tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17478011153364548322024-02-06T18:46:25.165-08:00Neo ArcadiaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-74570748904659516712014-02-02T14:48:00.000-08:002014-02-02T14:48:33.406-08:00We are Moving!And by "We" I mean Me, Myself and I.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://gimmicklabs.blogspot.com/">Click Here</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-18752525439362851882014-01-26T18:21:00.000-08:002014-01-26T18:22:50.358-08:00Survivors of Battle Century GRunning a one man operation has its ups and downs. On the plus side I don't depend on anyone else to do my work, so I don't have to delay things when someone fails to deliver their editorial notes or whatever. On the minus side I do very much have to delay things when the problem is on my end.<br />
<br />
I wanted to let people take a look at BCG today but I ran into a few Technical Problems, so I'll need another week or two to get that sorted. In light of this being a Day of Hopes Dashed and Hearts Crushed, I'll write about a few mechanics that did <i>not</i> make it through BCG's alpha period for whichever reason, then show the ones that replaced them. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">UninTensional Consequences</span><br />
<br />
Let's go straight for the throat with this one. Here is the first version of Learning Computer written in BCG's alpha document.<br />
<br />
<b>Learning Computer</b><br />
Type: External<br />
Cost: 10 <br />
Effect:
In response to the results of an Enemy Might Test against you, you may
spend 3 Energy to deny that Test its Tension bonus from the result.<br />
Description:
The Learning Computer is an amazing system that compensates for the
rising difficulties in keeping out of harm’s way during battle. It reads
and adapts to the patterns and movements of the enemy, moving the Gear
on its own to keep it safe.<br />
<br />
Expensive, isn't it? Even
with that Energy cost, LC had the issue of being way too powerful as a
secondary Active Defense. See, early on you'd just use Custom Defense to
up your Guard for 3 or 5 points cheaply, but if the enemy used a
supermove like a Technique after Turn 4 then having this as a safety net
was very much worth the redundancy.<br />
<br />
So it had two
problems, because by itself it was kind of crap, but as a complement to
other Active Defenses it was fantastic. It shut down the game's
flashiest finishers hard, and was frankly pretty frustrating to play
against (if you missed last turn, you'll probably miss again without
your Tension bonus). I tried downgrading it a little and came up with
this.<br />
<br />
<b>Learning Computer</b><br />
Type: External<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect: In
response to the results of an Enemy Might Test against you, you may
spend 2 Energy to deny that Test half its Tension bonus from the result.<br />
Description:
The Learning Computer is an amazing system that compensates for the
rising difficulties in keeping out of harm’s way during battle. It reads
and adapts to the patterns and movements of the enemy, moving the Gear
on its own to keep it safe.<br />
<br />
This is much more reasonable,
and the cheaper cost lets you know that it won't be enough as your only
Active Defense, somewhat mitigating that it is kind of subpar against
anything that is not a Technique. Unfortunately, it still nerfed
Techniques way too hard and I was not comfortable having an Upgrade with
a cost of 5 that did that. Learning Computer might make a comeback in
the future, but for the time being its niche of denying Tension every
Turn is not one I'm willing to risk having in the game.<br />
<br />
This
left me with a hole in my Active Defense roster, and while I briefly
considered leaving it there instead of experimenting with something new
and risking making things worse, I realized there was something else I
could do. There was one that I had not tried adapting to BCG yet...<br />
<br />
<b>Reactive Booster</b><br />
Type: External Upgrade<br />
Cost: 5 <br />
Effect:
In response to the results of an Enemy Might Test against you, you may
spend 1 Energy to increase your Guard by an amount equal to half your
Speed against it. <br />
Description: Reactive Boosters read specific
patterns and automatically move the Gear in response to even the fastest
of attacks. Custom variants include CQC footwork and anti-missile
cartwheels, among others. <br />
<br />
This is similar to ECS, but
with a few very obvious differences. It is cheaper in both XP and
Energy terms, but also a lot less powerful. At the low end it is
slightly worse than Custom Barrier, while it is is only slightly better
at the high end. Reactive Booster is not particularly exciting, but it
does work against Blasts and assorted Area of Effect Weapons (unlike
ECS), so you can always count on them if you've got Speed on your side.<br />
<br />
It
works better at the higher Power Levels, when the cost of 5 XP and 1
Energy is basically an afterthought, yet the Guard bonus remains useful.
Not to mention you can afford to spend a bunch of points on Speed by
then without sacrificing everything else.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Specialists of all Trades</span><br />
<br />
Early on I thought these two were a neat idea:<br />
<br />
<b>Wind Cutter</b><br />
Type: Melee<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect:
Long-Range. When using the Aim Action with this Weapon it gains an
additional Advantage and its Maximum Range increases by 5 .<br />
Description:
With this oversized, rocket-powered shuriken you can now slice and dice
from a distance - and have the Weapon come back to you afterwards! <br />
<br />
<b>Hand Cannon</b><br />
Type: Shooting<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect: This Weapon gains an Advantage when used to Engage in a duel or against a target that is in one.<br />
Description:
Giant handguns designed for use when other firearms would be too
unwieldy. These come in many forms and shapes, with the Verne Military
Police’s favorite being that of revolvers. Cocky ace-wannabees are known
for customizing them to resemble the old Desert Eagle.<br />
<br />
Inspiring stuff, I know. Not only were they really boring, they gave specialists a really cheap way out of their biggest weaknesses.
Evidently trying to blur the lines between Weapon types was not a good
idea. So I went in the complete opposite direction and used their
differences as a strength.<br />
<br />
<b>Arm Guardian</b><br />
Type: Melee<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect:
Passing the Might Test with this Weapon increases your Guard by 3
against any Might Tests from the Enemy you just attacked for a Round.<br />
Description:
A giant shoulder guard with pointy ends might not sound like much. It
is pretty useful for pointmen trying to draw the heat away from the rest
of their team, though. <br />
<br />
<b>Superheavy Machinegun</b><br />
Type: Shooting Weapon<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect:
Blast, Unreliable. This Weapon inflicts an additional Disadvantage when
using the Suppress Action but you may not Move as part of your Actions
when using it.<br />
Description: An oversized firearm that lends itself to
accusations about trying to overcompensate for something. The recoil is
terrible, forcing the Gear to brace itself and remain immobile. Even
then most of the shots go in the wrong direction anyway, but after all
is said and done there is no better gun to provide suppressive fire.<br />
<br />
Arm Guardian works because once you're in a Duel your opponents will have to attack you or risk giving
you free swings with Weapons that hurt a lot more. Superheavy
Machinegun outright blocks your ability to move entirely and forces you
to park and settle down, but it provides fantastic suppressive
firepower. Overall they, much like a lot of the game's Weapons in
general, have a tight focus and are less wacky experiments like a lot of
GGG's Weapons were.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Hael Me Plz</span><br />
<br />
In BCG every little point of Threshold matters more than it did in GGG, so I have to be really careful with abilities that restore Threshold. One of the most dangerous things I could do is let someone turn their Actions into straight up health, which is my way of saying that the Micromanage Action is not going to be part of BCG. Energy already regenerated naturally, which was half the reason Micromanage existed in the first place, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise it is not coming back for Battle Century G.<br />
<br />
What should be slightly more of a surprise is that there's no Base Terrain either.<br />
<br />
I originally thought that, as long as you were in Base Terrain, you could spend Energy to regain Threshold at a rate of two to 1 (kind of like how Biological does it) at no Action cost. This lasted all of four hours until I realized that it was much better than Defensive Terrain if you had Energy to spare. Kind of a shame really, mostly because it reduced Base Units to transports and shields for their Allies.<br />
<br />
On the plus side now we have these two.<br />
<br />
<b>Regenerative</b><br />
Type: External (Restoration)<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: At the beginning of your Turn you may spend any amount of Energy to restore half that much Threshold to yourself.<br />
Description: Your Gear integrates all sorts of nanomachines into its own frame, letting it draw from them to replenish as necessary. This is much faster than others who have to lug equipment around, though of course it cannot protect allies.<br />
<br />
<b>Overcharge</b><br />
Type: Separate (Support)<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: Increase the Energy available to yourself or an Ally by 5 until their next Turn. Multiple Overcharges on the same Unit do not stack.<br />
Description: The Overcharger looks like a lightning gun that would make Tesla proud, but actually shoots a stream of nanobots carrying Gygravagnite crystals. These crystals will essentially overclock a Gear temporarily, making it run at 200% power for a very brief period of time.<br />
<br />
Regenerative is an alternate to Jury-Rig that does not cost an Action but uses the Biological Energy-to-HP conversion ratio and only works on the user. It is only half as effective, but even half effectiveness is worth a lot when the appropriate stats are high.<br />
<br />
Overcharge is one of the revamped old abilities that does something completely different now, which is appropriate given its history. Originally, it was part of GGG's healing Upgrades line (along with Jury-Rig, Resupply, and Reload) but it restored a spent Genre Point to the recipient. It was overpowered to the point that I started trying out every thing I could think of with it until it became a portable barrier generator which was both unique and useful, though it was complicated and did not have much to do with its original use.<br />
<br />
This time I tried to make the 'restores spent GP' thing work again, but each individual Power is so much stronger that it would have to cost something downright silly like 30 XP. So I went for something that might interest Energy users a bit more.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What Does not Kill you Makes you Stronger </span><br />
<br />
I'm getting a lot better at catching this stuff early in the development process. This goes to show that while I still don't get things quite right on the first try, it is very hard for the really overpowering or game warping stuff to slip past even the first playtest.<br />
<br />
Next week, <i>things happen</i>*.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*: Things might happen the week <i>after</i> the next if it comes down to it, but no later than that.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-54687208776882597712014-01-19T03:38:00.000-08:002014-01-19T03:46:46.745-08:00Tales of Battle Century GBattle Century G has been a lot easier to design, partly thanks to the clear focus elaborated on last week, and some of the focus being on simplicity. The grand majority of things I've talked about haven't changed since I last posted them, though things can always be easier to read or a bit better balanced.<br />
<br />
It helps that I'm not trying to see just how many crazy mechanics I can get away with this time around, and I'm just going for what a game about fighting robots <i>needs</i>. Today I'll share a few more things and elaborate on how they changed since their conception. I'm aiming for shorter but more frequent posts from now on so let's not waste any further time!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Net Loss of Stats</span><br />
<br />
We start with a Weapon that changed very little from the start of the game's Alpha period to today.<br />
<br />
<b>Finger Net</b><br />
Type: Melee Weapon<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect: Long-Range, Blast, One-Shot. All Units within the Weapon’s area of effect suffer the effects of Difficult Terrain for a Round.<br />
Description: A giant net made of Type-W Gygravagnite, made to restrain the speedier Cryptids. By installing them in a Gear’s fingertips they can be shot as a surprise in the middle of close quarters combat, making sure they will snare their prey.<br />
<br />
I'll remind you that Difficult Terrain halves your Guard and Speed. I also think I never quite said how big Blasts were going to be, so I'll make use of this opportunity and say that they have a 3-Zone Radius, which is pretty big.<br />
<br />
And now time for an aside on redundancy! This bears a strong resemblance to Ensnaring Trap, previewed a couple of weeks ago. I said I was going to try and do away with most of the game's elements that were redundant, and that is still true. So let me explain how they are different.<br />
<br />
-Finger Net has a very short range (2-7 for the most part) while Ensnaring Trap can be used from far in the distance Think around 8-14).<br />
-Finger Net takes an Offensive Action while Ensnaring Trap is an Utility Action. You'll need Reversible Thrusters if you want to use Finger Net to use it while running away.<br />
-Finger Net can deal Damage because it is a Weapon, Ensnaring Trap can't deal Damage period.<br />
-Finger Net strikes everything in an area, friend or foe, whereas Ensnaring Trap is single-target.<br />
<br />
They're similar on the surface, but clearly are meant for different characters. Finger Net can help clear crowds of mooks and put pressure on enemies while you're wailing on them, Ensnaring Trap pins down big foes for a round of focused fire or helps you get out of dodge.<br />
<br />
While I'm doing away with redundancy, I don't want to do away with <i>options</i>. Two abilities that do the same thing with minimal differences are bad. Say, a Barrier that grants +3 Defense for 1 Energy and another that grants +5 Defense for 2 Energy is a no-no, instead I'll just consolidate both options into a single Active Defense and let you choose which mode to use each activation. But when both abilities do similar things that work differently depending on which character is using it? I'm game. So ends our aside. <br />
<br />
You might remember the version of Ensnaring Trap I posted previously simply halved Guard and Defense, while this inflicts the effects of Difficult Terrain. That's because both halved stats originally, but now... Well, they do basically the same thing, just pointing you to the Difficult Terrain rules so they'll be easier to remember. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Power Stat</span><br />
<br />
Energy is a resource that replenishes every Turn to full, and that wouldn't have worked with GGG's rules. Well, it would have worked on a technical level, but it'd have made the game revolve entirely around how much Energy you could have spent per Turn. Energy had the best guns, the best Defenses, the best ways to improve your mobility, and the best support options. At least outside of Genre Powers.<br />
<br />
Battle Century G takes a different approach, where Energy can do a little bit of everything but it cannot outright replace other Attributes. In GGG anyone could spend Energy to move 1 extra Zone as part of an Utility Action while going forward. I briefly considered doing something similar with BCG, but it quickly became obvious that a high Energy stat was basically like having a high Speed stat but better.<br />
<br />
We still had this though.<br />
<br />
<b>Over-Booster (old)</b><br />
<b></b>Type: External Upgrade<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect:
At the beginning of your Turn, you may spend 1 Energy to increase your Speed by 2 for a Round or spend 2 Energy to increase your Speed by 4 for a Round instead.<br />
Description: Originally part of the Helios Project and meant
to help with travel times for space exploration and colonization, but
repurposed for war since then. The Over-Booster improves acceleration
times considerably for any Gear that installs it, and in any kind of
environment - not just space.<br />
<br />
This worked, but still had issues. Y'see, without getting into spoilery territory, there's some Weapons and Upgrades that care about your Speed Attribute and in that context increasing your Energy was still better than increasing your Speed. That's why Over-Booster got a simple rewrite too:<br />
<br />
<b>Over-Booster (new)</b><br />
Type: External Upgrade<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect: At the beginning of your Turn, you may spend 1 Energy to Move 2 extra Zones with your next Action this Round, or 2 Energy Move 4 extra Zones instead.<br />
Description: Originally part of the Helios Project and meant to help with travel times for space exploration and colonization, but repurposed for war since then. The Over-Booster improves acceleration times considerably for any Gear that installs it, and in any kind of environment - not just space.<br />
<br />
Now this works better as a supplement to Speed, instead of being an outright replacement. The cost of the Upgrade plus two points in Energy is often higher than outright getting three points in Speed in the first place, and Speed has more uses than just Movement, not to mention Over-Booster can get disabled. On the other hand, Over-Booster does not care about Difficult Terrain, and does grant you a single extra Zone of Movement. If you really care about your Movement Speed then you might want to get both just in case rather than just one.<br />
<br />
And this leads me to a point I've been trying to make about Energy for a while and haven't gotten the chance to insert into the conversation yet:<br />
<br />
Managing your Energy isn't particularly powergamey, because while it can do some powerful stuff, it is still a secondary stat. Your Energy starts at 0, and you could get by with as little as 2-3 if you only want to make use of one or two Upgrades or Weapons that cost 1-2 points. That's pretty simple to manage. You could build around having a higher Energy, and that's where abilities like Absolute Barrier come into play to give you an obvious outlet in case of doubt.<br />
<br />
Even then, it is often a good idea to just keep a few points open in case you want to use an emergency Active Defense in response to an attack. You might not end up using them, and that means you are technically wasting those Energy points, but it also means you didn't need them in the first place. Let's put it this way: Optimizing your Energy is like optimizing your Movement - sometimes you'll have extra Energy or Zones of Movement left unused, and that is okay.<br />
<br />
Energy supplements pretty much any strategy, but it is costly and cannot make up for having low stats entirely. Well, it technically can in the case of the most powerful Beam Weapons as a replacement for Might, but that takes a big chunk of XP. Battle Century G has subtle differences between the gameplay of its various power levels, and one of those is that death laser strategies are much more viable (read: possible) at Power Levels 3 and beyond.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Your Face is Beaming</span><br />
<br />
Both of the previous changes were pretty subtle, and the ability did not really change much when all was said and done. This one is a little like two of the above issues, but the change is more pronounced. Let me introduce you to my friend Shooting Beam Technique.<br />
<br />
<b>Reactor Overdrive (old)</b><br />
Type: Shooting Weapon<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect:
Beam (Cost 3), Technique, Overheating.<br />
Description:
You overload and expose the Gear’s generators redirecting the power
surge towards outside rather than your own systems. The process may
cause lasting damage to your own machine, but the brutal energy blast
released is much more certain to do even worse for whoever is on the
receiving end of it.<br />
<br />
On paper this is a perfectly balanced mirror of Radiant Fist. They're both Techniques that Overheat and have an Energy cost of 3. One is Shooting, the other is Melee. So they're balanced, right? Well, not quite. This version of Reactor Overdrive was better than Radiant Fist pretty much all the time.<br />
<br />
That's because Melee Weapons are better at sustained Damage output, while Shooting ones are better at sudden bursts of Damage. Turns out, when Techniques are all about bursts, a Shooting Weapon makes them even better! Not only did it hit harder, but it also did so from a distance, where Overheating hurts less <br />
<br />
The combination of Shooting, Beam and Technique was way too powerful even with Overheating in the mix. Reactor Overdrive was the strongest Weapon in the game available to PCs in terms of Damage, but was also easy to use and didn't have much of a drawback. Clearly I had to do something about it.<br />
<br />
I considered just giving Reactor Overdrive a higher Energy cost to make up for it, but that ironically made it <i>look</i> very weak in comparison to Radiant Fist, and if the most damaging gun in the game looks weak then I'm doing something wrong. Eventually I settled down on something.<br />
<br />
<b>Reactor Overdrive (new)</b><br />
Type: Shooting Weapon<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: Beam (Cost 5), Long-Range, Technique, Overheating. If you take the Aim Action with this Weapon before firing it attacks all Zones within Range in a straight line aimed in a direction of your choice.<br />
Description: You overload and expose the Gear’s generators redirecting the power surge towards outside rather than your own systems. The process may cause lasting damage to your own machine, but the brutal energy blast released is much more certain to do even worse for whoever is on the receiving end of it.<br />
<br />
I did not, strictly speaking, nerf it. I just added more abilities and charged the extra Energy cost. You could even argue that I made it stronger, because now it can hit multiple targets! In some ways it is even easier to use, because it has better reach, but things are not so simple.<br />
<br />
First of all, by the time you want to use a Technique, most Enemies will be within the Range of your other Weapons, so you can snipe a Boss with it from afar if you put in the effort to keep your distance but it doesn't do all that much on its own.<br />
<br />
Second is that Aiming with this Weapon isn't always a good idea, because the longer the battle goes the higher the odds that Melee units will reach their targets, and the higher the odds you'll end up blasting your friends to pieces with this monster.<br />
<br />
Third is the Energy cost. Five is a <i>lot</i> to spend on a Weapon. Unless your Energy Attribute is solidly above average it means you don't get to shield yourself that Round. And if you get hit by something that halves your Energy while you're Aiming (like Cool your Jets) you'll have to wait another Round to use it... Unless your Energy is of 10, but at that point you deserve getting to fire your armageddon device no matter what.<br />
<br />
On the other hand when it goes right, it goes <i>right</i>. Because is a Big Freaking Gun that blows up everything on its path. It is the Granzon's Degeneracy Cannon meets the Shin Getter's Stoner Sunshine by way of the Yamato's Wave Motion Gun. It is powerful, it makes you think about how you can best put it to use, and it is fun to let loose with when you just want to tell a bad guy that their face is beaming <i>in the bad way</i>.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In Closing</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">I've made it pretty clear I care about Big Heroes, Fast Pacing, and Epic Plays. But I still care very much about options and balance, and of course none of all these things would mean much if not for the over-the-top robot action flavor to tie it all together.</span><br />
<br />
It also goes a long way towards showing I've got a solid foundation to work with and a few simple changes here and there are enough to fix most issues. Which is good because I'm done rewriting things from scratch and I don't want character concepts ruined because they were written around something that needed to be taken out.<br />
<br />
Next week: Announcements! Changes! Things Happening!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-71026892442284594802014-01-12T19:21:00.001-08:002014-01-12T19:21:41.184-08:00The Fundamental Principles of Battle Century GOne of the biggest problems I had while trying to fix GGG's issues was its lack of focus. I wanted to adapt SRW mechanics to a tabletop but had to do away with the mathcraft inherent in the videogame. I wanted a point-buy system but had to resort to prebuilt choices in chassis types to make the options balanced. I wanted an effects-based system yet had rifles and missile launchers as inherently different types of weapons. It was messy, you get the idea. I was playing a balancing act with all these things and that hurt the game as a whole.<br /><br />I had a lot more freedom with the Pilot and Intermission rules though, so I got them to work more or less fine. The idea of making a simplified version of the game by making Mecha and Operations more like their counterparts took root inside my head. And while I was trying to get some GGG hacks working, I realized that writing them would be so much easier with a faster and looser rules system. <br /><br />
The problem with following through on that was that it would not be GGG at all. Sure, it would be similar, in the way that the SNES and Genesis were both big on platformers and shared tons of popular titles, yet were pretty different other than that. Calling the new game GGG would basically be lying, so while it would look like I was giving up on giant robot action, I'd have to give up the name.<br />
<br />
And it was a pretty cool name, too. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Big Three</span><br /><br />
I've been slowly unveiling a bunch of stuff over the past two months
and showing some of the biggest changes. I figure it'd be a good idea to
go back to the basics and clearly state the core principles of Battle
Century G while showing off some more stuff that I didn't get a chance
to preview yet.<br />
<br />
Yes, I kind of brought them up before when first introducing the system as a whole, but that was more in comparison to GGG. This post is more about how the game stands on its own, rather than how it differs.<br />
<br />
I've got a lot more experience now than when I started writing GGG, and that means a much better idea of how game mechanics work out in theory and practice. I know what I am going for much better this time around, and I have three big tenets in mind I intend to uphold as much as possible for Battle Century G.<br /><br /><b>Big Heroes</b><br />
<br />
Test results lean toward success rather than failure, and the adjustable Power Levels means you can start a game at whichever power scale you like best, so you can be above average or outright godly in power from the start. On top of that there's Tension, which lets you overcome anything through patience, and Genre Powers to turn failures into successes <i>right now</i> without having to wait. These two also let players who fall behind on the damage race catch up to their opponents, either by using Genre Points before the enemy gets to use them, or through a PC built around drawing more power from Tension bonuses than their foes. <br /><br />Frankly this tenet is kind of a gimme because GGG already subscribed to it, but I'm just letting you know that it is still priority number one.<br />
<br />
Wiht that said, there is one potential problem with Battle Century G in this regard: HP totals are a little on the lower side at Power Levels under 2. A lucky early hit can Maim multiple Areas of your Mecha, or even take you down entirely. That's not a very heroic thing to happen, so let's put a few potential countermeasures in place.<br /><br />
Invincible Alloy<b><br /></b>Type: Internal Upgrade<br />Cost: 10<br />
Effect: At the beginning of your Turn you may spend 2 Energy to ignore the effects of Maiming on your External Areas for a Round. The first time that you would be destroyed during an Operation, you remain functional with a Threshold of 1 instead.<br />Your giant robot dons a new composite alloy of Element G, reinforced to withstand the rigors of battle better than most others.Even your internals are reinforced, making your equipment that much harder to disable.<br /><br />Integrated Weapons<b><br /></b>Type: Internal Upgrade<br />Cost: 10<br />
Effect: You may use your Weapons even if the Area they were allocated to has been Maimed.<br />Your Weapons are integrated to the Mecha’s very frame. Cannons are mounted to the shoulders, blades attached to the hands and knees. You are now effectively immune to disarming.<br /><br />These are a steal at just 10 MP for the huge safety net they provide. With Integrated Weapons you'll always have your guns available no matter what, though you can still lose key abilities like Reversible Thrusters and Jury-Rig. Invincible Alloy meanwhile almost guarantees you get a parting shot with all your accumulated Genre Points, and also stops Maim status entirely if you can invest some Energy into it.<br />
<br />
It bears mention that Invincible Alloy even works with Features like Power Suit, which are incompatible with Integrated Weapons.<br /><br /><b>Fast Pacing</b><br />
<br />
For a game to play fast it needs as few rolls of the dice as possible and the rules need to be simple enough so that there's no need to reference them in the middle of a session. This is where BCG's focus in transparency of rules comes into play too, because there's less pausing and crunch numbers. As a bonus it is harder to make a suboptimal character by mistake, and harder to break the game's math on your knee too.<br /><br />The one problem with this approach is that it takes away some of the system's depth of gameplay, increasing the risk of having one possible character build that trumps over all others. Fortunately, we now have the Speed as an Attribute. Speeds adds an element of positioning to the game's battlefield tactics and character build strategy, so there's more to think about than how powerful your guns and shields are.<br />
<br />
Since we are on the topic of positioning, let's talk about the primary way there is to control the opposition's movement: Duels.<br /><br />Units in a Duel may, at the beginning of their Turn, make a Contested Speed Test against their opponent. The winner gets to Move both participants a number of Zones equal to the lowest Speed of the two in a direction of their choice.<br /><br />Duelists get to control enemy movement better than anyone else, specially with Got You Where I Wanted in the mix. If you have Anti-Gravity this lets you drag enemies around into Difficult or Extreme Terrain and keep them there.<br />
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<b>Epic Plays</b><br />
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Player Character Mecha have a lot of resources at their disposal every Turn, and while some of them are renewable like Actions and Energy, most of them aren't. Having so much power to draw from lets you choose when you are going to have a big Turn and make that choice stick. This builds on the transparency mentioned above, where there's less invisible or random variables going on other than the hidden information of the enemy's own abilities. When you use a Power like Signature Weapon you know your attack is going to hit hard, and the only thing that could stop that from happening is another defensive Genre Power. To put it another way, you know that you won't spend your points or energy uselessly.<br /><br />The primary issue we could run into here is in carefully balancing all the various ways the game has to murder each other without making it too easy to obliterate the opposition on the first round. At the same time, there have to be a few 'risky moves' that PCs can resort to when they don't have any resources like Energy or Genre to burn, making for stronger attacks that could accidentally go catastrophically wrong. To sate the demand for both of those there's Techniques. You already know Radiant Fist, which potentially causes you as much Damage as the extra amount you're dealing to your foe. Now meet his baby brothers of the Technique family.<br />
