Equipment & Gear

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The ENDS Prop Department

Every piece of equipment a toon uses on-set comes from the ENDS Prop Department, the in-house supplier of weapons, gadgets, explosives, disguises, vehicles, and every specialty item cartoon production requires. The Prop Department is an institution older than most of the studios in the Valley. It is run by the quartermaster (traditionally one Murgatroyd the Ninth or similar) and staffed by dozens of technicians, armorers, tailors, and specialty craft workers.

Toons requisition equipment against a running tab rather than buying it outright; billing and settlement are covered under The Tab, below.

Prop Credits

All equipment in this chapter is priced in Prop Credits (PC), the studio’s internal unit of account. A new ENDS contract extends a starting line of credit of 500 PC, which is spent during character creation (Chapter Three, Step 9). Unspent starting credit becomes the character’s personal reserve, walking-around money that can be spent mid-campaign.

Beyond the starting allowance, toons earn Prop Credits every session. The rate is set by Contract Tier: what ENDS agreed to pay when they signed you, which reflects how much the studio believes in your continued existence.

All new characters start at Standard unless their backstory justifies otherwise (a toon returning from a long hiatus might be a Tryout; a toon joining mid-season as a spin-off might negotiate Recurring Lead). A Tryout bumps to Standard after surviving a full Season. Standard bumps to Recurring Lead when the show gets renewed, a story milestone the GM controls.

Each session, the GM designates one character as the Featured Toon for that episode: the one who drove the plot, had the breakdown, or got the spotlight. That character earns a +25 PC Featured Bonus on top of their contract rate. There is exactly one per episode. If no one featured, no one gets it.

Credits can be saved, spent, gambled, lent, or lost; they carry no interest and no expiration.

The Tab

Every character begins each session with a tab balance recorded on their sheet. Gear destroyed in play, property damaged during action, and Rarity 4+ items requisitioned mid-scene are all added to the tab. At session end, the GM deducts as much of the new tab as possible from the PC’s session earnings. Any unpaid amount remains on the tab and carries forward. Quarter-end settlement is a larger audit, contract review, or accountant scene when the GM wants the debt to matter. A toon whose tab regularly exceeds earnings becomes a subplot.

Starting Gear Packages

Players may spend the 500 PC starting line of credit item by item, or choose one package below and start immediately. Any toon may take any package if it fits the concept. Packages assume the character has ordinary clothes and personal odds and ends for free.

Rarity

Every item is rated on a Rarity scale of 1 to 10.

• Rarity 1–3 items are stocked on the shelves. Requisition is immediate, no check required.
• Rarity 4–6 items require a requisition slip and a short wait. A successful Streetwise or Negotiation check at Average difficulty retrieves one by the next scene.
• Rarity 7–8 items are in restricted stock. A successful Hard Savvy check using Streetwise or Hard Charisma check using Negotiation retrieves one by the end of the scene; failure means the Prop Department has run out just now, and the item is unavailable this session.
• Rarity 9–10 items are studio archive: one-of-a-kind props, plot items, historical gear. They are GM-controlled and enter play only through the fiction.

Hammerspace vs. Inventory

Ink & Mayhem has two simultaneous rules for where a toon’s equipment is.

Inventory is what the character has actually requisitioned, signed for, and is carrying in the scene. Inventory items are available always and do not cost a resource to access. If you own a Frying Pan, you have a Frying Pan, and it is in your hand the moment you reach for it.

Hammerspace is the cartoon-physics shortcut: props pulled from nowhere under the rules in Chapter Eight. Hammerspace items are summoned rather than owned. They vanish at scene end unless the character explicitly claims one as an inventory item, which immediately adds its Rarity-and-price to their tab.

The Catalog

Melee Weapons

Melee weapon damage is listed as a modifier. When a toon wields one of these weapons, damage equals Might + the listed value before Resistance. Dropped, launched, or environmental versions of the same prop use the flat damage listed in the triggering rule instead.

Ranged Weapons

Armor

Protective gear in Ink & Mayhem tends toward the comedic. Proper military armor is unusual; most toons rely on a single ridiculous piece of safety equipment or nothing at all. Armor adds a Resistance Bonus (reducing incoming Elasticity damage) and in some cases Defense (adding Bane dice to attacks against the wearer).

Props & Gadgets

These are the signature cartoon items. All are referenced by subsystems in Chapter Eight, Chapter Five (Bits), or both. Items marked (Consumable) are destroyed after use.

