To be one of the few who create the wondrous marvels of the Victorian age, the character has to have at least one speciality from the engineering skill. That speciality, be it clockwork, mechanical, or electrical engineering determines what types of items he can design and build. It is possible for a character to cobble his way through without the appropriate specialty (presuming he has a different specialty in the same group) but this imposes a 3-6 black dice modifier using the guidelines in the Victoriana Core Rulebook.
Assuming the inventor has a place to work, the proper tools, and a way to acquire the necessary parts, he’s almost ready to start. The preferred way to get the parts, at least from a gentleman’s point of view, is to buy them from a reputable dealer. It might not be as exciting as breaking into a Royal weapons lab and liberating five pounds of the finest gears, though.
Once the equipment has been sussed out, the next step in creating a new invention is to design it. At this point, the character has several questions to answer. Has he built something like this before? What size it is going to be? What materials is he going to use? Is he building something bespoke, or merely modifying what’s already there? How reliable does it need to be? How quickly does it need to be done?
By answering these questions, the engineer determines the number of black dice, or difficulty, he must overcome to design and construct his invention.
Creation Steps:
1. Assess Difficulty
2. Additional modifiers
2. Construction Test
3. Paying for it All
4. Name and Description
1. ASSESSING DIFFICULTY
Originality
Is this invention being designed whole-cloth or a modification of an existing form? How extensive are the modifications going to be? Originality determines the base difficulty for the task.
Familiarity
While familiarity might breed contempt, it also makes tasks easier to do. If the engineer has built similar items before, then he has an edge on designing the new item. In order for a previous object to be ‘familiar,’ there must be a reasonable amount of design parallels.
Size
Size is both relative and ambiguous. Essentially, this is how large the finished product would be. Small items are difficult to make because of the detail work needed to combine everything into a miniscule form factor. Large items are difficult to make because they require scaffolding, pulleys, and an eye for the big picture just to hang together. ‘Average Size’ is a bit of a catch-all, as it includes items that are relatively easy to make (i.e. no overly complex parts), no matter what the size of the final product.
Material
The first step in designing an item is deciding on the material used in its construction. Some materials are more difficult to work in than others. Of course, certain items can only be made out of certain materials. For simplicities sake, metals are not broken out in different kinds of metal. Most inventions are made of multiple materials. In the case of such an item, such as a Faraday gun, which has a metal barrel and charging posts, but the grip is wood, the inventor must use the black dice equal to the most difficult substance. In the case of the Faraday gun, it would be 3 black dice for working with metal.
Duration
Duration is the length of time that a marvel can be continuously used before needing a recharge. Duration is also affected by Design Flaws – similar to Flaws in characters. When an inventor takes a design flaw for their machine, it reduces the difficulty black dice by a certain number (listed with the flaw) when designing the craft.
Time
In real life, inventions can take quite some time to design and build; even with all of our modern tools
available it often takes years to go from concept to creation. Victoriana, however, is a steampunk setting where inventors often need their new marvels yesterday. Thus, the best of them can build extraordinary things in short periods of time.
The less time an inventor takes on designing and building a marvel, the larger the black dice penalty.
Time is measured in increments, such as ‘hours’ or ‘months.’ The actual number is based on the total number of black dice (i.e. if the roll requires 11 black dice and there’s an ‘hours’ time increment then it takes 11 hours to build the marvel). Increments can be reduced by taking an extra black die for each increment (reducing 11 hours to 7 hours adds an additional 4 black dice).
Power Source
When once a device is functional, engines of the future all require one thing; power. Larger and more complex machines might have more then one source of power. The difficulty of assimilating these sources into your inventions is largely tied to its difficulty in handling, even by the most proficient and knowledgable.
Thaumaturgical 1 black dice
Steam 2 Black Dice
Elemental 3 Black Dice
Clockwork 4 Black Dice
Electrical 5 Black Dice
Thaumaturgical - Magic is one of the oldest drivers of complex inventions. While the Guild lumps all magically-powered machines under "thaumaturgy" in truth, this catagory encompasses almost all branches of magic, including the Maleficium. While perhaps the most efficient power source, thaumaturgy has a high level of variance in performance and reliability. The individual skill of the empowering magician and random chance determines the amount of mana needed and whether the machine will work at all. Channeling the aether into these inventions require complex tuning and specific parts to operate effectively. For every point of Quintessence required to power/operate the invention, you added 1 Black Dice to the difficulty.
