#junk technomancy

[dailycharacteroption]

Junk Technomancy Technomancer (Technomancer Alternate Class Feature)

(art by David Bonilla on Artstation)

Perhaps one of my very, very favorite things about the Starfinder technomancer class and their spells is how well they integrated technology and magic together, (in the spells at least, the magical hacks are kinda hit and miss for me) and nowhere else is this clearer than in the “junk” spells. Junk spells include those that either transmute nearby junk into a form usable by the mage, conjure junk usable for the former as their primary function or as a side effect, or that utilize already transmuted junk in a new way.

It began in the core book with the various junkbot spells, which were a stand-in for summoning until they perfected that with Alien Archive, but as more books came out, we got junk armor, junk swords, barricades, grenades, extradimensional shelters, and even the ability to detonate junk or transmuted creations!

It only makes sense, then, that there would be technomancers that specialize in these sorts of spells. They might be self-taught mystical tinkerers using the most readily available resource they know of in low-income neighborhoods, or they might be enthusiasts that see the ruined beauty and functionality in what others deem worthless.

Regardless of where they come from or how they feel about these things, only a fool would underestimate a junk technomancer just because their arsenal is all secondhand. It may not look pretty or be as sturdy, but they can squeeze surprising amounts of power out of what others cast off.

In exchange for having a cache and cache capacitor, these techno-mages specialize in junk spells, learning junk armor and junksword immediately in addition to their normal spell allotment, as well as upgrading to higher level versions of junksword as they gain levels (the text suggests that junk armor upgrades as well, but that spell doesn’t have variable level. It’s just a first level spell. A mistake on the author’s part?) Additionally, they can cast either one of these spells once a day without expending any energy.

Their junk spells also prove just a little bit better, their armor becoming tougher, and their transmuted creations lasting longer.

Given their focus on cobbling together contraptions than programming, they also focus on engineering rather than computers.

Finally, they improve their junksword and junk armor to allow for upgrades, their armor gaining an armor slot which they can install an upgrade into, and their junkswords able to incorporate a fusion seal the technomancer has on hand into their design.

The junk spells of a technomancer are versatile, ranging from defense to attack to utility, but they all require scrap electronics to work, which is why spells that conjure junk, be it the junk shards attack spell or the fabricate junk cantrip are very important for when you venture beyond junkyards, broken-down slums, or easily-smashable tech labs. That being said, you also still have all your other spell slots to diversify for those times when junk is not available and conjuring some would waste precious seconds. In any case, the focus on junksword and junk armor does mean the build expects you to be at least partially a melee build, so your spell and feat selection could probably do with options that tilt melee combat in your favor, such as debuffs and battlefield control options, to say nothing of enhancing your own combat prowess.

The versatility of junk spells cannot be denied, but one must also remember that no only are these creations temporary, but they render the junk used in them inert to any more castings of the spell, valuable only for their use as scrap. As such, I imagine that many of these technomancers also enjoy making longer-lasting creations as well, possibly from the junk they’ve spent on previous castings of their magic, incorporating components harmlessly into the whole of a project.

Strange attacks have been happening in the upper city, with people being slain by beams of light from invisible foes. The culprits are a group of lurkers-in-light, led by a lightweaver. However, confronting the fey in the upper city will be nearly impossible without first causing a blackout. The simpler option would be to track them to their dark undercity lair, home to junkers of all descriptions.

Most would consider Visak’s Folly, a debris field of derelict ships left over from the last great war, to be a poor place to forge a community, but for the xulgaths that dwell there, it is a golden opportunity. So much salvage to recover and sell. Many of them take up technomancy as well, turning the scrap that surrounds them into tools and weapons, the latter especially one those that attempt to muscle in on their claim.

It wasn’t the plentiful resources or the verdant wildlife that attracted Polgan to the colony world of Pillar, it was the ancient superstructure that gave the planet its name. Attempts to explore or survey it have been met with disaster before, but the young technomancer is certain that with his junk magic and know-how he can make the attempt alone and self-sufficiently. Such is the foolishness of youth.

