Artifact Identification

The flowchart should be fun to use. Consider it a descriptive mini-game used to replace a process that is too complex to role play. Role-playing has an impact on the flowchart. The more role-playing the players invest, the less likely they will blow themselves up. Experience level, persona intelligence, tech level, and luck also influence the AID flowchart.

The player navigates the flowchart with a series of 1d10 rolls.

Each roll on the AID Flowchart takes a variable amount of game time. A complicated low-tech cloning machine should not be sorted out in a few minutes by a persona. An obvious gun-looking gun should not take a mercenary ten days to figure out.

To make the AID Flowchart more faux realistic, the referee can change the duration of each roll. For example, can the fusion rifle be identified in time for the mercenary to use it? Or can the rejuvenation chamber be activated before the dead persona starts to smell?

Each roll on the flowchart can represent minutes, hours, days or even weeks. The referee may alter the flowchart such that each 1d10 roll represents a year of research and several adventures. In the end, the flowchart should be fun to use.

The player starts on this location once they have committed to identifying the artifact.

The colourful circles are for adding colour commentary to the flowchart process. The referee may associate each circle with a particular sound or mechanism position. These embellishments can be for fun, or be they can be used as clues.

For example, position A could fill the persona with a sense of 'nearly there' or an equivalent sound effect. Or landing on position E could make a scary activation noise or activate a countdown timer.

A player can exit the process at any colour position. The player cannot exit the flowchart if they land on a decision point. She can return the next day to start at the same colour position, wait longer to start fresh at Start.

The Identified! flowchart endpoint indicates the person has figured out what the artifact is.

The artifact can no longer accidentally harm the persona. Identification does not indicate that she knows everything about the artifact. If the artifact is simple, a successful artifact identification can include information about operation and maintenance. Identification should protect the persona from immediate harm. For example, a nuclear device is no longer trying to be used as a portable oven. Successful identification does not mean the persona is skilled at using the artifact, knows its value, or knows its tech level.

Identification of an artifact can mean many things. The referee must remember that Identification is a positive result. Usually, identification only indicates the general use of the artifact. For example, this is a medical device for healing (not a bomb), this is a drug (not perfume), this is a napalm aerosol (not hair spray).

Complete identification of an artifact depends on the persona’s vocation. Some artifacts have specific vocation designations. For example, mercenaries can identify bombs, aerosols, and weapons. A nomad best identifies climbing equipment.

The Activated! flowchart endpoint indicates that the persona has unwittingly turned on the artifact.

For weapons, bombs and grenades, accidental activation can be deadly. However, accidental activation is not all bad. An accidental activation reveals a lot of information about the artifact. The players may be able to identify the artifact just by what happens when it activates.

Personas learn a lot from an accidentally activated TOY. Accidental activation for a vocation-specific TOY also counts as an identification. A mercenary persona that accidentally fires a weapon automatically identifies it.

After an accidental activation, the persona returns to Start with additional information. The new information gives a +2 bonus on all successive AID rolls. The bonuses for accidental activation are cumulative. Another accidental activation increased the bonus to +4. Damage! and Activation! bonuses are cumulative.

The Damaged! flowchart endpoint indicates that the persona has injured the artifact.

The referee can announce arrival at this endpoint with horrible crunching noises or tragic beeping. The artifact suffers an artifact damage roll, and the persona returns to Start.

Artifact damage requires the subtle intervention of the referee. Some artifacts just can’t be broken. Other artifacts are obviously delicate. For more detailed information, jump to Artifact Damage.

Personas learn a bit from artifact damage. The persona returns to the Start with information about what not to do this time. The new information gives a +1 bonus on all successive AID rolls. The bonuses for damaging an artifact are cumulative. Another artifact damage improves the bonus to +2. Damage! and Activation! bonuses are cumulative.

Many factors affect the persona’s navigation through artifact identification.

Tech level is a term that loosely represents the artifact’s level of technological development. A persona from the middle ages would be at a loss in a modern kitchen. A persona from the modern world would be lost in a middle ages kitchen. The further the tech level is from the personas native tech level, the harder it is to identify the artifact.

Some high-tech artifacts are combined devices called multi-toys. Multi equipment is common with very high-tech TOYS. The persona may identify one part of a multi-toy and not another part.

There is also the possibility that high-tech devices will come with baked-in instructions. Whether these are linguistically helpful or confusing is determined by the referee’s milieu.

Adjustments are added depending on how the persona conducts her study of the artifact. If the player says that her persona is being very careful, she will add 3 to roll in circle E. If the player says that her persona is in a reckless rush, she will subtract two from her roll in circle E.

Personas can get together to improve their chances of successful identification. Two heads are better than one, or many hands make confusing work. The referee can allow as many personas to join in as makes sense. An artifact may not dispose itself to being surrounded by curious personas.

Every participant on the AID Research Team gets to roll a 1d10. The referee can average this roll. Averaging is arithmetically challenging and can trap the team in a loop. Getting stuck in a loop is a common problem with teams on mundane terra.

A more exciting approach is to have all the players roll at once. The highest roll pairs with the lowest roll, and those two personas argue over who is correct. A charisma attribute competition decides which 'idea' moves the team forward. While this seems completely insane, it is how teams commonly proceed on Mundane Terra.