Advanced Playbook Preview – The Artificer

This is the first of three previews for the upcoming Advanced Playbooks bundle for Chasing Adventure. This bundle will be purchasable on Itch, DriveThruRPG, and this very site with the web store, all launching on November 1!

You employ powerful contraptions to overcome all obstacles, and can build even greater and stranger wonders. Let ordinary scientists study their experiments in safety and shelter – true innovation requires risk! You will uncover this world’s mysteries, overcome its dangers, and master its rules. The future is here, with all its splendors and all its dangers.

The Artificer is the Intelligence powerhouse of Chasing Adventure, using their brilliance to create wild Inventions that can change the world – once they work out the bugs.

Starting Move – Experimental Inventions

You have a growing suite of inventions at your disposal. Choose two now. When you Level Up, you can choose to create a new Invention instead of another benefit.

All Inventions allow you to spend Charge to increase their effect in some way. You start with 4 Charge, and reset back to 4 Charge when you Settle In.

Charge is the main resource that Artificers use in all sorts of ways. In addition to their normal Charge, all Artificers begin with Batteries, a 3-use item that provides Charge. Here are just a few Inventions that the Artificer might create.

Sample Invention – Bomb Kit

You carry an array of various explosives with you. When you throw or otherwise detonate a bomb (Area, Near, Distinctive), choose which type of bomb from below, or spend 1 Charge to choose two types to combine together into one bomb.

Icy – Fiery – Poison – Shrapnel – Sticky – Melting – Smoke – Flashbang

Sample Invention – Omnisense Goggles

While wearing these goggles you can detect everything you normally can, plus one additional thing chosen now from the list below. You can spend 1 Charge anytime to retune the goggles and change your choice.

Magic – Emotion – The Past – Danger – Treasure – Great Distances

When Examining or Scrutinizing with these Goggles, you can spend 1 Charge to roll+INT instead of +WIS.

Spending Charge is the surefire way to get the best use out of their Adventures, but it isn’t the only way. If they want to take a risk instead, then they can Overcharge.

Starting Move – Overcharge

When you would spend Charge, you may instead roll+INT, with Disadvantage for each Charge spent past the first.

On a 10+ you gain the effect as if you spent the Charge, with no negative repercussions (this time).

On a 7-9 you get the effect of the Charge but choose one:
– Something backfires onto you – take a condition.
– Something is damaged. After this use, your Invention stops working until you next Settle In and repair it.
– Something goes wrong – in addition to its intended use, your Invention caused an unexpected side effect or collateral damage.

If you lend an Invention to another PC, they gain temporary access to this move.

You read that last line correctly. Narratively, Artificers can give or lend out their Inventions like other objects. If they give an Invention to another PC, that PC also gains the Overcharge move. Unlike the Artificer, others PCs need to spend Charge just to activate an Invention, so they may need to use Batteries or take the risk and Overcharge. If an NPC uses an Invention, the GM makes a choice from the Overcharge 7-9 list that will apply to that NPC.

But what if no suitable invention fits? Maybe something needs to be created, researched, or discovered. That’s an opportunity for the Artificer to utilize their last Starting Move.

Starting Move – Apply Genius

When you begin working on a new device, or start researching a scientific mystery, tell the GM what it is. They will give you 1 to 5 of the following requirements (separated by “ANDs” and “ORs”). Once you fulfill them, you’ve done it!
– It will work a limited number of times, perhaps only once.
– You’ll need help or expertise from (blank).
– You’ll need to destroy or dismantle (blank).
– You and your allies will risk (blank).
– It won’t do exactly what you want, but will instead (blank).
– It will only work at (blank).
– It will require (blank).
– It’s going to take hours/days/weeks/months.
– First you must (blank).

Example Designs: Airship, Shrink Ray, Teleporter, Cloning Vat, Computer, Clockwork Engine, Artificial Sun, Invisibility Field, Moving Pictures, Mind Melder.

This can be used to create or discover practically anything the Artificer can think of. Want to create a new Invention on the fly, uncover the cause of a mysterious famine, or design a weapon against a seemingly-invulnerable foe? Apply Genius!

Like all Playbooks, the Artificer has three Backgrounds to choose from. Here is the most… chaotic of them.

Sample Background – Explosives Enthusiast

There’s a primal thrill found to be found in an explosion. Maybe you see beauty in the fire and smoke. Maybe you hear rhythm in falling debris. Maybe something else. Either way, the bigger the better.

You can turn any ordinary object into a explosive by spending either 1 Charge and a few minutes of time or 2 Charge and a few seconds.

Your Bomb Kit Invention gains the Far tag, and you can spend 1 Charge to give it Piercing for the scene.

Starting Stats: +2 INT, +1 STR
Equipment: Flash of Whiskey (2 Uses)
Drive: Create beauty through chaos or destruction.

That’s all for this preview. Check back later for previews for the Monk and the Monster, and take a look at the Advanced Playbook bundle coming out on November 1!