Equipment & Time Modifiers

The quality of your equipment and/or the length of time spent modifies your skill rolls for tasks that normally require equipment:

Equipment modifiers reflect the quality of:
• Special “tools of the trade,” for criminal, military, and espionage skills such as Disguise, Explosives, Forgery, Forward Observer, Holdout, and Lockpicking.
• The contents of your backpack, for outdoor skills like Fishing and Survival.
• Your instruments or lab, for scientific and medical skills such as Alchemy, Diagnosis, Meteorology, Navigation, and Surgery.
• Your shop or toolkit, for Armoury, Carpentry, Electrician, Electronics Repair, Engineer, Machinist, Masonry, Mechanic, Smith, and other skills used to build or repair things.
• Your studio, for artistic skills – Artist, Jeweler, Photography, etc.

Example: For First Aid skill, “improvised” might mean leaves and clean mud; “basic,” sterile bandages; “good,” a standard first-aid kit; “fine,” a crash kit (found in most ambulances); and “best,” an entire hospital. Missing antiseptic would give -1, while a first-aid kit salvaged from a wrecked vehicle might give -1 or worse for damaged equipment.

Time Spent:

|
|
Extra Time Modifier
|2x as long|+1|
|4x as long|+2|
|8x as long|+3|
|15x as long|+4|
|30x as long|+5|

|
|
Time Reduced Modifier
|-10%|-1|
|-20%|-2|
|-30%|-3|
|-40%|-4|
|-50%|-5|
|-60%|-6|
|-70%|-7|
|-80%|-8|
|-90%|-9|

For Magic, see Ceremonial Magic

Equipment Modifiers
No equipment: -10 for technological skills, -5 for other skills. Note that many skills cannot be used at all without equipment!

Improvised equipment: -5 for technological skills, -2 for other skills.

Basic equipment: No modifier. This is the case most of the time.

Good-quality equipment: +1. Costs about 5x basic price.

Fine-quality equipment: +2. Costs about 20x basic price.

Best equipment possible at your TL: +TL/2, round down (minimum +2). Not usually for sale!

If you have “basic” or better equipment that is not in perfect condition, the following modifiers apply in addition to quality modifiers:

Missing important items: -1 per item.

Damaged equipment: -1 to -3.