Gadget Traits: Weapon vs Zap

[nintaku]

Originally when I needed to make a gadget that dealt damage, I'd use Natural Weapon and reskin it as just Weapon. It looks like the Time Traveler's Companion uses that same basic idea, with a Weapon trait representing...weapons, though it's more clearly dangerous. Melee at Minor, full on ray gun at Major. Seems straightforward. Then I got hold of the UNIT Sourcebook, and they have the Zap trait: ray gun at Minor, massive heavy weapons ray gun of explodey at Major. That presents a problem.

Zap is a cheaper alternative to Weapon, but Weapon seems more in line with the core rules in terms of what constitutes Major and Minor. Is this because of the different focus of one book as opposed to the other?

[Pertwee]

More of a case of two authors working on two projects with nary a bit of communication in between. I did point out the conundrum when I did an edit of the UNIT book, but apparently, that wasn't considered to be a problem so you should just consider it a matter of Focus. In a larger Time Lord game, use the TTC version, as they have a TARDIS and all sorts of other advantages. For a UNIT game, use the more powerful UNIT version, to fit in with the more 'bang bang'- centric nature of such a setting and to occasionally give the local Brigadier something besides bullets to deal with alien incursions (but only if the have the Alien Technology Trait for their Base).

[nintaku]

So it was a bit of a communication issue, which can easily be explained away by narrative causality. I love when things work out like that.

Thanks very much! My crew's doing a more traditional Time Lord and Companions set of adventures, so we'll be sticking with the TTC version.