[Cdnwolf]

TWILIGHT 2013 did an extensive look at wear and repairs.

Copyright of the following belongs to those dudes....




Wear

The Reflex System measures the amount of abuse an item has
endured with Wear. The higher an item’s Wear value, the more
worn-out it is. A factory-fresh item has Wear 0, while any item
that reaches Wear 10 has fallen apart and is good only for salvage.

Accruing Wear

A factory-fresh item begins with Wear 0.

During play, each of the following events adds 1 to its Wear value:

It receives sufficient damage to disable it, as per the rule
in Chapter Five for damaging items. In the case of a vehicle, this
criterion is “receives a hit that results in one or more major damage
results.”

It undergoes one period of use (see following) after which it
does not receive preventive maintenance.

While using it, an Unskilled user fails a skill check with a
MoF of 5 or more (butterfingers!).

It receives particularly egregious abuse or misuse (GM’s
opinion; dropping electronics from shoulder height onto concrete,
smashing a car through a chain-link fence after an off-road chase,
or burying a firearm in mud and firing it without cleaning are all
appropriate conditions).

Except at the GM’s discretion, no single item’s Wear can
increase by more than 1 in any given scene.

Effects of Wear

As an item accrues Wear, it exhibits signs of decay in both
appearance and performance. Its reliability declines, making it
more likely that it will break down at an inopportune moment.
Whenever an item accrues a point of Wear, the GM secretly
rolls 1d10. If the die result is less than or equal to the item’s new
Wear value, the item will break the next time it is used (unless it
receives maintenance first - see following). An item that breaks
due to Wear is considered disabled, just as if it had received a
damaging attack.

Severe Use (period of 1 day):

At this level, the equipment
is being sorely taxed and requires constant attention to remain in
good working order. For electronics, severe use is continuous
runtime for more than a week. A vehicle undergoes severe use if it
sees 1,000 road kilometers or 200 off-road kilometers in a single
day. A firearm that fires 250 rounds or more in a single day is
undergoing severe use.

An item’s operating conditions can also affect its use. Use is
considered one level higher if the item is being used in conditions
of excessive humidity, dust, sand, or corrosion (including sea
air). Conversely, the default rules for use assume field conditions;
if the item is being used in the equivalent of complete shelter,
reduce its use by one level for a mechanical item or two levels for
electronics.

Maintenance

After a device undergoes one period of use, it requires
preventive maintenance to maintain its current Wear value.
Preventive maintenance is not intensive mechanical work;
rather, it involves cleaning, lubricating, tightening bolts, checking
connections, running diagnostics, and other time-consuming but
largely trivial tasks. This process requires a number of hours of
work equal to the item’s Maintenance trait, as well as a skill check.
This latter can be either the skill appropriate to using the device
(COG, TN +3) or ATS (COG, TN +5). Alternately, if the character
has at least a Novice rating in either skill, he can expend one unit
of maintenance supplies appropriate to the device for automatic
success. With success, the device does not accrue Wear for the
period of use that just ended.

Example: Leslie’s G36 has Wear 7. Over the past week of play,
Leslie has been involved in three firefights and has expended several
hundred rounds, which constitutes heavy use of the gun. The
weapon now needs maintenance or it will accrue Wear.

Leslie is Unskilled in the Mechanics[Gunsmithing],
but has sufficient skill in Longarm to handle the task.
She makes a Longarm (COG, TN +3) skill check. The G36 is a
fully automatic firearm, so this task requires one hour. Despite
the -3 penalty for the item’s existing Wear value, she succeeds
handily, and her G36’s Wear stays at 7.

The following table lists
suggested Maintenance values for specific broad categories of
equipment.

Weapons

Item Type Maintenance (hrs)
Close combat weapon 0.25
Firearm, simple action (revolver, bolt-, break-, or
pump-action) 0.25
Firearm, semi-automatic 0.5
Firearm, fully automatic 1
Heavy weapon, unguided 2
Artillery 2
Heavy weapon, guided 4
Electronics
Item Type Maintenance (hrs)
Electric light 0.25
Personal entertainment device 0.25
Night-vision optic 1
Radio 2
Computer 3
Sensor (geiger counter, gas detector) 4
Tools
Item Type Maintenance (hrs)
Simple hand tool (personal water filter, multitool) 0.5
Simple large tool (group water filter, parachute) 2
Complex hand tool (sextant, chainsaw) 2
Complex large tool (portable darkroom, hydraulic
power unit) 5

Reconditioning

Preventive maintenance is a vital part of keeping a survivor’s
gear in working order. However, it cannot improve an item’s
condition, only keep it from degenerating further. Actually
restoring an item’s condition (thereby reducing its Wear) is a more
involved task.

