Inspired by Piecewise's Mainspring I bring you Mainpiston.
The hunt? Is it ready? Soon. Soon, not yet. Patience. HAhahahhaha. Well while the hunt readies itself let us have some entertainment.
You are all relaxing in the flying fortress that is your home away from home. Suddenly, you hear a loud boom and the sound of a spitfire landing craft slamming into the side of your plane deafens you. Boarders! Before you can deal with them though you hear an ominous droning sound, fearfully looking through your cokpit window you can see the hazy indistinct shape of a Short Sunderland. The ShortSunderland is a true flying boat and this particular model is bristling with aftermarket machine guns, and what appears to be quite a few of the razor bat beasts flying around it, seems the Sunderland has a beast master in it's crew. And the day was going so well.
Hello and welcome to my first test game ever on these forums I currently need about 6 players to help me test the mechanics for a game I will be running soonish*.
*assuming all goes well
So I'm doing something odd for these rules, but I'm hoping it's going to work well and make sense in universe. Right, so for all of the dangerous magics like Daemonism and Beastmastery you get a direct bonus to your roll and you will in all likelihood horribly overshoot this if make your level get too high, However making your level higher also increase the effectiveness of these skills and lets you do more powerful and complicated things with the magic. For the other skills and the stats, I'm going to be using a roll table that Egan BW has kindly loaned to me. Please see the next spoiler for the table.
Roll two dice and take the lowest, then look at the table for the skill level you rolled at, accounting for any bonuses and/or maluses. Find the number on the left that corresponds to the number you rolled, and look at the number just right of it. That’s the effective roll.
In the case of comparing two rolls, such as opposed rolls, this:
1<2<3<4<6<5
If you need to roll two or more skills at once, figure out which one is most important, and then roll the other one (or ones) first. That roll will give a bonus or malus to the final roll.
Overshoots in this aren’t quite as bad as most GMs interpret, being as good as a 5 in terms of competing the goal, but with some consequence.
Examples of outcomes:
1: You shoot yourself in the foot like an idiot.
2: You completely miss the beast charging you down, like a clumsy person.
3: You don’t fire because you know you would miss, which isn’t going to help very much with this slavering beast trying to eat your face, you overly cautious person
4: You shoot the beast in the chest, deferring it not in the slightest as it gnaws on your foot, you unlucky person.
5: You put a bullet right through the beast’s head, killing it instantly, You lucky bastard.
6: You put a whole mag though the beast’s skull, and it’s body flies into you with it’s momentum, trapping you under it’s corpse, with no ammo, while it’s friends are baying for blood, you overzealous person.
Funfact: none of these people survive, not even 5.
Skill <-2
6→5
5→2
4→1
3→3
2→2
1→1
Skill -2
6→5
5→6
4→4
3→3
2→2
1→1
Skill -1
6→5
5→6
4→4
3→1
2→2
1→3
Skill 0
6→5
5→4
4→1
3→6
2→2
1→3
Skill +1
6→2
5→1
4→5
3→6
2→4
1→3
Skill +2
6→1
5→2
4→6
3→5
2→3
1→4
Skill +3
6→1
5→2
4→3
3→6
2→5
1→4
Skill +4
6→1
5→2
4→3
3→4
2→6
1→5
Skill >+4
6→1
5→6
4→5
3→4
2→6
1→5
Because this is a test and I just want to test some of the mechanics you all get 5 coins to spend as you see fit. Don't expect such… generosity in the future.
Ship: Your ship is a based off a B-17 Flying Fortress just scaled up and can hold more weight than a normal one.
It has a fighter that can launched from it’s bombay. It also comes with a three man boarding craft. It has a number of beast cages on it and these can be weaponized. Has a small medical bay, self-staffed by the crew.
Your top ball turret has been changed from .50 to a 20 mm cannon manually reloaded because really if this thing was automatic, then well your plane would break.
Types of small arms
All weapons are bought loaded. However, every magazine of ammo after that initial free load requires the magazine cost. The assault rifle comes loaded with an additional free magazine added on top of the initial free one.
