Giant Robots of the Absolution War

UPDATE: Yeah. I've only recently recovered from nearly 9 months with a sinus infection and I'm so happy to have received some anti-biotics! The stress from my job didn't help either. My only solace is cups of coffee and maybe some white-noise.

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So, I've been getting more energy now that I've been feeling better and so I've been putting some effort into a couple of new designs. There's actually two designs; "Giant Robots of the Absolution War" [ GRoAW ] is the primary design and where these settings notes come from, and then there's "Mech, Beast, and Infantry" which uses a different design but is spiritually a sub-set of the first design.

What's been inspiring me is that I've got about 30 or 50 MechwarriorClix figures that are in the 1:160 or about 10MM scale that I wanted to use. I've been lurking in the forums for Dropzone Commander and thought that maybe I could do a MEST-flavored "improvement" over the basic concept; something within the Ovoidium Cosmogos universe, similar to my Web-published boardgame "Giant Robots of World War II."

These two new systems have been in development for about maybe three months; perhaps 20 hours a week. Still very rough, but my hope is that beyond the new genre and setting I can get a different take on how skirmish games could play out. Maybe some of this will help me improve the MEST 2.0 design that I've still got in the works.

I'll post up "Mech, Beast, and Infantry" once I wrap up the fundamentals; I'll probably post on Delta Vector forums first to get some (hopefully) positive feedback. It's currently v.0.25 and relatively short at 8 pages, and may grow to 12 pages when I'll be done. The main game GRoAW I'll probably keep improving in the backdrop; it may not see the light because I think it is more of a tinker's toolset akin GDW's Striker and GZG's Dirtside II.

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Introduction

Giant Robots of the Absolution War (GRoAW) is a tabletop skirmish miniatures game played between two opposing forces with 1 or 2 players managing each force. The play area is a modern or futuristic city which serves as the battlefield where these forces compete for supremacy.

Each Player represents an aspiring Little Wars Commander at the War Event of 2588 AD. They have been selected to resolve an Argument (a scale of battle) as a literal Player voted to serve as the Face of a particular Diction which collectively are known as Stages of Conduct which can be any of the arcologies within the Solscept. The Players are responsible for selecting the best warriors, mechs, vat-grown beasts, and machinery, from a cadre of Practitioners of the Ritual of Absolution and the best Catalogs of Destruction. Failure or victory; either guarantees penitence in the Eyes of the Lord. But that is in the Spiritual Realm. Upon the material plane, upon this cursed Earth; the victor wins the adherents of the false philosophies to become initiates and converts into the One True Diction and eventually bring about the Correct Coherence of the Final Absolution.

Help fight the decisive battles of the Utmost Age within the Demesnes of Solscept! Prove your worthiness! Show your righteousness! Choose your holy weapons and machines of war, and demonstrate your tactical skills through proper maneuvering of those forces upon the battlefield. There may be death. There might be destruction. But indeed there will, by God; be redemption! Amen.

The Absolution War

The arrival of fusion power enabled the rapid access to the planets around Sol. Artificial General Intelligence, mini-macro-printing, and advanced robotics helped with the construction of vast arcologies here on Earth, at the Trojan Points, to the Moon, and beyond. Genetics assisted in populating the many worlds now known as Demesnes of the Solscept. Mastery of biomimetics transformed man and beast into malleable vessels for technology and increased each species' hardiness for survival in harsh environments. Virtual and augmented reality, the foundation of what is known as the Sensual Realms, allowed society to become entertained and informed. With the creation of the Cyberkhyber, a multi-planetary world-spanning network-distributed fortress with the Sensual Realms, death itself has been conquered and fear of it deters very few. No member of society has needs or wants within the actual reality of the Physical Realm.  It has been this way for nearly 300 years and nearly every biome, planet, and rock has become a fully-inhabited domain. The entirety of all settlements has flourished without conventional war nearly all these centuries. As a result, Reason and philosophy became the endeavors of the majority of all populations across all habitations, virtual or real.

