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You know the ones I'm talking about:
These nearly amount to a game within a game. If it isn't obvious, or you don't remember or haven't seen 'em, they're the charts to consult when a player is trying to discover how to use an artifact. Basically, you'd roll on them up to a maximum of 5 times, at which point if you haven't figured it out by getting to "F" (you start at "S"), you can work at it for a straight hour (as long as you aren't interrupted) and you'll have figured it out. Die rolls take into consideration intelligence and mutations.
I haven't seen anything like this in an rpg that came before it or since. Mutant Future btw, uses a more familiar d% system, with base chances for the item's "Complexity Class", also taking into consideration INT and mutations.
Still, they make me smile.
8 comments:
They are creations of a madman! Don't look at them, they'll steal your soul!!!
I have only recently begun to appreciate their (mad) genius. :)
This is what happens when you let project managers design a game.
I love those charts. They are just missing a little bit of evocative information that would make them more entertaining.
The boxes could have bits like "oh, it beeped" or "Tab A does go into slot 4", "I don't think it's supposed to make that smell"
JD: I think that's part of the charm of these charts - they encourage you to do a litte extra role playing along the lines you were thinking. In game play I just improvised based on the device but a unique table to complement this might be fun too.
Didn't the same (or at least remarkably similar) charts see use in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks?
Chris: Quite right- I'd forgotten about those. I'll post 'em up.
For the record, Gary Jaquet addressed the criticism that the artifact use charts developed for Gamma World were too difficult/unwieldy by producing a new artifact use chart. This new system appears in Dragon, Vol. III, No. 11, as "GAMMA WORLD ARTIFACT USE CHART."
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