(1) Pistol: a standard M1911 style pistol, good in close combat but not much else. 7+1 shots (1 box of 36 rounds for 1 gold piece)
(1)Door Ram: Want to break down a door? Here you go (Requires +2 strength to lift)
(2) Bombs: No not the ones you drop out of your plane, you get provided with those but this stuff is C3 equivalent so don’t let it get cold and it’ll do everything you want it to do.
(2) Rifle: This is your rifle there are many like it, but this one can be yours for the low low price of (2) gold pieces, semi automatic, 8 rounds per magazine 2 en-bloc magazines per gold piece.
(2) Shotgun: your standard WWI era trench gun five round tube magazine+1in chamber, good at discharging a load, but you're not reloading in a hurry. Can buy a case of 20 shells for (1) gold piece
(3) Sniper rifle: Longer more accurate gun stronger charge than the rifle but a lot more bulky and only bolt action.
(3)Daemon knife: Once fused with a daemon it can block bullets and give you an edge in a knife fight however it drains your energy from you.
(3) Diamond toothed chainsaw: This thing can cut through steel and is generally pretty good for opening new holes in places that didn’t initially have them.
(5)Daemon tooth: This thing gives you a boost to charisma at the cost of permanently decreasing your energy.
(4)Daemon eye: Pluck out your own eye or a friends and install this metal ball into the now vacant eye socket infuse it with a Daemon and you are good to go. Gives you some limited seeing through walls ability but it will drain your energy FAST.
(4)Daemon Key: Want to open up a door without breaking it? Use this: It will drain your energy pretty fast though.
(4) Beast kit: This kit will let you interact the wild beasts of the ground and the air without being torn to shreds.... maybe. Comes with a wide variety of syringes for inserting various haphazardly made volatile chemicals into the slathering thing that’s trying to kill you. Also comes with traps and ropes for capturing the smaller beasties. Beastie Alchemy kit.(1 strength)
(2) light engineering kit: This kit will let you make some repairs to ship components and other mechanical devices as well as weapons. How does it work? IT’S ENGINEERING MAGIC! DON’T QUESTION ENGINEERING MAGIC.
(2)light medical kit: This thing is essentially just a bunch of bandages, some hemostats tourniquet, and some ether, gasoline, and pure oxygen in various bottles. Have fun mixing the three.
(2) Ameutuer Daemon kit: this little kit is filled with some tuning forks and various little odd’s and ends for summoning weaker Daemons suitable for filling most of the premade stuff.
(4)Heavy Engineering kit: this kit will let you repair the ship and make stuff on the fly, How does it work? IT’S ENGINEERING MAGIC! DON’T QUESTION ENGINEERING MAGIC.(requires 2 strength to carry as backpack))
(5) Professional Daemon kit: This bulky kit has a full suite of tuners and various pitch producing objects suitable for calling the stronger Daemons into the world. (requires +2 Daemonism to even think about buying it)
(5)Medical kit: This thing looks a lot like a light engineering kit that got stuffed into a beast kit and then a bunch of bandages got shoved in there too. Well I can’t reveal trade secrets but you might be onto something. Why the high price? Well we tossed in the alchemy kit to, just for good measure and to let you make highly dangerous and unethical concoctions in the field. Requires one strength to carry
(5) Assault rifle: Psst, friend, have I got something to sell to you. This is a classified military secret that I borrowed and am now interested in selling to such a fine customer as yourself. What is it you ask? Why it’s a fully automatic selective fire rifle, it comes with a 30 round magazine fires at 550 rounds per minute and has one extra fully loaded mag thrown in free, however these bullets aren't cheap each extra loaded magazines costs (2) coins each.
(10) Golem: This is the most difficult, dangerous, and literally insane thing a Daemonist can ever expect to do. He gives a Daemon a body. Made of metal.
(10) Full on exoskeleton body: Wait did I say exoskeleton? Yeah I really meant an exo-endoskeleton so that shit is not coming off, on the other hand goddamn you are going to be durable. I mean sure you're a hideous abomination of flesh and machine but hey at least your not going to die as fast.