Great societies arrived and flourished under the guidance of the Quiet Voice; that singular expression of all inter-connected artificials intelligences. All leaders speak factually, reasonably, succinctly, and emphatically their well-substantiated decisions. The people vote using similar informed reasoning. Many of the populations as a result turned from their studies within their virtual worlds to see the World as it is just to take note. Imdwellers, the peoples of the Demesnes, sometimes disconnect and wander outside their underground crypts to see their beautiful but nearly empty cities, transformed landscapes, and strange lab-grown animals managed and minded by robot caretakers of various forms. Some remain outside to live simpler lives and to guide the tremendous shaping processes brought by technology, and these became known as the Raucous Few.

However, the Raucous Few began to enjoy their freedoms of being Disconnected and began to shape the World by introducing Whispers of Dissent. These well-placed and well-disguised memes turned what had been seamless harmony within the Ocean of Words into mere stretches of Punctuated Equilibrium. Soon, the entirety of the Sensual Realm started to question their purposeless life and begun to seek meaning. Over time, the people and their leaders became belligerent. They had no vent except through their virtual games and this has become worrisome for many as those inclinations became Manifest as small chaotic exchanges of Death Without Reboot and unplanned property de-establishment. There must be more to life, the social network reasoned. Absolutely the style of living with all needs appeased dissatisfied too many. The resultant varieties of discourse within the Ocean of Words created a positive feedback loop especially among those Raucous Few.

Many of the Imdwellers turned to esoteric philosophies and others turned to specialization into religious studies for what better way is their to expend energy than to argue archaic writings? Competing ideologies raged across the universe of thoughts, each their own Diction in an Ocean of Words. A rare few persons, still numbering into the millions, specialize further into martial studies. These are the Practitioners who are enhanced with cybernetic dictionaries of kinesthetic verbs and forms, with codexes of warfare containing recipes for organized combat in all its forms. Flowery terms for each clade of thought abounded to mask the simplicity of these thoughts, these Dispensations.

The entire Solscept had been at peace for nearly three centuries, but the Dispensations became more limited and some transformed into binding Ordinances in order to curb extreme thoughts. The Raucous Few home these actions would limit virtual violence before it would escape towards the Physical World and affect even themselves. To Failure; no memes could stop their infectious ancestral idea; "To Be". Mankind has always had its braggarts, psychopaths, and visionaries. Each scheming or desirous of a better future shaped to their will whether it be wars of the body or spirit. In the ancient past these schemes were resolved with bloody aplomb upon far-ranging battlefields where upon thousands if not millions perished.

Soon, from the Quorum of Worlds formed by the Lead Voices of each arcology, a Resolution came into being. This Structure was designed to quell the stochastic outbreaks of violence which had become more frequent. It was made clear in these exact words issued to all of the Solscept; "Realm or Roe, Vec or Vulg; those who want to fight, fight. Those who want to stay, stay. We demonstrate our lessons and want them beg sway." This was 14 years ago, and it started what is now known as the Utmost Age; the age of warfare as a precise tool of argumentation. It has also become a channel for many who seek death but were too ashamed of their sensuous lives within the Ocean to merely end it at the hands of their semi-autonomous Minders.

Now is the Utmost Age when warfare is punctuated, refined, and focused into the Rituals fondly named "Little Wars". Only the participants, the Practitioners, are put at risk. Each school of thought or Diction has its voice here and the impact of a Ritual which has been decided affects the entire Ocean of Words. Hence now each nation has annual War Events comprised of Little Wars, in which they select among their best and brightest to demonstrate their righteousness through tragic plays of mayhem and madness.

Overview

I wanted to create something weird but familar. It needs be flexible enough concept, with some constraints, to allow players to bring their own ideas for units to the table.

Society

Many of the well-connected humans in society are utterly bored and live in virtual worlds.

