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Canis latrans popus

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Posts posted by Canis latrans popus

  1. Yeah. It seems like the linear scaling causes the lack of granularity that made certain mecha that should be stronger have effectively the same stats. My next attempt with BRP mecha is going to use something like a Heat track instead of POW.

  2. On 8/28/2018 at 12:47 PM, seneschal said:

    I guess my brain doesn’t work that way.  I need something more like “10 build points gives you X units of energy, which will power Y devices” (depending on how much juice they require).  I don’t want Aftermath! levels of complexity, but I do need a consistent system to work with.

    I did make a massive spreadsheet that could output usable stats for BRP Mecha from techspecs from their anime. I was also working on an automated form-fillable mecha sheet that the spreadsheet could output to. I didn't get enough interest IRL to do a mecha game, and I started picking at the rules and stats, looking to rebuild them into something less fiddly feeling.

    But I really don't think the game as written works for cross-franchise, or even intra-franchise in the case of long running serial franchises like Macross, mecha.

  3. Sometimes superrobots do have their engines rated in kW or hp. One of the reasons I constructed my spreadsheet, which covers Gunbuster, Battletech, CoC, Code Geass, Cross Ange, Five Star Stories, Pendragon, A LOT of Macross, and so on, is so I can make comparisons and plug in numbers that I need, if I need them. A great many mecha anime/manga don't have all the tech specs that BRP Mecha would like, which is why there are guidelines to using other stats to derive the missing ones in it.

    And after doing a lot of the data entry, I've noticed how meaningless a lot of these stats. I use the whole proccess to get into a ball-park, and then wiggle stats around until I get a good feeling that the stats when used in the system will give results that will emulate the series they are from.

    And I only use Palladium to fill the gaps when I can't data from original source material in Macross/Robotech. The numbers for the Macross franchise feel a lot more internally and real-world consistent.

    One of the things I like about the BRP family is how robustly it can handle a certain amount of arbitrary handwaving.

    Besides as far as having the "right" POW for an invid/inbit, unless you are going give it fuel consumption and track that fuel consumption, or it you want to give it enough firepower that it can't always fire all of its weapons every round, its POW is generally going to be meaningless. Similar reasoning can be applied to STR, even STR is more likely to come up as important in its raw form, STR vs STR etc, but in BRP Mecha moving around other mech or objects is based of the Size Class anyways.

    I went through a very similar thought process. In the end, as long as you make internally consistent choices with your conversions, the mecha should be as relativly powerful as they appear on screen.

  4. I rather enjoy the mecha creation rules. Doing point buy needs you either pick an arbitrary value for all mecha, or figure out relative values for various mecha, before getting down to business. I like being able to take some "real-world" stats and making game stats straight from them and then doing some handwavey arbitrary selections like slightly adjusting armor and/or weapon stats.

    And here is a dump of some raw stats from my spreadsheet.

    SeriesMechaMass(kg)SIZCONHeight (m)SIZ ClassArmor TypeArmor PointsPOWer Plant (kW)POWThrust (kg)Flying STRLifting Capacity (kg)STRThrust to WeightFlight ACCSTR to MASGround ACCWalking kphMOV/SPDMax SPeeD (Flying kph)MOV/SPD2HP HeadHP TorsoHP LegHP Tail/WingAPSTRengthSTR FlyCONstitutionSIZePOWerMOVACCMOV FlyACC Fly
    MOSPEADAInvid Carrier5,670,000142015526126 #NUM! #NUM!000.0000.000.00006,432644853260#NUM!0142#NUM!00640
    MOSPEADAInvid Commander28,0008108.75111 #NUM!2,300522,300520.0810.081.151624064353215252081#NUM!2141
    MOSPEADAInvid Enforcer28,0008109.7212 #NUM!2,500532,500530.0910.091.251417257353225353081#NUM!1171
    MOSPEADAInvid Overlord36,00084010.1212 #NUM!2,500532,500530.0710.070.971526567353225353084#NUM!2171
    MOSPEADAInvid Scout4,5006003.25111 #NUM!1,500471,500470.3350.334.67911,08811232114747060#NUM!15115
    MOSPEADAInvid Shocktrooper11,5007105.8111 #NUM!2,200522,200520.1930.192.681414805243215252071#NUM!1353
    MOSPEADAInvid Soldier2162502.3010 #NUM!1,250451,250455.79815.7981.02713203121104545025#NUM!181381
    MOSPEADAInvid Trooper10,0006905111 #NUM!2,200522,200520.2230.223.081414805243215252069#NUM!1353
    MOSPEADAVF/A-6 Alpha Series16,7007508.751112,7605419,200772,000511.15160.121.681721,9001924321517707554221916
    MOSPEADAVF/B-9 Beta Series29,50082013.72124,1405919,200772,500530.6590.081.191821,930193532253770825921199
    • Like 1
  5. So odds are it will be more of a discard some stats that don't exist thing? I personally like having a SIZ stat, but BRP Mecha doesn't use it beyond generating HP, and Size class is used for a lot more. It feels like there might be a loss of granularity, but it's probably meaningless granularity that gets lost.

  6. My currently planned campaign features a colony fleet with FTL, but tending toward possibly spending months or years traveling STL. It's really meant to just be the backdrop of the campaign though.

