This question is specifically for Hamish but I’d like other people’s input as well. What exactly is the intended purpose of the Tech class? I’ve always interpreted it as a hybrid class that allows a character to be pretty good at 2 to 3 things rather than an expert in any one. Am I reading it wrong or is my view too narrow?
This question is specifically for Hamish but I’d like other people’s input as well.
This question is specifically for Hamish but I’d like other people’s input as well.
The Tech is focused on building, repairing and customizing gear; or the scientist/engineer role. Mechanically, they’re something of a support playbook (like a Bard or Cleric, in the buff/heal sense). Yes, they can be broad, but they can also be more focused depending on the moves you take as you advance.
There are a couple of characters from Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy that I had in mind (especially Slick Henry in Mona Lisa Overdrive)
What made you think you might be “reading it wrong”?
I’m basing it off of my firsthand experience with the game I run and the game I play. In both, the first moves the techs took was the “Diverse interests/Jack of all trades” and started building characters that function as hybrid classes, a killer hacker and Medical tech guru respectively. I know if I played a tech I would also take it as my first move as well just to give my character a larger sense of scope/expertise.
I also saw that there was reference made to going to your Tech to get cyberware installed. Have you seen that to be a common practice or intended it to be?
Of the top of my head, I’d say the hybrid approach happens probably about half the time? I forget what the Tech in Operation Angel Basin did… I’ll check that. There’s certainly an appeal to having a broad flexible approach, especially with a playbook like the Tech that will rely more on creative approaches to problems.
I wouldn’t say having a PC Tech install your cyberware is common, but it’s an option.