Steam - The idea of boiling water to power engines is not new; eccentric artificers have used magic to heat water for centuries. Until recently, however, such magical marvels were few and far between, their secrets jealously guarded by their magical inventors. The modern steam engine was pioneered by mountain-dwelling Dwarves and Gnomes to aid in mine-building.
Within the last few decades the steam locomotive has become the symbol for empire. Railroad tracks criss-cross and stretch across continents like ever-growing webs, carrying cargo and passengers from one end of a nation to the next. Steamships have freed sea-going vessels from relying on winds and currents, while steam-powered airships now allow ordinary citizens to take to the skies, albeit at considerable cost.
Elemental - Related to thaumaturgy, elemental engines draw power from small elementals trapped within an engine. This is somewhat controversial within Guild circles, as elementals aren’t fully understood and may be sentient (thereby pushing this method toward being a Dark Art). The main benefit of an elemental engine is that it’s self contained; so long as the elemental remains within the engine it has unlimited power. However, aquiring a elemental in the first place is in itself a complicated process.
Clockwork - Building a clockwork engine relies on a series of gears for movement. The term comes from ‘clock,’ as the earliest recorded clockwork devices were actual clocks. Elephon Keyrona was a Eldran Engineer who built the first modern clock, as well as many other clockwork devices.
Elephon Keyrona was especially notable for eschewing magic in his designs; he acquiesced to only minor enchantments, such as a self-winding spring or self-cleaning gears, at his sultan’s insistence. In spite of reluctance, clockwork devices in modern times often works hand in hand with magic, most notably with the development of clockwork limbs.
Electrical - Electrical power is still in its infancy and poorly understood; many academics consider electricity to be merely a manifestation of natural magic (ironically pointing to famous “kite and key”
experiments as proof that electricity has a magical source). The telegraph is a rare example of extensive electrical power and the light bulb, has been fraught with controversy.
Internal Combustion - Andre Fleur, an Eldren Aluminat monk, wondered if science could produce a substitute for fire elemental-powered engines. While primarily rooted in theory as opposed to experimentation, his subsequent treatise, The Principles of Combustion, quickly became a seminal work for engineers. Currently, internal combustion is primarily used in weapons technology (propelling rockets), but a number of engineers are currently working on internal combustion engine prototypes to replace steam engines.
2. ADDITIONAL MODIFIERS
There’s always the possibility that the Gamemaster may want to tack on additional black dice. Perhaps the new marvel is overly complex or ground-breaking, or perhaps the inventor is working under less than ideal conditions. This is a catch-all category for any other obstacles an inventor faces when designing and building a marvel.
3. CONSTRUCTION TEST
Skills and Specialization
Once the difficulty is known, the inventor gets to make a extended test against the difficulty (total black dice) of the marvel. At a minimum, this is a Wits + Engineering roll, though an inventor can actually make serveral rolls using different skills and adding the successes together. If magic is involved, than the inventor can also use the appropriate magic skill as a complementary roll.
An inventor may only use a number of skills on a single invention equal to his Wits attribute.
One of the big differences between magic and science is that scientific marvels often require capital in order to build them. This alone can often bankrupt an engineer; many a would-be inventor keeps his parlour looking respectable in the hopes that his guests don’t tour the rest of his rather Spartan home due to the amount of valuables he’s had to liquidate. Some engineers attempt to recoup their investment by selling their inventions.
Project Cost
During the design phase, the engineer not only putting together a plan, he’s assembling the cost list. Nothing worth having in the Empire is free, especially the parts the engineer needs to do his job. To calculate the base cost, total the black dice used in the design phase, subtract the number of successes the inventor made on his construction test, and multiply by 10 Wealth Points. This figure represents the money the engineer needs to see the project through to the end as well as the corners he was able to cut through frugal design choices.
If legal magic is involved, the cost doubles. If illegal magic is involved, the price quadruples and the engineer is responsible for sourcing any unsavoury requirements. The engineer doesn’t have to have all the money up front. He can pay as he goes. However, that figure is an abstract number that is the same whether he buys all his items from legitimate vendors or steals them. In the case of the latter, the figure represents the resources spent in the pursuits of larceny.
Selling
Determining the sale price of any invention is difficult. The amount of blood, sweat, and tears poured into creating just one item is astronomical. If a character wants to sell an item he crafted, he can ask for any sum he wants. However, other inventors will sell their items for twice what it cost the inventor to make it, so the character should take that in mind.
4. NAME AND DESCRIPTION
How it is time to introduce your new marvel. Marvelous inventions are known for all time by their creative monikers and evocative names. Its customary to add your name and then something descriptive. Here are a few that might give you inspiration;
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