Most of my time now-a-days is spent leading the production of Towergirls: the Game and working. This doesn't leave me with a ton of spare afternoons to fitz about with pen and paper games, as fun and relaxing as it is. There's also the inclination part- while it's all well and good to say "make a game for yourself", you still want to see at least some kind of feedback and use. Not only do games need criticism to progress and advance, but it's a little disheartening to get zero interest.
Fortunately, ChromeStrike has always held at least a bit of interest. Over the past few years there's been plenty of valid criticisms and feedback on it. It was and remains an alpha-stage game, so there were several places in the rules that were lacking or cross-referencing stuff that simply didn't exist. Semi-recently a GM running a neat ChromeStrike game chucked some feedback at me, in addition to an excellent session/gaming recap of their campaign. This led to me reading the thing several times, and then peering through other archives and discussions. While reviewing playtestings, criticisms, fan-additions on Pastebin and Google Docs, one thing led to another.
ChromeStrike is my baby. Not satisfied with the state I left it in, I've taken the time to give it a tune up and attempt to address some of the issues people were having with it. All that said, here's the new version, along with patch notes. When new issues turn up I'll likely fix those sooner than later.
0.9.87
Speed is now denoted as being 12 MPH or 19 KPH, in addition to the normal grid movement capacity.
Turns take place over a span of two seconds, narratively almost simultaneous.
Added pilot suits to the character armory, courtesy of the unammed Google Docs anon.
Added a whole heap of character equipment and weapons, most of which is shamessley stolen from the Google Docs anon. Thanks, Google Docs anon.
Each class of mech equipment now has some additional information about the setting and usage.
Mechs have 48 hours of operational time. This is now denoted in several more places in the rulebook.
Mech Dodge Rating is now 2 + Pilot Agility + Control + Modifiers, as opposed to the old (1/2 Pilot Agility) + Speed + Control + Modifiers.
Heavy Machine Guns now only jam on an unmodified 2-, from 3-. (Now 5.56% each turn used, down from 16.66%)
Heavy Machine Guns range increased to 25, from 20. Now matches the MG57.
Jackhammer ammunition increased to 15, from 12.
Shredder ammunition increased to 7, from 5. Shredder price decreased to 4, from 5.
Assault Shotguns have been added. They are a shottie variant of the HMG.
Shotfist now deals three hits, up from two.
Combat Shields and Anti-Missile Shields are now allowed to be used as AP0 melee weapons.
Minimum Missile range has been increased to 15.
Missiles may now be upgraded to Short Range Missiles. They are slightly more costly, and deal less damage, but have a close range band.
Hand-held and shoulder missiles now cost +100%, up from +50%.
Missiles and special ammunition are now consumables/finite. :DDD
Weapons have been split up and organized into more categories.
Weapons now have electronic security measures that prevent the immediate use of salvaged weapons.
Added some quick and simple rules for modying existing weapons.
Twitch+ Fibers added to upgrades (torso). Grants +1 AGL and -1 STR for 3cr.
Character Attack Rating is now 2d6 + (Attribute). Defense Rating is now 6 + Agility.
A Morale failure now results in -2 Attack Rating and Dodge Rating for the scene, rather than being forced to attack only the closest enemy.
Skill checks are now 2d6 + Attribute + Bonuses, and attempting to roll equal or higher than an arbitrary difficulty.
Added the Reactive Fire utility action for characters.
Reaction rolls are now also 2d6 + Grandeur + Bonuses, the higher the result being better.
Added rules for Intimidation, First Aid, and healing injuries.
Parts are now cheaper to repair to full Wounds when not fully destroyed.
Salvage rules have been reworked entirely, with the addition of suggestions as to how players could salvage, rules for hiring scavengers, and alternate simple rules.
Last, but not least- I learned a work-around for Apache OpenOffice full-page background image wonkiness that makes formating and editing considerably easier.
Hey, thanks for the shout-out! Thanks for the motivation to finally start updating that journal again, too. I've decided to update to the new rules as our sessions continue, so maybe I'll be able to provide informed feedback on the new version too.
ReplyDeleteSome initial thoughts:
- I like the general expansion of personal gear available and quality-of-life improvements for out-of-mech gameplay. Some of the new gear is really cool too: Those surveillance/combat drones are definitely going to see some use by certain factions in my game. I know a lot of it is borrowed from the Google Docs Anon but still, good stuff.
- Is Melee Weapons intended to be a hobby skill? That seems off, especially with Martial Arts listed as a useful skill.
- The morale change is a good thing. It feels more concrete and less wildly situational.
- I like the reactive fire rule. Many 'Han shot first' jokes were made.
