[project gundam] mobilesuits, factions, and campaign structure
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[project gundam] mobilesuits, factions, and campaign structure
[project gundam] mobilesuits, factions, and campaign structure
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the governing master stat for mobile suits is Generation
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at the start of the game, factions have access to gen1-gen2 mobile suits, and PCs are somewhere around gen2-gen3
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higher-generation mobile suits have all-around better stats and access to more special abilities
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Gundams are mainly defined by being a generation or two ahead of the competition
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they're supertech mobile suits, possibly with One Weird Trick depending on the setting
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Over the course of a campaign, your mobile suits will be upgraded or replaced with new higher-gen suits
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but the other factions will also be developing new technology
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stats for mobile suits:
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Armor: Health bar. Soaks damage until it runs out, then you start taking System Damage
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Systems: A list of up to six systems on your MS that can break
Snake-Kun
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PCs get 5, bosses get 4-6, mooks get 0
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whenever you take system damage, roll 1d6
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and break the system in that slot
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if it's already broken, your MS is disabled
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Mobility: How well a pilot can make it move
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serves as a cap for the pilot's functional skill
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in a low-level mobile suit, a high level pilot will be held back from their full potential
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Traits: Feats but for mobile suits
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Passives
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Weapons: What you use to do attacks with
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Most weapons can be swapped between mobile suits arbitrarily
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ranged or melee, unlimited use or finite ammo, varying power and range
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various special abilities
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weapons can be stolen from enemies (unless they're built-in weapons, like you couldn't steal the high mega cannon off of Gundam ZZ
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)
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or they can be developed
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Campaign structure
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Starting at the smalllest zoom and pulling wider from there
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Engagements
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Enemy mobile suits are at a place where you are at
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use weapons and combat rules to defeat them
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All pilots who participate in a battle accumulate 1 stress
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in an engagement*
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Downtime
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Between engagements
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Freeform RP, maintenance
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reduce pilot stress, repair damage dealt to mobile suits
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Battles
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Large-scale conflicts that the PCs are a part of
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determine the size of each force, the objectives, key targets within the enemy army
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and then alternate Engagements and Progression
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Engagements are actual mechanical fights within the battle
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isolated mini-battles
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Progression follows an Engagement and outlines the changing flow of the battle
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Battle lines shift, forces are depleted
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Reinforcements arrive, factions use superweapons
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et cetera
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the main danger of battles is that you do not get downtime during them
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unless you withdraw from battle
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so damage to your mobile suits persists and stress continues to accumulate
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until the battle ends
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Arcs
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Story chunks
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An Arc starts with an objective
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Capture a fortress, destroy an enemy superweapon, deliver a person to a location
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And continues until that objective is either achieved or rendered irrelevant
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The typical game structure assumes a ship that the PCs are all on so let's talk assuming that default
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Your ship travels between necessary destinations
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fighting enemies in engagements and maybe a battle at the end
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as you fight, you need to spend time and resources to maintain your mobile suits, repairing damaged armor and systems
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and your ship has finite resources
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running low on supplies is abstract - no matter how hard you push you won't like starve to death
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but when supplies are low, you accumulate stress and fatigue faster
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making your pilots less effective and more prone to panic
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finding somewhere to resupply can be an important part of an arc
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Advancement
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Pilots and MS upgrade differently
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Pilots gain EXP by participating in battles
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not per kill, show up to fight = get exp
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then you level up and get better at fighting
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mobile suits do not gain levels
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but at the end of an arc, you have a chance to upgrade mobile suits
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change its properties or give it new ones
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advance its generation
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build new weapons
Snake-Kun
I think that breaking under stress should be worth xp
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not bad
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or more accurately, recovering from a pilot break
Snake-Kun
Fucks you up, but in the long term, recovering from that makes you stronger because you’ve gone through the shit and survived
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although this does mean that players who try to cool off and avoid breaking are actively penalized for doing so
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something to keep in mind at least
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Campaign
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A sequence of arcs tied together by progression
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But not only players get to progress
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each faction has two numbers for Industry and Research
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Industry is a measure of resources available for building mobile suits
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Research is a measure of resources available for developing new mobile suit designs and such
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We are not going to directly measure how many zakus zeon has
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but when a Battle happens, Industry value operates as like, a point buy for each involved faction
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to determine the size of the force they can bring to the fight
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and can be used, maybe, to produce individual bosses
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mobile armors and custom char suits and such
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so as players are upgrading their mobile suits, the world is advancing to catch up with them
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Pilot Death
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Ruleset determined during World Generation
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possibilities:
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- Death is always a possibility
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If you roll a 6 on a system damage roll, it's a hit to the cockpit
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maybe you eject, maybe you don't
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coinflip? idk
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- Death can be dealt only by named enemies
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Mooks don't have the ability to kill PCs
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but anyone with a name and a portrait do
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es
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- Death can only occur in major battles
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Like, season finale battles
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shot down in a minor engagement? you're fine
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shot down during the battle of A Baoa Qu?
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fuckin' bye
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- Compromise of B and C
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You can be killed by anyone during Major Battles and only by named enemies otherwise
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- Death is in the hands of the players
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Death only happens when the players are open to it
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otherwise they always survive
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Gundam SEED and Wing use this last one
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00 is Major Battle in S1 and Named Enemy in S2
Ramases II
SEED even let someone do a take-backsy
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of course, NPCs can die whenever
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whatever the rules are
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let players know when they are in a death threat zone
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An Idea I Just Had
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opposed attack rolls, but
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(say d10s for now)
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rolling dice is an expression of your ability to influence the story
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and only Characters can influence the story
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so enemy rivals roll dice back
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but mooks just roll a 3
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you need to hit evd+3 to hit a mook
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and beat acc+3 to dodge a mook attack
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although this does mean it's possible to hit 100% hit/dodge against them
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maybe that's fine?
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maybe I'm overthinking things
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I'll come back to it
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anyway this is what's on my notes so far
Snake-Kun
Maybe instead of xp, breaking gives you a reserve of some kind you can use to empower your rolls that represent you falling back on your experience from getting kicked around
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Call them “lessons” or something
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Powerful, but it’s a one time thing
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That might save you from death
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there's gonna be a valor/SP equivalent mechanic for sure
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that recovering from breaks could give you more of
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Maybe breaking increases your max of whatever this resource is
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I like that, noting it down as a possibility