Rebel Thinking Engine Administrator for Troika!

This is a free, new background for use with Troika! You can download a PDF or a text file, or the complete text is below!

Rebel Thinking Engine Administrator

In one far corner of what was once the First Empire, there was a tract of land on a backwater Sphere that changed hands between the First Empire and a particularly powerful and independent Other Lord on a regular basis. The Other Lord had a Thinking Engine built to help administer the territory when it changed hands, so projects wouldn't get lost when the person in charge changed. This seemed to keep the serfs happy, so the First Empire used it as well. Long after the First Empire and the Other Lords were dust, your family continued to maintain the machine for whoever was currently in control, following a manual that was annotated and re-copied over and over again through the centuries. You were stunned to discover from a traveler from another Sphere that your skills were considered a lost art and most Thinking Engines had to maintain and repair themselves. You were horrified. After making sure your siblings had a copy of the Manual, you decided to go on the road.

POSSESSIONS:

• Soldering iron (Slot: 1 - Can be used to repair Thinking Machines that have not become flesh)
• Type VI Thinking Engine System Administrator's Manual, Annotated (Slot: 1 - An illuminated family heirloom)
• Ancient Fusil (damage as fusil, except -1 to damage roll)
• 2d6 Plasma Cores
• 1d6 Used Plasma Cores (Slot: 1 - You can't bring yourself to throw them away)
• 3d6 Ancient Thinking Engine Spare Parts (Slot: 1 - Worth a fortune all by themselves)

ADVANCED SKILLS:

• 3 Language - Thinking Engine Code
• 2 Mathmology
• 1 Golden Barge Pilot
• 1 Astrology
• 1 Fusil Fighting
• 1 Healing
• 1 Etiquette
• 1 Craft -- Thinking Engine Assembly

SPECIAL

In theory, given the right parts, you could build a new Thinking Engine, using Thinking Engine Code to create a personality for it. This would be the first new Thinking Engine in centuries. Doing that has never occurred to you because you've never had the right parts. 

You know better than to try to overwrite or change an existing Thinking Engine's code. Your Language skill more lets you talk to Thinking Engines no matter what mortal languages they speak and no matter how mad or incoherent they have become. From there you use Etiquette and (psychological) Healing much in the way one might help an ordinary human being. You have a +1 when using those skills on a Thinking Engine.

Rebel Thinking Engine Administrator is an independent production by Kirt A. Dankmyer / Ivanhoe Unbound and is not affiliated with the Melsonian Arts Council. The image is from the public domain.