  7. I've gone back over several of the mecha I have already done, and adjusted their stats slightly. I will also probably be readjusting the armor values for the regults and gluag, which might also cause an adjustment of the weapons.

    I have added the VF-2SS Valkyrie II from Macross II. I did the base mecha, the additional Super Armed Pack (SAP), which I treated as additional hit-locations, and the Auto-attack bits (AAB or squires) that link up with a VF-2SS.

    The only things I feel I need to stat up for a my Megaroad-01 campaign are the starships, and maybe some of the vehicles.

    Late night addition of the VF-2JA Icarus from Macross II.

  8. Thanks for pointing out that I could simply use the resistance table for the power of music. As for the supposed horribleness of Minmei's singing. The Robotech version is awful, but in Macross she has a few more songs and even "My Boyfriend is a Pilot" is no where near as grating as the Robotech version.

     

    I've added the DRYL? VE-1, and a leader variant of the VF-4.

  9. Yes, yes it would.

    Considering that most every anime in the franchise, specifically SDF, 7, and Frontier, the longer series, have at least one of the main characters a pop star, I think it would be ignoring a significant part of the anime to prevent a player from playing the wannabe pop star. On top of that, when I first mentioned doing a Robotech/Macross game to my wife she flat out asked, "but what if I want to play the Minmei." This was over a year ago at this point, and suspect part of that question was a troll because of the weird hate we've seen directed at Minmei in particular.

    Also, if I were playing, I would feel some what cheated, or held captive to the whim of the GM and where they want the campaign to go, if the pop star and their music was totally GM fiat, and I hate trying to run games in a way that irritates me as a player. I've been in games like that.

  10. And now for something Macross related but not mecha related.

    I'm stumped on how to model the power of song  in Macross using BRP.

    As I am focused on following the fleet of Megaroad-01, I could simply ignore it as Lynn Minmei is on board and that allows me to place it in the background and wholly GM fiat territory. This is not satisfactory because then noone can start out as a wannabee pop idol who eventually has a massive impact on the relations between the fleet and soon to be former existential threat.

    This leaves me wanting something mechanical. I could simply leave it in the realm of the mundane Perform/Sing skill, as is shown in SDF/DYRL?, and thereby ignoring the Song Energy shenanigans of 7 with Basra and Fire Bomber/Sound Force, and I can easily ignore the specifics of Frontier as it's based on a bacterial infection. If I do leave it as a mundane skill then power song would by implication only affect uncultured Zentradi, which leaves for a boring and already done threat. I'm still not even sure how the Sharon Apple Incident happend, was it just mass hypnosis? But even then that still falls into mundane, and only affecting humans and Zentradi. Zero was simply a specific blood-line and a specific song being a key, so I'm inclined to partially ignore that.

    But the fact that Zero had a specific song being a key, and DYRL? ending Space War 1 with a translated Protoculture pop song does open up the possibility as mundane song and music as a method of communication with aliens that are also derived/created by the Protoculture, or their artifacts. This changes the focus from music being used as a weapon like the bulk of the franchise.

    I could model the power of song as a power. The most likely candidate is one or more psychic powers, specifically a modification of Emotion Control, if I were to favor the Basara Song Energy view of music as a power. The downside is the lack of mass influence that is shown with Minmei and Ranka/Sheryl. Using Song Energy as a psychic power works with the one or a very small number of enemies, such as the individual protodevlin that Sound Force fought, and it might also work alongside the more mundane mass culture shock style influence shown on Zentradi and mind-controlled Varuta.

    I don't think mutations or super powers would be suitable for modeling the power of song. The sample magic and sorcery in the BGB also don't look right. I might be able to do something with Spirit Magic from The Magic Book, which by the way gave some ideas for a potential alien species to run into.

  11. Glad you like this.

    I am considering redoing the armor for VF series of mecha after doing a better reading of the characteristics of the SWAG/Energy conversion armor actually does, and watching Macross Zero (so far my least favorite show in the franchise but still has some good info on the development of the VF). In short, reducing the armor of the VF-1 and VF-4 to 2 in fighter and GERWALK modes and changing it to 3 or 4 in battroid mode because until Frontier, the SWAG armor only energizes when in battroid mode due to surplus of power generation in battroid mode. Or I could just leave it as is since I was also slightly bumping up the damage of some of the weapons, both to make Zentradi weapons an actual threat, matching the actions of pilots in SDF, and to take into account advances of technology. A minor reason is that in the case of ballistic weapons, there is more involved in the damage than just bore size.

     

  12. I just completed the VF-4 today, and then I realized that I hadn't been sharing my write-ups.

    So far I have done

    VF-1A

    VF-1J

    VF-1S

    VEF-1

    Glaug/ w/boost

    Queadluun-Rau

    VF-4 and non-canonical leader variant

    The Regult series of battle-pods

    Phalanx

    Spartan

    Tomahawk

    I may end up doing a slightly different write-up of the VEF-1, the VE-1 from DRYL?, and I may create a CAG variant of the VF-4. Since the campaign I am now planning is going to be focused on the lost Megaroad-01 colony fleet, I am focusing on the mecha I think I will need.

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  13. I'm a bit stuck with how I want to do the Glaug and the boostered Glaug so I worked on a giant dragon from Crossange. I may end up changing the stats on it since it looks puny for a dragon that is somewhere near 100m. There are no official stats for this specific dragon, as of yet.

     

    Brig Class DRAGON.pdf

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