Portable Hole

Pocket Hole (Consumable)

The Portable Hole’s smaller, single-use cousin. Place, fall through, arrive at the bottom of the fall wherever the GM decides is reasonable. The hole closes behind you. Price: 20 PC · Rarity: 2

Drawn-Door Pencil

Draw a door on any solid surface with this unassuming yellow pencil and the door becomes physically real, opens, closes, and leads to somewhere. The GM determines where. One pencil produces three doors before the lead is exhausted. The third door always leads somewhere surprising. Price: 80 PC · Rarity: 3

Fake Mustache (Kit)

The kit holds spirit gum, assorted hair, and a small mirror. A worn mustache qualifies as a cartoon disguise under the Disguises Work rule (Chapter Eight). A single kit contains three disguises; each is ruined after use. Price: 15 PC · Rarity: 1

Costume Trunk

A full theatrical wardrobe trunk with rapid-change mechanics. Contains up to five pre-prepared disguises that can be assumed as a maneuver. Disguises from the Costume Trunk qualify for the Disguise Master talent’s upgraded Severe Perception check. Trunks are Scale 2 objects; most toons leave theirs on-lot and requisition delivery. Price: 150 PC · Rarity: 3

Hammerspace Reinforcement (Lining)

A specialty garment lining installed in the toon’s coat, dress, or overalls. While worn, the character may use the scene-free Hammerspace pull twice per scene instead of once. This does not stack with the Hammerspace Expert talent; a character with both still draws twice per scene for free. Price: 100 PC · Rarity: 4

Trap Kit

String, pulleys, counterweights, buckets, small springs, and a modest quantity of birdseed, all in one briefcase. Grants three uses per session of the Improvised Booby Trap Bit, even to characters who do not have that Bit in their Repertoire. Characters who do have the Bit stack the kit’s uses with their own. Price: 60 PC · Rarity: 2

Anvil-Attractor Band (Cursed)

A small metal band worn on the wrist. Whenever the GM considers dropping an anvil in your scene, the attractor calls it to you. The band cannot be removed except by a Hard Craft check, and only when an anvil is not currently incoming. Price: 50 PC · Rarity: 2 · (Never requisitioned deliberately. Comes from story.)

Escape Rope

This coil of rope, thrown over any surface, becomes a rope affixed to whatever was needed. Functions for exactly one scene of climbing, descending, or lowering. Infinite length within reason. Price: 30 PC · Rarity: 2

Whoopee Cushion

A whoopee cushion. Successfully placed (Hard Stealth check) causes the target to be Disoriented for one round and grants the placer +1 Boon die on any social check against that target for the rest of the scene. Single use unless recovered. Price: 5 PC · Rarity: 1

Banana Peels (Dozen)

Twelve banana peels in a paper sack. Each peel dropped in a location forces any character moving through that location to make an Average Coordination check or fall prone (and take 2 Strain from the indignity). Peels are single-use; the studio rats eat spent peels by the next scene. Price: 10 PC · Rarity: 1

Rocket Skates (Pair, Consumable)

Wheeled skates with strap-on boosters. When activated, for one scene the wearer gains three extra maneuvers each round that must be used for movement in a straight direction. These extra maneuvers are in addition to the character’s normal free maneuver and the optional Strain maneuver, either of which may also be used for movement. Steering is a Hard Coordination check each round; failure produces a spectacular crash. Price: 80 PC · Rarity: 4

Grease Tin (Consumable)

Industrial studio grease by the tin. Creates a slippery area the size of a large rug. Any character crossing the area makes an Average Coordination check or falls prone. The grease absorbs into the floor after one scene. Price: 10 PC · Rarity: 1

Super-Magnet (Portable)

A magnet powerful enough to attract any metal object, safes, cars, dropped anvils, opposing toons’ dental work. Held or thrown. Single-scene duration. Price: 50 PC · Rarity: 3

Signature Items

A small number of items in the Prop Department are named, legacy props with histories, personalities, and in a few cases, unfinished business. All are Rarity 9 or 10 and enter play through the fiction (see Rarity, above).

Murgatroyd’s Ledger (Rarity 10)

Every tab the Prop Department has ever kept is written in this ledger, including yours. The current Murgatroyd keeps it on the counter. It has been observed that when a toon owes a sufficiently large tab, the ledger begins to hum.

The First Anvil (Rarity 10)

Bugsy Mulligan’s Carrot (Rarity 9)

The carrot chewed by Bugsy Mulligan in every short of his career from the Golden Age through his retirement. Still crunchy. Grants permanent +1 Boon die on all Charm checks while held; crumbles to dust if a rival toon ever grabs it from its wielder.

The Script That Writes Itself (Rarity 10)

A typewriter in the Prop Department’s sub-basement that produces new pages every morning. Some toons believe the Script is what everyone in the studio is actually performing; no one has read more than a page.

Tools & Utility

Item Qualities

Qualities used in this chapter. Qualities from the Core Rules behave per the Core; qualities unique to Ink & Mayhem are flagged below.

The Crit value in the weapon tables is the weapon’s base threshold for a Perfect Cartoon Moment (Chapter Eight). Because Perfect Cartoon Moments can remove a toon from the scene, the actual Boon cost is Crit + 2 on a successful attack. A Breakthrough counts as 3 Boons toward this threshold. Weapons with no Crit value use a default Perfect Cartoon Moment threshold of 5 Boons.