Fixers who bring you “found” tech to repair
6You work for yourself and sell what you invent/repair
Where do you get supplies?
1d6 Supplies
1Scavenge the wreckage of abandoned zones
2Strip gear from bodies after a firefight
3From a local Fixer in exchange for repair work
4From Corporate Execs in exchange for your services
5You have a backdoor into a few warehouses
6You hit the Night Markets to score deals when you can
Who’s gunning for you?
1d6 Workspace
1Combat Zone gangers who want you exclusively
2Rival Tech trying to steal your customers
3Corporates who want you exclusively
4Larger manufacturer trying to bring you down because your mods are a threat
5Old client who thinks you screwed them over
6Rival Tech trying to beat you out for resources
Connection Qustions

Ask these questions to different players about their characters to build existing relationships.

  • What have I built specifically for you?
  • How did you help me get a rare part?
  • What are you hoping to get me to build for you?

Role Ability

Sometimes known as Maker, this ability acts as a special skill that allows the Tech their truly amazing talents. Whenever you gain a rank in this role ability, you also gain one rank each in two of its Wired forms of Expertise: Field, Upgrade, Fabrication, or Invention.


Field Expertise

You are able to handle unfortunate break-downs or dealing with other tech on the fly. Add your Field Expertise ranks to any Electronics and Mechanics checks you make, except those for a Role ability.

Also, as long as you have at least 1 rank of Field Expertise, you may make a temporary repair of an item as a single action instead of the full time and at ¼ of the material cost, but at the same DV. The repair lasts for 10 minutes for each rank of Field Expertise, after which it breaks. You can’t perform this temporary repair on an item more than once before it needs proper repair. You do get to add your Expertise to this roll. After a temporary repair, the DV to take care of it is at least 2 higher than it was and still requires at least as much materials as it would have.

Upgrade Expertise

You are able to improve on an existing item by modifying it. This requires a roll with the appropriate TECH skill, but you also get to add your ranks in Upgrade Expertise on top of the normal roll. The upgrade consumes resources in the same price category as the item itself. For the time it takes and the DV, consult the repair table on page 80. On a failed roll, you waste half that time, but lost none of the components in the process. An item can only have 1 upgrade at a time, either chosen from this list or with the approval of the GM:
  • Lower PSYCHE loss by non-borgware by 1d6 (or 4, chosen at the start of upgrading). This only applies if the typical loss would be 7 or greater.
  • For an item that has slots (for attachments, programs, etc), increase the number of slots by 1.
  • Simplify the item, halving the time for any future repairs.
  • Grant a one-handed weapon the concealable trait if it didn’t have it already.
  • Improve the Quality of a weapon by one grade.
  • Allow an Exotic weapon to fire one variety of non-basic ammunition of its ammunition type.
  • Increase an item’s SP by 1, but only if it had any to begin with.
  • Upgrade a vehicle with something that would only require a Nomad Role Ability of 1.
  • Install an upgrade created by the Invention Expertise of the Tech Role Ability.

Fabrication Expertise

This is the ability to expertly construct any item you’re reasonably familiar with. Make a roll with the appropriate TECH skill and also add your ranks in this Expertise to the result. The DV and the time is the same as for a repair. The cost of the components used up by the process is one price category lower than the completed item. On a failed roll, you spent half the time listed on the attempt before realizing you’d have to start over. No components are lost in the process.

Invention Expertise

This Expertise requires careful collaboration with the GM. It allows you to come up with entirely new items or new modifications to existing ones. As part of this, you should make a simple schematic for how you imagine it to work. The GM will suggest what it would mean in terms of rules, taking care to not break any game balance while still getting as close as possible to the effect you want.

To design your item, the GM has to decide what price category a constructed one would sell for on the open market. Use the table for this Role Ability to determine the DV you need to beat and the time it will take. Roll the appropriate TECH skill and also add your ranks in this Expertise. Remember that GMs are human beings and able to make mistakes. They might well decide that the roles for the item need to be changed once they’ve seen it in play for a while. Sometimes this means adding to its capabilities, sometimes it means weakening it. The goal is to not have any one character or player get all the spotlight and fun.

Once invented, you can use the blueprints, or show them to another Tech, to create the item with the Fabricate Expertise, or a modification with the Upgrade Expertise.

Starting Gear

Weapons and Armor
Outfit
Starting Cyberware

PSYCHE loss: 12; Max PSYCHE reduction: 4

Starting gear notes
€$400

Created by

WriterV.

Statblock Type

Cyberpunk Blue - Role

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