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Big Robots, Arena Combat. One dice, one model. A game.  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in ca
Frenzied Berserker Terminator





Canada

Not sure where to post this but, I have decided I want to try my hand at game design. So here is a basic rundown of how it goes so far.



The whole game works around the idea of one dice, one model, and a small play area. The game revolves around giant Robots locked in one on one combat. Robots can be customized with weapons, cyber systems and pilots with skills and attributes. The main game mechanic uses a D20 and a system called High but Under, where actions have a target number that must be rolled under to succeed, with higher rolls resulting in better achievements. Modifiers are used to simulate skills and attributes, adding or subtracting from a roll to get a more desirable result. For example a machine gun has an Attack Rating of 12, and your Pilot a Ranged Skill of 1. In order to score a hit on you would need to roll under 12, let's say you got a 12. Normally this would result in a hit, but since it's right on the nose your gun has jammed or overheated and you would take 1 point of damage, in this case the gun does 1 Damage. Now since you've got a hotshot pilot there is no need to take that damage, you use his Ranged Skill of 1 to subtract 1 from your roll, dealing 11 damage to your enemy and none to you. If you had rolled a 13 you could choose to use the skill and do the damage but maybe you don't want to and so its just a miss. Conversely you could have rolled a 4 and scored a rather weak hit, so you use the Skill to boost the roll instead. Everything works on this principal, from movement to cyber attacks.

Robots have very few attributes. A d20 roll for 3 main Attributes is made each Round. Move Rating, Reactor Points, Cyber Points. These three attributes form a resource pool that you spent on certain actions and these pools are replenished each Round, but Rounds don't always end when you want so resource management is essential. MR is basically your Bots maximum movement allowance in inches. You can't move more than this number in a single game turn, if an opponent would force you to move more than this number, as a result of a push let's say, it would cause overheating and do you damage. So even movement is a bit of resource allocation. RP is your Bots power rating, the nuclear engine if you will, Reactor Points are your general currency and moat actions cost RP to perform. CP is your Bots cyber capabilities and these are points that can only be spent on cyber actions like Radar Lock and Shielding.

Pilots are also rather simplistic. You have two basic attack skill ratings Ranged and Melee, which can affect your attack rolls in combat as detailed above. There is also Jock, which is a mod used for many actions and demonstrates a Pilots ability to skillfully handle their Bot. When you make a MR roll at the beginning of a round for example, you add your Jock mod to the roll if it was low, subtracting it if it was too high. Jock is also used to determine Reactor Points in the same way, representing a good pilot milking every last drop from their Reactor drives. Cyber is like Jock but shows the pilots aptitude for the more subtle craft of cyber warfare. Pilots also can have special skills that do things like add to their Bots move rating or cyber points.

Rounds are used to keep track of the game and all the action therein. A Round can last a long time if both players have high resource pools, or it can be rather short if both players are spending points quickly. Rounds are comprised of the classic player and game turn system and turn order is alternating with the active player spending points to complete actions. The non active player is kept engaged by being able to call Reactions to certain actions, as long as they have the points to spend. Actions have very few limitations and as long as you have the points you can move and shoot and move. Pop in for a quick jab and pop back out for a laser cannon burst. Be careful though because your opponent won't just sit there! They will be using Reactions to tie you up, overheat your systems and in general defend themselves like a seasoned boxer.

Damage is done ala Warmachine with damage boxes for each subsystem, arms, legs, head, cores. There is also interior damage boxes that can usually only be damaged by cybers or overheating and while the loss of most interior systems will result in lost performance a compromised Reactor could spell doom for both you and your opponent.

Eventually I'd like to write in a campaign system for buying new Bots and gear and levelling up pilots, but that is a long way off.

I did play a short test match today and it was interesting. Both Robots were exactly the same and it ended up taking only 1 Round for Robot A to crumple Robot B with an Electro Gauntlet barrage. But not before Robot B got in a good turn of shooting, doing 11 damage on one lucky shot and 7 damage on another shot. Both Bots rolled high for their resource pools and it was quite fun trying to see if I could burn through all the points in one Round. It was pretty fast playing but that's good. That's the idea. It will get more complex as things get fleshed out but I'm happy with what I have so far.

