Author Topic: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.  (Read 17027 times)

HABeas2

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Hello, all.

As promised in the Fan Fiction boards, I present here the (officially rejected) Halloween special A Time of War adventure "Reign of the Tetakuni." Written and illustrated almost exclusively by yours truly (aside from some BattleTech-proprietary images purloined from Sarna.net and elsewhere), with player-character concepts helpfully donated by the folks on the Fanfic boards, this adventure is the basis of my "Far No Longer" fan-fiction story series, and has been lovingly crafted to be as complete a product as I could manage.

Indeed, all that this book lacks to differentiate it from the previous adventures I've done officially are proper record sheets, cover art, and the back-cover copy (BCC). Oh, and maybe a price tag, but since Ray passed on this particular project (he has his own standards of what constitutes a good idea for a "gag" product), monetizing this is a definite no-no anyway.

As the full PDF is rather huge for attachment purposes, I will be posting this adventure in sections. This may prove particularly handy to potential play groups and their GMs, as the GM's sourcebook and the adventure tracks each have their own separate sections.

A final caveat of note should be stated here: Although this adventure has been rooted in elements of canon, the whole thing is basically non-official and non-canonical. Nothing expressed or implied within this adventure should be construed as anything more than a fun "what if?" type of adventure, which can be used as a jump-off point for adventures in a VERY alternate BattleTech reality.

Enjoy!

- Herbert A. Beas II

HABeas2

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Section One of "Reign of the Tetakuni" attached.

This includes the opening fiction ("Far No Longer"), as well as introductory material, general world overview fluff, and a cast of characters perfect for default use.

- Herb

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Section Two of "Reign of the Tetakuni" attached.

This covers the four Adventure Tracks and the post-adventure Debriefing.

- Herb

HABeas2

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Section Three of "Reign of the Tetakuni" attached.

This third and final installment is the GM's sourcebook, including new rules, units, and data for both AToW and BattleTech record sheets.

Apologies to players of MW: Destiny and Alpha Strike, by the way; it falls upon you to make any necessary conversions to use this material in your own games.

Enjoy!

- Herb

abou

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Uhm... hell yes!

Luciora

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Neat stuff!

HABeas2

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Thanks! As you see, even your interpretation of a Tetakuni battlesuit made it in!

- Herb

Luciora

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I have to say, I was expecting a mech and not a battlesuit when I kitbashed it.  ;D. Serves me right for failing reading comprehension.  :))

Thanks! As you see, even your interpretation of a Tetakuni battlesuit made it in!

- Herb

HABeas2

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I have to say, I was expecting a mech and not a battlesuit when I kitbashed it.  ;D. Serves me right for failing reading comprehension.  :))

And yet, the very title of your thread showed that you were open to the potentiality:

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/miniatures/far-no-longer-unknown-tetatae-battlemech-battlearmor/

I did consider a ProtoMech version, but by then, I'd fairly well filled out the Proto-level machines, while having only two--of the same weight--in the BA class.

So, yeah. Suddenly, yours became their urban warfare monster.

- Herb

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>Squee!<

New fan project!  Tagged.
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Luciora

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #10 on: 29 August 2021, 20:17:41 »
I do admit the spikes were a bit over the top  ;D

And yet, the very title of your thread showed that you were open to the potentiality:

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/miniatures/far-no-longer-unknown-tetatae-battlemech-battlearmor/

I did consider a ProtoMech version, but by then, I'd fairly well filled out the Proto-level machines, while having only two--of the same weight--in the BA class.

So, yeah. Suddenly, yours became their urban warfare monster.

- Herb

HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #11 on: 30 August 2021, 00:10:36 »
Maybe, but that extra spikey-ness was what made me give the Pheasants their heavy vibro claws feature. I imagine these are the suits they deploy when they're done screwing around with insurgents.

- Herb

Daemion

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #12 on: 03 September 2021, 14:03:07 »
I know this is considered mostly complete, but, do you have any Touring the Stars world blurbs to give us an idea of the state of affairs for some of the human worlds, like Terra?

Keep in mind, I'm still reading through these, so, if you've already done so, just say as such.

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Daemion

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #13 on: 03 September 2021, 14:08:13 »
BTW: Great job on the art.
It's your world. You can do anything you want in it. - Bob Ross

Every thought and device conceived by Satan and man must be explored and found wanting. - Donald Grey Barnhouse on the purpose of history and time.

I helped make a game! ^_^  - Forge Of War: Tactics

HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #14 on: 03 September 2021, 14:43:39 »
I know this is considered mostly complete, but, do you have any Touring the Stars world blurbs to give us an idea of the state of affairs for some of the human worlds, like Terra?

Keep in mind, I'm still reading through these, so, if you've already done so, just say as such.

Nah. Given my propensity for going as deep as possible for maximum playability, while trying to leave plenty of room for GM control and creativity, I opted to keep the maps and even many of the Tetakuni nations vaguely defined. A deep enough dive for TtS-style content would be...oof! How many pages did the likes of Tyrfing, Kaumberg, and Jardine get, each?

BTW: Great job on the art.

Thanks! Still doesn't hold a candle to what the professionals do, but I enjoyed making them, anyway...and I've seen worse from me.

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #15 on: 04 September 2021, 20:22:01 »
Jardine at least was only about 13 pages of text (the other 7 being cover, front matter, and maps).

HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #16 on: 05 September 2021, 00:56:50 »
Jardine at least was only about 13 pages of text (the other 7 being cover, front matter, and maps).

Now bear in mind that you'd want more than just one or two planets detailed to give this setting much more depth. Say, 10 planets... x 13 pages.... Yeah, I wasn't about to do that. You'd be talking another 10K words right there. And when you consider one of the worlds HAS to be Terra.... eesh! No way I'd do that justice in 13 pages! Terra's a multi-national mess once again, after all...

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #17 on: 05 September 2021, 05:15:36 »
Totally fair!  I was just trying to answer the question about how long the TtS were.  No worries on my end!  8)

Daemion

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #18 on: 08 September 2021, 13:30:52 »
Well, when I mentioned TtS, I was using that as a concept example.  But, what I was really looking for is what one finds in the house books, which happens to be about half a page of about a couple paragraphs and a stat block.

Kinda what you have for the Tetakuni realms.

It's your world. You can do anything you want in it. - Bob Ross

Every thought and device conceived by Satan and man must be explored and found wanting. - Donald Grey Barnhouse on the purpose of history and time.

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HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #19 on: 08 September 2021, 14:02:43 »
Hmmm. I did consider something like that, but by then I was running out of steam on what, in the end, wasn't going to be a paying project. Don't get me wrong; I *LOVE* making stuff like this, to the point where it was about the only thing I wanted to do at the end of my tenure as LD.

But I couldn't really get too jazzed about detailing human worlds too much. The general gist, if you want an official take, is that few to none of the human worlds under Tetakuni watch are "united." Not only are they effectively cut off from each other without Tetakuni help to travel and communicate between them (all human FTL tech has collapsed; the HPGs never came back here, and the JumpShips were all reduced to equally useless junk until the Ghost of Chuyo came along), but the shuffling of populations and the collapse of interstellar governments has resulted in every world becoming a poly-national, poly-cultural, poly-lingual mess. Those who still make 'Mechs? They use them to beat on other nations they share the same planet with--and the Tetakuni tend to cull these industries if the resultant arms race gets too intense.

Because the result would basically make for me creating a few dozen "new" factions per planet, I just couldn't muster that level of micromanagement, and left it to the GM.

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #20 on: 08 September 2021, 14:53:55 »
That is very helpful. 

Considering it sounds like nation-states fall and rise with regularity, I imagine people can have about as much fun with these as Nebula California.

Okay.  One last thing, if you're up for it:  Your version of Terra in the Fic.

The reason I'm asking is because I may want to visit your version of this reality.  Sure, I can make up my own, but that's easy.  And, it would be easy to rope in the Second Hand Lions history, as well, and call it legit for the adventure in question.  But, it would still be fun to have your take on Humanity's cradle.

 


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Every thought and device conceived by Satan and man must be explored and found wanting. - Donald Grey Barnhouse on the purpose of history and time.

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Daryk

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #21 on: 08 September 2021, 17:47:32 »
So... it wasn't a hyperspace problem that ended FTL travel for humans? ???

Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #22 on: 08 September 2021, 20:26:46 »
So... it wasn't a hyperspace problem that ended FTL travel for humans? ???

See, that's what I thought initially, too, but it's sounding like that wasn't the case, and it was just they lost the ability to repair and maintain JumpShips.

Which...OK, JumpShips predate BattleMechs by centuries, and DropShips capable of interstellar travel predate that.  FTL travel isn't needed to maintain interstellar spaceflight in the Battletech universe - Terra was sending equivalents to Mammoth class DropShips to nearby stars at 60% light speed in the 21st century, with Magellan One launching in 2030.  Slowboat interstellar spacecraft are completely possible in the Battletech universe with early technology, even in the absence of JumpShips, using fusion rocketry and powerplants less advanced than what you see in primitive BattleMechs.

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HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #23 on: 09 September 2021, 05:32:32 »
That is very helpful. 

Considering it sounds like nation-states fall and rise with regularity, I imagine people can have about as much fun with these as Nebula California.

Well, the magic and superpowers wouldn't/shouldn't show up, since that was really a peculiarity with the Nebula itself, but throwing just about any system conceivable with tech about the late Succession Wars would be how I'd approach it. (Again, the Tetakuni keep an eye on their human preserves, and show up to restrict any destabilizing tech, while not-too-incidentally keeping the humans from progressing TOO far as to pose a real threat to themselves.)

Quote
Okay.  One last thing, if you're up for it:  Your version of Terra in the Fic.

The reason I'm asking is because I may want to visit your version of this reality.  Sure, I can make up my own, but that's easy.  And, it would be easy to rope in the Second Hand Lions history, as well, and call it legit for the adventure in question.  But, it would still be fun to have your take on Humanity's cradle.

Terra in this scenario would likely be in a state of roughly Star League-era technology, but broken up into nations along largely cultural bounds. A simplified version of Europe might emerge in which nations with close enough lingual and cultural ties have fused (i.e. Germany and Austria, France and Belgium, a fully united Ireland, multiple Slavic states arrayed in confederations, etc.) with perhaps a more fragmented mainland Asia (break up China and Russia a bit, free Nepal, an independent Kashmir state, all of the southern Russian states broken free, a re-ordered Middle East, perhaps with a free Kurdistan), a more stable and self-defined African continent (i.e. borders no longer defined by wherever some fallen Colonial Power drew an arbitrary line), perhaps more Pacific Rim alliance groups, new Australian and Antarctic nation-states, South American confederations dominating the economic and political atmosphere of the Western Hemisphere, as there is no USA any more (instead, it's a collective of warring states more like we saw in Crimson Skies; the USA collapsed for good back in the early space colonial days--it's just not coming back after millennia of divisions; Alaska may be its own nation, Canada may be broken into at least two or maybe three countries as well).