[anomalousandroid]

SCLVIFJV3202513 : Haha, no. I could never get caught. Uh. Wow, though. Barbed wire does not sound good, let alone... more electrocution. I'm glad you're okay?? Technomancy and Dimensional drives sounds absolutely fantastic, though-- what a find! I'm glad you got out safe, and with notable boons. To think people would just... junk these things. I cannot wait to see how she will turn out. ^^ I could show my current design ideas? That wouldn't be until later when it's less building and more cloth-design, but. It's pretty clear in my head.

SCLVIFJV3202513 : Hello, sorry. I have been busy as of late. I don't have a lot of news on the models, I'm still in the planning stages and hammering actual details down. Which, there has been progress on, it just isn't... much to say, I suppose? If you know what I mean. I do appreciate the message though, I hope I can have something truly started to show you soon. How about you? Any news on your end?

[boombox-fuckboy]

List of stuff I’ve listened to so far (Audio Drama R-Z)

Accurate as of: 2025-03-30

Listened: 2 times, 3-5 times, 6+ times.

For audio drama A-Q click here

For TTRPG pods click here

RABBITS

RADIO: Outcast

Radioland

Rapture 518

Re: Dracula

Red Valley

Residents of Proserpina Park

Return Home (to finish?)

Revelations

Rich: The Podcast

ROGUEMAKER

Rose Drive

Samite

SAYER

The Scarab Archives

SCP Archives

SCP: Find Us Alive

Search

Second Star to the Left

The Secret of St Kilda

The Secret Seas of Puglia

Sected

Seen and Not Heard

Selene (Listening)

Sequestered: An Audio Drama

Seren

Seven of Hearts (to catch up)

Shelterwood

The Sheridan Tapes

Sherlock & Co.

SHIFTS

Sidequesting

Signed, Venus

Silly Old Bear

The Silt Verses

Sinclair Wants to Help!

The Sink: A Sleep Aid

SINKHOLE

The Six Disappearances Of Ella MCray

Sleep and Sorcery

Sparks

Solar Postal Services

Solutions to Problems

Solve for X

Sorry About The Murder

Soulborn City

The Sound Museum

Spectral Evidence

SPIRE

SPINES Podcast

Spirit Box Radio

Starfall

The Starport Inn

Starship Q Star Stopped E4

StarTripper!!

Starwhal: Odyssey

Station Arcadia

Station Blue

Station to Station

The Stonesinger Chronicles

The Storage Papers

Stories From Ylelmore

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

Strange Trails

The Stranger

The Subjective Truth

Subsister: A Real Podcast

The Supernatural Protection Company

Supernatural Sexuality With Doctor Seabrooke

Superstition Podcast

Surcease

The Switchboard

Syntax

Tales from the Fringes of Reality

Tales from the Low City

Tales From the Swamplands

Tales of the Echowood

TANIS

Tartarus

The Technomancy Project

Tell No Tales

Thin Places Radio

This Planet Needs a Name

This Sounds Serious

Thirteen

Tides

Time:Bombs

Tiny Terrors

To Chart a Well-Trod Course

To Starlight We Come

Tomorrow, The Void

Toshiden

The Tower

Tower 4 gave up S2E5

The Town Whispers (To Finish?)

Transmission: Unknown

The Transposition of Chloë Brontë

Trial and Error

Trouble in Mind

Twigs and Hearts

Two Flat Earthers Kidnap a Freemason

The Two Princes

Under Pressure

Under the Electric Stars (to catch up)

Under the Shroud

The Underwood Collection -> No Longer Available

Ungifts

Unknown 9: Out of Sight

Unplaced

Unseen

Unwell

Vacancy

VALENCE

The Vanishing Act -> No Longer Available

VAST Horizon

The Vessel

The Vesta Clinic

Victoria’s Lift (to finish?)

