by salvagebar on Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:39 pm
There's something about Weird Science that just lights the imagination of Savage Worlds' writers. They fiddle with it more than any of the other Arcane Backgrounds.
In The Day After Ragnarök, The Serpentfall has supercharged the magical traditions of the world, and rituals that would have taken hours or days of intense effort can now happen in moments. Faith, Magic, and Psionics are all slowly starting to become major effects on the world politic. The examination of the Serpent, though, might make the biggest difference of all.
A large part of the snake contains ophiline - snake oil - a fuel many times more potent than any petroleum product. Ophiline automobiles have twice the range and performance of gasoline engines the same size. Ophiline turbines are making rocket aircraft are growing part of the air power of every nation. Rocket engines can even be made small enough to be man-portable.
Some selections of Ophi-Tech:
Small pieces of the Serpent's alveoli, kept in sugar-solution, generate oxygen. Breathing gear is little bigger than a mouthguard and goggles.
AQUATIC
Rank: Novice; Power Points: 1; Range: Self
Duration: 1 hour (1/1 hour)
This power makes the hero totally at ease in the water. He doesn’t need to make Swimming rolls to avoid drowning. He adds +2 to any Swimming rolls he does make. In the water, his Pace is equal to his Swimming skill. A success activates the power; on a raise, he adds +4 to his Swimming rolls and 2” to his water Pace, and the duration rises to his Vigor die in hours per point.
Crotaline Drops
Sometimes, forays into the Serpent discover caverns - ecologies containing things that prey on each other. The British maintain brigades at Cardiff, in case it should become necessary to contain or destroy any breakout of creatures (intelligent or not) from the Serpent. Many of the beings living inside the Serpent can see in the dark. A serum derived from their aqueous humor and from the nerve fibers of the pit viper (family Crotalinae) can stimulate thermoreception through the human optic nerve. Mixed with ethyl alcohol, this serum is administered as eye drops that give the user infrared vision (the darkvision power). Rhodes University herpetologists have engineered photosynthetic glands to secrete this serum; crotaline drops come in a glass bottle with a gland in a compartment, or well, at the bottom. If the bottle is out of drops (if the user has expended his Power Points), the gland can manufacture more with sugar or sunlight and time (1 point per hour). Te user still needs to refill the alcohol, or the drops badly burn the eyes for 1d4 damage and -4 on all Notice rolls for the hour. Activating crotaline drops requires only 1 round of undistracted time to put drops in the user’s eyes, and a Guts roll to put something that icky in your eye. The bottle has negligible weight and no effect on Encumbrance.
Malfunction: On a malfunction, the drops overfunction, and the user is blinded by a wave of unfamiliar sensations as his brain ceases processing information from the optic nerve. Restoring the user’s sight requires completely cleaning the eyes, 3d6 minutes, and a Healing roll.
