Tinker Traditions

Tinker sphere and its gizmos are minimalistic by design to allow it to be as setting neutral as possible. For some games, where the distinctions and worldbuilding implications are not as impactful, this works “well enough” for both the GM and their players. Players can describe how their gizmos work, fitting it to their character, backstory, etc., and the GM can focus on their own setting and running their game.

For some games, a GM wants more control over how technology is presented in their setting. Not all medieval adventures warrant talking cars and laser beams. More importantly, certain technology (such as long-distance communication) can undermine certain worldbuilding decisions, such as insular nations, trade route and travel limitations, or the spread of information. In scenarios like these, a Tinker tradition (unlike a martial tradition for those with the Tinker sphere) is meant to help a GM design and customize the “why and how” of gizmos in their setting, such as how they are powered, what they are incapable of, or even what they are better at.

Tinker traditions are meant to be highly customizable for the setting, or even parts of a setting as multiple cultures or regions may have developed their technology in different ways. Tinker traditions can explain how and why certain cultures build their devices in certain ways, such as those in a highland area making use of wind power instead of a combustion engine due to the availability of wind energy, or deep underground civilizations choosing to have their devices also glow to proliferate light sources in their homes.

Tinker Traditions are a GM Tool

Tinker traditions are not intended as tools for characters to customize themselves as much as they are for GMs to customize how a culture, setting, town, or region makes use of technology. When choosing to implement Tinker traditions the GM is the final arbiter about how a Tinker tradition’s “why and how”. If players are interested in designing their own Tinker traditions, such as coming from a far away culture or having innovated on tradition techniques of their homeland, GMs are encouraged to work alongside their players but should not allow for certain packages and effects if it would contradict how their setting is intended to operate.

When a Tinker tradition is in place, the GM should decide whether a certain character’s Tinker sphere abilities are subject to that tradition. It is possible that a character may not have a Tinker tradition, where the region they exist in does, due to differences in the innovation process, available materials and knowledge, etc. For instance, a traveling merchant carrying their devices borne out of necessity for surviving in a desert may be far more heat tolerant, but have their own flaws, compared to the technology of a more temperate climate. Likewise, certain Tinker packages might only be available in certain regions based on their technological advancement and knowledge.

A Tinker tradition is ultimately a GM’s tool for storytelling first, and a way to limit access to unwanted effects second.

Tinker Traditions and Martial Traditions

A character can possess both a martial tradition and have their Tinker sphere gizmos be subject to a Tinker tradition. A character becomes subject to a Tinker tradition when they first gain the Tinker sphere, and may retrain their Tinker tradition (if allowed) into a new Tinker tradition as though retraining a feat (Ultimate Campaign). Retraining a Tinker tradition into a new Tinker tradition generally requires a sufficient amount of knowledge about that Tinker tradition or an individual willing to aid them in retraining (subject to GM discretion), but is otherwise treated as retraining a feat.

Characters with Multiple Tinker Traditions

In some circumstances, characters, NPCs, and others in the setting may learn to use more than one Tinker tradition. The ability to use multiple Tinker traditions is subject to GM discretion, but if allowed to have access to more than one Tinker tradition, there is no limit to how many a character may be aware of and utilize. A character’s talents are shared between Tinker traditions and are not specifically “granted” to a specific Tinker tradition unless stated otherwise.

Whenever a character with more than one Tinker tradition would build a gizmo, they must choose which Tinker tradition affects that gizmo. If a Tinker tradition would have banned packages, those packages are banned (its abilities cannot be used) when constructing a gizmo with that Tinker tradition, but not with another Tinker tradition (and allows a character to select Tinker talents that require packages they do not possess).

Characters never receive additional or bonus associated skill ranks from having knowledge of multiple Tinker sphere traditions; a character must choose which Tinker tradition grants those bonus ranks (their “dominant tradition”). A dominant tradition cannot be changed except through retraining (as though retraining a feat). The dominant tradition determines the practitioner’s bonus gizmo limit from their Tinker tradition drawbacks as well as any bonus talents or feats from a Tinker tradition. The character does not receive bonus gizmo limit, talents, or feats from any other known tradition. The bonus gizmo limit granted by the practitioner’s dominant tradition may only be used to craft gizmos from their dominant tradition.

Tinker traditions that grant boons grant their boons normally, but are only accessible and only affect gizmos crafted with that tradition.

Interactions between Multiple Tinker Traditions and Different Tinker Practitioners

Unless specified by a Tinker tradition drawback or boon, Tinker sphere gizmos and other effects interact with one another normally - regardless of the difference in Tinker tradition. Effects that would suppress or deplete gizmos do so equally, and battery gizmos work between gizmos of different makes. If a GM wants Tinker in their setting to be naturally incompatible between traditions, imposing one of the Tinker tradition drawbacks onto every tradition can help allow those Tinker tradition gizmos to remain unique (such as a sand and wind-powered culture not being able to effortlessly interact with a hydraulics-based Tinker tradition).

Subject to GM discretion, a character may be required to identify the gizmo in question (such as with a Knowledge (engineering) or Tinker tradition associated skill check against the gizmo’s gizmo DC) to understand what kind of gizmo it is before interacting with it normally. For example, a battery gizmo could power another Tinker tradition’s gizmos, but might require the character to understand how to properly attach or convert the power to accommodate the differences between what they are familiar with and the gizmo they are attempting to use.

Tinker Tradition Rules

A tinker tradition is composed of the following:

Tinker Drawbacks, Boons, and Associated Skill: Each Tinker tradition is made up of Tinker drawbacks, boons, and an associated skill. Together, these change how a gizmo crafted by a Tinker practitioner functions, and may change aspects of the Tinker sphere itself. When designing a Tinker tradition, any number of Tinker drawbacks may be selected, and boons may be selected by “purchasing” them by having a sufficient number of drawbacks.

