Restricted Objects
Some objects require licenses to own or operate, or are restricted in use to qualifying organizations or individuals. In such cases, a character must purchase a license or pay a fee to legally own the object. A license or fee is a separate item, purchased in addition to (and usually before) the object to which it applies. The four levels of restriction are as follows.
Licensed: The owner must obtain a license to own or operate the object legally. Generally, the license is not expensive, and obtaining it has few if any additional legal requirements.
Restricted: Only specially qualified individuals or organizations are technically allowed to own the object. However, the real obstacles to ownership are time and money; anyone with sufficient patience and cash can eventually acquire the necessary license.
Military: The object is sold primarily to legitimate police and military organizations. A military rating is essentially the same as restricted (see above), except that manufacturers and dealers are generally under tight government scrutiny and are therefore especially wary of selling to private individuals.
Illegal: The object is illegal in all but specific, highly regulated circumstances.
| Table: Restricted Objects | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration Rating | License or Fee Purchase DC | Black Market Purchase DC1 | Time Required |
| Licensed | 10 | +1 | 1 day |
| Restricted | 15 | +2 | 2 days |
| Military | 20 | +3 | 3 days |
| Illegal | 25 | +4 | 4 days |
| 1 Add to the object’s purchase DC if the character tries to buy it on the black market without first obtaining a license; see The Black Market, below. | |||
Purchasing a License
To purchase a license or pay necessary fees, make a Wealth check against the purchase DC given in Table: Restricted Objects. With a success, the license is issued to the character after the number of days indicated. To speed the process, the hero can make a Knowledge (business) check against a DC equal to the license purchase DC. Success results in the license being issued in 1d6 hours. (During the process of character creation, a character just needs to purchase the license or pay the fee; the time required takes place before game play begins.)
As a general rule, a character must obtain the appropriate license before buying a restricted object. Legitimate dealers will not sell restricted objects to a character who does not have the necessary license. However, a character may be able to turn to the black market (see below) to obtain restricted objects without a license.
The Black Market
Sometimes a character wants to obtain an object without going through the hassle of getting a license first. Almost anything is available on the black market. Knowledge (streetwise) checks can be used to locate a black market merchant. The DC is based on the location in question: 15 to find a black market merchant in a big city, or 20, 25, or higher in small towns and rural areas.
Objects purchased on the black market are more expensive than those purchased legally. Add the black market purchase DC modifier from Table: Restricted Objects to the object’s purchase DC.
Obtaining an object on the black market takes a number of days according to the Time Required column on Table: Restricted Objects. The process can be hurried, but each day cut out of the process (to a minimum of one day) increases the purchase DC by an additional +1.