The Stick Throwing Goblin Crush-O-Matic

Last weekend we had the chance to finally use the 1st ed AD&D Gnomish Tinker Dragonlance rules in game. The class can be found in the Dragonlance Adventures book, and has got to be one of the coolest classes I know.

Gnomish Tinkers have the innate ability to create and build magical mechanical devices of any kind in game. At the top of the page is the sketch that Elijah's character came up with for a make shift goblin killing crossbow called: The Stick Throwing Goblin Crush-O-Matic. It was designed to be made out saplings and vines and could shoot a branch 20ft. With the assistance of a hydraulic hand its ability could be increased; but that idea was never realised.

The beauty of the Gnomish invention system is that the contraption only has to vaguely work. You see, essentially a magical force causes all gnomish inventions to function, so a simple and rough design that seems at least plausible in game is enough to meet the criteria for a workable invention. By simply looking up the effects you want your creation to have you can use a pre-made table to determine the complexity of the device. Which ever desired effect has the highest complexity, is the complexity of the invention: which determines build times, the number of parts required, and the likely hood that the device will function. From there it is up to the player to buy/find the components, and there is a helpful list of common components with their market price included in the class notes.

A great book for any RPG collection.

In the end Elijah's Stick Throwing Goblin Crush-O-Matic wasn't a very useful invention, and they didn't end up making it. However, I was able to run it through a very simple equation to figure out how it would work in game. It ended up with a complexity rating of 5 (thus needing 5 different components to create) and would take him 6 hours to make just the crossbow. We never calculated for the hand.

Once built, the bow would shoot with a -4 on the roll, needing no less than a natural 20 to succeed. So... Pretty useless. You can also see on his sketch in the bottom left hand corner an idea for an Angry-Goblin Stick of Fakery... which I believe was an idea for a fake staff... However that works.

The potential for creation with the Gnomish Tinker Class is pretty fantastic and I think worth adding into any edition! I will be sure to post more wacky inventions as the guys dream them up.

What other"Inventor Classes" have you guys played in game? Let me know in the comments, and tell me what you built.


Written by: Andrew Gregory