Planescape: Steam. A Steampunk system for Planescape.

Hello all. I'm totally new to Planescape, and mainly fell in love with it due to the older video game Planescape:Torment. My group has played in Sigil in the past, but I look to do something totally different with it (mainly because my group was less than satified with their last DM).

With that in mind, I've went a totally different way with it. I've loved the Victorian overtures seen in the art and concept designs of the original boxed set, and after talk with my PCs, we've decided to explore that more than the sword and sorcery aspects of the game. Our Sigil looks to be designed by Tim Burton, with crowded streets, crooked buildings, and an obvious gap between the poor, and the rich (no middle class, just rich, poor, poorer.) We've also went for the more top hat, waist coat, mutton chop look and design for characters and NPCs. Armour is now unusual, save for by the 'ruling class', and the Harmonium (who have become the beagle for our story). Factions have taken a sideline, used more for flavor than anything else.

Then we got to talking about magic. See, one of the problems this group had with their last DM was that he would constantly be setting them in planes or areas of the spire where magic failed, or at least acted funny. It seemed unfair to any of them who had magic items, or worse, were playing mages and clerics. It seems that this has always been a problem with Planescape (one of my players summed it up: "it's unfair, and unfun to have a character that can be completely neutered just by walking through a door") With this in mind, and with the already Victorian London we were working with, we as a group decided to explore the option of machines in conjunction with magic. In other words, SteamPunk Planescape.

Now here's where I get to the point (and I do thank you for your patience if you're still reading this here). I've stamped out an alright system for Steam and Clockwork items, but wouldn't mind a second going over by an outside source. Here's how it all works:

Mechanical items have a few advantages over magic, and a few flaws. First off, mechanical items are NOT magical, making them immune to events and areas that would disrupt magic. Mechanical items cannot be dispelled, countered, or otherwise negated. They are immune to Wild and Anti-magic areas, though they can still be effected by element disruptions (a blade heated by alchemists fire will still be inneffective on the Plane of Fire, for example)

Mechanical items, once again not being magical, tend to be ineffective against creatures with damage reduction. A well weighted sword that gives an effective +1 attack and damage would not, for example, ignore a creatures damage reduction 10/+1. Once again, element effects would still work the same, so the heated blade mentioned earlier would still count as fire vs a damage reduction if 10/fire.

Mechanical items are prone to breakdown. We've built a system for this that works like this:
Any time a mechanical item is used, a D20 is rolled. on a roll of a 1 (or more with a more complex item) a check is made for failure, using a D10
1-7: Item suffers minor failure-it 'hiccups' if you will, but will work fine next round.
8-9: Item suffers major failure-it will not work until repaired.
10: Item suffers catastrophic failure-the item fails in such a way to hurt the user, and possibly those around the user. The item itself is destroyed.

We threw the breakdown rules into the game to balance the mechanical items, and to give them their own flavor. Note that weapons tend to break down a bit more than other items with these rules (since they would fail on any critical failure during combat). With weapons, the roll to hit counts also as their breakdown check, but still, whats the last combat you were in that you didn't roll a one at least once?

We've also introduced a new sub-skill; Craft Mechanics, which is used when making mechanical items. It's still rough, but works somewhat like this
Base skill check: 10
Build Trinket (one use iem): +10
Build Gunne (mechanical equivilant of Wand): +25
Build Weapon: +25
Build Armour: +25
Build Wonder (a catchall phrase for anything that doesn't fit above): +25
Additional per +1 or spell level equivilant: +5 per level equivilant or +1 combat bonus
Repairing a damaged item: DC 20

Example:
A mechanic in your party wishes to build a set of Spring Heeled Boots that will let him leap great distances, and move faster. Similar to Boots of Leaping and Striding, these boots would give an additional 10ft move, and a +5 to leap checks. The DM begins with the base check of 10, adds a +25 for building a Wonder, and decides that this is the equivilant of the longstrider spell, a level one spell, adding an additional +5. The total Craft:mechanics check would be a 40. Finally, the DM states in advance that were there to be a catastrophic failure on these boots, the springs in the heel would decide to shoot up into the wearers foot, doing 2d6 damage, and imposing a minus 10ft to movement until healed (ouch) The item would look like this:

Spring Heeled Boots
Craft Mechanics check DC:40
Effect: These Boots allow the wearer to make great strides and bounce high above his allies, giving the wearer an additional 10ft to their move, and a +5 enhancement bonus to jump checks.
Failure Check: 1 on a D20
Catastrophic Failure: Springs shoot into foot, doing 2d6 damage to wearer, and imposing a -10ft movement negative until healed.

Notice the Failure Check section? I've been working on a system for that, but have little more than DM eye for simple to complex items, based on player discriptive on how the item works. simple items fail on a 1 on a D20, while complex items fail on a 1-6 on a D20. I don't really have a better way to set this in stone than DM discretion. Sorry.

Also, we set the repairing of items to a standard DC 20, so that a party doesn't need a pro mechanic in the team to fix busted items. After all, if an item failed, and the party couldn't fix it, they probably wouldn't use it to begin with.

Final note on building items. The Craft Mechanics skill only covers the inner workings of the item. Further Craft Checks may be needed for a complete item, once again at DM discretion.

Example:
Your mechanic decides to try to impress a petty noble by building a clockwork bird, all gilded in in gold, that would sing on the hour every day.
As the DM, you set a DC check of DC: 40 (base 10, Wonder +25, and an arbitrary +5 for the singing) which would make the bird work. You then declare that it also needs a Craft Sculpting check of DC:20, for a body for the bird.

So there you have it. Right now our system still doesn't have a time to build, or a price (though for price, we've been using a basic 15gp per DC number, so a DC:40 item would cost 600gp to make, and double to just buy. Half that for trinkets. This seems inexpensive, but with no magic involved, it's hard to justify mechanics being too expensive. After all, it's mostly just material and time.)

I'm open to suggestions on this system, or if anyone uses it, open to feedback on how it went.

Masamundane