Arcanotech rewards •149 Arcanotech Rewards How much arcanotech should you place in your campaign for PCs to find and use? How easy should it be for a PC mage to make arcanotech? Any working GM is going to wonder about these questions, but the answers will depend to a great extent on the particular style of your own campaign. The basic rubric for rewards and loot applies to arcanotech as much as it does to any other treasure; put it where it makes sense in your world. Any two-bit space pirate might have a heirloom arcanotech artifact in his dufflebag, but expensive hardware generally shows up in the hands of important people. Finding arcanotech on ordinary people should be a surprise, but finding it in the hands of powerful, rich, influential NPCs and their favorite minions should be fairly predictable. A small-scale mob boss, pirate lord, lostworlder chieftain, or independent sorcerer is likely to have one permanent item of the same approximate value as a +1 pattern weapon. They may have that many credits worth of temporary or single-use items such as engram charges in place of this permanent item. A major criminal overlord, substantial pirate chieftain, alien leader, or other significant NPC player in the area might have a +2 pattern weapon, or its general value in other items. A planetary ruler or someone on that level will probably have a +3 pattern item or a mix of lesser arcanotech. If they have lieutenants or minions, those NPCs will be independently outfitted as per the guidelines above, depending on how important they are. From this baseline, move the abundance of tech up or down depending on how common it is in your sector. If everybody is enthusiastic about arcanotech, double the values above. If it’s rare, esoteric, and little-trusted, halve them. When placing unowned arcanotech, such as loot found in an alien ruin, just think back to the original owner. How important were they? How much arcanotech would they have had access to? Once you know who originally owned the stuff, you can figure out how much of it ought to be left in their personal effects, assuming none was taken by their survivors. It’s entirely legitimate to throw an arcanotech item into an ordinary space-peasant’s possession too, if you feel like it. All manner of people might have heirloom items or have dug something up they didn’t understand. If you do this, however, you should have some vague idea of how the person got their hands on such an expensive, semi-legal piece of hardware and what they intend to do with it. It’s also legitimate for the party to decide that they want a particular item, and then spend an adventure or two locating such a device and acquiring it from its current possessors. Such enthusiasms are ready-made adventure hooks that considerably ease a GM’s job. Item Credit Rewards Making arcanotech is expensive, and it’s not at all impossible that a party with a mage in it will prefer to spend their credits on other things, such as spaceship fittings, shiny new armor, or space-beer and alien prostitutes. This can leave a mage PC frustrated, as the group may not be willing to spend the money they would need to actually make any significant items. As a response, a GM can insert rewards in the form of arcanotech components, raw materials, and esoteric substances that are only useful for making arcanotech. These components can be assigned a credit value, but they’re only useful for making arcanotech, and the existence of counterfeits and fakes makes it difficult to sell “salvaged” components on the open market. Without a certified trail of custody on those resonant runic cores, a buyer could be getting anything. Mages and other arcane workers are the NPCs most likely to have such components for the PCs to “liberate”, along with troves found in the ruined residences of such people. A mage with no particular aspirations to be an arcanotech artificer might have nothing, but one who makes such items will usually have a variable amount of goods depending on their hit dice. A mage with 1 to 3 hit dice probably has no components worth mentioning. One with 4 to 6 hit dice has about 2,500 credits worth per hit die. One with 7 or more hit dice likely has 5,000 credits per hit die available in their laboratory. It’s also quite possible for occult-minded patrons to offer such rewards as payment to PCs for their work. The amounts above can be used as general guidelines for how much a given NPC would be able to pay.
150•Index INDEX A Academic tradition 14 Adepts 17 Arcane Expert and Arcane Warrior Foci 92–97 Arcane Experts 30 Arcane physiokinetics 15 Arcane Research 98–109 Occult Lore 98 Research Months 99 Arcane Warriors 31 Arcanists 18, 32–33 Spell List 64–71 Arcanoprostheses 142–143 Arcanotech. See Objects of Power C Cast Magic Skill 21 Classes Adepts 17 Arcane Experts 30 Arcane Warriors 31 Arcanists 18, 32–33 Free Nexus 34–37 Godhunter 38–41 Magisters 19 Pacter 42–45 Rectifier 46–49 Sunblade 50–53 War Mage 54–57 Yama King 58–61 D Daemonic Items 144 Daemons 135 Duration 63 E Engram Charges 145 F Foci 90–97 Arcane Expert and Arcane Warrior Foci 92–97 General Arcane Foci 90–91 Focus. See Spells, Focus Formulas Arcanotech 135 Shadows 105 Free Nexus 34–37 G General Arcane Foci 90–91 Godhunter 38–41 Grimoire 14 Grimoires 100 H Haze. See Spells, Haze Heat, Arcanotech 131 Heritor traditions 14 K Know Magic Skill 21 M Magic Items. See Objects of Power Magic Weapons and Armor. See Pattern Weapons and Armor Magisters 19 N Nominalists 11 O Objects of Power 130–149 Arcanoprostheses 142 Arcanotechnical Artifacts 138–141 Arcanotech Rewards 149 Buying and Selling 133 Creating 104, 133–134 Creating New Arcanotech 148 Daemonic Devices 135 Daemonic Items 144 Engram Charges 145 Formulas 135 Heat 131 Identification 132 Large-Scale 136 Pattern Weapons and Armor 146–147 Occult Lore 98 P Pacter 42–45 Spell List 72–77 Pattern Weapons and Armor 146–147 Principles. See Shadows, Principles Psionics and Spellcasting 16, 24 R Range 63 Realists 11 Rectifier 46–49 Spell List 78–83 Research Months 99
Index •151 S SANIS interface 8, 14 Shadows 10, 114–129 Controlling Shadows 117 Cults 11 Deceiver 118 Devourer 119 Drudge 119 Eaten God 120 Goblin 120 Heresiarch 121 Lesser Servitor 122 Liber Damnatus 122 Manipulatory Manifestation 122 Minion 123 Myrmidon 123 Odalisque 123 Principles 116 Render 124 Shadow Chariot 124 Shadow Cults 127–129 Stellar Phoenix 125 Summoning Shadows 117 Vigilant 125 Space Fantasy 4, 6 Spells Casting 21–22 Developing 62 Duration 63 Focus 23 Haze 23 Learning 22 Preparing 21 Range 63 Slots 20 Surge 23 Targets 63 Visibility 63 Street Magic 4, 7 Sunblade 50–53 Surge. See Spells, Surge Sword and Planet 4–5 T Targets 63 V Visibility 63 W War Mage 54–57 Spell List 84–89 Y Yama King 58–61