Greasemonkeys are students, which means that they make use of devices, technological contraptions that generally have a single function. As students, greasemonkeys can construct as many devices as they desire, but are limited in how many they can have maintained at any one time. With a long rest, the greasemonkey can change her device selection. A device always takes up one device slot.

Technology is not a guarantee, and devices do not always work. A greasemonkey's devices have an error rate. Whenever the greasemonkey activates a device, she must roll a technological device malfunction check (TDM, for short); if the result is less than or equal to the device's error rate, the device fails to activate and will not function until the greasemonkey spends time to investigate the problem and repair the device (in short: she must take a long rest and prepare her devices; repairing all malfunctioning devices is considered part of this process).

Special: If a device requires you make a technological attack, that roll is used to determine if the device has an error.

A device's error rate is based upon the device's grade, as per the table to the right.

Devices come in four grades. Prototype devices are those that the greasemonkey has just recently come to an understanding of, and are - essentially - experimental. Refined devices are those that she has studied in somewhat more detail, and has learned how to make them slightly more effective. Improved devices typically have expanded functionality, while augmented devices are those that the greasemonkey understands to the best degree that modern science can explain.

The greasemonkey gains bonus device slots from a high Intelligence. If she has an Intelligence bonus, she gains a bonus device slot at every third level (3rd, 6th, 9th, etc), until she has gained bonus device slots equal to her Intelligence modifier. To use devices, a greasemonkey must have an Intelligence score of at least 10, and usually higher to use devices of higher grades; to use a device of a particular field, she must have at least a 10 in the field's associated ability.

The greasemonkey begins with three "devices known" slots. A device known has two possible uses: she can gain knowledge of a new device of any field she can access, as a prototype; or, she can improve her understanding of a device she already knows, and improve its grade by one (from prototype to refined, to improved, to augmented). She gains knowledge of additional devices each level, as per the class table, above. At fourth level and every four levels after, she can trade out up to two prototype devices she knows (or reduce the grade of a device she knows) for either new devices, or to improve the grade of devices she already knows.

Unlike most other Forces, greasemonkeys must construct their devices; not measured in common currencies, the construction costs for devices are measured in technology pieces, which are an abstract currency that various technological bits - conduits, bolts, and the like - can be translated into. Such tp can be purchased in most civilized locations, and objects can be scrapped to turn into tp. The cost to construct a device depends on its grade.

The greasemonkey's key ability for her technological attacks is her Intelligence; if her secondary ability score for the device's field is greater than her Intelligence, she can use that instead (for instance, if you have a 16 Int and an 18 Dex, you can use your Dexterity for technological attacks made with Electrical devices).

In addition to their standard uses, greasemonkeys - through their knowledge of their own work - can temporarily improve the function of a device, by activating its clutch. This is not necessarily a literal clutch, but is a process by which the greasemonkey can temporarily make a device function better, at the expense of it being guaranteed to fail shortly. You can activate a device's clutch as part of its activation; once the duration of the clutch ends, the device immediately malfunctions. However, the clutch has one additional benefit: when you use it, for that particular activation of the device, you ignore the device's error rate. If a device has multiple clutches, you can only choose one when you activate the clutch.

Design Notes

Might as well put this section here, because there's going to be notes.

Feb 26, 2017: "Self, let's make the greasemonkey as complicated as humanly possible!" I apparently said at one time. Well that time is over. Let ease of play reign. We're gonna take a hammer to this whole deal: it's time for simple, sensible vehicle mechanics.

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