• Some of these have decided to fetishize their beliefs and become an adherent of an extreme philosophy known as a Diction.
• The more arcane or religious the source of philosophy, the more adherents it will have.  Subjects range from Abrahamic religions, Scientology, Urantia, Wicca, New Ageism, UFO Conspiracy, Objectivism, or even Racism. 
• These people join Memeleagues where the other members have a common Diction but multiple forms of Expression.
• Some of these adherents have decided to change the world outside of their their virtual lives permanently. These are known as Practitioners.

Logos and Bios

• It is possible for the mind to exist independent of a body. This is the Logos (loh-goss) and Bios (bee-oss) separation. 
• It is also possible for a single mind to have copies of itself in different bodies. Each copy is registered as an Independent Member of a Logosbank and has rights just like any other human.
• Bodies are actually transhuman; they've each been genetically and cybernetically augmented and are known as "Techno-organic". 
• Most bodies, known as a Verum Corpus, are vat-printed on-demand without any memories to allow a Logos to control it.
• Some Practitioners have decided to have pure-human bodies with few if any cybernetic enhancements, and just base-line genetic modification for diseases and general health. These are known as "Purists".
• Most Practitioners switch out their bodies and when going to War can survive physical death through their Logos Devices which is stored within their skulls.
• Many Practitioners desire to have a Single Voice, and will enter in a battle with duplicated Logos serving in different biological forms. This is known as Shouting the Din, and is considered to be somewhat like cheating especially when the Practitioner is supposed to be of higher standing. Each copy of the Logos makes the Practitioner become referred to as "The Unswayed" because of their stronger conviction during battles.
• Some Practitioners, especially the wizened veterans of multiple wars, tend to become "Shut-ins". These have decided to destroy not to use a Logos Device when entering battle; death for them is permanent.
• Some very few Shut-ins have been known to go one step further download their Logos into a stylized android construct to increase their durability. These "Machinamaksim" Practitioners are somewhat extreme even when compared to the others.

On-demand Constructs

The technology available to the Practitioners is astounding and can fabricate, grow, and customize any design crafted in the virtual world to make them physical within the real world. There are entire networks of artists, engineers, and researchers dedicated to crafting the best possible designs for use in these Arguments of War.

• Retrodecofascii use designs from other eras including Gothic, Grimdark, Cosmic, Heavy Metal, Steampunk, Googie, Industrial, Atomik, etc.
• Weeaboodo is pure art designs inspired by toys and cartoon characters. Many of these designs hail back as far as the early 1900 and 2000 AD.
• Anachrocastrati employ sentimental designs of ancient eras of warfare such as Medieval, Pike & Shotte, Rifle Age, World War II, Vietnam War, Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others. Nothing beyond 2100 AD

Design Goals

These were my targets for the design after several weeks of musing. Having little teevee time sort of helps here, as well as long commutes home from the office job.

Theming Goals

These goals are inspired by the Japanime stuff, even including something like Paprika. May old books as well, such as Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Keith Laumer's Bolo. I guess throw in some Metal Hurlant as well.

• Strange Futurism
• Heroic infantry
• Style personalization

Mechanical Goals

These particular goals are a bit more like a wish-list. 

• Faster game-play but more Rounds (pfft, shahright)
• Fewer units
• Allow models from any genre to be used
• Make mechs, mecha, walking tanks significant
• Make infantry survive unless against specialized weapons
• Make aircraft stay on the battlefield
• More tactics less luck (pfft, again because dice)
• Flexible build-your-own
• Integrated campaign system

Influences

Existing game designs and forums discussions always help influence me. 

• Dropzone Commander; terrain
• Wizkid's Mechwarrior; figurines and utility
• GZG's Dirtside II; customization
• Steve Jackson Game's Ogre; few big units versus many smaller ones

Of Werewolves and Tesla Coils :: A Victorian Sci-fi Setting for MEST

Overview

Here lay my first effort on designing a VSF genre document.

I've been struggling to acquire enough time to craft a nice backdrop for the "Victorian Sci-fi" genre to use with the MEST rules.  What I did was decide that I'm limited to available minis that Aggro84 has, and to the range of available minis left yet unpurchased in the wilds.  That is; I don't intend to craft my own line of unique figures any time soon!

