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Ideas thread: Giant Stompy Robots (40k Titans RP)

4WheelSword

4WheelSword

The original N-body Problem
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Okay, so I had an idea for an RP earlier, but it's really baseline right now. Essentially the idea would be a group of 3-5 players as princeps of a titan legion. A squadron of lighter titans (warhounds and reavers) stomping around, doing their thing, and... that's about as far as I've got so far. So, people of SV, I wondered if I could ask a few questions, get some ideas, help me make this thing great.

The first and most obvious is what system to run it under. I'm thinking V3 of adeva, which would make things nice and lethal and take only a little conversion. AT fields as void shields, no AT powers beyond the basic ones. A damage system needing only a little tweaking. A nice mechanic to represent the stresses of combat and the issues princeps face with their deep MIU links. It would be a lethal game, but what is 40k without lethality.
However, I would be very interested to hear ideas on other systems.

Next is campaign setting. It's been a while since I've done anything serious with 40k fluff, so there's probably plenty of canon campaigns to play with. But equally, would it be better to have something more free for all or more disconnected? Do we want to see chaos, orks, tau and eldar, or just one, or even an 'enemy of my enemy' situation?

I'd love to hear thoughts more specifically on things like set piece battles to get involved in, issues that could be faced. Hell, would it work better as an almost purist war fighting rp, or would quiet moments be more welcome, sections outside of the fighting?

So yes. Any sort of thoughts this inspires would be most welcome.
 
Well why not use a 40k ruleset?

as for campaigns it's simple to make your own then expand it as the players discover it.

To slowly and intentionally build your plot that no one can see coming.
 
Mekton Zeta works very well for anything involving giant mecha, but I'm not sure it's the best possible option for a 40k Titanicus game (but then, I'm equally uncertain about adapting AdEva).
 
Zedalb said:
Well why not use a 40k ruleset?
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Because most of them are terrible, especially for vehicle combat. Obviously I have no objection to d100 systems, but there's a reason I prefer v3 adeva of v2.5.

Zedalb said:
as for campaigns it's simple to make your own then expand it as the players discover it.

To slowly and intentionally build your plot that no one can see coming.
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Well yes, but I generally imagine ideas threads are hunts for ideas, rather than 'well it's easy but i'm not telling you'.

[QUOTE="DarthThrawn, post: 4288922, member: 102"(but then, I'm equally uncertain about adapting AdEva).[/QUOTE]
I'd be interested in hearing why? :)
I'll take a look at Mekton Zeta.
 
HMS Sophia said:
I'd be interested in hearing why? :)
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There's one class that doesn't pilot giant stompy robots, and another one devoted to doing shenanigans with the AT field. And then you'd probably have to revamp how supply works.
I'll take a look at Mekton Zeta.
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Expect a lot of number crunching, and getting to step #14 and finding out you missed something in step #2.

I'd also recommend Big Eyes Small Mouth 2nd edition with the Big Robots Cool Starships and Space Fantasy books.

Or GURPS with Ultra-Tech; Spaceships 1; Spaceships 4: Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha; Pyramid #3/30 and #3/40.
 
samdamandias said:
There's one class that doesn't pilot giant stompy robots, and another one devoted to doing shenanigans with the AT field. And then you'd probably have to revamp how supply works.
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V3. AT field specialist and Ops officer are both gone.

samdamandias said:
Expect a lot of number crunching, and getting to step #14 and finding out you missed something in step #2.

I'd also recommend Big Eyes Small Mouth 2nd edition with the Big Robots Cool Starships and Space Fantasy books.

Or GURPS with Ultra-Tech; Spaceships 1; Spaceships 4: Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha; Pyramid #3/30 and #3/40.
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Number crunching is, unfortunately, what I want to avoid. Much as I like gurps, I'd like a much more fluid game.
 
HMS Sophia said:
Number crunching is, unfortunately, what I want to avoid. Much as I like gurps, I'd like a much more fluid game.
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So Mekton Zeta is right out.

GURPS doesn't actually involve that much number crunching. Pretty much all the math is done before play starts, and building a character doesn't require anything more complicated than basic arithmetic. (Optimizing a character is where you break out the graphing calculator or spreadsheets.)

I mean, I can outline a Titan right now:
TL 11^, SM +3 (Knight), +5 (Warhound), + 6(Reaver), +7(Warlord), +8(Emperor)
1-2 Armor
3 Shield generator
4 Gun!*
5 Gun!*
6 Comm/Sensors
Core: Command
1-2 Armor
4 Gun!*
5 Gun!*
6 Engineering
Core: Power
1-2 Armor
3 Shield Generator
4 Legs
5 Legs
6 Power

Design switches: No Automation, Neural jack (or whatever it's called)

Honestly, BESM 2 sounds like your best bet.
 
