General Equipment
From D20advanced
Equipment is described by a number of statistics, as shown on the General Equipment Table.
| TABLE 6.2: GENERAL EQUIPMENT | ||
| Item | Size | Cost |
| Electronics | ||
| Camera | Tiny | 1 |
| Cell Phone | Diminutive | 1 |
| Commlink | Miniscule | 1 |
| Computer | ||
| Desktop | Large | 1 |
| Laptop | Med | 1 |
| PDA | Tiny | 1 |
| Digital Audio Recorder | Tiny | 1 |
| Video Camera | Small | 2 |
| Criminal Gear | ||
| Caltrops | Small | 1 |
| Handcuffs | Tiny | 1 |
| Lock release gun | Tiny | 1 |
| Surveillance Gear | ||
| Binoculars | Small | 1 |
| Concealable Microphone | Miniscule | 1 |
| Mini-Tracer | Miniscule | 1 |
| Night Vision Goggles | Small | 1 |
| Parabolic Microphone | Small | 1 |
| Survival Gear | ||
| Camo Clothing | Medium | 1 |
| Flash Goggles | Tiny | 1 |
| Flashlight | Tiny | 1 |
| Gas Mask | Small | 1 |
| GPS Receiver | Tiny | 1 |
| Multi-tool | Tiny | 1 |
| Rebreather | Tiny | 1 |
| SCUBA Gear | Large | 1 |
Contents |
Size
The size of a piece of equipment helps to determine how easy it is to conceal, and also indicates whether using the object requires one hand or two. In general, a character needs only one hand to use any objects of his size category or smaller.
Equipment Cost
This is the number of equipment points the item costs. Masterwork equipment of the same type has an increased cost.
| 1 Character Point = 5 Equipment Points |
|---|
Electronics
Computers and electronics are common in the modern world. Gamemasters should note most of these devices are fairly delicate (Toughness 5 or less) and vulnerable to electricity, radiation, and powerful magnetic fields, which can short them out entirely.
- Camera: A digital or film camera for taking still images. Most cameras have a capacity of 24 or 36 images and you can use one in conjunction with the Art skill.
- Cell Phone: A small hand-held or headset unit for communication. The battery lasts for approximately 24 hours before it needs to be recharged.
- Commlink: A tiny button-sized device for radio communication with an effective range of about a mile (longer if patched into the cellular network or a similar network). Many teams use commlinks.
- Computer: A computer includes keyboard, mouse, monitor, CD drive, printer, modem, and other standard peripherals, and may include things like a scanner at the GM’s discretion. You need a computer to make Technology skill checks and do things like searching the Internet (to take 20 on a Knowledge skill check). Masterwork computers represent upgrade packages with faster processors, better software, and so forth.
- Digital Audio Recorder: These tiny recorders (about the size of a deck of playing cards) can record up to eight hours of audio and can be connected to a computer to download the digital recording. Digital audio recorders don’t have extremely sensitive microphones; they only pick up sounds within 10 feet.
- PDA: Personal digital assistants or “palmtops” are handy tools for storing data. They can be linked to a notebook or desktop computer to move files back and forth, but can’t be used for Technology or Knowledge checks.
- Video Camera: A hand-held camera that records video and audio on tape or digitally, with a capacity of about 6 hours of footage.
Criminal Gear
This equipment is most often used by criminals or to catch criminals.
- Caltrops: Caltrops are four-pronged metal spikes designed so one prong points up when the caltrop rests on a surface. You can scatter caltrops on the ground to injure opponents, or at least slow them down. One bag of twenty-five caltrops covers up to a 5-ft.-by-5 ft. area. Each time someone moves through an area containing caltrops at any rate greater than half speed, or each round someone spends fighting in such an area, the caltrops make an attack roll (attack bonus +0). If hit, they deal +0 damage to the character. Any injury forces the character to move at half speed on foot until the damage is eliminated.
- Handcuffs: Handcuffs are restraints designed to lock two limbs—normally the wrists—of a prisoner together. They fit any Medium or Small humanoid. Handcuffs can only be placed on a pinned, helpless, or unresisting target. Steel cuffs have Toughness 10 and require an Infiltration check (DC 25) or Acrobatics check (DC 35) to remove without the key.
- Lock release gun: This small, pistol-like device automatically disables cheap and average mechanical locks operated by standard keys (no Infiltration check necessary). It does not affect other locks.
Surveillance Gear
Characters often use surveillance gear to keep tabs on enemies and their activities.
- Binoculars: Standard binoculars reduce the range penalty for visual Perception checks to –1 for every 50 feet (instead of –1 for every 10 feet). Using binoculars for Perception checks takes five times as long as making the check unaided.
- Concealable Microphone: A tiny receiver usable as a listening device. It has a broadcast range of about a mile. It requires a Perception check against the results of the Infiltration check used to conceal the microphone to find it (assume the hiding character took 20 on the check under most circumstances).
- Mini-Tracer: A tiny radio transmitter with an adhesive backing. It requires a successful attack roll to plant a tracer on a target (or an Infiltration check to plant it without the target’s knowledge). Noticing the tracer is a DC 20 Perception check (or the results of the character’s Infiltration check, whichever is higher). The tracer has a transmission range of about 2 miles.
