Friday 27 November 2015

Planet Gann - For my upcomming mecha space opera game


So suddenly realized my space opera game has had elements from aged ten. I really liked Starblazers (Yamato), Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman), Micronaut toys especially the magnetic ones, Films like Space War and many others. I was very fond of Shogun Warrior toys and never got any. Im tempted to to try get some of the micronauts or new editions and i like 70s mech with flares, pointy headgear like horns or detachable space craft. Robots that used swords and frisbees. So ideas in my SF campagn go back to 1980 age ten.

There will be a bits of starship troopers, forever war, but lots of Ian Banks, Moorcock (Dancers at the End of Time), Norman Spinrad (Agent of Chaos, Men in the Jungle), Bryan Aldiss books. Plus many others. My Previously titled Shadows in the Stars setting will be basis. Will draw from RPG's like Metkon, Traveller, 2300, Ringworld RPGS, Cthulhutech and more. Powered Infantry will feature and players will start as such. A bit of Paranoia and OGRE. Blakes Seven was a fave of mine too, So I really only just realized my interest in mecha began with micronauts.

Ive always liked look of gundam stuff and my hobby shop is a constantly growing section with prices like 3 mecha for $12 or 6-10 dollars each. So I'm getting some duplicates to field a squad of standard good guy and other planetary military. So I have been writing for a while and even drawn some maps, Planet will be a BRP Hexcrawl.

Players will be part of Royal Self Mobile Infantry (SMI) A division of Infantry with basic light mechanized infantry suits and larger Dreadnaut class power armour (more like a robot vehicle). They will be seeking 12m ancient mech to replace 2m tall suits and not much bigger Dreadnauts. Each episode will have a new piece of tech some x-projects, some artifacts. Also each game will have romance of some kind and strong rivalries with other factions of NPCs. Eventually will adventure in space then re contact civilization. If it is still there.

When humans travelled the stars they had godlike mecha but our colony was a backwater so only had anti kaiju mecha. The first colonists were mixed including some from the original tribes most notably many Lemurians - the first major genetic varient on the planet. W.hen the stargate broke nobody came to fix it and the planet collapsed into chaos breaking into five nations. The kingdom were the only users of mecha when the original colony Alpha City was destroyed by nuclear fire and the great Island sunk. Many fled the sinking Island to the mainland and received help from the great Kingdom. Atlan survived on once mountain tops and united a chain of archipelagos. Kaiju were always a problem and a biological alien swarm rained on the planet temporarily unifying the planet and driving the colonies more apart.. Most adopted skin pigment mods and other changes to maintain local cohesion. That time has passed as each nation is rebuilding military especially new powered infantry research. Each nation is looking for lost tech like the bases colony Alpha operated when it controlled the planet.

There is possibly a star gate out there to and no nation has gone into space for hundreds of years. That too is on the agenda.

Colours of the people are anime kids texta colours which can vary from matt to glossy and vary in shade enormously. Skim, hair, eyes may have different shades. Many persons of all colours develop white or black hair.

The Great Nations
Colony Alpha
White flag with black A in a circle
landed over a thousand years ago and eventually established five of it's own colonies. Possibly this was really kicking out undesirable cultures. Then a unknown factions detonated a hydrogen bomb on a volcanic seam, swallowing up most of the Island. Refugees went to what came to be the kingdom. Part of colony alpha is in space.

The Great kingdom White flag with gold crown
Was a a collection of many great kingdoms and they were unified after several hundred years till the cataclysm of Alpha happened. When it absorbed the refugees it built a second Northern capitol that proved to be safer from enemies and Kaiju. This capitol is the winter palace and the southern is the summer palace also closer to the frontier. Lemuria is a long held ally making the two powers united against the Consolidate. They have the most mecha at the start of the war, several left from the feudal kingdoms and colony Alpha ruled over 800 years ago. Great kingdom people have diverse backgrounds and genetic heritage. The ruling class have brown skin in various shades.

The Consolidate

Crey Flag with a C inside a circle like a copyright symbol
Colony used brain washing and cloning tech to engineer a slave state of fanatics. All are cared for by state and hate the royal family with great passion. The most recent state it has grown in the southern Kaiju filled wastelands. It uses trade and capitalism to spread, the various labour ministries are actualy monopoly mega corporations. They have developed many biological controls against Kaiju and many rumours about x weapons are always in circulation. Unethical research seems most likely explanation. Most citizens have grey skin in some shade with flashy colours held to be antisocial. Citizens are engineered to put up with more punishment and hardship. They prefer to field tanks with light power infantry but dreadnaughts are large boxy walkers in a vaguely boxy humanoid form. Most hava laser and inbuilt grenaide launchers but often hold a support weapon.