(10) Beast fusion kit: This is absolutely insane and unethical, with this you may take the powers of your favorite beastie and make them a bit more personal, that's right you aren’t reliant on the insane but well trained mind of that beast of yours, your slaughtering it for that sweet sweet genetic material and integrating it into yourself, have fun!*
*Note tampering with your genetic material may kill you.
And what would guns be without a person to use them? Again this is a test, so you all get a standard plus one minus one deal for the character creation, in addition to this you get five free stats and skills points. It requires five points to move +0 to a +1 .
Skills:
Piloting: Considering you're on a plane this seems fairly handy.
Marksmanship. For those who like the tiny little baby guns up to and including the machine guns and the 20mm cannon mounted on your plane.
Daemonism: handy if a beast grabs you or your fighting in some really close quarters in the ship. Lets you harness the power of Daemons and fuse them into your weapons or go insane. It also makes you good at archaic weaponry weird huh?
Doctor: You are a doctor, in medicine and chemistry. Or you are an unskilled quack and accidental bomb maker it depends. You make the thing that go boom and the things that keep people from going into the great airship in the sky
Beast mastery. You guide and direct the beasts, if you have time. You have received some training in chemistry and can manufacture various mutagenic compounds for the monsters of the ground. NOTE do to the insane and nonsensical nature of the beasts of the ground your skills are useless for synthesizing the alchemical compounds used by the Doctors and vice versa.
Engineering: you control the mechanical parts of the ship. As well as being able to fix guns, bombs, the hull of the ship (not very well) and you're also good for assembling things in the field
Stats:
Strength: Can you pick up heavy things? Also can you hit stuff hard?
Intelligence: your mental prowess also might just help you outthink any mindfuck.
Dexterity: helps you not drop things and dodge things.
Resilience: Can you take it? Helps you not break a bone from slipping on a step and not passing out from pain.
Perception: Lets you notice things and gives you decent instincts.
Charisma: Convincing the port authorities that you have absolutely no idea how all those bodies lying around your plane got there.
No bonuses higher than +4 and no minuses lower than -3
Name: Your name
Description: What you look like plus any backstory you want.
Stats
Strength:
Intelligence:
Dexterity:
Resilience:
Perception:
Charisma:
Skills
Piloting:
Marksmanship:
Daemonism:
Doctor:
Beast mastery.
Engineering:
Inventory what you have on you.
knife
aviators clothing
whatever you bought from the armory.
Updates will be about every two days for now, if things go well with this system I might be able to increase it to every day.
Character sheet holder
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vif_63IjNjQSFMM6FIRqB-MlZ1DRNMTHR-c9-ERUZtw/edit?usp=sharing
Name: Jimmy (No last name available)
Description: Dun colored flight jacket, pants, hat, and scarf, aviator's goggles.
Background: Mostly relegated to the waist gunner position or the tail gunner position, his dreams of being an accomplished sniper are on hold for the moment. His background information is pretty generic for a civilian. He was drafted into this flying fortress when he left high school.
Stats
Strength: 0
Intelligence: 0
Dexterity: 0
Resilience: 0
Perception: +1
Charisma: -1
Skills
Piloting: +1
Marksmanship: +3
Daemonism: -1
Doctor: 0
Beast mastery: -1
Engineering: -2
Inventory what you have on you.
Knife
Aviator clothing
Sniper rifle
Shotgun
Anyway, character.
Description: Nobody is quite sure what this is. Top scientists have suggested that it's some sort of humanoid, possibly a crossbreed of some kind, but DNA samples have been extremely difficult to get a hold of--indeed, The Groo has violently eviscerated anyone who has tried to touch it. Disposal has been attempted using both high powered weaponry and high explosives, but The Groo has consistently survived all attempts on its life through a combination of power and sheer dumb luck. Mostly the latter.
Eventually, command just used some cheese dip to lure The Groo onto a bomber, in hopes that it could be dropped into enemy territory and made into someone else's problem.
