Item Schticks is a category of schticks that covers your basic. In T3, the difference between different technological levels and different types of gear is not as great as it is in real life; a bow and arrow is not so much worse than a modern-day firearm. Most real-world items up to the 1950s is mundane enough not to merit item schticks, and even today, few items of equipment are significant enough to merit paying experience points for. But, as outlined in the gadgeteering rules, technology and weird science is central to the concept of many types of heroes, and to avoid shortchanging these heroes, the Item Schtick category was invented. Item Schticks also cover magical items, sorcerous devices that do not require any Sorcery to operate, though they do require a Magic attribute.
Item Schticks Costs
Item Schticks are bought using experience points like any other type of schtick, and the cost is 5 xp each. However, there is a special case when you can get several items for the price of one. See ItemPool.
Which Items Require Schticks?
A common problem with Items is that the dividing line between schticks and ordinary gear is blurry. What is the baseline? Which weapons and armor have a cost, and which do not?
In general, everyday items available to most mooks never cost Items schticks. In a gangland campaign where submachine guns are common, such weapons obviously should not cost anything. However, hard-to-acquire military weapons might have a cost.
In a campaign where several levels of technology coexist, items of higher sophistication might have a cost. For example, a campaign set in 1850:s China might require characters to spend schticks on European firearms, in order to make such weapons rare and exotic.
In a campaign where it is possible to travel between genres, character should generally be forced to spend schticks on anything of a technological sophistication higher than both their home reality and the reality they are in. A character from 1850:s China who finds herself in the New York of today may pick up a handgun at no cost, but if she wants to bring it back, she should spend a schtick on it.
Finally, the GM may decide that certain weapons are so powerful that they cost extra schticks no matter what. This is the default method used in these rules; certain items and technologies have a standard cost assigned to them, and this cost is beyond that of availability and tech level. Effects that merit such a cost is greatly enhanced damage, auto fire, area effects and great ammo capacity, especially in combination.
Item Schtick Effects
Item Schticks can have a very wide variety of effects, and these make them hard to quantify. All the rules of T3 are fast and loose; the items schtick rules are extremely so. The GM and players must always work together on item creation, and be ready to revise their previous decisions if they do not work out during play.
Item Schticks art generally half as effective as typical Creatures or Arcanotech Schticks. They give a bonus of +1 where one of those schticks would give a bonus of +2, or they can grant the effects of one of these schticks, but only under a certain circumstance or when using a particular item.
A number of examples are provided in Benchmarks to illustrate typical item schticks, but this list is by no means comprehensive or limiting; use it as a source of inspiration.
The effects of Item Schticks remain the same, whether the item in question is the result of magic, high technology, superior craftsmanship or whatever. The costs and benchmarks are the same. The effect of technology level is to allow or forbid certain items; if an item is allowed, its cost in Item Schticks is always the same. The Gadget rules contain numerous examples of specific items of various tech levels.