I liked how the Base Raiders campaign started and I am going to blatantly steal the story :-). It is for a one-shot game, with players not knowing the FATE system, so I will keep it low power.
However, I need to build a few items/serums to "populate" the base with items to loot. I used the link for strange skill generators so point-wise, the powers value should be OK. I just need input/suggestion regarding those powers (the game will be on Friday), especially suggestions regarding side effects as obviously, characters will be suffering from burn. I would like to let the player propose side-effect, but coming with a list of possible problem will help them since they are not used yet to the system.
Super-Soldier Serum: Resist Damage, Stress (Health), Strength, Leap, for a total of 8 points, likely Superhuman Tier. Possible side effect: appearance (skin colour, massive size, strange proportion)
Chimera Serum (gecko): Move (unusual - can walk against any solid surface), Dodge, Jump + Range, Stealth, for 10 points, likely Superhuman tier. Side effect: obvisously appearance, any other suggestion ?
Peak Performer / Pheromons booster - The Great Gatsby: Insight, Examine, Menace, Information, Network, for 10 points. The person develop an uncanning perception (something like "The Mentalist") but also the ability to be incredibly assertive and convincing by unknowingly releasing pheromons. Possibly only Extraordinary tier. I added Menace, to have one offensive power working on something else than Health and I thought it would fit the theme, although I am unsure about Network (how a drug could give that ?) - maybe replacing it with Guile or Convince ?
What side effect could be interesting or appropriate ?
An old artifact: The Ring of the City of Brass. Shoot + spray + zone, Parry (unusual - small shields of brass appear out of nowhere). The beared is able to control fire and use it as a weapon. Pretty basic. Side effect ? Hear the will of the Sultan of the City ? Powder turned off if wet ?
A modern high-tech item: The Engineer's Gloves: Repair, variable (scene) x2, for 9 points, Extraordinary tier. Initially designed by a genius mechanic who did not want to bother with carrying is huge toolbox. Now it is the first time I am dabbling with the variable trapping, so I want to see if I got it right.
Two variables trappings can "buy" for a scene the equivalent of 2 points worth of trapping or extra right ?
Hence, they could turn the nail gun into a real gun (shoot: 2 points), or the saw blade and the wrench into more appropriate hand-to-hand weapons (Strike and Parry, each worth a point), or turn into powerful piston actioned-pikes (climb for 1 point or Move + unusual for 2 points); or even huge claws (Physical Force). Finally, they could easily do Dismantle or Craft (each worth a point).
Could it even turn into a kind of pseudo-workshop by using Workshop+Unusual to simulate that the Gloves can easily convert nearby materials into appropriate tools to Repair stuff (since Repair is one of the base trapping) ?
Finally, a classical: The Rocket Boots, with Dodge (minor snag: only in flight), Move + Unusual (fly), Resist damage (minor snag: only in flight), for 8 points, Extraordinary tier. After a few painful landings and unfortunate contact with large advertisment panels, the original builder improved the base model with a small shield force.
My idea is to prepare small cards to hand to the player who is injecting/drinking/doning any of this items, with a short description, and let him fill the blanks for the side effect.
I will hand to the players pre-made PC sheets - heavily inspired from Ross'game - including a few extra character points unspent. Assuming that they don't use all of them and they do not try to acquire more than one power, they should only suffer from minor burn, having to select one side effect from the miscibility table.