Hecatondies as a PC in Anima: Beyond Fantasy

I was reading up on JRPG cliches again, and one thing that struck a chord was the presence of an outright non-human character in many games. While several magical races are available in Anima, sometimes you want to really go balls to the wall. So why not a sentient magitech golem? 

Now, the main problem with this thing is that a Hecatondies is level 9 which puts it quite beyond what's appropriate for most starting parties. However, you can always think of a reason why a particular specimen would be weaker than regular. My chosen explanation for the adventure I'm making it for is that this Hecatondies shut down a long time ago and lost a lot of their memories before being found by Black Sun and imprisoned for experiments. While these beings do not regenerate physical damage, it's entirely plausible that adventuring could help it regain the skills that were lost from prolonged memory loss, and allow the neural circuits to gradually ease back into full effectiveness. 

Of course, a first level character does not quite have the amount of DP to afford the full impressive array of supernatural abilities these miraculous beings display, nor would most of them be appropriate at that point. The solution is to give it weakened versions of those powers to start with, and then allow the player to gradually buy them back in little bits until they get to the full majestic glory of a level 9 Hecatondies. Although they should probably have Gnosis 25 from the get go, it is not recommended that a player character Hecatondies develops other powers or essential abilities without a very good reason and a suitably talented mechanical assistant.

It is suggested that only one improvement step per ability is allowed each level.

 

Attributes

It's suggested that a Hecatondies has its highest attributes assigned to Strength and Constitution, and the lowest to Intelligence and Willpower. 

 

Advantages

A Hecatondies player character should spend a Creation Point on Unusual Size if they cannot manage a Size of 23 at creation time. They should also buy Ambidextrous and See the Supernatural as advantages, to facilitate faster gain of abilities early on. If using Unrestricted Creation Points optional rule from GM Toolkit is used, these can be bought at creation time or when levelling up.

 

Essential abilities and powers

 

• Inhumanity A Hecatondies will have Inhumanity at first level. [10 DP]
• Physical Exemption These magical golems have no physical needs of a human being [50 DP]
• [+20 DP] Psychological Immunity While confused and mentally vulnerable right after awakening, Hecatondies will soon learn to ignore such petty distractions from their goals. 
• [+10 DP] Elemental Immunity [Cold]: Half Damage
• [+10 DP] Elemental Immunity [Fire]: Half Damage
• Elemental Vulnerability [Electricity]: 150% Damage As part of the nature of being a magical robot, there are quite a few circuits to fry [-10 DP]
• Extreme Need Without receiving some sort of magical items to feed itself on, a Hecatondies will die in time [-20 DP]
• Natural Weapons Hecatondies is equipped with large, scary looking claws and is not shy of using them in combat [20 DP]
• [+10 DP] Damage Energy At full power, Dragon Claws can damage immaterial creatures and effects
• Prehensile Tail is initially an additional attack at -60 that can only perform Trapping manoeuvres at fixed Strength 6 [20 DP]
• [+10 to 20 DP per level] The player may purchase either a reduction of penalty (to the maximum of -20) or increased Strength (to the maximum of 14). It is suggested that improvements alternate between the two abilities every level.
• Destructive Dome is initially a Special Attack with Base Damage of 40 and 10 foot radius that attacks on the Energy table and requires 3 turns of preparation without using active actions. It can be used once per day and interacts with magic suppressing fields as a magic spell, cast at Zeonic value equal to its Base Damage. [20 DP]
• [free] Every level from 2 to 9 Hecatondies gains an extra use of Destructive dome for free up to maximum of 9 per day. 
• [+5 DP per level] Extra Damage Improve the damage by +10 up to the maximum of 80. It's suggested that these improvements are bought every two levels. 
• Mystical Flight 4 [20 DP]
• [+20 DP per level] Increase Mystical Flight value by +2 to the maximum of 12. It is suggested that these improvements are bought every two levels. 
• Physical Armor 1 and Mystical Armor 1 [20 DP]
• [+10 DP per level] Increase either Physical Armor or Mystical Armor value by 1, to the maximum of 6 and 3, respectively. It is suggested that Mystical Armor is increased once every 4 levels.  
• Damage Barrier 20 [0 DP]
• [+5 DP per level] Increase Damage Barrier strength by +20 up to the maximum of 100. It is suggested that this improvement is bought every two levels.  
• Regeneration Zero [-30 DP] Hecatondies do not regenerate lost life points naturally, but must be repaired. 

