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| Mecha RP Interest and Info | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: September 5, 2016, 2:10 pm (191 Views) | |
| Onime No Ryu | September 5, 2016, 2:10 pm Post #1 |
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I'll be your Undertaker this evening
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So I'm kind of wanting to do a fantasy-spin mecha RP, and as usual I want to use stats and dice rolls because I've thoroughly enjoyed them in all the other RPs I've created for the tension and surprises they bring to the game. The short synopsis of the plot is that a fantasy kingdom unearths a strange archaeological site and discovers lost technology which they believe will give them the edge over the giant monsters that plague their lands, as well as other kingdoms in a war for resources. The system I plan to use is based on the tabletop version of BattleTech, sometimes known as MechWarrior, but with several tweaks either to make it easier for me or more interesting to you. Since I dunno if anyone here is familiar with that system, I decided to put together a thorough explanation of how the system works. This will be followed by an example of a character sheet. SYSTEM EXPLANATION Roll 2d6 and add to determine Initiative. Players with higher initiatives will move first, followed by others in order of descension. Moving across the Hexes of the battlefield costs Movement Points, MP. Types of terrain can add movement costs. Mechs can also spend points to change their Facing, which is required in order to move to hexes that are not in a straight line or to attack other units from different directions. Moving backwards does not require you to change your Facing, but does cost a Movement Point. ![]() In the above example, Red moves 2 Hexes forward. This costs 2 Movement Points. Blue moves forward 1 hex, then changes the direction it is facing to move diagonally once, then changes face again to move forward again. Overall, Blue spends 5 Movement Points. Players may move through hexes occupied by an ally, but they may not stop there. Players may NOT move through hexes occupied by an enemy, and must either go around or destroy the enemy to proceed. Enemies obey these same rules. In addition to adding movement costs, Terrain can offer other bonuses such as making it harder for an enemy to hit you, or other negatives like lowering the effectiveness of certain weapon types. Movement and positioning have an effect on combat. When two units are attacking each other head on--Facing each other--combat is done as normal. However, an enemy attacked from other angles cannot defend themselves as well. For a target in a given central hex, attacks from the two Front-Diagonal sides will have +1 to hit. Attacks from the Rear-Diagonal sides will have +2 to hit. Finally, attacks directly from the Rear will have +3 to hit. In order to negate these bonuses, the target must spend MP to change its Facing. Thus, surrounding an opponent can not only grant you bonuses to your attacks, it can also drain their movement points if they attempt to fight back. Use these strategies wisely. ![]() In the above example, Blue is surrounded and is facing Red. Blue and Red have no changes to their normal attacks. Both Green and Purple, however, have +1 to Hit. Both Yellow and Black have +2 to Hit. Orange, attacking from directly behind Blue, has +3 to hit. The amount of Movement Points a Player's mech has depends on a number of factors like equipment and terrain. However, every so often a player will spend all of their Movement Points. When this happens, the mech must go into Cooldown unless some circumstance allows it to keep taking actions--usually, even when this is allowed it still causes some kind of negative effect, such as weapons losing power. Spending one turn in Cooldown restores all Movement Points. However, while in Cooldown, the player becomes vulnerable to attacks regardless of their chance to hit. Thus, keeping track of your Movement Points and controlling the range between yourself and your opponent is vitally important. Once Initiative has been decided, and Movement has been completed, Attacks may be made. The various factors of attacks, such as range and power, will be dependent on a mech's stats and the weapons they use. This will be explained later on. In order of Initiative the Players declare their attacks after their Movement. They must specify which weapon they will fire and which target they are attacking. In order to attack a target, the Player must have Line of Sight on the map to the target and the target must be within their Threat Range. Line of Sight can be represented by an arc made of the Front and Front-Diagonal hexes the Player is Facing. This arc extends to the end of the playing field; however, just because you can SEE that far does not mean your weapons can REACH that far. The actual Threat Range, the hexes which you may attack, consists of a smaller column within the Line of Sight that is directly in front of your mech. In order to attack a target who is within your line of sight, but who is not within your Threat Range, you must spend another Movement Point and then change your Facing. However, there are certain weapon types--such as some varieties of missile launcher--that can bypass this rule and attack any target within the Line of Sight, or even outside of it. ![]() In the above example, Blue's Line of Sight is colored in with more blue. His Threat Range, however, is colored in red. Therefore, unless his weapon has a special effect that allows it to attack outside of the Threat Range or Line of Sight, the ONLY targets he can attack are those within the red areas. A player can attack with all weapons they have equipped unless some circumstance prevents it. They may also select different targets for each weapon. Thus, for a Player who has three weapons and wishes to attack three different targets, two of whom are outside of the Threat Range, the steps might go like this: Initiative declared. Move within range of targets, Movement Points spent. Attack one target with first weapon. Spend another movement point to change Facing. Attack second target with second weapon. Spend two more movement points to change Facing all the way around to the other diagonal. Attack final target with third weapon. End of turn. After all units on the field have declared their attacks, the attacks are processed. Again, this is in order of Initiative. If a unit is destroyed before its attack can be processed, then its actions are cancelled out unless some circumstance allows its attack to be completed even during or after its own destruction. If an attack is successful, 2d6 are rolled to determine what part is hit. If a Player CALLS an attack during their post (such as aiming for the right leg specifically) then the 2d6 are rolled