By default, a Tinker tradition’s associated skill is Craft (mechanical), as the most applicable skill to creating gizmos and the general field of “inventioneering”. Choosing a new associated skill is made at the GM’s discretion, and should generally not be a universally useful skill such as Perception or most Knowledge skills, but instead some other tertiary skill that allows for crafting, expression, or customization (such as any Craft, Profession, or Perform).

Package Bans: A Tinker tradition may restrict access to certain packages. The tradition suggests which packages be banned to practitioners of said type of tech. This is not a hard mechanical limit with any benefits, but just suggestions. It is also very possible for the GM to ban individual talents if they do not feel that a gizmo would fit their image of a world even if the rest of the package does, such as allowing computer programs, but not AI.

Sphere Drawbacks: Sphere-specific drawbacks for the Tinker sphere, while thematic or appropriate to a tradition, are not imposed by the Tinker tradition itself. A Tinker tradition broadly tells you how that tradition’s technology works. A sphere-specific drawback in the Tinker sphere (see 4.3: Player Options, Martial Traditions) offers individual flaws or customizations that would still be individually chosen or learned by the practitioner. The sample traditions in this section do not suggest sphere-specific drawbacks, but GMs should feel free to include them if they feel it is a necessary or common limitation to technology subject to that Tinker tradition (for example, clockwork mechanoids being required to have the clockwork construct template). If there are any conflicts between a Tinker tradition drawback and a sphere-specific Tinker drawback, the GM should decide which takes precedent.

Tinker Drawbacks

Anchored Craftsmanship

Your gizmos rely on a hub or “anchor” when functioning, either by drawing power from that anchor, relying on that anchor to manifest hardened holographs, or elsewise.

You may craft an “anchor” as gizmo that does not count against your gizmo limit. An anchor does not need to be activated and functions for the purposes of this drawback so long as it is not destroyed.

Other gizmos you craft (including projects) are attuned to an anchor as a 1-minute process. Your gizmos do not function unless within close range of its attuned anchor; this functions as a (transmission) package transmitter and is treated as a signal created by a gizmo you crafted. If a gizmo would leave close range of its attuned anchor, the gizmo becomes depleted until it is within the anchor’s signal range (returning to normal functionality).

Anchors may be crafted as projects, requiring 10 gp of project material. An anchor crafted as a project may only allow other projects to be attuned to it (i.e. for creating permanent infrastructure).

Damage Vulnerability

Your gizmos have some notable flaw - soft sacs which can be pierced, easily flammable wiring, short-circuitable machinery.

Choose one damage type. Your gizmos gain vulnerability against the chosen damage type (taking 50% increased damage); your gizmos take full damage from the chosen damage type (and do not halve incoming damage from ranged attacks or energy damage of the chosen type due to their hardness). If you craft a gizmo that inflicts the chosen damage type, would provide damage reduction or resistance, or otherwise “choose” the chosen damage type, its effective gizmo level is halved (minimum 1).

A mechanoid crafted using this Tinker tradition drawback gains vulnerability against the chosen damage type.

Note: The damage types are physical (bludgeoning, piercing, slashing) or energy (acid, cold, electricity, fire, force, sonic). Force and sonic damage are rarer, compared to other damage types, and should infrequently be the chosen damage type. In certain cases, a specific source of damage may also be appropriate (i.e. damage from cold iron weapons).

For the purposes of this drawback, “inflicts the chosen damage type” does not include ordinary weapons or natural attacks (such as crafting a dagger or a claw attack on a prosthetic).

Deleterious Charge

Your batteries require a great deal of vitality to fuel, causing you harm with each use.

Whenever the user depletes a battery (normally when using a gizmo’s battery use ability), the user suffers 1 point of nonlethal damage that cannot be avoided by nonlethal damage immunity or damage reduction, and cannot be healed through any means except rest (a full night's rest heals all nonlethal damage caused by this drawback at once). The nonlethal damage dealt by this Tinker drawback increases by 1 point for every 5 gizmo levels the gizmo possesses.

Delicate

The Tinker practitioner’s gizmos consist of delicate parts that cannot be reinforced.

Gizmos the Tinker practitioner crafts do not innately gain hardness and do not take reduced damage from energy damage and ranged attacks.

A mechanoid crafted using this Tinker tradition drawback instead receives -1 hit points per Hit Dice.

Normal: Objects take half damage from energy damage and ranged weapon attacks, unless the energy damage would be effective against an object of that kind (i.e. fire damage to a gizmo made of paper) or a ranged weapon intended to harm objects (i.e. siege weapons).

Double Major

The crafted mechanisms require more than just being made. They require artistry, thought, or effort beyond the norm.

Choose 1 skill other than the Tradition’s associated skill (the “secondary chosen skill”). All Tinker sphere effects and abilities that would depend on the Tinker practitioner’s ranks in the associated skill depend on the lower of the practitioner’s ranks in the associated skill and ranks in the secondary chosen skill. Whenever the Tinker sphere would require an associated skill check, such as a proficiency check, the gizmo requires a check using the lower of the user’s bonus between the associated skill and secondary chosen skill.

The Tinker sphere grants bonus ranks in the associated skill, as it normally does, but does not grant bonus ranks in the secondary chosen skill.

Note: Because a Tinker tradition’s associated skill is already subject to GM discretion, a “second” associated skill does not always need to be as restrictive, such as an on-theme Knowledge, but should still avoid generically useful skills such as Perception.

