UPB’s
“To create an item, you must have UPBs with a total value equal to the price of the item to be created. At the GM’s discretion, you can scavenge similar items for parts, allowing 10% of the scavenged item’s value to count toward the UPBs needed. Even magic and hybrid items are created using UPBs, as the Mysticism skill is used to form the materials into runes and specific implements for rituals utilized in the creation of magic devices. “
So my question is can you break down an item into UPB’s or does it break down into something like Light Armor UPB’s or Medicinal UPB’s for crafting only.
And is there an ability or device that can take an object and turn it back in UPB's?
You can break down, at your GM's discretion, any item into UPBs equal to 10% of its value. They are "universal" so they aren't limited by type of UPBs.
I disagree, Xenocrat. UPBs are universal, in that you can use the same UPBs to create, say, the barrel of a gun, the core of a computer, or even the chemicals for a poison, but the rule on p. 235 that allows you to recover 10% of the cost of an item specifies that it has to be a similar item.
This implies that UPBs, once used, cannot be turned back into generic UPBs. Instead, you can use already-processed parts to save on generic UPBs, like reusing the barrel of a gun so you don't have to rebuild it. If you could recover the UPBs, you couldn't have the specification that it had to be similar.
|
I think the idea is that you don't 'break the item down into UPBs' but instead, that you salvage what you can from an item.
Like, let's say gun manufacturer A makes a pulsecaster Pistol. They make the entire thing from UPBs A thug buys it, you beat him up and take his gun. Now, 90% of that gun is useless to you, but you discover that the power distribution system (that is already made and inside it) works for an Azimuth Laser pistol that you are making with UPBs. So now you don't have to synthesize a power distribution system out of UPBs, because you have scavenged a perfectly good one from the pulsecaster pistol you took.
In the Starfinder Scenario "Commencement" you actually do just this, only not with guns, but with vehicles. You salvage what you can from pre-existing items to make your own.
I suppose, if your GM allowed it, you could salvage 14 pulsecaster pistols to make an Azimuth laser pistol and never touch a UPB (although it would likely look Frankinstiened to all hell and back, and you'd probably get some funny looks.)
I suppose, if your GM allowed it, you could salvage 14 pulsecaster pistols to make an Azimuth laser pistol and never touch a UPB (although it would likely look Frankinstiened to all hell and back, and you'd probably get some funny looks.)
I see that you, too, learned how to make pistols using goblin methods.
I think the idea is that you don't 'break the item down into UPBs' but instead, that you salvage what you can from an item.
So what you are saying that when you salvage your not breaking it down into UPB's but into parts. Which would be categorized as say "small arms" or "heavy armor".
|
|
I think the idea is that you don't 'break the item down into UPBs' but instead, that you salvage what you can from an item.So what you are saying that when you salvage your not breaking it down into UPB's but into parts. Which would be categorized as say "small arms" or "heavy armor".
To create an item, you must have UPBs with a total value equal to the price of the item to be created. At the GM’s discretion, you can scavenge similar items for parts, allowing 10% of the scavenged item’s value to count toward the UPBs.
needed.
The keys there are "similar item" and "GM's discretion." So a GM might rule only working within categories works (like small arms for small arms, and light armor for light armor.) Or s/he could rule that longarms work for sniper rifles, or heavy weapons, and that melee and advanced arms work together. Or s/he might not, and rule that only flame weapons work with flame weapons, or something else.
Personally? I'd rule that it depends on the weapon and the amount of the weapon you are trying to salvage. If you are just using one pulsecaster pistol, I'd let it work for most weapons that require energy. But using 4 pulsecaster pistols to make a pulsecaster rifle I would NOT allow because I would rule there is no way to get the rifle frame. I also probably wouldn't let a pulsecaster pistol be salvaged into a tactical pistol, because a taser and a slugthrower are very, very different weapons.
Leastwise that's how I read it.