Tools & Gear
The rest of the objects — the kit that turns "you can't" into "roll for it," or a penalty into a bonus.
Most gear does one honest thing: it grants a PM (an ease-factor bonus) to a specific task, or removes the penalty for attempting that task without it. Lock picks make a lock a skill roll instead of an impossibility; a medical kit is a PM to First Aid; binoculars turn a smudge on the horizon into a Scan you can actually make. The job of each description is to say what it is and why you'd carry one — the 10-foot pole was never mysterious once someone explained it was for probing the floor from a safe distance.
| Item | Helps with | PM | TL | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-Foot Pole | probing floors, reaching from safety | +1 | 0 | 2 |
| Rope (15 m) | climbing, hauling, binding | +1 | 0 | 10 |
| Lock Picks | defeating mechanical locks | +1 | 2 | 50 |
| Torch / Flashlight | seeing in the dark | — | 0 | 5 |
| Binoculars | spotting & identifying at range | +1 | 4 | 150 |
| Climbing Kit | climbing sheer surfaces | +1 | 5 | 200 |
| Medical Kit | First Aid (and Surgery, well-stocked) | +1 | 5 | 300 |
| Toolkit | Repair & Craft tasks | +1 | 4 | 250 |
| Radio / Comm | communication beyond earshot | — | 5 | 200 |
| Datapad | research, records, hacking | +1 | 6 | 800 |
| Nightvision Goggles | seeing in the dark (silently) | +1 | 6 | 1500 |
| Vacc Suit | surviving vacuum & hostile atmospheres | — | 6 | 3k |
| Medscanner | diagnosis (First Aid / Medicine) | +2 | 7 | 5k |
10-Foot Pole
- Helps with
- probing floors, reaching from safety
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 2
- TL
- 0
- Price
- 2
- Tags
- standard, ancient, fantasy
A long stick — for prodding suspicious flagstones, pit lids, and tripwires from a body-length away. The item every dungeon list forgot to explain.
Rope (15 m)
- Helps with
- climbing, hauling, binding
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 3
- TL
- 0
- Price
- 10
- Tags
- standard, ancient, fantasy
Fifteen metres of cordage. Improves a climb, rigs a haul, ties a prisoner — the multi-tool of the pre-modern kit.
Lock Picks
- Helps with
- defeating mechanical locks
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 0
- TL
- 2
- Price
- 50
- Tags
- standard, ancient, modern, fantasy
A roll of tension wrenches and picks. Without them, opening a lock is a penalty or flatly impossible; with them it's a skill roll.
Torch / Flashlight
- Helps with
- seeing in the dark
- PM
- —
- Weight
- 0.3
- TL
- 0
- Price
- 5
- Tags
- standard, ancient, modern, fantasy
Portable light. Removes the crippling penalty of acting blind — at the cost of announcing exactly where you are.
Binoculars
- Helps with
- spotting & identifying at range
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 0.8
- TL
- 4
- Price
- 150
- Tags
- standard, modern
Magnified optics. Turns a smudge on the horizon into a Scan roll you can actually make.
Climbing Kit
- Helps with
- climbing sheer surfaces
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 4
- TL
- 5
- Price
- 200
- Tags
- standard, modern
Harness, cams, carabiners, rope. Turns an unclimbable pitch into a hard climb, and a fall into a scare instead of a wound.
Medical Kit
- Helps with
- First Aid (and Surgery, well-stocked)
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 2
- TL
- 5
- Price
- 300
- Tags
- standard, modern
Field trauma kit. A PM to First Aid; a fuller surgeon's kit reaches Surgery. Without it, treating a serious wound takes a penalty — see the Fields hierarchy.
Toolkit
- Helps with
- Repair & Craft tasks
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 6
- TL
- 4
- Price
- 250
- Tags
- standard, modern
General mechanical tools. Repair needs the diagnosis *and* the tools; this is the tools. A specialist kit gives more for its one trade.
Radio / Comm
- Helps with
- communication beyond earshot
- PM
- —
- Weight
- 0.4
- TL
- 5
- Price
- 200
- Tags
- standard, modern
Two-way voice at range — the thing that makes split-the-party survivable. Jammable, interceptable, and only as private as its encryption.
Datapad
- Helps with
- research, records, hacking
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 0.4
- TL
- 6
- Price
- 800
- Tags
- standard, modern, sf
Handheld computer and network terminal. A PM to knowledge lookups, and the doorway to every system worth breaking into. Information-tech runs ahead of the rest of the tech scale.
Nightvision Goggles
- Helps with
- seeing in the dark (silently)
- PM
- +1
- Weight
- 0.5
- TL
- 6
- Price
- 1500
- Tags
- modern, sf
Light-intensifying or thermal optics — the flashlight's advantage without the flashlight's giveaway. Foiled by total dark (needs IR) or by smoke.
Vacc Suit
- Helps with
- surviving vacuum & hostile atmospheres
- PM
- —
- Weight
- 8
- TL
- 6
- Price
- 3k
- Tags
- sf
Sealed pressure suit with hours of air. Turns 'the airlock opened' from a death into an inconvenience; clumsy enough to carry an Agility penalty.
Medscanner
- Helps with
- diagnosis (First Aid / Medicine)
- PM
- +2
- Weight
- 0.6
- TL
- 7
- Price
- 5k
- Tags
- sf
Handheld diagnostic — reads vitals, names the injury, guides the treatment. A strong PM to the *diagnosis* half of medicine; you still have to do the fixing.