Example: A Tinker tradition has the double major Tinker drawback for Profession (glassmaker) and has the default associated skill for Craft (mechanical). The Tinker practitioner’s effects would rely on whichever skill has less ranks when using the Tinker sphere. If the practitioner has 10 ranks in Craft (mechanical) and 7 ranks in Profession (glassmaker), the practitioner’s effects would rely on the 7 ranks when determining abilities and effects.

Energized Feedback

Your gizmos spit sparks and fire, biting back at those that would attempt to use them.

Choose one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire). Whenever your gizmos become depleted or the user activates a battery use ability, the user takes damage (of the chosen energy type) equal to 1/2 the gizmo’s gizmo level (minimum 1). This damage only occurs once (i.e. depleting a battery to activate a battery use ability only inflicts damage once).

Note - Explosive Instability: If a Tinker tradition possesses both this drawback and the Explosive Instability drawback, the chosen energy type should be the same (subject to GM discretion).

Environmental Dependency

Where some gizmos might be disturbed by an environmental factor, these gizmos thrive in them, whether by utilizing wind to comply with their power needs, being submersed to disperse heat, or elsewise.

Choose one or more environmental factors (see the Environmental Vulnerability Tinker drawback for examples). Your gizmos have their effective gizmo level reduced by -2, increasing by -1 per 10 gizmo levels, when not exposed to one or more of their environmental dependencies; if the gizmo’s gizmo level would be reduced to 0, it immediately deactivates.

A mechanoid crafted using this Tinker tradition drawback instead suffers a -1 penalty to all d20 rolls when not exposed to its environmental dependency.

Example: A Tinker tradition specializing in aquatic machinery might require being submerged, partially or wholly, in water. If not in that condition, gizmos subject to that tradition are less functional.

Environmental Vulnerability

The inner machinations of your gizmos are disrupted by environmental turbulence, be that high winds, sand and grime, or other impeding factors.

Choose one or more of the following environmental factors: aridity, cold, heat, mud and/or sand, water, wind, or with other environmental factors available at GM discretion (e.g. radiation, magnetic waves, etc.). Chosen environmental factors are referred to as the gizmo’s “environmental vulnerability” or “environmental vulnerabilities”.

Whenever your activated gizmos are exposed to an environmental vulnerability, the gizmo must attempt a Fortitude save against the originating effect’s DC. If the environmental vulnerability does not have a saving throw DC (such as a gizmo being submerged in a pool of water, dropped in a sandy dune, or exposed to unfavorable weather), the gizmo instead attempts its Fortitude saving throw against 10 + 1/2 its gizmo level.

If a gizmo fails its saving throw against an environmental vulnerability, the gizmo deactivates within a number of rounds equal to 1 + its practitioner modifier and becomes depleted until the Tinker practitioner can repair it when maintaining their gizmos. If the gizmo leaves the environmental vulnerability before this number of rounds ends, it does not deactivate.

Environmental vulnerabilities that are ongoing (such as rain or a sandstorm) require the gizmo to attempt a new saving throw every 10 minutes of continuous exposure after the initial saving throw.

Note: An environmental condition that is rare or specific (i.e. “electromagnetic waves”) should only be allowed if the setting has that environmental condition with enough regularity.

If using Spheres of Power, environmental vulnerabilities created by the Weather sphere generally require a saving throw when at severity 3 or higher, subject to GM discretion.

Expensive Craft

The mechanisms require unique materials, rarer metals, and other expensive or exhaustive resources when crafting to reach the desired efficiency.

Gizmos you craft require 1 silver piece (1 sp) worth of expensive materials per gizmo level of the crafted gizmo. Maintaining gizmos, and restoring depleted gizmos, costs the same amount. You cannot craft or maintain their gizmos without having these expensive materials. The exact nature of these expensive materials (rare metals, crystals, etc.) should be determined by the GM, but as a general rule, should be as easily accessible as material components for an average spellcaster.

Projects crafted under this Tinker tradition require 25% increased material costs. This increased cost must be paid for normally and cannot be gathered over time like project materials ordinarily could be.

Explosive Instability

The mechanism might be a bit of a “ticking time bomb”. Literally. When these gizmos fail, they explode, short circuit, or otherwise fail spectacularly.

Choose one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire). Whenever a gizmo you crafted would be destroyed, it explodes, dealing 1d6 + gizmo level points of the chosen energy damage to all creatures (and objects) within 5 feet. A successful Reflex save (DC equal to the gizmo’s gizmo DC) halves this damage.

A combined gizmo only explodes a single time; each gizmo that is part of a combined gizmo is destroyed when one of the included gizmos explodes this way. If a creature would be subject to multiple exploding gizmos simultaneously, each gizmo’s explosion damage is halved (after the first).

Gizmos that are destroyed as part of their regular use, such as arsenal gizmo ammunition or a crystal chakram, do not explode when destroyed in this way. Gizmos crafted as a set of items, such as arsenal weapon ammunition, deal no damage unless more than half of the crafted set is destroyed simultaneously, in which case the gizmos collectively explode as a single gizmo (and destroys all other gizmos with the blast’s radius that were crafted as part of the same set). Overlapping explosions do no additional damage this way.

A gizmo crafted with this Tinker drawback may also be primed as a standard action, exploding at the end of your turn. If the gizmo is small enough to be thrown, the gizmo may be thrown as a splash weapon with a range increment of 10 feet.

Note - Energized Feedback: If a Tinker tradition possesses both this drawback and the Energized Feedback drawback, the chosen energy type should be the same (subject to GM discretion).

Normal: When a gizmo that is part of a combined gizmo would be destroyed, other gizmos remain functional and are damaged separately.

Hand-Cranked

Your power sources require more setup when being attached to other gizmos.