 This comes out to a total of 100 DP at character creation, which, while steep, is definitely doable. However, the improvements come at a total cost of 330, so if you prefer, you may want to fold a few of those into level 1 and/or assign the character a level modifier of +1 instead.

Fixed Improvements

If you prefer, you may also try to give the class fixed benefits every level, in exchange of charging it a set amount of DP each time (e.g. 40 per level). In that case, you can use the following progression:

1. As above
2. Psychological Immunity, Prehensile Tail at -55 and Strength 7, Destructive Dome 2/day with Base Damage of 45, Mystical Flight 5, Damage Barrier 30
3. Prehensile Tail at -50 and Strength 8, Destructive Dome 3/day with Base Damage of 50, Mystical Flight 6, Damage Barrier 40, Physical Armor 2
4. Damage Energy, Prehensile Tail at -45 and Strength 9, Destructive Dome 4/day with Base Damage of 55, Mystical Flight 7, Damage Barrier 50, Physical Armor 3
5. Prehensile Tail at -40 and Strength 10, Destructive Dome 5/day with Base Damage of 60, Mystical Flight 8, Damage Barrier 60, Mystical Armor 2
6. Elemental Immunity (Cold), Prehensile Tail at -35 and Strength 11, Destructive Dome 6/day with Base Damage of 65, Mystical Flight 9, Damage Barrier 70, Physical Armor 4
7. Prehensile Tail at -30 and Strength 12, Destructive Dome 7/day with Base Damage of 70, Mystical Flight 10, Damage Barrier 80, Physical Armor 5
8. Elemental Immunity (Fire), Prehensile Tail at -25 and Strength 13, Destructive Dome 8/day with Base Damage of 75, Mystical Flight 11, Damage Barrier 90, Mystical Armor 3
9. Prehensile Tail at -20 and Strength 14, Destructive Dome 9/day with Base Damage of 80, Mystical Flight 12, Damage Barrier 100, Physical Armor 6

Next time, a full character sheet, hopefully.

Eoris Essence: a brief introduction in the form of Socratic-esque dialogue

As I was out having fun one day I overheard two literary characters discussing a role playing game. Since this role playing games thing seems to be interesting to like the one person who reads this, I figured it would be relevant to their interest. It went about thusly:

Ken: Are fighting games technically literature?

Ryu: I dunno. But check out this cool tabletop RPG I got!

Ken: No way! Is Numenera out already?

Ryu: Actually, I don't know. This is Eoris Essence, the Columbian RPG that kind of failed to create enough interest and has been sold for cents on the dollar to clear the warehouses lately. It has a number of interesting ideas and really gorgeous art, although I don't know if it's $100 kind of gorgeous?

Ken: So, is the system basically Exalted with serial numbers filed off?

Ryu: It's pretty similar. You roll dice pools of d20s, 15 and above are successes, 1 subtracts one success and 20 is a double success. Also you designate one die as the Essence die and if it rolls 20 or 1 you can be really awesome, really suck or kind of awesome but kind of suck at the same time. And vice versa. Although there are STMs on top of that.

Ken: ST-Whats?

Ryu: STMs, or Standard Threshold Modifiers. Like, being a Red XIII makes you maybe stronger than a regular human (I don't remember) so you would get a -2 Standard Threshold Modifier to Strength attribute related rolls. That means you succeed not on 15, but on 13. Some STMs can also make things more difficult instead, like if you're really tiny or young.

Ken: I'm not tiny!

Ryu: Well, you get the idea.

Ken: It's kind of confusing, though. Aren't there a lot of STMs to keep track of?

Ryu: Well, most people will not have many of those, and you can have a maximum of two STMs applying to any roll - one for attribute and the other one for skill. If they're both positive or negative, then you simply take whichever is better for you (the lower one, that is), if one is positive and one negative then you add them together and sort of get the average that way.

