GearAscendancy.com

Archivists Delicate Grip 228

—

by

Dale
in

From: Lineage 813 of the Tide Forged Scholarchs

This trunk bracer is an intricate device of interlocking brass rings, miniature gears, and soft leather straps that fits around the final, most dexterous section of Lyra-Vael’s trunk. It’s a marvel of micro-steamcraft, powered by a tiny, near-silent boiler. The device doesn’t add strength, but rather enhances stability and fine motor control. With minuscule, precise puffs of steam, it counteracts natural tremors, allowing for impossibly steady movements. It is an essential tool for handling brittle scrolls, restoring delicate artifacts, or executing the perfect, flowing lines required for high-level Vo-Run calligraphy.

Lore

This intricate device was not a gift or an heirloom, but a product of Lyra-Vael’s own ingenuity and frustration. Early in her career at the Great Library of Dreamtide, she was tasked with restoring a series of pre-Dreamrift vellum scrolls. The artifacts were so brittle from age and water damage that the slightest tremor or misjudged pressure from her powerful Nga-Tara trunk would cause them to crumble into dust. After several heartbreaking failures, she realized that natural dexterity was not enough; she needed mechanical perfection.

For months, she dedicated her evenings to the library’s engineering archives, devouring schematics on clockwork mechanisms and micro-steamcraft theory. She designed the Archivist’s Delicate Grip herself, requisitioning the miniature gears and pistons from the Artificer’s Guild and crafting the leather straps with her own hands. The near-silent boiler was her own unique innovation, using an alchemical catalyst to turn a single drop of water into enough steam pressure for hours of use. The device is a testament to her belief that true scholarship requires not just a brilliant mind, but the right tools for the job—even if you have to invent them yourself. It is a symbol of her practical genius, setting her apart from the more traditional theorists of her lineage.

Item Values

  • Tier One Stats:
    • Unwavering Precision: Grants a +2 bonus to any ability check that requires fine motor control and precision, such as picking a lock, disarming a delicate trap, performing surgery, or writing calligraphy.
  • Skills Gained:
    • Master Craftsman: The device’s intricate workings grant the wearer an intuitive understanding of delicate mechanisms. The wearer gains proficiency with both Tinker’s Tools and Calligrapher’s Supplies. If the wearer is already proficient, they can instead add double their proficiency bonus to checks made with these tools.
  • Passive Magics:
    • Gyroscopic Stabilization: The core function of the bracer. It automatically and passively counteracts involuntary tremors or shaking in the wearer’s trunk and hands. The wearer automatically succeeds on any check to avoid dropping a held item due to being startled, taking damage, or other sudden movements.
    • Haptic Feedback: The micro-pistons provide subtle counter-pressure and vibrational feedback. The wearer has advantage on any check made to handle an object with extreme delicacy, such as determining the trigger pressure of a trap or identifying a forgery by the texture of its materials.
    • Alchemical Boiler: The bracer’s boiler is a marvel of efficiency. A single drop of water can power the device for 24 hours of continuous use. It produces no noticeable heat and is almost completely silent, emitting only a faint, rhythmic puff of vapor no louder than a breath.
  • Activatable Magics:
    • Surgical Stability: As a Bonus Action, you can overclock the steam mechanism for 1 minute. During this time, your movements become unnaturally steady and precise. The first time you make a check during this minute that would benefit from the bracer’s Unwavering Precision bonus, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10. This ability can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.
    • Runic Burst: As an Action, you can use the bracer to execute a single, perfect inscription in an instant. You can flawlessly replicate any complex glyph, symbol, or signature that you have seen onto a suitable surface. This can be used to quickly and perfectly place a magical rune (if you know any), forge a document, or mark a trail. This ability can be used once per short or long rest.
  • Specific Slot:
    • Trunk Bracer (This item occupies the unique trunk slot of a Nga-Tara).
  • Tags:
    • Nga-Tara, Trunk Bracer, Steamcraft, Utility, Artificer, Wearable, Skill-Enhancement, Precision, Clockwork, Self-Made, Dexterity-Enhancement, Non-Magical, Mechanical, Self-Repairing, Tinkerer, Lockpicking, Surgical, Steady-Hand, Fine-Motor-Control

As a unique, self-made prototype, the Archivist’s Delicate Grip 228 cannot be found for sale in any shop. Its acquisition or sale would revolve around commissioning a replica based on its design, selling the design itself, or selling the original as a one-of-a-kind artifact.

