Help me design Toaster Repair!

[DarkTwinkie]

We have to keep the toaster repair skill. It's iconic in the Wasteland universe. Now that we're trying to create the skill list for Wasteland 2, I need to know what toaster repair will do. We definitely want it to be useful since it was only used in the Sleeper Base and Citadel in the original. Personally, I think it would be more interesting to have master toaster repairmen in the world...

[Color Blotch]

The ability turn broken toasters you find into deadly, destructive, and potentially crunchy energy weapons? My suggestions are toaster grenade and Gatling toaster.

[The Enemy]

Toaster Repair is basically like Medic, but it only works on Cylons.

[Lucius]

In the original, toasters were essentially "treasure chests" that required a special skill to open, thus toaster repair. I wouldn't mind that idea continuing and expanded upon by adding unique loot to toasters or hidden hard to find toasters.

Or perhaps make toasters a collectable item that after collecting and combining enough toasters, something....happens.

[ButchinMelancholy]

Its utility could only be extended, and thus mean the ability to repair little mechanical/electrical devices which could be several items (including toasters, which could have a special importance a way or another) we would come across during the game that could have various interesting purposes?

That would do a fun way to describe it while making it a quite special skill (and the name would be legitimate because there would notably be toasters, and they would be something a bit special).

[BubbaBrown]

The MacGyver skill.

It allows a character the ability to implement strange fixes to common items or use common items to fix strange things.

Consider it the skill to determine one's ability to convert the strange to the common and vice versus.

Need an small explosive charge? Typically, you'd need some base explosive, electronics, and a detonator. With Toaster Repair, you'd only need a bucket of lard, an orange (more mold the better), a roll of pennies, and a knitting needle.

Need to jump start a car, but don't have anything typical to jump it with? Use Toaster Repair to figure how convert some strange alien artifact to an effective car battery.

Need to repair a unique pre-war weapon? Normally, you'd need very specific knowledge to accomplish this goal and quest for the parts and pieces... but with Toaster Repair, you only need two packs of chewing gum, 6 baseball cards, the scratch off material from a lotto ticket, and a turkey baster. Sure, it might fall apart again, but then a new fix will be thought of.

Need a cure for a nasty case of the crotch rot? Sure, you can get antibiotics and rest for a week... OR... With Toaster Repair, you'd be able to get that Ranger back in action with a quart of moonshine, some glowing material from that lead lined container you found, a toilet brush, and one chicken egg. The ranger may turn green, have delusions that gnomes are stealing his underwear, and grow a fondness for flower arrangement... But no crotch rot!

I think Toaster Repair should allow strange solutions and creations in even stranger ways. I'd suggest the developers take a look at Mad Scientists from Deadlands or Junkers from Deadlands: Hell On Earth. (Classic editions, please.) Read the craft mechanics for both and pay attention to some of the crazy failures that can happen.

EDIT: Mechanics wise... I think it'd be a skill that is used to attempt to override repair, rigging, fixing, crafting, and etc. mechanics at the cost of a much, much lower chance of success, but the ability to make use of any assorted junk you've been carrying around. The more stuff you use and the more bizarre the collection, the bigger the bonuses you get for the check. If the check fails, you lose a certain amount of the fodder you put forth depending on how bad the failure was. If the check succeeds, all the fodder is used, but you bypass the problem. There should be as equally ridiculous successes as there are failures with a HUGE variance in possibilities. Keeps it risky and entertaining.

[Sxerks]

Just normal Toaster Repair. The person would have knowledge of various makes and models of Toasters maybe even toaster Ovens. And it might come up in Dialog Trees with Important People, allowing you to gain favor with them and find items in the repaired toaster.

[Drool]

We definitely want it to be useful since it was only used in the Sleeper Base and Citadel in the original.

Actually, only in the Guardian's Citadel. Sleeper just had a spare plasma coupler in it.

Pedantry aside, though, I'm perfectly happy with it, more or less, being just as "useful" as it was in the original. It wasn't a skill you could start with, so having only one use was perfectly fine. Not everything needs a million uses. Fun, quirky, niche skills are just fine and help flesh out the world. Frankly, I'd be disappointed if it became some sort of omni-skill that was required in the game.

Now that I think about it, it could be the free skill Kickstarter donators got. Your Rangers could repair broken toasters and use them to make delicious toast.

[TNZ]

We have to keep the toaster repair skill. It's iconic in the Wasteland universe. Now that we're trying to create the skill list for Wasteland 2, I need to know what toaster repair will do. We definitely want it to be useful since it was only used in the Sleeper Base and Citadel in the original. Personally, I think it would be more interesting to have master toaster repairmen in the world...

Judging by the name of the skill, it doesn't strike me that it should be taken too seriously. If you really want a toaster repair skill in the game, just make it a skill the player can't spend points on. It doesn't need to be that useful. Make the toaster repair skill increase when a character raises his or her repair or mechanical skill. In fact, a lot of the skills from the old game could be preserved in this way. I can't imagine there is really going to be much opportunity to use the swim skill either.

[Daviddek]

Maybe also disassembling toasters to gain items and then use these to let's say power up you're weapons, or amo. Also it would be really awesome to have some death gatling toaster laser of doom or something like that

[Drool]

I guess the skill could come in handy when producing propaganda videos for the Ranger Center...

