Lago_AM3P at [unixtime wrote:1143357289[/unixtime]]
It's not really that hard. Basically you have a chart detailing about the most complex gadgets you can make--at the bottom of the chart is simple things like spears and tents and in the middle you get flashlights and zip guns and at the top you're able to make a vehicle out of junkyard parts or upgrade your computer. And of course you get bonuses to your check depending on what parts you have on hand--if you're in a laboratory you get a pretty hefty bonus but if you're in the desert and haven't made any search checks then you might not be able to make one at all.
In fact, Shadowrun 4 has the exact same system I'm describing. While item acquisition may in that game be unbalanced item creation (weirdly enough) is not.
Well, I consider Macgyvering to be muhc different from laboratory construction. Macgyvering seems more or less to be items that serve the plot. In many cases they're stuff that indirectly is the same as the DM just placing a bomb somewhere. But Macgyver finds bomb parts instead of a bomb, because it's in Macgyver's cool paradigm to build the stuff. But adventure design wise, it seems like the storyteller just decided he wanted to provide the protagonist with a bomb for that adventure. The fact that Macgyver makes it out of bamboo and swampgas just makes it cooler than him just finding one and fits into Macgyver's paradigm. Basically it makes the adventure more fun for the PC and the DM but is fundamentally no different from the DM just placing down a bomb in room A. But keep in mind that Macgyver is creating things that pretty much already exist in the game and likely already have rules covering them.
Making something in a lab is another story. That's where you start really needing rules. Though the main problem you run into is that these are new inventions, so you really can't have concrete rules for them. If you did, then they wouldn't be something new.
You can have rules for upgrading existing devices, like getting a more accurate gun or something. But as far as creating something from scratch, well then you're entering new ground and there's just no way to have rules that can cover all the crap someone is going to want to make. Sometimes the DM is going to allow them and sometimes he won't, but every new invention is going to take careful thought. Like in real life, new inventions can break the balance of power in a world and you just can't have any system that's going to take all those factors into consideration.
The thing is, you can't! Iron Man is unique among superheroes in that he is constantly updating or altering his arsenal. Since Tony Stark is a genius, he can research repulser lasers or light shields or what the fvck ever at the drop of a hat. But Iron Man has a limited amount of what he can put in his arsenal. If he's fighting for some stupid reason Mr. Fantastic then he can't count on his machine gun wrists and needs to update or change it or research a better gun. And you are also going to need a system ahead of time that details what he can put in his suit, how much it costs, how long it takes, whatever.
The problem is that guys like this are hard to balance, real hard. Basically they end up like D&D wizards are where you've got a bunch of tradeable "slots" that you swap in and out for different gadgets between adventures.
In the comic book world, characters like this pretty much design things "beyond the rules" all the time, and that's problematic in an RPG. The writer decides, Iron man needs a light shield or a better gun, then he makes one. Chances are, that gun didn't even exist in the Marvel universe before the writer just came up with it. And RPG system speaking it probably didn't exist there either. Generally speaking, comic book "rules" are generally a lot looser even than most fantasy. In comic books, generally every single named NPC is a special case with special powers. Some of these powers are quantifiable, and others wax and wane depending on what the story requires. Hulk's strength can grow to pretty muhc infinity depending on how mad he gets. And Magneto once pretty much screwed with the electromagnetic field of the entire earth. All solely because the plot wanted him to. Superman routinely gains and loses powers from comic to comic, all to fit the story. Comic book rules pretty much amount to "ask the DM" because there aren't any concrete definitions. Everything from baisc physics to superhero powers and magic... This is in fact a feature of the genre.
Now, you can certainly create guidelines to creating dynamic gadgets, like damage caps based on level, and so on, but ultimately this is going to require a lot of DM eyeballing for all but the most common uses of the skill.
Basically you end up just using spell creation everytime you make a new gadget.
Though really, this sort of stuff tends to go beyond the fantasy genre and into superhero genre exclusively, so I'm not really sure if we need to deal with it much in a heroic fantasy game. In D&D terms, every superhero is pretty much going to have their own custom class (it's pretty much why superhero RPGs tend to be point based, because they vary so much).
I don't think we even really want to worry too much about ironman for a fantasy RPG. About as complex as we'll likely get is tinker gnomes.