Victoriocity

Video Palace

Vile Trials

The Viridian Wild

Vivian von Vixen and the Vast Beyond

The Voicemail Box is Full

Wake of Corrosion (to catch up)

The Wanderer

Wanderer's Journal

The Way We Haunt Now

The Waystation

Wayward Guide For The Untrained Eye

We Fix Space Junk

The Weather Corporation

Weaver

Weeping Cedars

Welcome to Night Vale (to finish)

WE'RE NOT MEANT TO KNOW

What Happened in Skinner

What’s The Frequency?

Where the Stars Fell

Whisperling

The White Vault (to catch up)

Who is Cam Candor?

Who Watches the Birdwatchers?

Windfall

Witches of the City

Within the Wires (Season: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7)

Wizard Seeking Wizard

WOE.BEGONE (to catch up?)

Wolf 359

Wooden Overcoats

World Gone Wrong

Wrong Bone Facts

Wrong Station

The Wyrd Side

Zero Hours

Zoo

[vulpinmusings]

Ski’tar and Friends part 6: Pit Crew

The adventures of Ski’tar, Vemir, and 6 continue as we begin the process of becoming official Starfinders.  Our first goal?  Help a teenage brat win a pod-race.

Chapter the First

Chapter the Previous

Before Captain Arvin sent us off to decide what to do with our vastly increased credit accounts, he told us to expect to hear from someone else in the Starfinder Society about initiations the next morning. It was only at this point that I realized I’d agreed to a fair bit more than I thought I had.  Vemir, Sixer, and I weren’t being kept on as contracted freelancers; the Society intended to actually make us full members.  Vemir and Sixer didn’t appear to put-off by this, and I decided to play along under the assumption that if I didn’t like where things were going I could just quit.

After shopping around for some better gear – I got myself a superior knife, stronger frag grenades, and a suit of Carbon Skin armor with jump jets, Sixer finally replaced some of his weapons, and Vemir bought himself a venom spur biotech augment along with some tools – Vemir invited us to join him at a bar for a post-mission drink.  He said it was one of his Traditions, but I can’t imagine why he’d slap that label on such an ordinary activity.  We found an establishment that wasn’t down in the Spike but also wasn’t too high-class.  The three of us may have come into a lot of money, but we couldn’t possibly have fit in at some quasi-noble brewery in the Eye.  Vemir got himself some tequila and Sixer went for whiskey or something equally hard, while I just got a simple beer.  When the bartender tried to coax me into getting something harder, and more expensive, I made a vague reference to the time when I let my attention lapse and blew my own arm off.  Everyone assumed I’d been drunk at the time, and I didn’t correct them since it got the bartender off my case about my drink order.

As we chatted, I learned that Sixer was originally from Akiton, like myself, but we’d unsurprisingly never crossed paths.  He’d been built as the personal assistant to some big-wig and, through a great deal of very detailed references to the dangers of Akiton, implied he’d killed his former owner.  Given our fairly public location, both Vemir and I silently agreed not to press for more details. Vemir told us he had signed up with some mercenary group while on his Tempering, lost one of his arms on a mission, then quit the mercenary life to become a bounty hunter and never bothered to go back to the Idari to officially finish the Tempering.

The bartender asked us about our day, and when I mentioned we’d been working with the Starfinders, he was surprised the Society was still functional.  Apparently, the Society had recently suffered a catastrophic loss, far beyond the mere seven people who died on Ulmarid.  The common estimates said the Society had lost 80% of its people in a single disaster that was being called the Scored Stars Disaster.  Suddenly, Arvin’s willingness to entrust the search for the Unbounded Wayfarer to a trio of random folk off the streets made a lot more sense to me, as did our being fast-tracked into joining the Society.  The three of us mulled over the information and decided to hold off digging into the Scored Stars Disaster until we’d at least made some progress through the initiation process and earned the trust of the Starfinder Society. Or at least what was left of it.