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Zweihander<br />Type: Melee Weapon<br />
Cost: 5 <br />
Effect: Technique. Enemies attacked with this Weapon gain double benefit from Tension to Might Tests against you for a Round. <br />Description: Sheer size is the name of the game with some Weapons. From giant tomahawks to enormous spears, there is a lot of variety out there for Gears who want to just destroy whatever is on their way without having to resort to energy-based equipment. The downside is that they are unwieldy and often leave you open to counterattacks.<br />
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Missile Massacre<br />Type: Shooting Weapon<br />
Cost: 5<br />Effect: Technique. After attacking an Enemy with this Weapon, you lose the benefit of Tension to all further Might Tests against them for the rest of the Operation with all Weapons, not just Techniques.<br />Description: A figurative circus display of missiles shot in a pattern that makes trying to evade them nearly futile. This advanced maneuver impacts from multiple angles at once to increase the chances of a direct hit. But savvy foes will learn your patterns from this move, and will have a much easier time avoiding you afterwards. <br />
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Remember, the first Technique used during an Operation gains double benefit from Tension but all Techniques used afterwards gain no benefit from Tension whatsoever. These Weapons make for fantastic finishers, but if you fail to destroy your target when you use them, you'll regret it.<br />
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That's all for today, it is a bit of a short post but I'm busy and it was either keeping it short or going for a week without one and I don't want to cut my streak short just yet. I might end up making them shorter but weekly rather than longer but having only one or two per month, we'll see. For now, see you next Sunday!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-85000342064079658922014-01-05T07:56:00.000-08:002014-01-05T17:17:29.335-08:00Genre Powers and Enemies in Battle Century GIt is a new year and by the end of this month I expect to have something to show of the new game. Is this a promise? No, it is more a statement of intention. So let's get started on today's post and I'll get back to working on the game. Today on exhibition we have the Genre Powers that I talked about previously but weren't quite balanced enough yet to show off and, on the GM's side of the ring, enemies and their new toys.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You've got the Touch</span><br />
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I mentioned before that there will be less Genre Powers to go around for Battle Century G, but that they will be stronger by comparison to compensate. Everyone has the Default six Powers, which are largely like their GGG versions, so let's move on to the Powers you get to pick for yourself. Remember, there are no packages this time around, so you can mix and match Powers suited to different roles if you'd like to do that.<br />
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<b>Signature Weapon (Specialist)</b><br />
Type: Setup Power<br />
Effect: Choose any one Weapon you have when you take this Power. Activate Signature Weapon to make your next Offensive Action using the chosen Weapon immune to the effects of Active Defenses and increase the result of its Might Test by 5. You may use different Signature Weapons during the same Operation.<br />
Description: “FINAL ATTACK, SKULL COLLECTOR!” The Demiurge violently tore off the head of the alien monster, and impaled it along the other 49 on its crystal-riden back. “YESSS, I AM THE BEST AT SKULLS!”<br />
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Having only one attack and defense stat instead of two, this basically doubles your offense and halves enemy defense, so it'll hit like a colony drop. On the other hand, it can only be used once per Operation and only with a specific Weapon, so you have to plan for it and time it properly. It is the go-to power of choice for Offensive specialists who just want raw power.<br />
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But it is not the only offensive option.<br />
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<b>Got you where I Wanted</b><br />
Type: Reaction Power<br />
Effect: After dealing Damage to an Enemy through a Might Test using a Melee Weapon, you may slide the target a number of Zones in a direction of your choice equal to half the Damage dealt this way. If the target is in a Duel, this will cause them to Disengage, and if you drag them into your Zone you may force you both into a Duel. You may not use this Power more than once per Offensive Action.<br />
Description: Isaac made his Gear tackle a Botakuri, the team was being swarmed and they had to corral the hordes one way or the other. “ORYAAAAAAAAA!!” One giant robot lifted the other, swung it around like a flail, and violently threw the Botakuri back into the killzone.<br />
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Melee Weapons are consistently stronger than Shooting ones once you've locked down your target, and this Power helps you set up that scenario. It also lets you knock an Enemy all the way across the battlefield into a patch of Extreme Terrain or the middle of your allied forces. This would be too powerful on a Shooting Weapon, but as a Melee one it works just right. Take note how it synergizes with Weapon Master too - that Upgrade already lets you bypass active defenses and makes all your Melee attacks stronger, so you're better off with this rather than Signature Weapon.<br />
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<b>Sniping the Targets</b><br />
Type: Setup Power<br />
Effect: Gain an Advantage to your next Might Test using a Shooting Weapon. Increase the maximum Range of that Weapon by 10 for your next Offensive Action. You may not use this Power more than once per Offensive Action.<br />
Description: The G-Bow was already at maximum output, yet the target was beyond what Charlotte already knew was her effective range. So she aimed upwards and fired, piercing the clouds with a burning arrow that struck down its target like a meteor. “I didn’t make Archery Team Captain collecting coupons, mate.”<br />
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This one is a little like an Aim Action, except it grants less power and has longer reach. More importantly, it <i>stacks</i> with Aiming, giving you a Range of around 20 if you combine those, and higher than that with a Long-Range gun. That is more than enough distance to let you activate Weapon Master's barrier piercing ability safely, with your four Advantages to the Might Test (one from this Power, two from Aiming, one from Weapon Master). It is perfect for brutal opening salvoes.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You've got the Power</span><br />
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Powers can do more than just make you hit bad guys for bigger numbers, and there are several utility and support Powers to that end. Here's a few of them: <br />
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<b>The Tacticool Approach</b><br />
Type: Reaction Power<br />
Effect: Replace your Might with your Systems to alter the result of a Test you just rolled or replace your Guard with it to change your Defense against a single Might Test.<br />
Description: They both knew there was no way their flimsy weapons would overwhelm the Cryptid’s forcefield, but Jo kept typing madly as a dutiful operator “I am done redirecting all power to the Helix Cannon.” Harry gulped in response “So this is it. Win big or go home.” his trigger finger sweaty and itchy. Jo just chuckled “My suggestion? Hold on to your butt.”<br />
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Systems-users have several tricks up their sleeve to fight head to head with Might and Guard specialists. This is one of them. It is not as strong as the others, and requires a specific build, but it can be used multiple times to compensate.The best part is that nothing about it is random, and because it works at Reaction Speed you can just activate it when you know you need an extra one or two points to negate an enemy attack or to bypass their defense.<br />
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<b>This is my Trump Card (Specialist)</b><br />
Type: Setup Power<br />
Effect: Choose a combination of External Upgrades or Weapons that Costs no more than 10 MP when you take this Power and assign it to a compatible Area. Activate This is my Trump Card to gain those Upgrades or Weapons until end of Operation. You may not use more than one instance of This is my Trump Card per Operation.<br />
Description: “Give up, you’re out of ammunition and surrounded, be reasonable!” The enemy shouted. “NO, I REFUSE!” Came the reply from the silver-coloured Gear. It flew into the air and began bombarding its enemies with a rain of fireballs. “I TOTALLY HAVE ICE MISSILES TOO!”<br />
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That whole thing about GP being worth 10 MP comes back full circle here. This only gets External abilities, so you cannot use it to get an Assistant. Other than that, it is notable for being weaker than its GGG equivalent, mostly because the original was ridiculous - now you get one third of a Power Level, not <i>a full Power Level</i>.<br />
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<b>Cool your Jets</b><br />
Type: Setup Power<br />
Effect: Any one Enemy has their available Energy halved and will suffer a point of Damage per Energy point they spend for a Round.<br />
Description: Kao dodged another hit from the immense Outsider, and another, and another. He kept dodging until he found an opening to slide the G-Drain underneath the enemy’s feet. The device activated and began to drain the power away from the monster’s Gravagne Field. “Ever heard of fighting smart, not hard?”<br />
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In a game where Energy is a resource that regenerates consistently, just losing a few points vaguely counts as a nuisance. At the same time, just shutting down someone's entire Energy reserves is often a death sentence, so there's gotta be a balance somewhere. With this, you can still potentially ruin their entire battle plan, though not destroy them outright - which is fine, you are playing a support role after all!<br />
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<b>Mind Over Matter</b><br />
Type: Reaction Power<br />
Effect: You or an Ally get to treat Maimed Areas and halved Attributes as normal for a number of Rounds equal to your Power Level. Mind over Matter will also stop effects that halve your available Energy, even if the Attribute itself remais untouched.<br />
Description: The Cryptids netted another ally with their labryinthine restrainments, capturing the Paladin much like a spider would web a fly. Russell drawled “You know what I call people who rely on all this fancy bullshit instead of giving their enemy a good scrap?” After a short wait, he spilled the punchline “Cowards.” With a flex of their synthmuscles, he and his comrades broke free.<br />
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This is one of the weaker support Powers in that it doesn't give any hard bonuses, it only cancels penalties. But boy does it stop those penalties <i>hard</i>. Enemies relying on debuff gimmicks can be quite nasty if you're unprepared, so as a reward for your foresight you get to shut them down for potentially the entire battle! And yes, there's a few more mechanics that draw from Power Level for strength, though they're mostly support-oriented because the stuff meant for direct combat uses Tension or half-Tension instead.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Enemies and Power Level</span><br />
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Much like with GGG, I want GMs to be able to populate whole encounters full of diverse enemy NPCs in a way that is quick and fun. The general idea behind enemy design in BCG is going to be pretty similar to that of GGG, we'll have Grunts, Rivals and Bosses. Because of <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/11/pacing-in-battle-century-g.html">the Power Level system</a>, we can scale them to have hordes of mooks made out of explodium and superbosses that take on entire parties on their own, as well as elite mooks and minibosses to go with it.<br />
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Grunts lack Genre Points and have Attributes corresponding to one Power Level below PCs. Bosses have special abilities and Attributes corresponding to one Power Level <i>above</i> the PCs. Rivals are the equivalent of PCs but without Themes.<br />
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You'd think that creating a high-level Boss would take a whole lot of math and time with all those points to spend on Attributes. You <i>could</i> take your time getting Bosses just perfect, yes. Or you could grab one of the templates below, maybe switch some Attributes around, and call it a day.<br />
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<b>Eagle</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-dYpg5gVSwvWRUPnkSy7o3pglXZ6eznYv8hOh9OnXxRQCAD3MK8gtfOu8m4HXXWExfsZ24cS0enzPUljAAyGHDLRMAPsllUG7QQ9BO8p7IR4A5MqOKbNKHwXtkKSRfhVHZyCQHpPo-P5w/s1600/eagle.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-dYpg5gVSwvWRUPnkSy7o3pglXZ6eznYv8hOh9OnXxRQCAD3MK8gtfOu8m4HXXWExfsZ24cS0enzPUljAAyGHDLRMAPsllUG7QQ9BO8p7IR4A5MqOKbNKHwXtkKSRfhVHZyCQHpPo-P5w/s1600/eagle.png" title="I had to redo these tables in excel then screenshot them because blogger has a seizure when I throw tables at it." /></a></div>
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<b>Dynamic </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnVkyj7RDrBhbPNQqlZzJ-lut-Pejl6Vb2oCiDDJljopI1D8uByviyoj58LRsXAnv8K74a3Rx3rhCJolD19aEfVFo9NbFfy195CjijAIdn1FHRec6TZgGY_E-BI-QM4BXYZaIX5ARdq9b/s1600/dynamic.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnVkyj7RDrBhbPNQqlZzJ-lut-Pejl6Vb2oCiDDJljopI1D8uByviyoj58LRsXAnv8K74a3Rx3rhCJolD19aEfVFo9NbFfy195CjijAIdn1FHRec6TZgGY_E-BI-QM4BXYZaIX5ARdq9b/s1600/dynamic.png" title="I think I might have spent longer trying to get them to work and then redoing them this way than writing the rest of the post itself." /></a><br />
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<b>Destroyer</b><br />
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<b>Shield</b><br />
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These tables are made assuming you spend around 60 MP on Upgrades and Weapons, and everything else on Attributes - you can adjust the Power Level used to compensate around changing that around. There is no Power Level 0 listed because that is just three stats at 4 and three stats at 0.<br />
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This should keep enemy generation quick, and also help out anyone who wants to start a game at a higher Power Level than normal.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bosses Then</span><br />
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I like the way GGG did Bosses conceptually but obviously a lot of the
rules won't translate very well (or at all) to BCG. Not only are the
various stats different, but the reduced HP totals mean that it is more
likely for a Boss to get blown up before they show off their Level 3
abilities. <br />
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To fix this they have higher Attributes than normal and most of their special abilities improve their survivability, or are designed around getting beat up. Bosses are a special case in that their Attributes go up while they still get more special abilities with every Power Level. This basically means that they grow twice as fast as PCs do.<br />
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What about Boss abilities? Glad you asked: <br />
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<b>Your Fate is Sealed</b><br />
Type: Setup Power<br />
Effect: One Enemy loses the benefit of Tension to Might Tests and may not have any lost Threshold restored for a number of Rounds equal to your Power Level.<br />
Description: Her Gear was unresponsive no matter how much she tried to steer it out of the monster’s way. It wasn’t until Bunny looked into the Cryptid’s piercing eyes for herself that she realized her Gear was frozen in terror. And so had she.<br />
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<b>Bullet Hell</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade<br />
Level 2 Effect: When you enter this Level, Enemies within an amount of Zones equal to your Systems must Test Speed against a DN of 10, taking the amount the fail the test by as Damage.<br />
Level 3 Effect: As above, but the DN is of 15 instead.<br />
Level 4 Effect: As above, but the DN is of 20 instead.<br />
Description: When you’ve got more enemies than limbs, it is a good idea to pack several dozen energy cannons. A neat bonus is that your ever-growing colorful patterns of destruction are almost hypnotic to look at.<br />
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<b>Ultimate Bomb</b><br />
Type: Shooting Weapon<br />
Effect: Long-Range. This Weapon is like a Blast but with 10 Zones in radius. If you are within its area of effect, it will cause you to attack yourself.<br />
Description: The UEF’s mighty 3G-Bomb is one of the most fearsome tools of mass destruction ever devised. Preferably do not launch it against anything less than a dozen kilometers away. In fact just do not launch it.<br />
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Your Fate is Sealed is nasty. It shuts down Techniques and Regeneration-based defenses pretty hard, forcing you to come up with a new plan or to fall back and play a supporting role until the effects fade away. Bullet Hell is one of a number of Upgrades that trigger special abilities after their Threshold Level was breached. And Ultimate Bomb is horrible to deal with when the enemy has Terrain on their side or bulky Grunts to block your way. Units don't usually hit themselves with Blasts, but with this one they will, so get up close and force them to change their plans.<br />
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By the way, Boss Weapons cannot be Maimed, but you can still gain benefit from Maiming certain Bosses <br />
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<b>Biological</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade <br />
Effect: At the beginning of your Turn you may spend any amount of Energy to restore half that much Threshold to yourself. Whenever one of your Areas gets Maimed, one of your Attributes is halved. Losing the Head halves your Systems, the Torso halves your Guard, the Arms halve your Might and the Legs your Speed.You ignore the Ejection rules, and losing the fourth Level of Threshold kills you.<br />
Description: Both Outsiders and Cryptids have very unique physiologies. The bad news is that they are relentless and will heal any wound that is not fatal in time. The good news is that their bodies are unstable, paradoxically reacting the most violently to Element G, the substance they seem to be made out of.<br />
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This serves two purposes in making Bosses harder to kill while not rendering them completely immune to the whole Maiming mechanic. Giant monsters have longer fighting matches on their side so you can't afford to let them live for long, but blowing up the right body part can be a deciding factor in ending the battle with fewer casualties.<br />
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Any good sequel knows what things to keep from from the original, and Enemy creation possibly changed the least from GGG to BCG as far as big things go. For the most part it is just a refinement and adaptation of the old version to fit better the gameplay of BCG. The Power Level system lets you get away with encounters that were kind of hard to set up before, and there's going to be a sidebar with suggestions to make Enemies going beyond Power Level 5. Mostly Bosses, because that's what you want to do with them anyway.<br />
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But this is not over yet.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bosses Now</span><br />
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Of course I'm not just stopping there when it comes to Bosses. Bosses have new toys to make not just more threatening and effective enemies, but also more <i>interesting</i> ones. For instance, if you think you can make easy pickings of a Boss while they're vulnerable out of their robot, then you'll be surprised when you find out they can <i>read your every move</i>.<br />
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<b>Combat Profiling</b><br />
Type: Boss Trait<br />
Effect: At the beginning of your Turn you may ask one Player a single yes or no question about what their PC will be doing during their next Turn. If the Player abides by their answer, you also gain double benefit from Tension against them for a Round. If they do not, they lose a Genre Point. You may not use this ability more than a number of times equal to your Power Level per Episode.<br />
Description: You have magnificent observation skills and put them to use during battle, and can read movement patterns from your enemies like they’re an open book. Just stay away from reckless savages who act crazy and break their mold.<br />
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As expected of Dark Overlord-sama, he is on a whole different level from the average PC!<br />
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Boss NPCs get one Boss Trait for each of their Power Levels, so expect the high tier NPCs to present a legitimate threat if faced early on.<br />
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Specially because you can't even overpower them with Mecha.<br />
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<b>Giant Slayer</b><br />
Type: Boss Trait<br />
Effect: You do not halve the Damage you would deal against Mecha while on foot and they no longer deal double Damage against you. You increase your Defense by twice your Power Level against Mecha and may use Deathblows against them.<br />
Description: You can fight toe to toe with giant robots, which is every bit as superhuman as it sounds. Enemies regard you as more monster than human, and they might even be right.<br />
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The first sidebar ever written for GGG was about fighting Mecha on foot and how much of a terrible idea it was. Also about how I wasn't going to include rules for playing Master Asia in the name of balance. While I still very much think that <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/09/recycling-old-junk.html">this should not be an option for the average PC</a>, it is a perfectly valid thing for Boss NPCs to do.<br />
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But that is not enough power yet. If Boss Mecha of a high Power Level are going to be endgame encounters by their own, they need something more, something special and beyond regular Boss abilities. A Boss Capstone, if you will. One like this.<br />
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<b>Colossus</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade<br />
Effect: You occupy 9 Zones in a shape of your choice, chosen when you take this Capstone. All Zones occupied by your body count as Extreme Terrain for Enemies in them. You cannot Engage in or be Engaged into a Duel, but all your Melee Weapons gain an Advantage to their use, and Shooting Weapons used against you suffer a Disadvantage to their Might Tests.<br />
Description: Giant robots are huge, yet you make them look like ants. You could raze a city to the ground in minutes just moving around, and without having to fire any of your Weapons.<br />
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Just standing near them is enough to make them swat you like a fly, and good luck outrunning a guy who is <i>almost ten times your size</i>. This is what you call a Boss Capstone, an ability so powerful you have to be of Power Level 5 to have just one of them. But a genuine final boss who flies solo will need more than one Capstone, because there's baddies, there's big bads, and then there's the vast and unknowable entities whose pure hatred for you and your friends cuts into your soul like a knife through butter.<br />
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<b>Embodiment of Evil</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade<br />
Effect: Enemies must spend two Genre Points instead of one to activate Genre Powers.<br />
Description: Your hatred for everything that lives is pure and relentless, flowing through all of your being. The heroes think they can face you with their clever plans, dramatic speeches, and great sacrifices. But you hate them so much that none of those things will matter. In the end, there is only hate.<br />
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Bosses of Power Level 5 get to have a single Capstone ability, but if you want a single enemy who can take on parties larger than 4 then you'll have to increase their Power Level beyond 5, upping their Attributes and granting them one more Capstone each Power Level. This in addition to, you know, having to deal with the regular assortment of Boss Powers, Upgrades and Weapons.<br />
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High-End Bosses with multiple Capstones should make for some really memorable boss fights. Add some Boss Traits for the on-the-ground encounters and you're a long way into making bad guys that Players will love to hate.<br />
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Anyway, that's all for today, join me next time when I make a more
general theory post about the principles of game design I'm going for and show off some more stuff.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-51879547766209157092013-12-29T07:58:00.001-08:002013-12-30T03:47:59.953-08:00The Super Robots of Battle Century GBefore getting to the meat of today's post I want to clarify a few things that I glossed over or outright forgot last week - I wrote that post in a hurry and a few things escaped my mind. For instance I forgot to bring up Terrain. Anti-Gravity focuses around ignoring it and Fire at Will causes someone to suffer Extreme Terrain, and knowing what Terrain does is kind of important in the context of discussing those two.<br />
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<b>Difficult</b><br />
Rocky and uneven hills, deserts that clog your Mecha’s joints with sand and strong currents that leave your giant robot waist deep in water. These are all good examples of Difficult Terrain, known for how much it complicates the lives of those trying to cross it. Units Halve their Speed while they are within Difficult Terrain.<br />
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<b>Extreme</b><br />
Extreme Terrain covers a variety of hazardous environs that are deadly to both people and giant robots. Examples of Extreme Terrain include magnetic storms and erupting volcanoes. An Unit that begins or ends a Turn within Extreme Terrain must average their Systems and Speed and Test against a DN of 10. Should they fail the Test, they then take the amount they failed it by as Damage. If they begin and end a Turn within Extreme Terrain, each instance threatens them separately.<br />
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Extreme Terrain is a lot less brutal than its GGG incarnation, but it is much harder to avoid entirely as well. It is almost always guaranteed to trigger at least once, and because you are averaging two stats it is harder to autosucceed. Yes, an average roll (5) with slightly above average stats (5) will nullify it entirely, but when it happens twice it is likely to end up hurting you at least a little, specially if you did not invest in Systems and Speed. Something like Fire at Will is a death sentence for 0 Systems, 0 Threshold Grunts everywhere.<br />
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The averaged Attributes mechanic is pretty similar to the way Maneuvering works. To Maneuver you average your Systems and Speed then roll a Test, you gain half the result in Defense for a Round. You may give this Defense bonus to an Ally within 1 Zone of Range from you instead of keeping it for yourself. Multiple Maneuvers do not stack together, using only the highest result of the bunch. This is much more effective than just imparting a -2 or two to your opponent, lets you cover your allies without having to buy special abilities (though there's going to be some of those for designated party tanks), and only gets stronger with Defensive Terrain. Speaking of which...<br />
<br />
<b>Defensive</b><br />
Defensive Terrain is distinguished by having a lot of cover for Units, making it comparable to the Mecha equivalent of war trenches. Examples of Defensive Terrain are most urban settings, deep jungles, and asteroid fields. Defensive Terrain adds the entirety of the Test result to Defense when using the Maneuver Action.<br />
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So that's Terrain. I also glossed over the fact that Support Upgrades are Utility Actions (aka, the not-Offensive ones) so you can use them from really far away (twice your Systems is usually beyond the reach of most Long-Range Weapons, specially as a Systems specialist) while keeping your distance and running away at the same time. Yes, you can run away while bombarding someone with Fire at Will for as long as your Resupply allows.<br />
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Just, you know, be careful about running into a wall. Most Battlefields shouldn't have more than a couple Turns' worth of Benny Hill chase scenes to them, for reasons that I hope are obvious.<br />
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With these matters settled, we can now return to our scheduled blog post.<br />
<br />
Today is Super Robot Day! If monster trainers are going to have rules for handling multiple monsters at the same time and spellcasters get to have multiple elements for their blasts of wizardry, then giant robots get to transform and combine. Let's not waste more words and get to it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Two Vehicles for the Price of One</span><br />
<br />
The Transformation line has always been the toughest for me to design and balance in GGG. It was either too strong, didn't let you do things you'd expect a transformer to do, or was too complex. Usually it was a combination of those three factors too. Ultimately I ended up making them a bit stronger than they should be, essentially making the Upgrade pay for itself and grant you an extra free 5 UP. Because it was better than the alternatives, even if it ended up being a tad wordy for my liking.<br />
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Not anymore. Meet Battle Century G's Transformations, courtesy of the new Attribute system. <br />
<br />
<b>Name: Transformation</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: Choose two of Might, Guard, Systems or Speed when you take this Upgrade. You switch the value of the chosen Attributes around when you Transform. You may switch back and forth from this Transformation at the beginning of your Turn by spending 2 Energy or as an Action.<br />
Description: Your Mecha is a transformer, going from flying robot to a faster plane form, retaining all your equipment and abilities between forms.<br />
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Your tank form trades speed for power, while your plane form is more fragile but also moves faster. You can even use this to represent combat stances, trading your might for guard or something along those lines. Because all stats are equal(<i>ish</i>) in value, we can do fancy things like switch defense for speed or speed for attack without it breaking the game's math down its knee, and since Energy regenerates, we can also give it a cost and make it a thing you have to <i>think</i> about using without <i>punishing</i> you for using it a lot.<br />