Battery gizmos you craft are attached to other gizmos 2 steps slower (as a standard action, rather than a swift action). Effects and abilities that reduce reload time (such as the Rapid Reload feat), reduce this increased attaching time by 1 step (standard>move>swift>free).

Hands-On

Gizmos you craft require a free hand to activate or use their functions (or otherwise a hand directly holding, wielding, and/or operating the gizmo or attached object). Your gizmos cannot benefit from abilities that would allow them to be activated or used without requiring a free hand (such the Sensory Set voice controls ability, etc.).

Normal: Activating or using a gizmo is a physical action (unless otherwise stated) requiring the user to be capable of physical actions (i.e. not paralyzed, stunned, etc.), but does not require a free or empty hand.

Highest Quality Materials [DRS]

^{Source: Diamond Spheres: Expanded Tinker and Silverminds}
Prerequisite: Expensive Craft

Instead of the normal effects of expensive craft, gizmos you craft require 1 gold piece (1 gp) of expensive materials per gizmo level of the crafted gizmo. This cost is only incurred when the gizmo is first crafted (and not when maintained, unlike expensive craft). When adjusting a gizmo to have a higher gizmo level, you must pay the difference in cost. When a gizmo is destroyed, it must be fully recrafted (paying the gp costs again) and cannot be repaired through standard maintenance.

Projects still require 25% increased material costs that must be paid for normally (and cannot be gathered over time like project materials ordinarily can be).

Implant Requisite [DRS]

^{Source: Diamond Spheres: Expanded Tinker and Silverminds}
Your non-project, non-battery gizmos must be implanted to be activated or use their effects.

Your battery gizmos may only be used to power implanted gizmos (or projects, as normal). Additional functions and options added to a battery gizmo (such as certain accommodations or other abilities) do not function unless the battery gizmo is implanted.

Your routines must be installed in implanted gizmos (and do not function otherwise).

Incomplete Understanding

The Tinker practitioner’s mechanisms are complicated and are often not well-understood even by the crafter.

Any creature attempting to activate or use the battery use ability of a gizmo you crafted must succeed at a proficiency check (including the Tinker practitioner); you cannot instruct others (or yourself) on how to activate or use gizmos you craft. This proficiency check is not required if the gizmo’s function would already require a successful proficiency check.

Note: Proficiency checks are infrequently required; a proficiency check’s DC is an associated skill check equal to the gizmo’s gizmo DC. Ordinarily, a Tinker practitioner always understands how to use their gizmos and may teach others how to use gizmos they craft (granting them a +5 circumstance bonus to their proficiency check). This drawback prevents a Tinker practitioner from teaching others (or themselves) how to use their gizmos and denies others the +5 circumstance bonus from being taught.

Living Gizmos

Your gizmos are a combination of living parts and machinery, whether that is cell cultures, plant material, or miniaturized creatures which help power and operate the gizmo.

Gizmos you craft are considered to be living creatures and objects, simultaneously (referred to as “living gizmos”). Living gizmos maintain the benefits of being an object, and are still treated as objects, but also gain the following properties:

• Living gizmos gizmos gain a Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution score of 10 (unless the gizmo already possesses that ability score, in which case that ability score is unmodified).
• Living gizmos are treated as having 0 Hit Dice for the purposes of other effects (unless they would gain them normally, like a mechanoid).
• Effects that affect or target your gizmos treat the gizmo as a living creature only if they would be disadvantageous to the gizmo. Damaging effects still treat a living gizmo as an object for the purposes of its hardness, etc. This does not cause an effect that would only target objects to fail, but does allow effects that could only target living creatures to succeed (if it would be harmful to the gizmo).
• Your gizmos need to breathe, eat, and sleep, as a normal living creature does. A gizmo can “eat” by consuming a battery gizmo, or other suitable food subject to GM discretion (as some living gizmos may be more primitively capable than others).
• A living gizmo suffering from ability damage or ability drain reduces their effective gizmo level by 1 (while afflicted, minimum 1). Negative levels reduce a living gizmo’s effective level (instead of imposing the normal penalties of a negative level); while a gizmo is suffering from negative levels equaling or exceeding the gizmo’s gizmo level, the gizmo becomes deactivated (activating again once its total negative levels are less than its gizmo level). If a living gizmo would be subject to a condition that would prevent it from taking a standard or move action (such as being staggered, stunned, dazed, etc.), the gizmo is deactivated until that condition is removed (activating again once removed).
• Living gizmos do not have a creature type or subtype (unless you also possess the Adapted Biology boon).

Example: A gizmo subject to this Tinker drawback could be slain by a power word kill spell, despite being an object, but could not be affected by a healing effect that only targets living creatures because they are only treated as a living creature for detrimental or disadvantageous interactions that would not normally affect an object. The gizmo may be unable to be targeted by otherwise beneficial effects because it is not a living creature when beneficial (such as being unable to cast a death ward spell on a gizmo because the spell cannot normally affect objects).

Mana Engineering

A mixture of mechanisms and magic power these gizmos and are the foundation for their inner workings. As such, they are also vulnerable to effects that would disrupt magic.

Gizmos you craft, as well as any effects generated by your gizmos, are considered magical effects with a caster level equal to their gizmo level. Gizmos, and their effects, can likewise be dispelled, are subject to spell resistance, and can be suppressed by antimagic field and similar effects. Gizmos use their crafter’s ranks in the associated skill as their magic skill bonus (“MSB”) for the purposes of magic skill checks and calculating their magic skill defense. When a gizmo is dispelled, it is depleted for 1d4 rounds, deactivated, and must be activated normally after this duration.

