Project plans and Palladium 'missile circus' houserules

Wow. That whole 'Weird in Mystic Japan' thread went on longer than I had intended. I still have one more post, maybe two maximum, but thought I'd break things up with this.

I have a prelim exam first week of January, so expect a slowdown until after that. Projects I have simmering are (in no particular order) some dystopic Traveller tables; finishing my Stormbringer 1e adventure 'Spiders and Angels'; more D&D semiotics; and starting my retroclone, Iceships & Inuit.

I also intend to roll out my Palladium Patch at some point. Anyone who responds 'Why bother?' has missed out on some gonzo playing with an admittedly clunky old ruleset. My patch aims to make Palladium's funky old school games playable to gamers with more modern sensibilities who'd dismiss them offhand because of their rusty rules.

To give a taste, here are the Mecha Missile and Melee Mayhem Houserules. We used these back in the day last time I played and the feel of an Itano missile circus a la Robotech was pretty spot on. Give em a try and tell us what you think.

Mecha Missile and Melee Mayhem Houserules

High Explosive Missile – Does an equal number of dice of SDC damage to human pilot or each passenger, pilot can roll for half. Ignore MDC damage multipliers. (i.e. 1d6x10 MD missile does 1d6 SD to pilot or passengers).

Fragmentation Missile – Apply each dice of damage to a different part of the mecha within the blast radius. (i.e. a missile doing 3d6x10 will instead do 1d6x10 to 3 different parts of the mech).

Armor Piercing Missile – In addition to damage, causes critical damage per critical damage tables if any of its damage dice rolls maximum. (i.e. a missile doing 2d6x10 will also inflict critical damage if either dice comes up 6).

Plasma Missile – Does full number of dice in damage first round, then one less dice per round thereafter until no dice remain. Pilots may make a stunt roll to shake plasma off, but can take no other actions while doing so. (i.e. a missile doing 2d6x10 MD will do that the first round, 1d6x10 the second, then 0 thereafter).

Multi-Warhead Missile – Attacker rolls a number of d20 equal to the damage die, then takes the best as his attack roll. (i.e. a 2d4x10 MD missile allows the attacker to roll 2d20 and keep the best as his attack roll, while a 4d6x10 MD missile allows 4d20 to be rolled).

Hand to Hand– Always does critical damage on a maximum damage roll. (i.e. a 1d4 damage punch also incurs a roll on the critical damage table if a 4 is rolled).

Chaff (NEW!) – Each chaff fired automatically leads a number of missiles off course as follows: Mini-missile chaff 1d4, short range 1d6, medium range 2d4, long range 3d6.

Penalties to Dodging or Shooting Missiles – Either roll gets a – 1 per multiple of 5 missiles/ (i.e. – 1 to dodge or shoot down 5-9 missiles, – 2 for 10-14 missiles, – 3 for 15-19 missiles, etc).

DIY ROBOTECH MINIATURE GAME

Time for a break from the 30 day challenge ; )

DIY ROBOTECH MINIATURE GAME

The other week I had an enjoyably nostalgic conversation with Jeffro about the Robotech RPG, which he reviewed on his blog. We had the usual conversation on Palladium’s great IP and outdated, clunky system, which I as a former Palladium-junkie and the author of the ‘Palladium Patch’ floating out there on the internet know quite well. (I might try to re-create and post this patch at a later date)

The conversation got me to thinking about Palladium’s recent successful Robotech: Tactics Kickstarter. Regardless what you think about the Palladium system, and considering the success of the Star Wars miniature game (which I played and LOVED), Palladium has a chance to spin some gold here and make 80s nerds very happy.

I hope they let go of the reins enough to let their wargaming partners Ninja Division shine and succeed.

That being said, I thought I’d try to cobble together some simple DIY Robotech miniature rules, based on stats from the old rulebooks. In the original Robotech RPG, all combat takes place in what Jeffro calls ‘the theater of the mind.’ Between the original rulebook and rules sections in the other RDF books especially, there are enough examples of moves based off of skill roll penalties that a good GM could describe an anime style mecha dogfight totally in this mental theater. We had lots of fun back in the day rolling for maneuvers with penalties to skills and tracking dogfight distance with pennies on a distance gauge swiped from the car chase rules for old Call of Cthulhu.

Here are my DIY Robotech miniature wargame ideas:

SET UP: MINIATURES

First, miniatures. I live in Japan, and the local recycle shop is filled with old Macross figures selling for under 2 bucks a pop. They are partially articulated, beautifully crafted, and stand at 5-6 inches.

