Devices

An example Device.

Tesla technology is a fusion of steampunk and electric technology. The ideal aesthetic is silver or grey metal and blue lights or highlights and steam tubes/wires to contrast with the brass/clockwork look of Analytical Technology. They draw power from “Tesla Towers” to produce Devices with powerful but generally straightforward effects. These devices are finicky and often require extensive maintenance to keep them functioning.

Building a Tesla Device is done by combining Components.

Component	Appearance	Qualities
Clockwork	Gears	Conditional behaviour, User recognition, Precision, Stamina
Steam Power	Pipe fittings	Build-up of power, Heat, Kinetic action, Resilience
Electrical Power	Metal lightning bolts	Electrical arcs or damage, Light, Speed, Magnetism
Antenna	Curled wire	Widespread action, Communication, Transmission, Spreading an effect
Dampener	Fuses	Stealth, Shielding, Reduction, Stabilisation

To create a Device, take two or more Components to the Refs and explain what you are making. They will offer you a potential result - you can take this result, or keep the resources but suffer a minor experimental setback (generally accompanied by a minor roleplaying effect, with a small chance of a wound). Sometimes the result may be “that can’t be done with a Device” but in that case you will get the resources back with no issues.

Using more components tends to make more powerful devices, but you can’t just add more of the same ones in. Each component added must be used in a specific and different way towards the end goal of the Device.

Some examples of what devices might do are given here. These are to illustrate the approximate scale of power that you can expect Devices to have.

A two-component device might:

• Shield one person from a passive danger (such as water breathing).
• Improve a person’s defences, giving them a temporary Hit Point each scene.
• Allow unleashing a small blast of energy at range once per scene.
• Add a stunning effect to someone’s weapon attacks for the first few attacks each scene.
• Attract or repel creatures or objects with magnetic power.

A four-component device might:

• Protect a whole party from a passive danger (such as water breathing).
• Actively negate technological attacks, but break after stopping a certain number.
• Automatically open locks after a few seconds of using the device.
• Fire a devastating energy blast, then break.
• Allow unleashing a stun field once per scene.

Limits of Devices

You can’t use a Tesla Device to:

• Interface with Analytical Intelligence.
• Interface with human minds except via brute-force emotional effects.
• Heal hit points or wounds (though other biological effects are possible)

Testing

Testing is an important part of SCIENCE. When you create a Device, in most cases you can use it once immediately to check that it works. (Exceptions do exist - e.g. if you build a bomb, it might not be usable after testing. The Ref will tell you if this is the case.) This is mainly an excuse for players to show off their new tech at the interactives.

Using a Device

Devices require a lot of maintenance to use outside laboratory conditions. Each party of players can take one Device on a linear; they are assumed to share the burden of keeping it running. Each character with the Tesla Technologist’s Create Device skill can bring a Device as well, being able to maintain it personally.

Many Devices become broken when they are used outside of testing. This means that they can’t be used again and become scrap. You can break down scrap at an interactive for a random Component; feel free to hand in the scrap at the start when collecting income or roleplay breaking it down in character.

Some Devices may be exhausted when they are used instead; this means that they can’t be used until they recharge from the Tesla Towers, a process that can only be done when not under pressure.

At the end of any linear on which a Device is used, or any interactive it is used at after testing, it is broken and becomes scrap. Devices that go a long time without being used also break down - at the end of each term extant Devices become useless and should be handed in to a Ref.