Any comments or ideas?



Gets along better with animals... Go figure. 
   
Made in au
Chaplain with Hate to Spare






I like the concept, sounds really cool and something nice we can pick up quickly and still have heaps of options for customizing our own bots and pitting them against our mates ala real steel :-)

Flesh Eaters 4,500 points


" I will constantly have those in my head telling me how lazy and ugly and whorish I am. You sir, are a true friend " - KingCracker

"Nah, I'm just way too lazy to stand up so I keep sitting and paint" - Sigur

"I think the NMM technique with metals is just MNMM. Same sound I make while eating a good pizza" - Whalemusic360 
   
Made in ca
Frenzied Berserker Terminator





Canada

Thanks for the input Nerdfest!

Yeah I'm aiming for a quick play kind of game. Bad luck or a bad decision made for a brutaly quick beatdown? Oh well, do the post battle sequence and fight again!

I had wanted to keep the game tidy and considered a hex map or play board, but I realized that gamers can keep their table tidy on their own. Taking free movement and modular terrain away would only be a bad thing.

I envision a game where you can build and play your Robot however you want, using cards in a sort of MTG booster format but with no emphasis on collecting random cards. Cards would come in themes decks, perhaps dilineated by in game manufacturer or some other theme. In this way you could build any sort of Robot you like, limited only by the the framework of the chassis and the power of the Reactor. Pilots would be either player created using a character creation method or perhaps you want to hire a premade pilot. In this way you can build a super strong combat Bot, who mangles opponents with a sword or perhaps even just fists and wrestling moves, maybe you want a big slow Bot that can take a megaton on the nose and dish out just as good. Maybe you want a sleek fast Bot that shadows around the arena unseen, crippling your enemy with devastating cyber attacks. Maybe you want something in between? With a card based unit building system you can do this easily and without a large rulebook to consult. All the pertinent rules and skills will be on the cards. Bot cards and Pilot cards will tell you everything you need to know about your Bot and your Pilot.

Models? Well I don't have any ideas for that yet, no concept art or anything. I'm certainly not a good enough sculptor to try that and I certainly don't have the money for prototypes, so for now I'm looking at card fold ups, with a volume rating much like Warmachine. I think this system provides a gamer with a very solid base of measurement, no fuzzy interpretation of how large a model is based on its pose and no penalties for extravagant basing. One of my favourite parts about WM actually is this concept of unit volume and it deserves more credit for the amount of hassle it cuts out of a game. No more 40k "this prone Sniper has blocked los" baloney!

In fact, no models and only cards might be a big draw. No need to spend more money on toys you probably already own. Complete artistic freedom for those who wish to make their own Robots. I also had this crazy idea that if players wanted they could forgoe the models entirely and play the game in an abstract DnD sort of way, with pen and paper.

At any rate I'll work on a basic turn structure and post it up later, maybe some folks can grab some Dreadnoughts and do some playtesting?




Gets along better with animals... Go figure. 
   
Made in us
Ultramarine Land Raider Pilot on Cruise Control





Silver Spring, MD

I like it, it sounds like good quick fun. I'll be interested to see some playtest rules when they're ready.

Any thought to fluff yet? It sounds like it will be campaign driven (or it should be), earning money and experience and leveling up your pilot and bot. If that's the case, fluff is going to be more important. We'll care why we're fighting, who our weapon or chassis vendors are and why they give the bonuses they do, whether sponsorship matters, etc. I could see it being something like a future where battle mechs are cutting edge military hardware and a national or international mech fighting league, aside from being wildly popular as a spectator sport, is the ultimate way to showcase your megacorp's latest technology to attract government buyers.

Battlefleet Gothic ships and markers at my store, GrimDarkBits:
 
   
 
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