Sorry for such a long wait before updating ChromeStrike. I have been very busy with real life full-time work and my ChromeStrike Unity project. Despite this, the homebrew remains my baby. As always, I will have it on at least the back of my mind, and I'll always be lurking and reading accounts/feedback of those who have played it. In the future it is theoretically possible that I could enlist some help to reformat the book entirely and see about getting it published on some small-print website service somewhere. Remains to be seen. Until then, enjoy the new changes and content.
My goal for this update has been addressing feedback from anonymous posters and youtube reviews. I'm still very proud of how comparatively rules-light the system is, and the critically acclaimed mech building, so I don't think there's much to be improved there. Instead I've shuffled chapters of the book around and added a 'quick start' guide earlier in the book, quickly walking people through character creation, mech creation, and the basic fundamentals of the game. Hopefully this will be enough to satisfy those complaining about the layout. Also, the table of contents now has hyperlinks. Should be nice to have.
Other than the formatting improvements I've also added the Islamic megacorp (al-Najm al-Khafi), a whole heap of melee weapons and part upgrades, and the long missing CT-02, CO-02, and NRB-02 mech models have finally been added to the appendix. I've also snuck a few other new things into the game. Feel free to read the massively bloated changelog.
Also I've officially changed ChromeStrike to Beta instead of Alpha just to stick it to the man.
Here's the new version.
0.9.90
Reformatted the book; moved various chapters around
The table of contents now has hyperlinks for the various chapters and sections
Added a Quick Start Guide early in the book with a brief synopsis of character creation, mech creation, and basic game rules
Added optional skill progression to Characters
Characters are now encouraged to have a call-sign, or pilot alias, for when they are murdering things to death in their mech
Fixed some inaccurate CR costs on the Very-Quick Reference page
The Bionics section in characters has been renamed to Cybernetics and extended with consumables, more fluff, more cybernetic upgrades, and the addition of side-effect rules.
A new prime has been added- the al-Najm al-Khafi! Cheapish spidertank mecha parts, high-end melee boosting parts, and additional stealth parts!
The BEI-01 chassis now only has 3+ armor from the front and sides; Chinesium chassis now gets hit at 4+ from behind- the PLA never retreats
The CO-02 chassis now also has +1 STR and 4+ armor on the chassis (others are still 5+); buffed from 5+ everything
Reworded the bonus of the BEI-02 Arms; now grants +4 Missile Capacity instead of +100% (was still referring to the old missile rules). Did the same for the BEI-02 chassis.
Added Cooling Tank to Shoulder Parts; partial stealth for campaigns and minor Missile DR boost
Reworked (Shoulder) Missile Hardpoints. Now grant +2 Missile Capacity and allow an extra missile to be fired each turn. Missile meta?
Missile Hardpoints are also no longer allowed to be purchased as built-in parts- was an oversight.
Added Heavy Missile Hardpoints to the shoulder parts list, just in case you can't get enough missiles. Grant +4 Missile Capacity, -1 SPD, and can be jettisoned once empty.
Added Gyro Stabilizer to the shoulder parts list. Allows the use of a 2H weapon in that arm but can no longer Swap it out in combat.
Added Hot Fibers (chassis) upgrade to part upgrades. Boosts mech Strength at the risk of damaging the arms when using melee attacks.
Added Active Camouflage Cloak (chassis) upgrade to part upgrades. Does about what you would expect.
Added Holster (chassis) upgrade to part upgrades. Does about what you would expect.
Added Forearm Shield (arms) upgrade to part upgrades. Built-in melee weapon that doesn't occupy a hand. Cheaper version of the EG Multitool.
Moved Secondary Arm from Shoulder Parts to Upgrades and renamed it to Secondary Arms (Plural); is now a Chassis Upgrade
Added Melee Override (head) upgrade to parts upgrade. More expensive, non-compatible head Software upgrade that also boosts Crit Chance in close-up combat.
Increased Shredder shots to 12 (up from 7) and Assault Shotgun shots to 20 (up from 12)
Added Explosive Sticks, Halberds, Explosive Halberds, and Plasma Cutters to the mech armory :DDDDD
Clarified with Shotfists and Pile Drivers that their shots are not consumed on a missed attack
Reworked Pile Drivers slightly; down to AP2, have a hit penalty, and shots increased to 4 (from 2)
Light Rocket Pod decreased to AP0, Rocket Pod decreased to AP1
Added info on how the Swap action works when holding two 1H weapons and swapping to a 2H one
The melee manuever now explicitly allows a player to attack with all equip melee weapons at once instead of punching or kicking
Reworded the Ready Attack action very slightly
Re-added in rules in the game about part hit locations, since I seemingly accidentally removed that entirely from the book somehow
Added in a much more expanded section about how GMs can balance enemy encounters and devise missions for their players
In the World of ChromeStrike, MechList now runs an ongoing list of top fifty mech jockeys. I swear I'd just change the base setting to that one from your homebrew campaign (yes, you, you know if you are you) if I could get away with it.
Reworked character sheets in the book, also included Omar's sheet near his companions for completion sake and minor OCD
Finally added the long missing CT-02 "Shadowhawk", CO-O2 "Onryō" and NRB-02 "Koschei" mechs to the appendix. Welcome aboard you three.
Added an alternate Gunner loadout to the NRB-03 "Destroyer"- hideously minmaxed build for when you want a total party kill
Added al-Najm 01, 02, and 03 mechs to the appendix
Reordered the mechs in the appendix such that they are no longer randomly scattered around mixing the various corps models together
Added MULEs to the appendix- autonomous robot assistants which carry weapons for mechs
Rewrote the stat block for Tactical Nukes under Power Armor slightly
Fixed the 'spotting Stealth Power Armor' Perception check in their entry; is now a 2d6 test instead of a 1d6 test
Added another entry in Power Armor and Stealth Power Armor for using them in character-scale combat, in case that was missed earlier in the book in the character armory
Transport Helicopter weight and carry capacity increased
Land Transport modified- weight greatly increased, credits increased, given additional wounds
My personal website page on ChromeStrike is no longer just placeholder lorem ipsum text, eat shit (affectionate)
Removed the 'ChromeStrike as a wargame' bits as it's an extreme tertirary interest and should be its own short, supplimental rulebook instead of book bloat
Added some placeholder AI-generated artwork here and there in the book- will be removed later if/when published
