And now, the Shootist, Tank, and Cooler
Okay, I said I was going to do this once a week, but I got too excited. So sue me. Now We get the Shootist, Tank, and Cooler.
SHOOTIST
Don’t call him a gunslinger. You’ll just piss him off. Anybody can be a gunslinger; it takes a lifetime of training and a special sort of obsession to be a shootist. To this guy, a gun is a work of special beauty. Every shot is a poem of ballistics and calculus. Cordite is a perfume. The report of the detonating gunpowder is the secret name of God.
Physique
Shootists are either wiry, scrawny, or fat. Roll a d10 to determine which: 1-4 wiry, 5-7 scrawny, 8-10 fat.
Skills
Quick draw.
With a successful MOVE check, you can draw your weapon and make an attack before the first round of an action sequence. If you bust, you still get to attack this round. If someone else successfully quick draws, precedence is established between you based on your quick draw MOVE rolls, not your attack rolls.
Also, you can swap weapons instantly, before or after any action, even if you are defending or attacking.
Twin guns.
When wielding two guns, you can shoot each one at a separate target in one turn, with separate HIT checks.
Make damn sure.
If you bust an attack roll with a gun, and you’ve still got ammo left in it, you can expend an extra ammo point to try again on a single die. You may continue to do this until you succeed or the gun is empty.
Get the last word.
If you go down, go critical, or are killed in a fight, you may take one last shot at the guy who did it to you.
Steely gaze.
Use this skill to Spook someone with your squinty, steely gaze. You can’t use it more than once on the same person.
Shoot fancy.
Make a HIT check and you can shoot a thrown weapon out of the air for active defense, or shoot someone’s weapon out of his hand, or perform some other fancy, fine-tuned shot.
Ammo conservation.
Thanks to your steady aim and fast reloading skills, your guns are treated as if they had 50% more ammo in them (round up). They still only take the normal amount of ammo supply to reload.
Maintain your guns.
Using your gun maintenance kit, you can keep guns in shape and remove all Wear from them. Spend 1 material from your kit per Wear box cleared. This takes an extended time.
Appraise guns.
You can appraise the worth (in cash) of guns and ammo. If it’s oldTech, you get -2. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it carefully (in extended time) at +1.
Make your own bullets.
Between jobs, all of your ammo supplies refill to the starting values below, for free.
Proficiencies
Weapons: guns, knives.
Armor: none
Holsters: 3
Traits
Double good shot: +2 to shoot guns.
Grizzled: +1 when checking to see if you hesitate, panic, or suffer an ASD from mental trauma.
When You Crack
When a Shootist cracks it, he surrenders totally to the ineffable beauty of the bullet, and blows his own head off. If he doesn’t have a gun at the moment, he’ll kill to get one.
Starting Gear
* rugged, casual, sharp, or badass clothes
* gun maintenance kit (materials:20)
* a derringer (gun-1 shortest pocket ammo:1+1) & box of shells (reload x5)
* any two of the following:
o magnum revolver (gun+1 short ammo:3+2) & box of shells (reload x3)
o fully-auto carbine or submachine gun (gun+1 medium ammo:4+2) & spare clips (reload x2)
o two automatic clip pistols (gun short ammo:3+2) & spare clips (reload x4)
o high-caliber rifle (gun+1 long ammo:2+1 big) & spare clips (reload x3)
o double-barrel shotgun (gun medium nasty ammo:1+1 big) & box of shells (reload x10)
o automatic clip pistol w/silencer (gun short silent ammo:3+2) & spare clips (reload x3)
The bonuses listed by the ammo scores are the amounts gained by your ammo conservation skill. They don’t apply for non-Shootists.
Buddy Score Mods
For each other Shootist, roll even odd; on even, +2; on odd, -2 (Shootists either really like or really hate each other). -2 with anyone who has a gun and isn’t a Shootist or Hardcase (fuckin’ amateurs).
TANK
Put this guy in front and watch the attack break on him like waves breaking on the rocks. You know that proverbial immoveable object? That’s this guy. But watch out, ‘cause when he gets into motion, he’s also the proverbial irresistible force. Affectionately and appropriately, we dub him Tank.
Physique
All Tanks are massive.
Skills
Suck it up.
Using this skill, you can make an active defense roll (for yourself or others) with an ENDURE check. When defending yourself with this, all attacks against you are affected. When defending a partner, all attacks against him are affected.
Charge!
If you attack after charging at them with a MOVE check for positioning, you get +1 DAMAGE.
Get some breathing room.
You need a big weapon to use this skill. Swing your weapon around in such a way that it forces people to give you a wide berth. Anyone who gets within close range while you do this must make a MOVE check (as an instant action) or else get clobbered.
Half grip stance.
Using this stance, you can treat a long-reach contact weapon as medium-reach, with DAMAGE -1.
Momentum.
While positioning or attacking, you never flinch. Ever.
Gonna be sore in the mornin’.
Once per job, cancel a physical trauma hit (it doesn’t even get marked down on the Trauma Track). Even if it would have killed you.
Maintain your armor.
Using your maintenance kit, you can keep armor in shape and remove all Wear from it. Spend 1 material from your kit per Wear box cleared. This takes an extended time.
Appraise armor.