The Artificer’s Guildhall (Commissioning a Replica)

  • Type of Shop: This is not a retail store but the headquarters of a professional guild, such as the “Steam-Cog Union” in Ironheart Reach or the more specialized “Horologists and Micro-Mechanics Guild” in Dreamtide. These are places where master artisans take on complex and lucrative projects.
  • How it’s Bought/Sold: One would commission a device like the original. To do so, a client would need either the original item for the artisan to study and reverse-engineer, or a complete set of Lyra-Vael’s technical schematics. The process would be long and involved, requiring a master artificer to machine the miniature gears and calibrate the steam pistons to the user’s specific needs and physiology (especially if adapting it from a trunk to a hand, for example).
  • Estimated Cost: 1,000 Gold Pieces (GP). This high cost reflects the immense difficulty of micro-steamcraft, the weeks of a master artisan’s time, and the research and development required to create a functional replica from a design.

The Royal Office of Patents (Selling the Design)

  • Type of Venue: A governmental or guild-run institution in the capital, Vara-Sul, where inventors can register and sell their intellectual property. It is a place of business and bureaucracy, frequented by guild representatives, wealthy patrons, and royal agents looking for the next technological advantage.
  • How it’s Bought/Sold: Lyra-Vael wouldn’t sell her personal device here; she would sell the design rights. She would present her prototype and detailed schematics to a panel of experts. Interested parties, such as the Royal Archives (for their scribes), the Healer’s Guild (for their surgeons), or a wealthy artificer’s guild, would then bid for the patent. She could either sell the exclusive rights for a large lump sum or negotiate a licensing deal for royalties on every unit produced.
  • Estimated Cost: The value is in the intellectual property, which is immense.
    • Exclusive Patent Sale: 5,000 GP or more.
    • Licensing Deal: A smaller upfront payment of 500 GP, plus a royalty of 20-50 GP per device created using the design.

The Collector of Curiosities

  • Type of Shop: A high-end, exclusive gallery that deals in unique artifacts, historical oddities, and one-of-a-kind inventions. A shop like “The Gilded Automaton” in a wealthy district would cater to eccentric nobles and collectors who value novelty and a good story above all else.
  • How it’s Bought/Sold: This is the only context in which the original prototype would be sold. The transaction would be a private affair. The collector would not be buying a tool, but a piece of history: “the first micro-stabilizer, invented by the now-famous researcher, Lyra-Vael.” Its value is derived entirely from its status as a unique artifact. The buyer would likely display it in a case rather than use it.
  • Estimated Cost: 1,500 GP. This price reflects the item’s novelty, its story, and the fame of its inventor, not its practical function.

The Archivist’s Delicate Grip 228 is a tool of creation and restoration, not of combat. It has no direct offensive capabilities. In a conflict, its role is entirely indirect and tactical, allowing its wearer to perform acts of incredible precision under extreme pressure that can disable a foe, save an ally, or turn the environment itself into a weapon.

Environment 1: A Complex, Trap-Laden Vault

In a place where a single tremor can mean death, the bracer is the ultimate tool for proactive defense and sabotage.

Defensive Roleplay (Disarming Traps)

You encounter a door sealed with a highly sensitive alchemical lock. The slightest vibration will shatter the vials within, flooding the room with poison gas.

  • Roleplay: You would describe kneeling before the lock, the faint, rhythmic puff of steam from the bracer the only sound in the tense silence. You narrate how the Gyroscopic Stabilization makes your trunk as steady as carved stone. Through the bracer’s Haptic Feedback, you can feel the minute inner workings of the lock—the whisper-light touch of the tumblers, the exact pressure needed for the trigger. Your defense is neutralizing the threat before it can act, turning a deadly trap into a simple, delicate puzzle. You might say, “Be silent. I need to feel the lock’s heartbeat.”