Then we get into the varied states of Luna and Mars, each divided among three or four major power blocs that may or may not have Terran roots. The Transient States of Venus (now centered around sky-cities that float in the sweet spots above the hellish, high-pressure surfaces a-la a bunch of Bespins), confederations of the Jovian and Saturnine lunar/station-based settlements, and the sturdiest Belter groups.

Human DropShip tech remains in place, mind you, so in-system travel is no problem around Sol here--so long as nobody razes all the ship-builders--meaning that trade and travel to all these fun polities would be doable in your campaign. Just bear in mind that not every faction will have the same level of sophistication; not everyone will have access to BattleMech, battle armor, aerospace, and starcraft industries. The "superpowers" will likely be those that can build both 'Mechs and DropShips alike, while others may be restricted to shuttlecraft and tanks, or battle armor and fighters, or a reliance on bigger allies. And all of it alternating between low-intensity fighting and tense "peacetimes." Think of it all as a microcosm of a late Succession Wars-era Inner Sphere, with the Tetakuni playing the role of a slightly nicer ComStar: a neutral power that meddles in their affairs for "benevolent" reasons.

So... it wasn't a hyperspace problem that ended FTL travel for humans? ???
See, that's what I thought initially, too, but it's sounding like that wasn't the case, and it was just they lost the ability to repair and maintain JumpShips.

Which...OK, JumpShips predate BattleMechs by centuries, and DropShips capable of interstellar travel predate that.  FTL travel isn't needed to maintain interstellar spaceflight in the Battletech universe - Terra was sending equivalents to Mammoth class DropShips to nearby stars at 60% light speed in the 21st century, with Magellan One launching in 2030.  Slowboat interstellar spacecraft are completely possible in the Battletech universe with early technology, even in the absence of JumpShips, using fusion rocketry and powerplants less advanced than what you see in primitive BattleMechs.

Pretty much this is correct: the state of human FTL travel in the Diaspora is a loss of construction and maintenance for JumpShips, along with all the infrastructure that supported it. Germanium reserves--rare, even in the best of times--are likely depleted as well. The same goes for HPGs, though that was as much a result of the Blackout as it was any additional damage from whatever total war reduced humanity to sub-light travel only.

Now, relativistic sublight travel via DropShips IS technically possible, but it should be noted that the 21st century examples of the Magellan Program were all unmanned, and would have needed to cram an immense amount of reaction mass to sustain months or years of steady acceleration and deceleration to any appreciable fraction of light speed between systems. For humans to do it, they'd need life support, enormous food reserves, and ample supplies and space for any medical, sociological, psychological, and material needs--not to mention the capacity to support any potential in-flight population growth. That would likely become nigh impossible for DropShip-scale construction methods as they are--all for ships that could spend two or three GENERATIONS getting to stars that were once just a single jump away...

So no, humanity didn't lose the stars because they broke hyperspace. The Tetakuni, after all, are having no problem with FTL travel! They just beat their own interstellar infrastructure past the point of no return.

- Herb

Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #24 on: 09 September 2021, 07:25:01 »
Wait, what about Columbia, which was settled by a colony effort secretly included in the Magellan 6 probe?  Or Ross 248/Terrelibre, and the less successful Paradiso and New London colonies?
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HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #25 on: 09 September 2021, 12:05:25 »
Wait, what about Columbia, which was settled by a colony effort secretly included in the Magellan 6 probe?  Or Ross 248/Terrelibre, and the less successful Paradiso and New London colonies?

I suppose it's possible they would have to be made using custom rules, perhaps as WarShips with the KF cores replaced by habitats of equivalent mass or some such. There is also the cryogenic approach, I suppose, but I don't recall offhand how well advanced it was at the time.

Either way, you're still talking about 50+ years to a 30-LY distance. If that's worth it for you, hey, who am I to stop you?

- Herb

Daryk

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #26 on: 09 September 2021, 16:52:17 »
If they have the tech to build DropShips, I can't see how they completely lost the ability to build JumpShips, really.  Any orbital yard that can build a large DropShip can accommodate a small JumpShip.  The Belters at least would have retained SOME capability.  And germanium isn't THAT rare, especially once you start mining asteroid and Kuiper belts.

HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #27 on: 09 September 2021, 17:33:40 »
If they have the tech to build DropShips, I can't see how they completely lost the ability to build JumpShips, really.  Any orbital yard that can build a large DropShip can accommodate a small JumpShip.  The Belters at least would have retained SOME capability.  And germanium isn't THAT rare, especially once you start mining asteroid and Kuiper belts.