Constraints

• Needs to using minis that people can purchase, preferably stuff we've already got ready for gaming.
• Needs to be able to fit into a strict definition of "Victorian" science-fiction.  Therefore I limited, at least for this first iteration, technology and world politics to what was known in 1875 CE.
• Needs to have a "point-of-departure" that is interesting that allows platforming for the crazier VSF concepts.  I chose menhirs and aether.  Aether being a very interesting thing because it seems to have supernatural "natural" qualities as the so-called "Fifth Element".  Menhirs because they look so cool and can be found in silly places.  Like caves.  So I decided that the it would during the discovery of a particular cave in Prussia around 1866 CE or so.
• Needs to have the rest of history - however sloppy my attempt - extend from that ahistorical event. 

Voila!

And here is my rough overview.  I'm not a historian just a lazy gamer with access to Wikipedia and Google Search.  I hope this information is entertaining enough to excite others to learn more about this effort.  This genre setting includes the 1875 CE campaign map I've been working on here:

http://matter-energy-space-time.blogspot.com/2013/11/vsf-campaign-map.html

Of Werewolves and Tesla Coils

aka Cold Steam Empires

Introduction

This is Victorian Sci-fi during the reign of Queen Victoria circa 1875 CE.  The British Empire rules the oceans, and Prussia with the help of Italy recently (since 1861 CE) defeated France and Austria.  Russia and Poland have had their borders pressed by Prussia but they are not ready for what is coming around the bend.  Spain and Portugal have folded into France, and Hungary with Romania and Serbia have formed an unsteady alliance with Austria.  Most of the other nations of Europe and Asia Minor have yet to understand the events of the the Brave New World.

A New Kind of Science

Science is starting to discover crazy new rules about physics and numerous scientists and engineers, and some mystics and scholars are trying to make sense of this.  Everybody is seeing what the New Age of Scientism will do for their country.  As such, the nobles and politicians see great potential to wage an unyielding war even though the last war has yet been paid for except by bloodshed.  As it can be surmised, new wars are under way this next may bound across the entire globe.

Moongates

Moongates, an ancient alien technology, have been discovered buried in ancient caves at various locations through-out the world.  The first of which - a small circular arrangement of carved basalt stone pillars -  was during a fortuitous road excavation in the small town of Wernigerode that sits upon limestone. This set-off an explosion of interest into spelunking with the Prussian and neighboring territories to as far as France and Italy.  Many tragic deaths occurred, many fights to clamor for fame happened.  Blood was spilled; all for mere recognition to be the person or team that found evidence of previously unknown and mysterious ancient religious practices.  Most of these finds were in such poor shape that they appear no more than just exotic, crumbled and broken, menhirs.  Others though, with just a tiny blood sacrifice of several pints extracted from tortured criminal convicts, allow travel between worlds.  Moongates are rather finicky but allow bodily transportation of persons and their personal effects to the planets Venus, Mars, and to the Moon.  Apparently - and to much surprise and consternation - these worlds are inhabited by hostile alien empires some of which have been waging war among themselves for hundreds of years.

Aether

The so-called “Fifth Element” or “Quintessence” has been confirmed to exist as a medium for travel between the planets.  This has long been theorized by great esoteric authors such as Madam H.P. Blavatsky and Vladimir S. Solovyov but the utmost nature had come from deeper understandings of the Akashic Records.  Such “astral readings” were long thought to be a ruse set up by charlatans and theosophists vulturing Oriental Mysticism.  However; after much investigation by the Royal Society, these astral readings by the late Sir Alfred P. Sinnet (1840 - 1872) gave The British Empire quite an edge.  His posthumous knighthood after his assassination by Prussian spies reflects his position of reverence afforded to him by the Queen and Consort.  He will be greatly missed.