Offensive Roleplay (Sabotage)

The vault is guarded by a clockwork sentinel powered by a complex network of steam pipes. It is about to activate.

  • Roleplay: Instead of preparing for a fight, you target the control panel. You activate Surgical Stability. You describe how the world seems to slow as your focus narrows to the panel. Your movements become unnaturally fluid and precise. Rather than just trying to break the machine, you use the bracer’s precision to deftly reroute a crucial valve, causing the sentinel’s own steam pressure to loop back into its joints. When it activates, its limbs lock up with a final, agonized hiss of steam. Your “offense” was a surgical strike against the enemy’s power source, turning it into its own undoing.

Environment 2: An Enemy Scribe’s Office

In a setting that requires subtlety and deception, the bracer becomes a tool for flawless forgery and silent manipulation.

Defensive Roleplay (Evading Detection)

While searching the office, you hear guards approaching. You must replace a half-disassembled puzzle box on a desk without making a sound, or your presence will be known.

  • Roleplay: As panic sets in, you describe the Gyroscopic Stabilization kicking in, holding your trunk and the delicate components of the box in an unwavering grip. Despite your haste, your movements are silent and perfect. The pieces slide together without a single click. The box is settled back on its pedestal, looking completely undisturbed, just as the door handle turns. Your defense is against discovery, with the bracer ensuring that your own adrenaline does not betray you.

Offensive Roleplay (Forgery)

You find a set of signed military orders that will send reinforcements to ambush your allies. The signature is famously complex and impossible to forge.

  • Roleplay: You lay the orders flat and take out a fresh dispatch. You study the signature for a moment, then activate Runic Burst. You describe a single, impossibly swift and fluid motion as your stylus, guided by the bracer, flawlessly replicates the intricate signature on the new document, which now redirects the troops to a remote, useless location. Your “attack” is a piece of perfect deception, a strategic masterstroke that will cripple your enemy’s plans without a single drop of blood.

Environment 3: A Desperate Combat Encounter

When brute force is failing, the bracer allows for creative, precision-based solutions that can turn the tide of a battle.

Defensive Roleplay (Emergency Field Surgery)

In the middle of a chaotic battle, your warrior companion is struck by a barbed, poisoned arrow. They are bleeding out and will die in minutes if the barb isn’t removed cleanly.

  • Roleplay: You drag your ally behind cover amidst the chaos of battle. You activate Surgical Stability to calm your own trembling hands. You narrate the intense, focused procedure of using a small blade to cut around the barb, the bracer’s mechanism counteracting every jarring impact from the nearby fighting. You describe the perfect, steady motion as you extract the arrow without causing further damage. Your defense here is not for yourself, but for an ally—a life saved through impossible precision in the worst possible conditions.

Offensive Roleplay (Targeted Sabotage)

Your party is fighting a huge, heavily armored steam-golem. Its armor is too thick for swords or spells to penetrate, but you spot a small maintenance panel on the back of its knee joint, covering a bundle of delicate actuator wires.

  • Roleplay: You would narrate a plan to your allies: “Keep it distracted!” While the golem is focused on the fighter, you scramble to its leg. You activate Surgical Stability. You describe clinging to the lurching metal leg, the bracer working overtime to steady your trunk. You don’t have a weapon, but you have your tools. With a simple knife, guided by the bracer’s absolute precision, you make a single, perfect cut through the one critical wire you can identify. The golem’s leg seizes up, and it crashes to the ground, vulnerable. Your offense was a disabling, surgical strike on a weakness no one else could exploit.

Perception of Activation:

This describes the sensory experience when the Archivist’s Delicate Grip 228‘s primary precision ability, Surgical Stability, is activated. As a non-magical device, its perception is one of masterful engineering rather than overt magic.

