Gear, Vehicles & Robuts!

If it is important enough to name, it probably does something ridiculous.

Superheroes own things. Sometimes very expensive things. Peril Patrol does not care what they cost, how much they weigh, how many upgrade slots they have or whether the insurance company has been notified.

A jet, utility belt, shield, freeze ray, giant robot, submarine, battle suit or antique sword is only interesting when it matters in the issue. There are no shopping lists, equipment points or depreciation tables.

Signature Gear

If an item is central to the character, write it on the index card as Signature Gear.

Examples include:

The Cavalier — Shield

Gunbunny — Guns

Tokyo Joe — Giant Mecha

Lobster Lord — Lobster Battle Armor

Dr. Quake — Quake-O-Matic

Signature Gear is assumed to be available unless the story specifically removes it. Gunbunny does not have to announce every issue that she remembered to bring her guns.

Gear can also grant Powers. A jet pack might grant Flight, battle armor might grant Armor and Super-Strength, and a utility belt might grant Gadgetry. There is no separate equipment-construction system.

Using Gear

Gear uses the same rules as everything else. The item tells you what the character is allowed to attempt, while the character's Attributes determine how well it goes.

A raygun usually uses Zip. A complicated scanner probably uses Brains. A terrifying sonic amplifier might use Moxie if the point is to frighten everybody in the room.

If the equipment is being used for something routine, no roll is required.

Breaking Gear

Equipment can be dropped, stolen, jammed, smashed, melted, frozen, eaten, launched into orbit or otherwise rendered inconvenient.

This is temporary.

Signature Gear returns when dramatically appropriate, usually by the next scene or issue. Losing an important item should create a problem to solve, not remove the character from play.

Do not spend an evening calculating replacement costs.

Gadgetry

Characters with the Gadgetry Power have access to comic-book technology without carrying a written inventory of every device they might ever need.

If the gadget seems reasonable, produce it.

If it seems extraordinarily convenient, the Editor may call for a Brains roll.

If it seems completely ridiculous, spend a Kaboom and produce it anyway.

Gadgetry should feel like preparedness, invention and suspiciously well-stocked pockets, not warehouse management.

Mystery Gadgets

Sometimes a character produces a device before anyone, including the player, has decided exactly what it does.

Declare what the gadget is supposed to be.

Fortunately, I brought the Anti-Earthquake Oscillator!

Then roll 1d6.

d6	Result
1–2	There is a problem.
3–6	It is exactly what the character claimed.

When there is a problem, the Editor chooses or invents a complication. The gadget might be the wrong model, have a dead battery, have its controls installed backwards, affect the wrong target, work far too well or turn out to be something completely different with a suspiciously similar label.

A Mystery Gadget should usually still do something useful. It simply should not do it cleanly.

It Was There All Along!

One of the best uses of a Kaboom is to establish that some useful piece of equipment or vehicle feature already existed.

The Peril Sub has a drill.

Apparently it does.

The Cavalier's shield has an emergency radio.

Of course.

Mister Chips has a built-in tape deck.

Nobody is surprised.

Once established, the feature has always been there. See Kabooms! for the full rule.

Vehicles!

Vehicles are characters with wheels, wings, propellers, treads, rocket engines or no identifiable means of propulsion.

Do not build them with points.

A vehicle generally needs only a Name, a short description, one or two Powers, a few notable features and at least one thing that tends to go wrong.

Common vehicle Powers include Flight, Speed, Armor, Blast, Special Movement, Gadgetry and Super-Senses. If someone has made a genuinely terrible engineering decision, a vehicle might also have Teleport.

Driving and Piloting

Ordinary driving does not require a roll. Dangerous driving usually uses Zip, with an appropriate Talent such as Pilot or Driving adding +2.

Tokyo Joe with excellent Zip and the Pilot Talent is very good at flying the Peril Plane.

This does not mean the Peril Plane survives.

Vehicle Stunts use the same rules as Power Stunts. Ram It! turns the vehicle into a weapon, Thread the Needle gets through somewhere the vehicle clearly should not fit, Emergency Turn avoids a sudden disaster, Shake Them Off deals with pursuers, and Use the Weird Feature activates whatever improbable subsystem has just been discovered.

Vehicle Damage

Do not track detailed structural damage unless everyone at the table suddenly decides that sounds entertaining.

A normal hit causes trouble. A Big Hit disables something. A Ridiculous Hit wrecks the vehicle or takes it Out of the Panel.

Useful vehicle damage includes a smoking engine, missing wing, jammed controls, failed brakes, reversed steering, loose wheel, stuck radio or accidentally armed ejection seat.

