Engineer Class

Engineers are crafters of all things non-magical. Some are smiths, some carpenters, some architects, some leatherworkers. They’re always on the watch for useful things that don’t necessarily seem useful, and for things to deconstruct for their wonderful bits.

For context, see how classes and leveling work in this earlier post. Terse summary: Gain 1 template per level until level 4.

Class: Engineer

Starting Equipment: leather armor, hammer, scissors, dagger Starting Skill: see profession below. You also gain the engineer skill when you take your first Engineer template.

A: Craft, Identify, Salvage

B: Repair, Improve

C: Traps

D: Modify

You gain 1 blueprint for each Engineer template you possess. Use the process for rolling on the blueprint tables to create each blueprint.

Templates

A: Craft

When you have access to a market that meets your needs, you may spend 3dx*100 GP (x = expense as determined by the referee) to fill in the gaps in whatever you are trying to build.

Identify any non-magical item by examining it for 10 minutes. You can get an inkling of the item’s magical purpose if you roll a 1 on a d6 after 10 minutes of examination. (This doesn’t apply to purely magical things like spell scrolls, potions, wands, etc.)

Salvage

You can deconstruct objects for materials and components. Most materials and components do not use inventory slots.

B: Repair

You may spend 3dx*10 GP (x = expense as determined by the referee) to repair an item. The next two salvage actions gain a broken item generated in the same way as a blueprint. The GM should make sure the item suits the salvage.

There is a 1-in-6 chance of finding a repairable broken item when searching an area that the referee believes might contain such a thing.

Improve

Improve any item by one point (only once per item) by paying 50% of the market value of the item. For example, a sword that would sell for 20GP can increase its damage by +1 by paying a cost of 10GP.

Any weapon improved in this way also improves its breakage rating by one. For example, a fragile weapon would become a standard weapon and a standard weapon would become a masterwork weapon.

C: Traps

If it’s at all reasonable that a genius engineer could combine the components and items you have into a trap, you can do it. You may spend 3dx*10 GP (x = expense as determined by the referee) to fill in the gaps.

D: Modify

Alter items you own if you have learned a way to do so. Blueprints often provide access to a process for modifying items.

If you can explain how you use materials to modify an item in detail and it makes sense, you’ve modified an item. Anyone can do this, not just engineers. For example: “I’m going to use my glue to attach my string to my pole” results in a string on the end of a pole.

Blueprint modifications are different. They provide ways to do things that only an expert engineer would understand.

Breakage rules from my main OSR rules document (Village Folk) for your reference:

Check for weapon breakage if ATK roll = natural 19 or 20. Check for armor breakage if DEF roll = natural 19 or 20.

Breakage Rating

Fragile weapons always break. Standard weapons = 3-in-6 chance on d6. Masterwork weapons = 1-in-6 chance on d6. First break = -1 to ATK. Second break = useless.

Armor break = -1 to DEF per break. Useless when penalty equals the bonus.

Professions

Blueprint Generation

Process

1. Roll a blueprint type
2. Roll a blueprint verb
3. Roll a blueprint object
4. Describe an item that fits the above results.
5. Start over if the result isn’t interesting or seems impossible to craft. Weird is good. Don’t reroll when it’s weird.

The player character should now be on the watch for items and components that might be used to create something resembling the blueprint. The referee should be somewhat lenient in deciding whether a combination of parts will work. Engineers are brilliant at makeshift, piecemeal improvisation.

If the engineer doesn’t have relevant magical knowledge, their craftsmanship will not directly apply magic. Use mechanical and physical knowledge instead. They might be able to think of a way to use a magical artifact in the creation of an item, however. If an item seems impossible to craft, roll a different item.

Example 1

Type: clothing/armor

Verb: gather

Object: poison

A plan to build a glove that extracts poison from the hand of the wearer into a 10ml vial. This glove also reduces the effect of any poison the wearer suffers by ¹⁄₂.

Components could include bits of plants or preserved animal bits that can suck, leech, or absorb liquid, piercing objects that might be formed into a syringe or needle, a vial or something similar, a glove, leather, fabric, metal, etc.

The plan doesn’t have to be built exactly to specifications. The player might think of some other way to build something nearly the same as this glove yet different in some way. Don’t spoil that creativity.

Example 2

Type: clothing/armor

Verb: defile

Object: thought

A hat that invades the wearer’s mind with horrible thoughts they wouldn’t normally have. The engineer might sell the hat to an enemy who would then start having to deal with thoughts opposite to what they would normally think.

An evil, selfish character might keep having great ideas about how to prevent world hunger. A humble priest who only serves the church might start thinking about stealing from the treasury or fantasize about how much fun it would be to claim to be an atheist.

(Only necessary if Emotion was rolled on the Object table)