OSR Class: The Old Blood Mechanic

The Rifts 'Operator' OCC, with a thematic boost from Cadillacs & Dinosaurs

While looking through the original Rifts O.C.Cs with an eye towards an OSR conversion, several details about the Operator class jumped out at me. In my experience, this is an under-utilized and under-appreciated class; certainly, I had not paid much attention to it before. Let’s see how Kevin Siembieda described it:

The operator is a sort of mercenary repairman. They are mechanical and electrical whiz-kids who can fix just about anything. As such, they are always a welcome sight in any community and are treated with respect and admiration. An operator rarely has to pay for his own meal or a bed to lay on… There are no set fees for a particular job, so the fee and currency changes from place to place… Remember, while pre-Rift machines and technology are in use, there are few individuals who fully understand how they work. Consequently, they can not successfully maintain and repair them…

There’s a lot more written, but those few sentences are compelling enough to get excited about an operator character and spark plenty of ideas for both GM and player. “Mercenary repairman” brings to mind Archibald Tuttle from Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. Frankly, it’s a winning concept right off the bat: intriguing, different, and a little bit light-hearted - otherwise known as the three essential ingredients for fun. In a gadget heavy setting like Rifts, the Operator also stands out as a critical member of an adventuring party. The others will rely on him to repair combat damage and replace worn down parts on their vehicles, but he is also a good will emissary to the isolated communities they encounter. This makes him both a permanent plothook and a way for the group to earn money. And if you maintain the classic D&D strategy of awarding XP based on treasure recovered, his expert services can even bring the group lots of experience points.

But wait, there’s more!

Although the operators have no formal organization or guild, they are an unofficial class within the civilized human societies of the Americas, similar to the Freemasons of old.

This reminded me of the Old Blood Mechanics, a brotherhood of tradesman preserving the technology of the Before Times by passing down secrets through the centuries, father to son, master to apprentice. Jack Tenrec, the hero of Mark Schultz’s ‘Xenozoic Tales’ and its spinoff cartoon, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, was one of their number. The greatness of that cartoon escaped me in my youth, but while watching it years later as an adult with my own kids, the kinship with Rifts was obvious. Aside from being located near old New York city, it could very well fit in ‘Dinosaur Swamp.’

Xenozoic Tales art by Mark Schultz, with ‘Old Blood Mechanic’ Jack Tenrec in the center. And Hannah Dundee! What a babe!

Alas, I still haven’t read the comics, but in the cartoons the Old Blood Mechanics, despite being both eminently practical and hard-as-nails in a fight, were also a bit on the philosophical and nature-loving side. They (or at least Tenrec) didn’t want to hurt or kill the prehistoric animals unnecessarily and they were wary of the power-hungry technocratic elites who ruled the isolated urban enclaves that survived the apocalypse. They were not hubristic, transhumanist ‘I F*$#ING LOVE SCIENCE!11” types, but serious men who wanted to preserve the knowledge and achievements of their ancestors in harmony with human nature and the environment, committing to avoiding the mistakes of the past. But they weren’t anti-human eco-zealots, either; if a rampaging dinosaur had to be killed to spare people’s lives, so be it.

Thus, in my Rifts-like campaign world, I envision the Old Blood Mechanics being a particular brotherhood or even a secret society of Operators looking to preserve the patrimony of pre-Rifts technological civilization with the goal of restoring human dominance over the altered Earth. They understand that this is a distant goal, on the scale of centuries or maybe even millennia, and they are prepared for long labor in the dark.

Old Blood Mechanic

Prime Attribute: INT
Prerequisites: 9+ INT

Like the Rifts Operator, approximately 40% of Old Blood Mechanics are psychics, specifically Technopaths. Technopaths start with one power listed below and can cultivate others as they progress. They also start with Energy Points (EP) to fuel those abilities. On the downside, they require more XP to advance, representing their reliance on intuition and natural talent over strenuous development. The red numbers and columns on the progression chart below apply only to technopaths and can be ignored by non-psychic Old Bloods.

Progression

Skills

Old Blood Mechanics have six skills, three of which are available from level 1 and three more that only become available at higher levels. The numbers listed in the table is the target number (TN) that needs to be matched or exceeded on a D20 in order for the skill to be successful. Mechanic skill rolls are modifiable by Intelligence bonuses.