JumpShip yards in the BT universe have long been very limited, perhaps among the rarest of manufacturers in the Inner Sphere, to the point where each Successor State had maybe 2 or 3 tops, as of the 3040s, each barely able to keep up with annual ship losses. Even after the Helm Core was found, recovery still depended on output from ComStar. The Jihad knocked back what production was developed over and above that to support WarShip construction, forcing nearly a century of focus on getting JumpShip production back, while WarShips were basically just maintained, with few-to-none in terms of new builds. By the time of the IlClan, I'd say it was still a very limited industry, ever so close to collapse should another period of total warfare erupt... And now, ComStar was gone, and the Clans weren't likely to be sharing Terra's industrial output with everyone else willy nilly.

So, when total war returned (with MANY more factions than the SWs had in play), and JumpShips, WarShips, and their factories stopped being sacrosanct, about how long do you imagine K-F drive production would keep up with demand? This story doesn't answer that question directly, but effectively presumes that, at some point, it all led to the complete loss of interstellar travel as the factories and repair yards all got destroyed and the ships that remained gradually gave in to the inevitable passage of time and whatever fighting managed to linger.

Also, worth noting: According to Wikipedia, worldwide production of Germanium today is still less than 200 tons per year, with maybe another 125,000 tons recoverable from known zinc and coal reserves. Human production of JumpShips between the 2100s and 2300s, when the big exoduses from Terra occurred that scattered us across a dew thousand worlds, likely consumed all of that PLUS what was most accessible from nearby rocks in the Sol system. And by the time of the Star League, when KF production likely peaked with WarShip and JumpShip fleets (the 2500s-2700s), this probably tore into reserves of Germanium obtained across the whole Inner Sphere. Even into the 3050s, Germanium remained rare enough that finding a planet with good veins of the stuff could fuel the creation of empires--but, again, production of KF drives by then was barely above sustenance level. It is unlikely this would have improved after the destruction of the Clan Wars, Jihad, and the Dark Age--all periods where the rules against shooting JumpShips and destroying KF-producing factories had started to lose their imperative.

I thus feel that a complete collapse of the entire KF industry and resultant loss of interstellar flight over the course of one or two more apocalyptic wars wasn't too big a stretch. Humanity can be quite short-sighted, and increasing desperation can result in increasingly extreme responses once the interstellar empires started falling into their end stages of life.

And so, when the Tets showed up a good thousand years later, to find nobody managed to recover from all that, and instead whole worlds had perished as human trade, law, and infrastructure broke down on a galactic scale, leaving only the hardiest and wealthiest planets to survive... well, they found humans whose focus was more on holding onto what they had left, rather than reaching for the stars again.

But, again, if YOU want to add human FTL back into this setting, that's up to you as the GM. At my table, though, humankind has pretty thoroughly collapsed, and likely won't have much of a chance at recovering their old Inner Sphere so long as the Tetakuni have a say in the matter.

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #28 on: 09 September 2021, 17:54:58 »
I can agree to that... knowledge is much harder to extinguish than ComStar would like, but if it works for your AU, that's your call!

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #29 on: 09 September 2021, 17:57:34 »
I started to work on a modified Mammoth for interstellar flight before MegaMekLab decided that the keys I clicked must mean I wanted to start a new Infantry unit design, without saving first.  >:(

Anyway, without going over that all over again, you need around 365 burn-days to get close enough to light speed for our purposes, and 57 tons of consumables will last one person 300 years.  On a Mammoth, that works out to around 4000 tons of fuel for the ship itself to get around 800 burn-days (enough to accelerate, slow down, and have some reserves).  You have a crew of 55, including bay personnel, but you'll want to spend tonnage to provide full quarters to the bay personnel.

So, of the Mammoth's 37,248.5 tons of cargo, 3580 tons plus pumps needs to go to fuel bunkerage: let's just round that off to 4000 tons.  Your extra quarters cost another 140 tons.  Consumables for 30 years takes 3135 tons, but let's just round up to 3200 tons, giving everyone around 32.85 tons of food.  Now, go ahead and budget 15,600 tons, or 30% of the ship's mass, for spare parts, machine tools and raw materials for any repairs you might need to make along the way.  That still leaves 14,308.5 tons available for cargo.

With that much cargo left over, we could upgrade everyone on the ship to first class quarters, and still have tonnage available.  That would take up 135 tons.  Adding point defense bays seems like a good idea, so throw, say, half a dozen laser AMS bays forward and aft.  That's another 18 tons, plus two more gunners, so throw in 20 tons for their quarters and another 60 tons each for food, so 140 tons more, and we've still got 14,033.5 tons for cargo.  That leaves us enough to add another 57 crew to the ship, to double up on crew, and also doubling up on their consumables, for another 3990 tons, leaving 10,043.5 tons available, which happens to be more than a stock Mule-class DropShip.

Worried about communicating with your destination or your home?  Throw a single SCL/1 on the nose and aft of your ship, and call them "communications lasers".  That's another 150 tons *2, plus four gunners (1 per gun, 2 spares) and their supplies, so 70 tons *4, so now we're down to 9,183.5 tons of cargo.  Throw a large naval comm-scanner suite on for better sensors, double the 12-person staff, and that's another 1680 tons for crew life support and consumables, plus 500 tons for the comm-scanner.

Final total is 7003.5 tons of cargo, with a few extra amenities, which does put us a hair below the 8144 tons a Mule class DropShip can carry, but is still a respectable amount.

We haven't even discussed adding hydroponics yet, which isn't really something that's covered under the rules, so not something I factored into the above.  But, it shows that there's a reasonable method to transfer cargo between star systems of up to 30 light years away, even if it's not necessarily the easiest or fastest thing to do.
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #30 on: 09 September 2021, 18:44:39 »
And all that is with a Mammoth's normal thrust rating.  For long journeys. you could cut the engine down, even all the way to station keeping.

Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #31 on: 09 September 2021, 18:49:00 »
And all that is with a Mammoth's normal thrust rating.  For long journeys. you could cut the engine down, even all the way to station keeping.

I went a bit crazy pants, but ended up modding out a Behemoth as an example:

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/aerospace/behemoth-slowboat-cargo-ship/
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #32 on: 09 September 2021, 20:06:50 »
Herb, since KF theory is pretty much gone entirely, and even any KF core powered jumpships discovered by the Tetakuni are either completely wrecks from the wars, or so decrepit and patchwork kludges that give no real clue as to how they would work when fresh from the shipyard....

What will the birds think of the Jumpship that the human bunch arrived in? Outside of needing minor repairs, its a fairly new jumpship class, less than a century old if I remember my TRs right, and is only really in need of it's 'first' dose of major repairs due to having gone on the lamb. So its nowhere near as bad as SSW relic jumpships which are ramshackle, let alone what resulted after the Third League shattered and the long nightfall started.

Because it arguablely gives them a means to, well, GTFO as you mentioned in the campaign setting. And its undeniably owned/created by humanity. So I can easily imagine something of a repeat to the 'chase' that a certain IE semi-rogue enhanced jumpship went through: The Tetakuni want it to keep humanity from exploding in size again + potentially threatening the Tetakuni, but also might really want to research the hell out of a fully intact KF jumpship to see what tricks it can do that they might be able to add/alter on their own warp-drives. Or in the reverse, if an intact KF jumpship can use some of the tricks of the warp drive.

Its something I spotted that I was slightly puzzled you didn't get into a bit more, beyond the 'Time to Run, Again' section.
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #33 on: 09 September 2021, 22:15:37 »
Herb, since KF theory is pretty much gone entirely, and even any KF core powered jumpships discovered by the Tetakuni are either completely wrecks from the wars, or so decrepit and patchwork kludges that give no real clue as to how they would work when fresh from the shipyard....

What will the birds think of the Jumpship that the human bunch arrived in? Outside of needing minor repairs, its a fairly new jumpship class, less than a century old if I remember my TRs right, and is only really in need of it's 'first' dose of major repairs due to having gone on the lamb. So its nowhere near as bad as SSW relic jumpships which are ramshackle, let alone what resulted after the Third League shattered and the long nightfall started.

In the fanfiction I recently concluded based on this adventure, the Tetakuni most certainly WERE interested in the JumpShip, and wanted to take it into the nearby human preservation with them. But a funny thing comes to mind here, in that the JumpShip's crew would need to go along with this, as the Tets have no idea how to drive a human KF JumpShip. In the adventure, they ended up agreeing to have the ship remain in service, within their "safe zone," as basically a living museum and touring craft.

Quote
Because it arguably gives them a means to, well, GTFO as you mentioned in the campaign setting. And its undeniably owned/created by humanity. So I can easily imagine something of a repeat to the 'chase' that a certain IE semi-rogue enhanced jumpship went through: The Tetakuni want it to keep humanity from exploding in size again + potentially threatening the Tetakuni, but also might really want to research the hell out of a fully intact KF jumpship to see what tricks it can do that they might be able to add/alter on their own warp-drives. Or in the reverse, if an intact KF jumpship can use some of the tricks of the warp drive.

If the human JumpShip somehow escapes from Tetakuni clutches, it IS possible to evade capture for a while, but the tetakuni warpships will be able to track them if they keep to habitable systems where they have a presence, and with no apparent need to stop and recharge, nor to keep too far from gravity wells, they can easily catch up to a human JumpShip once it stops to collect energy for another jump. (The warpship that shows up at the end of the story--Northwind Legends, Last of their Like--was capable of about 11-LYph speeds, coming to Pleione from Arboris [as humans knew them] in a matter of hours, before landing on Pleione, and then getting back up and to the Ghost's jump point in minutes.)

The drive tech between the Tets and humans are only distantly related. Though the birds' FTL science was inspired by the ancient wreck of the Raiden (which ended up in the planet's orbit for a few thousand years), their approach to hyperspace theory took a different enough route to result in a completely incompatible system. For humans to crack the Tet system, they'd need to be fully immersed in the foundations of Tetakuni math and science, and basically educated from the "ground up."

And of course, there's the fun fact that the Ghost of Chuyo, as a Chimeisho-class JumpShip, has both a KF drive and a LF battery, which the Word of Blake learned (back in the 3050s or so) how to turn into a super-jump system, for leaps up to 900 LY. But since that also costs you the drive, wherever you go had better be a habitable system AND you probably don't want to miss the jump point by too much....

Suffice to say, the odds are steeply stacked against humanity in the adventure and the setting.

But there is a chance, if your GM is generous enough and the players are smart enough, for the humans to escape the birds and maybe explore for other options that may or may not exist.

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #34 on: 10 September 2021, 15:14:41 »
Well, the magic and superpowers wouldn't/shouldn't show up, since that was really a peculiarity with the Nebula itself, but throwing just about any system conceivable with tech about the late Succession Wars would be how I'd approach it. (Again, the Tetakuni keep an eye on their human preserves, and show up to restrict any destabilizing tech, while not-too-incidentally keeping the humans from progressing TOO far as to pose a real threat to themselves.)