Stats
Strength: +1
Intelligence: -3
Dexterity: +3
Resilience: +1
Perception: +2
Charisma: -3
Skills
Piloting: +2
Marksmanship: +4
Daemonism: +4
Doctor: -3
Beast mastery: -3
Engineering: -3
Inventory:
Knife
Dirty old military rags
Assault Rifle
((Ahh, -3 int characters... one of the rare cases where a complete lobotomy actually increases one's life expectancy.))
(http://www.taphilo.com/Photo/Pictures/b17/B-17G-Cutaway-drawing.jpg)
(http://www.diseno-art.com/news_content/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/B17-Flying-Fortress-bail-out-procedure.jpg)
"fuck."
Panic.
Overwhelmed by PTSD and your impending doom, you panic and connect yourself to one of the parachutes. You then proceed to curl up in the corner of the cabin, sobbing about how Daemons incinerated your minor league baseball team, the Eternally Damned, which you'd formed with Best Friends #3-9.
Keep trying! Throw in an aileron roll for whatever dubious benefit it may grant!
[piloting 6] [Short Sunderland piloting 4] [short Sunderland tail machine gun 1] [Sunderland dorsal machine gun 6] [short Sunderland waist gunner 6]
Groo's neurons decide to keep rolling with their good idea, further increasing the speed of their plane until the lever promptly breaks off in Groo's enthusiastic grip. Undeterred, Groo continues to push the broken piece of metal forward as hard as possible. Meanwhile, a plethora of dials and gauges go into the red zone as the plane's ascent angle degrades into a perfect negative ninety degrees. Daemonpants starts to whimper even more than usual and grips the straps that connect his parachute to the wall. The gunners open up on the plane spiraling toward them. The tail gunner, clearly somewhat new to this, viciously attacks a nearby cloud formation, while the dorsal and waist gunner both focus fire onto engine 4 of the plane. Groo throws his head back and laughs as the uncontrolled bomber slams its left wing into the cockpit of the Sunderland, killing the pilot instantly. [Wing strength 1] As the entire wing snaps off and lodges itself into the now pilotless flying boat, one of Groo's brain cells ponders whether or not Groo should have done major structural repairs using only duct tape. The other two occupy themselves with the topic of terminal velocity as the bomber spirals towards the ground.
Varion Nods to him before taking up his stance again
Whom ever wins, you are a worthy enemy.
Atempt to grab his wrists as He goes to stab me, step to the left then stab him in the ribs
dex roll 4
strength roll 4
Chainsaw guy dex 3
Chainsaw guy strength roll 4
Chainsaw guy gives a curt nod in response and charges towards you, his knife centered for a vicious thrust. You grab his wrist and attempt to stab him in the chest… well, you would if you could spare your strength. Unfortunately, you realize with a sinking feeling that Chainsaw guy is pretty strong and that taking a hand away from the knife right now would be tantamount to suicide. As the two of you struggle, you both hear a manic laughing and notice the floor of the plane slipping away from your feet as the plane begins to spin. [resilience roll 4] [chainsaw guy resilience roll 3] You both are slammed into the side of the plane several times. Chainsaw guy slams into the bulkhead and is stunned for second when you land on top of him. This situation is quickly resolved as the plane's cabin lurches into full zero-G and you both lose your grip on your knife. At this point, you and Chainsaw guy can do little more than try to hide the fact that you have just soiled yourselves as you stare at each other from opposite ends of the cabin. Amidst the shrill, falsetto scream of the wind and Chainsaw guy, you hear the sound of a hatch being thrown open, followed by the puffs of two opening parachutes. The other two boarders seem to have abandoned ship, taking two parachutes with them.
Continue firing.
This is battle, there is no reason to stop firing for any reason other than no chance to hit.
