Inventory System and Scale

 So one ting I have been noticing as I watch through Exosquad is that the weaponry of the individual E-Frames and other vehicles is pretty inconsistent. The BD-100 Ground Assault E-Frame piloted by Wolf Bronski in the show usually has a wide array of missile weapons mounted in its arm pods, but sometimes it seems to carry laser weaponry. Similarly the standard Neosapien E-frame sometimes fires a beam out of the spiked ball on its right arm, and other times launches the ball itself as a projectile. 

I am not sure why the inconsistency exists in the show. I am do not know if it was an intentional choice or if these were animation errors. 

For the purposes of this game I am going to treat this inconsistency as an intentional choice and I will be assuming that Eframes are modular and can change their weaponry and equipment to suit the mission at hand. 

As I mentioned in another post, My current idea for "inventory" is a pod based system where a vehicle consists of a number of pods equal to its scale number, so an E-Frame or light fighter can carry 8 pods worth of equipment, a larger mecha or shuttle craft can carry 10 pods worth of equipment and a capital ship can carry 12 pods worth of equipment. larger scale equipment is more effective than smaller scale equipment. Most pods will be modular but some pods if selected during e-frame creation are permanent. E-frame scale pods have 5HP per pod, so an average E-frame has 40 HP. (5hp per pod x 8 pods) Shuttles and larger mecha pods have 10 HP per pod So average shuttles have 100 HP and capital ships have 20 HP per pod and thus capital ships have 240 HP. 

Under normal circumstances damage would be subtracted from the generic pool of HP and you would ignore hit locations. Hit locations will only be rolled on a critical hit. Because the scale number is equal to the number of pods in a vehicle and the scale numbers correspond to dice numbers hit locations can be rolled up and identified quickly without slowing down game play. individual pods may be destroyed due to damage incurred by critical hits. 

Some pods will be mandatory for the type of vehicle. for example an E-Frame has 8 pods but one pod is required to be a cockpit which contains the life support and control systems the pilot uses. A pods worth of actuators, joints and other allow for powered movement. Finally if the E-frame is going to be capable of flight (most are) it needs to have a flight pod. This leaves 5 pods worth of weapons and other equipment. 

Example Pods:

Missile Weapons: Deals damage equal to 2D(Scale) Can lock onto targets. 

Beam Weapons: Deals damage equal to D(Scale) Deals half damage to armored targets, unlimited ammo

Ballistic Weapons: Deals damage equal to D(Scale) uses ammo

Advanced Sensors: More powerful than the basic sensors that come with the cockpit pod.  

Electronic Warfare Suite: Can be used to jam another vehicles sensors, mask the presence of a vehicle to sensors or prevent weapons locks. 

Cockpit: contains life support, basis sensors, and controls. 

Additional Armor: Double the normal amount of HP for its scale. This additional HP is added to the total for the vehicle. All critical hits deal damage to armor pod FIRST. Critical hits only damage other pods after all armor is depleted. Permanent (if selected this pod is permanent and can not be switched out in between missions.)

Long Range Communication Equipment: Can send long range messages. communicate over long distances in space Send encrypted messages etc. 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Core Mechanic/Scale

 As mentioned in my previous post one of the main challenges of translating Exosquad into an tabletop game is the idea of scale. Over the course of the series combat in Exosquad takes place at a number of different "scales." for the purposes of the tabletop RPG I have identified 4 differnt scales. Infantry level combat with humans fighting neosapiens on foot is common. E-frame and space fighter scale combat is probably the most common combat scale that we see in the show. Large vehicles like larger mecha and tanks appear occasionally, and finally very large scale vehicles like capital ships have a major role in the show as well.  I believe in a game like Exosquad the idea of scale needs to be baked into the core mechanic of the game. Lawful Nice (of white wizards workshop) had a discussion on their blog several years ago about using a D10 dice to represent mecha combat in a game that usually used D6's for combat. The idea of larger dice representing physically larger...
Read more

Factions/ Setting

 When I started this project I chose Exosquad at the recommendation of a friend. When I was a kid I remember really liking Exosquad and in fact I had a handful of the toys, but I am not a lifelong fan. When I decided to make Exofleet Adventures one thing I knew I would have to do is watch the entire series as research for the game. Luckily one of my buddies had the complete series on DVD so I was able to borrow the discs from him.  One of the things that stood out about Exosquad is the relatively complex plot and setting for a kids show of this era. In the 90's most kids shows were basically commercials for toys. The plots were simple good guys vs bad guys stuff. Exosquad, while definitely tied to a toy line was a little "deeper" than your average show from that time.  I remembered from my childhood that the primary forces involved in the show were the humans as the good guys and the neosapiens as the villains. Even as a kid I remember there was some ambiguity with the mo...
Read more

Vehicle Creation

 This will be a pretty short update:  If you are going to make a game based on a property like Exosquad which was centered around a new novel technology like E-frames, you better have the part of the game that represents that technology nailed down tight. Most of the time your players are going to be role playing what characters do with that technology. In this case the characters are going to be role playing the act of piloting and fighting inside of E-frames.  In order to encourage this style of play my idea is the keep the actual character creation very simple. Characters are going to be five bonuses and maybe one or two traits to make them feel distinct from one another. The real meat of the "character creation" and will be in either in the creation of a unique E-frame or the selection of an E-frame seen in the show, as well as the equipment loadout selected by your character.  This week I spent time working on Vehicle Creation rules. If you plan on sticking to C...
Read more