User’s Perspective (Lyra-Vael)

  • Sight: The polished brass gears, previously still, begin to whir with a visible, focused speed. In your periphery, you see the tiny jets of steam begin to fire more rapidly, responding to your every intended motion and subconscious tremor.
  • Sound: The barely audible, rhythmic pff of the passive state is replaced by a soft but distinct click-hiss from the boiler. This is followed by a continuous, very quiet, high-frequency hum from the internal gyroscopes. The most noticeable sound is the rapid-fire tss-tss-tss of the micro-jets as they work, a sound you associate with absolute focus.
  • Touch & Feeling: This is the most profound sensation. A powerful “locking” feeling envelops your trunk. It isn’t stiff or restrictive, but feels as though your trunk is being held perfectly steady by a thousand tiny, impossibly fast hands. There is a faint, pleasant warmth that spreads from the bracer as the boiler operates at a higher capacity.
  • Extra-Sensory (Mind’s Eye): Your Mind’s Eye registers a change in your own status, but it is distinct from a magical buff. It reads: [Mechanical Enhancement: Gyroscopic Stabilization Active]. The description might note: “External apparatus providing micro-corrections to enhance fine motor control.”
  • Extra-Sensory (Proprioception): Your own sense of where your trunk is in space becomes unnaturally acute. You feel a complete and total lack of the microscopic, biological tremors that all living beings have. Your intent to move and the movement itself become one, with no margin of error.

Observer’s Perspective

  • Sight: The device, which may have appeared to be inert brass jewelry, visibly comes to life. An observer can see the miniature gears spinning rapidly. The most captivating effect is the series of sharp, tiny jets of clean steam that fire from various points on the bracer, especially when the user is performing a delicate action. It’s a mesmerizing display of controlled mechanical energy.
  • Sound: An observer standing close can hear a soft but distinct click as the device engages, followed by the quiet, high-pitched whirring of perfectly machined gears. In a silent room, the rapid hiss…hiss…hiss of the steam jets is clearly audible.
  • Touch & Feeling: No physical sensation is felt by an observer.
  • Extra-Sensory (Magical): A magically-attuned observer perceives nothing. The device has no magical aura, which can be baffling. To see such an incredible effect of precision and control produced with no discernible magic would instantly mark the user as a master of steamcraft or some other form of esoteric science.
  • Extra-Sensory (Artificer’s Sense): Another engineer or artificer would hear the activation with professional appreciation. They would recognize the perfect, harmonious hum of a masterfully crafted machine operating at peak performance, a sound devoid of any grinding or inefficiency.

Positives

  • Unparalleled Precision: The primary benefit is the ability to perform tasks of extreme delicacy—surgery, disarming complex traps, flawless forgery—with a success rate far beyond natural capability, even under the duress of a time limit or a chaotic environment.
  • Reliability: As a non-magical, mechanical device, it functions perfectly in areas where magic is nullified, suppressed, or unpredictable, giving the user a significant and reliable advantage in such environments.
  • Subtle Authority: The visible display of master-level micro-steamcraft is impressive. To other artificers or engineers, it is an undeniable sign of immense skill. To the uninitiated, it is a strange and wondrous piece of technology that marks the user as someone of considerable and unique talent.

Negatives

  • Mechanical Vulnerability: As a complex physical device, it is susceptible to damage. A strong impact could misalign the gears, or grit and sand could jam the delicate pistons. It requires careful maintenance and is not as resilient as a purely magical enchantment.
  • Resource Dependent: Though highly efficient, the boiler still requires a fuel source (water or a specific alchemical fluid). If the user runs out of this resource, the device becomes a heavy, useless piece of brass and leather.
  • Auditory Signature: While quiet, the whirring and hissing of the activated device are unmistakable in a silent setting. It makes true auditory stealth impossible while active, as it produces a distinct and unnatural mechanical sound.
  • Non-Magical: The device offers absolutely no protection or benefit against magical threats, a significant drawback in the high-magic world of Saṃsāra.

Artificer’s Blueprint: The Gyroscopic Stabilizer Gauntlet

This blueprint details the construction of a non-magical, micro-steamcraft device designed to grant the wearer unparalleled fine motor control. Its creation requires the skills of a master horologist and steam-fitter, as it is one of the most complex pieces of personal machinery known.

Materials Needed

  • Metal Components:
    • 5 lbs. of High-Purity Brass Ingots (for housing and rings).
    • 1 lb. of Hardened Steel (for gears and pistons).
  • Structural Components:
    • A square foot of Supple, Non-Conductive Leather (such as treated leviathan hide).
  • Core Mechanism:
    • One Miniature Alchemical Boiler Core.
    • A matched set of three Crystal Gyroscopic Rings (non-magical).
  • Miscellaneous: Spools of fine copper wire for tubing, assorted miniature screws and fittings, a vial of high-grade machine oil (estimated cost of 75 GP).

