Mods and upgrades

A mod is an item you attach to another item on your character sheet, such as a sight on a pistol, so that one item rolls better; this page covers attaching mods and upgrades, taking them off, and what they change.

For: Game Masters and players · 9 minutes

Some game systems let you customise your gear: a scope on a rifle, a serrated edge on a knife, a hotter load for a gun. Each mod goes into a slot on the item it's attached to, its host: a pistol might have an optic slot, a barrel slot and an underslung slot. An upgrade is a mod for a weapon's upgrade slot. Attaching a mod changes that one item, and taking it off gives you the mod back, so you never lose a weapon or a mod to change your mind. Mods are a feature any game system can switch on. This page uses Ninefold, the near-future system, as the example. To write your own mods and the items that take them, see Mods and upgrades in the homebrew pages.

Where it is

You attach and take off mods in the Form View (see Form and Canvas views), on a phone too, from the opened row of the mod or of the item it goes on. Click an item's row to open it. In a Ninefold game, weapons, mods and upgrades are on the Gear tab, in Weapons, Ammo, Mods and Armour. The Canvas view and the Items panel don't attach mods.

You get mods like any other gear: + From pack at the top of the sheet (see Inventory and money), or build them in the Workshop.

Dex Holloway's Gear tab: open the Heavy Pistol, Mods, 1 of 5 attached, the Red-Dot Sight in Optic and the other sockets empty; click Attach a mod under the first Upgrade socket, the list reads Upgrade: choose a mod to attach with Hot Loads and Tuned Action, click Tuned Action, the socket snaps and shows +1 attack with Detach, and Mods reads 2 of 5 attached; then the Red-Dot Sight rows: the one on the pistol says it is attached to the Heavy Pistol, Optic, with Detach, and the spare one says The Heavy Pistol's Optic slot holds the Red-Dot Sight. Detach it first.

The slots on an item

An item that takes mods shows Mods in its opened row, with how many are attached, such as 1 of 5 attached, and a socket for each place a mod can go, under its slot's name. Most slots take one mod; a slot that takes more has a socket for each, as Ninefold's Upgrade slot has two.

Socket What it shows
Filled The slot, the mod's name, what it does (such as +1 to attack) and Detach.
Empty, with a mod you hold that fits The slot and Attach a mod.
Empty, with nothing that fits The slot and Empty.

An item takes mods only in the slots it has. In Ninefold:

Weapons Slots
Holdout Pistol, Service Pistol, Heavy Pistol, Printed Pistol, Machine Pistol, Carbine, Smart Rifle, Rail Rifle Optic, Barrel, Underslung and Upgrade (room for two)
Folding Knife, Shock Baton, Machete, Plasma Cutter Edge, Grip and Upgrade (room for two)
Pump Shotgun, Taser Upgrade (room for two)

Which mods fit

A mod goes into one kind of slot, and only on the items it was made for: a whole group, such as any ranged weapon, or a short list, such as rifles. RollQuest offers a mod only where it fits and there's room, so you never have to work it out.

Ninefold's mods and upgrades, as the sheet describes them:

Mod Slot Fits What it does Learn to build it
Red-Dot Sight Optic Any ranged weapon +1 to attack Smart Barrels
Long Scope Optic Carbine, Smart Rifle, Rail Rifle +2 to attack (rifles) Rail Coils
Suppressor Barrel Any ranged weapon No Trace, no alarm Blind Angles
Laser Module Underslung Any ranged weapon +1 to attack within 5 squares Strobe Work
Smart Module Underslung Any ranged weapon Kit Edge once a scene, with a Smartlink Smart Barrels
Serrated Edge Edge Folding Knife, Machete +2 damage (blades) Everyone knows it
Shock Coil Edge Any melee weapon +1d6 shock damage; a Spike Stuns Pulse Theory
Weighted Grip Grip Any melee weapon +1 to attack Everyone knows it
Tuned Action Upgrade Any ranged weapon +1 attack Everyone knows it
Hot Loads Upgrade Every gun but the Taser +2 damage; 1 Heat a shot Smart Barrels
Balanced Upgrade Any melee weapon +1 attack Everyone knows it
Honed Upgrade Any melee weapon +2 damage Reactive Weave
Mastercraft Upgrade Any weapon +1 attack, +1 damage Rail Coils

"Learn to build it" names the research node that teaches the schematic (see Research). Some of what a mod does is a rule for the table rather than a number, such as the Suppressor's: see Playing Ninefold.

