Engineer

Listen to those engines hum! Wait, are those harmonics in spec? For you, every machine is a potential opportunity to learn something, to fix something, or maybe even to make something new—however temporary—from its parts. If you don’t know something, you know what archives are most likely to contain the blueprints or other answers you need, even if that knowledge is encoded in restricted databases. You’re a maker, a fixer, and a hard-edged knowledge worker with real-world experience in all kinds of scenarios. Because of your presence, your team’s mission is more likely to succeed, rather than fail for want of a turbo encabulator.

Background Options

• Having barely survived a system failure in your childhood asteroid habitat, you've dedicated yourself to technical pursuits to prevent similar disasters in the future.
• Last week, the news reported that an engineering professor you studied under was murdered.
• When the dissidents attacked, they cut the main power, resulting in your parents’ deaths. You’ve sworn to one day find their leadership and return the favor.
• Your paper on an ion drive refinement means you’re still recognized in narrow circles.
• You woke up from a medically induced coma ten years ago with no memory of your past and no identifying documents. After all these years, you still have no answers.
• Last month, the engines on a tramp freighter you were trying to repair exploded.
• You recently returned from a three-year tour of the outer planet deuterium refineries.
• When the colony radiation scrubber broke a month ago, you were able to make a quick fix.

Engineer Abilities

You gain all of the following benefits: Able to take two more minor wounds and one more moderate wound Add +1 to Speed Pool Add +3 to Intellect Pool Add +1 Edge in Pool of your choice Freely use light and medium weapons Freely use light and medium armor At tier 3 and tier 6, choose an ability from the Science Fiction Genre Abilities list

Connected Knowledge (1 Intellect): You can connect to restricted data (via an implant, a handheld device, a robotic drone assistant, or the like) that isn't publicly accessible. Ask your GM a question and get a short but accurate answer if you succeed on an Intellect task. The difficulty is routine if it’s something anyone could learn via their own method of access, level 3 if the sensitive or secret knowledge is primarily an engineering or scientific topic, and level 5 or higher if your GM decides the information is particularly sensitive or secret, whether scientific in nature or not. Last action. Expert Engineer: You are trained in engineering. At tier 6, you can become an expert in engineering if you are already specialized, but you must gain the skill normally. Enabler.

Modify Device (3 Intellect): You quickly jury-rig a piece of equipment or a power source in order to repair or upgrade it. This requires access to appropriate parts and tools. Repair: If you succeed on an engineering task (difficulty equal to the device's level + 1), you temporarily repair a piece of broken equipment or an inactive power source to get a few more uses out of it. Upgrade: If you succeed at a difficulty 3 engineering task, you make the device function about 25 percent above its rated specifications. When you take a ten-hour recovery, the device breaks, requiring a full repair (as opposed to another Modify Device task) to regain its original, unmodified function. For example, you could overclock a medium blaster so that it deals 1 additional damage, modify a food printer so that each cup of coffee made with it tastes better, modify a spacecraft’s engine so that its acceleration is improved by 25 percent, and so on. Whether you repair or upgrade the device, it now has a depletion of 1–6 on a d20 (check each use).

At tier 3, the modified device’s depletion improves to 1–2 on a d20. Ten minutes to complete.

[!example]

Engineer Equipment Bundle

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment. A set of tools specialized for engineering (including bolt cutters), appropriate clothing, a backpack, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, and the like), a breather, an environmental tent, bolt cutters, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

Part of Hard Science Fiction