Interest Check: Mechwarrior, Exalted style.

Sarodinian

Sarodinian

One Thousand Club
So I was surfing around on the nets earlier today and found the trailer for the new mechwarrior game. This naturally got me thinking back into the franchise, getting out my old copy of MW4: Mercenaries, and all of a sudden, this idea pops into my head, with a story already about half-formed. What would happen if we blended a bit of Mechwarrior's elements with Exalted? Warstriders? Hot-drops? Essence Projection Cannons? Oh yes. So, here I am. Posting an interest check for this deal.


If I were to run it, it'd probably chronicle the actions of a group of mercs, fighting for money during the Realm civil war. I would probably take 8 players, (two 'lances'), and open it up to any character capable of piloting a warstrider, provided they dont totally clash with the setting i'm mulling over. A few alternate rules'll be par for the course, as well as a bit of an altered continuity where magitech, warstriders, and advanced weapons in general are much more commonplace. And as well, play-by-post.


Hopefully, we'll see what this can turn up. :)
 
I'M IN.


Will type of Exaltation matter? Are you planning a game mainly/all of one type (terrestrial, solar, whatever), or is it unimportant so long as they can pilot their giant walking pile of love and lasers?
 
Well, the way I was envisioning it was with any exalt type, as long as they satisfy the requirements for being hired by a mercenary company that uses mechs. As long as their resume clears, they have skills, and are worth the money being paid, they're in. Course, Solars and DBs might have trouble mixing, as well as Abyssals and others, but that's par for the course.
 
HIJINKS ENSUE!


Naw, seriously though, that sounds great. Pretty much all combat will be in the aforementioned titans of steel powered by love, yes?
 
Only if you're planning to totally revamp the mechanics, because right now all warstrider combat is first hit wins. And that's boring.


Does explain why the Bull of the North pwned them, though. Pit trap lol.
 
...I do have one question, though. What skills, if any, actually translate to Warstrider combat? I mean, does Ride do shit? Sail? Strength? I don't think I have much of anything on Warstrider combat or stats <_< It'd be really interesting if a fair bit of character progression (strengthwise, not character development - that's totally separate) came from upgrading your 'mech and salvaging parts from destroyed/captured warstriders. That'd help with the Mechwarrior feel of things, I think. Also, any sort of correlation between the battling sides and Clans/inner sphere or whatever the 'good guy' side was in the games? I haven't played any MWs in forever so I can't remember the terms, but just curious. Clans were badass.


...On an unrelated note, Mechwarrior 3 was totally > Mechwarrior 4. I hated MW4's control system for some reason.
 
I'm probably gonna have to rework the mechanics, yes. And that may be the most daunting thing about this. I'd probably go totally for salvage and stuff you buy off the Free Market as increases to power levels, but you guys are exalted, and some more warstrider-esque combat charms're expected.
 
One cheap-ass way to prolong battles a bit would be adding health levels - and a fair number of them - to each major body part, a la the mechwarrior games. So you can survive an essence projection cannon shot yeah, but you'll be missing an arm - the arm that had YOUR ER essence projection cannon on it. You know, gradually crippling people rather than OHKOing them like the main game apparently does.


...Oh god, homing essence projectiles a la LRMs and essence autocannons. I'm in geek heaven.
 
Is it wrong that I should think of Cthulhutech when I think of Infernal/Abyssal warstriders?


Mmm, biotech venom-spitting betentacled monstrosities that feed instead of salvaging...
 
Tabby said:
...I do have one question, though. What skills, if any, actually translate to Warstrider combat? I mean, does Ride do shit? Sail? Strength? I don't think I have much of anything on Warstrider combat or stats <_< It'd be really interesting if a fair bit of character progression (strengthwise, not character development - that's totally separate) came from upgrading your 'mech and salvaging parts from destroyed/captured warstriders. That'd help with the Mechwarrior feel of things, I think. Also, any sort of correlation between the battling sides and Clans/inner sphere or whatever the 'good guy' side was in the games? I haven't played any MWs in forever so I can't remember the terms, but just curious. Clans were badass.
...On an unrelated note, Mechwarrior 3 was totally > Mechwarrior 4. I hated MW4's control system for some reason.
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I may not be joining in the game, but I did want to address Tabby's question. There is no skill required in the base game for the use of any Warstrider. It is in all ways a suit of armor, and any Charm that works for a character in a suit of reinforced breastplate armor will work in the WS. Your attack skills are the same as if you are out of the armor; melee for hand-to-hand, archer for ranged Essence weapons or large scale bows, martial arts, thrown, etc.
 
I did forget to say that all that is up to Storyteller change, of course. To reflect a specific ability to pilot a Warstrider, you can invent a new skill to cover it of Mech Pilot and Gunner. It could start to get expensive if you have to spend points to raise up personal combat skills AND your mech pilot/gunner skills.
 
Sherwood, you're a freaking Haruhisend. Exalted seems to have a penchant for using things as equipment in systems, it seems; mass-combat rules come to mind. Good to know that Warstriders just act as very complicated giant walking suits of city-destroying armor, though. Archery for ranged shit, Melee for.. melee, etc. Certainly makes it easier to plan out a character to use one, at any rate. I do think it'd be pretty cool to have an extra line of pilot abilities, though, like temporary/permanent upgrades to reduce some of the various penalties Warstriders impose or add extra benefits, along with the pilot/gunner abilities you mentioned. Might be a bit of work, but of the "fun" variety.
 