The next morning, our comms received a message from something identified only as “Guidance,” giving us directions to a particular room in the Lorespire Complex.  Upon arrival, we were greeted by a hologram of a middle-aged human woman which instructed us to provide genetic samples for identification purposes, gave us sub-dermal ID markers, and then a long run-down of what our initiation would entail.  To put it simply, we had to complete some task for each of the four sub-factions within the Starfinder Society. Our first mission would be given to us by the leader of the Acquisitives, the sub-faction dedicated to maintaining the Society’s public image and handling temporary contract jobs.  The Acquisitive leader, Ratazan, works out of an office in the middle of the Eye. So, us three products of the slums and borderline-legal society went marching through the most elite section of Absalom Station, listening for interesting gossip and only hearing about some upcoming pop music sensation and the latest drama on the Junk Racing circuit.

Ratazan’s office was about as bland and sterile as you could imagine; it seemed a minor miracle that there was any furniture in the place.  Ratazan himself was a Vesk in a state of extreme agitation.  Once we’d introduced ourselves, he wasted no time getting to the point: some young punk of a Starfinder had spoken critically of the mechanical skills of the current Junk Racing champion, Rat-rod, and the champ had insisted the Starfinder put her credits where her mouth was by taking part in the next race.  For our initiation task, Ratazan wanted us to hike all the way back down to the Spike and help the young Starfinder, Laboni, win the race and preserve the reputation of the Society.

It sounded like a lot of hullabaloo over nothing, but I’d never been able to get into a designated Junk Race course before and I’d always been curious what could be scrounged from one.  And at any rate, the task sounded perfectly suited to my skills and entailed little personal risk since none of us would be expected to actually take part in the gun-encrusted demolition derby that is a Junk Race.

Bearing badges and caps that marked us as official Pit Crew, Vemir, Sixer, and I made our way to the Junk Race circuit and past a couple of robots programmed to keep the fans out of restricted areas and to ensure that every race participant knows every rule of Junk Racing.  It was useful information, don’t get me wrong, but the delivery method could’ve been less… monotone.

Laboni was human, and little more than a teenager, which explained precisely why this whole situation had come about.  She at least had the good sense to know she’d put herself and the whole Society in a tight spot, so I didn’t begrudge having to help her too much.  Then Rat-rod himself came over to trash-talk, and the fact that he was a fellow Ysoki did nothing to quell the fire he stoked in me to take him down more than a couple pegs.  Once Rat-rod had left to see to the final preparations on his racer, I threw myself into doing everything I could to improve Laboni’s rusted heap of a vehicle.

While I was tinkering, Vemir went around to chat up some of the other racers and try to arrange for some assistance during the race.  Turns out Rat-rod is not well-liked among his fellow racers, mostly due to his attitude but also how he uses technomancy on his vehicle. Technomancy isn’t illegal in Junk Racing – little actually is besides firing into the audience – but Rat-rod’s application of it apparently makes him a nightmare to deal with on the course. Vemir’s first target, a gnome technomancer with an apparent obsession for putting unnecessary bits and bobs on her vehicle, was particularly helpful in detailing some of Rat-rod’s tricks and promised to help interfere with him if we could ensure her a second-place finish.  Vemir relayed what he’d learned to me, and I took particular note that Rat-rod’s racer was capable of absorbing energy weapons fire and converting it into performance boosts for his vehicle.  I made sure to install a kinetic gun onto Laboni’s racer and told her to use it and not the energy gun already installed.

Vemir next spoke to a Lashunta who took a lot of pride in the appearance of his racer (I’ve made it a small personal goal to see to it that he gets at least a few scratches to the paint-job) and was easily convinced to distract everyone with telepathic visions of how nice his racer is.