- Herb

When I meant 'like Nebula California', I meant not restricting themselves in the style of nations that one might come across.  The limited Tech seemed to me to be a given of this setting.  :thumbsup:
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #35 on: 10 September 2021, 15:23:11 »
...{T}here is no USA any more (instead, it's a collective of warring states more like we saw in Crimson Skies; the USA collapsed for good back in the early space colonial days--it's just not coming back after millennia of divisions; Alaska may be its own nation, Canada may be broken into at least two or maybe three countries as well).

- Herb

Oh, I could see parts of the old continental 48, especially the northern ones, absorbed into those Canadian micro states.  I could see a reversion to times prior to the large land purchases.  Imagine the Californian and Nevadan regions being absorbed into a Northern Mexican state.  Fun thing about the US of A, the States are, in large parts, their own little nation.  It's interesting watching people from outside the US, from, say, Brittain or Japan, listening to some of the travel times it takes to cross some of the central states.

But, I'll have to give Crimson Skies another look, because that was interesting how they broke things down.
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #36 on: 10 September 2021, 15:26:08 »
Human DropShip tech remains in place, mind you, so in-system travel is no problem around Sol here--so long as nobody razes all the ship-builders--meaning that trade and travel to all these fun polities would be doable in your campaign. Just bear in mind that not every faction will have the same level of sophistication; not everyone will have access to BattleMech, battle armor, aerospace, and starcraft industries. The "superpowers" will likely be those that can build both 'Mechs and DropShips alike, while others may be restricted to shuttlecraft and tanks, or battle armor and fighters, or a reliance on bigger allies. And all of it alternating between low-intensity fighting and tense "peacetimes." Think of it all as a microcosm of a late Succession Wars-era Inner Sphere, with the Tetakuni playing the role of a slightly nicer ComStar: a neutral power that meddles in their affairs for "benevolent" reasons.

- Herb

Dude!  Gundam!  Or Jovian Chronicles!  LOL :D
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #37 on: 10 September 2021, 15:29:22 »
There is also the cryogenic approach, I suppose, but I don't recall offhand how well advanced it was at the time.

- Herb

It was at least good enough to put Stone to sleep for a short span.
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #38 on: 10 September 2021, 15:39:19 »
At my table, though, humankind has pretty thoroughly collapsed, and likely won't have much of a chance at recovering their old Inner Sphere so long as the Tetakuni have a say in the matter.

- Herb

This is also helpful.  Thanks for putting that out there.

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #39 on: 10 September 2021, 16:41:07 »
Dude!  Gundam!  Or Jovian Chronicles!  LOL :D

*Stares blankly*

It was at least good enough to put Stone to sleep for a short span.

A *short* span--only about 20 years, all told. It's also good at keeping the already dead from decomposing (Sun-Tzu). But, in general, cryogenic tech was in decline even in the time of the Clan Invasion, with the Canopians having the best availability due to their robust medical industry. I wouldn't say the tech was ever completely lost, but it was so exceedingly rare that I can name only two people who underwent it in BT, and both were heads of state. Still, if you're sparing no expense, sleeper ships are doable.

Oh, I could see parts of the old continental 48, especially the northern ones, absorbed into those Canadian micro states.

Some, maybe. Either way, though, my table would have nothing calling itself the "United States of America," as such an entity was long dead before even the first Star League happened. Even if someone thought to create a new nation with that identity, it would be akin to someone deciding to rebrand Mexico as the Aztec Empire.

Quote
But, I'll have to give Crimson Skies another look, because that was interesting how they broke things down.

Heck, if it weren't for the fact that CS is wholly owned by Microsoft, I might have made an XTR 1945-type of project focused on THAT setting. (I did construct a few of their fighters using XTR 1945 rules, but they tended to come out remarkably identical to each other.)

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #40 on: 09 December 2021, 03:29:16 »
Oooo! This broke 50 complete downloads today!

...I suppose Ray was right not to buy it.

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #41 on: 20 December 2021, 01:00:56 »
Advertising always helps. I didn't know about it until you told me and then I lost where it was until just now. It is great though! Very well done! :thumbsup:

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #42 on: 20 December 2021, 08:38:21 »
Advertising always helps. I didn't know about it until you told me and then I lost where it was until just now. It is great though! Very well done! :thumbsup:

Why thank you, RM! The funny thing is, Ray actually did offer to help signal boost for this one, but he'd been so adamant about not publishing it officially that it didn't feel right to accept that offer and have him go against his anti-birb agenda.

In the meantime, well, some other stuff is afoot I'm sure you'll all really like as well!

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #43 on: 20 December 2021, 18:36:32 »
Thank you Herb. This was the most interesting read in a long while.

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #44 on: 20 December 2021, 22:22:42 »
Why thank you, RM! The funny thing is, Ray actually did offer to help signal boost for this one, but he'd been so adamant about not publishing it officially that it didn't feel right to accept that offer and have him go against his anti-birb agenda.

In the meantime, well, some other stuff is afoot I'm sure you'll all really like as well!

- Herb

You're welcome and thank you. :) I don't know why Ray won't publish it, other than Aliens!. It's good!  :thumbsup:


Sounds interesting.  :)

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #45 on: 31 December 2021, 20:26:18 »
Totally professionally, I Love you, Herb!!!  Happy New Year!!
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #46 on: 01 January 2022, 21:17:47 »
Thank you kindly, Imperator!