The gizmos also generate a magical aura. While the exact magical aura each type of gizmo would give off can be adjusted based on the overall Tinker tradition, Table: Tinker Magical Auras below provides a starting framework. GMs should feel free to adjust these as necessary, for instance, a tradition relying on necromancy might have each gizmo give off a necromancy aura in addition to an aura that fits the gizmo type.

Table: Tinker Magical Auras

Gizmo Type	Magical Aura
Augmentation	Enhancement
Detector	Divination
Mechanoid	Enhancement
Modification	Enhancement
Prosthetics	Alteration
Routine	Mind
Transmitter	Divination
Other	Enhancement

Mechanical Signs

These gizmos create tell-tale signs of technology while activated; they may spew smoke, have flashing lights, make loud noises, tick and tock, or are otherwise noticeable and obvious while functioning.

Your activated gizmos automatically break a creature’s stealth (and prevent the ability to hide using the Stealth skill). In addition, any creature observing an activated gizmo is considered to have automatically succeeded at a Knowledge (engineering) check to identify a gizmo, but does not automatically know what the gizmo’s functions are, what Tinker tradition it belongs to, etc.

Particular Workspace

Many crafting disciplines rely on esoteric or unusual conditions when creating their technology. For example, “cloudtech” requires the crafter to maintain a high altitude, stringing together the wisps of water that compose clouds into their circuitry.

Choose one of the following conditions: darkness or bright light, a specific terrain (see the ranger’s favored terrain class feature), a suitable body of water, a certain altitude or depth, or with other conditions available at GM discretion. The Tinker practitioner may only craft their gizmos while in the chosen condition, and the chosen condition must be present for the entire crafting process.

Passive Draw [DRS]

^{Source: Diamond Spheres: Expanded Tinker and Silverminds}

Your non-battery gizmos must have an attached, active battery gizmo to be activated or otherwise used. If a gizmo would no longer have an attached battery, or its attached battery is depleted for a battery use ability, the gizmo immediately deactivates (or deactivates after the battery use ability ends).

Infrastructure projects (such as rails and pipes) are not limited by this drawback.

Production Facilities

The Tinker practitioner requires a stable environment that matches their tradition, whether that is a bio-lab for growing organic gizmos, a smithy and forge, or otherwise.

You may only craft and maintain gizmos in a “production facility”. You may establish a production facility with 8 hours of work in a safe and/or stable environment. You may only have one production facility established at a time and establishing a new production facility abandons the previous production facility. A production facility must be in a relatively fixed location, or a location that does not move faster than 10 miles per hour (or other distance increment, subject to GM discretion). For example, a production facility located in a city-state that occupies a sky fortress would be ok, whereas the truck bed of an oddly large “steampunk pickup truck” would likely not be.

A Tinker practitioner may use another Tinker practitioner’s production facility, provided they belong to the same Tinker tradition.

Slow Craft

Crafting and maintaining your gizmos twice as long (at base, 1 hour, or 30 minutes if you have access to an engineering kit or sufficient tools). Crafting a project always takes a minimum of 1 hour.

Normal: Tinker gizmos can be crafted in 30 minutes, or 15 minutes if you have access to an engineering kit or sufficient tools.

Note: If the Tinker practitioner possesses an ability which would increase the speed at which they craft and maintain their gizmos, that time reduction instead allows the Tinker practitioner to craft and maintain their gizmos normally.

Tinker Boons

Drawbacks for Boons: Boons are “purchased” through drawbacks; a tradition must possess 2 drawbacks for each boon granted. Any drawbacks that have not been exchanged for a boon instead increases the practitioner’s gizmo limit, according to Table: Drawbacks to Bonus Gizmos.

Table: Drawbacks to Bonus Gizmos

Number of Drawbacks	Bonus Gizmo Limit
1	+1, +1 per 6 ranks in the associated skill
2	+1, +1 per 3 ranks in the associated skill
3	+1 per odd rank in the associated skill (1, 3, 5, etc.)
4	+1, +1 per 1.5 ranks in the associated skill (2, 3, 5, 6, etc.)
5	+1 per rank in the associated skill

In addition to additional gizmo limit and boons, GMs may also wish to use the Tinker Tradition Bonus Talents optional rule: In addition to any boons (or bonus gizmo limit), a character with a Tinker tradition also receives 1 bonus Tinker talent per 2 Tinker tradition drawbacks your Tinker tradition possesses. These bonus talents are the same bonus talents granted by the Tinker Tradition sphere drawback.

Adapted Biology (requires Living Gizmo Tinker drawback)

More than just alive, these machinations match the physiological functions of some other kind of creature. Consequently, they gain many of the benefits and weaknesses of sharing these similarities.

Choose one creature type. If choosing humanoid or outsider, you must additionally choose a subtype. Your living gizmos gain the following properties:

• Your living gizmos are treated as creatures of the chosen type (and subtype), in addition to being an object.
• Your living gizmos are treated as both an object and the chosen creature type creature for the purposes of a ranger’s favored enemy, the bane weapon special ability, and other spells and effects that determine their effects by creature type, whether beneficial or harmful, may be targeted and affected by effects that could affect a creature of the chosen type or an object (both beneficial and not).
• Your living gizmos recover from ability damage and hit point damage at a rate of 1 ability damage per day and 1 hit point per gizmo level per day.
• Your living gizmos get the chosen creature type’s resistances and immunity to damage types and effects, as well as its weaknesses (see the Note below).
• If the chosen creature type is undead, your living gizmos are treated as undead creatures and objects (instead of living creatures and objects).

This ability does not allow your gizmos to be awakened, modified like a normal construct (i.e. construct modifications, construct templates, etc.), or other similar permanent alterations.