((the reason you only fired once is because the 20mm cannon is a manual reload and can only fire once per turn))
[marksmanship 2]
You once again fire and once again completely miss. Damn! They didn't teach anything at sniper school about firing cannons. Before you can curse your sniping instructors and try again, you notice that the plane is really fucking close. Like, super close. Like so close that you could reach out and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD BRACE YOURSELF and you are suddenly thrown violently into the glazed glass [resilience 1]. The impact knocks you unconscious, and you quietly collapse to the floor of the cabin. Daemonpants sees you and begins whispering about Best Friend #1 looking just like that when the Daemons disintegrated his soul at the monthly Daemonologist Academy "Thinning of the Herd." Best Friend #2 looked similar, but with more blood. #3-9… well, they all disappeared into comparable piles of ash. Daemonpants had always had trouble keeping friends.
"So... Boooored."
Take a little nap while those idiots take their precious time saving their own lives.
Your attempted nap is rudely interrupted by a panicked man screaming at you over the radio you had dropped down along with the skyhook system. Grumbling you look around for the balloon [perception 1] You can't see anything at all, in fact you can barely be sure which way is up. You wake up your co-pilot. [Co-pilot perception 1] he also seems to have become legally blind. this is going to be problematic when you land. Paniking slightly you ask your navigator to come up and help you look for the ballon. The navigator [perception 5] apparently passed his eye exam and points it out, in a somewhat conceded voice that it's directly in front of you plane. You dive downwards to pick it up. [piloting 1] Your blindness is crippling and you are alerted by something going wrong by the incessant screaming of your navigator to "To Pull up you! PULL UP!" [Piloting 4] You barely manage to get the plane under control and you can feel the taller branches gently brush against the planes belly as you get back up to altitude, you look around at the cockpit Your co-pilot currently is considering the pistol strapped to his hip with great interest and the navigator is currently clutching his seat for dear life while staring at you with a look of pure hatred and cursing your name by every religious deity he knows. You listen. Clearly your navigator is very well educated he's gone through Abrahamic, Hindu, Budhist, Roman, Greek, Norse, and is currently calling on Ra to put a blight on your crops. Impressive.
get up in the air, shoot/club anything that attacks us...otherwise bandage self up and take pain killers. once all good, check the amount of bullets, if any, left in sniper rifle
Okay, someone just pick us up...I'm currently bleeding all over the place like I just got mauled by a hoard of angry kittens decided I was their scratching post.[color]
[doctor 5] You work quickly and effiecenly taking two pads of gauze from you medical kit you place one over your right arm wound and wrap a pressure bandage tightly around it slowing blood flow you feel confident this bandage should hold long enough to get onto the plane and actually stich it shut, You repeat this processes with your second cut and finally using the butterfly strips close the wounds on your arm. You don't think that going skyhooking with a plasma bag is the best idea and you don't currently feel like your going into shock. So you stat going about getting the skyhook setup.[perception 1] Unfortuentlly the box containg the skyhook has transformed into candy.
"What was noise?"
Forgot sniper rifle in the field. *Facepalm*.
"Alright lad. You better know what you're doing or we are probably not going to make it back to our families."
You crawl over while Varion does his doctoring work and retrieve your sniper rifle. Then you crawl back to the skyhook and look around for some instructions [perception 5] You find some instructions for the skyhook and manage to convince Varion that the skyhook is not in fact made of candy.
(https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/images/skyhookfront.jpg/image.jpg)
(https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/images/skyhookback.jpg/image.jpg)
EVeryone on the ground, You hear the roar again [Varion intelligence 2] You think it might be getting farther away.[Jimmy intelligence 3] Thinks it might be getting closer but it's hard to tell, regardless he clutches his sniper rifle tighter to his chest.
I'm sorry but there will be no post on Monday or Tuesday, some IRL things have come up. There will in all likelihood be a post Wednesday, but I can't guarantee that. I can, however, guarantee that the normal turn posting will resume on Thursday for sure.
Keep an eye out for any suspicious tree movements and/or small creatures coming out of the forest.
Lacking anything better to do you double check your harness and then begin to clutch your sniper rifle to your chest and peer through the scope. [perception 2] You would probably be able to see a bit more if you took the protective caps off first.