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With that said, this doesn't work very well for Mecha that want their forms to be radically different from each other. Sometimes you want your plane form to be the only one that can fly and your robot form the only one that can use melee weapons. And that's why we have this little thing here.<br />
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<b>Name: Superior Morphing</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade <br />
Cost: 20<br />
Effect: You may Transform for 1 Energy instead of 2. When you purchase this Upgrade, make two sets of External Upgrades or Weapons with a total cost of 10 MP for each set. Assign each set to a different Form, but all in the same Areas. The Cost in MP of these sets is already paid by this Upgrade.<br />
Description: Your internal framework has been modified to allow for faster and more versatile changes between equipment. Your jets can turn into cannons and your wheels into shields.<br />
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I love creative solutions to design problems. In practical terms you are only paying for the ability to switch stats, since Superior Morphing splits its cost of 20 MP (Mecha Points, not Upgrade Points) between two forms, it doesn't really cost you anything. You can get more Transformations this way, and the cost remains even. Buy Transformation twice and you have three forms, each with its own discrete 10 MP to spend on things.<br />
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But of course, the ability to transform is at its strongest when you use Features...<br />
<br />
<b>Name: Terrain Specialist</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade <br />
Cost: 0<br />
Effect: Choose one of underwater, space, or land when you take this Feature. While you are in said environment you gain the benefit of Defensive Terrain, ignore the effects of Difficult Terrain, and may shoot through a Zone occupied by an Enemy to reach another behind it as if they weren’t there. Outside your chosen environment your Speed and Guard Attributes are halved.<br />
Description: A lot of machines derived from the technology that is used for Gears are not humanoid. You can find anything from mecha mermen to fearsome beastly robots resembling mammals or even arthropods, adapted for land-to-land encounters.<br />
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Yep. Good old Terrain Specialist. It is a lot more intuitive now, having the good parts of Anti-Gravity and giving you a little extra for your trouble. And of course, it works fantastically when you can change your specified Terrain on the go. <br />
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What about the other Features? Well, they're still there, and they're better than ever.<br />
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<b>Name: Extreme Fortification</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade<br />
Cost: 0 <br />
Effect: You halve all Damage you would usually take from any source that isn’t an Might Test, but only have half your Energy Attribute to spend every Round. This also works for abilties that are a secondary effect of using a Weapon but separate from the Might Test itself.<br />
Description: You are reinforced internally and externally, at the price of having to use smaller and less powerful energy reactors. Through this method, you can survive in the most inhospitable places known to mankind and weather some pretty heavy attacks as a bonus. Just mind your reserves.<br />
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<b>Name: Power Suit</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade<br />
Cost: 0<br />
Effect: This Unit does not lose any abilities allocated to its Areas from Maiming. Instead each Area lost to damage halves one of your Attributes. Losing the Head halves your Systems, the Torso halves your Guard, the Arms halve your Might and the Legs your Speed.<br />
Description: Instead of a giant robot you have a suit of mechanized armor. It is powerful enough to stand up to the big kids, but it is much more susceptible to direct hits.<br />
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Extreme Fortification offers very, very good defenses but you have less Energy to protect yourself with from regular attacks. Power Suit offers a legitimate alternative to the usual Maim system, and a pretty intuitive one at that. I am much happier with the Battle Century G versions of these two. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Two Pilots are Better than One</span><br />
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And so we move on to Multipilot units. Let's start with the simplest one of the bunch, which is for NPC Subpilots. Remember how I said a couple weeks ago that <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/11/pacing-in-battle-century-g.html">a Genre Power (and the Point spent to use it) cost roughly 10 XP?</a>.<br />
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<b>Name: Assistant (Specialist)</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade <br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: You gain a Subpilot, this grants you any one Genre Power from the available lists to your character and another Genre Point to use during Operations.<br />
Description: You get a second pair of hands to help you out in the battlefield. The know-how and support from this subpilot will improve your Gear’s efficiency beyond what you could manage on your own.<br />
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This would make a lot more sense if I had shown you any Genre Powers yet. But I swear it is strong! We'll get there soon. NPC Subpilots are useful, but they're still NPC Subpilots and thus not all that interesting. Let's see what the dark gods of streamlining have done to Multi-PC Combiners...<br />
<br />
<b>Name: Component Unit</b><br />
Type: Internal Upgrade<br />
Cost: 0<br />
Effect: Choose one of the four External Areas belonging to the Unit you will combine with. After you have Combined, the lead Unit gains all of your External Upgrades and Weapons assigning them to the chosen Area and it may use your Might, Guard, Systems or Speed in place of theirs if it is higher. You are now a Subpilot for the lead Unit. If the chosen Area is Maimed the lead Unit does not lose you as a Subpilot nor do their Attributes return to normal.<br />
Description: Parts of your Mecha have been clearly designed to be linked up and shared with other giant robots. Maybe it can form the arms of even larger Mecha’s torso, or turn into a giant backpack for another Mecha.<br />
<br />
...Well, that is a <i>lot</i> shorter than the GGG version. Still wordy! But not half as long. It is also a lot more intuitive. PCs that become Subpilots can still take Actions during their Turns, but they can only be Utility Actions, and may not Move the Unit in a direction of their choice along with it. They will have to Boost if they want to make any Movement at all. Actions from specific Upgrades like Restoration or Support Upgrades may be used this way as long as the lead also has access to them. That means Separate and External Upgrades, but not Internal ones.<br />
<br />
Of course, the only reason I managed to make it shorter is because
Subpilot PCs have their own sidebar explaining their rules! I am so
clever, outsmarting my own formatting like that. Note that this is only for PC Subpilots, NPC Subpilots are just Assistants. This is both because they are less skilled than PCs, and because a single PC should not be able to essentially have two or more Turns each Round, at least not in a game meant to be simpler.<br />
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The game is built to handle combiners a lot better now, and there are plenty of ways to build them too, making them fun to play with more than once or twice. A dedicated Component would most likely have high Systems and use Restoration or Support upgrades, but could also grant Systems and Speed to the lead then focus on Maneuvering. This means that you can have multiple Combiners joining up to form a Megazord and they can all split the work of buffing up the lead with each other. A dedicated team of Combiners would usually consist of exactly five PCs, each of the four Components granting the lead unit a different stat boost and External Upgrades to use in each Area. A dedicated Lead would focus on Threshold and Energy, plus Internal Upgrades like Weapon Specialization.<br />
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I hopefully did not miss a lot of stuff this time around, and everything (short of Assistants) makes sense now. Next time we'll go over Genre Powers now that I have a firm grasp on their power level, and also over Enemies because I have a few fun news for GMs concerning those. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-65023941041924106742013-12-22T16:18:00.001-08:002013-12-22T16:18:23.715-08:00The Secondary Attributes of Mecha in Battle Century GThe last few posts have been about straight up combat specialists and the toys they get to play with, but Battle Century G has more diverse combat roles to offer. Giant robots are fine as primarily bruisers or snipers with an utility option or two, but other types of heroes have dedicated support characters to provide healing, weaken enemies, and empower allies. And you know what? Mecha can have some of that, too.<br /><br />With the addition of Systems and Speed plus naturally regenerative Energy, there's tons of things you can do if you choose to skimp on the other Attributes. There are three Upgrade lines going by the names of Restoration, Mobility and Support which exist exclusively for the sake of PCs that choose to focus on those stats either as their primary or secondary Attributes. They're ideal for units that don't want to be frontline attackers or defenders and would rather help from the safety of the back lines.<br /><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Victory on the Heals of Defeat</span><br /><br />Restoration Upgrades let you heal, resupply or otherwise fix up yourself or your Allies. They can be used an amount of times per Operation equal to your Systems, and that goes for all of them together, not individually. They are very similar to Support Upgrades from GGG, though the name has been reassigned to a different line of abilities. We'll talk about those in a bit.<br /><br />Name: Resupply<br />Type: External<br />Cost: 5<br />Effect: As an Action, you may restock a single One-Shot Weapon or Support Upgrade after it has been spent. You may use Resupply on yourself or an Ally within 1 Zone.<br />Description: You have a comically big backpack with all the supplies you and your team could ever need to keep their weapons functional. It does not slow you down much, but it does stick out like a sore thumb so be careful with not letting it get caught in the crossfire.<br /><br />Name: Jury-Rig<br />Type: External<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: As an Action, you may spend any amount of Energy to restore that much Threshold to yourself or to any one Ally within 1 Zone.<br />Description: You carry a dispenser of fast-repair nanomachines and enough metaphorical (or literal) duct tape to keep allies from falling apart.<br /><br />Notice how Jury-Rig is more deterministic now - what you get is what you put in. It is also deceptively powerful. Consider that an average Energy and Systems lets you share 16 Threshold among your Allies - that's the HP total of someone who has an average Threshold! You can extend the lifespan of your team considerably if you specialize on Energy and Systems, but you need to put yourself at risk by getting close to the battle then spend your precious Actions there. And yes, I promise we'll get to Support Upgrades soon.<br /><br />But first let's touch on Mobility Upgrades, which increase your... well, your mobility. They're pretty self explanatory and don't really have any unifying rules to them so let's get to the examples:<br /><br />Name: Anti-Gravity<br />Type: External<br />Cost: 5<br />Effect: At the beginning of your Turn, you may spend 1 Energy to ignore the effects of any hindering Terrain and be able to shoot through a Zone occupied by an Enemy to reach another behind it as if they weren’t there. These benefits last for a Round. This Upgrade has no effect underwater or in space.<br />Description: Even though many Gears can jump inordinarily high or carry long-range Weapons to make up the difference. The ability to fly and move in three dimensions provides a lot of advantages that can easily turn the tide of a battle. Do not underestimate it.<br /><br />Name: Reversible Thrusters<br />Type: External<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: Anytime you take an Offensive Action, you may Move in any direction with it. The target must remain within a valid range after moving.<br />Description: With reversible thrusters you can move at full speed back where you came from without having to turn your back on the enemy. Put all that targeting equipment to use while pulling back with the dogfighter’s top pick as far as system improvements go.<br /><br />Anti-Gravity is very similar to the version GGG uses except it has no downside because is not a special mode, and most of GGG's special modes received a similar treatment. They lost their downsides, became part of the general game rules, were rolled into other abilities or had a fate along those lines.<br /><br />More interesting are the Reversible Thrusters, favorites of anyone who is not a fan of getting shot in the face and wants to let their friends take the heat for them. With slightly above average Systems, plus a Long-Range Shooting Weapon, you can fire away <i>from as far as 15 Zones</i>.<br />
<br />But just how strong is it? 15 Zones in Range sounds sounds like a lot when you can run away and shoot at the same time. Surprise surprise, it is far from unbeatable. With slightly above average Speed (5) and a Shooting Weapon you can already reach a target 10 Zones away from your starting position in a single Turn, if your Shooting Weapon is Long-Range and your Systems is 5, then you are pretty much set. <br /><br />What about those poor Melee specialists? Are they doomed to curse this Upgrade and swear revenge on the bloodline of the user? As a duelist you can just invest in Speed and Boost during your Turns. The Enemy will get a couple of free shots, sure, but you will inevitably catch up soon. Incidentally, this could lead to Benny Hill chase scenes, so we'll need a new type of Terrain to put limits on that: Impassable Terrain, which you cannot walk or fly over, blocks line of sight, and grants cover against attacks from that direction.<br /><br />Speed and Reversible Thrusters add a new dimension to combat: Managing your Range. Usually Melee specialists have the upper hand against Shooting experts, because once the former catches up to the latter it all goes down pretty fast. With this ability thrown into the mix, the odds are more even. Sure, they may still be able to Rocket Punch you, but by keeping your distance you are effectively disabling their strongest Weapons.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Battlefield Commanders</span> <br /><br />Our last Upgrade line for today is for dedicated support units who want to do more than heal and resupply their allies: Support Upgrades. These are the replacement for Sidekicks and Remote Weapons, representing NPC allies in battle. The way they work is <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/07/reining-npc-forces-in.html">much like the Reinforcements I wrote up a while ago</a> for the never-to-be manual of supplemental GGG material. How similar are they? See for yourself. <br /><br />Name: Assisted Targeting<br />Type: Separate Upgrade<br />Cost: 5<br />Effect: One Ally gains the benefits of the Aim Action to their next Offensive Action this Round.<br />Description: With some help from your friends in the sidelines working the supercomputers, you can mark and track targets in a fraction of the time it would usually take for you to pull it off.<br /><br />Name: Electromagnetic Detonator<br />Type: Separate Upgrade<br />Cost: 5<br />Effect: All Units within a target Area the size of a Blast have their remaining Energy halved for this Round.<br />Description: Most Gears these days are shielded from electromagnetic pulses, and trying to disable them that way is usually a fruitless effort. But that does not mean they are immune, and a well-placed EMP can still ruin their battle plan.<br /><br />Name: Ensnaring Trap<br />Type: Separate Upgrade<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: One Enemy halves their Guard and Speed for a Round.<br />Description: The overconfident always walk into their doom. The problem is that they usually don’t stay there waiting for it to come and get them. Enter this entrapment system, thinly disguised as part of the background, webbing down and trapping foes with wires made of reinforced Element G. With any luck it will hold them in place just long enough to fall prey to whatever other devious ploy you have in mind.<br /><br />Name: Fire at Will<br />Type: Separate Upgrade<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: One Enemy suffers the effects of Extreme Terrain during their next Turn. Anti-Gravity and Flyer cannot be used to avoid this ability.<br />Description: Friendly battleships, VTOLs, and tanks are no replacement for giant robots, but boy does their sheer volume of fire help.<br /><br />How do they work? Support Upgrades require an Action to activate and have a Range of twice your Systems Attribute - way longer than most Weapons will reasonably reach. They are spent after use though, so while they are pretty powerful you do have to think about using them, which is fine if you just want to have one or two of them for emergency uses. But the dedicated Support User has something else to work with...<br /><br />Name: Commander Type<br />Type: Internal Upgrade<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: You may use any Support Upgrade you own at the beginning of your Turn by spending 1 Energy instead of using an Action.<br />Description: You’ve got a special neural interface for a faster, yet more refined manipulation of all AI Units directly under your command.<br /><br />If you've been paying attention, you will remember that Resupply can restock your Supports. That means you could spam the same Support for as many Turns as your Systems Attribute allows, continuously spending it at the beginning of your Turn then Resupplying it with your Action. You can grant yourself an Aim bonus and shoot during the same Turn, or Ensnare an Enemy right before Fire at Will to make it really hurt, because Speed is now a factor in surviving Extreme Terrain. There's a myriad of uses for Supports, specially if you can use them without having to spend an Action.<br />
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And that is a wrap for this week. We still have to take a look at all the rules for fancy robots like Transformers, Multipilots and Combiners, which we'll do right before the end of the year. Now if you excuse me, I have presents to buy, because I'm told I need some of those to celebrate a Merry Capitalism Day. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-64478866734378230582013-12-15T03:24:00.002-08:002013-12-15T03:24:47.781-08:00Advanced Combat in Battle Century GLast time we went over the basics of mecha combat options in BCG. The options presented were some of the simplest, and I said they were representatives of about a third of other options of their type. Logic would indicate then that two thirds of the available Weapons would be a lot less boring and more interesting. Now we will take a look at some of those other combat options, starting with the finisher moves. <br /><br />But first, a short aside for a history lesson!<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">An Intense Trip down the Memory Lane</span><br /><br />Way back in the day, when I originally came up with Tension and was exploring what I could do with it, it was something of a resource much like Energy or Genre Points. Tension would naturally go up, but some abilities could increase or decrease your Tension. The very first version of GGG that was released included some ways to make it go up but none that made it go down. Losing Tension was kind of suicidal, so said abilities had to be overwhelmingly powerful to compensate for that and that just plain didn't make things work out very well. <br /><br />But here's the thing: Spending Tension was <i>cool</i>, it was like activating your Limit Break, and it is a shame that it did not work out. In the end, and as you can see from the last version of GGG, raising Tension was also deemed too strong. There were other abilities that depended on having a specific amount of Tension to trigger, and they got the axe too, because it is too difficult for the individual PC to control the pacing of an entire battle.<br /><br />By the late days of GGG's development, only Techniques and very few Tension-derived abilities still remained. Considering that Tension is probably my favorite mechanic from GGG and the one I'm most proud of, it was a disappointment I couldn't do more things with it.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And now Back to the Future</span><br /><br />Considering that Battle Century G aims to simplify and streamline combat math as much as possible, Techniques should grant one or perhaps two Advantages on their first activation, then suffer a Disadvantage for each subsequent use. It would be consistent with Deathblows and mirroring Intermission and Operation mechanics as much as possible is aesthetically pleasing. I think a lot about making things feel like they're part of a coherent, aesthetically pleasing whole too and that's important.<br /><br />Which is why I'm not doing that, because that's super dull.<br />
<br /><b>Technique</b><br />Techniques are special attacks stronger than normal, but are difficult to pull off and push the machine to its limits. Mecha simply cannot handle using them often at full power, and most Enemies will see them coming after the first time they fell for it. The first time you use a Technique during an Operation, it gains double the benefit from Tension to its Might Test. All Techniques used beyond the first will treat Tension as 0 until the Operation is over.<br /><br />Bam! Now that does pack some punch, doesn't it? It is true that getting tricksy with Tension didn't work out too well in the past... But that was with the old combat math. Now that everything is more streamlined, keeping these abilities in check is much easier. And that's why I actually want to have transparent and simpler math, because it lets me make the big stuff bigger without breaking the game in the process. Likewise, I can now have more abilities with effects dependent on Tension, and I want to have enough that you can build around them.<br /><br />So Tension is going to be a thing that more Upgrades and Weapons play with. Specially Weapons. Upgrades won't quite let everyone shift their Tension up or down because that is finnicky and annoying to keep track of, but expect a lot of things that used to be 1d5 or 1d10 rolls to now use Tension or half Tension instead.<br /><br />What other thing can finishers make use of to make combat more interesting? Energy is the big other thing. Rationing how you want to use your Energy each Turn is pretty important, since a lot of the stronger Upgrades and Weapons scale in Power the more Energy you spend, and you only have so many points per Turn.<br />
<br />Name: Radiant Fist<br />Type: Melee<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: Beam (3 Energy), Technique, Overheating.<br />Description: The ultimate in close range finishers, the unit’s hands are equipped with an extremely damaging system, from electric colliders to a radiation pulse that glows with an awesome power.<br /><br />Name: Lux Cannon<br />Type: Shooting<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: Beam (Special). Long-Range, Slow. This Weapon spends all of your remaining Energy on use, but gains a bonus to its Might Test equal to half the Energy spent this way.<br />Description: A honest to God giant laser cannon. Not only is dodging light a pretty hard thing to pull off, but it packs a very mean punch. Unfortunately, it was not made with energy efficiency in mind, making it rather prohibitive to use liberally,<br /><br />
Slow Weapons can only be fired every other Round. Long-Range Weapons improve their base Range by an amount equal to your Systems (Because I forgot to bring it up last week, the default Range for Weapons is 0-1 if they are Melee and 0-5 if they are Shooting, though they can increase it to 0-10 after Aiming). What about Overheating? If you keep a die roll that results in an odd number when using this Weapon, you take an amount of Damage yourself equal to the current Tension after using it. That means you want to use Radiant Fist when Tension is high, but not <i>too</i> high!<br /><br />Some Weapons also make for pretty good finishers without being Techniques or using Energy. Of course, they have their own drawbacks.<br />
<br />Name: Chainblade<br />Type: Melee<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect: Unreliable. When you successfully deal Damage to an Enemy with this Weapon, increase the Damage dealt by half the current Tension. This Damage can be reduced by the Unreliable quality.<br />Description: Giant chainsaws are clumsy and jam in the middle of the action way too often. And yet, they are terrifyingly devastating when everything works out just fine, making this a weapon favored most often by those who feel lucky or simply have no idea what they’re doing.<br /><br />Name: Resonance Cannon<br />Type: Shooting<br />Cost: 5<br />
Effect: One-Shot, Unreliable. After this Weapon deals its regular Damage, the Enemy’s current Level of Threshold is destroyed.<br />Description: This cannon fires sonic bursts that shatter enemies at the structural level. It is unwieldy and uses up all of its ammunition with each shot, but a mere graze can be as damaging as a direct hit.<br /><br />One-Shot is, of course, the same from GGG. Unreliable is Defective with a new name. If you keep a die roll that results in an odd number when using this Weapon, you halve the final amount of Damage you would have dealt with it. Time for another aside!<br /><br />You know how some rules of the game sometimes wanted you to roll odds and sometimes they wanted you to roll evens arbitrarily? Well, now it is slightly less arbitrary. If you are on the offense, you want to get evens, and if you are on defense you want your attacker to get odds. This not only applies to Unreliable and Overheating, but to Duels and (kinda sorta) to Maiming. Attack an Enemy that is Dueling an Ally and an even result means you hit the bad guy. Get smacked for an odd amount of Damage and, if you lose a Level of Threshold, you get to choose the Area. The arbitrary odds/evens thing was a neat mechanic in a game with Advantages and Disadvantages but it wasn't all that intuitive, now it should be a lot smoother to play with.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">More Energy Shenanigans</span><br />
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So these are some very powerful Weapons, how can we stop them? Custom Barrier and Absolute Barrier from last week are good, but they can only do so much against supermoves with +6 to Might and extra bonus Damage equal to Tension. The former is capped at +5 Guard so it won't stop the attack entirely, while the latter can do it but needs an expensive and upfront Energy payment so the Enemy could just wait until you lower your guard. <br /><br />Enter one of our more interesting Active Defenses.<br /><br />Name: Electronic Cloaking System<br />Type: External<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: In response to the results of an Enemy Might Test against you, you may spend 2 Energy to increase your Guard by an amount equal to your Systems against it. This only counts your base Attribute, ignoring any modifiers that increase or decrease it. Electronic Cloaking System does not work against Weapons with the Blast ability or that affect Zones instead of specific targets.<br />Description: An advanced array of rapidly oscillating lasers used to foil most conventional sensing equipment, from infrared to common optics. This proves to be a much better idea on paper than it is in practice, as giant robots still leave giant footprints and produce tremendous noise, but it is a great help for emergency evasive maneuvers.<br /><br />So with completely average Systems you're spending 2 Energy to increase your Guard by 4. And it does not work against Blasts and their ilk. That's pretty bad. Of course, you will not be using this with average Systems, you will be using it with a Systems of 6, 7 or even higher than that. And at that point it does a pretty good job of evading/blocking finishers entirely, which are almost never area-of-effect weapons. It only costs 2 Energy, so you can use it and still have enough for other Energy-powered abilities, potentially dodging multiple supermoves per Round.<br /><br />The obvious weakness is that you need to spend some XP on Systems to make it not worse than Custom Barrier, and even then it won't do much against a Blast. With that said, there are also other workarounds for offensive specialists.<br /><br />Name: Weapon Master (Specialist)<br />Type: Internal<br />Cost: 20 <br />Effect: Choose either Melee or Shooting when you take this Upgrade. You gain an Advantage to all Might Tests made using the chosen Weapon Type. Additionally, you may spend 5 Energy after a Might Test made with the chosen Weapon Type to make your current attack immune to the effects of Active Defenses.<br />Description: The Mecha is at its best at one particular range and with a certain type of weapons. Custom controls like motion feedback and manual overrides for targetting systems let the Pilot pull off amazing moves and overcome most defenses.<br /><br />Combining it with Radiant Fist nets you have a +4 to Might, double Tension bonus, and immunity to Active Defenses. It is a pretty darn brutal combination. It also does cost you <i>an entire Power Level of XP</i> and requires a monstrous 8 Energy to use. If you want to survive until you can use this the way it was meant to, you'll have to sacrifice Systems, Speed, or perhaps even Might itself. So while you could do all that once you're powerful enough you're bleeding XP, it is probably better used with regular non-Beam Weapons as a reliable extra Advantage that sometimes sacrifices your defense for a super attack.<br /><br />And that is the key to Battle Century G's depth. In GGG you knew you could pull off a few super moves each Operation, and it was up to you to decide when you would do that. With regenerating Energy and multiple Weapons drawing power from different sources (Tension, Energy, Threshold for those that hurt the user, Actions for the ones that need setup) it used to be a question of when to use your special abilities, now it is partly about that and partly about which special ability you want to use now.<br />
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<br />Do you use Radiant Fist early in the battle hoping to disable a key Area or wait a little bit longer and risk blowing yourself up? Will you try to do as much damage as possible with Resonance Cannon as a Shooting Specialist or would you rather guarantee a hit to take out one Level and keep your Absolute Barrier up?<br />
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Thanks to the regenerating Energy you have more control over your special abilities and flashy supermoves than you used to. You can maximize or minimize their effectiveness as you need to, and the threat of exploding or getting Maimed before you get to use them is greatly lessened, which is always a nice bonus.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fun Combat is still a Priority</span><br />