Ken: I don't really get it but let's move on. So you have attributes and skills, just like in White Wolf? And when you attack someone, do they get... DV?

Ryu: Nah, it's more like 1e Exalted. You roll your Dodge versus the opponent's attack, or if it's a ranged attack and you don't have superhuman dicepool you have to just stand there and take it, or roll Barrier which is sort of Dune style powerfields for magical people (they don't work against melee attacks). If they STILL hit, you can roll your Parry dice and add that to your previous defense score and maybe you don't get hit anymore, but on the other hand it consumes your next action. Although there is some variable action points thing, the quickstart rules rather sensibly do away from them so I think we'll do that too when we next play, Ken.

Ken: Sweet! What about magic? I heard it was Saint Seya inspired, but I didn't quite get how.

Ryu: Haha, not quite! Magic in this game is called Saeia and it's usually performed by singing songs! There are different types of Saeia, which are tied to a type of skills called Saeia essences and they deal with different things. Like, if you have any dots in Isthenia, you can use a basic magical energy attack because Isthenia is tied to destruction.

Ken: Just like that, without spending permanent resources? Kinda like the at-will abilities in 4e.

Ryu: Yeah, like in 4e. Saeia basically only costs actions while you keep making activation rolls. When you fail, you get some negative consequences.

Ken: That's interesting, although it might have balance problems. We shall see. You mentioned something about Red XIII, though, were you serious?

Ryu: Yeah, there is actually a race that is pretty much Red XIIIs. And the other that is White XIIIs, so to speak. Several similar species of human-like characters and some weirdness like the squirrel-Yodas. That's for Xylen, who have the most variety.

Ken: okay... Wait, what was that about Cylons?

Ryu: Xylen are basically mortals of the setting. In addition to them you have Sil, who are sort of like angels that teach people and are looked up to, and Kalei, who are a wholly different and sort of emo class of... also angels. The latters' big goal is killing God...

Ken: Makes sense.

Ryu: ...by God's explicit request.

Ken: ...I need a drink.

Ryu: We're not done yet! Did you have any more questions?

Ken: This all looks a lot like Final Fantasy so far. But I feel like we're missing something... I can't quite remember what.

Ryu: Limit Breaks?

Ken: Limit Breaks!

Ryu: There are Limit Breaks.

Ken: Wooo!

Ryu: Several types of them, in fact. The exact number accessible to your character depends on their spiritual power, but you can spend Energy points for extra actions, extra dice, a spontaneous energy attack if you're powerful enough, and custom limit breaks you can design yourself, like damage mods or Aeris' Healing Wind. Xylen recover energy points simply with the passage of time (in-game or out of game, as is more convenient), rolling 1s and 20s on the Essence die or taking damage in combat.

Ken: That's pretty Limit Break-y!

Ryu: I know, right. Let's get drunk.

Ken: Woo!


To be continued?..

10 useful implements for undersea mecha warfare

A friend is going to run a FATE mecha game where all the action happens deep underwater. Since many traditional armaments don't work for that without some alterations, I decided to brainstorm a few variations that would be suitable. It's naturally very important to give them names that are suitable for shouting out loud.

Harpoon Machinegun

Harpoons are a staple in the undersea warfare, and it would make sense to crossbreed one with the trusty Vulcan cannon. You'd need some mechanism for attaching strands to harpoons as they leave the firing mechanism.

Supercavitation Crusher

Supercavitation is a real thing employed by mantis shrimp in nature to aid crushing hard shells of its pray by adding secondary impacts to the physical one. Supercavitation Crusher would be a blunt rod of metal (possibly square or hexagonal - you don't want it sharp and it wouldn't last anyway) with a suitable acceleration mechanism. In the depth of a few kilometers you don't need to crush someone's armor entirely - just adding a good crack will ensure Mother Nature does the rest.

Microwave Lancer

Water dampens radiation a lot, preventing the use of many traditional beam weapons, but that just means you need to get close in to do the job. Microwave Lancer requires you to close in with the enemy before frying them in a burst of radiation.

