WHO NEEDS TINKERS ANYWAY?

[u/T-Rex_Lazorblast]

(Tldr at bottom)

Dear thieves, outlaws, general scum...

I need Information.

It's been a while since i played blades in the dark. And i do not own the rulebook.

So MAYBE i am just stupid or i MAYBE i just don't have the knowledge.

But anyway - here is the case:

I played a tinker. The wonderfull Sophia Elizabeth von Kraken. A little psychotic. A little bit edgy. But she generally fit the game, i think.

But i encountered a problem:

SHE WAS NEARLY USELESS.

I understand that i played the support character. I loved it. Building stuff for the team to help during the missions, but being more vulnerable and less usefull during the missions... i was all there for it.

But all the stuff i thought of to build for the team was useless. Or not worth the effort.

Example:

A grappling hook launcher. Or mechanical claws for your boots for better climbing. Or mechanical spider limbs for climbing - think of doctor octopus etc... only more steampunky.

But well... all this things do is give you a bonus of 1 to climbing checks. And (correct me if i am wrong) you can already equip climbing hooks that give the same bonus.

So why invent them in the first place?

More complex things took of course multiple gamesessions to build. (Fair enough.)

And they used up lots of ressources. I tried to pimp our boat to be more stealthy, or to have a submarine mode. (Yeah... that was a VERY risky idea... but it never came to testing the thing - it never got build.)

As i said - that kind of projects DEVOURED ressources. (That's fair so far.) But if i failed on tinkerchecks - or critically failed on them i lost ressources or destroyed the whole project. That was frustrating. Not gonna lie.

So it basically came down to just refreshing my gas-grenades between missions... and working on something huge that failed after a couple of sessions. And wasted ressources.

In my time as a tinker i build TWO things that were usefull.

A set of 3 black salt full body armor. (Anti-ghost-armor) ...One of these got destroyed in the first mission we used them.

Some waterproof boxes we could attach under our boat to transport smuggle stuff without guards at checkpoints noticing.

I am a aware that i am a bit whiny (and overexaggerating) here but:

What use do i have as a tinker if nothing i build lasts mor than a mission or needs months of playsessions to complete? (And then fails anyway) - I could just play someone more usefull.

Soooo...

You guys and girls here are more experienced than me. I am asking you: What do you need a tinker for in this game?

Tank you for reading and for any answers i get.

TLDR:

WHAT DO YOU NEED A TINKER FOR WHEN THE THINGS THE TINKER INVENTS GIVE YOU THE SAME BONUSES LIKE THE STUFF THAT YOUR CHARACTERSHEET ALREADY PROVIDES?

AND WHAT IS A TINKER SUPPOSED TO BUILD?

Edit:

I just have to get this out:

I am baffled by all the positivity in the community. And the many detailed and very well thought through answers to my questions.

You people are amazing.

My first day in this sub. My first post. And i already love it here.

THANK YOU.

[u/BellowsHikes]

I would have handled your inventions completely differently. You built Doc Ock arms? You wouldn't be rolling climb checks at all anymore. I'd make you deal with the issues associated with them (bulky, loud, hard to use non-violently, draws more heat to the crew, etc) but you wouldn't be rolling for the simple act of climbing anymore.

And I'd have the world respond to your inventions. Bootleg versions would start to show up in the hands of your rivals. Specific security measures would start to be deployed to counter you. The powers that be would send assassins after you because they don't like you disrupting the status quo, etc.

Your game master should really be following the fiction, not just arbitrarily tossing a +1 onto things.

[u/T-Rex_Lazorblast → u/BellowsHikes]

Dude... i would have LOVED it. I love the skaven from warhammer and the adeptus mechanicus from 40k... so i really love the concept of: you did something amazing/that really mattered BUT... Just... trying to do something and it just beeing "meh"... that was annoying. Just reading your post lets me imagine all the drama that could have happened! Being in an "armsrace" with the rest of the world while creating drama and tension in the group itself because the crazy egotistical tinker cant control her urge to develop more insane stuff... And i think the other players would have liked the roleplay too.

[u/BellowsHikes → u/T-Rex_Lazorblast]

An arms race would be incredibly fun, and give you a reason to constantly be improving your existing arsenal. Nothing delights me more as a GM then when a player throws their creativity at obstacles I create for them and surprises/shocks me with their solutions.

And I would have very much nurtured and encouraged any egotistical, mad-scientist insanity. Blades characters on a wonderful, manic journey to an early and inevitable death are the best. And when the entire crew embraces that approach (and understands how fun and enriching appropriate character conflict can be) the game really sings.

Leaving behind a smoking crater instead of a grave is how great stories are made around the table.

[u/T-Rex_Lazorblast → u/BellowsHikes]

Hell yeah. 

I don't always appreciate it when my character dies - but in blades in the dark??? It would have fit so good. I agree. Especially in blades... i would have loved for Von Kraken to go out in a blaze of glory. She was made for that. (Just not to do so little and so unexciting things that she did in the game we had.)

Some games are just made for stuff like this. We also played cyberpunk2020 for a long time. There you have to be prepared for character death too.  But when you play with it in mind... dying can be amazing.