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The simplest Upgrades and Weapons alternate between being average and slightly above average in performance. The quirkier ones alternate between really strong and below average. If all Weapons were just +2s here and there combat would be about who rolls higher and who Maims the better Weapon sooner. That would not be very back and forth, and back and forth action is very much a thing that I want. If the first strike defines the battle, what is the point in playing out the rest of the scene?<br /><br />Because Upgrades and Weapons are relatively cheaper than those of GGG and you are not so pressed for Energy anymore, it would not be a bad idea for specialists to pack redundant or backup abilities. A defensive powerhouse could have both Custom Barrier and Electronic Cloaking System, and alternate using them as necessary to maximize their defenses.<br />
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So that's that for abilities directly related with combat. Next time I'll go into the more interesting utility Upgrades. Are Systems and Speed worth building around? Can the more complex Upgrades be simplified without making them useless? Am I a tremendous tease?<br />
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The answer to all of the above is quite possibly, not not entirely certain, to be yes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-18077892715828239722013-12-08T11:17:00.001-08:002013-12-08T11:17:12.310-08:00Combat in Battle Century GOne of the first things I presented from Battle Century G was the basic combat formula, because the rest of the rules would be written around it. Today I go a little bit deeper into that, and because things are a lot more solid now, I can begin to show actual mechanics. <br /><br />Let's have a look at that formula again:<br />
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<b>(Might + 1d10 + Tension + Abilities) - (Guard + 5 + Abilities) = Damage.</b><br />
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With Attributes averaged at 5 and an average roll of 5, the attacking character deals exactly the current Tension in Damage.<br /><br />Like I said before the benefit of this thing is transparent math and ease of play. You are no longer halving accuracy then adding penetration on top, <i>then </i>checking for special abilities from active defenses or weapons. You just make a roll then add special abilities, being well aware of how much each of them is going to affect the result.<br />
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It sounds simple, perhaps too simple, but a simple foundation works well
for adding optional complexity on top. And I think by now it is pretty
clear that I like having lots of options to interact with combat math.<br />
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If you remember from last week's chat about Intermissions, I brought up that I want specialist characters to be able to get up to three Advantages to Tests by spending between half and a whole Power Level's worth of XP. For the giant robot combat I would like to have similar math at work, with the caveat that since robots exist primarily to fight, the straightforward combat options will be a little more expensive to compensate for the fact that they are the better ones all around. This means the best kind of specialization, the one whose Advantages almost always apply, will cost somewhere between a full Power Level and two Power Levels.<br /><br />At Power Levels 0, 1 and 2 most PC Units will usually have two Advantages to their Might Tests, unless they are heavy offensive specialists, then they get to have three or four. Sometimes even more. That's the theory, anyway. What are the things that will influence this math? Let's start with the most obvious: Weapons.<br /><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Weapons of Choice</span><br /><br />When I first brought up BCG as a spiritual successor to GGG, I mentioned I would have to rewrite the Weapon types into things more easily adaptable to characters that aren't giant robots. So let's address that issue right now: To start off with, there will be two Weapon Types: Melee and Shooting.<br /><br />Melee Weapons gain an Advantage when used during a Duel or against a target that is in one, and Shooting Weapons gain an additional Advantage from the Aim Action (while Melee Weapons only get one Advantage out of Aiming). If you can close in on your target, Melee is almost always stronger than Shooting, but Shooting lets you attack from afar and works better defensively. Weapons are no longer about flat combat modifiers, instead they now grant Advantages to Might Tests during special circumstances or have other special abilities. Let's have two examples:<br /><br />Name: Stun Rod<br />Type: Melee<br />Cost: 5<br />Effect: This Weapon inflicts an additional Disadvantage when using the Suppress Action.<br />Description: Employed by Hiryu Gears to subdue Outsiders, rather than to kill them. Multiple units equipped with Stun Rods can render the fearsome giant monsters largely ineffectual.<br /><br />Name: Anti-Air Missiles<br />Type: Shooting<br />Cost: 5<br />Effect: This Weapon gains an Advantage when used against targets with Flyer or using Anti-Gravity.<br />Description: Air dominance is still very much a thing even in this new era of Gears. Everyone in Earth understands this, and provides their troops with necessary countermeasures against their enemies. The RUF has to be careful of those pesky Majesty types, Hiryu has to worry about flying Outsiders taking advantage of how complicated it is to fight giant monsters in the middle of the ocean, and the GAF wants the Wagner destroyed by yesterday.<br /><br />These are some of the simplest and most straightforward of the bunch. Notice that while Anti-Air Missiles help you reach that threshold of 3 Advantages against specific targets, Stun Rod instead takes away an Advantage from the opposition when used in a certain way. That's the focus on more transparent math at work, which easily lets you know which Weapon is better at doing a certain job.<br />
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Because they are basically the equivalent to narrow specialized Skills, they only cost 5 points, making it easy to have a varied loadout. Speaking of cheap things, everyone now has two free Default Weapons:<br /><br />Name: CQC<br />Type: Melee<br />Cost: 0<br />Effect: This Weapon suffers an innate Disadvantage to its use, but cannot be disabled through Maiming.<br />Description: Mecha often carry small weapons like daggers as a last-ditch measure. Others mount small blades and drills into the frame to give your unit something to use when all other options are out. Even Mecha that cannot punch or kick can still ram themselves into the enemy as a last resort. <br /><br />Name: Fire<br />Type: Shooting<br />Cost: 0<br />Effect: This Weapon suffers an innate Disadvantage to its use, but cannot be disabled through Maiming.<br />Description: Most giant robots these days come with a variety of ranged weapons integrated into the frame. Even those who don’t can improvise by picking up vehicles or even buildings to toss. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all.<br /><br />These do suffer a Disadvantage to compensate for being free, but at least they don't do silly things like hurting you when you use them. They're perfectly viable backups now, and free backups at that. While we remain on the subject of cheap things, I have good and bad news about Custom Weapons. The bad news is that BCG has no Custom Weapons whatsoever. The good news is that it does not need them. <br /><br />
They had a pretty important role in GGG, but they no longer do. Here is why.<br /><br /><b>They gave Mecha something to do with any extra Upgrade Points between 1 and 4:</b><br />Since everything that is not an Attribute enhancement now costs 5, 10 or 20 this is no longer necessary. It would also be really hard to make something balanced at these costs too since an Advantage (a +2) in BCG is worth between 5 and 10 depending on how widely applicable it is.<br /><b>They let the Mecha choose whether to focus on speed or power:</b><br />This divide no longer exists as GGG knew it, because you have Might and Guard now. This is not applicable any longer.<br /><b>They gave you cheap backup Weapons that were weaker than the norm:</b><br />The Default Weapons fit this role, and they do it for free while being impossible to disable.<br /><b>They gave you a way to have simple, reliable Weapons that don't have any drawbacks:</b><br />About a third of the listed Weapons are exactly this, like the example of Anti-Air Missiles. The ones that have drawbacks are the ones that are obviously stronger than the norm, primarily finishers and area of effect Weapons. Some are basically the standard Melee or Shooting template with just an increase to their maximum Range on top, too. There's plenty of simple weapons alongside the more complex ones.<br /><br />Because a lot of the things that GGG was going for with Custom Weapons are things Battle Century G does by default (pun not intended) there is no longer a need for them. I did mention it was going to be quite a different game, after all.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Heating Things Up</span><br /><br />But that's enough about the everyday standard Weapons, let's talk about some of the flashier ones. Like Beam Weapons. Beams are now a <i>Subtype</i> that goes on top of either Melee or Shooting now! They all have an innate Advantage to their use, as a tradeoff for double the cost of other Weapons (10) plus consuming at least a point of Energy. If you can afford them, then they are <i>almost</i> always the better choice for raw offensive power.<br /><br />A short aside about Subtypes: Giant Robots are most likely going to only have Beam, but other types of heroes can have more variety there. Think of all the possible elemental subtypes that magic usually has in games and you have a good idea of what I'm talking about. You could have flame swords next to freezing rays, and they would have different effects. Anyway, back to Beams, here are two examples:<br /><br />Name: Beam Saber<br />Type: Melee<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: Beam (1 Energy).<br />Description: A favorite for its low energy consumption, solid armor-piercing power, compact size and overall practicality. Mass produced and made standard issue for most factions.<br /><br />Name: Beam Rifle<br />Type: Shooting<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: Beam (1 Energy).<br />Description: Cheap to produce and easy to use, it makes a great all-purpose Weapon if you can get around its craving for energy.<br /><br />Beam Weapons are the easiest way to get those three Advantages I spoke of, because they have two (or three, in the case of Shooting) of those in-built. What about the third Advantage? That's the hardest one to get, because most Weapons only grant two. Some Weapon special abilities <i>can</i> give more than one Advantage, some Upgrades also give you Advantages when attacking, and of course Genre Powers like Try Again can do it too. But that talk is better reserved for later, because now is time to talk about Active Defenses.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Shield, don't Yield</span><br /><br />So just from Weapons alone, characters get to add +4 to their Might Tests. That's a lot! Specially when you consider that, assuming average stats for everyone, they are already dealing base Damage equal to Tension. If nothing else is in play and they roll average, they are hitting their targets for 5 Damage during Round 1, and it only goes higher from there.<br /><br />Fortunately, we have Active Defenses to mitigate that somewhat. Evasive Systems and Defensive Barriers were rolled into one single series of Upgrades, since Guard covers for both Evasion and Armor. How do they match up against the fearsome base damage of offensive powerhouses? Well, there is a lot of variety in Active Defenses, but the most universally efficient types are these two:<br /><br />Name: Custom Barrier (Specialist)<br />Type: External<br />Cost: 5<br />Effect: Choose one of Melee, Shooting, Beam or non-Beam when you take this Upgrade. In response to the results of an Enemy Might Test against you using a Weapon of the chosen type, you may spend 1 Energy to increase your Guard by 3 against it, or 2 Energy to increase your Guard by 5 against it instead.<br />Description: You can equip a variety of defensive mechanisms. Examples include attaching small forcefields to your arms as shields, nanomachine bubbles that stop or slow down high velocity physical weapons, and a variety of chaff dispensers or jamming devices. You just need to know what it is you want to be protected from.<br /><br />Name:Absolute Barrier<br />Type: External<br />Cost: 10<br />Effect: At the beginning of your Turn you may spend any amount of Energy to create a shield that blocks an amount of Damage equal to twice the amount of Energy spent and lasts one Round. An active Absolute Barrier means you may not use other Active Defenses.<br />Description: An extremely powerful barrier that repels nearly everything you can throw at it through a constant series of violent explosions. The Gravagne Field is one of Hiryu’s most famous successes, and the UEF would love to get their hands on its technology.<br /><br />The general idea is that, for 5 UP, a point of Energy blocks two Damage from a few sources, and 10 UP nets you protection from basically everything. Because you can take Custom Barrier twice, you could choose to shield yourself from Melee and Shooting, or Beam and non-Beam. Both Upgrades play very differently, though. Absolute Barrier is better at blocking super attacks from single sources while Custom Barrier can handle a multitude of weaker attacks better. There will be more varied Active Defenses, but these are just going to be the basic ones the others build upon. <br /><br />(By the way, Internal Upgrades go in the Core, while External Upgrades go into any of the other four Areas.)<br /><br />Back to our Damage formula, a defensive specialist can counter an offensive one pretty well. Just Custom Barrier alone blocks 5 from that bonus +4 or +6, and Absolute Barrier can negate it entirely for 2 or 3 Energy.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And that's all for Today.</span> <br />
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I hope you can see what I mean now by having a game where the math is more transparent than GGG's. This is also the most basic level of combat, because there's plenty of ways to tamper further with fancy effects coming from Upgrades, Weapons and Powers.<br />
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What about the flashier Weapons or Defenses? What about the other Attributes? And what about the special abilities not directly related to attacking or defending? There's a lot to go over, and it'll likely take most of December to cover it all. I haven't decided what the next post is going to be about yet, so we'll find out a week from now!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-86361364990661226972013-12-01T17:47:00.000-08:002013-12-01T17:47:35.790-08:00Characters in Battle Century G<br />
I've been talking about the general mechanics of my new project and spiritual successor to GGG for the past two weeks. Today I go a little more in depth into what changes for the Characters and Intermissions.<br />
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I want Intermissions in Battle Century G to be much like those in GGG, just perhaps a tiiiiny little bit smoother, and I'd like the various abilities to be sightly better balanced all around. I think that the Skill/Trait system works pretty well. Skills grant Advantages to a single type of task, which can be very broad or specialized at a reduced price. Traits sometimes have stranger effects and sometimes are just like Skills but applied to more narrow circumstances. If Attributes are the heart of the rules more now than ever, then sticking to the model that was originally that way is a good idea.<br /><br />I want to keep Miracles more or less as they are, because I think they're a pretty decent take on superpowers without having to bloat the rules with a hundred pages of fireball or mind control variants. Deathblows can spice up Intermission combat, though I need to rewrite them if I want XP costs to come in multiples of 5. Equipment is also a neat way to handle special tools and gadgetry, specially since you can obtain them temporarily through Resources. Lastly there's Anomalies, which could use some adjusting but also provide clean and simple ways to play things that aren't fully human.<br /><br />If you are interested in how GGG's take on all of those things (and some more) came to be, I wrote <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/a-tribute-to-player-agency-part-one.html">a few pieces</a> <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/02/a-tribute-to-player-agency-part-deux.html">about that</a> <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/02/a-tribute-to-player-agency-part.html">in the past</a>. That post also talks a little about the general math behind Intermissions, which I won't fully do over today, I'll just cover the more important bits.<br /><br />That more or less sums up my intentions for Character and Intermission rules. Let's see how I chose to go about it! And what better way to start than with <i>numbers</i>?<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Math of Intermissions</span><br /><br />We know our Attributes, and we know we're keeping them on a scale going from 0 to 10. But how are they going to measure against the average Difficulty Number? Pretty much like GGG, for the most part. (That is going to be a thing I say a lot through this post.) I want Difficulty Numbers ranging from 5 to 20, with most Tests requiring a result somewhere around 10 and 15. Just for the sake of clarity, I'll break it down below:<br /><br /><b>Trivial (5):</b> You can only fail this with low Attributes and genuinely terrible luck. Failing like this means that you just made a total trainwreck of the situation, and trainwrecks make for fun roleplaying experiences. <br /><b>Standard (10): </b>If the average Attribute is at a Rank of 4, and we assume that you will roll an average of 6 (or 5 and a Tension of 1) then you should be able to beat this DN pretty reliably with a small XP investment and a bit of luck.<br /><b>Challenging (15):</b> Now these are harder. You need above average Attributes (A rank between 6 and 8 will do) a couple of Advantages from Skills or Traits (representing around a +2 to a +4 bonus) and to roll average or better. Otherwise, matching this DN is possible but unlikely. <br /><b>Amazing (20):</b> Outright blocked off to characters who aren't highly specialized. You need top-of-the-line Attributes and to squeeze every possible Advantage you can get out of the situation, plus being lucky enough to roll at least average.<br /><br />With this in mind, I now have to decide just how much each Advantage is going to cost in Character Points, and how many of them you can have. Since Advantages can directly translate to a +2 bonus now (as an alternative to rolling more dice and keeping the better number) each Advantage is the equivalent of being one step higher in the Attribute ladder. A PC with an Attribute at Rank 4 is average, but if they have an Advantage to said Test then they will perform above average, and with another Advantage they are just as good as the Rank 8 geniuses.<br /><br />In general, matching a DN of 10 is easy, but I want DNs of 15 and above to be difficult to get. I don't want them to be <i>too</i> difficult, just enough to make matching them feel like a challenge. Therefore PCs should be able to pick up somewhere between one and three Advantages. These Advantages will usually come from Skills, General Traits, and Equipment Traits, in that order. <br /><br />The Cost of each Advantage would be around 5 Character Points for the narrow ones and 10 for those with more wide applications. Getting all three would be between half a Power Level (15 CP) and a full Power Level's worth (30 CP) of XP, depending on how broadly useful you want your Skills and Traits to be. Characters in Battle Century G have more CP to spend than those of GGG (60 on Skills and Traits at Power Level 1, the suggested starting point). So while this might seem a little expensive, it is actually more generous than what GGG offered.<br /><br />The downside as far as character power goes is that Skills will only grant one Advantage to Tests, effectively only existing at the Specialist and Generalist levels, at 5 and 10 Character Points. Some Traits will grant more than one Advantage, but they will be of conditional use. For example, Facility (Laboratory) could give you two Advantages to using Sciences and Electronics, but you can't carry your Laboratory around with you, you have to stay in there to gain those Advantages.<br />
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I'm not counting these conditional Traits for the purposes of making sure there's one to three available Advantages to take for any given task. If you can find an overlap between multiple of these Traits, then you can have more than three Advantages. This means you can still specialize enough to make you unbeatable at your field if you want to, it just takes more than a Master Skill.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">About Advantages</span><br /><br />In GGG you can choose to turn a pair of Advantages into another cumulative d10. This provided a way to reach the higher DNs right out of the gate, because during Intermissions you want to see the impossible happen and during Operations you need to make it possible to hit targets with high Evasion. Because there is simply no way Guard in BCG will reach as high as Evasion could go in GGG, there is no need to make Advantages trade into additive dice. <br /><br />I really, really liked how it let you trade reliability in average results for pure (if random) power. But the math was just too explosive and hard to balance around. BCG lets you trade Advantages individually as +2's to the result, which gets the job done but is less exciting. You will see the impossible happen slightly less often during Intermissions, but that is a price I am okay with - It should be a rare sight, after all!<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Miracles and Traits</span><br /><br />Miracle Skills are the most expensive options for Characters. These will behave like the ones from GGG do for the most part, they'll just cost double from their General Skill counterparts. A specialist Miracle is 10 CP, and a generalist Miracle is 20 CP. They tend to be better than regular Skills, and are conceptually superpowers, so this is only fair.<br /><br />The Traits that used to have a Cost of 3 or 7 in GGG have been either promoted or demoted to 5 and 10, with a corresponding increase or decrease in power. This includes Equipment. Anomalies are the exception to the rule of everything costing multiples of 5, since they continue to Cost 0 but carry a downside to them. <br /><br />But Deathblows and Assets had variable Costs that could go between 1 and 4, and also mechanics designed around their variable Costs. Obviously, they needed a facelift.<br />
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My idea is to make Deathblows have a static cost of at least 5, and to make them usable an unlimited number of times. They'll just suffer a Disadvantage for each time you've used them previously during the same Episode. As a tradeoff, stacking multiple Deathblows together won't incur a Disadvantage.<br />
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Assets were essentially a more explicit version of what you could already do with Resources, and had the negative aspect of being largely identical to each other and thus kind of boring. They could get away with it because GGG needed the cheap options costing between 1 and 4, but that is no longer the case, so they're being rolled back into the General Traits category.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And Last but not Least...</span><br /><br />Any kind of spiritual successor to GGG would need Genre Themes, Points and Powers in one way or another. They're the one thing that links the Pilot with their Robot from a rules standpoint, so I can't really afford to lose them. In this case, they're mostly the same. Mostly. Let's tackle them in order.<br /><br />I have been wanting to write customizable Themes (a bit like the rules for <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/08/the-insanity-game.html">Insanity</a> or <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/10/our-roleplaying-persona.html">Arcanas</a>) for a long while, but I need to get the core rules functional first. That means Themes will stick to their proven and true gameplay until the basic rules for giant robots are settled, then I'll get on with rewriting them to suit different settings and genres. I really do want to make them more fun to play with and specifically attuned to the type of game you're running. Making them better is specially poignant because there's less Genre Points to go around now.<br /><br />You see, in BCG you only have your Power Level in Genre Points each Episode. You still earn more through roleplaying and getting beat up, but you will have to ration them more carefully than you would in GGG. This is to be consistent with the approach of simplifying the game to make it easier to hack, though I have to be careful to not take away what makes it fun in the process. In this case, it means that every Point has to matter a lot more than it used to.<br /><br />With simpler math and lower numbers in most Attributes, Powers are much more efficient. It is easier to tell whether you should use Try Again or if it is not worth the trouble, for example. But that's not all. I am also doing away with Powers that did similar things in different ways. Instead of having to use one Power to increase your attack Attribute and another Power to make it ignore barriers, you have a single Power that does both for just one Genre Point. This maximizes the value of each Power chosen and each Point spent.<br /><br />It also means that there are a lot less Powers than before. The last version of GGG has 6 Default Powers, 10 Common Powers, and 24 Powers distributed around six Packages of three each. That's 40. Battle Century G does have the 6 Default Powers, but only has 18 more Powers to choose from - at least so far.<br />
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The Powers of Battle Century G are also distributed between three categories (Right now under the names of Champion, Trickster, and Director.) that focus in raw power, utility, and buffs or debuffs. But unlike with GGG's Packages, you can grab Powers from any combination of categories you want. You can focus in a specific role, or mix and match as you please.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">To Summarize</span><br />
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Characters in Battle Century G are very similar to those of GGG. This is because the Mecha rules are the ones doing most of the changing, but in order to be more like rules for Pilots. The trick is attaining a similar level of simplicity and smooth play without removing all depth from the rules. <br />
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And that's why the next post is going to be even longer than this one. Can Systems be balanced next to Might? What kind of rewards will there be for specialists? How are Weapons going to work with this emphasis on small modifiers to Tests? That and more, next time.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-66108612582188779382013-11-24T01:41:00.000-08:002013-11-24T01:41:13.355-08:00Pacing in Battle Century GLast week I started talking about <a href="http://tk31.blogspot.com.ar/2013/11/introducing-battle-century-g.html">what my next GGG-esque project is going to look like</a>. I went into the most basic rules of the game: Tests, Attributes, Damage and Advantages. We've still got some pretty fundamental things to cover before we get into the real meat of the rules, so let's get on with it already.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Why Pacing?</span><br /><br />The pacing of the game was an important part GGG's rules. On the micro level it balanced how often some abilities could be used and how much pain a PC could take before they had to start worrying about it. On the macro level it made characters gain more points and powers as the game went on and threatens characters that make one too many mistakes with terrible consequences. The Scene/Episode structure governed the pacing of Intermissions and Operations. The Episode Arc structure governed the pacing of Character Advancement.<br />
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A control of the pacing structure allowed the GM to keep a better grasp on how much danger the PCs were in and the rate they grew in power at. It also had a few downsides: Distinguishing between Episodes and Episode Arcs can cause some confusion if you're not actively keeping track of when one ends and another begins. Even if you do, it is easy to forget exactly how many Arcs have ended and how much you should buff up NPCs. Lastly, it just plain makes it weird to run games that don't start at low power and end much higher than that. The system works, but it could be better.<br /><br />I am making a few changes to the pacing rules. The most important of which goes by the name of Power Levels.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">As expected of Battle Century G, it is on a whole new Level.</span><br /><br />What are Power Levels? In short, they are a scale that grades your Power based on how much XP you have. Like so:<br /><br /><b>Level 0: </b>Faceless (0-29 XP)<br /><b>Level 1:</b> Talented (30-59 XP)<br /><b>Level 2:</b> Heroic (60-89 XP)<br /><b>Level 3:</b> Elite (90-119 XP)<br /><b>Level 4: </b>Mythical (120-149 XP)<br /><b>Level 5:</b> Godly (150+ XP)<br /><br />At 30 XP your Power Level is 1, at 100 XP your Power Level is 3, and so on and so forth. The interesting thing here is that your Genre Points and Powers would not be tied to the Episode Arc structure, but to your Power Level. Went up a Power Level? That's great, add another Point to your stock and another Power to your pool.<br /><br />You can run a game about low-power characters and keep it there without story progression forcing power advancement. You can also run a game where everyone starts out as gods of war and only gets stronger from there. So that's cool. More interestingly, you can now mix and match NPCs of various Power Levels to better challenge a group of PCs. Add up the Power Levels of the PC cast to get the Squad's Power Rating and compare it to the Power Rating of the Enemy encounter to see how they measure up. Like this:<br /><br /><b>Grunt Power Rating:</b> 1 + Power Level<br /><b>PC/Rival Power Rating:</b> 2 + (Power Level * 2)<br /><b>Boss Power Rating:</b> 4 + (Power Level * 4)<br /><br />So while everyone is at the same Power Level, two Grunts are still the equivalent of a PC and two PCs are the equivalent of a Boss, yes. But a single Level 1 PC is the equivalent of a single Level 3 Grunt or a Level 0 Boss, eight Level 0 Grunts are the equivalent of two PCs at Level 1, and four PCs at Power Level 2 are a match for a Level 5 Boss. <br /><br />The math makes it pretty easy to build encounters full of Grunts that die in one hit, which GGG wasn't built to handle with its rigid Chassis system. It is also now possible to craft superbosses that can take on the whole party on their own, though not beyond a Power Rating of 24. After that they're still going to need a few Grunts or Rivals... At least by default. I will probably end up writing a few sidebars with suggestions for Bosses beyond Power Level 5 anyway.<br /><br />Speaking of sidebars, I also will be including one with guidelines to replace the Scene/Episode/Arc structure with Hours/Days/Weeks of in-character playing time. The current system works well for keeping a handle on how often characters can use their special abilities or how long it takes for their wounds to heal. It is more or less entirely on the GM's court though, and some groups might want to let the Players have a say in it to add some tactical depth to Intermissions.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Elephant in the Room</span><br />
