FrivYeti/EnliSavants
UNDERSTANDINGS: POWER OF THE SAVANTS
Mechanics
Mechanically, any player may choose to be a Savant by purchasing the Savant's Soul Understanding. This option will slightly limit a character's personal power, but will give them the ability to construct Artifacts. Savants must therefore have Crafts in order to construct artifacts. Most also have Lore and Occult in order to understand how their creations function; this is not actually necessary, however. Characters must also choose a Defect; see the Understandings section for more details.
When constructing Artifacts, the character must undergo the following process. All processes assume eight-hour work days, seven days a week; adjust accordingly for characters putting in overtime or only working part-time.
STEP 1: RESEARCH OR DESIGN</b>
This process is done in one of two ways.
RESEARCH: When Researching, the savant must have an existing artifact to study in order to create a rough copy. This is made more difficult due to the incredible amount of internalizing that savants do. The character rolls Intelligence + (the lowest of the appropriate Crafts, Lore, or Occult), at difficult 2, and must accumulate successes equal to (Artifact Level x2). This study process takes one week to accomplish per roll. Once a character has successfully researched an artifact, she may make as many copies of it as she wants forever. A botch at any time causes a dangerous flaw to enter the process, creating a dangerous Drawback which the character is unaware of. A character may Research devices of up to their (Kismet -1) or (relevant Crafts -1), whichever is lower.
DESIGN: This process is more difficult, but more dependable. The character must design the artifact from scratch. The character must succeed at three Design rolls, each at difficulty 2 and requiring (Artifact Level) successes. The first roll may be Intelligence + Lore or Wits + (the appropriate Crafts), the second may be either Intelligence + Occult or Wits + (the appropriate Crafts), and the third must be Intelligence + the appropriate Crafts. If the character uses Crafts in place of either Lore or Occult, she does not actually understand the device that she creates, and will be unable to create it a second time without Researching it. Many uneducated Savants suffer from this problem. As with Research, each roll requires one week of work. A botch at any time introduces a dangerous Drawback to the process, which the character is unaware of. Note that the character may not apply successes from one roll to another. A character may Design devices of up to their (Kismet) or (relevant Crafts), whichever is lower.
<b>STEP TWO: CONSTRUCTION</b>
Once design is complete, the character may begin construction. This requires a Resources expenditure equal to the level of the Artifact being constructed. For large Artifacts, this expenditure must be paid twice, and for massive ones, it must be paid four times. In addition, large and massive Artifacts require a work crew, or else construction is badly delayed. This work crew must roll (Intelligence + Crafts), adding one success for each dot of Magnitude, and score 4 successes for a large Artifact or 8 for a massive one. Each success that the roll misses increases the multiplier for a work roll by 1.
The actual roll is Intelligence + (the appropriate Crafts), at an external penalty equal to the Artifact's rating. The interval for each roll is a a number of weeks equal to (Artifact Level). Large Artifacts increase this to Artifact Level x3, and Massive ones to x5. The character must accumulate a total of 10 successes to create an Artifact 1, 25 successes for an Artifact 2, 50 successes for an Artifact 3, 100 successes for an Artifact 4, 200 successes for an Artifact 5, and 500 successes for an Artifact 6.
Understandings
If this were the sum total of the system, artifacts would never be created; the cost and time to make them is simply prohibitive. However, skilled Savants learn to manipulate their world, speeding construction time and power, and finding a myriad of tricks for dealing with things. These specialized Knacks are called 'Understandings'. Understandings are purchased identically to other Knacks, and therefore cut into a character's total capabilities, but greatly expand her constructing power.
Construction Understandings: Increasing Power
Rapidity Understandings: Increasing Speed
Efficiency Understandings: Decreasing Waste
Comments
Quick, anyone who has ideas for Understandings that I may have overlooked, write them here. I've only got 15 of the things, and there should really be more, I feel like. Think of things that help Savants get increasingly esoteric. Pretty please? - FrivYeti