BEFORE the Attack roll. If the 2d6 lands on the part the player Called, and then their attack roll is successful, they will do +1 Damage. If the 2d6 does not land on the part the player called, but the attack is still successful, damage is calculated as normal. Weapons and Mechs both have stats, and these values are used to determine how accurate an attack is, how much damage it does, any effects it has, and so on and so forth. A Mech has the following PARTS associated with its stats: HEAD (HD): The head of a mech contains all sensory equipment. If this part is disabled or destroyed, the Player will suffer -4 to hit for all weapons. CENTER TORSO (CENT): The most important part of the mech, the center of the torso houses the cockpit and powersource. If this part's HP is reduced to zero, the entire mech becomes disabled and the pilot is automatically ejected. Initial attacks cannot reduce the HP to a negative number (if you're attacked when you only have 3 HP left and receive 4 damage, you still drop to zero.) If the mech takes any further damage after this, however, it will be destroyed. If a pilot remains inside a mech when it is destroyed, they will die. LEFT TORSO (LT): The left side of the mech's body. If this part is disabled or destroyed, so is the Left Arm, however the Left Leg remains. Any weapons attached here will also be disabled. LEFT ARM (LA): The left arm. If this part is disabled or destroyed, so is the weapon equipped to it. LEFT LEG (LG): The left leg. If this part is disabled or destroyed, so is the weapon equipped to it. In addition, the Movement Cost of the mech is doubled unless both legs are destroyed, in which case it cannot move. RIGHT TORSO (RT): The left side of the mech's body. If this part is disabled or destroyed, so is the Right Arm, however the Right Leg remains. Any weapons attached here will also be disabled. RIGHT ARM (RA): The right arm. If this part is disabled or destroyed, so is the weapon equipped to it. RIGHT LEG (RG): The right leg. If this part is disabled or destroyed, so is the weapon equipped to it. In addition, the Movement Cost of the mech is doubled unless both legs are destroyed, in which case it cannot move. Each PART has the following Stats: HP: Health Points. If these are reduced to zero, the part is disabled. If it is reduced further, the part is destroyed. AC: Armor Class. AC values from all parts are combined to produce the total armor class. An attacker must roll 2d6 and then, with their added bonuses or negatives, overcome this number to score a successful hit. MP: Movement Points. These are reflective of the speed and dexterity of the part, and determine how far a mech can move before entering Cooldown. EP: Equipment Points. These are used to determine which weapons and other types of equipment can be installed on a part. For WEAPONS and other types of equipment, their stats are: CR: Close Range. This determines the number of hexes required to be considered in close range to an opponent and thus able to attack them with a melee weapon. There is no Hit Modifier at this distance. Often this will be the only Range stat on a melee weapon, and ranged weapons may not have it. SR: Short Range. Determines the number of hexes required to be considered in short range of an opponent. There is no Hit Modifier at this distance. MR: Medium Range. Number of hexes required to be within medium range. At this distance, the weapon has -2 to Hit. LR: Long Range. At this distance, the weapon has -4 to Hit. DMG: The amount of damage the weapon does upon a successful hit. AMMO: The number of shots a weapon can fire during a battle. All Melee Weapons have 0. EFX: Any secondary effects a weapon may have, such as boosting a stat on the part it's equipped on or causing some aftereffect after a successful hit. Non-weapon equipment will often only have this stat. EP: The number of Equipment Points needed on a part to equip this weapon to it. All Melee Weapons have 0. TEST CHARACTER SHEET
EXAMPLE CHARACTER SHEET Name: Bob Age: 999 Gender: Attack Helicopter Appearance: Bob is big, black, and has four rotor blades. Backstory: Bob always wanted to pilot a mecha. Mecha
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| NTNP | September 5, 2016, 5:15 pm Post #2 |
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Admin
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I have no issue with the system itself, especially if someone will find/post the basic rules and procedures for BattleTech. Other than that, I am interested in finding out more about your story and then going from there opinion wise. |
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| Onime No Ryu | September 5, 2016, 5:34 pm Post #3 |
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I'll be your Undertaker this evening
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Like I said, I modified a lot of stuff to make it fit with my idea and most of the battletech stuff is represented in how the combat works. Here's the link to the PDF I used, which is from the Quick Start Rulebook for BattleTech. Their home website has some other materials for free too, though I haven't looked at those yet. http://d15yciz5bluc83.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/BattleTechQuick-Start-Rules.pdf?884bc4 |
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| Onime No Ryu | September 7, 2016, 4:49 pm Post #4 |
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I'll be your Undertaker this evening
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Okay, so I wanted to bounce some ideas with you all. There are three key ideas here: Magic is extremely dangerous for humans under normal circumstances, the Mecha are powered by magic, and the Materials the mecha are made of are super important to a rapid revolution of the world's society. To begin I'll explain the magic, some of the lore behind it, and the materials that are included in Mecha construction. Explanations and Lore Newly Discovered Materials What are your thoughts thus far? What questions do you think would come up logically about the workings of the magic and the technology? Do you think this is enough to enable the mecha's possibility, or is there something that needs to be added (like another magic material) or tweaked (like what the current materials do)? What are some other devices and systems you can think of using these concepts? What do you think the cockpit of the mech, and its weapons, should look like/act like? How long do you think it would take Middle Age humans, though they've still had access to regular magic for a while, to analyze and start reverse engineering these things and applying them to other things besides Mecha? What are some other consequences of this discovery besides an arms race that you think would occur? |
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5:53 PM Jul 10