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I've brought up XP, Genre Points and Genre Powers but haven't actually talked about them yet. That would be because they will largely stay the same from GGG, just with some of the math reworked. Characters still have their own XP track (Now called Character Points) and the same goes for Mecha (Who have Mecha Points). When we get to the other types of heroes with their own unique abilities, those will also have their own tracks (Under the name of Summon Points or Arcana Points or whatever). I am keeping things this way because GGG's separation of Intermission/Operation rules proved that it worked very well for anime-themed heroics. We're aiming for a similar feel here, so it will stick around.<br /><br />So let's talk about this math getting reworked thingy. Or rather, let's talk after I show you in bullet point form.<br /><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Characters start with 60 XP to distribute between Attributes and 30 XP to use in purchasing abilities.</b> Yes, this means 90 for the Pilot and 90 for the Mecha. These do not count towards Power Levels, but further XP earned will do.<b> </b></li>
</ul>
<b> </b><ul>
<li><b>Attributes cost their new Rank in Points to enhance.</b> Increasing your Awareness from 0 to 2 will cost 3 Points, because first you purchase the 1 and then the 2. The starting 60 XP is just enough to get 4 (low-end average) in every Attribute.<br /><b> </b></li>
<li><b>Most abilities will cost 5 or 10, with the really big stuff having a cost of 20</b>. There won't be more than a handful of the really expensive abilities, not going over 20 total for Pilots and Mecha combined. No abilities will cost 3, 7, or other numbers that make them weird to juggle.<br /><b> </b></li>
<li><b>This means each Power Level is between 3 and 6 new abilities, or an average increase of somewhere between 4 and 6 to your Attributes as a whole.</b> At Power Level 0 you are strictly average and can do a few things. At Power Level 5 you are very good at everything and have quite a few number of abilities.<br /><b> </b></li>
<li><b>You still gain Genre Points for roleplaying or getting beat up and you still have six Default Genre Powers for free.</b> Other than that, it is tied to your Power Level. A Power Level of 2 means a stock of 2 Genre Points and 2 more Genre Powers.<br /><b> </b></li>
<li><b>A Genre Power is the equivalent of an ability with a cost of 10 XP that can only be used once.</b> This also means that Power Levels are kinda sorta worth 40 XP instead of 30. And Power Level 5 characters are virtually over 200 XP from their Power Level 0 counterparts.</li>
</ul>
<br />That is pretty much the whole of it. In general it is a similar take on GGG's ideas but the focus is on making them simpler and faster to work with. You also have less choices to make concerning your Powers in both their
selection and their use, so you have to make them count more.<br />
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I'm keeping the ready-made Attribute templates (Natures and Chassis) as examples, but I will also write new packages of pre-selected Skills and Traits to go with those. It should still be relatively fast to make PCs and NPCs (There will be a table with recommended Attribute boosts based on Power Level).<br /><br />This brings us to what will be the topic of the next post: Skills, Traits and Powers. What is happening to Skill Levels? How will a reduced number of Points and Powers affect the pacing of combat? Why can't I come up with any interesting questions about Traits? Don't miss the <i>exciting conclusion</i>* to the epic saga of Battle Century G <i>next week</i>!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*not actually a conclusion.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-47286862166782414832013-11-17T02:07:00.000-08:002013-11-17T02:10:39.523-08:00Introducing Battle Century GAs I mentioned last week, I'm crafting a new RPG system from scratch. The idea is to take a lot of what makes GGG work and streamline it so it can cover a better variety of action genres. My goal is to make a game where sentai heroes, giant robots and monster trainers can work under the same ruleset.<br />
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That is Battle Century G, and it will be the focus of my efforts from now on. Until it comes out I'll be posting about how exactly it is going to differ from GGG, enough to merit being its own thing. The first version will be about giant robots as a proof of concept, then I'll write the corresponding system hacks around it for the magical girls and the kaijus and whatnot.<br />
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Today we start it off with the building blocks of the game, the Test system and Attributes. There's a lot to talk about so let's jump into it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Core Mechanic</span><br />
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To decide whether a character succeeds or not at what they're doing we are going to keep the Test system more or less as you know it. You roll 1d10 and add your Attribute (ranging between 0 and 10) to it, then check against a number in a range of 1-20. 5 is for trivially easy tasks, 20 is for things that you're lucky to see happen once in a lifetime.<br />
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This is how Intermissions worked in GGG, but Operations were only vaguely like that. This time we're going to try and make the giant robots stick to this idea too, for the sake of simplicity.<br />
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There are also Advantages and Disadvantages, accounting for things like specialized training or lack of proper equipment. We are going to simplify them a bit too, so that when you have an Advantage you get to choose whether you use it to roll two dice and keep the better result, or to transform it to a +2 bonus. Likewise the GM may choose to transform Disadvantages into a +2 increase to the DN.<br />
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This should greatly simplify things, without having to juggle conversions into additive dice or the such. Don't get me wrong, I still love the idea of having to choose whether to roll three dice and keep the best, or two dice and add them up. This is just going to be much simpler to play with, and the game is going to be complicated enough already. <br />
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Similarily, I am going to keep the rule where Damage dealt to someone is equal to the amount you bypass their defenses by. It is fast to play with, it rewards you for rolling really well, and it is simple enough. More importantly, it works very well with Tension.<br />
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Speaking of which. Tension is one of the GGG's most defining and unique rules, and it will have a place in Battle Century G. Combat is probably going to be a bit too fast for Tension to be a decisive factor by itself, but it does what it needs to do.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Math Time!</span><br />
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I am going to balance combat around the following formula: <br />
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(Attack Attribute + 1d10 + Tension + Other Modifiers) - (Defense Attribute + Base Defense + Other Modifiers) = Damage dealt.<br />
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We'll start by assuming there's no modifiers from abilities in play. We'll also assume both characters have average corresponding Attributes (Ranked at 5) and that the 1d10 roll nets us an average result of 5. This gives us 1 damage against a Base Defense of 5 during Round 1. Then 2 Damage during Round 2, 3 during Round 3 and so on. Essentially, the Damage dealt will average around the current Tension. Sometimes they will roll higher and will deal even more Damage, while other times they will roll lower and hurt the enemy less or miss the attack entirely.<br />
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That's pretty cool, I think. The math is pretty transparent and you can tell how effective an Advantage or Disadvantage to your Attack Attribute is going to be right out of the gate.<br />
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Let's assume our characters also have less inflated HP totals. Let's say the average character has their HP Attribute at 5... Now that's not very much. Why, a good enough roll would destroy them on Turn 1! But let's see how that works with four HP Bars like GGG's Threshold Levels.<br />
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If we keep the formula where Tension = Damage dealt then characters will deal first 1, then 2 (3 total), then 3 (6 total), then 4 (10 total), then 5 (15 total), and lastly 6 (21 total) points of Damage to take out a character with 20 HP during their sixth attack. That's a goodish number, I think.<br />
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This is ignoring all the wacky abilities that grant advantages to using Weapons, increase the benefits of Tension, raise your Defense, or flat out buying more HP. But we'll get to that some other day. For now, our conclusion here is that health values can be lower and the focus of the math can be more on whether you get hit or not, rather than how many hits you can handle.<br />
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We've been tiptoeing around Attributes for a few paragraphs, let's fix that and take a look at them.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Attributes</span><br />
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We are keeping the current six Attributes for Characters, because they work well enough. Awareness would still be tied to Defense, and Willpower to Plot Armor. The only difference is that I want the six of them to be equal to each other in power. That means giving them all the same costs, rather than having Awareness, Willpower and Resources as the 'support' Attributes that cost less.<br />
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But Mecha Attributes are getting a major rewrite. There is no going around that. Let's take a look at them in order.<br />
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Might and Guard are your Attack and Defense Attributes. Might is used to punch things and shoot guns, Guard is used to parry blows and evade shots. I'm doing away with the Speed/Power divide of Evasion/Armor and Accuracy/Penetration because they're too mecha-specific. The game is meant to make it easier to play things that aren't giant robots, and that division was mostly there to have the Mazingers feel different to the Gundams. <br />
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Threshold is the Attribute you know and love, and because it is essentially multiplied by 4 it can afford to be a lower number without being completely worthless. A low rank of 1-2 is obviously suicidal, but an average rank of 4-5 is good enough to grant us 6 turns to live assuming we've got an average Guard. More than that, and you get considerably beefier.<br />
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Energy also joins us one more time, as the Attribute that can also represent Spiritual Energy or Mana Pools. The big change here is that Energy regenerates back to full every Round. This means that energy-dependent abilities are less about a long term plan and more about choosing how you want to spend your Energy each Turn. In order to make a high Energy Attribute an appealing choice, the game will need more abilities that let you dump extra Energy for more power. <br />
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Systems is something of a new entry to the list, in that it previously existed as a sub-Attribute of sorts but has been promoted now to full Attribute status. It does not directly contribute to combat, but instead powers up support abilities and increases the range of some Weapons. If you want to take a support role and heal your buddies, modify the battlefield terrain, and manage NPC sidekicks then Systems is your primary Attribute.<br />
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Speed is a completely new Attribute, though it is one that has been requested as part of GGG several times, and some groups even added it into the game by themselves. Well, now it is official. Giving characters different movement speeds is more important when you've got giant robots right next to regular-sized folk. Speed also handles Initiative and works together with Systems to get around Extreme Terrain and Defensive Maneuvers.<br />
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Of these, the first three are going to be more important than the latter trio the majority of the time. But they're all important, and you would do well to invest a little into each. Grunt Enemies can get away with having no Systems or Energy, but they're nameless mooks and are not expected to survive most things you throw at them anyway. Specially since Grunts can now have a Threshold of 0, letting us finally have simple throwaway enemies that die in a single hit.<br />
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Wait. Attributes can be at 0? Yes. Thanks to <i>years of progress in game design technology</i>, we have a point-buy Attribute system where you can <i>customize your mary sue and accompanying giant robot</i> to your heart's content.<br />
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There will be templates to pick from to simplify things, but I figure this was well overdue.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Templates</span><br />
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My original plan with Natures, Archetypes, Power Packages and their ilk was to give Players lots of pre-balanced options they could play with. The game would start having a handful of them, then I could later expand it by adding more Chassis types, Natures, and so on. That went slightly against the effects-based nature of the game, not to mention it was harder to balance after PCs earned enough XP. And so we ended up slowly making things more customizable over time. <br />
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The logical conclusion of this process is to finally let Players customize their PCs however they want through a point-buy system. Most games like that generally don't bother with making the options balanced, largely because it is really difficult to pull off. My biggest challenge will be making sure that Battle Century G is a fully customizable point-buy system that remains balanced.<br />
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The tradeoff of this streamlining is that we lose cool bits of rules here and there that make mecha different from each other. The Speed/Power divide was kind of a big part of GGG, following the Super Robot/Real Robot logic. But Battle Century G is not just about robots, and if I want spellcasting support wizards in the game, then I can't make four out of six stats devoted just to see how much damage they do and take through attacking.<br />
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So that's what is happening with the game's foundations. As you can see Battle Century G will borrow a <i>lot</i> from GGG, but if you think it already looks different then just you wait until the next few posts. Next time, we will go into Experience, Genre, and character growth or advancement in general. <br />
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I leave you with just <strike>one</strike> two words: Power Levels.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-1087337426923696822013-11-10T03:27:00.002-08:002013-11-10T03:27:40.823-08:00Good and Bad NewsSo I wrote a mecha game once, and it was alright, you might have heard of it. It works pretty well for this whole anime robots thing, and also works for other anime action things with a little bit of creative interpretation of rules. And I really want to make it work even better for those other things! I want intelligent robots that don't need pilots, I want magical girls with all sorts of elemental-themed magic powers, I want to command platoons of ghosts, demons and <strike>pocket</strike> monsters with a single PC.<br />
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And I want to pull this off without making the system collapse into a black hole of incomprehensible rules or one type of character being obviously more powerful than the others. It would be pretty cool if it were possible to have heroes in costumes and giant atomic lizards fighting side by side as allies of <strike>Tokyo</strike> Justice.<br />
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But the current ruleset wouldn't work for it. It pains me to admit that a supposedly generic system doesn't really pull it off, but without some major rewrites to the rules the magical girls won't get along very well with the giant robots.<br />
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For the most obvious example I can think of, consider that Mecha moving at similar speeds and being virtually always faster than humans is fine by itself. But things get more complicated if you're going to include human sized characters into the mix, suddenly we either have some PCs being always slower than others or the average guy in a powered suit running as fast as a plane can fly.<br />
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Yes, I am saying we would actually need a Speed Attribute.<br /><br />
To make the Mecha work well together with the other character concepts I need to touch up the rules, simplifying them in places and adding complexity in others. It would keep a lot of what gives GGG its distinctive feel, like Genre Points and Tension, but some of the rules that are obviously only meant to work with giant robots in mind would most likely have to go. The four Weapon Types are the most obvious offenders here.<br />
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In short, I would need to rewrite the entire darn game. On top of that, it would not necessarily be a <i>better</i> game, it would for the most part be a <i>different</i> game.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And now the Good and Bad News </span><br />
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The good news is that I'm basically writing a new game altogether that can handle robots <i>and</i> non-robots better, because GGG works for the whole "robots only" thing. It will be similar in parts but aiming for genre versatility rather than variety of robot-themed options. I also don't want to be working on it forever either, so I want to get it done right without having to spend two years of rules fixes after the initial release.<br />
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Time flies, doesn't it? But I digress.<br />
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This means a more intensive design and development process than what I've been doing up till now, and as many delays as it takes to only release it when I am positively sure that is ready.<br />
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The bad news is that it also means no more more updates to GGG. Not even any supplements.<br />
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So today's post is a little short, but over the next few weeks I'll be explaining with more detail what I'm doing. I'll go over what I am going to keep from GGG and what I'm changing, plus the whys and hows of the process. Expect a lot of game design theory (and some playtesting stories shenanigans) until, at the very least, the holidays.<br />
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Next post will be about the basic mechanics of the game: Tests, Advantages and other general conflict resolution matters plus Attributes and the fate of Natures and Chassis templates. Hopefully that sounds like fun.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-168481408766586532013-10-20T19:55:00.001-07:002013-10-20T19:55:18.080-07:00Our Roleplaying Persona<span style="font-size: small;">Another thing I want to do as part of expanding the game is making it easier to adapt to other kinds of settings. Magical Mecha (Masoukishin, Rayearth) have lots of elemental-themed magical attacks, but not a lot in the way of traditional technology-based weapons. Likewise, PCs as sentient Mecha (Transformers, Braves) would require a rewrite of the Attribute system to integrate their Intermission and Operation abilities into a single coherent entity. <br /><br />Where I'm going with this is that I want the game to be more versatile, and that needs adapting various subsystems on a case by case basis. With that said, the examples above are complex changes beyond the scope of today's post, instead I will be posting a variant of the Genre Theme rules. Themes should not be ignored when it is time to adapt the rules to a different setting, their function is to help convey a game's... well, <i>themes</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Never had a Friend like Me</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Because GGG is very much about anime-styled heroics, we have cooperation and teamwork as a running theme throughout the rules, representing the Power of Friendship and other similar genre conventions. We have Synchro Attacks, Combinations, Leadership, and all other sorts of character abilities that are very strong when the characters work together. But they're limited to combat effectiveness, and don't really say much about the characters themselves. They tell us that characters who work together are good fighters, but not if they get are back-to-back badass partners, or if they get along despite disagreeing often, or if one of them is manipulating the other. The rules don't say much about their <i>relationship</i>.<br /><br />Good mechanics to represent character relationships are hard to write. With that I don't mean rules for romantic relationships, but relationships in a more general sense. Something like, for example, characters who trust each other do work better when cooperating but are also more susceptible to each other's lies. The rules we have are not <i>relationship</i> rules. I swear that's the last time I'll italicize that word for emphasis. At least for today.<br /><br />Relationship rules are conceptually easy to write in a way that is usable, but it is easy to accidentally make a rule that ends up getting in the way of the game when you aren't careful with them. If your Players don't want their PCs getting close to NPCs because the main cast end up penalized when something bad happens to the supporting actors, then you're doing something wrong.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">But it is also a matter of conveying the proper mood and tone. If characters who worked well together also had an easier time betraying each other, you would probably see both lasting friendships and deep betrayals more often than if those rules did not exist. Because GGG is a game meant to be taken in whatever direction you need (as long as it is <i>somewhat</i> heroic) there are no such rules in it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The closest GGG has to relationship rules are Genre Typecasts, which are fairly agnostic in the mood and tone you can use them for, but they can be easily modified to encourage more specific group dynamics. Today's rewrite is for a game more about personal growth, with characters expected to be hitting their highest and lowest moral points, and a character centric narrative with a very tight cast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Okay, I can't really dance around the issue or pointlessly obscure what it is I'm <strike>ripping off</strike> homaging any further. Today is about Social Link-styled rules in the vein of Persona 3 and 4 of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise of videogames. If you know what that means, feel free to skip the next paragraph.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">In Persona, you fight by summoning various mythological entities (the titular Personas or Personae) each aligned with a different Tarot card of the Major Arcana (Odin, for instance, is a Persona of the Emperor Arcana, as chief of the other Norse Gods) and each Arcana has a corresponding Social Link. Social Links are the relationships you have as the Main Character with various NPCs, whether it is just one or a whole group of them. Your best friend or your pals from your sports club are valid Social Links. All Social Links have a Rank going from 1 to 10, which represents how close the bond is, and it grows (increasing in number) as you help the NPCs grow as people. High Social Link Ranks make their corresponding Personas grow stronger, and the Social Links of your party members make them stronger as a bonus, to boot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Social Links are pretty neat, they put a spin on traditional 'grindy' gameplay by making you 'grind' through roleplaying and dialogue options instead of fighting mobs. I am far from the first to posit houserules of choice for adapting this to Roleplaying ends, since they're very popular videogames among roleplayers. I do, however, have a very clear idea of what parts of them translate better as rules in a kitchen table medium, or at least to the kind of game you'd play with GGG.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">A Personal Matter</span><br /><br />Here are the guidelines I set for myself to follow when writing up this variant Theme system: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The rules should encourage genuine, lasting bonds. Whether it is friendship, romance, rivalry, or something else altogether. Those things don't just spring from the ground, they start out small and grow over time getting more emotionally intense and resilient to outside forces. In a videogame this is easy to achieve because you are following a linear paths with a clear start and end point... But they have a preset script to be followed through, and that is not going to work in a Roleplaying game. Or at least it goes against the point of playing a game that has always had creativity and improvised acting as fundamental features.<br /><br />There should also be a downside to being too close to someone, it doesn't have to be anything big, heck it should probably be something easy to ignore. But let's not forget that this is a game, and one about making choices, so your choice of who to befriend and who not to befriend should <i>matter</i>. If there are no real downsides and everyone is always everyone's bestest friend forever, then these are not so much relationship rules as they are just plain powerups.<br /><br />The Tarot motif should play an important role, since its symbolism is a big part of what makes each Social Link distinctive, and you have just enough of them (around 20, depending on which version of the Tarot deck you use) to have a wide variety to choose from without being drowned in options. Each of the Major Arcana represents
anything ranging from types of people, worldly influences, and various
trials of the soul. And since they usually correspond to one specific
character, that character should have a power of some sort over the
portfolio of the Arcana in question. Likewise, the benefits of being best friends with the Death Arcana Character should be clearly different than those of being best friends with the Justice Arcana Character. Even if you don't quite know what the cards mean the names alone should tell you that much. <br /><br />Here's what I got, I'll post the blank template first then a few examples. You can find a list of the Major Arcana and the symbolism attached to each card <a href="http://www.free-tarot-reading.net/meanings/">all</a><a href="http://www.free-tarot-reading.net/meanings/"> </a><a href="http://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-card-meanings/major-arcana/">over</a> <a href="http://www.tarotteachings.com/tarot-card-meanings-of-the-major-arcana.html">the</a> <a href="http://www.corax.com/tarot/cards/">web</a> I'll just grab a few to use as examples. Note that I'm not saying you should seriously use Tarot card spreads to read the future for someone, this is just an adaptation of its symbolic themes for the purpose of playing a game about pretending to be people with superpowers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Arcana Themes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Choose one of the Major Arcana to represent. As the embodiment of that Arcana, you have a limited ability to manipulate fate and luck towards shaping the world in a way according to your Arcana. You are at your strongest when your acts align to your Arcana's correspondence, but you can also bless others with good luck when they act in the same way, or curse them with the negative traits of your Arcana when they are messing with your domain. Your Genre Reason becomes an Arcana Reason using the card's positive connotations and your Genre Bane becomes an Arcana Bane using the card's negative qualities. You no longer have a Genre Typecast, but instead you have Arcana Providence, a version of the Providence Miracle that can do Blessings and Curses related to your chosen Arcana's portfolio. <br /><br /><b>Arcana Providence:</b><br /><br />Through a concentrated effort you may transform your very life essence into a blessing or curse aimed at someone else, this can manifest as inner strength they did not know they had within them, or a stroke of bad luck that causes their tools to break at the worst possible moment, or some other effect that could be explained as being just plain (un?)lucky. This will cause you to have a headache, bleed from the nose a little, or feel a tad dizzy, so you shouldn't have to worry about it much. But should you be defeated from hurting yourself this way you immediately pass out, and anyone with this ability will be able to tell you were up to something just now. Note that you may only use this version of Providence towards Help and Disrupt Tests, and that it does not have an innate Advantage when you are using it. You may not use Arcana Providence on yourself.<br /><br />Let's have some examples, starting with a pretty straightforward card in The Chariot, following it up one that is about as good as you can make it in The Fool, and lastly one that is almost always better reserved for antagonists in the Devil. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Chariot</span><br /><br /><b>Reason - </b>The Chariot excels at standing ground against adversity and trampling past the obstacles and competition in its path. Chariot characters are strong of will, and usually of mind and body too, knowing what they want and how to get it. The character earns a Genre Point when they have to struggle to pursue their goals, demonstrating their steadfast resolution to everyone around them. <br /><b>Bane - </b>The Chariot aims for the finish line relentlessly until they win the race against all odds, often leaving a trail of destruction behind, and sometimes they won't stop until they crash and burn themselves. Chariot characters tend to be aggressive, violent and ambitious enough to not care about the people they will inevitably hurt. The character earns a Genre Point when their stubbornness gets them or people they care about in trouble.<br /><b>Providence - </b>You may bless or curse others when they are acting with iron determination amidst uncertainty. This may make it easier for to walk barefoot through a fire, but can also make someone who stubbornly refuses your help to ruin everything they've worked so hard for. <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Fool</span><br /><br /><b>Reason - </b>The Fool is a free spirit, with the world before them waiting to experience the joys and sorrows it has to offer. Fool characters are optimistic and all about trying new experiences, chasing down opportunities for adventure without sweating the details. The character earns a Genre Point when taking leaps of faith and doing things that others would deem illogical yet seem to work out.<br /><b>Bane - </b>The Fool often embarks on a journey without a map, and ends up stranded in the wilderness as a consequence. Fool characters don't quite grasp consequences that their actions may have, and their naivete makes them the first to fall prety to deals too good to be true. The character earns a Genre Point when they get in trouble pursuing the pretty butterflies.<br /><b>Providence - </b>You may bless or curse others when they are acting with spontaneity and recklessness. What otherwise could seem like an idea destined to fail can be much more likely to succeed with your help, and someone taking a risk without fully thinking things through first can be doomed with a worst case scenario. This does not work if they are aware you will have a participation in it beforehand, though, because then their act is a calculated risk.