Editing Setting:Inn0cence: Lost Future/Machine: The Abandoned (section)

==Spark==
What is Spark?  Spark is everything within a machine that is neither hardware nor software.  Spark is development along a path, a wellspring.  Also, Spark doesn't really exist.  Spark is the “art” in a painting that would otherwise be a collection of pigments applied to canvas.  Spark is structure.  As a Machine advances in Spark, it gains deeper understanding of itself; altering and tweaking its own code and shell drivers to maximize performance.  Hardware and Software begin to blur, and efficiency increases beyond anything previously thought possible.

Spark functions in many ways like Blood Potency or Wyrd; it starts at 1 for free, and it may be increased at character creation by spending Merit dots at a 2-to-1 rate.  Increasing Spark after this point costs new dots x6.  Spark is believed to max out at 5 for normal Self-Adding Programs.

{|class="wikitable" border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em; border: 2px solid black;"
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!align=center colspan=4 | Spark Table
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| Spark || Attribute/Skill/Application maximum || Max Charge/Charge Per Turn || Special
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| 1 || 4 || 5/1 || 
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| 2 || 5 || 6/1 ||
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| 3 || 5 || 7/2 || Use Willpower to increase defense/resistance
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| 4 || 5 || 8/2 || Use Willpower to augment rolls
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| 5 || 5 || 9/2 || Overcome Manufacture Limitations
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| 6 || 6 || 10/3 || Transfer Code between Quantum Drives
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| 7 || 7 || 11/4 ||
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| 8 || 8 || 13/5 ||
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| 9 || 9 || 15/6 ||
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| 10 || 10 || 18/7 || Congratulations.  You are now SHODAN.
|}

'''Charge'''
Each shell contains a clean, reliable microfusion reactor with a constant, low power output.  The reactor runs on thorium and fresh water.  Thorium is easy to obtain; either recently processed or as salvage.  A few ounces of Thorium allow for several months of operation; a fresh gallon of water must be cycled in every week.  Excess charge from this reactor is stored in a capacitor, which the machine then uses for more energy-intensive activities.  As a machine advances in Spark, it increases the operational efficiency of its shell.

Charge can be regenerated in the following ways:
2 hours hooked up to power source, such as an external generator or a solar cell in direct sunlight, restores 1 charge
2 hours in Standby restores 1 charge

'''At the end of a scene of strenuous activity, such as a fight or chase, a machine must make a Stamina+spark test (-1 for each previous successful test).  If that test fails, they lose 1 charge.'''

A Machine at 0 charge is living hand-to-mouth, and suffers a -1 fatigue penalty to all actions and attributes.  If another effect would cause the machine to lose charge (using another application, or engaging in strenuous activity), the Machine instead suffers a -2 fatigue penalty and keels over, inactive, at the end of the scene, and does not reactivate until it has regenerated 1 charge.