things not worth mentioning here.
These are further notes as of 2020-11-20 regarding the draft file at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw91639XP2nbemNLaE1Ib3N4b28/view?usp=sharing
OVERVIEW
MEST Tactics is a core rules book for battles across matter, energy, time, and space. It forms the basic foundation for multiple settings and genres ranging from Dark Fantasy, Gothic Horror, Victorian Sci-fi, Pulp Action, and Post-apocalyptic Survival.
A new Overview section near the start of the rules outlines the wars across the fabric of reality and introduces the idea of Thought Beings which use the players of the game as proxies for their many battles.
This serves a background for the use of character progression, Champions, Factions, and the Campaign system.
ARCHETYPES
Here are these Archetypes in concise format showing Build Point costs (BP), and their stat-lines for Close Combat Ability [CCA], Range Combat Ability [RCA] Reflexes [REF], Intelligence [INT], Willpower [POW], Strength [STR], Fortitude [FOR], Movement [MOV], and Size [SIZ].
Concise format show them in this triplet set;
Humanoid. 7 BP.
Militia 122|221|223
Humanoid. 20 BP.
Average 222|222|223
Humanoid. 30 BP.
Veteran 333|232|223
Humanoid. 61 BP.
Grit.
Elite 333|333|333
Humanoid. 129 BP.
Grit. Fight. Shoot.
- Untrained represent civilians and other non-combatants.
- Militia represent conscripted fighters, green military, and poorly-trained combatants.
- Average are the regular troops; the most commonly encountered combatant.
- Veteran are the salty-dogs and experienced fighters. They've seen things.
- Elite are the crack warriors, the best of the best. Highly proficient at skirmish warfare.
Specialist Archetypes
I've added new Specialist Archetypes; the Healer, and the Agent.
Humanoid. 52 BP.
Heal. Medic. Grit.
Agent 132|232|223
Humanoid. 38 BP.
[Solitary]. Grit.
- Healers receive the Healer X trait which provides +X Wild dice for the Revive action. Cascades can be spent to remove Fear, Burn, and Poison tokens as well as remove the normal Delay and Wound tokens.
- Agents are terrible at Close Combat, but are better than Average at Range Combat and have higher FOR representing their increased survivability.
TRAITS
There are 245 traits covering all periods, ages, settings, and genres. There are 38 Disabilities and 128 Abilities in total. These are now given one or more of the 14 keywords so that they can be used with the Character Progression system. Skills represent 60 of the traits, and there are 79 traits associated with Vehicles, Weapons, Armor, and Equipment.
Here's an example of a new Trait which can be used with any character;
An Arcane Musket could be a regular Musket but it now can be something not sculpted on the model. Essentially it functions as the Conceal trait, but can be Dispelled.
ROF [Rate-of-Fire] Attacks
The [Feed] and [Jam] traits are removed from the ROF X trait. This allows ROF X to be assigned to Weapons which are not machine pistols or rifles such as Rapid Fire Crossbow.
Situational Test Modifiers
Surprise has been renamed to Suddenness because there are some WIP rules for "Surprise" status now.
Situational Awareness
This is an advanced rule that ensures that any player's Designated Leader needs to be able to see (have in Line-of-Sight or LOS) at least half the members of their Assembly. It is tweaked now to work better with the Radio X trait by creating a range limit to those members.
ACTIONS
A new feature is Consecutive for consecutive attempts against identical conditions. This is beneficial mostly for Fiddle actions though it could arise for use in combat situations.
Hide has been made more consistent in that all Hidden models may reposition up to MOV x 1" if any Opposing models moves within LOS. Before this was limited to being within Cohesion. Hidden models target by Indirect Range Attacks may always reposition but not lose their status.
Fear Tests
A character performs at most a single Fear Test per Turn. This helps with being targeted by Mythos creatures such as Deep Ones, and also from being subject to multiple Tests when attacked successfully by multiple Opposing models.
Bonus Actions
Cascades are now required to be spent to use a Bonus Action afte a Hit or Damage Test. The Push-back and the Pull-back Bonus actions benefit from spending two or more cascades when the Opposing model has a higher Physicality. Having zero cascades remaining afterwards disallows the Damage Test from being performed.
Passive Player Options
Whenever the Attacker fails the Combat Hit Test, the target character may perform a Bonus Action and acquire a Delay token. The character must of course be Ordered Attentive, in Wait status, or have higher REF.
REACT ACTIONS
Cleaned up lots of phrasing. A Ready Ordered Attentive character within Visibility and LOS of the Active model may also perform a React action without needing a Wait token.
ADVANCED GAME
This has many new additions and rephrasings.
SUPPRESSION
I think this is near-perfect now. Still needs a bit more play-testing. Models with ROF weapons may now choose to perform a Suppression Attack against a target location. If Attentive they'll receive an additional Suppression marker to place if one is already placed for the current Action.
FANTASTIC ITEMS
Several new keywords known as "Classifiers" are available to assign to Weapons, Armor, and Equipment to increase the flexibility of those items. These classifiers function similar to synonyms but have light-weight rules defining their benefits. The new classifiers are; Arcane, Energy, Etheric, MEMSic, and Psychic. With this, the standard Medium Shield could become an Arcane Shield, Energy Shield, Etheric Shield, MEMSic Shield, or even Psychic Shield.
LIGHTING
This has been a headache for a some time but I think it is now near-perfect. It is very granular as presented and so I'll need to create a Basic Game version. The Light X trait of a Flaming Torch (Light 4) or Basic Lantern (Light 6) creates Visibility OR equal to Light X, and provides +2, +4, and +6 for being Ordered Attentive, in Wait status, or in base-contact with it or when holding it. Models in LOS but further away provide a Visibility OR equal to the Light X but with a drop-off of 1-2-3-4-5 at distances greater than 1-2-3-4-6-8 MUs.
MAGIC SYSTEM
This is still big work-in-progress. Most of it is in note form which I need to transfer into the core rules document and make it look pretty. The skeleton of this is place within the document now.
INTERCONNECT GAMES
This a simplification of many hundreds of hours of notes and sub-rules. The key introduction is the Technological Periods and Ages are now defined. These Periods and Ages constrain which Weapons, Armors, and Equipment are available for any given setting.
Experience Points
Still a work-in-progress. It now ties into the Thought Beings concept and works primarily to create Champions though non-Champion characters can also benefit from this section.
Skills Acquisitions
Using the new keywords such as Skill and Psychology aides in identifying which Traits can be improved using Experience Points [ XP ]. A standard way of determining how much XP is necessary to increase the level of that Trait. Answer is usually several Missions. Attributes may also be improved with the application of XP.
Champions
Players control characters within Assemblies and resolve combat using Missions. Those characters can be promoted to Champions which are a sort of collection of bonuses representing a psychic spirit which inhabits physical hosts that are each character.
Characters which are not Champions are not managed by the player and can change-out between sessions.
Champions gain a Reputation X trait which behaves similar to Fear X but operates within LOS. The more powerful a Champion becomes the more likely it will want to flee the current reality and escape the control of the player.
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