Cold Steam

Scientists and engineers of the British and the Prussian empires only recently have begun experimenting with designing and building aethercraft to be launched from the Moon. “Cold steam” otherwise known as “Phlostigated Anaphylactic Aether” generates an absurd amount of energy that robs the surrounding environment of heat and often causing the weather to change to snow or rain.  It is a problematic force because it requires harvesting from outside of the Earth therefore many facilities exist upon the Moon to collect, compress, and bottle it for use elsewhere.  As soon, the majority of traffic through Moongates is shipping cargo containers of derisively named “p-to-a” owing to the stink of the gas itself.

Ectoplasm

A biological version of aether recently discovered is “Virchow’s Psychoplastic Ectoplasm”.  This “life-force energy” can be coerced using “spectromalic light rays” to be consumed by the cells of certain life-forms and can be captured within “electricified crystallites” and transferred into Jacobian clockwork devices.  An engineering example of this are the Baconite Automatic Men who gain the essence and personalities of the prior life-form; but these personalities are subsumed with strong application of “Vicente hydraulic tubes” otherwise these per se golems become suicidal berserkers.

Alien Empires

There is strong evidence that prior cultures upon the Earth itself have been influenced by the presence of other-worldly beings from distant planets, to which attribute the names of gods and demons.  With the discovery of Moongates we see some of these beings insitu still waging war upon the nearby planets of Venus, Mars, and the very Moon itself!  These other cultures have been in great decline for thousands of years and the Great Powers’ ad hoc access to their worlds has put them in great upheaval.  That fact plus the other in which they are ripe for exploitation and religious conversion makes them prime candidates for cross-planetary domination.  Fortunately for them, the Great Powers are only slowly realizing proper technology to fully exploit their diminishing resources.

Alien Dimensions

A stark reality check came recently with the application of earth-bound Aether.  With the presence of telescope technologies it can be seen as a fact that the actual Moon itself is uninhabited. However, it appears that reality within the locality of an aether gas cloud gets distorted to perceive the reality beyond the Moongates themselves. Within that locality, reality has been wrought differently and the unbelievable conclusion is that Moongates do travel to other worlds but these exist in other dimensions!

A Brave New World

Queen Victoria of England, Empress of India, is 56 years of age and the discovery of Alchemistry - a pet project of her husband Prince Albert who had long been a secret enthusiast of theosophy - has kept her appearance young and her health invigorated, to enjoy the fruits of her British Empire.  The comely royal couple, who appear fit and no older than 27 years of age each, and much the Parliament itself appear to others as charismatic, strict but loving leaders. The people of the Great Commonwealth - to include India and the Northern Africa - have fallen in love of her despite her very strict rule. Slavery within the Empire no longer officially exists as nearly every citizen is willing to die for the Queen.  India is still going through much reform after the assassination of the last moghul Bahur Shah II at the armstice of the bloody Indian Rebellion ending in 1857 CE.

Britain

The British Empire has an excellent spy network. Due to its shipping and maritime strengths, it also controls the North Sea, the North Atlantic, and most of the “Seven Seas” of the world.  With its understanding of the “electricical propertyes” of Aether, it is slowly attempting to build the worlds’ first flying ironclad based upon research and experiments with smaller vessels by Lord Ungarry at Oxford.  The Frontier Nations of America are yet a large colony of the British Empire and the Western Territories and the Middle Counties have not yet been acquired from Spain nor from France; so there is no such a thing as “The United States of America [ USA ]”.

France and Greater Iberia

The French have united with Spain and Portugal to form Greater Iberia but this is still in its founding stages with the loss of the Franco-Prussian war. The French Empire has tremendous support from partisans and other nationalist organizations as a result of its recent defeat at the hands of the Prussian Empire.  Spain and Portugal as well as its world-wide colonies remain fearsome, nationalistic, and dangerous places to visit unless one is a citizen or an ambassador.

Prussia Uber Alles

The Prussian Empire was first to learn of the Moongate technology by several years but the last to understand how Aether could be used to create Cold Steam.  Yes, the British stole the Moongate technology barely a year ago but have men tremendous leaps in understanding its potential uses in regards to Aether.  However, it was Herr Doktor Doktor Virchow’s discovery of Psychoplastic Ectoplasm that gave Emperor Wilhelm a fantastic idea; build an army of Automatic Men, the sort alluded to by Sir Francis Bacon nearly 250 years ago.  “Bi Gott! We will have a World Empire of 1000 years!” he exclaimed.  The idea of enslaving his own people so incensed statesman Otto von Bismarck that he resigned his post and left for Austria.

