Help me design Toaster Repair!

[Echopeus]

this may be a little crazy lol:::

you come across a village/city that seems kind of odd. You find that their currency is based in toasters. Fixed toasters are worth more then broken ones. They are traded and hoarded by the governing body of the village and you have no idea why... It seems unimportant at the time but you become curious to why toasters are so important...

[Gazz]

A character with Toaster Repair could use his highly specialised knowledge to add a power cell of sorts and use the toaster's lock / spring mechanism to turn it into a short-ranged taser.
Well, Toser.

The weapon firing sound would be awesome! Clang! Toast!

But best of all, it sounds borderline possible, lending credibility to toaster repair! Even it it does very little (or nothing) else, the myth would live on. I can readily imagine entire threads speculating about the other hidden uses of toaster repair.

[kingsword]

Well, iconic or not, I'd rather have it as something useful than novelty. I think it could work for disassembling various junk items and assembling useful improvised tools out of them.

[Coolguy]

Why not go full-on goofy with it, like it basically was in the original? I'm thinking a bunch of toaster-specific tools and jury-rigged weapons, ala Jeff's repairs from Earthbound. A few dumb ideas:

• Crappy Toaster -> Toasternade
• Cuisinart Toaster -> Toaster Convection Rifle
• Braun Toaster -> Toaster Backpack (now with climate control)
• Dualit 4-slice Toaster -> Toaster Coil Launcher
• KitchenAid Toaster -> First-Toaster Kit
• Sunbeam Toaster -> Toasternade Launcher

[goodoldxelos]

[quote="BubbaBrown"]The MacGyver skill.[quote]

This makes the most sense.

[Arcanix]

-Toaster Repairs - WL 1. If you combine this with the explosive skill you can make grenades, bombs and mines, that looks like toasters! You can also make food, toasts, if you find the ingredients. (including upgrades).

[DethRaid]

The toaster repair skill should be used to repair toasters. For instance, in a town, there's someone with a broken toaster. This is a problem because they absolutely must have their toast with breakfast. The Rangers come into town and fix this lady's toaster. Now she can have her toast again!

I think it would be really amazing if Toaster Repair didn't actually have any use at all besides literally repairing toasters. It'd be simple, easy, and just the sort of humor I found in Wasteland and the Fallout series. Do it.

[snakeoil]

RangerHudsons topic "Reprogram Scorpiton and turn into NPC" in the include section of this forum has brought the 100% perfect solution to what toaster repair should be. "toasters" can be used as a slang for robots or machines of any kind, thus the toaster repair skill would help repairing broken machines and robots. it could also repair machines to serve a new purpose, like making a hair dryer out of a toaster, LOL, i think you get what i mean.
in this sense, on a low level toaster repair could work as some kind of universal macgyver skill to fix things or handle situations that are not covered by other skills. on a high level toaster repair could be used to reprogram sophisticated robots and turn them into npcs.
reprogramming/repairing something like a scorpitron should require master toaster repair skills that can only be achieved very late in game. balancing should be no real problem since when the party is able to overcome an enemy scorpitron late in the game why shouldnt enemies? actually since having a scorpitron in your party, low level enemies wont even try to bother your party which will be very handy late in the game.
since scorpitrons are too big to get into houses or caves, they would have to wait outside protecting the back of your party, which could lead to other interesting situations in the best wasteland tradition.
it is the perfect use for toaster repair, it resembles putting up turrets in killzone, using the persuadertron in syndicate (1993) and using found bonesets in eye of the beholder to resurrect npcs, that could then join your party (the best way resurrection has ever been integrated in a crpg).

this is the perfect use of the toaster repair skill! 100%. its old school, its cool and most importantly its FUN. toaster repair is a classic fun skill with lots of super-cool uses.

just think about a low level toaster repair skilled dude trying his best on a dead scorpitron, resurrecting him and getting insta-ripped and bringing death to a surprised party!

[GodComplex]

Heavens to Betsy I think Snakeoil came up with a genuinely interesting idea. Who are you and what have you done with crazy uncle Snakeoil?