- Twitch+ Fibers feel a little clunky as written? There’s precedent for mech parts to affect personal stats thanks to stuff like the Targeting Array but upgrading your personal agility in the mech seems like a weird way to say +1 DR when you could just say +1 DR. I guess +1 Agility also affects your AR with melee attacks, but only if you had an odd Agility score. And using this in melee is tough anyway since the -1 STR hurts your melee AP. Really I think I’d rather just cough up 2cr more for Software unless I’m a melee-focused build in the exact spot where -1 STR doesn’t put me down an AP and +1 Agi puts me up 1 AR.
- Some of the weakest weapons have been buffed! HMG feels right, Shredder still looks kind of sad though it's certainly better than it was. The Assault Shotgun is super cool and I'm definitely going to stick it on some mooks. Shotfist is niche but I can actually imagine using it now, probably for an opening salvo.
- The Carbine is new, and I'm not really sure what it's for? It's 0.5cr more than the pistol for +5 range and -1 to hit, and 0.5cr less than the rifle for -1 AP, -1 to hit, and -5 range. I honestly can't imagine skimping half a credit to buy this instead of a rifle? If it were the same cost as the pistol, range for accuracy seems like a plausible trade-off but I dunno. Also, its traits list "low-tech" and "indestructible", which aren't defined as far as I can tell. I guess low-tech probably means it doesn't have electronic countermeasures, but indestructible baffles me.
- The new weapon customization guidelines are cool, though emphasizing that they're GM-approval-only was absolutely a good call. These can do stupid things by strict RAW, like making an arbitrarily powerful version of the 0cr knife weapon, or less absurdly creating a 2x Attack Burst Rifle that is mechanically an MG57 with better range and no price change.
ReplyDelete-I'm really flattered that there's a weapon in here named after me. =D
- I'm not 100% sure on missiles being consumable. They're definitely powerful but it's sort of weird that they are but other explosives aren't? I had a missile-focused PC build who was definitely powerful but they were hardly game-shatteringly broken with 'unlimited' missiles. Maybe they should at least be cheaper, or perhaps some of the upfront cost goes into buying the missile system and replacing the ammunition costs a smaller portion? See below.
- Speaking of consumable missiles, this makes the prices really weird. Only Incendiary Missiles have a whole number unit price; everything else gets a weird fraction, from 0.75cr for a light missile to 2.66cr for a heavy missile or a F&F. The missile counts, prices, or both should probably be adjusted so that you can actually replace partially-used salvos of missiles without having to track weird fractions of a credit.
- Okay, I lied about Incendiary missiles being the only ones with a whole number unit price. MLRS Artillery missiles are still 1cr a pop. Hilariously, this makes them the second-cheapest missiles available despite being noticeably more powerful than heavy missiles.
So after a bit of discussion, some more things!
ReplyDelete- The 'bestiary' at the end looks untouched, which is notable because some of the core calculations have been changed. You probably knew this.
- The new meta for personal combat wildly favors heavy armor thanks to the removal of the AMR's "ignores armor" trait and the general buffs to personal armor effectiveness. Even the likes of the AMR and Breacher only have a 1/3 chance of not plinking harmlessly off of recon armor. This is likely an argument for buffing the penetration on heavier personal scale weapons rather than nerfing high-end armor.
- HE grenades are odd. Better AP than dedicated anti-armor weapons on a personal scale, but worse against vehicles.
I'm glad you're starting that back up, it's always great reading what people are up to with the game. People's interest in general is why the game got off in the first place- way back when it was a barebones text document, no images, but people were thrilled with the idea and showed a lot of enthusiasm. People running campaigns and generally screwing around with the system is very satisfying.
DeleteGoing out the door shortly, but here's my general thoughts on your next points. In the next few days, or after the end-of-them-month-Towergirls-panic-update I'll likely take a closer look at the system and your points, and update the rulebook accordingly. As always, thank you very much for the feedback.
-Personal Gear: Yes
-Melee: My thoughts on melee was that it's harder to conceal a melee weapon, and can be disarmed. Of course they're both still incredibly niche and unlikely to be used in a mech game, so should probably both be hobby-level.
-Morale: Agreed
-Han Solo: That was not on my mind when I added that, but I now feel shame. My original thinking was on Infinity the game's reaction system.
-Twitch+ Fibers: They grant +1 DR and AR in melee from that Agility bonus, IIRC, but the Power is a little bit too much of a hit. Perhaps just a flat bonus to DR and AR in melee would be better. Alternativey, +2 to each and the -1 POW. I'll think on it.
-Weapons: It's kind of frustrating balancing out their costs to round numbers. It's easy to calculate out how much average damage a weapon does to 4+ armor, or 3+ armor, and price accordingly. Range and secondary effects are a little less easy to math out, and when it comes down to it CR isn't granular enough without decimals to get something perfectly fairly priced. Shredder I originally envisioned as a huge, fuck-off shotgun, but it's kind of fallen by the wayside. I might supe it up to something more like the Jackhammer, but in shotgun form. It definitely has a better name than 'Assault Shotgun' and should be given love accordingly.
