@ this weapon requires two Main Actions to reload

Mods have a cost in credits or salvage. A tech with access to a normal TL4 parts market can buy components with a credit cost, but certain highly sophisticated mods require pretech components that can only be salvaged from certain ancient Mandate-era technological devices. Not just any device will do for gathering these components; these micronized fusion taps, antigrav nodules, impact flexors, and polymorphic state controllers are found in only certain Mandate tech or in rare ancient caches of unused components. A tech will usually have to find these components as part of an adventure, because those who have them need them for their own purposes and will not part with them for ordinary monetary compensation. The specific details of these parts don’t matter for mod use, and they’re simply tracked as “salvage”. If a mod requires three units of salvage, any three units will work, and it’s not normally necessary for a tech to track down specific components. Mods take time to build and install. It takes one week per minimum skill level of the mod to build and install it in the desired device. Thus, a Customized mod takes a week to put in, while a Flexible mod takes two. 

If a tech does nothing other than work, eat, and sleep, they can halve these times, and an additional assistant with at least Fix-0 skill can further halve the time.

Mods must be custom-built to specific objects. A tech cannot build a “generic” mod and then just attach it to a device; it must be carefully designed to fit exactly with that specific item, and sometimes even with a specific user.

Mods and Maintenance

Mods require maintenance to keep functioning correctly. Overclocked hardware, bleeding-edge tech, and experimental adjustments just don’t have the field durability of more standard gear, so a tech must apply daily attention to the modded hardware if it’s not to fail. A normal TL4 toolbox is required to maintain mods, but no special parts are needed.

A tech’s Maintenance score is equal to the total of their Intelligence and Constitution modifiers plus three times their Fix skill level. The smarter and the longer a tech can work, the more maintenance they can perform, but their overall expertise as a technician is the most crucial element. A tech can maintain a number of mods equal to their Maintenance score without cutting into their adventuring time or otherwise encumbering their off-duty hours. This maintenance is assumed to take place during downtime and doesn’t need to be tracked specifically in play. If they do nothing but maintenance, they can double their score, but this kind of dedication requires sixteen-hour workdays.

If a mod goes without maintenance for 24 hours, it stops working. If a mod goes without maintenance for a week, the entire device it’s attached to stops working, as the untuned mod has made it useless or dangerous to use. Weapons can no longer be used in combat, armor no longer gives protection, seizes up, or is too dangerous to wear, and other devices simply stop functioning. 

A maintenance backlog on a device can be cleared by an  hour of work by a technician capable of maintaining it.

In the far future, it’s often more convenient to send an expendable grav-flying probe into danger before venturing less repairable assets. Well-prepared adventuring groups often have reason to pack along a drone or two for exploring and aerial recon.

Military use of drones is limited by the ubiquitous use of quantum ECM. The easy confusion of electronic navigation makes it impossible to control an unwired drone remotely on a modern battlefield or in proximity to important civil structures, but in the alien wilds or away from urban centers, drones remain a feasible tool for explorers and conquerors of primitive militaries.

Each drone has a cost, a maximum number of fittings, an Encumbrance weight for carrying it along, a hit point rating, a maximum control range, and a mini-mum tech level. Drones may be attacked as any other object and will crash once reduced to zero hit points.

Piloting a Drone

Piloting a drone requires either a cybernetic drone control link as described on page 83 or a handheld control unit that comes with the drone. A control link can pilot up to one drone plus the user’s Program skill at any one time. Handheld units can pilot only one. Drones consume one type A power cell for every hour of use.

A pilot must spend their Main Action each round to command the drone to either move or shoot. Un-commanded drones remain stationary if piloted via control link, while handheld units run a 2-in-6 chance of crashing a drone if the operator fails to control them.In combat, drones fly at 30 meters per round on their pilot’s turn in combat. Out of combat, they can manage up to 100 kilometers per hour.

