Roll to Pierce the Heavens!
Players are pilots of Ganmen, Humongous Mecha powered by the Fighting Spirit of the pilot. Each Ganmen has special abilities that consume Fighting Spirit- Fighting Spirit is restored in small amounts every time a player rolls a 6, or in larger amounts when they hear a successful Friendship Speech. Pilot Classes include Brawler, a durable close range specialist with regenerative abilities, Boomstick, a ranged class that specializes in high damage and Macross Missile Massacres, and Hero, a class that gives more potent Friendship Speeches and can demoralize the Fighting Spirit of his foes.
Sidenote, who else has done a Humongous Mecha RTD? I'd like to see the rules they used and how it worked out for them.
So yeah, this has been percolating through my brain for... wow, almost 6 months now? Huh. Anyway- Stream of Consciousness Game Design with Monk IV: And Now For Something Completely Different!
The setting is TTGL verse, but not Earth, and the antagonists are not LordGenome's Beastmen- no knowledge of TTGL is necessary to participate. The flow of play would be pretty close to Season One, with the whole "fight the four Generals, get to enemy Base, beat Big Bad" setup. Nothing original, but then, it's TTGL- not exactly the most original work in the first place. I've got more thoughts on it than that, but I'll save it for when/if I start a thread, especially since further elaboration would be spoileriffic.
Stats
Balance- Balance (measured in BP) is an HP analogue- it represents the ability of a pilot to roll with the punches, dodge attacks, and generally avoid serious damage.
FS- Fighting Spirit! Fighting Spirit essentially acts as Mana, and is used to fuel abilities. Players gain 1 FS for every natural 6 they roll, as well as from some abilities and events. Management of FS is one of the principle gameplay mechanics.
Durability- Determines how easily a Ganmen withstands damage. Most Ganmen have a base of +3, but certain classes and abilities may modify it.
Status- When you take serious damage, it gets recorded here. This is also where any other buffs and debuffs gets recorded.
Armament- This specifies what weapons a Ganmen has ready, as well as what body part certain weapons/abilities are tied to. Normally, Armament is only altered between missions.
Abilities- Abilities are the special awesome things players can do, most of which consume FS. Players start with two Ability Points to spend, one unique Limit Break ability that is expensive but potent, and a self-heal ability (Healing Surge, but less powerful and requires a successful roll.) As they complete missions they also get Ability Points, which are used to purchase new abilities or upgrade existing ones. More on all that in the next tab.
Combat
Players can do one action that requires a roll per turn. Thus, in a turn a player might attack, use certain abilities, or something else entirely. Many abilities do not require a roll, and so can be activated while doing something else (e.g activating Certain Strike and attacking is fine for one turn, as is Certain Strike + Crushing Blow + Limit Break.) Players may attempt to do more than one thing per turn, but they'll suffer penalties to both rolls for trying to hurry.
When a player attacks, they roll an Attack check opposed by the defender's Dodge roll- on a hit, the attacker then rolls damage which is then applied to the defender's BP. If a pilot's BP is reduced to 0 or less, they must make a roll on the Critical Damage table below. Critical Damage rolls are 1d8 modified by Durability and current BP. If the specified body part already has damage >= roll, increase damage to one category greater than currently suffered.
0 and Lower- Critical Core hit. Lose all FS, BP=0, Durability -3, disable random Armament, 1/6 chance for permadeath
1- Serious Core hit. Lose all FS, BP= 0, Durability -3, disable random Armament
2- Serious Body hit. Lose all FS, BP= 0, Durability -1, -2 Attack, -2 Dodge, any Armaments attached disabled.
3- Serious Leg hit. Lose all FS, BP= 2, Durability -1, random Leg disabled (-2 Dodge, any Armaments attached disabled)
4- Serious Arm hit. Lose all FS, BP= 2, Durability -1, random Arm disabled (-2 Attack, any Armaments attached disabled)
5- Moderate Body hit. Lose 5 FS, BP= 2, -1 Attack, -1 Dodge, 1/2 chance any Armaments attached disabled.
