I’m lucky I managed to make it out of the lab in one piece. With my flask, no less. “But is what we did humane? Turning people into birdlike creatures behind caged glass? Would mother agree?” I ask myself, barreling down the road at 80 miles an hour with a broken headlight in the middle of the night. Mother surely wouldn’t approve of turning people into mindless creatures, bent only on eating one another in some social Darwinist fantasy world. Of course, my mother is at this very moment being controlled by the thing we had set out experimenting with, as was the entire group of schoolchildren standing on the road, just entering my field of view. Panicking, I dive from my vehicle. “Lucky bird experiments, I wish I had their wings.”
Idea: Wings prevent some or all damage when jumping from a moving vehicle, allowing the player to glide or at the very least slow their movement by catching the oncoming wind. Simply add a check on whether the player has one of these traits during the vehicle dive process, and if so, do something with the damage. Elaborated Here
“Furries” I mumble as I hit the pavement, shattering an arm. If only the director wasn’t one. I should have realized it earlier. Over half of the team had some sort of costume stashed in their locker. The team’s unusual fascination with crossing man and mammal, or bird, and that one girl always wearing cat ears to the lab. The absurd enthusiasm etched in the team’s peer-reviewed journals. “Why couldn’t they have been normal like me?” I blurt out through tear-filled eyes as I limp through the pain and off the road and into the woods, “Why couldn’t they have wanted to be a fish?”
Ah, I’m coming up on a house. I must be on the edge of town. See, the thing those schmucks so underestimated about fish is that fish, always in water, never get thirsty. I’m so thirsty. Maybe I should drink the flask? No, out of the fishbowl? No. The perfect creatures, fish are. They can filter some pretty nasty stuff out of that elixir of life, water. The best of them are even able to separate water from the saline abyss in which they swim. If only I could drink salt water, I would be able to drink out of the fishbowl, not the damned toilet. Urgh.
Idea: Gills (or some post-threshold mutation) allow the player to drink either saltwater or untreated water (or one and not the other, up to you), and on a trait check, gain quench sans poisoning. This should add at least a little more usefulness to a mutation line that (until more underwater stuff is added) is a bit nerfed. Elaborated Here
Slaked, though feeling a bit queasy. And in so much pain. If only I had fins, I wouldn’t have to bandage up this shattered arm. Looking around the house, there’s a flyer for The Little Mermaid 13: King Triton Gets Glasses (which I had so desired to see), 4 pots, ammunition for a firearm of some sort, a welder, a coat… and about a dozen infected in the courtyard, along with some chips. Mmm, chips. But infected, so I should draw the blinds.
Idea: Pressure bomb. Pressure cookers have been used to make explosive devices all throughout the 21st century. Two pots welded together, and the right stuff on the inside, should produce a sizable blast radius from an otherwise less lethal charge. Should augment a pretty short EXPLOSIVE tab in WEAPONS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_cooker_bomb
Idea: Timer. With sufficient electronics skill, a lighter to ignite or some added scrap for a pull mechanism, and a timepiece, most explosives could use the same timer function that the C-4 and mininuke employ. Dynamite with a longer timer and a few EMP grenades set to go off at the same time for use in a trap are a few applications that come to mind. Speaking of ignition…
Idea: Remote trigger. An application for the radio, outside of NPC interaction and making noise. The same parts used in a timer, just with something capable of receiving a frequency replacing a timepiece. Really just flag an explosive device, then on some sending item’s use, activate the flagged explosives.
Other ideas:
Idea: Oxyhydrogen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqjn3mup1So . Practical applications post-apocalypse abound. Granted, you don’t need to go through all the effort he did to make a fancy-looking cell. Electrolysis is really quite easy, and the addition of a survivalist’s low explosive would be quite useful. Just be careful to avoid the fringe science. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyhydrogen
Idea: Reloaded 40mm. It’s a bit odd that the player can make reloaded 40mm buckshot, flechette, and acid, while also being able to make reloaded incendiary rounds and smoke bombs and teargas canisters, but not reloaded 40mm incendiary, reloaded 40mm smoke cover, or reloaded 40mm teargas. Even when those items already exist. Someone just needs to make recipes for them.
Idea: Acid pump. While on the topic of the underutilized launchers skill, it also strikes me as a bit odd that there are multiple applications of the flamethrower, and multiple applications of acid, but no acid sprayer. Little more than a flamethrower with less flame and gasoline, but more corrosive chemicals being spewed in the direction of creatures that don’t yet have enough corrosive chemicals on their person.
Idea: Shakelight. You’ve seen these before. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VD1zo5ZEN0 . A magnet that slides through a coil generates an alternating current which goes through an AC/DC converter and powers a battery. It produces little in the way of light, but could be very important for the early game, before the player has found a ton of batteries.