Tools Required

  • Masterwork Jeweler’s Tools: For assembling the microscopic components.
  • Masterwork Tinker’s Tools: For the overall construction and calibration.
  • Precision Lathe and Press: Required for milling the microscopic gears and pistons from the hardened steel.
  • Horologist’s Magnifying Goggles: Essential for working with components of this size.
  • Steam Pressure Calibrators: For the final tuning of the device.

Skill Requirements

  • Craftsmanship: The crafter must have proficiency (and ideally, expertise) with both Tinker’s Tools and Jeweler’s Tools.
  • Specialized Knowledge: The crafter must have a professional understanding of Micro-Mechanics and Steam Pressure Systems. No magical skill is required.
  • Experience: The extreme precision required for this project necessitates a crafter of at least Character Tier 3 or higher.

Crafting Steps

The construction of the Stabilizer is a purely mechanical endeavor that requires a minimum of two weeks of intense, focused labor.

  1. Step 1: Machining the Components (6 days): This is the most demanding step. Using a precision lathe, the artisan must mill the hardened steel block into dozens of microscopic gears, pistons, and actuators. The tolerances are near-zero; a single miscalculation or unsteady hand can render a component useless, potentially setting the project back by days.
  2. Step 2: Fabricating the Housing (3 days): The brass ingots are melted and forged into the interlocking rings and the main housing structure that will contain the boiler and gyroscope. The leather is cut, treated, and fitted to the brass frame, with channels left for the steam tubing.
  3. Step 3: Assembling the Gyroscope (2 days): The three Crystal Gyroscopic Rings are mounted in their housing. This is a delicate process of balancing the rings and ensuring they can spin freely with near-zero friction.
  4. Step 4: Installing the Drivetrain and Boiler (3 days): This stage resembles building a masterwork clock. The microscopic gears and pistons are painstakingly assembled using jeweler’s tools. The miniature boiler is installed, and the fine copper tubing is carefully routed to each piston. The entire assembly is then lubricated.
  5. Step 5: The Final Calibration (1 day): The device is powered on for the first time. The artisan must use the Steam Pressure Calibrators to tune the output of each micro-piston. This requires a series of Very Difficult Tinker’s Tools checks (DC 21) to ensure the device perfectly counteracts tremors without being sluggish or overly rigid.
    • On a success, the device is created and functions perfectly.
    • On a failure, the calibration is flawed. The device might vibrate, have a response lag, or seize up under pressure, rendering it useless. It takes another full day of work and a successful check to fix the calibration.

Surgeon’s Hand and Queen’s Heart-Thorn

Listen, for this telling is old, and the words are worn smooth like river stones. It is of Kaelen, the Cutter of Flesh, whose hands knew the body’s secret paths and could stitch a man back together from the edge of the final sleep. For many years, his trunk was the steadiest in all of Aboriginal, a tool of life. But the sickness of shaking came upon his trunk-hand in his old-time. A great sadness was in his soul-cage, for his knowing was great, but his body had begun to forget.

In this time, the Great Matriarch, she of the Sun-Throne, did fall ill. A thorn was in her heart-muscle. A shard of poison-crystal, small as a bee’s-stinger, had traveled in her blood-river and lodged itself beside the great muscle. To touch the heart-muscle is to bring the final sleep. To leave the thorn was also the final sleep, but slower. The other Cutters of Flesh, they looked and shook their head-boxes. The work was too fine. The danger was too large.

Kaelen was the only one with the knowing to do the cutting. But his trunk-hand danced with the shaking-sickness. He could not hold the knife still enough. The Matriarch’s life-light grew dim.

So to his steam-house he did go. He did not eat. He did not sleep. He took brass-metal and the smallest steam-guts from a clock-maker. He took soft leather and the plans of the body that lived in his mind-box. He made a second-skin for his trunk, a machine-hand to command his real hand. It was a thing of interlocking rings and tiny gears, with a boiler small as a thumbnail that made puffs of water-breath. The Steady-Hand, it was called. It did not make him strong. It only made him still.