LemuriaGold crown over waves on flag
Originally from one of the first dozen great colonies of Sol, many aeons ago in another arm of the galaxy. They live in city states under scientist kings who appoint a despot in times of war. Philosopher warriors lived in a high UV dinosaur world and the locals modified their primary pigment to be blue. The eat a small amount of copper in preference to iron. They are great thinkers but a little cold to outsiders. They are a distant ally of the Kingdom and they are difficult to draw into battle. But once rallied the are dangerous. They mostly live in their palaces of athletic pleasure and science. Lemurian Dreadnauts are the most humanoid and can crawl. Some now hold weapons in cyberhands instead of use built ins.

AtlantisTrident over waves on flag
Colony of survivors of Alpha who sheltered on mountain tops which became Islands. They disdain their kin who fled the cataclysm. They have gills and green skin, actually a symbiotic plant in their skin. These features were added to separate them from the land dwellers but have kept their armed forces able to resist a enemy to the east. Proud and suffering but using superior sea power and subterfuge to fight back. Rumour has it they have a hidden undersea city in the place of Colony Alpha. Their Dreadnoughts are submersibles also.

Draconia Red Flag with gold dragon
A exotic kingdom with a immortal king in a glass bubble. They have gold skin and resist heat and light using features designed for off world mining. They have kept distance from the other continents and have been using superior air power to bomb Islands in the Atlantis archipelago. They are cruel despotic tyrants who wish war in the west to weaken their enemies. Draconian dreadnoughts are birdlike eggs on legs walker with a light artillery piece on a top mount.

1d10 Original Motherland
1-4 The Great Kingdom - citizens vary greatly see subtable
5-6 The Consolidate - citizens are more durable, grey skin, many with no hair +2 CON
7 Lemuria - citizens have enhanced minds and bodies, blue skin and hair, +1 STR DEX INT
8 Atlantis archipelagos - citizens can breathe water with gills, green skin and hair
9 Draconia - citizens energy resistant, metallic gold skin and hair +2 DEX
10 strange background subtable

d10 Great Kingdom ancestral subtable
1-4 Brown skinned people with spiky hair, modded for social interaction +3APP
5 Jet skinned night people, night vision, modded with stealth +10% and can eat anything organic
6 Goblin folk with dwarf stature, big eyes, hands and pointy ears have night vision, tech aptitude +10%, lowG adapted -2 STR SIZ +3 Dex
5 Cat people with gold fur all over and gold eyes with nightvision, fur 1AP and claws d4 +10% listen
6 Scarlet skinned dino hunting barbarian tribesfolk modded as consolidate citizen, beserkers
7 Orange skinned merchant class folk +1 INT +1POW +1APP
8 Grey skinned mountain mining folk modded as Consolidate citizen
9 Albino Alpha Colonists folk modded as Lemurian citizen
10 X-Ray mostly smoky transparent tissues with visible glass like bones +2 CON

d10 Strange background subtable
(any skin cosmetic shift possible or take a local looking form)
1 The Secret Empire - criminal cult that influences the powers with money, blackmail and vice
2 The Zarng - a criminal cartel into money, crime and maintaining the status quo +2 STR
3 Off System Agent from other system - one piece of T2 technology
4 Off system Castaway traveller - space survival kit
5 Off system godlike guardian - raised in hyperspacial fortress +3POW
6 1st Gen colonist kept on ice for millennium +3EDU
7 Clone grown in lab (serial immortality 1d4 more clones)
8 Clone came from pod in forest +3CON -1POW
9 Cannibal cultists of the marchlands +2STR
10 Android made by aliens +3APP



Future and Tech Notes
Power Armour or Pilot Walker skills will operate a Dreadnaut
Early Walkers used by civilians and military
Prehuman ruins and alien tech predate human settlement

Phase One
Powered Infantry locate and recover a mech frame
Skirmishes and races for tech vs enemies
Test contemporary weapons adapted to mecha
Whats happening in other continents?
Tech ranges from 1890 steam to 21st C Template1- or Template1
There are fragments of higher tech from the era the star gate was operational

Standard Missions:
Beat Consolidate forces to loot a ancient ruin detected
Steal Technology from enemy
Test new technology
Rescue or kidnap experts or VIPs
Solve mysteries of past
Explore lost civilizations
Fight dinosaurs, kaiju or foreign mech
Fight alien mystery mecha

Phase Two
Open up space travel, limited anti-g, forcefields
Battle to control the stargate
Increasing alien and space threats
Average Tech T2-T3 with some throwbacks to T1 or worse

Standard Missions
Search a planet
Help explorers, pilgrims, settlers
Confirm alien sightings (not gust gene junk)
Find item needed to fix gate
Spyhunt!