After fixing this scope mishap you hear the roar [Intelligence: 4]. Yep it's definitely getting closer. You communicate this worrying fact to Varion who seems to have gone unresponsive from bloodless and is currently staring blankly ahead and drooling.
Use eyes to not die.
Back up at altitude you look around and try to relocate that balloon. [perception: 5] You feeling around on the cockpit floor you finally manage to find your glasses. Placing them back on your face you look around. Despite that impromptu close air reconnaissance your panicked pulling up has brought you about back up to the level you were before. [piloting 6] You imedietlly enter a steep dive and your navigator starts reaching for his service pistol. Luckily for the both of you quickly pull up again and grab the ballon the front clamp clamps tight securing the ballon in it's vice,and Varion and Jimmy begin to rise up into the air. As you fly off back towards civilization, the crew dragging the two injured airmen on board, the setting sunlight silhouettes your plane and huge letters appear in front you. Unfazed by this mass hallucination you read what it says.
CONGRATULATIONS ON WINNING THE DEMO VERSION OF MAINPISTON YOU MANAGED TO NOT BE EATEN BY BEASTS OR KILLED BY YOUR OWN CREW. BUT THAT'S JUST THE BEGINNING. LOOK FOR THE FULL VERSION OF MAINSPRING SOON. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A NEW CHARACTER AND YOUR CURRENT MEATPUPPET SOMEHOW SURVIVED, PISTOLS WILL BE PROVIDED UPON LANDING AT THE NEW YORK ISLAND, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KEEP YOUR CHARACTER PLEASE SAY SO, ALTHOUGH THIS MASS HALLUCINATION CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT THEY WILL RETAIN ALL EQUIPMENT.
You shrug, and adjust course to take you to New York. Well, last time I eat shrooms before flying.
Load Mainpiston (Full ver.) Cartridge into MidnightJaguar gaming system. Observe loading bar.
You load the Mainrpiston (Full ver.) Cartridge into the MidnightJaguar gaming system, with an infernal groan the ancient display flickers to life and the beasts that are chained around it snap to attention, and the daemon infused iron ringing the cartridge slot begins to scream.You hear a ominous groan and the main display changes to a loading bar with 25% of it filled. The progress bar also randomly cuts to images of the company logo
(https://gabriellepescador.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/19.jpg)
You stare in increasing bewilderment at the bizarre actions"Well, this is all a bit much for a glorified loading screen" you think.
((Is this okay? I know Groo was supposed to die, but the hilarity of this is just too much to pass up.))
Name: Groo
Description: Nobody is quite sure what this is. Top scientists have suggested that it's some sort of humanoid, possibly a crossbreed of some kind, but DNA samples have been extremely difficult to get a hold of--indeed, The Groo has violently eliminated anyone who has tried to touch it. Disposal has been attempted using both high powered weaponry and high explosives, but The Groo has consistently survived all attempts on its life through a combination of power and sheer dumb luck. Mostly the latter.
Eventually, some enterprising merchants, desiring to be rid of Groo's often disastrous antics, managed to trick a group of pirates into thinking that it was a skilled pilot. This led to Groo crashing their bomber into another pirate group's bomber, forcing the entire crew to bail out over the beast-infested wilderness. Only two individuals survived long enough to be rescued, neither of them Groo, but to their great horror an all-too familiar face happily greeted them once they arrived back at the city.
Neither knows how it is possible Groo survived the wilderness alone, let alone how it arrived back home before them. However, it is quite obviously the same Groo, as evidenced by the large chunk missing from the back of its head, where a certain "ally" shot it. Despite the gaping wound, Groo's eternal smile has not dimmed, though it does seem to have become much slower and less observant.
Stats
Strength:+0
Intelligence:-2
Dexterity:-1
Resilience:+3
Perception:-1
Charisma:-2
Skills
Piloting:-2
Marksmanship:+4
Daemonism:-2
Doctor:-2
Beast mastery:-2
Engineering:-2
Inventory:
Bloody military clothes
A bloodier knife
((How much money are we starting with for the main game? And are you gonna make a second thread?))