Railgun Spike

Somewhat related to Supercavitation Crusher above, this is more similar to your garden variety pile bunker. To spice it up, acceleration mechanism doesn't use gunpowder, but magnetic linear acceleration instead, driving the piston along two electrified rails. For extra convenience, you can reverse the polarity to retract the spike. Try not to get any sea water inside or it will short out!

Predator Claw

What's the better way to rub the inevitable into the enemy than grasping them in a huge sharp claw before crunching their robot in half? I don't think science is ready to answer this question yet. Don't get your fingers in it.

Drill Torpedo Punch

So rocket punches don't work, see if I care. Just fit a forearm with a hidden torpedo engine and get to work. Note that these should probably be wire guided if you don't want one zooming out of your pitiful radio contact range and having to do without an arm for the rest of the trip. Since impact alone won't be much, slide a drill head in front of the fist - if you can connect it to the torpedo engine somehow, all the better.

Chakram Cutter

Another close range weapon, Chakram Cutter rests in two semi-circular toothed halves on both forearms when not deployed (you can use the edges for hand to hand brawling, if necessary), which connect into a large arm-mounted buzzsaw . For bonus, you can use it like a shield to deflect enemy projectiles and harpoons.

Magnetic Anchor

There are other fun things to do than just kill someone. If you're fighting close enough to the bottom of the ocean and there are things to entangle wires into, affix one end of a very strong metal wire there, set the other one into a powerful electromagnet and fire it at the enemy (both ends should be fired at once for better effect from a sort of double combination launcher). Now it's their job to figure out how to unattach the electromagnet from their metal armor while their mobility is reduced.

Vapor Resonator

Suddenly turning water into a sea of bubbles wreaks havoc with floating objects, as they are suddenly dragged down. A ranged weapon that manages to achieve this effect in beam-like fashion won't kill anyone, but might take someone out of the action for a few critical moments.

Impact Hammer

A Chinese meteor hammer version rather than a Western warhammer, it is simply a very large ball of iron with optional spikes, with a bunch of powerful torpedo engines set up in every which direction, connected to the parent robot with a chain housing control wires. Just clobber the target with it until they say "enough" or you can't identify the model anymore.

Discovering your Destiny, part 1

I guess this has been turning into a Tenra Bansho Zero blog lately. Oh well, whatever to fill the silence with, right?

Anyway. There's been a bit of a dissonance for me between the ease of picking out pregenerated characters in TBZ and jumping into the game for people who haven't played before. But at the same time, the GM needs to come up with a set of Destinies for them on the fly, that would ensure motivated participation by everyone and turn into an exciting story. It is not particularly easy with the wide amount of character types available.

A good set of party Destinies don't just smush together like overboiled rice, but spiral around a common center of gravity like a DNA helix, finally merging for the common resolution in the grand finale. That is the most satisfying way for player character Destinies to unfold, but it takes a lot of practice to get right.

That's what we're here for! Practice, and inspiration.

We're going to need a random chart to pick out sets of characters from, and then try to assign them Destinies with minimum preparation. Ideally it's going to be easier and easier as time goes by. I'll be using the following chart with 12 entries on it - Oni and Ayakashi are not present, because they're somewhat more difficult to fit into a default adventure, and instead there's another pregenerated character type, the War Master for people who like more choice from the "human" characters.

1. Annelidist
2. Armour Hunter
3. Armour Rider
4. Kijin
5. Kongohki
6. Kugutsu
7. Miko/Gyoshi
8. Monk
9. Onmyoji
10. Samurai
11. Shinobi
12. War Master

Now it turns out we just need to roll d12 four times to pick out types in a typical party (duplicates okay). Random.org gifts us with 4,12,6,12. So our party consists of:

• Ryu, Kijin
• Ken, War Master
• Sakura, Kugutsu
• Chun-Li, War Master

Two War Masters, which is good (duplicates are good, and will also frequently happen in free choice games so you'd better get ready for them). Duplicates are awesome for rivalries, so let's do just that: Ken has Rival: Chun-Li, or Goal: Prove his War Art is Stronger Than Hers, or even Emotion: Competitive Spirit. Or whatever. You get it.