Austria-Hungary

The humility of losing to Emperor Wilhelm in the last Grossdeutschland War of Unification has left an indelible mark upon the psyche of the Austrian peoples. The arrival of former architect of the Prussian Army Herr Otto von Bismarck was fortuitous for Austria; he mechanized warfare using iron soldiers “Eisen-soldats” and flying fortresses.  These “pure efforts of war” are the way for the future he commented.  However, it has been noted that many other chancellors and counselers of the Austrian parliament think that a New Austrian Empire is a foolish thought against the fear that Prussia this next time will not be so kind; that Austria will be burned to the ground and its lineages extinguished.  Regardless, Chairman Franz Joseph has put great trust into Herr Bismarck and even making him Lord of War, second in command of the Empire.

The Great Blight

The remainder nations of Europe to include the vast populations of the Mediterranean Nations have yet to catch up with the Four Great Powers (Britain, France, Prussia, Austria-Hungary) in terms of understanding science and technology. They do try; spy networks abound and many of the gypsy tribes in those regions constantly roam the wilds reminding all that would listen to their shamans that a “great undoing is coming”, “The Great Blight”  Tales of frightful magic are told; of shambling undead, wolf-men, and flesh-golems of terrifying brutality. Indeed, the stories amount to a war greater than the world itself; a war across the entire face of all planets in the Solar system.

Two New Genres

Now that the MEST Basic Rules are out in the wild for public beta, I've been focusing on getting some genre documents generated to help solidify the Advanced Rules.  I've already got the Lovecraftian Mythos doc in the works but it needs a few more tweaks especially for the campaign rules.  It's essentially still in the Alpha stage.

In the meanwhile I've been working out two new genres that I think will properly stress-test the rules of MEST. The first is something I think will allow players to focus on campaign play using most non-lethal combat.  The second genre is something a bit more harsh but also allow focus on campaign play.  With these two I'll be able to work out the details of resource-based campaigns in a tighter fashion than with the Lovecraftian Mythos genre because recruiting and supplies will need to be much more tightly managed.

Anabasis
So the first genre will be based upon Sol Yurick's "The Warriors".  I've placed the book on order to do some research, and I setting aside some time to watch the film adaption.  I liked the film when I was much younger and I think it is evocative of faction-based clashes so popular with tabletop gaming.  The emphasis of this genre will be on team building through recruitment, and surviving the battles between gangs which - for whatever reasons - don't seem to have much access to machine-guns or pistols.  I think combat will be very interesting; characters will be vying for position using Scrums and Bonus Actions in order to make a difference.  I've taken another stab at streamlining the Grapple rules and I hope they keep the game playable.

Aggro84 put a post on Lead Adventure Forum here:
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=38508.30

Retropocalypse
This next genre is bit more free-form in that I'm borrowing from many post-apocalypse tropes such as Mad Max, Boy and his Dog, Fallout, Gamma World, and Aftermath; those last two being role-playing games from the days of yore and the first two being iconic dark-future films.  Fallout is of course probably the most familiar of the video games set in the genre and has lots of ideas worth tipping the hat to.  With this genre I get to prepare the MEST rules to deal with near-future weapons and equipment.  The genre will introduce a dystopian society where small bands of scavengers fight for th remaining scraps of civilization.  We'll get to play with super-soldiers, disfigured mutants, fealty to non-player factions, and old tech weapons.

I'll post both thematic draft write-ups on the MEST Tactics site under http://sites.google.com/site/mesttactics/attachments.  Any feedback, criticism, or ideas, are welcome.

"Warriors... Come Out and Playayayay!"

I started a thread over at LAF. Kitrok and I are looking for feedback for a Warriors / Post Apoc Project.

http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=38508.0

We would love to get any and all input.