Note: When determining the defensive abilities Adapted Biology may grant to a gizmo, generally speaking, the gizmos gain the creature type’s resistance and immunity to damage types or effects. If a subtype grants other unique abilities (such as an aeon’s void form, archon’s aura of menace, an agathion’s lay on hands, or more general things like fast healing, regeneration, or spell resistance), these abilities are not granted. GMs should be the final arbiter of what is appropriate; creature types with no innate benefits may be granted additional effects by GM discretion.

Example: A practitioner with Adapted Biology (plant) would have gizmos that possess the immunities of the plant creature type, but are now also susceptible to effects that harm such creatures (such as the horrid wilting spell, and similar).

Bionic Expert [DRS]

^{Source: Diamond Spheres: Expanded Tinker and Silverminds}

Prerequisite: Implant Requisite drawback.

You gain Tinker Savvy as a bonus talent.

Implanting or removing implant gizmos takes half the normal time (see Section 1.2: Skill Rules, Heal for more). You may implant or remove multiple gizmos from the same subject (up to your practitioner modifier in gizmos in a single attempt, taking the longest duration as the surgery’s duration).

Central Intelligence (requires Anchored Craftsmanship Tinker drawback)

The anchoring point of your technology is not mechanical, but formless, and can drift between your suitable created vessels of artifice.

When crafting your anchor, you may instead designate one AI you have created. The AI’s housing gizmo is treated as your anchor for the purposes of the Anchored Craftsmanship Tinker drawback.

The practitioner receives the (computation) package as a bonus package (if they do not already possess it); if the practitioner already possesses the (computation) package (or gains it later, such as with the Expanded Tinkering talent), they instead gain a single Tinker sphere talent with the (computation) tag.

Author's Note: If you would already possess the (computation) package, instead of "a single Tinker sphere talent with the (computation) tag", you may instead select a single (gizmo) talent with an option that requires the (computation) package (i.e. Cognitive Set, etc.).

Confounding Designs

Gizmos you create are impossibly constructed. Parts are vestigial, the methods they accomplish things are roundabout and odd. An educated individual simply stares at what you’ve made and wonders “why, but more importantly, how?”

The skill check DC to disable or identify the effects of gizmos you craft is increased by your practitioner modifier; this also applies to the proficiency check DC. Other skill checks made to disrupt, understand, or otherwise interact with the gizmo are likewise increased. This does not increase or modify the DC to identify a gizmo as being a gizmo.

As a 15-minute process (which may be done as part of maintaining your gizmos), you may explain how a gizmo you have crafted functions to allow one or more creatures to ignore this boon’s increased proficiency check DC (for the specific gizmos you explain to them; new gizmos may require additional lectures).

Conservation Of Energy

You may spend a full-round action to deactivate any non-minor, non-project, non-battery gizmo in your possession (that you have crafted) to immediately convert that gizmo into a battery gizmo; you may attach this battery gizmo to another gizmo in your possession as part of using this ability. A battery gizmo created this way has a gizmo level equal to the deactivated gizmo and lasts a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your ranks in the associated skill + your practitioner modifier. The battery is abandoned at the end of this duration.

Creatures other than the Tinker practitioner cannot take advantage of this boon (either converting a gizmo into a battery or using a battery created using this boon).

Environmental Devices (requires Environmental Dependency Tinker drawback)

The gathering storm swirls and rages, but the whir of invention only seems to speed up in response. What might hinder other devices instead empowers them.

Your gizmos are immune to any harmful effects of their environmental dependency (if they would be subject to them) and gain a +1 competence bonus to their effective gizmo level while exposed to that environmental dependency.

Expeditious Construction

The nature of the mechanism lends itself to faster production. A Tinker practitioner with this boon crafts 1 additional gizmo, +1 per 4 ranks in the associated skill whenever they craft and maintain their gizmos.

Graduated With Honors [DRS]

^{Source: Diamond Spheres: Expanded Tinker and Silverminds}
You worked hard for your double major in civil engineering and applied psychology.
Prerequisites: Double Major drawback.

Choose one non-Tinker sphere whose associated skill matches your Double Major’s secondary associated skill. Talents in the chosen secondary sphere are treated as Tinker sphere talents when determining your gizmo limit.

Example: Your Double Major secondary associated skill is Diplomacy. You could select either Warleader or Communication with this boon, treating talents in the selected sphere towards your gizmo limit.

Immaterial Construction

The mechanisms are immaterial, seemingly disappearing into nothingness once expended or broken.

You do not require an engineering kit or sufficient tools to craft gizmos. You otherwise craft your gizmos normally, and craft your gizmos subject to any of your other Tinker tradition drawbacks. Immaterial gizmos leave behind no permanent material evidence of their activation or use. If your Tinker tradition has the Mana Engineering Tinker drawback, immaterial gizmos still leave behind a magical aura.

When an immaterial gizmo is abandoned or destroyed, the gizmo dematerializes and ceases to exist. Projects still need materials for their construction, but these materials may represent things other than physical parts, such as reagents to summon the gizmo or chemicals and reagents to grow them. An immaterial gizmo mechanoid does not leave behind a body when destroyed, but is otherwise normally noticeable.

Note: Effects that are otherwise beneficial to the gizmo’s user, such as the Sniper sphere’s Hindering Shot (snipe) talent, or an effect that causes a gizmo to leave behind a field of caltrop-like shrapnel, still occur (and instead dematerialize when the effect would end).

Reinforced

Your mechanisms are more stable and durable.

You gain Durable Gizmos as a bonus feat.

Sample Tinker Traditions

The following section contains sample Tinker traditions built using the drawbacks and boons presented above. If implementing Tinker traditions into the setting, GMs are highly encouraged to create and customize their own, or work with their players and their character concepts as needed.