He went to the Matriarch’s room. She was on the sleeping-stone, her breath like a small bird’s. The other Cutters and the high lords watched with eyes full of fear. Kaelen put on the machine-hand. A small click-hiss sound did start, like a tiny snake waking up. He took the cutting-knife in his trunk. His own flesh did wish to shake, but the machine-hand said ‘no’. It held him still. Still as a mountain. Still as a frozen river.

He put the knife to the Matriarch’s chest. A small puff of steam did go pff. The knife went in. His eye saw the path. His mind knew the way. Another pff. The knife did turn around a vein. His trunk-hand felt the pull of the sickness, but the steam-jets did push back. With a motion so slow it was like a dream, he reached the heart-muscle. He found the poison-thorn. With a final, perfect motion, he did pull it out.

No blood was wrongly spilled. The Matriarch did breathe a big breath, a breath of life-return.

A great shouting of joy was in the city. Kaelen was a hero-man. His name was sung in the streets. But his heart-organ was quiet. He looked at the Steady-Hand on his trunk. The machine did the work. His knowing was in the machine now. His long years of practice, of making his hand a thing of perfect will, were now a thing of brass and steam for any young Cutter to wear.

He had saved his Queen, but he had made himself into just a man.

The moral of the story is: A tool can fix the hand, but it cannot mend the pride of the master who no longer needs it.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

Bracer of Surgical Precision

Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)

This intricate bracer is a marvel of interlocking brass rings, miniature gears, and soft leather, all powered by a tiny, near-silent steam boiler. It fits over the hand, forearm, or a similar appendage.

  • Unwavering Hand: While wearing this bracer, you have advantage on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks made to perform delicate tasks, such as disarming a trap, picking a lock, performing surgery, or handling a volatile substance. You also have advantage on ability checks made with calligrapher’s supplies and tinker’s tools.
  • Gyroscopic Grip: You cannot be forced to drop an item you are holding in the hand wearing the bracer due to taking damage.
  • Surgical Stability: As a bonus action, you can overclock the bracer’s mechanism for 1 minute. During this time, you can treat any d20 roll of 9 or lower on a check that uses your Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) or an artisan’s tool you are proficient with as a 10. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Blades in the Dark

The Clockwork Hand

A beautifully complex bracer of brass and steel clockwork, hissing with the faint, regular puff of a tiny steam-engine. It is a masterpiece of precision engineering. (1 Load)

This item is a set of Fine Tinker’s Tools, and grants the following abilities:

  • When you Tinker to repair a delicate mechanism or Finesse to pick a lock or disarm a trap, you gain +1d to your action roll.
  • When you perform a delicate task in a dangerous or distracting situation (like performing first aid during a fight or forging a document under observation), you can ignore one source of pressure or distraction. Your hand is unnaturally steady.
  • You may Push Yourself to perform a feat of impossible mechanical delicacy, such as creating a perfect replica of a key from memory in moments, or disarming a highly complex explosive without proper tools. You do not take the usual +1 Stress for this push.

Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition

The Cautious Man’s Stabilizer

An intricate clockwork and brass bracer, powered by a tiny, near-silent boiler. It is not a Mythos artifact, but a masterpiece of mundane (if highly advanced) mechanical engineering, designed to grant a surgeon’s steadiness to its wearer.

  • Steady Hand: When worn, the device grants the wearer a Bonus Die on all Mechanical Repair, Sleight of Hand, and First Aid checks that rely on manual dexterity.
  • Unwavering Precision: The device’s perfect stability can be focused. Once per game session, when attempting a delicate task under extreme duress (e.g., disarming a bomb while being shot at, performing surgery during an earthquake), the wearer can choose to automatically succeed on the required DEX roll. Witnessing this inhuman precision in a moment of chaos is unsettling and may require a Sanity roll (0/1) from onlookers.
  • Delicate Mechanism: The clockwork is fragile. If the wearer suffers a Major Wound, the device has a 25% chance of jamming, requiring a Hard (half value) Mechanical Repair roll to fix.

