====== Wensel Quality Manufactory ====== ==== Company Info ==== Wensel Quality Manufactory is actually a manufacturer of a number of 'copycat' products, including electronics, weapons, and other generic-grade supplies. Wensel products are almost always 'cheap', and sometimes outright dangerous depending on how 'stringently' they modified the original design to avoid infringement cases. ==== Streetnopsis ==== Wensel Quality Manufactory has the barest veneer of authenticity, but they make as many shoddy knockoff products as any low-end high-volume marketplace. You'll find this vendor trash in the hands of poor street thugs and bottom-feeders, and no self-respecting operative should be using these if they have any alternatives available. ==== Corporate Analysis ==== While most corporate entities dislike Wensel, typically this hostility ends just short of actual lawsuits unless they can prove Wensel has reverse-engineered their products or similarly infringed on their designs. Some competitors actually reverse-engineer Wensel products and improve on them to remove blatant safety flaws, instead of trying to copy other competitors. ==== Product Line ==== === Street Treats === Weapons purchased from Wensel count as //street treats//, knockoff models that are less accurate than the original model and are produced cheaply with shoddy untrained labor without AR support. All Wensel weaponry counts as Cheap (and costs 50% of normal prices at retail), but due to the dubious skills of the designers involved, has an Acc rating 1d lower than the original or Range 1d x 5% lower than normal, as well as Malf one level lower than normal (a 16 for weapons that usually require Critical Failure, a Crit Fail for weapons that usually require verification rolls). In addition, weapon tuning has half its normal effects on a 'street treat', and the cost is as for the full-priced version of the weapon. Even cheaper versions are sometimes available (25% cost) that have //all// of the aforementioned effects, and also have the bad side effect of causing you to roll twice on Firearms Critical Miss tables and taking both results (or the worst result, for incompatible results), or a pre-determined and normally rare catastrophic failure that happens //every// time a Critical Miss comes up. Handle with care. Wensel weaponry only has minimal accessories standard - a visible-light-only laser sight (+1 to skill to 1/2 D range if you can see the dot), data connection, and a basic onboard tiny computer (Slow, as below) that provides diagnostic information (+1 to fix malfunctions). They do not have an HUD link, although aftermarket products can add one. ^ Weapon ^ Caliber ^ Damage ^ Acc ^ Range ^ Weight ^ RoF ^ Shots ^ ST ^ Bulk ^ Rcl ^ Cost ^ LC ^ Malf ^ | Wenzel Heavy Hitter | 10mmCLP | 3d pi+ | 0 | 135/1500 | 2.5/0.7 | 3 | 20+1(3) | 10 | -3 | 3 | $135 | 3 | Crit* | | Wenzel Backalley | 7.5mmCLP | 2d pi | 0 | 70/840 | 1/0.2 | 3 | 18+1(3) | 6 | -1 | 3 | $60 | 2 | Crit* | | Wenzel Big Boom | 15mmCLP | 4d+1 pi++ | 0 | 225/2470 | 3/1 | 3 | 9+1(3) | 11 | -2 | 3 | $? | 4 | Crit* | === Cheap Gadgets === Gadgets purchased from Wensel count as cheap - they cost 50% as much as ordinary gadgets, but weigh 150% as much due to the low-quality parts involved, receive a -1 reaction from snobbish types due to their 'cheapness', have HT 8 and DR 2 regardless of size, have half normal skill bonuses, lowered battery life, or otherwise function much less effectively than normal. In addition, any computer used in a Wensel design is automatically Slow (-1 Complexity, 1/10th normal data capacity), particularly the tiny computers found in most electronics. === Cheap Power Cells === Power cells made by Wensel often appear in discount stores in packs of 4, 8, or 16; they typically either recharge less quickly, hold less power, or in some cases don't recharge at all; they are less expensive, especially in bulk, and are often distributed with other products under generic brand names as 'first time' power cells which the user will eventually replace with a better battery.