The sample traditions in this section are separated into “common” and “exotic”. Common Tinker traditions follow more classic setting tropes and may be more immediately appropriate for your setting whereas exotic Tinker traditions are showcasing how the Tinker tradition framework can be used to create unusual results. Exotic Tinker traditions should be considered by the GM before adding them to your games.

Common Tinker Traditions

Biofloramachines

Horticulture and gardening techniques eventually learned that a plant is programmed to follow a set routine, such as when to sprout, when to flower, when to send certain pheromones or produce pollens and saps. Inventive minds took that theory to machines, creating living inventions that are specially cultivated for certain tasks, although this cultivation requires patience.

Biofloramachinery can mimic many forms of technology, from roots and vines that constrict and retract to simulate a belt or lever, to a specialized plant designed to mimic a detector that releases spores when it detects the presence of certain substances.

Drawbacks: Double Major (Knowledge (nature)), Living Gizmos (plant), Production Facilities (a specialized garden), Slow Craft.
Boons: Adapted Biology (plant); +1 gizmo limit, +1 gizmo limit per 3 ranks in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Profession (gardener or herbalist); secondary skill Knowledge (nature).
Suggested Package Bans: None.

Clockwork

There is something truly fantastical about the elegance and grace of clockwork machinery. A craftsman’s touch grants a very personal flair to ordinarily impersonal objects.

Clockwork is often pronounced by how much it sounds, and behaves, like a clock - working constantly, and consistently. Clockwork may take the form of kinetic exoskeletons, powered by springs and cogs, powders and lenses that respond to stimulus, and punch-entry cards for programs and storage of data.

Drawbacks: Delicate, Environmental Vulnerability (sand & grit), Expensive Crafting (clockwork components).
Boons: Expeditious Construction; +1 gizmo limit, +1 gizmo limit per 6 ranks in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (clockwork).
Suggested Package Bans: (transmission) package. Clockwork constructions tend to rely on kinetic motion, and not wavelengths or other modes of communication. A device similar to one that sends and receives morse code, through physical “tapping” or similar, could help integrate this package into clockwork.

Cyberware

Your standard fare in the cyber-concrete jungle, this highly advanced technological equipment is exceedingly versatile and reliable, but relies on expensive and specialized material-science and facilities to create and maintain. - Contributed in part by Zephyrm, DDS Community.

Drawbacks: Damage Vulnerability (electric), Double Major (Knowledge (engineering), Expensive Craft (electronics-grade metals), Explosive Instability (electric).
Boons: +1 gizmo limit, +1.5 gizmo limit per rank in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (electronics).
Suggested Package Bans: None.

Magitech

By relying on many of the same fundamental concepts as mages, the creation of technology that simplifies or removes the requirement of a mage is desirable. Magitech often requires more effort than other comparable gizmos to craft and the intricacies of the craft often leaves the gizmos vulnerable to disruption by the environment.

Magitech can take many forms and shapes, from higher science fiction to “the tea pot works because I drew the symbol for fire on it” using ancient magic runes. The “how and why” of magictech is, consequently, far more open compared to other gizmos that try to more rationally explain their effects.

Drawbacks: Environmental Vulnerability (choose one), Expensive Craft, Mana Engineering, Slow Craft.
Boons: +1 gizmo limit, +1.5 gizmo limit per rank in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (mechanical).
Suggested Package Bans: None.

Note: The magitech Tinker tradition can be expensive to either etch or paint the magic, or create mana-capable circuits, or condense aether from the environment, etc. The environmental vulnerability should represent how that craftsmanship can be disrupted, either by scouring the metal etchings or washing away the specially treated magic dyes, short circuiting the wiring with electricity, etc.

Reactortech

Harnessing electricity into volatile glasswork makes for powerful sources of energy. Reactortech makes use of small, powerful reactors that are embedded into each and every piece of equipment to ensure the transfer of energy is efficient.

Reactortech takes on an otherwise ordinary appearance to most inventioneering, but any need for kinetic energy is heavily lessened. A firearm can be triggered through electrical signals and a flashlight merely “turned on”, but the crackling energy beneath the globes of lightning that adorn each piece of craftsmanship leave no question as to the how and why. The primary boon of reactor tech, that makes up for its instability, is that the individual reactors can always be cannibalized as a power source for other inventions.

Drawbacks: Environmental Vulnerability (electricity), Explosive Instability (electricity), Hand-Cranked, Mechanical Signs (glowing reactors).
Boons: Conservation Of Energy; +1 gizmo limit, +1 gizmo limit per 3 ranks in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (mechanical).
Suggested Package Bans: None.

Steampowered

Boiling water to create motion has been one of the first forms of mechanical power produced and continues to be a reliable form of energy whenever water and heat are available.

Steampowered gizmos are characterized by their fluids and hydraulics. Steampowered gizmos may take any number of shapes and forms, but will have some form of boiler and compressor where the liquid can supply the necessary power, or where that can be refilled.

Drawbacks: Environmental Vulnerability (cold), Particular Workspace (a source of water), Slow Craft.
Boons: +1 gizmo limit per odd rank in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (mechanical).
Suggested Package Bans: (computation) package, (transmission) package. Steampowered constructions may have difficulty facilitating effects that would wirelessly transfer between gizmos or that store information. Steampowered constructions are largely facilitated by their power source, and may have less intrinsic mechanisms compared to other means of crafting.

Exotic Tinker Traditions

The Tinker tradition subsystem is a tool that is meant to be used by GMs to create.

A so-called “exotic” Tinker tradition is a design space to break rules, in either a minor of major way. This can include creating entirely new Tinker drawbacks, unusually high requirements, or conditions or restrictions that were not normally offered, such as the good-aligned vulnerability of the Daemon Ex Machina tradition, but can offer extreme variances such as requiring class resources (such as ki or panache), unique focuses, consuming magic items, animating all gizmos as lesser mechanoids, and so on - as the GM desires.

