In Cascade Failure, you are operating in a post-apoc environment and there is a lot of technology that you don't understand the function of. So I am giving everyone 1 chance to understand it, as a baseline from which extra chances can be added. For example, being an older character gives more chances, high INT or WIS can give more chances, being in the Engineer class gives more chances for certain kinds of technologies, being in the Pilot class gives more chances for figuring out vehicles, etc.
So lets assume that someone has 4 chances to understand a given piece of technology, for the sake of example. This means that they roll 4d6 and for each result of 1 (a success), they get some kind of understanding of how the technology works.
A technology has 3 levels of functionality; core, ancillary, and system. A core function is the most basic things a device can do, such as a cell phone making a phone call. You can use 1 success to figure out the core function of the device. Once you have paid that price, you can use additional successes to figure out ancillary functions of the device, which are extra things related to the core function (such as storing a contact in the phone's memory or using the calculator function). Depending on the technology, 1 success spent on ancillary functions might net a range of things that you have learned about the device. Buying system functions costs a lot more successes (determined by the GM and varying by device) and represent truly complex information, like reprogramming your phone to operate on a different network.
So you get chances, which filter into a number of successes, which you use to purchase understanding of the technology.
I am thinking this could have some good applications in Errant. Most obviously in terms of magic items. But what other kinds of things could be run through such a system in a medieval fantasy setting? I just want to get a little group brainstorming here.
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