Note that this leaves Chun-Li undefined for now. In general, I don't like setting up closed loops of Destinies because they run the risk of splitting the party into isolated cliques. By all means give player A a Destiny related to player B but then move on with player B onto something else.

Ideally, we also want to group PCs by who knows whom from earlier, who are travelling together and so on (note this doesn't have to be romantic or sexual in nature, but it is going to involve some Fates). In this case, Chun-Li is protecting the Kugutsu, Sakura, that has been entrusted in her care, or simply chose her as the protector. Goal: Protect Sakura With Your Life works wonders.

Kijin are simple people, their lifes scarred by violence. If you want an Enemy type Destiny, and you probably do, it's a good fit here. Give him Enemy: Whoever Is Going To Be The Final Boss Or His/Her Dragon and be done with it.

Finally, for the Kugutsu... you have some room to fill in the blanks now. Personal freedom is a big staple here so you could go with Goal: Attain Freedom if you want it simple. If her creator is still alive and present in the adventure, you could have a positive or negative Emotion related to them. Or finally you could put the player up for some soul-searching with Goal: Understand What Is Human? or something similarily waffling and philosophical.

This is not to say that these things should be entirely GM decided and forced upon the player, which would be silly, just that you should have a firm idea of what to suggest to a player (and if they say "fuck no" then you can talk it out and negotiate). Note that this set of sample Destinies is going to be relevant right to the end of the adventure (parts of which they imply), keep PCs together and resolve at similar time, at the last Act of the game. These are, not to toot my own horn, reasonably good Destinies.

Next time, we'll see if we can do it again.

鋼のＦＲＥＥＤＯＭ: Ashina Aya

鋼のＦＲＥＥＤＯＭ (Hagane no Freedom - Freedom of Steel) is a Tenra Bansho Zero scenario for 4 to 6 players, including the Game Master. This series of posts introduces pregenerated player characters and their stories. Note: since the names are Japanese, they're written with family name first, unless noted otherwise. 

Two years ago, you were one of the few children most important for the domain of Torigoe. Born Mitsuko in a noble Ishikawa family, you were prepared from early childhood to control a terrifying steel frame of Yoroi Armour that could single-handedly turn the tide of battle.

The magical Meikyo mirror, contained in only the most powerful Armours, not only provides an interface for control, but absorbs all memories and experiences of the rider during battle, making the Armour grow ever more powerful. However, the price for that is little space left for the personal growth of the rider herself. Eventually, there will not be enough room inside the Armour for both personalities - the rider, and the one contained inside the mirror. When that happens, the Armour shuts down and the rider has to seek other avenues of self-fulfilment.

It all turned into a somewhat theoretical matter for you as in the battle of Hisano's Gate, where the armies of Torigoe were crushed, your personal duel with a Hakusen rider ended in destruction of your both Armours. Unconscious, you were pulled from the wreckage by an officer of the fleeing army, who, having lost his own family, nursed you to health and gave you home as well as a new, less conspicuous name. As you have heard, your real family now lives in Hakusen as hostages, never having had the chance to find out you're alive.

So now you're trying to live your teenage life as best as you can, but something is missing. Losing your Armour felt like losing a close family member, but more so, and you dream of the time when again you will be able to rampage across battlefields of Tenra in an invincible body of an iron giant. This desire makes you seek success and attention in other fields - despite being somewhat frail of body, you never back down from a challenge and have a reputation as a bit of a troublemaker.

Kitan Kagetora, your friend at school, is aware of your true identity, and he has obtained a worn out, mass produced Armour for you to train in, so that your skills don't deteriorate entirely. However, hereditary artifacts that are Meikyo Armours are impossible to purchase and it will require a small miracle for the independence movement to obtain even one.

But when that day comes, you will show them all.

SYSTEM NOTES

Archetypes: Yoroi Armour Rider, Kabukimono/Punk
Fates: Emotion: Must be the center of attention, Misfortune: Loss of your Yoroi Armour

Note: this is a modified Yoroi Armour Rider archetype. It has a custom fate and the character will get access to their Armour in play (they have a temporary mass produced Kimen Armour at the start of the game). 

