Standard Equipment Rule
Not every tool or mechanism is Super.
Sometimes, they are the most entry-level, mass-produced, bland version of a gadget that any citizen could buy in most parts of the world. For example, everyone wears clothes, sometimes tailored into a Supersuit. We do not pay Hero Points for those unless they contain notable built-in superpowers.
For items that could commonly be purchased at a "Big Box" store, without registration or certification, we allow Starting Characters to include certain equipment so long as the total cost remains less than their Wealth Attribute, and is consistent with their Origin Story. A homeless woman in NYC could not have started with a tracer and a matching radio receiver, although she did start play with a bare-bones smartphone acquired from a dubious thrift shop.
Standard Equipment items may have Abilities and Attributes, but they do not cost Hero Points to purchase. They can be damaged, stolen, lost, or destroyed during an adventure; they will be automatically replaced at the next successful Wealth Check and reasonable in-story opportunity, even if that check was made for an unrelated purchase.
Upgrades to Standard Equipment
More often than not, a Gadgeteer will look at their store-bought Standard Equipment and decide,
This thing would be so much less annoying to use
if I just take out my travel toolkit for fifteen minutes.
The Genie! by Jarissa
When they look up, it's seven days later. They have made three trips to the junkyard for upcycle parts. The Gadget no longer fits in its original casing. It glows in the extreme edge of the ultraviolet spectrum. Its battery is recharged by mild kinetic motion, meaning it recharges itself passively by traveling in the user's pocket on any subway route.
And, yes; it is indeed so much less annoying to use.
Most such upgrades would earn the item its own writeup and item article. Those things will follow the Gadget-making process, starting with the design phase, as if it were a brand new Gadget. Any writeup for a "Standard Equipment" Gadget would serve merely as a starting point. Only after the first version of the nonstandard Gadget do the Upgrades and Fine-Tuning rules apply.
Exception from "your upgrade requires a whole Gadgetry experience" requirement:
If a Standard Equipment item specifically
- calls it a "plot tool" or "plot hook", and
- these improvements do not add other Abilities
- nor improve the Body
- or Reliability Number,
- nor grant the item Hardened Defenses
- or cannot be Taken Away in Combat,
then the "improved version" is almost certainly going to remain a plot tool. Its Wealth Check value probably increased.
In this case, please check with the GMs, then make a note on your character sheet about the Wealth Check upgrade for your "improved" version, and describe the "improvements" on your Profile/Article.
The Catalogue
In the White Book, "Standard Equipment" encompasses five categories:
buildings, electronic equipment, computers and robots, vehicles, and weapons
and, frankly, we are not running either type of campaign that would include all of this.
Buildings
If the Origin Story makes sense for the Character to own one or more Buildings, the charge will be for the Player to draft an entire Landmark article that determines their building's location, appearance, historical significance, and current NPC occupants.
If the story-in-progress makes sense for the Character to acquire a Building, as part of a Subplot, the GMs will do more of the initial landmark creation, with appropriate spots for the Player to contribute as their Character's involvement becomes relevant.
In either case: Building maintenance is part of the "Upkeep Check" that, in fact, we do not use in our campaign. Significant repairs will be a Subplot. Only superscientific "upgrades", the sort of thing that turns a generic building into a top-notch Superbase or Lair, would be Gadgets that cost Hero Points (and get written onto a character sheet).
Electronic Equipment
See list in sidebar: many generic items in this category are available. These will always be the basic model. Versions with better functionality or more features are going to involve Hero Points.
Computers and Robots
We will include two items from the list in the White Book: Budget Home Computer and Advanced Home Computer. We will also include Off-Brand Cheap Smartphone, reflecting the bottom end of the market in the late 2000s. In fact, any character with a Standard Equipment smartphone probably had it bundled with a cheap Bluetooth headset that fits under any supersuit headgear.
All other items on that list belong in a Workshop, Laboratory, Superbase, or Lair. They impact the Hero Point and Wealth Cost values of those spaces.
Vehicles
The most basic, non-luxury models of automobile, snowmobile, Jet Ski, and motorboat are available as Standard Equipment. No aircraft are available, nor military vehicles, and certainly not starcraft.
Weapons
If you, personally, can walk into a Wal-Mart in the real world and photograph a sales tag on a shelf for this weapon, and then email it to the crankier of the GMs; and if she can then read it clearly, research it to establish that it is not image manipulation, and not have to discount Weapon Accessories such as a Nightsight; then, yes, it is available as Standard Equipment.
A "Cruise Missile" is not Standard Equipment.
Neither are "flame throwers" or "grenades". Good thing Gadgeteers are inventive when it comes to making use of their immediate surroundings!
The original rules for "Standard Equipment" start on page 118 of the White Book and ends on page 123 at that picture of Lobo. We have reduced the scope on this rule.
Type
Natural
| Standard Equipment items available | Wealth Cost in APs |
|---|
Electronic Equipment
Bug |
6 |
Electric Eye |
5 |
Infrared Sensor |
6 |
Monitoring System |
13 |
Nightsight |
7 |
4 |
|
5 |
|
Surveillance Microphone |
6 |
Television Camera |
9 |
5 |
Computers
Budget Home Computer |
5 |
Advanced Home Computer |
8 |
Off-Brand Cheap Smartphone |
6 |
Vehicles
compact car (new) |
7 |
compact car (used, R# 5) |
5 |
motorcycle |
6 |
nondescript white panel van |
10 |
snowmobile |
8 |
jet ski |
9 |
motorboat |
9 |
Weapons
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