[Wile]

Add in weird side effects, such as your newly "repaired" robot repeating same line over and over, until you give a good kick to it. Or that robot running around and asking silly questions (Greetings, kind sir or lady or hermaphrodite, which sex do you represent?) and causing awkward situations. Or that toaster you made into a hairdryer, turns out to be unstable plasma gun and that poor sod who's going to use it will blow his/hers head off.

[McDougle]

Like Oil I´m in for repairing and "recruiting" advanced toasters!

The thread he mentioned:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2804

[sparkee666]

"toasters" can be used as a slang for robots or machines of any kind

What the FRAK! I'll have no damn cylons in my team.

[GodComplex]

"toasters" can be used as a slang for robots or machines of any kind

What the FRAK! I'll have no damn cylons in my team.

Or will you?

[reiniat]

Add in weird side effects, such as your newly "repaired" robot repeating same line over and over, until you give a good kick to it. Or that robot running around and asking silly questions (Greetings, kind sir or lady or hermaphrodite, which sex do you represent?) and causing awkward situations. Or that toaster you made into a hairdryer, turns out to be unstable plasma gun and that poor sod who's going to use it will blow his/hers head off.

you try to turn a toaster into a hairdryer....and you accidentally craft a plasma gun?? thats more absurdity that the game could handle.

[Nyxalinth]

My idea is boring, but practical:

The skill could enable the Rangers to gain an important item that is otherwise in the hands of a dangerous enemy a bit more easily. There should still be things in place to ensure it doesn't become too easy, ie a certain NPC has the skill, it can be taught in a place that is a bit challenging to get to/the skill is expensive or requires a quest first.

[Elexa]

I think Toaster Repair should be just as it was... repair the toasters to find cool junk inside.

...maybe, just maybe, one of 'em actually gives you toast... to which the toast instantly *poofs* into dust the moment it's retrieved.

[Zombra]

I think Toaster Repair should be just as it was... repair the toasters to find cool junk inside.

Nice. I would definitely prefer that to all this repairing robots, hacking security systems, building plasma guns, crazy stuff that people are suggesting that has nothing to do with toasters.

[Gizmo]

What about making toasters a random occurrence that is never guaranteed to be present, and have the skill [depending on level and / or various other PC statistics] allow for collected toasters to be used as jury-rigged items... A timer/detonator; a doorknob electrifier (set and forget, and in minutes the door handle is live with 120 volts); or distraction device... Nichrome wire wrapped .45 rounds that fire off in 3 minutes; an Immersion heater to boil water in a cup; make a branding iron; make a foam cutter; make a glass tubing cutter ~yes you can really do that. There could be dozens of extrapolated [and all optional or alternative] solutions to certain problems the party will face.

Imagine rigging the toaster to a robot's brain so that you can activate it with assurance that it will fry in three minutes (after it's done it's job); or rig a toaster to serve as a rope cutter, allowing the party to descend a few stories down and simply wait for their rope to fall and them collect it.

[Elexa]

...There could be dozens of extrapolated [and all optional or alternative] solutions to certain problems the party will face...

...That sort of stuff is better coined as "Bush Mechanic", making the best with what you've got, regardless of whether it's a using a toaster to cut a rope, or spraying a can of Raid as starter fluid in a car... "Toaster Repair" is just that... repairing toasters... taking the junk out from the toaster that other people stuffed in it while trying to repair it themselves.

...my toasters are all stuffed with forks and knives. never spoons, though.

[Zombra]

What about making toasters a random occurrence that is never guaranteed to be present, and have the skill [depending on level and / or various other PC statistics] allow for collected toasters to be used as jury-rigged items...

For me? No. I have no problem with the Rangers improvising equipment in the field ... but if you want to rig a bomb, use Demolitions. If you want to reprogram a robot, use Robotics or Computer Programming. If you want to modify your rifle, use Gunsmithing. If you want to restore intended function to a damaged appliance originally made for the purpose of heating bread, use Toaster Repair.

As for having Broken Toasters be a randomly occuring piece of loot, I have no problem with that. Having useful objects jammed inside them, no problem with that at all; that's what you saw in the first game. Taking them apart and using them to build other stuff as some kind of general "MacGyver" skill - no thank you.