- Night Vision Goggles: Night vision goggles use passive light gathering to improve vision in near-dark conditions. They grant the user darkvision—but because of the restricted field of view and lack of depth perception these goggles provide, they impose a –5 penalty on all Perception checks made while wearing them. Night vision goggles must have at least a little light to operate. A cloudy night provides sufficient ambient light, but a pitch-black cave or a sealed room doesn’t. For situations of total darkness, the goggles come with an infrared illuminator that, when switched on, operates like a flashlight visible only to the wearer (or anyone else with IR vision).
- Parabolic Microphone: This apparatus has a gun-like microphone with an attached set of headphones. A parabolic mike reduces the range penalty for Perception checks to –1 for every 50 feet (instead of –1 for every 10 feet). Using a parabolic microphone for Perception checks takes five times as long as making the check unaided.
Survival Gear
- Camo Clothing: Clothing in the right camouflage pattern for the environment grants a +5 bonus on Infiltration checks to hide in that environment. Patterns include foliage, desert, urban, and arctic.
- Flash Goggles: These tinted eye-coverings provide protection against blinding light, granting a +5 save bonus against visual Dazzle attacks involving bright light.
- Flashlight: Flashlights negate penalties for darkness within their illuminated areas. The standard flashlight projects a beam 30 feet long and 15 feet across at its end.
- Fire Extinguisher: This portable apparatus uses a chemical spray to extinguish small fires. The typical fire extinguisher ejects enough extinguishing chemicals to put out a fire in a 10-by-10-foot area as a move action. It contains enough material for two such uses.
- Gas Mask: This apparatus covers the face and connects to a chemical air filter canister to protect the lungs and eyes from toxic gases. It provides total immunity to eye and lung irritants. The filter canister lasts for 12 hours of use. Changing the filter is a one action.
- GPS Receiver: Global positioning system receivers use signals from GPS satellites to determine the receiver’s location to within a few dozen feet. A GPS receiver grants its user a +5 equipment bonus on Survival checks to navigate, but because the receiver must be able to pick up satellite signals, it only works outdoors.
- Multi-tool: This device contains several different screwdrivers, a knife blade or two, can opener, bottle opener, file, short ruler, scissors, tweezers, and wire cutters. The whole thing unfolds into a handy pair of pliers. A multi-tool can lessen the penalty for making Technology checks to craft without appropriate tools to –2 instead of the normal –5. The tool is useful for certain tasks, as determined by the GM, but may not be useful in all situations.
- Rebreather: A small cylinder that fits over the mouth and provides two minutes (20 rounds) of oxygen, during which the character does not need to make Endurance checks to hold his breath.
- SCUBA Gear: A back-mounted oxygen cylinder and facemask, used for diving. SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) gear provides two hours of oxygen, and characters using it do not need to make checks for suffocation unless the gear is damaged or disabled.
Tools
Various skills require tools. Infiltration to open locks and disable security requires lockpicking and electronics tools, for example, while Science for medical purposes requires a first aid or medical kit. Characters attempting a task without the proper tools have a –5 penalty on their skill check. The Gamemaster can generally assume characters have the right tools for skills requiring them—at no cost in equipment points—unless circumstances dictate otherwise (such as they’ve been captured and stripped of their equipment by a foe). Masterwork tools cost 1 equipment point and provide a +2 bonus on skill checks using them. In all other ways, tools are like ordinary equipment.
Utility Belt
A common piece of equipment for costumed adventurers and espionage agents is the utility belt (or bag, pouch, backpack, etc.): a collection of useful tools and equipment in a compact carrying case. A utility belt is an array of Alternate FX bought as equipment (and with all the usual limitations of equipment). Some characters may have an array of devices instead, allowing for more unusual effects than run-of-the-mill equipment.
Note that equipment with a cost of 1 equipment point doesn’t need to be acquired as an Alternate FX feat, since there’s no change in cost (an Alternate FX must cost at least 1 point).
By spending Hero Dice you can temporarily add an Alternate FX feat to your utility belt, for those one-time pieces of equipment you may need in a pinch.
Sample Utility Belt
Feel free to modify this example (adding or omitting items, for example) to create your own customized utility belts.
- Bolos: 1 point.
- Boomerangs: 1 point.
- Explosives: Equivalent to dynamite. 15 points.
- Cutting Torch: Ranged Damage 1, Drain Toughness 1. 1 point.
- Pepper Spray: 1 point.
- Power Knuckles: Damage 4 (Mighty). 1 point.
- Sleep Gas Pellets: 1 point.
- Smoke Pellets: 1 point.
- Stun Pellets: 1 point.
- Tear Gas Pellets: Lower rank to 3. 1 point.
- Throwing Blades: Ranged Damage 2. 1 point.
The explosives, as the most expensive effect, have their full cost. The other Alternate FX feats cost 1 point each, making the total equipment point cost of the utility belt 25 equipment points, or 5 character points.