Reconditioning an item is a supply-dependent action
requiring one unit of parts. It takes a number of hours equal to the
item’s current Wear times its Maintenance value, as well as an ATS
(COG, TN -2) skill check. With success, the item’s Wear value is
reduced by 1. With a margin of failure greater than 5, the attempt
does more harm than good and the item’s Wear increases by 1.
Reconditioning can never reduce a device’s Wear to 0.

Example: Tired of missing easy shots because of her G36’s condition,
Leslie turns over the gun to Matt for reconditioning. Matt
digs out his stock of spare parts and sets to work. The rifle has
Maintenance 1 and Wear 7, so the task takes 7 hours. It also consumes
one unit of small mechanical parts. Matt makes a Mechanics (COG, TN -2) skill check, suffering an additional -3 penalty for
the gun’s Wear. Despite the penalties facing him, he succeeds.
The G36’s Wear is reduced to 6. While that isn’t enough to completely
remove penalties, it’s a good start.

Cannibalization

Desperate times can call for desperate measures. While
a survivor might not yet be desperate enough to eat his friends,
it’s quite likely that he will at some point find himself taking
components from one disabled device to keep another operational.
This practice is known as cannibalization.
Cannibalizing an item effectively destroys it as the mechanic
disassembles it for useful components. This task takes twice the
item’s Maintenance and requires an ATS (AWA, TN -2) skill check.
With success, the process yields a number of units of parts equal
to the margin of success. With a margin of success of 0, the item
yields no parts but is not (yet) destroyed, and the mechanic can try
again. No cannibalization attempt can ever produce more parts
than (12 - the item’s Wear).

Cannibalization and Reconditioning

Once an item is cannibalized, the parts it yields can
immediately be used to recondition another identical device. If
a character chooses this option and has a Novice or better ATS
skill rating, each reconditioning attempt made with a unit of these
donor parts succeeds automatically and takes half the normal
time. If the parts are saved for later use, this benefit is lost (unless
you really want to engage in the bookkeeping necessary to track
the source of every unit of parts you salvage).

Example: Matt finds another G36 and decides to strip it for parts
for Leslie’s. The donor rifle has Wear 8. Matt makes a Mechanics
(AWA, TN -2) skill check, suffering a -4 penalty for the gun’s
Wear. Matt succeeds with a margin of success of 3 and receives
3 units of small mechanical parts (the maximum he could have
received was 4).

Matt decides to use 2 units of the donor parts to restore Leslie’s
gun from Wear 6 to Wear 4. This takes a total of 5.5 hours (3
hours to reduce Wear 6, plus 2.5 hours to reduce Wear 5) and requires
no skill checks. He tucks the third unit of small mechanical
parts away for later use.

Reconditioning in this manner can reduce a device’s Wear to
0. However, taking a device from Wear 1 to Wear 0 requires 10
units of parts, at least half of which must be cannibalized.

Repair

When a piece of equipment becomes disabled, whether
through combat damage or Wear accrual, it must be repaired
before it can be used as anything but a blunt implement.
Repairing an item is a supply-dependent action requiring a one
unit of parts. It takes a number of hours equal to the item’s current
Wear times its Maintenance value, as well as an ATS (COG) skill
check. With success, the item is repaired and is no longer considered
disabled. With a margin of failure greater than 5, the attempt does
more harm than good and the item is destroyed permanently.


GM Hint: Wear Descriptions

GMs may find the following material useful in describing
the apparent condition of an item.

Wear 0: The item is mechanically and cosmetically
in perfect condition. If it isn’t factory-fresh, it has recently
undergone detailed cleaning and rebuilding at a manufacturer’s
reconditioning facility or the equivalent.

Wear 1: “Only used once; like new.” No cosmetic
deterioration is apparent, and all parts are in working order.

Wear 2: The item has started to show the effects of regular
use, but is still fully functional.

Wear 3-4: The item has started to show signs of heavy
use and internal components display the first hints of erosion.
However, it is still perfectly usable.

Wear 5-7: The item has started to show considerable
signs of use. Working surfaces and delicate components are
wearing down. At this point, its reliability may be suspect, and
its condition begins to complicate attempts to work on it.

Wear 8-9: The item looks, and is starting to function, like
it was dragged down a stretch of bad road and then back up for
good measure. By this point, it is held together by little more
than chewing gum, baling wire, and wishful thinking. It is in
such bad shape that only a specialist will be able to keep it in
working order for any length of time.

Wear 10: The item is no longer functional. Its cosmetic
appearance is deplorable at best. With luck, some parts may still
be salvageable for use in other devices.