Attach a mod

From the item it goes on:

  1. Click the item's row, such as the Service Pistol, to open it.
  2. Under Mods, click Attach a mod on an empty socket. A list opens, headed with the slot, such as Optic: choose a mod to attach, with only the mods you hold that fit it, each with what it does and Attach.
  3. Click the mod. The socket snaps shut round it and shows the mod with Detach, and a line under the sockets says so, such as Red-Dot Sight is now attached to the Service Pistol (Optic).

The cross on the list, or Esc, closes it without attaching anything.

Or from the mod itself:

  1. Click the mod's row to open it. Under Attach to... it lists each item it fits that has room, with the slot it would go in.
  2. Click the item. The mod's row now says Attached to and the item, with the slot, such as Attached to Service Pistol (Optic).

When every item the mod fits already has that slot full, the mod's row names the slot and what's in it instead, such as The Heavy Pistol's Optic slot holds the Red-Dot Sight. Detach it first. (a full slot that takes two says slots hold and names both, such as The Heavy Pistol's Upgrade slots hold the Tuned Action and the Hot Loads. Detach one first.). Detach one and the item is offered again. A mod nothing on your sheet takes at all says Nothing you hold takes this.

In Ninefold you attach, swap and take off mods at a bench: that's the table's rule, and RollQuest doesn't check where you are.

Take a mod off

Click Detach on its socket in the item's row, or on the mod's own row. The mod goes back to being a loose item on your sheet, ready for any item it fits, and the line says so, such as Red-Dot Sight is no longer attached to the Service Pistol.

Upgrades come off the same way: you never have to delete a weapon to take an upgrade off, or to put a better one on. Swap one by detaching it and attaching the other.

Removing an item from the sheet keeps its mods: they stay on your sheet, loose.

What an attached mod changes

  • Only while it's attached. A mod in your bag does nothing: its bonuses count while it's on an item that's still on your sheet, and stop the moment you detach it.
  • Only on that item. A bonus to attack or damage counts on the rolls of the item it's attached to, its own Attack and Damage buttons, and nowhere else. A Red-Dot Sight on your pistol adds nothing to the Carbine, and nothing to a Shoot roll from the Skills tab: add it yourself there. A mod that changes a number on the sheet itself counts on the sheet while it's attached.
  • Two of the same stack. Two Tuned Actions in a pistol's two upgrade sockets give +2 to attack.
  • A mod with uses keeps them: Ninefold's Smart Module works once a scene, shown in the Uses and Ammo block, and Cool Down and Downtime give the use back.

A mod that costs something each shot

A mod can add a cost to every use of its item. Ninefold's Hot Loads marks 1 Heat on you for each shot of the gun it's in.

  • The cost is paid on every press of one of the item's own attacks or actions, with the rounds the shot spends, and on a shot aimed with Target and Resolve. A Rail Rifle, whose shots cost 2 Heat of their own, marks 3 Heat a shot with Hot Loads in it.
  • Switching the item on or off, for an item that has Active, isn't a shot, and pays nothing.
  • The chat line for the shot says what was paid, such as Hot Loads: +1 Heat.
  • Ticking Don't consume resource before the shot pays nothing, and neither does a shot that's refused, such as one with an empty magazine, or one you cancel before the dice roll.
  • The cost works like any other change to that number: Heat past your maximum burns you out, as it would by hand.

See Ammunition and reloading for what a shot spends.

Mods attached for good

A game system's author can make a mod that can't come off once it's attached. It's rare, and none of Ninefold's mods does it. Such a mod:

  • says It cannot be taken off once attached when you choose it, before you attach it;
  • shows Attached for good instead of Detach once it's in;
  • leaves the sheet with its item if you remove the item.

When attaching says no

RollQuest only offers the places a mod fits, so most of these show only when the sheet changed in another window first.

Message What it means
The mod does not attach to the item, such as Long Scope does not attach to the Service Pistol. It isn't made for that item.
The slot is taken by another mod, such as The Optic slot on the Service Pistol is taken by Red-Dot Sight. Detach the one that's there first.
The item has no slot, such as The Pump Shotgun has no optic slot. The item doesn't take that kind of mod.
The mod is attached to another item, Detach it first. Take it off the other item first.
The item is a mod itself, so nothing attaches to it. Mods don't go on mods.
The mod is attached for good; it cannot be taken off. See Mods attached for good, above.
That item is not on this character's sheet. It was removed in another window.
This sheet changed somewhere else just now. It has been refreshed: try again. Another change landed first. The row shows what's stored now.
Access denied You can't change this sheet. See Who can see and change a sheet.

Ammunition and reloading · The Workshop · Inventory and money · Mods and upgrades for pack authors