[MinscAndBoo]

unrelated question...

was toaster repair inspired by red dwarf?

[rudel_dietrich]

How about having a special game shop that uses toasters as a currency? It has special high level armors, items and weapons. Toasters are scattered around the world and the shop will only accept them in repaired status.
The shop would offer several dozen different items but the number of toasters would be limited. i.e. you couldn't acquire every single item. Maybe only 10-15% of them assuming you found every single toaster. Thus you really need to think about what you want to buy AND it increase replayability.

To make the skill useful you could have toasters come in five different varieties. They could be worth between 1-5 'points' in the toaster item shop.
The '5' toasters are by far the hardest to repair and take a great number of invested skill points. Then the '4s' are the next hardest on down.
And of course rarity would be in play as well. Toasters in general are pretty rare but most of what you will find are the '1s'.
'5' are very hard to get to/rare and take a great deal of skill to repair but offer the most value in the shop.

So you have to decide if you want to invest skill points into toaster repair at the expense of a combat/survival skill. The items in the toaster shop are pretty unique and pretty powerful but nothing to imbalance the game. They also can only be found in said toaster shop.

I got the idea from WoW and SWTOR where you take speical PvP tokens you can spend at special vendors. They are hard to collect and you have to be judicious with spending them since there are never enough to buy everything at the vendor.

Maybe my idea is crap but I think it would be a good use of the skill in a way that kinda sorta makes sense and add a risk/reward factor plus some replayability as in different games you can acquire different special items.

I also had another flash of inspiration. Maybe one of the recruitable party members is the shop owners assistant or child. He/She has a very high toaster repair skill rating and if perks make it into the game also has special toaster repair perks that only they have. Maybe some sort of toaster locating radar or GPS?
The downside is that despite toaster repair this NPC pretty much has no other useful skills.
In fact you could given them super annoying dialogue AND in a borrowed idea from Fallout give them a special perk that jinxs everyone around them. Your weapons tend to jam or explode. You fail rolls, random encounters are tougher. etc

Do you risk bringing them along?

Just some ideas I am throwing out there.

[undecaf]

I think toaster repair would work best as a... toaster repair (skill based repairing, skillbased disassembling for parts required in other activities). But it could be made more useful if the repaired toasters themselves had some (wacky at times, I suppose) uses that actually benefit a chosen style of gameplay. Money from electronic vendors, parts to trade and repair electronic equipement, making toast or toasting other beverages for some gameplaybenefit, rigging toasters as timed explosives, etc - and of course, for non-hands on use of the skill, special dialog lines leading to unexpected and unique results.

[Lazy Nomad]

The most powerful recruitable NPC in the game is a malfunctioning robot. After gathering all kinds of items to repair it, you find that you need one more part to make it work. Sadly, it doesn't exist, anymore. However, you find that you are able to jury rig something else in its place: a functioning toaster.

[Mandemon]

The most powerful recruitable NPC in the game is a malfunctioning robot. After gathering all kinds of items to repair it, you find that you need one more part to make it work. Sadly, it doesn't exist, anymore. However, you find that you are able to jury rig something else in its place: a functioning toaster.

This. Except make it temporal party member on one place instead of permanent.

[AgentTate]

I think it would be a cool jury rigging skill. Use the timer to make a time bomb. Use the levering mechanisms to repair certain guns. Use the heating elements to rig up a space heater for cold desert nights. Use the power converter to fix some electronics. Flatten the shiny metal case and patch a hole on an old robot or vehicle. Without the skill, you just break the toaster and render the parts useless.

Possibly also make some odd devices using a fixed toaster + other wasteland junk. Flaming AOL cd launcher anyone?

[Ken]

The phrase "toaster repair" began as a running joke among the groups that would search for supplies in abandoned houses in the early days after the war.

"Did you find anything?"
"Only if you know toaster repair"

As the years wore on and life became less about day to day survival, the phrase "toaster repair" was used to indicate the act of stripping old world technology from homes and offices in reference to the old joke.

"What are you doing today?"
"I was going down to that wildcat neighborhood and do some toaster repair"

Great junk yards grew from these scavengers, and tinkers began working with this vast supply of material to produce new working equipment. Soon the whole supply chain of stripping building, gathering and organizing the "junk", to production of new devices fell under the term "toaster repair". Towns built up in the remains of large suburbs usedtoaster repair as their primary trade good.

Today, with the vast majority of old world buildings stripped, and the junk yards as organized as they will ever be, "toaster repair" primarily refers to the repurposing of common old world technology.

[Hertzila]

Today, with the vast majority of old world buildings stripped, and the junk yards as organized as they will ever be, "toaster repair" primarily refers to the repurposing of common old world technology.

This, if not with the history, at least with the idea behind it. Toaster repair as a MacGyver skill, used for seperate weird crafting and for bypassing repair/crafting material requirements with junk and common items, or at least strange for the context (using weapon repair kits to fix cars or toasters and vice versa).

[TΛPETRVE]

Flaming AOL cd launcher anyone?

Hell yeah. Come to think of it, AOL CDs should be the Guardians' fiat standard .