I have a nice (and growing) selection of Veritechs in V and B modes, but sadly only 3 Excaliburs, although there are tons of Gundam and random robomecha figures that I could substitute in a pinch. Zentradei mecha are limited to two Battle Pods (with interchangeable missile racks!), but as with the Destroids, substitutes abound.

STEP ONE: LAND VEHICLE SCALE & SPEEDS

DISCLAIMER: I have never been into wargames, and the few times a friend has roped me into a game of Warhammer or Space Marines hasn’t changed my opinion. Which means that I am a newb and will probably make real wargamers smash their heads into their keyboards in frustration. That said, this is an interesting thought exercise to wash the phd readings out of my brain, so here I go!

SCALE

First, I need to choose a good scale that will be faithful to the stats but allow manageable tabletop mayhem. I figure I’ll have to split scale between Ground Combat and Aerial Combat, as the latter is unzodly fast. I’ll also split this project into three posts, Ground, Aerial, and Mixed to reflect this.

After several back-of-envelope calculations, I figure a Hex of 50 meters would be a reasonable scale for ground combat.

Speed in kph/10 = Speed in 50m hexes per round

Weapon Ranges = convert to 50m Hexes

The math is not totally exact, but close enough for government work. It allows me to keep the stats from the books and the 15 second combat round.

RDF LAND SPEEDS (hereafter LS)

Battloid 60 mph / 96.5 kph = LS 10

Excalibur 50 mph / 88 kph = LS 9

Gladiator 65 mph / 108 kph = LS 11

Mac II 20 mph / 32.18 kph = LS 3

Raidar X 80 mph / 128.72 kph = LS 13

Spartan 45 mph / 72.3 kph = LS 7

ENEMY LAND SPEEDS

Zentraedi Tactical Battle Pods 175 mph / 280 kph = LS 28

One thing stands out when you crunch the numbers – RDF mechs are painfully SLOW, while Battle Pods are hilariously FAST. However, Destroids are armored and brimming with weapons, while TBP’s are the opposite - why armor up when clones are dispensable and are living tanks themselves? Looks to be an interesting fight.

STEP TWO: ORDER OF ACTIONS, COSTS & PENALTIES

Number – Mechs get the pilot’s number of actions plus those listed in mecha skill from the rulebook. However, I will be using my old houserule of Combat Momentum from the Palladium Patch. Basically, a player with initiative keeps attacking until 1) He fumbles 2) He runs out of attacks, 3) He is interrupted by a sneak attack, or 4) He decides to stop attacking. This last is useful since a character who has used all his actions can no longer Dodge!

Mecha can do the following things. Note that Attacks, Dodges, and other actions use up one Action.

1)      Advance their entire LS while attacking enemies directly to the front with fixed-forward weapons.

2)      Advance up to half their LS, then attack an enemy in the 90 degree arc in front of them with handheld or rotatable weapons.

3)      Attack an enemy in the 90 degree arc in front of them with handheld or rotatable weapons, then advance half their LS.

4)      Scuttle or Retreat – As 2) or 3), but instead move sideways or in reverse at half LS, and minus one to hit or be hit.

5)      Scan – While scanning rules are non-existent in the RPG, they make a nice gritty addition to a wargame. A character can see any mecha in a 90 degree arc in front of him (line of sight), but for a picture of the area around him he needs to check his radar. Costs one action, allows 360 degree radar pings, no roll required.

6)      Transform – Go from Valkyrie to Fighter or back, or Valkyrie to Battloid or back. Costs one action, can be combined with a Dodge, bonuses equal to pilot’s alone.

7)      Change facing – Costs one point of LS to change 90 degrees while moving.

8)      Missile Lock – Automatic action, requires a skill roll.

9)      Other Action – Jump, Go Prone, Scoop up Minmei, cost one action.

Additionally, I will be using my MDC damage rules to make mecha fights more interesting:

High Explosive Missile – Does an equal number of dice of SDC damage to human pilot or passenger, pilot can roll for half. Ignore MDC damage multipliers.

Fragmentation Missile – Apply each dice of damage to a different part of the mecha within the blast radius.

Armor Piercing Missile – Automatically causes critical damage per critical damage tables.

Plasma Missile – Does full number of dice in damage first round, then one less dice per round thereafter until no dice remain. Player can use an Action to shake plasma off.

Multi-Warhead Missile – Attacker rolls two d20 when attacking, takes the best roll.

Hand to Hand – Always does critical damage on a maximum damage roll, plus any roll does equal SDC damage to human pilot.

THE NEXT STEP

Hopefully, I can get together with some gamer friends the next week or so and try these out. I’m thinking to replay Rick Hunter’s first fight against the Zentraedi just to test the system out, then set up some Destroid versus ZBP action.

Until next time!