Note that none of these skills are ‘magical;’ they require an appropriate amount of time, tools, and materials to be completed, as determined by the GM. For example, a level 1 Mechanic might be able to patch D4 worth of body armor HP in a 10 minute turn, but the same amount of HP restoration on a vehicle might take a day.

• Repair: Damaged items can have their HP restored by the Repair HP roll indicated. Disabled or non-functioning systems without HP can be restored to working order.

• Diagnose: Often a pre-requisite to Repair rolls, a Diagnose roll is necessary when it is not obvious why a device is broken or not working up to capacity. A successful Diagnosis is also required before any attempts are made to Reprogram something they haven’t worked on before.

• Manufacture: Items that can’t be bought or traded for can be fabricated, provided the Mechanic understands completely how they work and has the necessary equipment and blueprints to build it. This is much more time and resource intensive than Repair jobs. It is often necessary to manufacture new tools to make other jobs possible or easier.

• Reprogram: Mechanics are not hackers, but the explosion of machine logic in complex pre-Doomsday technology requires them to develop a working knowledge of this code, including the ability to alter it for new purposes or improved performance. Available at Level 2.

• Augment: The preservationist Old Bloods are not inventors, but they are perfectors. A device that is well understood can be modified to get better performance (e.g. boosting engine output) or additional functionality (e.g. adding frequency hopping ability to a radio). Available at Level 3.

• Analyze Unknown Technology: With sufficient time, the best Mechanics can study devices that they’ve never seen before to discern their purpose, how to use them safely, and the principles underlying their operation. Fantastically advanced or alien devices may require very lengthy study. Also, note that (non-Technopath) Mechanics will never be able to get Techno-Wizard devices to work, though a successful analysis roll will be able to determine that they are TW devices.

  

Hot Ride

The final rite of initiation for Old Blood Mechanics is to build or, preferably, restore a vehicle, suitably modified for the rigors of the post-apocalyptic terrain and customized to the mechanic’s own aesthetic preferences. This is often a motorbike, ATV, or 4x4 automobile, but can also be a small air or watercraft like a skycycle, ultralight, powerboat, or hovercraft. Using the gadgeteering rules in Guardians, it can have 2 gadget points worth of abilities to start, as approved by the GM. Future improvements must be added via Manufacture or Reprogram skill rolls and paid for in the course of play.

Technopath Powers

At Level 1, a Technopath Mechanic has a single power from the list below, chosen randomly by dice roll (or selected with the GM’s permission). An additional power is selected at third, fifth, seventh, and tenth levels. Note that certain abilities may require more EP than the character has, in which case they can only be used if more power is drawn from another source (a device or a psychic teammate).

1. Field Sense: Can sense the presence and magnitude of electromagnetic fields, including a rough determination of voltage and current and the ability to perceive (but not necessarily see) non-visible EM radiation. This ability is persistent and has no power cost.

2. Electrical Resistance: The mechanic is innately resistant to the harmful effects of electric shock. All Electric damage is halved automatically. At GM’s discretion, a passed CON Saving Throw fully negates damage. This ability is persistent and has no power cost.

3. Jinx: All machines within Level x D4 yards of the character experience sudden and often improbable malfunctions. The more complex the machine, the more likely it is to suffer permanent damage. Requires a full round of concentration (no other actions, disrupted by attacks) and 2 EP and lasts D6 minutes. The effect is general to all machines in the area of effect, including the character’s own equipment.

4. Invisibility to Machines: The character interferes with complex electronic sensors (but not strictly physical ones, such as tripwires) such that he is unrecordable by cameras, bionic eyes, robots, computer-moderated pressure sensors, and the like. The actual mechanism may differ, with the character causing glitches or appearing as ghostly distortion or ambient noise. This power is persistent and has no EP cost; however, it can be turned off in place of an Action at a cost of 1 EP per turn.

5. Machinomancy: By physically touching a device for 2D6 - Level minutes, the technopath gains an intuitive understanding of what a device is and how it works, gaining a +2 to Analyze Unknown Technology rolls. This requires uninterrupted concentration and the expenditure of 1 EP. If a character’s level does not normally allow the Analyze Unknown Technology skill, it requires 2 EP and allows a success on the roll of an 18+

6. Technical Psychometry: Laying hands on a broken or malfunctioning device allows automatic and instant success on a Diagnosis check. This is an Action and requires 1 EP. For 2EP, laying on hands and Concentrating on a device for 2D6 - Level minutes allows a Manufacturing roll without the need of blueprints or lengthy reverse engineering.