Author Topic: Monbvol's House rule emporium  (Read 94331 times)

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #480 on: 21 January 2018, 21:19:21 »
Makes sense... I'll reserve judgment until you give us the new tables... Looks like they'll be interesting either way...

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #481 on: 21 January 2018, 21:20:39 »
I'll admit even with the change to 3d6 it has been gnawing at me a bit that they did feel a bit crowded still so a change was probably inevitable.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #482 on: 25 January 2018, 23:44:18 »
Okay Negative Political Events is still pretty crowded but I think I have made up for it by making it as unlikely as I think I can to get a Negative Political Event.  Not sure I can make it much better.

Might add an event where your overlords poach one of your better militia units as a Negative Military event to help illustrate some of the downside to having an overlord but then I'd have to put in something that shows why it is bad to be independent and the only thing I can think of to do for that is increase TN to acquire new units by a further 1 but that's not an event.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #483 on: 26 January 2018, 04:10:11 »
I'll have to take a look after work tonight, but will definitely get you some feedback then...

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #484 on: 26 January 2018, 20:14:26 »
Hmmm... I think you have the ends of the table in roughly the right order (i.e., that Natural Disasters should be rarest, then Military, then Political).  I also think you've shifted the ideal point to inject Edge to after rolling the dice.  That said, the asymmetry of the table seems to throw things off.  I'm leaning toward 7 on the event severity table being "No Event".  How about keeping 2 and 12 to being Natural Disasters (positive/negative), 3 & 11 Military, and 4 & 10 Political.  That leaves only 5 and 6 to figure out.  I like using the 3d6 use two best/worst mechanic, but I think it should be symmetrical.  I suppose it should be based on what kind of universe you want, as you've got two dice mechanics to choose from, and two tables (positive/negative).  I'd propose 5 be the Military and 6 the Political event, of whichever flavor you want...

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #485 on: 26 January 2018, 21:11:26 »
The main reason I didn't make 7 No event! on the main table is because the Negative Political Event table is full of bad things and so I felt having more ways to avoid that or get better odds of getting Positive Political Events was the best way to do that because if you get on that table it is going to hurt.

Overall with that in mind I'm not sure what more I can do with it without adding another layer of tables.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #486 on: 26 January 2018, 22:25:48 »
I'll have to sleep on it... maybe I'll think of something tomorrow...

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #487 on: 27 January 2018, 06:54:56 »
How about this:

Drop the initial "Event Table" and put No Event! in at 6, 7, and 8 on the Severity Table.  For 5 and 9, I'd go with Political Events, and do the "Two Best" on the negative table (5) and "Two Worst" on the positive table (9).

That gets rid of a layer, and keeps Political events as the most likely kind.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #488 on: 27 January 2018, 12:05:18 »
Hmmm...

The intended procedure is add MoS/MoF with current Edge modifier to the Event Table roll so I'll have to think if that works going straight to the Event Severity Table.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #489 on: 27 January 2018, 13:32:22 »
I think it'll work if I drop the MoS/MoF to the event roll but I am inclined to keep Edge modifier.  Which is probably more reasonable anyway.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #490 on: 27 January 2018, 15:59:04 »
Sounds like a plan!

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #491 on: 27 January 2018, 18:53:29 »
*nod*

It is also a bit more reasonable than the rules as written and what they suggest should happen if you roll a 2 on Property Administration rolls.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #492 on: 16 February 2018, 14:29:58 »
When going through my industrial re-tooling rules I found I actually made Light Industry potentially more severe to re-tool for smaller properties than heavy industry.  So instead of the flat -2 it reduces Property by 1/4 rounding to the less favorable for the player penalty.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #493 on: 16 February 2018, 16:28:16 »
Makes sense to me! O0

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #494 on: 10 April 2018, 00:12:23 »
Recent conversations have made me reconsider my stance on limiting skills to their lowest linked attribute or Intelligence if lower.

Decided the extra complexity wasn't worth it.

I'll hold off updating my main document until something more substantial in terms of revisions is made.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #495 on: 18 May 2018, 12:14:22 »
And now for something a bit out of left field.  I binge watched the anime Gate yesterday and it inspired me to start thinking about doing some stuff with Nebula California and I couldn't help but notice a few conversion issues/oversights.  So to correct some of that a conversion supplemental:

No BOD oversight:

Divide Constitution by 2 to determine Body attribute but only for purposes of attribute checks and attribute link modifiers.  Characters still get the normal HP/2 for determining how tough they are.