Phase Three
Space Knights of the Galaxy
Hyperspace ultra tech

Search and destroy lliogor

Tech Template
Template 1 - Colonial Tech Have powered infantry and walkers, some big enough for artillery
T1- Powered Infantry, Dreadnaut Armour, Robots, Clones, Auto factories, Space Shuttle, Crionics
T1 Genetic Augmented Personal, AIs, Androids, Enegry Weapons, Space Colony, Interstellar probe
T1+ Pulse Energy Weapons, Upload Brains, Interstellar colony, Kaiju Lab, Nanofactory

Template 2 - Commonwealth Tech has mech able to act as space fighters or ground vehichles
T2- Anti Gravity Skimmers, energy screens, reliable FTL,  Colony Nanobuilder, force blade
T2 Full anti gravity flight, FTL communications, Neurological scrambler, forcefields
T2+ Anti Gravity Star Drive (Reliable FTL), Teleporter (station to station), Instant FTL Communications

Template 3 - Can store your mech and suits or guns in hyperspace till required
T3- Gravitic effect weapons, Disintegrator, Teleporter Beam, tractor beam, hyperspacial engineered routes
T3 Stargate,  Planetary Scale Megastructure,  Hyperspatial Interdiction
T3+ Pocket Universe, Stasis Box, Hyperspatial Storage, Dysons Sphere, Gate device

I hope to take this from fighting dinos and robots to mecha wars them spacefleet action then into hyperspacial gods battling the old ones. Don't warp in your mecha just yet or your enemies will sense your extradimensional mass. Try not to kill everyone on the planet.

T1=Is gritty like Aliens, 2300, Cyberpunk, High Colonies, Low Traveller
T2=Is more like traveller Imperium or Star Trek OS with Start Trek TNG being more high end
T3=Is like The Culture in Ian Banks and more like Dancers at the end of Time at high end



Anime Sanity is not normal sanity so made this more dramatic one

d10 Anime Short Term Insanity Effects (1d10 rounds)
1 Flashbacks - you remember the unbelievable truth about the past, oblivious to outside wold during your inner dialogue and self discovery
2 Rage - you scream with fury firing your guns or waving about a melee weapon seeking enemies to fight to the death. Heroically delay enemies with your death!
3 Scream and flee, lost in internal monologue while you flee like a coward crying
4 Run away and hide or failing that curl into a ball or put a bag on your head
5 You realize only one person can keep the darkness at bay go to them immediately
6 Breakdown in tears, sobbing on your knees, possibly make a monologue or confession
7 Beg for mercy or prey for survival, nothing else will protect you, everything is futile
8 This isn't real and you need to prove it to everyone there is no threat
9 You try to get everyone's attention and talk about peace
10 Find the most destructive force you can and lay waste to everything

d10 Anime Long Term Insanities also ages you a d4 years
(requires drug therapy or psychosugery or behaviour chip)

1 Paranoia - your enemies, your rivals, your allies, other nations are out to get you
2 Conspiracy Nut - you no longer recognise what evidence looks like preferring crackpot theories to explain every problem
3 A dark spirit invades your body trying to seize control, controlling you uses a MP per hour
4 A dark entity visits you in your dreams offering to help you for Power points in a crisis
5 Your are a berserker triggered by violence and sometimes loud noises or surprises (POWx5). Frenzied attacks any one insight enemies first til rage ends.x2 Attack no defences
6 You fall into fatalistic brooding melancholia and change your personal style
7 Obsessed with truth - compulsion to investigate weird phenomena to answer mysteries
8 Behold I am Death - committed to slaughter and extermination of unnatural evil at any cost
9 Develop weird tic even if asleep d6 1=Insane giggling 2=creepy drooling 3=stare like a snake 4=speech impediment 5=swearing constantly 6=make evil scheming gestures alot with a grin
10 Convinced you are a monster you must keep your secret and take precautions against anyone finding out. You must kill them before they get close.

Psionics Available also

5 comments:

  1. This is awesome! Is this something you plan to write and publish?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No plans to write anything gamey for this stuff other than for my own use and here. There are bits of my old sf settings on this blog but if i can get game players with anime-mecha-cthulhu thats ok. Will mean i can write about more sf stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. ogre is steve jackson games game of giant robots vs other military including battle suit infantry with nukes - there is a gurus setting based on it

      Delete

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