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Devil</span><br /><br /><b>Reason - </b>The Devil is the dark side of humanity, the selfish, materialistic and lustful side that always wants more even if it means taking away from others. Devil characters are cynicists with little respect for moral values, and are attracted by positions of authority from which they can reign over others. The character earns a Genre Point when they go through very questionable means to meet their ends, which may or may not be just as questionable themselves, making enemies in the process.<br /><b>Bane - </b>The Devil was banished to the underworld because the world fears it, but it does not escape because it too fears the world outside. Devil characters are horrible people because it is all they know, sustaining themselves through various types of addictions. The character earns a Genre Point when their lifestyle of dependency on substances, behaviors, people or even beliefs gets the better of them.<br /><b>Providence - </b>You may bless or curse others when they act out of the pure greed and lust in their hearts. Someone looking for a good time might get lucky that night, while a ruthless plutocrat might make a mistake that costs them their fortune. Promises of power and deals with the Devil are recommended, but optional rather than mandatory.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">And the Relationships?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">You now have have separate Affinity levels for each PC or NPC you are close to. Affinity Levels are mutual and decided by the owners of the characters, so both characters will always be at the same Affinity Level with each other. Characters that were once very close will continue to know each other inside and out even if they had a major falling out, this means that Affinity Levels can only go up, and characters may not go back down to the previous one with each other.<br /><br /><b>Affinity Level 0 - </b>The characters don't click together, they might keep themselves at arm's reach or actively distrust and even hate each other. There are no special rules for this Level.<br /><b>Affinity Level 1 -</b> The characters are companions of circumstance or casual acquaintances, they trust each other enough to share food or a roof to sleep under, but not much more than that. Characters at this Affinity Level gain an Advantage to Blessings and Curses cast on each other.<br /><b>Affinity Level 2 - </b>The characters are close friends, they trust each other with personal favors and secrets... Just not the really shady, dark stuff. Characters at this Affinity Level gain a second Advantage to Blessings and Curses cast on the other.<br /><b>Affinity Level 3 -</b> The characters have a very close bond like that of life partners, and it would take genuinely surprising turns of events for them to split. Characters at this Affinity Level may freely give each other their own Genre Points, sharing with each other as necessary.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Characters without an Arcana don't gain any benefit from a high Affinity Level other than maybe the occasional blessing and getting a Genre Point every now and then, which they can't use considering they most likely don't have any Powers either. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Example time: Let's say Alice (Chariot) wants to help out Bob (Fool) and they have an Affinity Level of 2. Bob is having a really hard time with planning an anniversary event for his significant other because he has the attention span of a gnat, but he feels a really intense love even if he is terrible at committing to other things, and Alice wants to help him out. She can use Providence to help him keep his focus through all this responsible man stuff without messing up, because it fits right within the purview of The Chariot. Alice has two Advantages to her Help Test so Bob will have a much easier time with whatever it is he ends up rolling the dice for. Meanwhile, Charlie (Devil) keeps trying to get suckers to sign a contract with her for power in exchange for their eternal servitude, but they all have Affinity Levels of 0 with her so they don't fall for it. Even if they did, she can't do much for them without any Advantages to the eventual Help Tests, she would need to get closer for Providence to start getting effective.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">In Conclusion: No I don't want to get to writing supplements like <i>right now</i> what gave you that idea? Next month, I'll stop beating around the bush and start talking about my future plans.</span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-61325734722020181112013-09-15T10:50:00.000-07:002013-09-15T10:56:01.280-07:00Recycling Old JunkFrom the first day the game was out there it changed a lot, and whole lots of individual mechanics got rewritten, merged together, or got entirely lost somewhere along the way. Today is about the last bunch of those, the ones that vanished entirely, or at least the most memorable ones of the bunch. I'll make the token attempt to bring them back here, plus some attempts at content that I've been trying to write in since forever but never felt it was good enough to make the cut. Let's start with some Mecha stuff.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Hidden Power's Missing Family Tree</span><br />
<br />
Once upon a time, there existed the Potential line of Upgrades. It was a series that increased your Attributes after you reached Tension 10, then they got rewritten to work off of Tension 5, then ceased existing entirely. What happened? First off, Attribute changes are overwhelmingly powerful, and because you had to wait for ten whooping turns to get them, they had to be some <i>really</i> good Attribute boosts. They were just fundamentally flawed.<br />
<br />
But couldn't they just do some more interesting stuff instead than Attributes? I tried that, and the game was pretty close to having something like this:<br />
<br />
<b>Awakened Power v1</b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect: Choose two Upgrades or Weapons worth 5 UP each and assign them to any compatible Areas. After Tension increases to 5 you may now use one of said abilities, and after Tension 10 you may use another. You choose which one is enabled when you reach the corresponding Tension bonus.<br />
<br />
This doesn't look too bad, does it? Well, it kind of still sucks, because it has to be balanced around something the Player has no real control of: Operation length. Depending on the playstyle of the GM and the size of the group, it is either a guaranteed free 5 points, or a net 5 point loss for most of the combat sequence.<br />
<br />
What about using Tension as a resource? Early on there was stuff that increased <i>your</i> Tension specifically (there's still a reference to that possibly happening in the manual, in case I ever want to go back there) but I never had anything that just ate up your Tension as if it were a Limit Break gauge. So what happens when we do that?<br />
<br />
<b>Awakened Power v2</b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 5<br />
Effect: Choose any number of Upgrades or Weapons worth a total Cost of 10 UP or less and assign them to any compatible Areas. At the beginning of your Turn you may reduce your Tension by 5 until End of Operation to gain use of said abilities until then. You may not do this if your Tension is under 5.<br />
<br />
So why didn't it work? Well, it is almost always a strict downgrade. Odds are a bunch of defensive abilities, utility upgrades, or new weapons won't make it easier to win than a flat bonus of 5 to Accuracy does. And 'fixing' it by having it grant more UP just makes you want to pick Eagle Chassis so you can rack up on free UP, because your Accuracy is already high enough.<br />
<br />
Tension-based abilities are neat, and I want more of them, but they have to be very limited in scope to keep them balanced. Anything that boosts your Attributes directly or grants UP is too versatile for its own good.<br />
<br />
Speaking of dangerous versatility, Transformation and Expansion Pack had a bastard child that I never quite put out there on the web for that same reason...<br />
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<b>Secret Equipment v1</b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: Make two ‘sets’ of Upgrades or Weapons worth 10 UP each, and choose one Area to house all abilities within. One set will be usable normally, while the second set will be 'hidden' within this Area and unavailable. You may have the chosen Area purged at the beginning of your Turn, Maiming it and losing a Level of Threshold in the process to enable use of the second set. Once first Maimed, the first set is done for and will not be compatible with abilities that let you use Areas as if they weren’t Maimed.<br />
<br />
So what is the problem with it? First, if you have any kind of regenerative ability, this is free points<i> period</i>. Second, even if you use this as intended and the choice has any legitimate tactic to it, the hidden Area is completely immune to Maiming, which last time I checked was what Expansion Pack did, and that one costs 10 UP. I mean, what are you going to do against the hidden area<i>, Double Maim</i> it? Hide the equipment in a completely different Area? Then why isn't it available regularly?<br />
<br />
Attempting to fix either of those issues rules placing conditions of what you can do with it would result in a pile of words messy enough to make Combinations blush. As long as there is any way to heal you from the Damage you've dealt to yourself (even if we make the specific Area and Levels unrepairable) this is still free points. And I straight out have no idea how to even handle the thing with the hidden Area being a free Expansion Pack. Let's tackle it like a straight benefit instead because this is not quite working.<br />
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<b>Secret Equipment v2</b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 25<br />
Effect: Make two ‘sets’ of Upgrades or Weapons worth 10 UP each. Both sets will be assigned to one of your non-Core Areas, but one of them will only be available after the chosen Area was Maimed. You may have the chosen Area at the beginning of your Turn purged, losing a Level of Threshold in the process. Once first Maimed, the first set is done for and will not be compatible with abilities that let you use Areas as if they weren’t Maimed.<br />
<br />
Now we're talking. This one is less susceptible to abuse of various types and is much better balanced, but... There's something else that is wrong, isn't there? Yes, because this <i>already exists</i>. It is pretty much a more complicated, and essentially worse, rewrite of Expansion Pack. Well okay, because it only costs 5 extra UP, it is not strictly worse, it is just generally worse.<br />
<br />
Oh well, can't win them all I guess. This is printable, but is complicated and bad enough that it looks like a trap choice when put next to its progenitors. As you can see, this kind of 'midfight powerup' stuff is tough to pull off well. Hidden Power is a tad too strong as a Genre Power, but it has a lot of slack to pick up for all the mechanics that don't exist.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Big Fish in a Small Pond</span><br />
<br />
Some NPCs used to be stronger than Grunts but weaker than Rivals, being either low-rank named characters or just faceless groups with a pedigree. Fittingly enough, they were called Elites. The problem with Elites is that they were at an odd cross with Grunts, because the existence of the former meant the latter had to be weaker, and that meant balancing Grunts so that they were worth even less than half a PC. And that was really weird to balance.<br />
<br />
So I now have decided they don't necessarily need to have their own spot in the ladder. Elites could continue to exist if they are promoted to being up to par with PCs, bringing all the simplicity of Grunts to the power level of Rivals. Like so:<br />
<br />
<b>Elite Non-Combatants</b><br />
Nature: Any. Choose one of Fitness, Intellect or Empathy and another of Awareness, Willpower or Resources. Enhance the chosen Attributes by 5.<br />
Skills: Up to 30 PP worth in Skills <br />
Traits: Up to 30 PP worth in Traits.<br />
Genre: No Genre Points or Themes.<br />
Progression: Choose one of Fitness, Intellect or Empathy and another of Awareness, Willpower or Resources. Increase the chosen Attributes at the end of every Episode Arc by 1.<br />
<br />
<b>Elite Combatants</b><br />
Genre: No Powers.<br />
Archetype: One Boss Archetype.<br />
Chassis: Any. Choose one of Evasion, Threshold or Penetration and another of Accuracy, Armor and Energy. Enhance the chosen Attributes by 5.<br />
Upgrades: Up to 15 UP worth in Upgrades.<br />
Weapons: Up to three Weapons with a Cost of 5 or less.<br />
Progression: Choose one of Evasion, Threshold or Penetration and another of Accuracy, Armor and Energy for each type of Enemy Elite. Increase the chosen Attributes along with Systems at the end of every Episode Arc by 1.<br />
<br />
As Mecha these guys have high stats and enough wiggle room to fit in a Boss Weapon or another Boss Archetype, making them pretty good for their complete lack of Genre Powers and slightly weaker Systems than Rivals. Even non-combatants have more than enough PP to burn with Skill training and Equipment, or Miracles and Psychic Power, to be a challenge. These guys are alright for something that got thrown away, let's say their recycling has been successful.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Genius for Every Field</span><br />
<br />
Another thing that got lost in the shuffle were the various Upgrades that let you Enhance Attributes past the regular mark and granted some kind of ability with it. Removing the limiters is just too strong to exist, as even Modules have proven. The special abilities fared better, getting recycled into Archetypes and being standardized into general rules for the most part, but some just disappeared. The biggest losses here would be Supercharged, which granted a static regeneration of 1 Energy per Round, and the Weapon Specialization line that rewarded you for sticking to one type of the four.<br />
<br />
Now this here might be a shocker, but originally I was going to have all Mecha regenerate Energy naturally like with Supercharged. The reason I didn't was that I found out it made you want to bleed the most out of your Energy capacity every Turn, making things repetitive and dragging out fights longer from infinite use of Active Defenses. But after earning more than 40 XP most character builds require some kind of Energy regeneration if they're going to grab any more fun stuff, so the tradeoff wasn't all that good. I might go back to change back that thing, letting everyone restore 1 Energy each Round for free, we'll see.<br />
<br />
Weapon Specializations got split up into being basic Keyword Abilities, the Weapon-based Genre Powers, and there's a Melee/Everyone else split with The Beast and Artillery Mode. These do encourage specialization... Slightly. I tried several things here, starting with the most obvious buff one can give them:<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Weapon Specialization v1</span></b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: Choose one type of Weapon when you take this Upgrade. If it is Melee, Ballistic or Missile, then whenever you take an Offensive Action with the chosen type of Weapon you can add all of the excess bonus to your Penetration instead of halving it. If it is Beam, then you gain an Advantage to all your Offensive Actions with Beam Weapons.<br />
<br />
I kind of like this one for the sake of simplicity, but it does make all Custom Weapons play very, very much the same. Then again, it could be argued that being different is what Specific Weapons are for, so I remain uncertain. Let's try something more creative and see what happens.<br />
<br />
<b>Duelist</b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: When using a Melee Weapon in a Duel you may shift the battle one Zone away in a direction of your choice.<br />
<br />
<b>Sniper</b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: Your Ballistic Weapons increase their Maximum Range by one half of what it normally is after you take the Aim Action with them. If you would lose out on the Advantages from using a Ballistic Weapon because you cannot normally Move, then you don't lose the Advantage.<br />
<br />
<b>Blaster</b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: When using a Beam Weapon you may do so for half its regular Energy cost, but doing so grants it the Slow ability until used regularly again, or until end of Operation. You may still only have one Slow weapon at a time.<br />
<br />
<b>Dogfighter</b><br />
Areas: Core<br />
Cost: 10<br />
Effect: You gain an Advantage to Offensive Actions with Missile Weapons used while you Move.<br />
<br />
Creative names, I know. With Duelist you can now effectively control the movement range of your Enemies <i>forever</i>, barring constant Disengaging. With Sniper you strike accurately and from beyond the horizon, specially now that Artillery mode no longer takes away your Advantage. Blaster seems overpowered, but it is only really notable with Weapons that cost 5 Energy and above... And that opens its own can of worms. Dogfighter makes your missiles pretty darn strong if you can keep your Enemies at medium range while you fly about.<br />
<br />
These are alright. Ish. They do what they do and that's that. Perhaps the best move would be combining the previous entry with these other four ones to keep it expensive (We're talking at least 15 UP here, possibly 20, maybe more) but make it genuinely rewarding.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Man Against Machine</span><br />
<br />
The game used to have Anti-Mecha Mines as a piece of Equipment you could buy. When detonated they would deal 1d10 Damage to Mecha (which meant more back then than it does now) and murder the crap out of pretty much any people in the Zone. They make sense to want to have around, as they're a common thing to use in fiction against giant robots when you don't have any of your own. But when PCs can buy them, scattering billions of the things all over the place every single time you get the drop on your Enemies gets old fast.<br />
<br />
Also, we already have Extreme Terrain to represent them.<br />
<br />
So uh... Yeah. I guess I now have material for a sidebar, if not any new Traits proper. Test Resources as if to obtain Equipment at a DN of 20, lay one Zone's worth of a mines. Yep. That's pretty much it.<br />
<br />
But there's another Trait I can still make, one that I've been avoiding forever, simply because every time I pull it off I look at it again and realize it should not exist no matter how cool it might be on paper. I think I'll just leave it here so you can see for yourself and I'll and close off for the <strike>day</strike> <strike>week</strike> <strike>month</strike> time being.<br />
<br />
<b>Toppler of Titans</b><br />
Cost: Your heart and soul.<br />
Effect: Increase your Defense against Mecha by 10. When you strike down a Level of Threshold, the Core of a Mecha is an eligible Area for you, disabling them immediately if chosen. You may use Deathblows against Mecha while on foot, and your attacks add
together the entire excess bonus from the Combat Test plus your Genre Points as
Penetration.<br />
Description: When your enemies see a person with a scarf they run away screaming. They are the prey and you are the hunter.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-32195950278464022692013-08-25T09:10:00.002-07:002013-08-25T09:10:47.631-07:00The Insanity GameMecha and Roleplaying Games both love action scenes. Rare is the piece of fiction belonging to either that doesn't involve the bad guy (or girl, or monster, or giant robot) getting beat up for the big climax of the story... Or any time they need to make an antagonist feel threatening at all.<br />
<br />
That said, sometimes it is more about threatening the character's mental stability instead of physically hurting them. Characters get more and more messed up in the head with the passage of time, even those that are invincible on the battlefield.<br />
<br />
GGG had a system for handling that in the past. It was exactly the same as the system for physical combat, for simplicity's sake, and wasn't all that good as a consequence. I think it is about time that gets fixed, but there's a few things that need to be kept in mind:<br />
<br />
Turning elements of mental trauma into a game is never realistic, because what makes things fun in fiction often makes them very different from how they are in real life. This gets more complicated in a game about flashy action scenes, larger than life characters, and kicking reason to the curb in the name of coolness.The existing rules do handle things like being paralyzed with fear, running away from something horrifying, or similar consequences. It works off the usual Plot Armor rules and is meant to be a different way to knock someone out or defeat them momentarily.<br />
<br />
However, Insanity is at its best when it is not just part of your Hit Points, because the fun part of roleplaying games with elements of insanity added in are its lasting consequences and long term damage. Another complication is that it is also one of those aspects of roleplaying where less is more, the more rules you attach to different types of mental illnesses, the more that you risk detracting from roleplaying them in favor of arbitrarily punishing a character. We have to work on the assumption that roleplaying a character's breakdown is fun (Otherwise why would you play a game where that is supposed to happen?) and enable that.<br /><br />All of this is a gross oversimplification, and each of the previous paragraphs could stand to be expanded upon (or explained better, really) but it does serve as an introduction to the meat of this post.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Mental Damage and Plot Armor</span><br /><br />Trauma takes its toll on the human soul, tragic things happen, and you are forced to readjust your beliefs and way of life in the face of things greater than yourself. The human mind and body are indeed fragile, specially when there are things out there that cannot
be understood with human logic and want to destroy everything you care about. PCs are heroes, they can face the worst the world has to offer and hold themselves together as long as they are victorious. But when they falter and their shells crack, something does get to them, leaving a permanent scar.<br /><br />Any time a character is defeated as a consequence of Plot Armor Damage, they accrue one Insanity Rank per Layer lost this way. This is most common as a consequence of physical violence, but it will also happen if you just see something horrific happen to someone else, as well as when something clearly supernatural takes place. Indeed, a game of GGG intending to make use of these rules should make Willpower Tests to not take Plot Armor Damage from being witness to traumatizing things more common.<br /><br />Insanity Ranks go from 1 to 10, measuring just how well you are holding up from what you've been through... Or rather, how you <i>aren't</i>. An Insanity Rank of 1 leaves you just a tad more unhinged than you used to be, but at Rank 10 you have more issues than Time Magazine. Along the way, you pick up Trauma Traits at Insanity Ranks 3, 5, 7 and 10. After Rank 10 the character has seen way too much and been powerless too many times. At the Players' choice the character can either become an NPC because they're too far gone, or can be institutionalized until they've had enough Therapy to go back to 10 Insanity or under.<br /><br />You can pick your Trauma Traits from an example list, or come up with your own variants as long as it is clearly explained how they would come into play. A Trauma Trait is not purchased with PP, you just get them as a consequence of having Insanity Ranks. They are like a combination of Features and Genre Banes in that they each have a positive and negative side to them. The positive side is that they will give you more Genre Points, while the negative side is that you don't control just how and when they make you go crazy, the GM does. <br /><br />Once per Episode per Trauma Trait you possess, the GM may force the Trauma's effects on you, and you can choose to either submit or fight it out. If you submit your character must roleplay the Trauma Trait as appropriate, but you gain a Genre Point out of it. If you fight then you must make a Contested Test of Willpower against the GM Testing your Insanity, should you win then you compose and maintain control of yourself for the time being... But should the GM win, you lose control of yourself to the Trauma Trait and play it out without gaining any Genre Points for it.<br /><br />Therapy can mitigate this ticking clock of doom. Therapy Tests are made through the Diplomacy Skill, and remove one Insanity Rank from the patient for each multiple of 5 met by the result. A Character may benefit from only one Therapy Test per Episode Arc, however, and going below the Insanity Ranks required to earn Trauma Traits will remove them. Trauma Traits lost this way may come back the moment the character earns enough Insanity Ranks again, or may instead be replaced with new ones.<br /><br />A Character may start higher up in the Insanity Rank scale than 0 if they want to, giving them the appropriate number of Trauma Traits.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Insanity Rank Descriptions</span><br />
<br /><b>Rank 0-2:</b> You can be a little on edge or obsessive at times, and perhaps the coffee of your life needs a spoon or two more of sugar, but you're fairly normal.<br /><b>Rank 3-4: </b>You're not crazy. You're just anxious and get nervous in situations most people don't, and sometimes you wonder if things make too little or too much sense. But you're not crazy and will repeat it as long as you need to.<br /><b>Rank 5-6: </b>You can mask it if you try hard enough, but anyone who knows you personally should be able to tell that you've got issues. Maybe you know you're crazy, maybe you don't, but it is getting hard to hell.<br /><b>Rank 7-9: </b>Legitimately unaware of what is and isn't real anymore, you're an inch away from hurting yourself and others.<br /><b>Rank 10+:</b> Tethering on the edge of reason if not completely gone already, you're likely living a nightmare in waking life. Suicide looks pretty good.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Traumatic Experience Difficulty Numbers</span><br />
<br />
<b>DN 5 - </b>Facing an alien monster for the first time, Watching someone else being tortured in front of your eyes, Spending days in jail.<br /><b>DN 10 - </b>Watching someone die victim to violent psychic powers, Seeing years of hard work being lost in minutes, Spending days in solitary confinement.<br /><b>DN 15 -</b> Watching a monster take on human form, Losing your family in a tragic accident, Being deeply betrayed or lied to by a loved one.<br /><b>DN 20 - </b>Being tortured for days, Having a loved one die in your arms after you failed to save them, Killing another human being and eating their corpse to survive.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Example Trauma Traits </span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Terror - </span></b>You are always under distress and feeling vulnerable, at times you experience sudden panic attacks no matter how calm the circumstances may logically be. Episodes can last from minutes to hours, with their consequences ranging from being paralyzed to a deeply uncomfortable nausea. <br /><b>Flashbacks - </b>When exposed to something that reminds you of a traumatic event, memories force their way to the forefront and you are in danger of reliving it. When this happens everything feels exactly like it did back then, physically and emotionally.<br /><b>Depression -</b> You feel tired and sour, you likely also have problems eating or sleeping to make it worse. This can get bad enough to hold you back from doing things that are really important, either because you don't feel like you can do it or you feel it is not worth it. <br /><b>Blackouts - </b>The character is prone to entering a fugue state and losing control of themselves for days at a time, ignoring everyone else and just idly hanging about until they wake up. They will snap back to reality if threatened or directly engaged, but this can make it impossible to get things done during downtime.<br /><b>Megalomania - </b>You are full of yourself these days, often acting with recklessness and arrogance with little to no provocation. As if that weren't enough, your hyperactivity and lack of concentration make you go seek out ways to get in trouble.<br /><b>Hallucinations - </b>You see things that aren't real, but even when you can tell the difference, imaginary fire still burns and the screams of imaginary people still keep you awake. At some point they will get you, and you will do something really bad while believing them to be real.<br /><b>Antisocial - </b>You have gotten violent, either out of hate or anger at everything and everyone. You could even be alternating between the calculated violation of the rights of others and flipping out in rage the next if it is bad enough.<br /><b>Dependence -</b> You cling to something or someone else to get through bad times, deferring to them whenever possible. Maybe you just ask another PC for what to do about every little thing, or perhaps you flip coins obsessively when it comes to yes/no questions, but you certainly don't trust your own judgement.<br /><b>Delusions - </b>You have your own explanation to make more sense of this nonsensical world. These range from flat denial of whatever happened to outright blaming everything on the inhabitants of fairyland. <br /><b>Addiction - </b>You're holding together thanks to taking in various chemicals in unhealthy doses and at irregular intervals. Alcohol, drugs and medication all change your mood in different ways, but the real problem comes from your desperation when you start to feel the withdrawal.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In Closing</span> <br />
<br />
The above is just a way to use the typical elements of insanity that could make for a suitable adaptation to an action-centric game. More complicated and detailed depictions of mental illnesses, like a character suddenly beginning to suffer from amnesia or multiple personality disorder would complicate things too much to represent in a satisfying way. Not to mention it would be something of a buzzkiller as far as character development goes.<br /><br />Mechanically, Trauma Traits are a slightly more hands-on approach to Genre Themes, retaining an element of rewarding Players for roleplaying in ways that are interesting if not exactly beneficial to the Characters themselves. Because they are meant to represent something that is outside of the control of the PCs, the GM is the one who brings them out to center stage. Their influence can be resisted, sure, but the threat of your PC losing themselves to their disorders remains, and that makes getting a reward for roleplaying them more enticing. <br /><br />This is one of many ways in which Genre Themes can be rewritten into more interesting mechanics depending on the setting. They're the most malleable rule in the game, so this is not the last modification you'll see. Next time will be about Mecha Upgrades that once were part of the game but no longer do or were pretty close but didn't make it for whichever reason.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-46598204522921213612013-07-28T07:16:00.000-07:002013-07-28T07:17:39.428-07:00Reining NPC Forces InGonna make a few posts about some supplementary material that will, maybe, get its own manual down the line. The first content of this type I want to bring up is not specifically about PCs, or even about enemies. It is about support NPCs, and it called the Reinforcements system.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What are Reinforcements?</span><br />
<br />
Reinforcements represent helping hands that are completely separate from your own Mecha, and thus different from Subpilots. Reinforcements can come in the form of sidekicks not directly under your command, bridge bunnies sending you crucial new information in the middle of a battle, or regular armed forces without their own Mecha contributing in their own way.<br />
<br />
For instance, most of the GaoGaiGar cast can be represented through Reinforcements. They can't defeat the enemies entirely on their own, but they have a myriad of support abilities like the Eraser Head or the Melting Siren to make GaoGaiGar's fight easier. But Soushi Minashiro from Fafner in the Azure, who shares a mental link with the other pilots and guides them in battle from the base, is also a good example of Reinforcements.<br />
