Grease Monkey#

Embracing technology#

Technology - sufficiently advanced - becomes undistinguishable from magic and in such a world there exist magicians. But they don’t come in fancy robes or pointy hats anymore. Instead one might wear oil-stained overalls while another one in a dark hoody might stammer incoherent phrases about exit codes, neuronal tensors or data spark models.

Teams with such members should just let them fulfill their duties: keep the ships flying and the funs blazing.

When you play a Grease Monkey, you earn XP when you solved a problem through technological superiority. Observe the enemy long before they arrive - through hacked cameras or the eyes of your drones! Slow them down with your newest drugs or escape them because you boosted your ship’s engine!

Normal humans are so easily impressed. Just because you know how to work machines. If only people were as easy to understand …

Starting attributes#

● ●○○ Craft

● ○○○ Dance

If you want some guidance when you assign your four starting action dots and special ability, use one of these templates.

Ship mechanic. Operate +2, Tolerate +1, Survey +1. Counter Measurements

Hacker. Trick +2, Wreck +1, Hunt +1. Command Line Interface

Rigger. Operate +2, Finesse +1, Affect +1. Drone Control

Tuner. Study +2, Tolerate +1, Trick +1. Self-Optimization

Friends and foes#

Dmitri Sokolov, a ship technician. Perhaps a good customer, or someone trying to always get artifacts before you.

Jim Durington, a brewer and distiller. Perhaps a customer at the same underground provider of tools and hardware, or an informant for your competitors.

Lucia Inashiki, a kitchen chef. Perhaps you keep her kitchen intact – free of charge, of course –, or you once stole her old fat for using it as engine lubricant.

Nissa Airi, an old technician. Perhaps a guide to high-quality supplies, or a loyal henchman of your rivals.

Olumese Boki, a workers’ union official. Perhaps he tipped you off on several occasions, or he suspects you to be a mule in the organization.

Grease Monkey special abilities#

Blaster#

You have a steady supply of explosives and can craft them yourself. You also gain two supply slots that you can only use for them.

Choose one type of explosives during character creation. This is your initial choice. During downtime you can develop new schemes.

Counter Measurements#

You may expend your special armor to resist a damage to your vehicle or to push yourself to increase potency or quality of a technical device.

If you “resist a consequence” of the appropriate type, you avoid it completely. If you use this ability to push yourself, you get one of the benefits (+1d, +1 effect, act despite severe harm) but you don’t take 2 stress.

When you use this ability, tick the special armor box on your playbook sheet. Your special armor is restored at the beginning of downtime.

Command Line Interface#

When you interact with technical devices you get +1 effect. Moreover, you’re superfast.

Nobody can really follow what you are doing on that screen, but afterwards everything works. Note that you’re still limited by potency, but you might have brought just the right software.

Drone Control#

You own one or more drones and can control them without particularly focussing on it.

Everyone can buy drones and use them but you use them as an extension of yourself – be it by using cybernetic implants or a sophisticated control system.

Guildmember#

Each downtime, you get two ticks which can be distributed to any project clocks related to your profession.

You have access to special research papers, constructions plans or even material. That helps with building complex devices. Define your professional relations at character creation.

It wasn’t me#

You hack quietly and can decide if you leave a trace or not.

Traces you leave during a hack don’t need to lead back to you.

Nerd#

You gain an additional XP trigger: Mark XP if you resolved a social complication with technical knowledge

You’re used to not fit to social norms. But your honest approach saved you several times already.

Self-Optimization#

Choose a cybernetic limb or similar addition to your body. When its features apply you get an additional +1d.

This ability allows you to tweak your physical traits in particular. Think of cyberarms or -legs, intelligent exosceletons, artificial adrenalin pumps, … You might also think of side effects or how society views these extensions of the body.

Grease Monkey special items#

Battery: A battery pack powerful enough to help you during your mission. [1 Load]

Chemistry Deck: A box with vials containing reactants for a quick chemical analysis or even a quick concoction. Moreover, the deck contains some vital tools for those tasks. [1 Load]

Fine Expert System: An improved interface that helps you hacking into computer systems. It can provide the required cables and plugs and software to automate basic tasks. Moreover, it includes an agent that you can pass tedious tasks which it then resolves autonomously. [1 Load]

Welding Torch: Useful for breaking walls, opening doors, punching holes into ships’ hulls. [1 Load]

Signal Jammer: Device that can disturb different signals. [1 Load]