Technology Conflicts

Burning Empires General Questions
1

Diomedes Cogito, my character in the Burning Verderis game, is building the Ergosum, a sort of computational panopticon, in order to improve the quarantine / detect the movement of finances / correlate them with signals and shipping movement, in order to stop the smuggling he sees as a huge threat to the world. I tried to set up a conflict to build the machine, but ran up against the rule that conflicts are only Firefights or DoWs, so the conflict went to another player, since there was nothing in my resource roll (aided/hindered by linked tests) which precipitated either of these. Countercheck, the GM pointed out that since it is just rolling to get something, it is not interesting to oppose, but I am making my character build up the resources to fight against smuggling/the Vaylen as part of his opposition to the smuggler GMFoN, so I believe that by building the Ergosum, and therefore building capacity, I am having him fight for what he believes, even though we are unclear how to oppose it. In contrast to the Firefight/DoW conflict rule, there is this tantalizingly vague reference to a Fabrication Conflict scene:

“Fabrication counts as a building scene. A character may make up to an Ob 4 Fabrication test per building scene. Alternately, the group may use one of their conflict scenes as an extended conflict for Fabrication. Fabricator hits his workshop full time and may make up to an Ob 6”

What is an extended conflict for Fabrication? How does the GM provide opposition, to make it a conflict? Does anyone at BEHQ have an example of a Technology Conflict they have run?

Edit: It is worth pointing out that Diomedes does not have Fabrication–he would be circling up the Cheif Technology Officer for the Ergosum Project in order to have the subordinate Fabricate, and then make the resources test himself.

2

There’s no extended conflict mechanics for building technology. It’s a Resources test in a Building Scene against a static obstacle. Bringing in new tech requires that the technology is introduced as color in another scene first.

The rule you cited, as far as I can tell, basically means that your side can sacrifice their one Conflict Scene for the maneuver to let you make an Ob 6 Fabrication test instead of the usual maximum of Ob 4. But there’s no equivalent to Firefight or Duel of Wits for building technology.

That said, if you have a Belief about building a piece of tech, the GM should be using NPCs to thwart you - force you into spending Reaources elsewhere, or putting things in y

3

There’s no extended conflict mechanics for building technology. It’s a Resources test in a Building Scene against a static obstacle. Bringing in new tech requires that the technology is introduced as color in another scene first.

The rule you cited, as far as I can tell, basically means that your side can sacrifice their one Conflict Scene for the maneuver to let you make an Ob 6 Fabrication test instead of the usual maximum of Ob 4. But there’s no equivalent to Firefight or Duel of Wits for building technology.

That said, if you have a Belief about building a piece of tech, the GM should be using NPCs to thwart you - force you into spending Resources elsewhere, or putting things in your way that will bite you in the ass if you don’t spend your scenes dealing with them.