鋼のＦＲＥＥＤＯＭ: Kitan Kagetora

鋼のＦＲＥＥＤＯＭ (Hagane no Freedom - Freedom of Steel) is a Tenra Bansho Zero scenario for 4 to 6 players, including the Game Master. This series of posts introduces pregenerated player characters and their stories. Note: since the names are Japanese, they're written with family name first, unless noted otherwise.

You are Kitan Kagetora, the last living member of the Kitan clan. In another time you would have been the Lord of Torigoe domain, as your father was. However, independent Torigoe doesn't exist anymore: it was conquered by Lord Buren of Hakusen in a short and decisive war two years ago.

Your father and younger sister died during the chaos as the capital city of Tengaishi fell, while you were separately captured and spared by the troops of Hakusen. As a member of former ruling family you have been afforded a state pension. You now spend your days in a boarding school for young nobles such as yourself, living a content but ultimately pointless existence.

Or so everyone thinks. In truth, you have never stopped making plots to take back Torigoe from Hakusen, whether it's for the sake of your countrymen or just yourself. You have established secret contacts with the underground resistance movements and are planning to one day lead them to victory. Even though they are all just tools to you, you have a lot to offer them - your strategic abilities are supreme, honed over years of studying shogi (the Japanese chess), where you are nigh undefeatable.

Another important talent of yours is Onmyojutsu, the Taoist sorcerous art of distilling background life energy of the land and giving it the shape of monstrous creatures called Shikigami or simply shiki, which you can then direct at your enemies or use for more mundane tasks. While it is not something you want to showcase to the people watching you, it is a powerful asset which you have become quite good at manipulating.

However, you sneer at the outdated traditional ways of sorcery, carefully drawing summoning glyphs in a beautiful display of calligraphy. You're one of the new generation of Onmyoji, emphasizing substance over style - using an abacus and a mechanical kimenkyo calculating device to quickly produce calculations required to create Shikigami as fast as possible. Older Onmyoji would say that this method is too dangerous, as any error made in haste can produce terrifying and uncontrollable Chimera, and derisively call your ilk shiki-slingers. But you don't care. You know better than them.

Will you oust the invaders who have conquered your homeland, and give its people the freedom they deserve? Or will your own reign you promise be even more terrible?

SYSTEM NOTES

Archetypes: Aristocrat/Princess, Shiki Slinger, Tactician
Fates: Emotion: Hostility towards classical Onmyoji, Emotion: Loyalty to Torigoe domain

Equipment: pistol gauntlets

I'm pretty sure everyone has seen RWBY: Yellow by now but if you haven't, you owe it to yourself. Do it here.

Anyway, a player wanted this kind of thing for their character in Iron Kingdoms. With a little bit of reverse engineering and guesswork, I present you this. You're welcome, Cassie!

PISTOL GAUNTLET, REPEATING

Cost: 45 gc
Ammo: 5 (metal-cased light round)
Effective range: 36 feet (6")
Extreme range: 180 feet
Skill: Pistol
Attack modifier: -1
POW: 10
AOE: -

Description: This weapon is a heavy gauntlet that integrates a repeating pistol firing mechanism with a five-chambered ammo wheel. The ammo wheel can be replaced in the heat of combat instead of reloading each cylinder separately.

Special rules: When used as a melee weapon, this weapon has an attack modifier of -1, is POW 2, and uses the Unarmed Combat skill.

Replacing this weapon's ammo wheel requires a quick action. Reloading each cylinder of the ammo wheel takes one quick action.

It costs 3 gc for blasting powder, bullets and casings for five light rounds. Additional ammo wheels cost 15 gc each.

As part of a charge, after moving but before making the charge attack, a character can spend 1 feat point to make one ranged attack with this weapon targeting the enemy charged unless the character was in melee with the enemy at the start of his turn. When resolving the ranged attack, the attacking character does not suffer the target in melee penalty. If the target is not in melee range after the attacking character moves, the character can make the ranged attack before his turn ends.