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #47 on: 01 January 2022, 23:36:35 »
What about ramming your way through interstellar gas at a shade under C? Is the assumption that BT's magic armour will take the steady rain of impacts without ablating?

IIRC, a speck of dust at nearly C does the same damage as a stick of TNT. How that equates, what the rate of impacts per day in interstellar space is, etc is open to handwaving. But perhaps inside the nebula, the 'greatly increased' density makes such high-tau travel impossible.

(Figures: the standard interstellar medium has about 1 atom per cm3. A typical nebula has between 100 and 1,000 atoms per cm3. However, cool dense regions of the ISM can have as many as 1,000,000 atoms per cm3. )
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #48 on: 02 January 2022, 06:40:20 »
 
What about ramming your way through interstellar gas at a shade under C? Is the assumption that BT's magic armour will take the steady rain of impacts without ablating?

That assumption was largely made for one of the first in-universe extra-solar jaunts; an unmanned ship accelerated to a good chunk of light speed under constant acceleration to check out one of our nearest neighbors before they worked out K-F jumps. Nothing was really mentioned of the ship being a shredded mess at the other end of its journey.

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #49 on: 02 January 2022, 09:48:34 »
A strong magnetic field can help mitigate that problem too.  I believe Atomic Rockets has something on that...

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #50 on: 02 January 2022, 19:26:28 »
A strong magnetic field can help mitigate that problem too.  I believe Atomic Rockets has something on that...

Only as long as the threats are magnetically reactive in some way. You MIGHT find a magnet strong enough to repel an iron rock, but what about the all-ice comet?

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #51 on: 02 January 2022, 19:42:25 »
Those are the kinds of things the forward weapons array is for...  ^-^

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #52 on: 02 January 2022, 23:34:36 »
You ain't targetting anything incoming at above 0.9c ...
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #53 on: 18 November 2022, 08:06:49 »
This related to this thread. With blessings of Herb, the Reign of the Tetakuni is now on the BattleTech Fanon Wiki and down loadable with cover art by Herb!
« Last Edit: 18 November 2022, 08:24:35 by Wrangler »
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #54 on: 19 November 2022, 01:10:56 »
Thank you!  I enjoyed this very much!
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #55 on: 16 January 2023, 13:08:30 »
Awesome.  Now to work on my one or two war-gaming scale bird figurines.  They may be a little larger than a proper Teta.

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #56 on: 17 January 2023, 17:42:48 »
Awesome.  Now to work on my one or two war-gaming scale bird figurines.  They may be a little larger than a proper Teta.

Heh. I've been colorizing some of the art I did for that project in my spare time. Not really for a revision or anything like that; just because. I decided that Tetakuni tend to gravitate toward the brighter colors and contrasts of the rainbow, both in terms of plumage and non-combat attire. That they also see in ultraviolet wavelengths might suggest they their outfits are even more varied than they look to us.

Some samples here...

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #57 on: 17 January 2023, 17:45:02 »
A few more...

Including a combat warpship in unspecified faction colors.

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #58 on: 17 January 2023, 20:40:14 »
Are you going update the sourcebook?
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #59 on: 18 January 2023, 02:08:54 »
Are you going update the sourcebook?

Not really planning to, at this moment.

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #60 on: 18 January 2023, 02:12:02 »
Quote
Not really planning to, at this moment.

Because I can't really write when I'm listening to most podcasts or news stories and such, I tend to either play WoW or tinker with drawings when doing so. These colorizations came about as some of these idle endeavors. Same thing that led to the Seeker spreads I did for no particular reason.

- Herb
« Last Edit: 18 January 2023, 11:44:21 by HABeas2 »

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #61 on: 18 January 2023, 09:13:27 »
Gotcha, I will get enter and try to add them.
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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #62 on: 01 February 2023, 17:39:09 »
This was a very pleasant find. Thank you Herb!

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #63 on: 01 February 2023, 20:32:15 »
This was a very pleasant find. Thank you Herb!

Glad you like it!

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #64 on: 06 September 2023, 03:39:19 »
Ding!

Yay! 100 downloads (or more) of all three sections! Only took two years!

(Wow; Ray was RIGHT to pass on this one!  :laugh:)

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #65 on: 06 September 2023, 03:42:52 »
Well, it's not like it was marketed or anything... ;)

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #66 on: 06 September 2023, 20:30:27 »
Which is where the problem is. I didn't know about it until I read about it in another thread. By then it had been up for a year. I did enjoy it though. I thought it was great!

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #67 on: 07 September 2023, 12:52:52 »
Maybe, but then, how well marketed are any of the April 1/Halloween fun projects, beyond a post in the New Releases threads?

- Herb

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #68 on: 07 September 2023, 17:02:21 »
Even that is more marketing than this project received... and as I recall, those products were also all listed on the various web stores.

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #69 on: 07 September 2023, 23:21:52 »
True enough, but the stores weren't an option once Ray said "NO!" to this one. ;)

Mind you, guys, I'm not exactly complaining here. I made this for fun, and I had fun with it! I'm just making observations at this point.

- Herb

truetanker

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #70 on: 14 September 2023, 14:07:58 »
You should do a " Return to Tetakuni " with three more sections that can be added.

