I thought I'd talk about the role of equipment today.

Full Moon is very strongly rooted in the abilities and motivations of people, not their technology. A character's skills should be the ultimate measure of his capabilities. That said, having the right gear can certainly give you an edge.

For the most part, average equipment simply allows you to use your skills at the usual difficulties. You can use Mechanics normally with a standard tool kit. A knife allows you to use Fighting just as well as your fists. A lunar rover lets you use Vehicles to cross the moon's surface a lot faster than if you walked in a space suit.

Some equipment is significant, though. It's important to a character and forms a notable part of that character's abilities. Such gear will give some mechanical advantage.

The first way this is modeled is treating the gear as a Specialty to the appropriate skill. A top-of-the-line pistol may give you +1 to Fighting when you get into a gunfight. A blazing-fast computer might give you +1 to hacking with the Mechanics skill.

The second benefit is that gear can have Aspects, like characters, locations, or scenes have. These Aspects can be invoked or compelled like any other, so the Spray & Pray Aspect on that machine pistol can help you lay down suppressing fire, while the Hulking Aspect means you won't be sneaking around in that power loader.

Some significant gear will have both Specialties and Aspects, but most will have one or the other. Gear that grants a Specialty is more reliable, as Aspects can be compelled, but Aspects are more potent when invoked.

Getting Such Wonderful Toys

If you haven't established what equipment your character is carrying, you can do so in play by making a declaration using an appropriate skill. The difficulty for having an average piece of equipment (one without any mechanical benefit) is Average (+1). For each Specialty or Aspect the gear has, add +2 to the difficulty.

If the declaration succeeds, you either had the gear on your person or you can easily retrieve it in the scene. If you fail the skill roll by 1 or 2, the GM can rule that you have the equipment, but it is cheap, old, or faulty in some way, and add an appropriate consequence Aspect to the item.

A character who is vested in a faction (see Update #6) can use the faction's Resources trait instead of their own skill, if the faction could be expected to supply the particular item. Depending on the faction, they may or may not make faulty gear available on a close failure.

PS-271 Personal Shuttle

Aspects: She's Pretty Fast; She's Pretty Small

Difficulty: Superb (+5)