Knave, 2nd Edition

Artificer’s Bracer

An intricate bracer of brass gears and leather straps, powered by a tiny steam boiler. It emits a faint, rhythmic puff of vapor.

  • Slots: Takes up 1 inventory slot.
  • Qualities:
    • Steady Hands: You have advantage on Dexterity saves made to perform delicate tasks under pressure (such as disarming a trap while being attacked or catching a falling object).
    • Precision Work: When making a check that requires fine motor control (like using lockpicks or a pen), you cannot suffer a critical failure; treat a roll of 1 as a 2.
    • Gyroscopic Grip: You cannot be forced to drop an item you are holding.
  • Flaw:
    • Delicate: If you take critical damage, the bracer’s delicate mechanism shatters. It becomes useless and must be repaired by a master tinker for at least 500s.

Fate Core

The Clockwork Stabilizer

This item is an Extra that represents an intricate, steam-powered bracer.

  • Aspect: Masterpiece of Micro-Mechanics. This can be invoked for a bonus when performing tasks of extreme precision or compelled when its delicate clockwork gets jammed with dirt or damaged.
  • Permission: The bracer grants the fictional permission to perform tasks that require inhuman steadiness, such as in-field surgery or handling incredibly volatile substances.
  • Stunts:
    • Surgical Precision: Because of the bracer’s gyroscopic stabilization, you get a +2 to Overcome obstacles with the Crafts or Burglary skills when performing a task that requires extreme delicacy.
    • Unwavering Grip: Once per session, you can automatically succeed at a task to handle a delicate object under extreme duress (like catching a falling vial during an earthquake or disarming a bomb as it counts down).

Numenera & Cypher System

The Kinetic Nullifier Gauntlet

  • Level: 6
  • Form: A gauntlet of interlocking brass rings and gears that hums with a quiet, internal power and occasionally vents a puff of clean steam.
  • Effect: This artifact provides a constant passive benefit. The wearer is Eased on all tasks requiring fine motor control (such as picking locks, performing surgery, or repairing delicate machinery). Its primary function can be activated to achieve a state of perfect stability. Action: The user can overclock the gauntlet’s gyroscopic engine for one minute. During this time, the difficulty of one task requiring fine motor control is reduced by two steps (e.g., a Difficulty 5 task becomes Difficulty 3).
  • Depletion: 1-2 in 1d100 (check each time the overclock function is used).

Pathfinder, 2nd Edition

Artificer’s Stabilizer Gauntlet – Item 4+

RARE | ALCHEMICAL | CLOCKWORK | INVESTED Price 100 GP Usage worn gauntlet; Bulk L

This masterwork brass and leather gauntlet contains a series of gyroscopes and micro-pistons powered by an alchemical steam boiler. It requires investment to attune its complex machinery to your specific nervous system.

  • Passive: This gauntlet grants you a +1 item bonus to Crafting checks and to Thievery checks to Disable a Device or Pick a Lock. The gauntlet also grants you the effects of the Sure Hand skill feat.
  • Activate [One-Action] (concentrate)
    • Frequency once per 10 minutes
    • Effect You engage the gyroscopic stabilizers. For the next minute, you can ignore the clumsy condition, and you are not flat-footed while Balancing. Additionally, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your next check made before the end of your next turn that requires fine motor skills (such as the checks listed above).

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE)

The Steady Hand Bracer

An intricate clockwork bracer that hisses softly with the release of tiny jets of steam, holding the wearer’s hand in a state of impossible stillness.

  • Weight: 3
  • Notes:
    • Precision Work: The bracer provides a +2 bonus to all Repair, Thievery (for traps and locks), and Healing (for surgery) rolls.
    • Steady Hands: The wearer is granted the benefits of the Steady Hands Edge, ignoring the Unstable Platform penalty for any task requiring fine motor control.
    • Unwavering Grip: Once per session, the wearer can automatically succeed on an Agility roll to catch a thrown or falling object.
    • Delicate: If the wearer suffers a Critical Failure on a Repair roll while working on the bracer itself, its delicate mechanism is broken and requires a master artificer and a raise on a Repair roll to fix.