The damage should create something new to deal with rather than simply subtracting numbers.

The Peril Plane Rule

The Peril Plane is assumed to contain systems nobody has previously mentioned.

A player may spend 1 Kaboom to declare that the Peril Plane has a previously unknown feature. The feature was always there, is probably badly labeled, may not work correctly and may never appear again.

This rule also works for other suitably ridiculous vehicles. It is simply most at home aboard the Peril Plane.

Giant Robots

Giant robots are vehicles with fists.

Treat them exactly the same way.

Tokyo Joe does not need a second character sheet for his mecha. Write the Powers granted by the robot under his Signature Gear.

For example:

Giant Mecha — Armor, Super-Strength, Blast

That is enough.

If the robot has missile launchers, rocket fists, emergency wings, detachable legs or a coffee maker, those may simply be Stunts or established features.

Battle Armor

Battle armor is also just Gear that grants Powers.

For example:

Lobster Battle Armor

Armor
Super-Strength
Blast — Claw Cannon
Special Movement — Sideways Scuttle

There is no need to build each claw, shell plate and suspicious lobster-themed accessory separately.

The Sideways Scuttle is mandatory because dignity has already left the building.

Robuts!

Robuts are not ordinary equipment.

Robuts are people.

Usually more competent people.

A robut player character is built exactly like any other character, with Brawn, Zip, Brains, Moxie, Talents, Powers, a Running Gag, a Catchphrase!, Hit Points and Kabooms.

Mister Chips is a character, not a device entry.

Built-In Robut Systems

A robut may take:

Gadgetry — Built-In Systems

This covers retractable tools, scanners, radios, emergency equipment, concealed devices, spare hands and whatever else could reasonably have been packed into the chassis.

Do not write every built-in feature on the card. Produce the appropriate device when needed and use the normal Gadgetry rules.

Robuts Are Usually Right

Robuts in Skyscraper Comics have developed an unfortunate tendency to be the most sensible people in the room.

ROBUTS ARE USUALLY RIGHT

When a robut gives sensible technical advice, the heroes ignore it, and disaster follows, the robut earns a Kaboom.

If the robut is a player character, the player gets it. If the robut is an NPC, the Editor may save that Kaboom for the robut's later intervention.

This does not mean robuts are infallible. It means nobody listens to them until after the explosion.

Hero Takes the Credit

If a robut solves the problem and a superhero publicly receives the credit, the robut may earn another Kaboom if the situation is worth the joke.

This will probably happen to Mister Chips a lot.

The Legion of Super-Robuts has opinions about this.

Sidekicks

A sidekick who matters enough to be played regularly should be built as a normal character.

A supporting sidekick can be much simpler. Give them one strong Attribute, one Talent, one Power or gimmick and one Running Gag.

That is enough to make them useful without maintaining another full character sheet.

Pets

Pets use the same idea.

A robodog does not need fourteen statistics. It needs to be good at one or two things, have a useful gimmick and behave like itself.

For example:

Checkers the Vicious Robut Dog

Good At: Tracking

Power: Super-Senses

Running Gag: Steals something important

Done.

Bases

Headquarters do not need statistics.

Peril Peak contains whatever facilities have already been established, plus occasional facilities nobody remembers installing.

Useful features might include a hangar, laboratory, communications room, armory, kitchen, training room, giant emergency map, sauna, bowling alley or something considerably stranger.

If a previously unknown feature would solve a local problem without solving the entire issue, spend a Kaboom and establish that it was there all along.

Gear Failure

When Gear fails, do not simply switch it off. Give the failure personality.

A device might activate the wrong function, work backwards, affect the user, become stuck on maximum, refuse to shut down, deploy something embarrassing, announce diagnostics at full volume, eject an important component or begin counting down.

Good Gear failures create new Stunts for everyone else.

Shoddy Goods

Some equipment is simply bad.

If the Editor wants uncertainty, roll 1d6 when a suspicious device is first used.

d6	Result
1–2	Shoddy.
3–6	Fine.

A Shoddy device works once and then something goes wrong. The failure may happen immediately, at the end of the scene or at the least convenient possible moment.

Do not create a repair subsystem for this.

Stolen Gear

Villains love stealing important equipment.

If Signature Gear is stolen, the character can recover it, improvise, borrow something else, build a replacement, spend Kabooms or discover that they inexplicably had a spare.

Losing Gear should create an adventure hook, not an excuse to make a player useless.

Random Equipment

If nobody knows what is inside a crate, glove compartment, laboratory cabinet, storage locker or badly labeled compartment on the Peril Plane, do not waste time deciding.

Roll something.

That is what Random Tables! are for.

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