Side adventure, added NPCs, places of interest, a combat Jumpship? Civil War between the Tetatae Clans?

Tetatae Successor Wars?

TT
Khan, Clan Iron Dolphin
Azeroth Pocketverse
That is, if true tanker doesn't beat me to it. He makes truly evil units.Col.Hengist on 31 May 2013
TT, we know you are the master of nasty  O0 ~ Fletch on 22 June 2013
If I'm attacking you, conventional wisom says to bring 3x your force.  I want extra insurance, so I'll bring 4 for every 1 of what you have :D ~ Tai Dai Cultist on 21 April 2016
Me: Would you rather fight my Epithymía Thanátou from the Whispers of Blake?
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HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #71 on: 14 September 2023, 14:58:05 »
You should do a " Return to Tetakuni " with three more sections that can be added.

Side adventure, added NPCs, places of interest, a combat Jumpship? Civil War between the Tetatae Clans?

Tetatae Successor Wars?

Don't think I haven't considered it. Of course, I openly stated in the material that the Tetakuni are far less aggressive than humans, and thus less prone to open warfare, but they also aren't 100% peaceniks either. Given the varied governments and their varied views on human preserves, it's POSSIBLE we could see conflicts between Tetakuni nations that get humans involved, but full-scale Succession Wars, even in the Diaspora? Unlikely...

Of course, I ALSO considered a Syberia Scenario Pack based on the opening miniseries of the G1 Transformers cartoon, so, yeah...

- Herb

truetanker

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #72 on: 14 September 2023, 15:13:09 »
Should include some Headmasters, ancient Syberian constructs with BA style heads...

TT
Khan, Clan Iron Dolphin
Azeroth Pocketverse
That is, if true tanker doesn't beat me to it. He makes truly evil units.Col.Hengist on 31 May 2013
TT, we know you are the master of nasty  O0 ~ Fletch on 22 June 2013
If I'm attacking you, conventional wisom says to bring 3x your force.  I want extra insurance, so I'll bring 4 for every 1 of what you have :D ~ Tai Dai Cultist on 21 April 2016
Me: Would you rather fight my Epithymía Thanátou from the Whispers of Blake?
Nav_Alpha: That THING... that is horrid
~ Nav_Alpha on 10 October 2016

HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #73 on: 14 September 2023, 19:54:52 »
Should include some Headmasters, ancient Syberian constructs with BA style heads...

I believe I said in the Syberian AutoMechs thread elsewhere that there are two ways I could have approached Headmasters. One was as a Code-Bonded unit between an AutoMech and an MiniMech. The other was, well, as a standard BattleMech. The former is basically how I handled the cassette bots and has the advantage that they could still exist on Syberia in its present timeline. The latter would reflect the general reality that Headmasters required an organic component to be complete and has the disadvantage in the fact that all humans on Syberia have been dead for centuries now.

The only distant "third" option--a human-operated battlesuit that rode in the head--is a variation of the second that basically has the Cyberians developing the Machina Domini interface, would be about the closest Syberia could get to the cartoon Headmasters shy of making transforming units at human size. Lore-wise, though, this adds a whole new wrinkle in giving WoB tech to the Syberians that I would have trouble justifying, as it's the same default problem as the second option: there are no surviving Syberian humans. See, as I wrote it, only the Syberian humans, who made them and had the necessary access codes and authority to wrangle Syberian AIs without destroying them, and the presence of even one such individual in the "present" would basically undo the whole concept of robots stuck in eternal war. (I would also have to make rules that make it possible for an AutoMech to still have its CPUs in the cockpit area with the human when the two are together, which would probably entail some interesting special effects not seen in the setting.... I could see it as a pre-extinction setting extra, though. Hmm...)

- Herb

truetanker

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #74 on: 14 September 2023, 20:26:30 »
Stasis Tubes...

Like I said, ancient Syberian constructs...

Some old Headmaster, last of his kind...

Think last Templar Knight from Indiana Jones and the Diet Cola test...

Choose wisely.

They'll show you the suits and all, but you'd need to be part Borg, and well the process is demanding and quite painful.

TT
« Last Edit: 14 September 2023, 20:29:20 by truetanker »
Khan, Clan Iron Dolphin
Azeroth Pocketverse
That is, if true tanker doesn't beat me to it. He makes truly evil units.Col.Hengist on 31 May 2013
TT, we know you are the master of nasty  O0 ~ Fletch on 22 June 2013
If I'm attacking you, conventional wisom says to bring 3x your force.  I want extra insurance, so I'll bring 4 for every 1 of what you have :D ~ Tai Dai Cultist on 21 April 2016
Me: Would you rather fight my Epithymía Thanátou from the Whispers of Blake?
Nav_Alpha: That THING... that is horrid
~ Nav_Alpha on 10 October 2016

HABeas2

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Re: Reign of the Tetakuni - An A Time of War Adventure and sourcebook.
« Reply #75 on: 14 September 2023, 21:02:26 »
Stasis Tubes...

Have you READ the rules for those? Even if you were a perfect specimen with an AToW BOD and INT of 8, there's a better-than-50 percent chance that you'd be dead after a decade or two in one of those, and that's with no power interruptions! You can probably make it closer to indefinite with routine maintenance every 5 years (which would include thawing and refreezing the subject each time), but it's definitely not a way to survive for centuries in a forgotten place.

- Herb

 

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