6- Moderate Leg hit. Lose 5 FS, BP= 4, random Leg disabled (-1 Dodge, 1/2 chance Armaments attached disabled)
7- Moderate Arm hit. Lose 5 FS, BP= 4, random Arm disabled (-1 Attack, 1/2 chance Armaments attached disabled)
8- Light Body hit. Lose 2 FS, BP= 4, -1 Attack, -1 Dodge, 1/6 chance any Armaments attached disabled.
9- Light Leg hit. Lose 2 FS, BP= 6, random Leg impaired (-1 Dodge, 1/6 chance Armaments attached disabled)
10- Light Arm hit. Lose 2 FS, BP= 6, random Arm impaired (-1 Attack, 1/6 chance Armaments attached disabled)
11 and up- WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?! BP= 8, Gain 2 FS, attacker loses 2 FS
Every time players level up, they get Ability Points. Ability Points may be spent on any ability- commonly a certain number of AP is needed to make the ability useful, and at certain thresholds the Ability is made more potent. Fluff is largely determined on a Ganmen by Ganmen basis- this is just the list of mechanical effects.
Certain Strike!
2 AP- Spend 2 FS for +1 Attack until end of next turn
4 AP- Spend 2 FS for +2 Attack until end of next turn
8 AP- Spend 2 FS for +3 Attack until end of next turn
Flash Step!
2 AP- Spend 2 FS for +1 Dodge until end of next turn
4 AP- Spend 2 FS for +2 Dodge until end of next turn
8 AP- Spend 2 FS for +3 Dodge until end of next turn
A Man's Strong Back!
2 AP- Spend 2 FS for +1 Durability until end of next turn
4 AP- Spend 2 FS for +2 Durability until end of next turn
8 AP- Spend 2 FS for +3 Durability until end of next turn
Crushing Blow!
2 AP- Spend 4 FS for +2 Damage until end of turn
4 AP- Spend 4 FS for +4 Damage until end of turn
8 AP- Spend 4 FS for +4 Damage until end of next turn
Healing Surge!
2 AP- Spend 4 FS to lessen one wound by two degrees
4 AP- As above, except wound is fully healed
8 AP- As above, optionally may lessen all wounds by two degrees instead
12 AP- Fully heal all wounds
Meteor Swarm!
2 AP- Spend 3 FS to launch an attack at all nearby enemies
4 AP- As above, plus each attack gets +1
8 AP- As above, plus each hit deals +1 Damage
Who the Hell Do You Think I Am!?!
2 AP- You try to make an inspiring speech. Roll 1d6 to determine effect of speech- you may burn FS to provide a bonus to this roll (e.g -1 FS, +1 roll,) and inspired RP may provide a bonus at GM discretion. 1 causes you to lose one FS, 2-3 no effect, 4-5 all allies gain two FS, 6 or higher allies gain three FS.
4 AP- As above, but you have automatic +1 to your speech and you gain one FS on a 6 or higher.
8 AP- As above, but FS gains are doubled
Believe In Me, Who Believes In You!
2 AP- Whenever you roll a 6, all allies gain one FS
4 AP- In addition, you gain an additional one FS
8 AP- As above, but FS gains are doubled
Uhh, more when I think of them? I'm not terribly great at thinking up things not directly tied to the numbers. Suggestions welcome and appreciated!
Melee weapons built into the Ganmen (e.g energy swords, Simon's drills, etc) provide a +1 damage bonus.
Ranged weapons built into the Ganmen (e.g shoulder mounted rockets, that blue Ganmen with the rifle on its back) provide a +1 attack bonus.
Improvised weapons have bonuses and penalties As Common Sense Dictates.
Customized pieces of equipment that are not created by the Ganmen (e.g Kamina's glasses/swords, Viral's helmet) frequently have better stats, but may also have drawbacks. These items are not available for purchase, but may be found as loot or handed out as quest reward.
As you can see, I developed it quite a bit from my initial idea. It's intended to be a fairly loose RTD (as you might expect from an RTD about reality-warping robots;) generally, you're supposed to be able to
try anything, even if it replicates an established ability- the big difference is that abilities are guaranteed "things you are good at." By that logic, I probably need to rewrite the "Who The Hell Do You Think I Am" ability- I'll get to it eventually. Thoughts, feedback, ideas, questions?
Author
Topic: Roller's Block (RTD Brainstorming Thread) (HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY) (Derm is 5k) (Read 702271 times)