Spotting a drone at observation range is a Wis/Notice skill check at difficulty 10. A drone close enough to engage a target can be spotted at difficulty 8. Any secure facility will have sensors capable of detecting a civilian drone as soon as it gets within observation range, unless the drone has stealth fittings.

Drone Combat

A drone’s pilot can activate up to one weapon the drone is carrying as part of their Main Action to control it each round. Weapons all use Intelligence as the con-trolling attribute, and use the better of the pilot’s Pilot or Program skills as the relevant weapon skill. The drone shoots using the pilot’s base attack bonus.

Aside from the basic drone chassis, operators can attach different fittings to a drone to add additional capabilities. Once attached, a fitting cannot be removed with-out causing severe structural damage to the drone. If a drone is destroyed, all fittings are destroyed with it.

If a drone is damaged, it can be repaired fully with one unit of spare parts per five hit points lost and an hour’s work by someone with at least Fix-0 skill.

The following list of ship fittings are largely standard TL4 technologies that are available in most sectors. A few items on the list are rare pretech devices that cannot be acquired without special connections or a lucky feat of salvage.

Some costs are marked with an asterisk. These costs are multiplied by 10 when the fitting is installed in a frigate-class hull, by 25 when installed in a cruiser-class hull, and by 100 when installed in a capital ship.

Some power and mass entries are marked with a hashmark. These costs are multiplied by 2 for frigates, 3 for cruisers, and 4 for capital ships, rounded up. Note that you apply these multipliers even if the fitting only works on a large ship; a frigate with a Drill Course Regulator pays 250,000 credits, not 25,000.

Adventurers who spend much time in a place are likely to need to buy food, shelter, and the usual trifles of daily living. Rather than itemize each expense, a PC can simply spend an fixed amount for each day they spend living outside of a ship’s crew, barracks, or other arranged living situation.

Prices given here assume short-term rentals and contracts, plus the inevitable premium charged to out-siders in almost any society. Natives might be able to enjoy a given level of lifestyle for only half as much, but such savings usually rely on a local’s connections.

Slum lifestyles reflect bare minimums for survival, with scanty food, a corner in a squat somewhere, and little else.

Poor lifestyles involve barracks-like quarters, public transport, and small and infrequent luxuries. 

Common lifestyles usually allow for a private urban apartment or rural home, a rented personal vehicle, a respectable wardrobe, and regular small indulgences. 

Good lifestyles permit a private urban townhouse or similar dwelling, a spacious rural home, a better grade of personal vehicle, and the ability to indulge in minor expenses such as restaurants or clubs without concern. 

Elite lifestyles allow for entire floors of luxury buildings or rented rural estates, drivers and on-call gravflyers, personal staff, and similar perks.

Peerless lifestyles are similar to that of pampered celebrities and oligarchs, with round-the-clock staff service, free entrance into the most exclusive locales, and the best of everything.

Adventurers often need to obtain certain services or concessions from the locals, and the list to the right provides prices for some of their more common needs.

Bribe prices often vary depending on a planet’s general level of corruption, but the prices here are normal for most. Minor crimes usually involve anything that would only earn a fine or a few months in jail. 

Major crimes include most felonies and anything that would earn years in prison. Capital crimes are any that would get a culprit executed on the world. Particularly blatant or sensitive offenses might be impossible to solve with mere bribery, though the right “special favors” to the right officials might win a reprieve.

Forged identity papers include high-quality documentation with the appropriate false database entries. 

They’re good enough to survive checkpoints and security stops, but they won’t hold up to a serious check by a suspicious bureaucrat.

PCs will sometimes need to hire help, and GMs occasionally need to know what constitutes a “good wage” for a local NPC. The prices to the right reflect daily wages for NPCs with level-0, level-1, and level-2 skill ratings in their relevant professional skills. More talented employees cannot normally be obtained without special effort in finding and recruiting them.

Psychics are both rare and expensive to hire. Even if one can be found, they rarely charge less than 200 credits per day per psychic skill level to be employed.

Employees will carry out ordinary duties without demur, but will be no braver or more dedicated than their pay and connections would make them.