<br />
Reinforcements are ranked from one to ten representing just how strong they are as a whole, as follows:<br />
<br />
<b>1-2 Insignificant: </b>Lacking in power and versatility, these Reinforcements are better than nothing and can come useful every now and then, but aren't anything to write home about.<br />
<b>3-4 Elite Mook:</b> The Reinforcements are strong enough to make the difference between otherwise matched opponents, and are equivalent to an Enemy Grunt in power.<br />
<b>5-6 Friendly Rival: </b>As the equivalent of facing another full-blown Rival NPC, these Reinforcements make great companions out there in the front lines.<br />
<b>7-8 Mentor: </b>The Reinforcements are powerful and have a deadly variety in what they can do, making them genuinely fearsome and the equivalent of having another Boss Enemy on the battlefield. <br />
<b>9-10 Deus Ex Machina: </b>The Reinforcements are overwhelmingly powerful and victory is all but assured to the Squad that benefits from them.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">How do Reinforcements work?</span><br />
<br />
Reinforcements are NOT regular NPCs, they are simpler to work with and more useful to the Squad as a whole, for a variety of reasons. Let's see how, specifically.<br />
<br />
First, they are a group resource represented by a single Squad Reinforcement Unit. This represents all of their sidekicks and allies at the same time - If there are multiple members to a Reinforcement Unit, they'll have to take turns sharing the narrative spotlight.<br />
<br />
Second, the Reinforcement Unit has its own Initiative always set at 10, during which it may use any of its abilities. A Reinforcement Unit may use one ability during its Turn, and it may only use a total number of abilities equal to its Rank per Operation. The group should decide as a whole what they request the Reinforcement Unit to do.<br />
<br />
Beyond Rank 5, Reinforcements exceed Rivals in power (and as such are
likely at least a group of Rivals) they may use two abilities in one
turn. A Rank 6 Reinforcement can use 2 abilities on turns one, two, and
three, but it will have spent all of them by then. It may not, however,
use the same ability twice per Turn.<br />
<br />
Third, a single Reinforcement ability can be repeated any number of
times (unless otherwise noted) for as long as the Reinforcement Unit’s Ranks allow, repeatable abilities
are interchangeable this way as far as the number of uses they have go.<br />
<br />
Lastly, a Reinforcement Unit has no other discernible battlefield
presence outside of their own abilities. They cannot be attacked or
disabled, but they also cannot win on their own and if the rest of the
PC Squad is defeated, so are they.<br />
<br />
A Rank 4 Reinforcement can use its abilities four times, and has four abilities. It can use each ability once, or use two abilities twice, and so on. Note that Reinforcements do not need to use an ability every Turn, they can just pass a Turn.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What can Reinforcements do?</span><br />
<br />
There are ten Reinforcement abilities, Reinforcement Units have a number of these (of their choice) according to their Rank. A Rank 10 Reinforcement Unit has all 10 abilities.<br />
<br />
<b>Airstrike: </b>All Units within a target area the size of a Blast suffer an amount of Damage equal to half the current Tension.<br />
<b>Assisted Targetting: </b>One Ally gains the benefits of the Aim Action to their next Offensive Action this round.<br />
<b>Flash Analysis: </b>One Enemy’s complete rules are revealed to the Squad. If they need an update afterwards on their status, they will need to use this ability again.<br />
<b>Pathfinder: </b>One Ally may Move an additional Zone as part of their next Action, ignoring the effects of Difficult Terrain while doing so.<br />
<b>Remote Hotfix: </b>One Ally may ignore the effects of Maiming on all of their Areas for a Round.<br />
<b>Electromagnetic Detonator: </b>One Enemy may not restore Threshold by any means for a Round. Use this ability once per Operation.<br />
<b>Fight On!:</b> Restore one Ally's Threshold by 5. Use this ability once per Operation.<br />
<b>Fire at Will: </b>One Enemy suffers the effects of Extreme Terrain (in addition to any other Terrain properties) during their next Turn. Use this ability once per Operation.<br />
<b>IFF Hacking:</b> One Enemy loses the benefits of Tension to Offensive Actions for a Round. Use this ability once per Operation.<br />
<b>Supply Drop: </b>An area the size of a Blast becomes Base Terrain (in addition to any other Terrain properties) for the rest of the Operation. Use this ability once per Operation.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What is the best way to use Reinforcements?</span><br />
<br />
Their primary use is to represent NPCs without the GM having to stat them out and take Actions in their stead. This becomes more important for weaker, sidekick-esque characters, who usually are left to do as they please constantly getting extra attacks in or explode violently the moment anyone looks at them funny and are completely useless. This system adds a middle ground to that.<br />
<br />
It becomes a lot more useful when you're trying to represent that the PCs have some serious firepower backing them up. I am talking about having fleets of grunts behind them, which would be a nightmare to handle if we were trying to give 100 planes/tanks/robots turns of their own. <br />
<br />
A small fleet of spaceships can get by with Airstrike, Fire at Will, and Assisted Targetting as a Rank 3 Reinforcement to have a small but noticeable impact. A Repair & Resupply support dropship can use Assisted Targetting, Flash Analysis, Remote Hotfix, Electromagnetic Detonator, Fight On! and Supply Drop to shape and affect the battlefield about as much effectiveness as one of the PCs.<br />
<br />
High-Ranking Reinforcements make for perfect 'here comes the cavalry' moments for those times when the PCs could use a helping hand. They are pretty simple to make up rules for (Decide how powerful the Reinforcements are, think of a handful of abilities that are like Genre Powers and make sense for the Reinforcements in question, done). A final note to make is that, if you choose to customize their abilities, they shouldn't be much stronger than a Genre Power, and they should be more interesting than 'Deal Damage to one Enemy', Reinforcements are at their best when they support the characters, not when they steal their kills. If you are going to make abilities like that anyway (like Fire at Will), make them usable once per Operation.<br />
<br />
That's about it for Reinforcements. There is not that much else to explain, since they're just something that the GM may decree necessary or not and is more or less up to them... At least until Reinforcements become purchasable with UP. Next time, it'll be about the return of Mental Plot Armor rules.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-51950250656453288852013-07-02T14:06:00.000-07:002013-07-02T14:06:59.729-07:00Patched up, Cleaned out, and Gift-wrapped.Posting in the middle of the week because my ISP has been making it an ordeal to get anything done. This is a touchup to 1.8 with only two rules changes, to Modules and Cryptids. There is also a number of editorial fixups that provoked this hurried update in the first place: To summarize, a few things (mostly 1.8 changes) are better explained and the example NPCs are completely up to date.<br /><br />Because it has been less than a month since 1.8 I'll list the changes from there once again in addition to the new stuff in red.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Character Creation</span><br /><br />-Limited the number of Enhancements Characters can get to three per Episode Arc.<br />-Masterwork Tools may now be used as Proxies if applicable.<br />-Clarified when precisely might Backup Bodies be used.<br />-Clarified there can't be two instances of Come at me Bro on the same side<br />-Clarified that Hidden Power can't give you more of something you cannot possibly get more of.<br />-Buffed Got Your Back and Retroactively Prepared.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Mecha Construction</span><br /><br />-Limited the number of Enhancements Mecha can get to three per Episode Arc.<br />-Increased the limit of Archetypes to 3. <br /><span style="color: red;">-Rewrote Modules into Speed and Power Modules. You can only have one Module at a time unless they are part of an Alternate Form.</span><br />
-Sub Units beyond the first take up Archetype slots. That means you can have 3 of one type and 1 of the other or 2 and 2. This counts your starting Archetype.<br />-Sub Units can no longer be combined into one godly Sub Unit.<br />-Assistant no longer grants Genre Powers.<br />-Sidekicks cost 5 more UP but can now be repaired at the beginning of your Turn.<br />-Tweaked Stealth Field a little.<br />-You can attack while docked to a Base Unit.<br />-Small buffs to Incinerator, Divine Wind, and to Weapons with the Defective quality.<br />
-Tweaked Micro Missiles and Nega-G Rounds to make them more attractive.<br />-Nerfed Disruptor Cannon<br />-Implemented a limit of one Custom Weapon with a cost less than 5 at a time. You can get around this limit during the initial construction of your Mecha and take multiple cheap Custom Weapons as long as they all have different Costs and no drawbacks whatsoever.<br />-You can now Enhance Custom Weapons that cost 1-4 until they cost 5.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Playing the Game</span><br /><br />-Clarified that any abilities that automatically roll 10 ignore Advantages and Disadvantages entirely.<br />-Expanded the Time Management sidebar with rules for taking longer in exchange for Advantages.<br />-Assist cannot be used with area of effect Weapons any longer.<br />-You can now move after taking a Suppress Action but you take the other half of the Damage it would have dealt.<br />-Clarified that you cannot escape a Duel through Engaging a different target.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Running the Show</span><br /><br />-Toned down Nanoskin Shell and Telekinetic Strike.<br />-Buffed Hypersonic Striker with the ability to hit and run.<br />-Changed 3G-Bomb to be a superweapon with high base stats and huge radius.<br />-Streamlined Payback to use the Damage taken as a workhorse.<br /><span style="color: red;">-Cryptid now forces you to make a Test to avoid losing Layers upon being Damaged, but you are not defeated until you lose all of them.</span><br /><br />In the end I went ahead and rewrote Modules. They give two +2 boosts for 10 UP, and you can only get one. If they're part of an Alternate Form not only can you get both of them (as long as they are in separate modes) but they go into the Core, so they don't run the risk of getting Maimed. They could have been made more expensive to solve the power issue (or made part of the enhancement progression scheme) without being rewritten entirely but it was important for transformers to be able to make forms with different stats. This seemed to be the best way to facilitate that while toning them down.<br /><br />Cryptid has also been rewritten for the umpteenth time with this instance being less unfair yet more intense: Now you have to fail multiple separate Tests to be defeated this way. This also makes it more interesting to roleplay its effects on Pilots.<br />
<br />
From now on I'd like to focus on variant mechanics and rules a little too out there to be made part of the core system. Further changes to the existing rules would likely require a major overhaul of more or less everything so if they do happen it will not be this year. What I <i>can</i> do this year is make posts about adapting the game to suit things other than traditional Mecha or to different playstyles while keeping its distinctive feel.<br />
<br />
Should be fun.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-66736074246366372292013-06-23T12:23:00.001-07:002013-06-23T12:23:34.554-07:00Moderating ModulesThere are a few editorial mistakes that I need to fix, mostly concerning example characters, and I <i>could</i> do that right now and leave it at that, but I could also just as well ask what do people think about the game in general and see if I should change anything else while I'm at that.<br />
<br />
The one thing I am more or less sure I want to touch up a little are Modules.<br />
<br />
After limiting Enhancements, Modules are the last thing up there in the list of 'things too good to not always get'. Now, they can be Maimed, which has always been their one balancing factor to compensate for their reduced cost, but much like with Sub Units they are always good to have around for basically every character... And since they're just stat-ups that's both powerful <i>and</i> boring. Not a good combo.<br />
<br />
With that said, Modules are the only way to represent Alternate Forms with different statlines, they make crafting Grunts a lot easier, and of course sometimes you just want to make the guy who really really is the fastest or toughest and they let you do that. They need to exist, and also to be affordable.<br />
<br />
Possible workarounds include making them only applicable to Alternate Forms, making it so you can only grab 10 UP of them, and making them join Sub Units in costing up Archetype slots. Those are the quick and easy solutions, and they need not necessarily be exclusive to each other.<br />
<br />
A slightly more involved one is to merge the four existing modules into two, a Speed Module for Evasion and Accuracy and a Power Module for Armor and Penetration. It could cost 10 and grant +2 to both Attributes. Either option keeps them affordable while reducing their power level (slightly) and making the Evasion and Penetration ones less exploitable due to the increased cost.<br />
<br />
Or I could leave things as they are if it really is not as much of a problem as I imagine it is. Feedback would be appreciated.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-17350493145691586922013-06-11T00:40:00.003-07:002013-06-13T05:45:10.066-07:00Another Update for Good MeasureNo big rewrites this time, though there's a good number of tweaks toning down the mechanics more prone to being exploitable and tons of clarifications for rules that weren't too clear. Also with this one update we have a number of additional goodies, including:<br />
<br />
-A Grayscale version of the game for ease of printing.<br />
-Editable Pilot and Mecha Sheets in PDF form.<br />
-A printable PDF of Ability Cards to reference the rules text of Powers and Weapons and whatnot without checking the book.<br />
-A Mapmaker PSD file to aid in creating your own maps.<br />
<br />
All are in the Downloads and Links section.<br />
<br />
The Grayscale version is something I have been owing people since basically forever, and it comes with the Ability Cards PDF. Those are functional and not particularly good looking - I chose to skip out on making the cards fancy and colorful or giving them their own art because, well, they need to be printed out.<br />
<br />
The new Editable Sheets are much like the other ones but page-sized so you can download and
edit them then print them out or just upload your own edited copy for
online use.<br />
<br />
Lastly there's the Mapmaker PSD (PSD stands for PhotoShop Document, which requires Adobe Photoshop) which is a simple file with Hex and Square grids overlayed on top of example maps made to fit a Letter-sized page if you choose to print it. It is also bundled with two transparent grids (Hex and Square) in PNG format if you would like to take them to another image editor program of choice.<br />
<br />
And now, for the Changelog.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">General Changes</span><br />
<br />
-Typo fixing, etc. The Enhancements section for Mecha had costs in PP. Seriously. I had to laugh when I found out about that one.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Character Creation</span> <br />
<br />
-Limited the number of Enhancements Characters can get to three per Episode Arc.<br />
-Masterwork Tools may now be used as Proxies if applicable.<br />
-Clarified when precisely might Backup Bodies be used.<br />
-Clarified there can't be two instances of Come at me Bro on the same side <br />
-Clarified that Hidden Power can't give you more of something you cannot possibly get more of.<br />
-Buffed Got Your Back and Retroactively Prepared.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mecha Construction</span> <br />
<br />
-Limited the number of Enhancements Mecha can get to three per Episode Arc.<br />
-Increased the limit of Archetypes to 3. However, now Sub Units beyond the first take up Archetype slots. That means you can have 3 of one type and 1 of the other or 2 and 2. This counts your starting Archetype.<br />
-Sub Units can no longer be combined into one godly Sub Unit. <br />
-Assistant no longer grants Genre Powers. <br />
-Sidekicks cost 5 more UP but can now be repaired at the beginning of your Turn. <br />
-Tweaked Stealth Field a little. <br />
-You can attack while docked to a Base Unit. <br />
-Small buffs to Incinerator, Divine Wind, and to Weapons with the Defective quality -Tweaked Micro Missiles and Nega-G Rounds to make them more attractive. <br />
-Nerfed Disruptor Cannon <br />
-Implemented a limit of one Custom Weapon with a cost less than 5 at a time. You
can get around this limit during the initial construction of your Mecha
and take multiple cheap Custom Weapons as long as they all have different Costs and no drawbacks whatsoever.<br />
-You can now Enhance Custom Weapons that cost 1-4 until they cost 5. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Playing the Game</span><br />
<br />
-Clarified that any abilities that automatically roll 10 ignore Advantages and Disadvantages entirely.<br />
-Expanded the Time Management sidebar with rules for taking longer in exchange for Advantages.<br />
-Assist cannot be used with area of effect Weapons any longer.<br />
-You can now move after taking a Suppress Action but you take the other half of the Damage it would have dealt. <br />
-Clarified that you cannot escape a Duel through Engaging a different target. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Running the Show</span><br />
<br />
-Toned down Nanoskin Shell and Telekinetic Strike.<br />
-Buffed Hypersonic Striker with the ability to hit and run.<br />
-Changed 3G-Bomb to be a superweapon with high base stats and huge radius.<br />
-Streamlined Payback to use the Damage taken as a workhorse.<br />
<br />
And here I was all happy and content thinking 1.7 would be the last one, what with nothing being inherently broken. And then some really embarrassing editorial mistakes happened and I figured you know what might as well touch things up some more. Will there be more changes? If there are, they won't be for several months down the line, because I have a lot less time these days and anything that needs a change would require a large rewriting.<br />
<br />
So about the changes proper, for the most part anything that isn't a clarification or a buff is a limitation to just how much you can stack up some of the best options in the game. Sub Units, Enhancements, and Cost 1 Weapons all fit this criteria.<br />
<br />
I discussed previously limiting Enhancements to 5 per Arc previously, which was okay... In that it did not really change much. By making it a limit of three per Arc though now they have a considerable opportunity cost, and you have to weigh up whether you want the cheap ones or the good ones more carefully. Mathermatically speaking, a top of the line character will (assuming the guidelines for power level are being followed) not go over fifteen Enhancement total.<br />
<br />
That is a big change from not having a limit to Enhancements (other than UP) at all. Fifteen Enhancements is, roughly, a 50% increase in power and is enough to top off three Attributes - or to get +2s to half your Attributes and a +3 to the other half. Either way it is a lot less exploitable and encourages grabbing more toys both as Pilots and Mecha rather than just going for the boring but reliable high numbers.<br />
<br />
Custom Weapons under 5 UP are limited to only one of at a time normally, but there's a way around it in a new sidebar (More Weapons for Less, Page 80) that lets you take up to four Weapons for 10 UP total while making a character. Weapons made through this alternative rule may not have drawbacks, making them useful but far from abusive.<br />
<br />
Sidekicks can now be repaired mid-battle in exchange for Energy and an Action! That makes them more expensive too, but they're less a waste of points the moment someone looks at them funny. They're still powerful, giving you the equivalent of an extra Turn in a way, but now they cost upwards of 10 UP at a time. Repairing them more than once gets progressively more costly <i>and</i> there is a limit to how many Sub Units you can get now too so it works out.<br />
<br />
On Stealth Field, it basically had no drawback if you chose to keep it active while having 0 Energy remaining and that was Not Okay. Now if you can't pay for the Energy cost, you take extra Damage. That it allows energy-draining then comboing an overconfident enemy to death is cool, though I frankly do not expect the extra Damage to come up often - The change is only there so it isn't just free Disadvantages once you're out of juice.<br />
<br />
Everything else has already been discussed more or less at length in the previous posts, I think. Well, the Time Management thing didn't but I just forgot to write anything about it and there really isn't much to say anyway. If you have the time for it, you can trade speed for Advantages when it comes to Extended Tests. Pretty obvious stuff.<br />
<br />
That's it for now. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-66706904817185084882013-06-05T17:55:00.005-07:002013-06-05T17:55:54.122-07:00This is not a Rules Update post.I got delayed with a few exploitable rules issues that needed handling, plus life getting in the way of explaining all of it in a proper blog post. On the plus side, I've gone over everything so many times by now that if there are any editorial mistakes left I will be surprised.<br />
<br />
(I actually won't be surprised, I will just shake my head a little and sigh)<br />
<br />
Now though I've got the chance and energy so I might as well discuss what exactly are the rules concerns that delayed the update. Issue one is that there needs to be a limit on how many cheap Custom Weapons you can have. Issue two is that Enhancements need a limitation on how many you can purchase early on. Issue three is yet another adjustment/clarification to how stacked Advantages and Disadvantages work.<br />
<br />
Let's get to it.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Limiting Custom Weapons</span><br />
<br />
Custom Weapons are alright as is, assuming you're not actively trying to abuse them. They are the bread and butter to the premade ones' silver bullets and build-arounds. Plus, they can be used to fill up space if you've got spare UP left thanks to their optionally lower cost. This is good.<br />
<br />
The bad part is that there is nothing in the rules stopping you from packing only 1 UP Weapons and just leaving them there, spending the UP on Enhancements to buff up your offense that way instead. Suffice to say this is not their intended use, so adjustments need to be made.<br />
<br />
Obviously there cannot just be a limit of one Custom Weapon of each type because not only would that not really solve the issue (you can still cover pretty much every angle with just one of each type, after all) it would also make it impossible to represent anything that has a rocket punch <i>and</i> a sword <br />
<br />
The simplest way around it is to make it so you can only have one Custom Weapon that costs less than 5. You can still use them to fill space and represent non-gimmicky weapons, you just will have to pay full price for all but the last of them that you get.<br />
<br />
There is another way though, and a more complicated one at that: You cannot have more than one Custom Weapon if the one you have costs 1 UP, should you want to have two they have to cost at least 2, and if you desire three then they need to be 3 UP each. And so on and so forth. This one does not solve the issue itself, but mitigates it considerably and allows more freedom in weapon loadouts.<br />
<br />
Odds are the former will be the official one, but the option is there to use the latter.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Limiting Enhancements</span><br />
<br />
Attributes are the core of any character and mecha, so it is no surprise that Enhancements are powerful stuff. They are also cheap, because Upgrades and Weapons are expensive and you need to spend your UP on something. Because of that they can be used to mitigate the weaknesses of your starting Chassis or ramp up their existing strengths.<br />
<br />
With the cheaper Enhancements out there, it is possible to do both at once from the start. It is not much of a big deal on its own right now, but coupled with the Custom Weapons exploit it is borderline ridiculous. Even with that one solved, I figure I can apply a relatively benevolent limitation just in case. You should be able to do one or the other, but not both.<br />
<br />
You can purchase up to any 5 Enhancements with a new character, and may get up to 5 more per each Episode Arc. This works well with the last change in that it frees up more UP to spend in Weapons early on and should not negatively affect anyone who wasn't ignoring Upgrades altogether. There is not much to say other than that, really.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What about Advantages and Disadvantages now?</span><br />
<br />
There are a few abilities that eschew dice rolls entirely, mostly Weapons that automatically get a 10. These exist to provide a way around enemies that have ludicrously high Evasion and stack Disadvantages to hit them. Some Bosses, for instance, can be downright untouchable through normal means that way, so having a few of these Weapons around (plus One Shot, One Kill) is good.<br />
<br />
And they do work pretty well at countering the former! The latter, though? Not so much. Mostly because stacked Disadvantages can be converted to extra difficulty, making an automatic roll of 10 inadequate. I will be adding a clarification to the Advantages and Disadvantages section stating that anything that eschews dice rolls to get a specific result ignores both Advantages and Disadvantages entirely.<br />
<br />
Micro Missiles are getting a small touchup as a consequence of this. They will automatically roll a 10 from now on, no longer benefitting from Advantages in the form of a static bonus, but neither will they be penalized from Disadvantages.<br />
<br />
That is pretty much it. Hopefully this will be going up on Sunday, but it might have to be during the week.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-26900079254402075542013-05-26T15:51:00.002-07:002013-05-26T15:51:40.535-07:00Mechanical Make-Up VIIAh, Chapter 5. It has a lot less mechanics when compared to pretty 2, 3 and 4. Enough to go over them all right now. A part of me wants to expand NPC rules immediately, with more Boss goodies, wacky Features for weird enemies, and more Tiers for NPCs - Like the old Elite that was in between Grunts and Rivals. But it will have to wait. First we do maintenance on the house, then we see about building a second story on top.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Non-Combatants </span><br /><br />All of these these get a single lone section to themselves because... Well, that is what their relevance deserves. Basically, non-combatant npc "rules" are for those times you just need to whip up a quick statblock and just eyeballing two or three stats isn't enough. Grunts are fast and easy. Rivals and Bosses are a different matter, though frankly between this and the suggestions in the "The Big Bads" sidebar you should have a good idea of how to stat these in a matter of seconds. Natures really help in making this process easier, too, another reason I favor them so much.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Grunts and Rivals</span><br /><br />Grab two Weapons, maybe one or two Upgrades, and a Chassis. Enhance if appropriate. Grunts take very little effort to write up. And while they are weak individually, they can give PCs fits. In other games Grunts are plentiful and outnumber the PCs about four to one... Not so in GGG. Partly because managing up to a dozen of NPCs is a chore, partly because each one is supposed to be an actual threat that needs to be overcome, and is not just there for show. <br /><br />Two Grunts are said to be a match for a PC, but it is more like three really if you want the PC to be genuinely against the ropes. With that said, the sheer variety in loadouts available to them means that you can throw Grunts at PCs just to warm them up without offering much of a challenge or give them devious combinations of abilities, abusing the likes of Support Fire and Divine Wind. This way they can represent generic goons or elite troops with the same set of rules.<br />
<br />Rivals are almost the same as PCs if not for the fact that they usually pack less Genre Points, and depending on how much of a difference there is a GM might have to toss in an extra Grunt to make for a real challenge. With that said, PCs are fine having a slight mechanical advantage over their Rivals because you (as GM) want them to win <i>anyway</i>. Even then, the fact that Rivals can retool themselves around the opposition and show up with a new giant robot if the plot demands gives them an advantage over the PCs that might be worth a lot more than just one or two Genre Points.<br /><br />The big issue is that they take the most time to stat. A part of me wants to throw away these rules and come up with something like what Grunts and Bosses have but more on equal with the PCs. But I recognize that as they are, they function as a clear mirror to the PCs, and that is what they are supposed to be. You know, <i>Rivals.</i><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Bosses</span><br /><br />Bosses have been the toughest ones to design, but now overall they're challenging and easy to create or customize, without being impossible to beat. Yes, some of their abilities are extremely powerful, but the worst ones don't even trigger before getting considerably beat up. Overall they're one of the things I'm the most proud of in the game as a whole.<br /><br />
Boss Powers are much like Boss Archetypes in that they represent individual abilities which make the user much harder to deal with, their main difference is that they don't either need getting beat up to be activated, nor do they grow stronger over time. A few stand out from the rest, for a few reasons. One is I Believe this is Yours, which can be taken multiple times to cover all Weapon Types, if you so wish. Another is Die for Me!, which is by far the most brutal ability in the game then a Boss has a lot of Genre Points. Lastly there is Behold my True Power, which can be combined with Overfreeze and Wormhole Assault from the Boss repertoire for an obvious combo, or lets you get crafty with other ideas like Bombardment and Resonance Cannon for sheer brutality.<br />
<br />
