And when can I
pick this up?
By Michael Chumbler
The rules for inventing 1889 are very thorough on how to research and what skills are necessary to build individual devices. However, when it comes to how long it takes to build your creation the rules are sorely lacking. The following addition will fill that critical gap.
There
are two parts to creating an invention, the design time and the actual
construction time. First, the inventor
must develop a working design. The
basic rule for how long a device takes to design is complexity of the device in
days times reliability. PC’s with an
Intellect of 5 multiply design time by .75; PC’s with an Intellect of 6
multiply design time by .5. If
inventor’s understanding exceeds complexity of the device by ten divide the
design by two. If understanding exceeds
by twenty, divide by four, etc. If the
PC is increasing the reliability of an already invented device, design time is
still complexity in days times reliability of the improved device, however,
subtract the original design time.
In
devices of complexity of 10 or less, the design time includes the build
time. Since in most cases these devices
are existing designs and the PC is merely making their own version of an
existing idea.
Once
our intrepid inventor has a working plan, he now needs to build his
masterpiece. Build time is complexity
in days divided by reliability. The
idea behind this concept is a more reliable design is easier to build as it is
less complex and uses more readily available materials. After the prototype is completed, divide
build time by 2 for all subsequent devices.
Minimum build time is one day.
Inventor
INT 4, Area Understanding 31, Device Complexity 20.
The
time to design will be based on the standard success rule to invent and the
resulting reliability. Figure device
experimental success number is 2 and the die roll is 5 for a reliability of
3. Design time is complexity in days
times reliability, thus in this case 20 times 3 or 60 days. Divided by 2 because inventor’s
understanding exceeds device’s complexity by 10 for a total design time of 30
days. Build time will be 30 days
divided by the reliability of 3 for build time of 10 days. Once the prototype is completed all
additional devices will take 5 days to build.
If the same inventor later increases his devices reliability to 5 design
time is 20 x 5 = 100 ÷ 2 = 50 – 30 days of the original design for a total of
20 days for the redesign. Build time is
now 20 ÷ 5 = 4 for the first device with this new design. Divide build time by 2 for all other devices
for a production build time of 2 days.
Inventor
INT 5, Area Understanding 40, Device Complexity 36.
The
time to design is with a reliability of 1 (experimental success number 4, roll
5). Complexity 36 x 1 = 36 x .75 (for
intellect 5) = 27. 27 ÷ 1 = 27 for a
build time of 27 days for prototype.
Production time is 14 days.
Inventor refines design (experimental success number 4, roll 5 + 1 for
previous success = reliability of 2).
36 x 2 = 72 x .75 = 54 – 27 (for original design) = 27. Build time for prototype is 14 days
production time is 7 days.
Inventor
INT 6, Area Understanding 30, Device Complexity is 5.
Time
to design is (experimental success number –1, roll 4) with a reliability of
5.
5 x
5 = 25 x .5 = 13 ÷ 4 (because inventors exceeds device complexity by 20) = 3
for design and build time of prototype.
All production devices will take 2 days.
Additional
option for diabolical GMs is for the PC to have to roll in secret. PC will have to roll difficult intellect to
know if roll failed. If the intellect
roll fails PC assumes his design is a success at reliability 1. After completing the design time the PC can
roll intellect again. A moderate roll
will reveal flawed design. If this roll
fails, PC has one last roll at the halfway point of construction. An easy intellect roll will reveal the
flawed design. This is the PCs final
chance, if this roll fails he presses forward with his defective brainchild.