While I was working, Sixer tried to make himself useful by running off to search for scrap I could use.  He came back with a barrel.  I asked him pointedly what he expected me to do with a barrel, and he came up with some silly idea of rigging a way to launch it at Rat-rod’s head during the race.  I decided to just stick with the kinetic gun I’d already picked out to install.  Vemir came up with another use for the barrel: he’d use it to sneak over to yet another racer and stick a detonator on some critical part that would be debilitating but not deadly if it were to fail.  Liking that plan, I prepared one of my detonators for him.  Vemir climbed into the barrel, kicked out the bottom so he could walk inside it, and proceeded to trip and roll into the vehicle he’d planned to sabotage.  The driver was less than amused, and Vemir had to book it back over to us before anything violent happened.  I reclaimed and disarmed my detonator, and then we had to get off the track before the race started.

As we went, Laboni handed us a remote she’d rigged up to let us take control of her racer if we felt it was necessary.  From the look on her face, it was clear she fully expected us to “feel it was necessary” for the entirety of the race.  So, feeling much put-upon, we withdrew to a good vantage point and started discussing how the three of us were going to manage remotely piloting a Junk Racer with only one remote between us.

[blackestnight]

Starfinder AU: Imperial Defector, Starship Engineer, Technician

G’raha Tia: Lv 20 Gosclaw, Technomancer, Chaotic Good. Home Planet: Duren, Azlanti Star Empire. Theme: scholar. Abilities: Nightvision, fire resistance, mechanical talent, flexibility. Key ability scores: INT, DEX.

STR 10 / DEX 21 / CON 12 / INT 22 / WIS 12 / CHA 16

Incendiary Grenade Arrow II: The explosive tip of the arrow detonates on impact. A grenade arrow can be made using any handheld grenade. Seeking Elite Longbolter: While antiquated, projectile weapons provide serviceable firepower at a reasonable price. This advanced longbow uses mechanical power to fire arrows. Grenade arrows can be fired from these weapons. Diamond Carbon Skin: Though these suits of light armor appear to be made from stiff fabric, they are actually woven from carbon fibers.

Aura Goggles: Grants a bonus to saving throws with sense-dependent effects that target vision. Allow the casting of arcane sight as a spell-like ability. Quickdraw Arm Hideaway Limb: A hidden compartment in a prosthetic arm is integrated with a small weapon, allowing you to draw it as a swift action. You gain a bonus to Sleight of Hand checks to conceal items in your arm.

Technomancer: An expert at hacking the underlying structure of the universe itself. To the uninitiated, magic and technology are completely unrelated, but you know there are more correlations between the two than most suspect. Magic and technology are just tools, and when combined into one discipline, called technomancy, they can be far more powerful than one or the other on its own. You utilize tech to empower, harness, and manipulate magic, and you wield magic to augment, control, and modify technology.

Magic Hack: Spell Grenade. You can spend 1 Resolve Point to store a spell with a range of Touch in a grenade, allowing you to affect a target within the grenade’s blast radius with the spell. The grenade goes off as normal, with all of its usual effects within its blast radius.

Augmentation: Spell Cache. A permanent modification to your body allows you to store and cast additional spells once per day. You can cast a single spell into your spell cache and have it affect you continuously for 24 hours.

Magic Hack: Brain Hacker. You treat all living creatures as if they were both their original type and constructs with the technological subtype, whichever is more beneficial for you. This ability allows you to heal living creatures with spells like mending and make whole, as if they were constructs.

Technomancer Spell: Summon Junkbot. You turn a pile of technological junk into a robot that can perform basic tasks. You target inert, nonworking electronic equipment. While casting this spell, you use your magic and technological know-how to rearrange the junked parts and infuse them with energy and various skills.

[keyboardio]

Ending 2019 on a bright note

Hello from Shenzhen (after a brief stopover in Taiwan),

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us and we've got some news to report.

The lawsuit

In our last update, we told you a bit about the ongoing lawsuit against our old factory. At the time, our lawyer had requested court-supervised pre-trial mediation. The mediation process went slowly and up until the very last moment, we weren't sure exactly how things were going to shake out. Because the mediation process took so long, the court automatically scheduled a trial date and notified both parties.

