Psi-punk: Drone Gifts Preview
March 9, 2018 NewsLast week, we saw the C47 Prowler, a top-of-the-line attack drone from the upcoming Psi-punk: Drones sourcebook. It featured a lot of Gifts not seen in the Psi-punk core book, so we’ll take a look at a few of them here.
As a refresher, Gifts are beneficial qualities possessed by just about everything in the game of Psi-punk. These traits often grant special benefits to people, gear, vehicles, and–of course–drones. Gifts aren’t usually just +1 bonuses to skills; they usually do a lot more for a person or thing. They also have different costs depending on how powerful the Gift is or what it does.
C47 Prowler’s Gifts
Gifts: Cloaking, Collapsible, Dodge, Silent (Area), Sneak Attack, Spy Cam
Cloaking
The drone easily blends into its surroundings, making it difficult to detect. While cloaked, a drone may not be attacked without the aggressor first making a Great (+2) Notice (See) check. The drone’s Size is subtracted from the Difficulty of this check, so a Mediocre (-1) Size drone would require a Superb (+3) check but a Good (+1) Size drone would only need a Good (+1) Notice check to spot.
Cost: Great [16]
Collapsible
Collapsible drones are capable of condensing themselves into smaller units. They may reduce their Size by up to two levels and expand back to their normal size upon command. This size alteration takes one round.
While collapsed, drones lose access to most of their Gifts. They retain their movement (including movement-oriented Gifts such as Flight) but are otherwise incapable of performing actions. This Gift is usually used to allow a drone to be more portable or to let it more easily sneak into places it wouldn’t normally be able to go.
If a drone is already Abysmal (-3) Size, it may still collapse further. Its effective Size would be -5, which is about as flat as a sheet of 50 lbs. paper.
Cost: Great [16]
Dodge
The drone relies on its maneuverability to avoid danger. Treat the drone’s DDFs as its Handling minus its Size, rather than its Durability plus its Size.
Cost: Fair [4]
Silent
Sonarkinesis dampens any noise the drone makes to about 10 dB. It is almost inaudible to normal human ears, although enhanced hearing or highly sensitive microphones may still pick up this noise.
For an added cost, the sonarkinesis field may extend to Poor (-2) Range (across a room, or about 12 feet / 4 meters). Treat it as a PR: 2 sonarkinesis device to determine how well it dampens noises made by other creatures or objects in its surroundings.
For a refresher on sonarkinesis, see page 111 of the Psi-punk core book..
Cost: Good [8] (personal) or Great [16] (area)
Sneak Attack
Drones with this ability are adept at attacking enemies unawares. When attacking an enemy who isn’t aware of the drone’s presence, add the drone’s Handling trait to its ODFs.
Cost: Fair [4]
Spy Cam
In addition to its normal camera sensors, this drone has an ultra high resolution camera designed to transmit imagery back to the operator. For an added cost, this camera may include any of the features available to cybernetic eyes (see page 60 of the Psi-punk core book), including thermal vision, x-ray vision, HUD, etc.
The drone wirelessly streams its footage in real-time to the operator, who may view it through a comm device, cybernetic eyes with Computer-Integrated Display, or other capable display.
Cost: Fair [4], plus Great [16] per enhancement
Final Thoughts
These are just a few of the example Gifts in the upcoming Psi-punk: Drones sourcebook. Of course, you’re always welcome to build your own Gifts and make your own drones as well–that’s what the Fudge™ System is all about.
With what you’ve read over the last few weeks, do you have any ideas for new drones floating around in your head? Let us know in the comments!