You can appraise the worth (in cash) of armor. If it’s oldTech, you get -2. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it carefully (in extended time) at +1.
Proficiencies
Weapons: any contact weapons tagged as big
Armor: clink, tactical, and street (all light, heavy, or double-heavy)
Holsters: 3
Traits
Double shrug it off: +2 when checking to see if you flinch, go down, or go critical from damage.
Double human wall: MOVE +2 when blocking someone’s path.*
Double heavy hitter: DAMAGE +2 when fighting unarmed or with a big weapon.*
*These include the bonuses afforded by being massive.
When You Crack
When a Tank cracks it, the bad news is that he goes all berserker and will try to kill everyone he can see. The good news is that he becomes convinced of his own invulnerability, and takes his armor off first. Or was that the bad news? I don’t remember.
Starting Gear
* Casual, rugged, or badass clothes
* Double-heavy clink, tactical, or street armor
* one of the following:
o greatsword or halberd or poleaxe (edged long big)
o war maul or sledgehammer (blunt long big)
o broad-axe (edged medium big)
o heavy morningstar or warhammer (blunt medium big)
o heavy spear (piercing long big)
o estoc (piercing medium big)
Buddy Score Mods
+1 with others wearing the same style clothes as you. +1 with whoever you think is toughest. +1 with whoever you think has the coolest armor.
COOLER
“Cooling” is dungeoneer slang for abjuration - basically, shutting down magic. Coolers are people born with the special gift to do this. There’s a downside, though, and it’s that the power to do this builds up incredible heat in the body. So much so that it would boil their blood out through their pores if allowed to.
To combat this, Coolers wear large Personal Refrigeration Units strapped to their backs, connected to their bodies through lines running directly to the hypothalamus and carotid artery. It’s not particularly stylish, but then neither is boiling blood. It also means that Coolers have to be really big. What happens to small people born with the gift to cool? Well, it’s better not to think about it.
Physique
All Coolers are massive.
Skills
Cool a spell or magical energy.
Make an ENDURE check to cancel any one magical effect. If you attempt this while your PRU is disconnected or inoperable, you must make another ENDURE check or else go critical from your boiling blood.
Contain magical energy.
With the help of your PRU, you can contain magical energies - both ambient and from spells - and unleash them at a later time. Make an ENDURE check to do this.
Keep track of your contained energies on an index card, with 10 boxes and spaces next to them. Mark one of the boxes and note the effect of the magic each time you contain something. Once discharged, unmark the box and erase the effect.
To discharge the magic and have its effect occur, make the same roll that the user of the magic would have to make (if it was ambient in the dungeon, the Ref decides what to check). If this roll fails, the power discharges with no effect.
You can contain up to 5 energies with ease. If containing more than 5, you must make an ENDURE check every extended time. If you fail that roll, you must either discharge the excess energy immediately or take +X damage on the Weird Magic table, with X equal to the number of energies you’re containing minus 5. So, if you’re containing 7, and fail your ENDURE check, you’ll be taking +2 damage.
You cannot contain more than 10 energies.
PRU maintenance & repairs.
You can take an extended time to take care of your PRU and remove all Wear from it. Spend 1 material from your repair kit per Wear box cleared.
Make a THINK check to make repairs to your PRU. If successful, spend 5 materials from your repair kit per Tear box cleared. This normally takes an extended time, but you can do it hastily (in moderate time) at -1, or double-hastily (in quick time) at -2, or carefully (in double extended time) at +1.
You can salvage materials from refrigerators, AC units, and other machines and gadgets used for cooling, with a THINK check. The amount of materials salvaged is equal to your margin. This normally takes an extended time, but you can do it hastily (in moderate time) at -1, or carefully (in double extended time) at +1.
Magic sense.
Make a SEE check to try to detect magic in the vicinity - either ambient magic, or magic currently being performed. If you succeed on an 11 or better, you also detect the function of that magic; otherwise you only detect its presence.
Proficiencies
Weapons: any contact weapon tagged as big, handguns
Armor: none
Holsters: 1
Traits
None, aside from those granted by a massive physique:
Human wall: MOVE +1 when blocking someone’s path.
Heavy hitter: DAMAGE +1 when fighting unarmed or with a big weapon.
When You Crack
When a Cooler cracks it, he madly disconnects his PRU. He immediately loses control of any magic that he had contained; see “Notes on Uncontrolled Discharge” below. If the Cooler survives this, he’ll storm off in madness and automatically cool all magic he finds until his blood boils out through his skin or he is otherwise killed.
Notes on Uncontrolled Discharge
Uncontrolled discharge results your PRU is disconnected or rendered inoperable. All magical energy you had contained escapes as raw, dangerous power. Each piece of magical energy you had contained will damage one person nearby for +0 on the Weird Magic table.
Starting Gear
* Hip, weird, or casual clothes
* Personal Refrigeration Unit (RELIABILITY:15 heavy:x2 noisy)
* PRU maintenance kit (materials:20 refill:free)
* One of the following:
o sledgehammer (blunt long big)
o automatic clip pistol (gun short ammo:3) & extra clips (reload x3)
Buddy Score Modifiers
-1 with Occult Weirdos aside from Coolers. Extra -1 with Helter-Skelters. +1 with Gearheads.