Serack, might you also consider adding Patterns to the title of this thread? There seem to be many patterns of significance, be they in-verse or of the meta variety.

So far, we have the Denarians recurring every five books and a few others that escape me. Although I think with Cold Days Jim has established that in another seven books, we'll have a book taking place on Halloween. How fitting would that be to kick off the end?

That's just a master list, not a thread for discussion, hence I made this thread.

The idea to actually make a deck of cards is really awesome, and I encourage you to do that.

Then I would go and make the stats for the item something like this:

Deck of Tricks [-3]
It is what it is: And that's an old deck of 52 playing cards plus jokers.
One Time Discount [+1]: A deck of cards is a small item.
Luck of the Draw[-4]: As a standard action, you may draw a card from the deck. You are granted the powers attributed to the card. The powers last for 1 scene.
You've got to know when to hold 'em...: You may spend a fate point to have your current card last for one more scene.
...know when to fold 'em: Once per scene, you may spend a fate point to immediately draw a new card from the deck, after you just drew a card as a standard action.

Luck of the draw is modeled after modular abilities. Since you can't choose your power, I reduced the modular base cost by 1 point of refresh. You'd have to have powers worth approximately 3 refresh on any card, but not all of them have to be very useful or work together very well.

Example cards:

• evocation (offensive air specialization)
• Gaseous Form
• Document Forging (stunt) + superb deceit + "Mimic document" (the card acts as psychic paper)
• channeling (fire) + focus item (+1 offensive fire power and control)
• superb driving + superb scholarship + ghost speaker
• Diminutive Size + inhuman strength
• superb investigation + Psychometry + Quick Eye (stunt)

Well... you get the idea. You can easily change the 3 refresh, if you want more or less refresh on those powers. The superb skills are based on the mimic abilities power and can be replaced by higher or lower skill levels if you like, but I would always grant the maximum skill level your campaign allows. And of course those skills are not subject to the pyramid, they are extra.

Very nice!

I'm currently running a game and one of the players wanted to play a weapons engineer who powers his gadgets with a magical artifact.

I came up with this IoP as a result.

Sphere of Unknown Origin [-3]
Energy Reroute. Tapping into a portion of the mysterious energies of this object, you are able to power a few abilities at a time. The combined cost of the abilities may not exceed the refresh cost of this item. You may take a full round action to change which abilities are powered. The powered abilities may be selected from the following: Guns Akimbo* [-1], Flight [-1], Inhuman Speed [-2], Inhuman Strength [-2], Inhuman Toughness [-2], Killer Blow [-1], The Whole Nine Yards** [-1], Supernatural Sense [-1 or -2], Target-Rich Environment [-1].
Untapped Power. With time and study, you may unlock access to more power from this object. You may add refresh points to this item to increase the Modular Abilities pool.
Energy Discharge. You may take a point of Sponsor Debt in order to unleash a powerful torrent of energy at one target for a Weapon: 4 attack.
Unbreakable. As an Item of Power, this item cannot be broken, and any technology powered by this item gains is resistant to the effects of magic.

*Guns Akimbo: You have the ability to effectively wield a gun in each hand. When attacking a single target, you may add half of the second gun’s damage bonus on a successful hit (round up).
**The Whole Nine Yards: Your level of skill with your guns is such that you can fire quickly, creating a veritable hailstorm of rounds. You may use your Gun skill to make spray attacks (page 326) with your gun of choice against opponents up to one zone away. You may not combine the benefits of any other stunt with the effects of The Whole Nine Yards.

Given that the sphere shines with an unnatural light that can't be concealed, I gave it a rebate of +2.

You may also want to consider having an established group being corrupted from within (this could be good or bad) or have its leaders usurped and others take over (which could also be good or bad).

In a campaign I am currently running, set in the Jacksonville area, there are going to be two cults and at least one established shadow organization that was founded by the Spanish back when they settled Saint Augustine. This is set post-Changes, so the Fomor are starting to gain ground as well.

The trick for me is just figuring out how all these forces will be maneuvering against one another and the PCs, but of course that largely depends on the actions taken by my group.

The first attack with a zat gun isn't an attack. It's a Maneuver, intended to place the "Stunned" aspect on your target. Only once that aspect is applied can subsequent attacks use a Weapon rating. There. It's kind of like grappling, actually. Making the first attack a maneuver simplifies the intent behind that messy Weapon:0 and automatic Aspect placement, as well as reconciles the mechanical effects with the narrative effects. The attacker places the aspect with a successful Maneuver. Problem solved. The target has been narratively shot once with a zat gun as surely as if a martial artist had maneuvered them "Off a Ledge" or "Into an Arm Bar".

Then you just rule subsequent zat shots have a Weapon rating, as the weapon is far more narratively dangerous now that the target has been stunned once. Once the target removes the Stunned aspect, a zat attack on them would be a Maneuver once again, and so on.

This is why these forums are awesome. We can toss up ideas and refine them to something better.

quote author=Mr. Death link=topic=33179.msg1498244#msg1498244 date=1342547760]
All of which is way more complicated than, "It's a Weapon:2, and everything else that happens is just flavor for the Taken Out result and consequences."

I really see no reason why a Zat gun has to work mechanically different than any other weapon. This all just seems far more complicated than it needs to be.
[/quote]

What's wrong with complicated? And really admiralducksauce's revisions to make it far less complicated than what I posted originally. Here's where it stands currently (assuming I've read the suggested revisions correctly):

Zat Gun
Short Ranged. Due to the unstable nature of the rounds fired by the Zat Gun, the effective target range is limited to 1 zone.
One To Stun, Two To Kill. If an organic being is successfully hit and would take stress from this weapon, treat the hit as a manuever instead. The target takes the sticky aspect, Stunned (by Zat Gun), until the end of their next turn. If the target takes damage from this weapon while this aspect is in place treat the Zat Gun as Weapon:3.

How does this rewrite look?

Except for the "One to Stun, Two to Kill" rule. What I would do is keep them Weapon:0 against organic targets. I like that rationale and I like how it interacts with armor and operator skill. I would keep your rule about applying a sticky aspect "Stunned" to the target if the zat deals stress. I would change it up from there, however. If the target takes another hit from a zat while the "Stunned" aspect is still applied, then the zat functions as Weapon:3.

I think this approach has merit.
1. A character without FP can be compelled on the Stunned aspects to drop immediately. Works good on minions.
2. The second hit is more powerful but not immediately fatal.
3. The target can remove the Stunned aspect; Endurance is probably the easiest explanation, but whatever works.

I like your take on that. I was having a hard time justifying that ability being so powerful on that quick write-up, and I agree that the second shot being more powerful would line up more with the show's mythology. There have been several examples of "boss" or "unique" targets that required multiple shots before getting Stunned, and some targets had good enough armor to prevent it from having any effect.

Another thought regarding its balance vs. regular gun, this gun would likely take more time to kill a mook (two rounds minimum, unless the user spent FPs and/or had an absurdly high Gun skill+roll) than a regular gun (which could easily do it in one round).

I think the OP wanted stats that accurately portrayed the mythology of the show. The weapon would be fairly balanced if someone wanted to use it in tandem with characters using reular guns.
For me, giving a character a weapon that the GM gets to decide if it hits or not seems kinda iffy. Either the weapon is too overpowered, or it's just a plot device to be used at the GM's discretion.