Honestly since they are active abilities that can be used from Turn 1 onwards, they can get a bit repetitive at times. But considering that they're supposed to be a piece of the puzzle that PCs need to solve in order to beat a Boss, I would say that being repetitive is the point. Other Powers are a ton less crafty and sometimes kind of boring (like Show me your Resolve and Resistance is Futile) but they get the job done. Also, while Genre Powers in general have great names, Boss Powers have the <i>best</i> names. Ever. <br /><br />Archetypes are a bit more interesting, and two of them need some changes. Nanoskin Shell is by far the strongest to the point of it being preposterous - 60 extra HP granted by a single ability is <i>insane</i> and the damage buffer needs to be halved at least. Hypersonic Striker is also not as good as it could be, because extra movement stops being useful once you are in range, so it will be given the unique ability to do hit and run tactics with any kind of Weapon - it will only trigger after losing a Level of Threshold so it won't create any unbeatable Enemies.<br /><br />Then there's Weapons. G-Leeches are are probably the weakest right now, though the latter would get much more interesting with the changes to Hypersonic Striker. Graviton Wave is similar in that it is not very good at killing its targets, but by golly is it amazing at softening them up. The most exploitable one right now is Telekinetic Strike, not only almost always dealing unblockable damage but also controlling the positions of its enemies. The least I can do is make the bowling ball effect require passing the Evasion of secondary targets. The other one maybe worth retooling is 3G-Bomb, which went from being overwhelmingly powerful to being a tad too slow to be really threatening to anyone with a Threshold of 10 or higher. Perhaps making it deal damage not directly dependent on Tension is for the best, after all.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Features</span><br /><br />Biological, Fortress, and Squadron are pretty straightforward. They are used to represent things that are neither the average giant robot, nor are they usually under PC control. More interesting is Cryptid, which is not only all upside for most enemies, and a dangerously powerful upside at that to boot, but is a gigantic middle finger to one of the most effective strategies in the game otherwise - tanking via healing.<br />
<br />
It is the closest the game ever gets to having an unfairly powerful ability for enemies, but it is only genuinely devastating against anyone who relies on restoring Threshold entirely instead of even trying to prevent Damage. It is also acknowledged as being powerful to the point that even Grunts should be considered to be an even match against PCs, so it works out.<br />
<br /><span style="font-size: large;">O<span style="font-size: large;">peration Actions</span></span> <br />
<br />
Well, That was kind of short, so I might as well also touch up some general mechanics while I'm at it, Chapter 4 here we go.<br />
<br />Most of the Operation rules are fine, with all Actions being viable alternatives to just Attacking now. Micromanage is <i>still</i> a tad powerful, but I'd rather keep it useful than nerf it to being a sub-par option. Suppress though, currently lets you stop anyone from moving at all ever again. And movement is more important now than it used to be, so we're reworking that a little. I don't want to complicate things too much, so we'll make it a simple choice: The victim of a Suppress Action can still move after being suppressed, but doing so means they take the other half of the Damage the attack would have dealt normally.<br /><br />This is a lot more representative of using suppressive fire to pin someone down, and also gives them a way to escape your grappling attempts. It also weakens Suppress a bit, but because the enemy still suffers a Disadvantage to their own Offensive Actions it is worth using even then. Fortunately, it is still a lot less complicated than every other attempt to represent grappling rules since D&D became infamous for having some really bad ones.<br />
<br />
Next week, the update in question, with a few bonuses.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-38528950147399771402013-05-19T14:41:00.003-07:002013-05-19T14:41:37.362-07:00Mechanical Make-Up VII went over a lot of the math behind the mechanics for Pilot rules in my Tribute to Player Agency during January and February, so I'll be commenting on the utility of the specific options today and comparing them balance-wise. But before that, a question for those who would want to print out their own copies of the finalized book: Would you prefer a grayscale version with everything exactly as it is right now, or grayscale but with images removed and formatting looking kind of awkward as a consequence? Leave a comment! <br />
<br />
And now, to finalize an analysis of character creation:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Natures</span><br />
<br />
There is not much to say about these other than Professional kind of gets a bad rap for not being the best at anything. In a game that encourages generalism, though, that is kind of undue. As is, they are the only characters who will never roll under a 5 for anything, saving them from worst case scenarios unless there's some serious Disadvantages stacked against them.<br />
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The secondary Attributes (Awareness, Willpower, Resources) do a pretty decent job of balancing the other three with each other, though of course that depends on just how many rules you're using. Resources gets better if you're allowed to have your own battle tank, and high Willpower is oh so much more desirable when you can use it to fuel superpowers.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Skills - Mundane</span><br />
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Some Skills are more generally useful than others. Investigation and Medicine will usually be more useful than Presence and Survival, the latter of which will need a concept that focuses on them to bring them up to par with the likes of the former. The neat thing about Skills is that they are cheap enough you can get
some of the worse ones for 3 or 5 PP without really hurting your
character in the process, and there simplified skill system gives any
Adept or Master skills a lot of value.<br />
<br />
A few Skills might merit being split apart into different categories, and strong cases have been made for Craftsmanship to be divided into say, Arts and Industry. On one hand, defusing a bomb and composing a sonnet are <i>very</i> different things. On the other hand, the line between crafting something for practical or aesthetic purposes is an easily blurred line, such as when customizing a motorcycle, which is both of them. <br />
<br />
In rules terms, splitting them up would also likely make Craftsmanship Tests considerably easier to anyone who can argue that whatever they're doing takes both Skills, assuming they have purchased both that is. Then again, maybe rewarding people who really, <i>really </i>want to be the best at crafts & arts is an alright thing.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Skills - Miracles</span><br />
<br />
Balancing these is tough, not to mention that there's so many neat ideas for superpowers that avoiding a glut of them was its own problem. To avoid the issue of spell lists taking up hundreds of pages, I've tried to make each Miracle do the most things it could reasonably get away with conceptually. You can have Pyrokinesis <i>and</i> Cryonesis or Life <i>and </i>Death as one package, because he who giveth can also taketh away.<br />
<br />
Some of them get away with a lot though. For instance Somatics and Sight provide tremendous value at Adept level alone. The trick is that the rest do things that are impossible to replicate through mundane means, such as shooting lightning out of your hands or making people see ghosts, thus making themselves worth it just for being unique. <br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Traits - General</span><br />
<br />
Generally Traits worth between 3 and 5 PP tend to be rather conditional or depend on the GM more than usual, while the high-end ones are a lot more powerful and straightforward, but of limited use. Some of them are Traits because they're simply not worth being Skills (like Animal Person or Gamer) though they can be rather fearsome when combined with existing Skills to grant them extra Advantages (Such as with Intimidating and Weapon Expertise) but they pale in comparison to the sheer ridiculousness you can get away with when you build around Traits such as Leadership, Psychic Power and Spirit of Steel. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Traits - Deathblows</span><br />
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The most powerful of these by raw damage output is Multitargeting, multiplying your Damage by the number of enemies you've got. Though of course it does nothing 1v1. Tearing follows up, which, assuming you deal at least 1 point of damage on your own, can take out a baseline Coordinator with an average roll of 5... But needs 5 turns to do so. Precise is about the only one worth combining with other Deathblows if you want a crazy powerful finisher, as the Disadvantage more or less cancels out after a couple turns' worth of Tension.<br />
Stunning and Defensive are alright on their own, but if you add Multitargeting to them, a single action can turn around an entire combat scene. <br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Traits <span style="font-size: large;">- Assets</span></span><br />
<br />
These are all mechanically the same so there is not that much to say that hasn't already been covered. Maybe the standardized debt mechanic could be taken out and all of them could be given unique mechanics, but I'm not sure about that.<br />
<br />
I also like having hard(ish) rules for relying on your network of contacts and money a bit too much, and don't think coming up with specific mechanics to represent being indebted or putting your career at stake would be much of an improvement over what we've currently got.<br />
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Perhaps the one thing that I do regret a little that you can grab all four of them and use each in turn to pull yourself out of a jam, without ever repaying the debt back. Then again, someone who slowly gives up on everything they've got as a story progresses could be interesting in its own right.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Traits - Anomalies</span><br />
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Cyborg, Reanimating and Wild are the most interesting, with the last one even potentially letting you communicate with the giant monsters you're fighting if the setting allows for it. Flight and Nightmare can also serve as 'rules to represent pilot-scale monsters'. Technobane can range from extremely useful to absolutely terrible depending on the game <br />
<br />
An Anomaly that was considered but ultimately discarded was 'Ghostly'. And it did not come to pass simply because the ability to pass through objects either has no downside because you can control it at will or the downside is absolutely crippling and kills you dead the moment something goes wrong. Maybe one day I will come up with a better way to go about it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Traits - Equipment</span><br />
<br />
These are the least effects-based of the bunch, with most having abilities highly tuned to represent being specific objects... Which is kind of the point, anyway. The cheapest ones (Ether Drive, First-Aid Nanomachines and Omni-Counter) are all very useful and a fantastic bang for your buck, though they don't really have as big an effect as some of the others.<br />
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An Invisibility Device is much more efficient than the Phantasm Miracle at adopting Plan B, though it is more limited in use. A Digital Aide is not just useful, it can spice up scenes as a helpful NPC that is always in your pocket. The Masterwork Tool and Personal Facility are both very useful for their cost, though thinking about it, the former should be able to act as a Proxy. That also makes the Resources-based opportunity cost worth it when compared to just grabbing a Skill.<br />
The Energy Shield, Icarus-Class Powered Armor, and Armored Land Vehicle all can spice up ground-level encounters, either in the hands of PCs or NPCs. The Miniature Chemical Weapon is also a good replacement for Extreme Terrain-esque rules for walking into a supervillain's lair full of traps.<br />
<br />
Last but not least is <strike>The Cloneforge</strike> Backup Bodies. Which is just plain awesome, but could use the rules text being a bit more clear on its use. It makes a lot more sense if it is used between scenes... but not between <i>any</i> kind of Scene. At some point I forgot to add this clarification and now it is kind of wonky by the rules as written even if, ironically, the rules text is extremely simple. <br />
<br />
So that's character options. Next time I examine the mechanics in chapters 4 and 5. And after that, the (hopefully) final revision with some extra goodies.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-61241393081406564382013-05-11T23:52:00.001-07:002013-05-11T23:52:23.667-07:00Mechanical Make-Up VMoving over to examining the Pilots themselves, and what better way to bridge them than using the rules bridge between Pilots and their Mecha? Today is about Genre Powers. So how are they faring on a general sense? Pretty good I'd say. <br /><br />While having a varied suite of Powers with multiple costs of which only one could be used per Round made things more strategic, it wasn't as fun as the current version is. The standardization of Powers limits what can be done with them somewhat, with the grand majority of Powers being straight offensive or defensive. There's less room for utility or off-the-wall Powers around. Having all of them cost 1 also really hurts most defensive buffs, which have slightly weaker effects and last one Round. Specially since you can always change your strategy slightly to ignore the guy with super defenses for another Round.<br /><br />
Characters start with 3 Powers, plus the Default six, and can have up to 8 -or beyond if the game goes for a really long time and the power scale is entirely off the hook. Most will take 2-3 Powers necessary to their build and team role (such as Believe in Myself, Take one for the Team, Strength in Union and Exhaustion) plus 1-2 offensive ones (of which there's so much variety just in the Common pool alone that you're bound to find some you really want to have) then pick the more conditional Powers that support their 'core' ones (Examples include Keeping Up, Impetuous Style, Gotta go Fast and Retroactively Prepared)<br /><br />This means that nearly every character will have enough Powers to pull an alpha strike when pressed against the ropes, more so taking into account the extra three Genre granted from taking Damage. And since there's so many offensive options, strategies tend to revolve around managing how often and when to do your special moves. This would get repetitive fast if there wasn't so much variety in the power and weapon selection, also if it wasn't badass as heck.<br />
<br />
On to the Powers themselves! <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Default Powers</span><br />
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These six are pretty self explanatory, they work well and aren't in much need of an evaluation since everyone gets them for free anyway. The only ones that sometimes irk me a little are Synchro Attack (though I'm sure I'm done finding ways to break it by now) and Data Scanner which could stand to be shorter but simply spending a Genre to learn everything about one or more Enemies is such a gimme there's no reason <i>not</i> to do it, and that just takes out the fun of discovering stuff for yourself.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Common Powers</span><br />
<br />
Of the ten Common Powers, a whooping seven are purely offensive, with Counterattack being an arguable number eight. This really cements the idea that everyone wants to have a couple of genre-based ways to put some oomph into their moves. Ready for Another Go and Counter Intelligence are the most universally useful of the Common pool otherwise, and if they weren't so good at what they do, they'd be Default Powers. Keeping them as Powers that everyone can grab (but don't automatically get) helps keep things like Energy abuse in check and stops Bosses from having their abilities shut down constantly.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Champ<span style="font-size: large;">ion</span> Powers</span><br />
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Really good for a Shield type Chassis. They're actually pretty useful in general, but Shield Mecha just make them amazing to the point it feels like a waste to use them without being a Shield yourself. Perhaps ironically, Get a Hold of Yourself is kind of unsustainable if your build is a regenerative, long term type and not a damage prevention one.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Trickster Powers</span><br />
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Hidden Power is amazing. Variable Range is useful, and a solid 'tier 2' utility Power to grab once you have all the important stuff. Keeping Up is fantastic if you can actually make use of it, and two characters doing it in concert together with what the other lacks is pretty scary, the Setup speed hurts its defensive uses but it was kind of overpowered when you consider just how huge the swings could be and how few offensive Powers can be used at reaction speed.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Assassin Powers</span><br />
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Three really good powers. Target Lock and Pierce are fantastic, while Impetuous Style ranges from being alright to being very very good depending on the Weapons used. This might be the best Package overall, all things considered, which is frankly kind of understandable in a game about blowing up giant robots.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Scout Powers</span><br />
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Do you have high Evasion? Then odds are your Threshold isn't that good, and you really don't want to be caught in area effects like those of Finger Net or Incinerator. Good thing this package not only makes evading blows easier, it also gets you to move faster! Where'd he Go? makes a pretty amusing combo with Come at Me Bro, if you want to be the group's tank. Overall these lack the direct impact of the top tier Powers, and are suited for specialized characters, but they fit their niche really well.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Supportive Powers</span><br />
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So-so. Got Your Back is a small buff short in duration. Guiding Hand is a bit weak by itself, but the moment more Advantages come into play it can help turn them into additional d10's, which is nothing short of devastating. In that sense, it works as intended since you want to save it for when it will be of decissive help. Retroactively Prepared is the best Power of the three, and that is mostly because you can use it to support yourself through Regenerative... which kind of goes against the point.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Protective Powers</span><br />
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I never noticed before that Come at me Bro is absolutely <i>bananas</i> if there's two users on the team. I'll errata in immediately that a second instance overwrites the first. Take one for the Team is like a weaker Sacrifice on demand, and obviously a fantastic combo with Champion Powers. But the real gamewinner here is Martyr, which if not for the once-per-Enemy limitation would pretty much guarantee victory on targets with lower health totals than yours. Now I could take that limitation away and make it deal, say, half the Damage taken (or a fixed amount like 1d10)... But I think this feels a lot more awesome to use, and at the end of the day the game is about awesome characters in awesome robots doing awesome things.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Director</span> Powers</span><br />
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Strength in Union does exactly what you would expect it to and gives everyone a push to stay in the fight. Or heals 1 Threshold and the character utterly fails at friendship speeches this time. Luck is fickle! With that said, you're looking at a 15 points-ish swing in health for the group on average, and that would be ridiculous if you could repeat it. Last Ditch Effort rewards the group having a plan and sticking to it. On the Double is situational but can prove a life saver when it does become necessary, and since it is the only one that can be used more than once per Operation it will make its presence deeply felt then.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Controller Powers</span><br />
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Confusion in the Ranks is either completely devastating or a worse Not so Fast depending on whether you're facing an army of Grunts or a single Boss. Of course, in practice it only gets used in the former scenario, so the 'once per Operation' limitation is reasonable. It is almost necessary for someone in the group to have Exhaustion, as it can make battling Rivals and Bosses who rely on that resource a lot more manageable. Finally, the Weakest Link also might not seem like it does much, but when everyone is focusing fire on a single enemy, it counts for a lot. Depending on the build, the target will suffer between three and seven more damage per strike. That adds up. Fast. This is another solid Package.<br />
<br />
Assassin and Trickster might be the best overall Packages, the latter simply because of Hidden Power's sheer utility. Director, Controller and Protector would be the second most useful, of which it is recommended that every group has one person with that selection of Powers. Champion and Scout are good at the specific, singular role they are dedicated to as party tanks... And then there's Supportive.<br />
<br />
All Packages are worth taking as is, except for Supportive. Got Your Back can be bumped to Reaction Speed, making it slightly better than Not so Fast. Retroactively Prepared would make a lot more sense if you could choose the type of Support on
the spot, too. I'm not sure I like the idea of a Power that can reliably be used to evade enemy hits, and I am a bit worried about the exponential increase to Retroactively Prepared's utility, but the Package in general could use the push. Arguably it would still be at its best when used to buff yourself (Though there's honestly better Packages for that), but at least it makes supporting your Allies much more useful than the current version.<br /><br />Next up, Pilot abilities proper.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1747801115336454832.post-16502311087132327512013-05-05T06:38:00.001-07:002013-05-05T06:38:47.080-07:00Mechanical Make-Up IVContinuing to look at the various Mecha abilities, we finish up with some of the more crucial and distinctive ones. Plus Modules, I guess.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Archetypes<span style="font-size: large;"></span></span><br />
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Probably the most important ones of the bunch. Archetypes are some of, if not the, strongest abilities available and you can only have two of them. They're all pretty effective, in terms of both representing types of giant robots and improving PC performance. <br />
<br />
As a designer, my favorite is Limiter Release, because it plays differently depending on the Chassis type that you use.The Eagle class has plenty of Accuracy but is lacking in Penetration, so it benefits from the occasional activation. Destroyers have a good enough buffer of Threshold to maximize their already high Penetration to devastating results, aiming for quick victories. The Shield chassis, meanwhile, is the only that can afford to burn through their own health with every hit.<br />
<br />
Custom Blueprints and Integrated Weapons are the main reason there's an
opportunity cost attached to Archetypes now. The former moreso than the
latter, because it is just oh so very efficient and would be an instant
pick for nearly everyone.<br />
<br />
I already compared between Regenerative and Tactical UI for supportive purposes last time, while talking about Aid Another and Support Upgrades, so the only one that remains worth calling out now is Berserker. The 10 UP Weapon gained from Berserker is, perhaps unintuitively, at its most useful as a Melee weapon in the hands of a sniper that has been pushed to the limit. I'm not sure how to feel about that, but it is what it is, and the extra 5 points can make any kind of finisher rather fearsome, specially with Technique or One-Shot on top <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Features</span><br />
<br />
Features are one of those things it took me way too long to come up with, yet they sound so obvious in retrospect. They're all pretty open-and-shut in that you either want them, or you don't, and odds are you will only want them as part of Frames or Transformations. <br />
<br />
Base Units benefit a lot from the streamlining of Base Terrain, making them an asset rather than a liability that maybe you will use sometimes. Though only now do I notice that nothing stops you from using your Base Unit as a mobile platform (from which you can attack and stuff) <i>after</i> you have Docked into it.<br />
<br />
This isn't <i>bad</i>, because it makes sense from a flavor standpoint and has its own downsides mechanically (such as not being able to cover your mothership) but I should make it explicit. And maybe streamline it further by removing the Docking Action entirely and just having the effect take place as long as you are sharing a Zone with your carrier.<br />
<br />
I like Power Suit the most, though, even if it is a tad... Wordy. Riders and their ilk are perfectly playable using the regular Maiming rules, but this is a nice option to have around if you would like something that makes more sense or hate losing use of your Upgrades and Weapons.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Attribute Modules</span><br />
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Very, very useful and cost-efficient. Great with Hidden Power or an Expansion Pack, making it impossible for foes to disable them. If you've ever wondered why there aren't Threshold or Energy Modules, the answer is that they don't exist because Maiming them makes a complete and utter mess of things. Not so much for recalculating your Energy (which is fiddly an inelegant even then) but in that figuring out your new maximum and current Threshold values post losing a limb would have been hilarious. And by hilarious I mean terrible.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Alternate Forms</span><br />
<br />
And so we hit the first of the Really Wordy Upgrade Categories. They play out fine (if you don't mind a really busy character sheet, or using more than one) but I hate that they need all these words written in semi-legalese so that they work properly without being super exploitable or entirely useless. <br />
<br />
The one thing worth pointing out that the book doesn't address is that you can, if you build properly, use Transformation to net yourself a free 5 UP. This is <i>kind of</i> an exploit, but not really. Since you can only transform during your Turn, you can't really take advantage of that with Upgrades and must keep it to Weapons. Most of the Weapons you would want to do this with (the big finishers) are One-Shots or Techniques, which you cannot take more than one of anyway. And when it comes down to energy-free, standard use Weapons you shouldn't need more than one of those - perhaps two.<br />
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These free '5 UP' are kind of really conditional in how they can be used, so while I do recognize that I could fix that up, the ability text is already bloated enough and the 'exploit' limits your character to spending 15 UP on utility weapons anyway, so it isn't a big deal.<br />
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Other than that, Frames are a personal favorite of mine for really cheap ways to make versatile characters that play differently from time to time.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sub Units</span><br />
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And now we come to The Upgrade Line That Might As Well Have Been Archetypes. Nearly every type of Mecha could use any of these after they've been upgraded a bit to round them out. I am okay with this, because it makes sense in flavor terms: How often do main characters get those after, or as part of, their mid-season upgrades after all? Plus, making them Archetypes would make it impossible to combine them into a single super Sidekick, and it would also lock you out of... Well, every other Archetype.<br />
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It is tempting to do so, though. Maybe if I also increase the limit of 2 Archetypes to 3.Sidekicks would need a small buff too.<br />
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Sidekick is potentially the best of the bunch, but they're easy to blow up and impossible to repair mid-combat so they can be countered without too much trouble. Expansion Pack is essentially a fifth Layer of Threshold with its own Area, keeping your toys safe and sound and purging itself to make instances of massive Damage more manageable.<br />
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And Assistant is the one that stands out over the rest here. Slow and unreliable, but ever-present and persistent to the point that the luck-based element of its utility should make it worth its UP cost in gold. It has come a long way from the days when it was a bonus couple of Genre Powers with the potential to sometimes let you use one of them for free.<br />
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Now the extra versatility in Genre Powers is more of an afterthought when compared to its main use. But it is a dangerous afterthought. Most Packages only have one or two Powers that you <i>really</i> want to have. Assistant removes the strategic value of carefully choosing your two Packages by letting you make up for it later, and gives you an awesome bonus ability to boot!<br />
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Yeah, that free Power has got to go. It kind of hurts the fact that the ability is supposed to represent a whole extra pilot, but Assistant is already so good that I think its users will manage.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Combinations</span><br />
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Three Upgrades, two columns, and a whole page of text. We've hit peak rules density here folks. I wish there was an easier way to format this without spreading the rules between several pages and through the use of keywords. It is not pretty to look at, but I'd rather have function over form and keeping it all together is less annoying in the long term. Still bugs me, but oh well.<br />
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So! Combinations are powerful stuff. They need some forethought to implement, for obvious reasons, and there's already a paragraph in the book handling that. I really don't have much else to say, other than I really dig how Unison Combiners play very differently than God Combiners, and nearly everything else in the game really. It gets the feeling of "Our hearts together are as one" across pretty well, I think.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Conclusions</span><br />
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Originally 1 UP was more or less the equivalent of what is now 10 UP, you would only earn one UP per Arc, and everything would cost 1 UP as well. The need to have small bits of mechanical growth here and there made me add weaker abilities here and there, and change the 'per Arc' recommended XP gains from 1 UP to 10 to 15 (the last one was after taking Enhancements into question).<br />
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I bring this up because every time I look at some of these, mostly Alternate Forms, I think "Man, this would be so much more readable if it just said that you can switch between one Upgrade and another" and the non-Unison Combinations likewise could just share maybe one or two Upgrades/Weapons after docking, instead of the rules text puzzle we've got.<br />
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On the other hand, I think I can count on one hand how many games make shapeshifting simpler than GGG does (without making it ridiculously broken or terribly sucky) and I've got a few fingers to spare. Let alone combining PC Mecha together. As of this writing, I'm convinced that does not even <i>exist</i> yet, though FATE Core will likely prove me wrong soon.<br />
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I might experiment with boiling things down to reduce the base 30 UP to 3 or perhaps 5/6 in the future, but it would change the dynamics of character growth considerably (Dragging down the usefulness of Mid-Scene Upgrade with it) and would essentially require a full rewrite of the rules so it is not likely to happen, but maybe I can do a quick conversion (sacrificing some of the cost 3 and 7 stuff or modifying it slightly) for an alternate streamlined ruleset.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2