Shadowrun, 6th Edition

Shiawase “Surgeon’s Hand” Tool Harness

A high-precision, forearm-mounted tool harness with an integrated gyroscopic stabilizer. Favored by corporate black-ops technicians and street docs alike, the Surgeon’s Hand ensures that no matter how shaky the situation, your work is rock-solid. It is a masterpiece of Japanese engineering.

  • Type: Tool Kit / Cyberware Augmentation (External)
  • Rating: 4
  • Availability: 12R
  • Cost: 30,000 nuyen
  • Abilities:
    • Precision Suite: This is an advanced, specialized tool kit. When worn, it grants the user a +2 dice pool bonus on all Mechanics, Engineering, and Biotechnology skill tests involving fine detail work.
    • Gyroscopic Stabilization: The harness’s core function grants a +1 dice pool bonus on Sleight of Hand checks for delicate tasks like disarming non-electronic traps or picking physical locks.
    • Overclock Mode: Once per scene, the user can use an Edge action (Boost) to achieve perfect stability for one combat turn. Any test made during this turn that requires fine motor control (including the skills listed above or even a tricky Called Shot) gains an additional +2 dice pool bonus (for a total of +3 or +4).

Starfinder

Micron-Stabilizer Gauntlets

LEVEL 4; PRICE 2,100 credits CATEGORY Worn Technological Item SLOT Hands; BULK L

These sleek gauntlets are lined with a network of micro-servos and gyroscopic stabilizers that counteract the wearer’s slightest tremors, resulting in unnaturally steady hands.

  • Passive Abilities: These gauntlets grant a +4 competence bonus on Engineering and Medicine checks. They also grant a +2 competence bonus on Sleight of Hand checks.
  • Unwavering Grip: The wearer cannot be forced to drop any item held in their hands as a result of taking damage or failing a check.
  • Surgical Stability: Once per day as a swift action, you can overclock the gauntlets’ processors. For the next minute, you can roll any Engineering, Medicine, or Sleight of Hand check twice and take the better result.

Traveller, Mongoose 2nd Edition

TL-12 Surgical Stabilizer

A sophisticated frame worn over the arm and hand, connected to a small processor on a belt. The device uses a combination of micro-hydraulics and a powerful gyroscope to grant a surgeon’s steadiness to anyone. It’s advanced, expensive, and highly effective.

  • Tech Level: 12
  • Cost: Cr 50,000
  • Mass: 1 kg
  • Power: Internal battery (12 hours)
  • Abilities:
    • Precision Work: The stabilizer grants the user DM+2 on all Mechanic, Engineer, and Medic checks that require delicate manual work.
    • Gyroscopic Lock: Once per task, the user can activate the gyroscopic lock as a minor action. This makes the next skill check that would benefit from the stabilizer an automatic success, as long as the task’s base difficulty is not Formidable (12+) or higher.
    • Drawback: The device is complex and not fully ruggedized. If it is ever submerged in liquid or exposed to a vacuum without being properly sealed, it will malfunction and require a Difficult (10+) Mechanic check to repair.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 4th Edition

The Dwarf-Made Steadfast Bracer

An incredibly complex bracer of brass, steel, and rune-etched pistons. It is a masterpiece of the Dwarf Engineers Guild, designed for their finest jewel-cutters, and it weighs a ton. It occasionally vents small puffs of acrid steam.

  • Encumbrance: 1
  • Qualities: Masterwork, Dwarf Craft (Engineer), Unreliable
  • Abilities:
    • Steady Hand: This Masterwork device is a marvel of engineering. It grants a +10 bonus to all Tests that require fine motor control, such as Trade (Jeweller), Trade (Engineer), Sleight of Hand, and Heal Tests for performing surgery.
    • Grip of the Mountain: Thanks to its Dwarf Craft, the wearer cannot be forced to drop a held item due to fumbling, taking damage, or being shaken.
    • Unreliable: The clockwork is complex and demands constant maintenance. When the wearer rolls a 96-100 on any Test using the bracer’s bonus, its mechanism jams with a sickening crunch. It provides no bonuses and imposes a -10 penalty on all actions using that hand until it is repaired with a successful Hard (-20) Trade (Engineer) Test.