Natural Armor Bonuses:

To convert Natural Armor into AtoW's Melee/Ballistic/Energy/eXplosive standard perform the following steps for each category.

Divide Natural Armor by 2 and apply to Melee of character/creature.

Divide Natural Armor by 10 round normally and apply to Ballistic of character/creature.

Natural Armor no matter how high does not add any BAR rating against Energy attacks.

Divide Natural Armor by 5 round normally and apply to eXplosive of character/creature.

Natural Armor does not count as stacked armor for purposes of endurance but does follow all other rules for stacked armor.  Natural Armor also never suffers degradation from damage.

Damage dealing class/racial/spell-like features:

If the ability mimics the effects of a spell use the lowest spell level the spell can be cast at to determine the AP of the ability if it does damage.  If for some reason it has a save DC but does not provide a calculation to determine save DC then also use the lowest spell level to determine save DC normally.

For class features that deal damage, such as an alchamist's bombs, divide the character's level by 2 and round up to determine the AP value of such attacks.

For breath weapons and similar such attacks to determine thier AP subtract 10 from their save DC then divide by 2 round up.  Any resulting AP above 10 does not provide additional effects or damage.

Special materials:

Adamantine weapons increase their AP to 10.  Adamantine armor degrades at 10 points of damage instead of 5.

Mithral armor can be stacked one time with any other armor without increasing encumberance and degrade at 8 damage instead of 5.  Mithral weapons have no additional effects.

Other special materials pending further review to determine if they have any special effects/abilities.

Still debating how good certain immunities should be as well.  Like how good should immunity to fire be for resisting lasers since Battletech lasers operate like real world lasers and thus cut by heat.  Then there is immunity to electricity but it does seem pretty clear that may have little to no impact on PPCs.  Acid, Cold, Sonic, and Force seem to be sufficiently edge cases to not need worrying about.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #496 on: 18 May 2018, 17:17:08 »
And something for going the other direction that I was tossing around.

AToW characters with Martial Arts 4+ would count as having the Improved Unarmed Combat feat.  Otherwise things could actually get bad for AToW characters if caught in hand to hand and I can think of plenty of ways to force some hand to hand.

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #497 on: 29 June 2018, 22:54:06 »
Thanks to another thread I've been reminded that I wanted to work out a couple new traits.

Petite and Large.

I'm thinking Petite would be overall positive and probably only 100 XP.  Benefit is you ignore the Cramped Cockpit design quirk.  I might allow it to ignore the actual Small Cockpit construction option penalties as well but haven't fully decided yet.  I know I want to give modifiers for carrying capacity, melee combat, and maybe even make Petite characters less durable.  Might also give them a bit of a break for high gravity situations but I do feel like a lot of this could potentially make some other traits less desirable so I'll have to think about this some before I finalize it.

Large obviously goes the other way and probably would be an overall negative trait at -100 XP.  Increased penalties for Cramped Cockpits, Small Cockpits(if I extend Petite's bonus to them), and some bonuses for melee and carrying capacity but almost certainly going to increase penalties for high gravity.

I'll be giving these a fair amount of thought and hope to finalize them this weekend.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #498 on: 30 June 2018, 05:18:13 »
It strikes me those traits should probably be added to the Aerospace Pilot and Elemental phenotypes...

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #499 on: 30 June 2018, 11:11:46 »
It certainly would make sense to do that.  For my house rules I've been of a mind that if you want a trait you pay for it, especially since the phenotypes as presented in AToW are not all created equal and don't all work out to 200 XP o net traits and attribute modifiers.  Though now I'm starting to think about phenotypes but better.  Cost will be more balanced but since you have to have certain traits and cannot buy them off ever I might give small bonuses to make up for the lack of player choice.

I think I've got a rough first draft of the traits ready to go.

Petite
Cost: 100 XP
Counters/negates Large

A petite character is notably smaller in height and general frame than the average person.  This confers some advantages though in that Petite characters ignore the penalties associated with the Cramped Cockpit design quirk and the Small Cockpit construction option.  Their smaller frame also reduces any high gravity penalties by 1 and allows them to fit through tighter spaces.  However this smaller size does have some drawbacks.  In normal size cockpits they have a harder time reaching certain controls, increasing the shutdown avoid TN by 1 and any other checks not related to piloting/gunnery are also increased by 1.  The character's smaller frame also makes it harder for them to carry as much though lifting is generally less affected.  Carrying capacity is 3/4s the appropriate amount in relation to an average sized person.  The lack of reach and body mass of such character does put them at a disadvantage in melee and hand to hand combat, apply a -1 roll modifier to these skill checks against larger opponents only.

