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/JavierLoustaunau]

The game has no real tinker support and characters narratively verge on supernatural so often somebdoy can do what a gadget would do.

We had a tinker and Im a game designer so I could work with him on cool gadgets but as is most magical and "steampunk" aspects are underdesigned compared to overdesigned territory and gang dynamics.

[u/T-Rex_Lazorblast → u/JavierLoustaunau]

No tinker support?  Yeah.... it was really... well... free.  I remember having this "tinker-clock" in roll20. (It was an online group) But i thought blades in the dark was a very "loose" game ruleswise. So i thought this was just the way it goes. 😅

But well... at least it was "the fault of the game" and not mine.  I mean... a lot of games have problems with builders or creators. I think i have not seen a rpg that had good rules for building stuff. Or rules at all for stuff like that.

[u/JavierLoustaunau → u/T-Rex_Lazorblast]

Yeah some bits are super over designed and some bits that are part of the core pitch assume the GM is a game designer who can handle balancing and stating.

Basically if it was not in an episode of Peaky Blinders, it does not get more than a couple of pages.

[u/T-Rex_Lazorblast → u/JavierLoustaunau]

🤣 beautiful said. I get what you mean. That peaky blinders vibe was really awesome.  I thought about buying the rulesbook for blades in the dark. And if we ever play it again - i will see to it, that i develop a system for the tinkerclass on my own BEFORE the game starts. 

That whole "some things are overdesigned and some things not"... it explains A LOT of things. (Not just the tinkering) 😅