Alternate Technology Rules
In an effort to capture the look and feel of the old school rules of figuring out ancient technology, I have devised the following to work with the Mutant Future rules and the modified rules presented on the House Rules page (which have been moved to this page).
The rules found in the Mutant Future rules in section four are rather simplistic, allowing multiple attempts with only a 2% chance of catastrophic failure regardless of the base chance of success. The chart below has been created with the idea that as a character spends time trying to figure out an item, if he doesn't automatically succeed he may gain an insight for the next check, come up with the wrong idea for the next idea, or just not get it regardless of how long he tries to figure out what the item does or how it works. In addition, the chance of a catastrophic failure is based on the base chance the character has to figure out the items after all applicable modifiers are applied.
These results are then applied to Tech Table 1 (see below) based on the initial Complexity Class of the item. The table includes six complexity classes to further differentiate the vast differences of complexity of the ancient items ranging from primitive fire arms (Complexity Class 1) to Spacecraft (Complexity Class 6). For very large or infinitely complex items, the Mutant Lord may differentiate he different systems involved with the object being investigated and experimented with. An example would be a shuttlecraft that would have drive control systems, environmental systems, communication systems, etc.
If the Tech Table 1 seems to complex the percentages table below can still be used with the same guidelines as given above for the default three Complexity Classes found in the Mutant Future rules.
Another alteration that can be made if the Mutant Lord wishes to use the Tech Table but use the Complexity Classes from the Mutant Future Rules, just drop the additional Complexity Levels beyond 3, treat Complexity Level 4 as Assumed Useless and ignore all intermediate steps beyond Zone F as displayed in Tech Table 2.
| Base % | Limited Success | Limited Failure | Failure | Catastrophic Failure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5% | 6 – 36% | 37 – 68% | 69 – 90% | 91 – 100% |
| 10% | 11 – 40% | 41 – 70% | 71 – 90% | 91 – 100% |
| 15% | 16 – 43% | 44 – 72% | 73 – 90% | 91 – 100% |
| 20% | 21 – 46% | 47 – 73% | 74 – 91% | 92 – 100% |
| 25% | 26 – 50% | 51 – 75% | 76 – 91% | 92 – 100% |
| 30% | 31 – 53% | 54 – 76% | 77 – 92% | 93 – 100% |
| 35% | 36 – 56% | 57 – 78% | 79 – 92% | 93 – 100% |
| 40% | 41 – 59% | 60 – 79% | 80 – 93% | 94 – 100% |
| 45% | 46 – 63% | 64 – 81% | 82 – 93% | 94 – 100% |
| 50% | 51 – 65% | 66 – 80% | 81 – 94% | 95 – 100% |
| 55% | 56 – 68% | 69 – 82% | 83 – 94% | 95 – 100% |
| 60% | 61 – 72% | 73 – 83% | 84 – 95% | 96 – 100% |
| 65% | 66 – 75% | 76 – 85% | 86 – 95% | 96 – 100% |
| 70% | 71 – 78% | 79 – 86% | 87 – 96% | 97 – 100% |
| 75% | 76 – 82% | 83 – 88% | 89 – 96% | 97 – 100% |
| 80% | 81 – 86% | 87 – 91% | 92 – 97% | 98 – 100% |
| 85% | 86 – 89% | 90 – 93% | 94 – 97% | 98 – 100% |
| 90% | 91 – 93% | 94 – 96% | 97 – 98% | 99 – 100% |
| 95% | 96% | 97% | 98% | 99 – 100% |
Base %: The final modified percentage a character has to figure out an item.
Limited Success: The character did not figure out what the item is or how to use it but has gained an insight so the next check gains a +5% to the chance to figure out the item.
Limited Failure: The character did not figure out what the item is or how to use it and is misled into thinking it is something it is not. As a result, the next check the character makes suffers a -5% penalty.
Failure: The character believes the item is more complex than it actually is and as a result requires much more time to experiment with the object. If the character rolls three consecutive Failure results he is convinced that the item is useless (either broken or something that has no real userfulness). Unless another character can figure out the item, the character will likely just see it as junk and leave it behind.
Catastrophic Failure: The item either discharges (if it is a weapon with live ammo or power) or breaks while the character is handling it. The exact results are up to the Mutant Lord.
| Complexity Class | Base Roll | Base Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30% | 1 hour |
| 2 | 25% | 2 hours |
| 3 | 20% | 3 hours |
| 4 | 15% | 4 hours |
| 5 | 10% | 6 hours |
| 6 | 05% | 8 hours |
Class 1: This level includes all primitive firearms with the Normal trigger type, grenades, non-powered armors, power sources that can be held in one hand, most gizmos, foodstuffs, and junk that can be used by a pre-apocalpytic child, and any-non powered medical equipment (such as the ready syringe).
Class 2: Personal primitive firearms with automtic trigger types, advanced melee weapons, bombs, power sources up to the size of a human, gizmos and junk that could have been used by an average pre-apocalpytic adult, simple vehicles typically designed for one or two passengers.
Class 3: Personal ranged energy weapons, heavy primitive firearms with any type of trigger type, drugs and chemicals, service based robots and machines, gizmos and junk designed for specialized use typically used by pre-apacolyptic trained personnel, ground and hover vehicles of any size.
Class 4: Heavy ranged energy weapons, powered armor, hand held medical devices, air and water based vehicles of any size, specialized robots for non-combat protocols.
Class 5: Simple computer systems, anti-grav and spacecraft designed for passenger transportation, large medical devices used for diagnosis, simple combat robots
Class 6: Advanced computer systems, star drives, teleportation units, advanced medical equipment, remote armor units, advanced combat robots.
The circles found in Tech Table 1 represent intermediate steps when the character has limited success for failure. Two consecutive limited successes would be equivalent to a Success roll while two consecutive limited failures would be equivalent to a Failure roll (and thus six consecutive limited failures-or a combination of limited failures and failure results-would result in the character being convinced that the object is broken, worthless, etc.
While in an intermediate zone (circle) if a character rolls the opposite limited result it jumps across to the zone (circle) parallel to the zone (circle) being occupied. For a full opposite effect the zone jumps up or down a level to the zone across from it. For example, a character trying to figure out a revolver rolls a limited failure ends up in Zone B. If he rolls a limited success he will end up in zone C while a full success will transfer him to zone A. If the zone does not have a matching zone (circle) across from it, the zone will be transferred up or down to the nearest zone across from it. Thus if the same character initially had limited success he would end up in A and if he followed that with either a limited or full failure he would be transferred to Zone B.
Complexity levels have been reduced from six to three to match the number of Complexity Classes found in Mutant Future.