Large
Cost: -100 XP
Counters/negates small.

Large characters are taller and larger in frame than the average person.  So much so that even normal sized cockpits seem small/cramped to them.  As such a character with Large treats normal cockpits as if they were Small Cockpits for purposes of determining skill modifiers.  For actual small cockpits or mechs with the cramped cockpit design quirk the penalty to piloting is doubled and an additional -1 roll modifier to Gunnery is applied.  High gravity is far more debilitating to a Large character.  All penalties are doubled.  The larger frame does come with some advantages.  Carrying capacity is increased by 50% compared to an average sized person with the same strength and the increased body mass and reach provide a +1 roll modifier on Martial Arts and Melee skill checks in combat against smaller opponents.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #500 on: 30 June 2018, 12:13:06 »
Hmmm... I like the first draft, but I think it begs to also add a "Large Cockpit" quirk and/or construction option...

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #501 on: 30 June 2018, 12:45:16 »
Which I'm not against adding as a new design quirk.  I'll have to think on the game mechanic benefits a bit for it because to be honest I'm not sure what it'd reasonably do for average sized characters and might actually make things worse for Petite if I go a bit too realistic.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #502 on: 30 June 2018, 12:47:45 »
Maybe an extra (i.e., removable) Rumble Seat?

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #503 on: 30 June 2018, 13:05:16 »
Hmmm...  That does raise a fair point, there is precedent for 0 point design quirks that don't offer much in the way of game mechanics.

Large Cockpit
Cost: 0 XP
Counters/Negates Cramped Cockpit
Special: May not be applied to Small Cockpit construction option equipped units.

Large Cockpits allow characters with the Large trait to pilot mechs with no penalties.  Average sized characters suffer penalties as Petite characters in normal cockpits.  Petite characters suffer double penalties.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #504 on: 30 June 2018, 13:39:36 »
Looks good, though I don't know if negating Cramped Cockpit should be zero cost...

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #505 on: 30 June 2018, 14:03:33 »
*nod*

I was a little concerned about it being potentially overpriced for all the negatives then I realized this really should be something only used in fairly narrow circumstances and thus not really be a problem most of the time.

Barring any other odd interactions/oversights I think these are all reasonably finalized now.  So just the revised version with some hopefully slightly improved wording.

Large Cockpit
Cost: 100 XP
Counters/Negates Cramped Cockpit
Special: May not be applied to Small Cockpit construction option equipped units.

Large Cockpits allow characters with the Large trait to pilot mechs with no penalties.  Average sized characters suffer penalties as Petite characters in normal cockpits.  Petite characters suffer double their penalties from using normal sized cockpits.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #506 on: 30 June 2018, 14:05:56 »
An idea: since you're charging XP for it, how about removing the penalty for normal sized pilots, but retaining the doubled penalties for the petite?

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #507 on: 30 June 2018, 16:45:12 »
I have to admit I was contemplating doing just that and am kind of waffling on it still.

After all it is a design quirk I only expect to see with Large characters using customized mechs and thus only something normal or Petite characters would have to worry about in rather unusual circumstances but at the same time it is an overall positive quirk and does feel wrong having so many negatives for it.

Maybe as a compromise maybe add a framework for technicians to be able to adjust it down and back up again later but only to the limit of the design quirk.  That way something that starts as a Cramped Cockpit will stay a Cramped Cockpit but a normal cockpit could be adjusted down to a Cramped Cockpit so that Petite characters don't suffer any penalties.

I'm thinking an hour and a Tech/Mechanic and Tech/Electronic for each step should be reasonable.

Daryk

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #508 on: 30 June 2018, 17:59:19 »
Even with the compromise, I think I'd still drop the penalties for the normal sized.  Otherwise, I think the whole thing is working out well!  :thumbsup:

monbvol

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Re: Monbvol's House rule emporium
« Reply #509 on: 30 June 2018, 21:44:41 »
Hmmm...

Yeah I think I'll relent on that so it more properly feels like an overall positive design quirk.

 

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