Cybernetic Punk [DRS]

^{Source: Diamond Spheres: Expanded Tinker and Silverminds}

In a dystopian technological future, access to high quality and expensive technological implants give access to living stronger, better, and faster. Installing these implants is a highly technical process, with the best doctors performing for the elite, and the average man needing to rely on shady cybernetic clinics.

Drawbacks: Expensive Craft, Highest Quality Materials, Implant Requisite, Particular Workspace (cybernetic doctor), Slow Craft.
Boons: Reinforced; +1 gizmo limit, +1 gizmo limit per 3 ranks in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (mechanical).
Suggested Package Bans: None. A cybernetic punk has access to high end technology if they have the funds.

Special - Particular Workspace (Cybernetic Doctor): This tradition is unique in that characters cannot craft gizmos subject to the tradition and are instead “assisted” by a cybernetic doctor, who helps craft and implant the gizmos, or any other character able to perform implantation surgery with a suitable workspace. The Highest Quality Materials drawback represents the money paid to the cybernetic doctor for their services.

Characters can maintain their gizmos and do not need the Particular Workspace to do so.

Daemon Ex Machina

Mechanical in function but daemon in form, ritual binders have learnt to sculpt the flesh of the abyss into tools. Through ritually prepared vessels and immense precision, wayward souls of daemons are bound and grafted into mechanical form, but held here only by the ritualist’s binding stone.

Drawbacks: Anchored Craftsmanship (Binding Stone), Damage Vulnerability (good-aligned), Living Gizmos, Mana Engineering (conjuration), Particular Workspace (prepared ritual chamber).
Boons: Adapted Biology (daemon), Immaterial Construction; +1 gizmo limit, +1 gizmo limit per 6 ranks in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Profession (cleric) or Lore (daemons).
Suggested Package Bans: None.

Note: The Daemon Ex Machina Tinker tradition is an example of bending the restrictions of the Tinker drawbacks or boons. Damage that is good-aligned (i.e. from a holy weapon, etc.) would normally not be an appropriate damage type for vulnerable gizmos, but may be allowed under circumstances where good and evil are prevalent enough for this restriction to matter.

Mad Science

Labs filled with foul smoke, dimly lit and echoing with the crackles and pops of alchemy and enchantments. These are what comes to mind when one thinks of a mad wizard, cooped up in their tower. Mad scientists are similar, but rather than stretch the boundaries of magic, they see how far they can push the fundamental laws of reality without any magic.

Gizmos created by mad science are near impossible for the uninitiated to understand, seeming to work like magic, and often lead to explosive results for those who tamper with what they do not understand. These gizmos often look like fusions of several unrelated machines, festooned with dials, buttons, gauges, and similar accessories with seemingly no purpose.

Drawbacks: Explosive Instability (random),Incomplete Understanding, Production Facility.
Boons: Confounding Design; +1 gizmo limit, +1 gizmo limit per 6 ranks in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (technological).
Suggested Package Bans: None. Mad science creations cover a massive scope of inventions and technological purpose. While it might be dangerous to use, or pose risks to the user, mad science creations are dangerously competent.

Planar Attuned [DRS]

^{Source: Diamond Spheres: Expanded Tinker and Silverminds}

Devices tuned to the planar cosmos, pulling energy but also susceptible to their opposites.

Drawbacks: Damage Vulnerability (chosen plane), Double Major, Energized Feedback (chosen plane), Environmental Vulnerability (chosen plane), Explosive Instability (chosen plane), Mana Engineering (conjuration).
Boons: Conservation of Energy; +1, +1 per 1.5 ranks in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (mechanical); secondary skill Knowledge (planes).
Suggested Package Bans: None. Planar energy is easily molded to suit the needs of the maker.

Special - Chosen Plane: The practitioner chooses a single elemental aligned plane, between air, earth, fire, and water. This tradition’s drawbacks (Energized Feedback, Environmental Vulnerability, and Explosive Instability) behave based on Table: Planar Attuned below.

Table: Planar Attuned

Elemental Plane	Energy Type(Damage Vulnerability)	Environmental Vulnerability
Air (Aerotech)	Electricity (Acid)	Dirt, Dust (sandstorms), Mud
Earth (Terratech)	Acid (Electricity)	High Wind,
Fire (Ignitech)	Fire (Cold)	Cold Weather, Fog and Mist, Water
Water (Aquatech)	Cold (Fire)	Heat, Hot Weather, Smoke

Technologic Wonder [DRS]

^{Source: Diamond Spheres: Expanded Tinker and Silverminds}

Miraculously perfect crystals power technology, from the everyday to the fantastic. These technologic cores astound, but are deadly when disturbed. These cores are of a mysterious origin, but were quickly replicated by genius inventors and promulgated across the nation to benefit its people.

Drawbacks: Expensive Craft, Explosive Instability (electricity, see below), Highest Quality Materials, Mana Engineering.
Boons: Reinforced; +1 gizmo limit, +1 gizmo limit per 1.5 ranks in the associated skill.
Associated Skill: Craft (mechanical).
Suggested Package Bans: None. The technologic cores are a miraculous solution to technological inventorship.

Special - Explosive Instability (Technologic Core): Gizmos crafted subject to this Tinker tradition are not explosive, only the battery gizmos are (“technologic cores”). Technologic cores do not benefit from hardness, as a normal gizmo, and add the crafter’s practitioner modifier to the explosive instability’s explosion damage (1d6 + gizmo level + practitioner modifier; this additional damage only applies when the battery is damaged and destroyed, not when detonated intentionally).