OK. So its looking like I'm gonna have to make a more comprehensive Warstrider combat system, as well as flesh out a bit more variety in the mechs themselves. I'm probably also gonna need to track Resources a bit more harshly, as I'm planning on this being mercs, and having the mechs be "company owned", but player-customizable. Will also need to find a good piece of Applied Phlebotinum to get you guys around Creation in time to actually make a difference in various contracts.
 
The temptation to play this for laughs with a parodically brooding Abyssal lone wolf is overwhelming.


I'd be willing to play. I'd prefer to go with an Infernal, predictably.
 
Tabby said:
Sherwood, you're a freaking Haruhisend.
Click to expand...
Please pardon my ignorance, but is that a good thing? :oops:


I have to admit, my mind is drifting back to many fun games of Battletech and my game group's version of Mechwarrior that combined stuff from half a dozen different games that it barely had anything from the original version that FASA put out. I might just have to put my hat into this ring and make up a character to go with this.
 
BTW, what kind of merc company are you thinking? Black Widdow Company, or more like Cranston Snords Irregulars? Just how much 'Mechwarrior/Battletech' would you like to bring in? I would love to put my head together and help out with some of the mechanics of this.
 
Sherwood said:
Tabby said:
Sherwood, you're a freaking Haruhisend.
Click to expand...
Please pardon my ignorance, but is that a good thing? :oops:


I have to admit, my mind is drifting back to many fun games of Battletech and my game group's version of Mechwarrior that combined stuff from half a dozen different games that it barely had anything from the original version that FASA put out. I might just have to put my hat into this ring and make up a character to go with this.
Click to expand...
It's like "godsend," except over infinity times better. No idea which character I'd use, though I'm sure I can come up with something. I'd probably need to know the tone of our version of the setting and of the merc group as a whole first though, so I could come up with something fitting (read: not horribly obnoxious or out of place).
 
Yeah, right now, there's just not enough info on what can work. Plus, many questions will need to be addressed: Do the players need to pay for the WS? How about the hearthstones to power them? If we get a base model, can we upgrade the WS with stuff like the flight systems, water systems, an AI, other weapons? Is this going to be a fairly standard game with worries of the Wyld Hunt? That would make a big difference with the Solar/Lunar/Dragon-Blood question. What about Dragon-Kings or Mountain Folk?
 
Sherwood said:
Yeah, right now, there's just not enough info on what can work. Plus, many questions will need to be addressed: Do the players need to pay for the WS? How about the hearthstones to power them? If we get a base model, can we upgrade the WS with stuff like the flight systems, water systems, an AI, other weapons? Is this going to be a fairly standard game with worries of the Wyld Hunt? That would make a big difference with the Solar/Lunar/Dragon-Blood question. What about Dragon-Kings or Mountain Folk?
Click to expand...
If they're company-provided to the point that we can't even own them, I would imagine that we get the base Warstrider itself for free (though it'd be more of a loan rather than truly owning it) and probably the basic stuff needed to make it work, and one would only hope a small smattering of basic weaponry so we don't all die on our first mission. Beyond that though, I would totally orgasm over a dynamic upgrade system where you can pretty much add anything to your mech, base model be damned. Alternatively, the starting chassis could be weapon-customizeable but not let people customize their chassis; players might need to find or salvage a more-or-less functional mech to call their own before they could REALLY start customizing it. I know that I'd hate to be permanently stuck in someone else's mech, even if I know that they (probably) won't ask for it back. Much better to be able to get my own, even if there's a significant amount of work involved.


brb finding a good pic of a Supernova or Cauldron Born for fetish fuel
 
Sol Invictus, yes! :D


I have a warstrider pilot I created for a game that never got off the ground that I am DYING to play. Granted, she's every Gundam cliche -- I mean, trope -- in existence (her backstory involves Falling Into the Cockpit and even includes a Doomed Hometown) but I got terribly fond of her and her relationship with her intelligent warstrider, her super monkey (er, chillikin) and the Ridiculously Human Robot (er, automaton) that guarded her manse...


What do you mean it's not awesome?!


OK, maybe it's too silly for a game about battle hardened mercs fighting for pay. But damnit...I would like to play Ash again. And every company needs a young, impulsive idealist... :wink:
 
Before we make too many plans, perhaps we should wait for the ok from the Storyteller. :roll: But, I feel your excitement. When an idea gets its hooks into me, it's hard to resist the pull. :D
 
Battletech is nothing without hugely customizable mechas.


I'd go Twilight just to spend my time scavenging for parts and designing new monsters, but I don't see a Solar with a job, or any Celestial in just for the petty cash!


DBs would be better.


But Exalted WS are shiny magical machines, not dirty, patched up rusty cans of mechwarrior... ST, how do you plan to convey this?


I would go for a canonical exalted setting where WS are powered by fusion reactors instead.


Also, do we have warstriders that can vomit a salvo of 40 Long Range Missiles to a dot in the radar?


Going for the Advanced Comm / Tracking / Jamming mecha would be lovely too.


(Myll, isn't there ANY game you are NOT in? oO)
 
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