Deadlines, it turns out, are a fantastic motivator.

We're pleased to report that the we have signed a settlement agreement with the old factory and that they have now met all of their obligations under that settlement agreement.

While it is an experience we hope never, ever to repeat, we're very pleased with our interaction with the Chinese legal system and were pleasantly surprised by the support the court provided for a small Western company in a lawsuit against a Chinese factory. We consider the matter closed.

Model 01 Keycaps

Now that everything's been settled with the old factory, we're really, really excited to get back to, you know, making stuff for you. We're pleased to report that we're about to receive a very large shipment of keycaps from the new factory. Last week, Jesse was at the new factory and did quality control checks on the Dvorak, Colemak, QWERTY, and the first 100 sets of Linear A keycaps.  

Dvorak passed.

Colemak passed.

QWERTY passed.

Linear A almost passed. The symbols on a pair of thumb keys were at the wrong angle.  After discussing it with the factory, everybody agreed that those two keycaps would be replaced on the first 100 sets and the laser would be adjusted for the rest of them.

The remaining Linear A sets are expected to be done within the next two weeks. They're taking a bit of extra time because the factory ended up having to injection mold an extra 600 sets of keycaps.

Why did the factory have to make 600 more sets of keycaps than planned, you ask?

That is an excellent question. When we placed this order with the new factory, we did all our numbers based on the old factory's promise to hand over 600 sets of blank keycaps ready for painting and laser engraving. As the new factory started the painting process, they discovered that the keycaps had already had UV-protectant painted on top. This helps make sure that sunlight won't damage the keycaps over time. It also makes sure that nothing will stick to the keycaps. Like, dirt. Or say, paint. That makes it very, very hard to paint and laser-engrave the keycaps.

The factory asked if we wanted to toss the "useless" keycap sets. We said no. Instead, we asked them to buy 600 more sets of packaging. Very shortly, we expect to have enough keycaps in stock to fulfill all preorders and to make keycaps available for sale.  It probably won't be by Christmas. But there's a very realistic chance it will happen before the end of 2019.

Sometime in the next week or two, we will begin the process of contacting everybody who preordered keycaps to reconfirm your shipping addresses. Some of you placed these orders quite a while ago and we how that many of you may want to adjust your shipping addresses.

Atreus

The other big project that has Jesse in China is our next keyboard project. The Atreus is a collaboration with Phil Hagelberg (Technomancy).  It's an minimalist, portable keyboard  that will look something like this:

While here, we signed off on every aspect of the design and packaging, with the exception of the keycaps, though that's a story for another day.

(Above: it takes a number of tries to get the molding machine calibrated perfectly... these are reject injections from the process)

We also met with our wood supplier to talk about the prototype walnut palm rest we designed for the Atreus.

And then we met with a bag supplier to start the design process for a custom travel case for this very, very portable keyboard.

The current plan is to launch the Keyboardio Atreus on Kickstarter in early 2020. We're working really hard to make sure that the backer updates for that campaign are just as interesting and informative, but a bit less gut-wrenching. To keep up to date on the Atreus, you can sign up here.  

Box of Crap

From time to time, we ask folks on the internet if they want to give us fifty bucks to send them a box of junk from the world's most famous consumer technology market.

Jesse's got one more day in China. He's going to spend it scouring the markets of Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei for all sorts of pointless, useless stuff that might make a good Box of crap. In the past, this has meant that Jesse's spent the day loaded down with shopping bags and then spent the day working with helpers to shove stuff in boxes.

We're going to try doing things a little differently (and a little bit more scalably) this time. Jesse's going to be buying samples and getting quotations for volume purchases. Then, if all goes well, we'll place orders to be shipped to our logistics partner out by Shenzhen airport. They'll box and ship stuff professionally.

If you want to know when we put the next Box of Crap on sale, sign up for our mailing list here:   https://keyboard.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=664e58d3dc8a03fda94fdf943&id=1d7cec6a50

<3 Jesse + Kaia