-Carbine: These are a low-tech, solid hunk of metal that cannot feasibly be broken. You bury it in mud for a month, yank it up, and after a spray down the thing works fine. I'll clarify what those two tags mean, and maybe explicitly allow it to be used as a melee weapon. Something along those lines.
-Customization: Yes, I totally realized those cheese custom item builds, and didn't at all fail to consider the knife's 0cr cost or Burst Rifle cost-efficiency. Go me.
-Obliviom Gun: I liked the weapon idea a lot, and who doesn't enjoy being referenced in a rulebook?
-Missiles: My current thoughts are that I'll inflate the cost of missiles to make each pop a round number, but also give them more damage accordingly. All of them having an AoE effect or multiple hits makes sense to me.
-Missile Prices: I forgot to take a look at the prices and work out the individual missile costs. I'll take another look at that.
-Beastiary: Pretty sure I hit the beastiary, but I may have missed a few of the costs and individual weapon attack-ratings. My main concern was making sure that all of the DR's were correct. Amusingly in a lot of places the NRB pilots gained Dodge Rating, and many of the others lost some. Mechs no longer losing Dodge Rating as their legs are damaged is one draw-back of the new formula, but DR is low enough as it is that it probably won't make too much of a difference.
-Recon & Breachers: The Breacher should definitely do more damage. Recon Power armor is effectively the highest-grade armor you get before the 400lb Mobile Infantry suits, and are very tanky as a result- but a 1/3 chance on a heavy-caliber Breacher is a bit silly. I'll look over that.
-Grenades: I'll also take another look at grenades.
So I ran a session yesterday featuring a lot of combat on foot. Some quick conclusions:
ReplyDeleteCombat on foot is definitely a lot more survivable now, especially if you're lucky. Everyone in the fight was equipped with ballistic or flak armor (no power armor) and none of the PCs took any serious wounds thanks to some serious luck with their armor saves. Armor is really, really good - even though they started down one man, they managed to get through a difficult fight against superior numbers without any real injuries.
The leader of the terrorists they were fighting against wielded a distinctive double-barrelled shotgun with an attached bayonet, and actually had a couple of perks: One of these gave him the ability to automatically attack with his shotgun and hit without needing to roll if he successfully hit with a bayonet melee attack. He landed this twice on a single character, once to the torso and again with a called shot to the head, but only one attack penetrated armor and he got very unlucky with the damage roll: It didn't do enough to get through the ablative wounds. Neither of the bayonet hits did damage either, and he didn't get a chance to reload since he took a return shotgun blast to the right arm that disabled him. With only one arm still working, he dove behind cover and attacked with a frag grenade, which killed one of his own goons but left the PC untouched due to another successful armor save.
The PCs attacks were generally more successful. Aside from the leader (who was wearing ballistic armor) the enemies were generally using flak armor without full coverage, and the PCs aggressively took advantage of flanking and called shots to target exposed areas with some success.
Two of them came equipped with an Anti-Materiel Rifle and a Breacher, respectively, which proved extraordinarily effective. The AMR sniper successfully took out an incoming van full of enemy reinforcements, and the ensuing crash killed most of them and injured the rest. She picked one more off before they could make it indoors to join the combat. Amusingly, when selecting a position to set up prior to the fight, she picked the same building that the Terrorists had already set up a sniper-spotter team in, so sniper girl and breacher girl got the drop on them.
The PC with a Breacher killed everything she aimed at with a single shot. This included the first test of the new Han Shot First rules, in which she cleanly landed a headshot against one of the miniboss terrorists (who wasn't wearing a helmet) before he could shoot her in return.
The Han Solo jokes suddenly make sense. I'd failed to adequately describe how Reactive Fire works, allowing it to be used in unintended situations as a result. Otherwise I'm happy to hear that personal combat is a tad less lethal and workable. Did the Breacher PC have 5 Power or simply roll good enough to make up for the penalty?
DeleteBreacher PC (Callsign Boudicca) indeed had 5 power, and points in Firearms (Heavy Weapons). She was originally conceived as the team's heavy weapons girl with an LMG (in addition to having the heaviest, tankiest mech build), and the player definitely seemed excited after reading the Breacher rules.
ReplyDeleteSidenote: It's not explicit but the skills section notes that the firearms skill applies to one type of firearm. It's not 100% clear whether that means literally a single type like Firearms(Old Revolvers) or a class like Firearms(Pistols). I chose to interpret it as the latter, dividing the listed weapons into Pistols, Submachine Guns (Machine Pistol + PDW), Shotguns, Rifles, Long Rifles (Sniper Rifle + AMR), and Heavy Weapons (SAW + Breacher).
Most PCs predictably just picked one and stuck with it, relying on combined arms tactics to cover the limitations of any particular weapon.