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While I figure out what system I'm thinking of, how about a few plot idea's:

- Fighting Orks in a system bordering enemy space. Important world but not a forge or hive. At some point, said enemy turn up and help the imperials fight the orks. Cue tension and negotiating, which the princeps, as representatives of the legio, get to be involved in.

- Fighting Chaos during a crusade, dealing with all the fun of corruption that begets. More of a pure stompy smash, but with vurious things.

- Fighting tyranids, or 'how many Vietnam parallels can I make with giant robots'.

- The obvious 'take back the system' dawn of war style mass brawl. Eldar, Imperials, Orks, other Imperials, Tao, etc etc. Grand arching plot of silliness most likely. System is a chaos gate, you know the sort.

Thoughts on those?
 
HMS Sophia said:
- Fighting Orks in a system bordering enemy space. Important world but not a forge or hive. At some point, said enemy turn up and help the imperials fight the orks. Cue tension and negotiating, which the princeps, as representatives of the legio, get to be involved in.
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Honestly, sounds kind of boring until the third party shows up.
- Fighting Chaos during a crusade, dealing with all the fun of corruption that begets. More of a pure stompy smash, but with various things.
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Are we Chaos Princeps or regular Princeps?
- Fighting tyranids, or 'how many Vietnam parallels can I make with giant robots'.
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Unless I can wear a Bio-Titan's skull like a hat, not really interested.
- The obvious 'take back the system' dawn of war style mass brawl. Eldar, Imperials, Orks, other Imperials, Tao, etc etc. Grand arching plot of silliness most likely. System is a chaos gate, you know the sort.
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For some reason this has me imagining Princeps Hugh Mann
 
samdamandias said:
Honestly, sounds kind of boring until the third party shows up.
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Them showing up could pretty much be the opening section. There's only so many gargants you can shoot.

samdamandias said:
Are we Chaos Princeps or regular Princeps?
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Depends on if the players preferred 'falling to chaos' or 'take over imperial world' as a game.

samdamandias said:
Unless I can wear a Bio-Titan's skull like a hat, not really interested.
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It would make an attractive addition to a reaper.
 
HMS Sophia said:
V3. AT field specialist and Ops officer are both gone.
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@IcePickLobotomy and I are working on Ops Director, at least, but in the game's current state it ain't a thing.

AT specialist isn't a character class anymore, though it is a viable build - AT powers and field patterns are purchaseable by anyone. There aren't really 'classes' any more, character development is essentially 'pick a root and pre-game history, pick an Eva type, and spend xp semi-freely to develop your character in whichever direction you favour'. Roots, stat outlays, and Eva types can incline your Evangelion to one particular specialization, or a general category of them, but there aren't really classes anymore.
 
From memory cthulhu tech had reasonable mech and weapon rules. Didn't really explore them too much bit it's got the bio mechanical and pure mechanical categories along with grades of weapon damage so you don't get the paint scratched much by infantry weapons. Like any system not quite designed for the purpose you'd need to do some number crunching to design the titans but I think it'd fit. Use of the sanity system optional but if you want combat fatigue or chaos corruption it might fit well.

The good old 3 way fight might be fun. Chaos / orcs vs Imperium vs Eldar/dark eldar all drawn to a moderately developed planet by an artefact. Leave the edges blurry and you've got room for strategic fun and politics in between mandatory rounds of giant stompy robot.
 
Well, this makes me glad I joined the site. Because what is better in the Grim Dark future than Giant Robots?

Waiting to see what the system will be.
 
I don't quite have a preference, but I will say that you shouldn't consider Mekton Zeta. I was in a long running MZ game and we had to house rule it into horrendous pieces to make it atleast slightly sane.

And it should say something that my group has, as a whole, refuses to hand out our house rules so that "they can suffer like we have."

On another note, I'm fine with any system, including Giant Guardian Generation (which I very much doubt would fit.)
 
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Is there still a player slot open? If so,
HMS Sophia said:
- The obvious 'take back the system' dawn of war style mass brawl. Eldar, Imperials, Orks, other Imperials, Tao, etc etc. Grand arching plot of silliness most likely. System is a chaos gate, you know the sort.
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This would probably be my vote for plot, but they all sound good. I'm fine with learning any system.
 
Hi guys! Guess who's back!

I'm actually going to start looking at player recruitment ideas now and rule set. So, if you'd like to play, I'd like two votes from you:
1) System
- BESM 2
- GURPS
- AdEva

2) Character position
- Reaver Princeps
- Warhound Princeps
- Transport fleet command
- Others I can't be sure of.

I'm looking at maybe 5-6 players max? 4 titans.
 
Since majority rules is a really inefficent and harmful democratic practice, I'll be providing my votes in order of preference. Academia Nut actually provided some links to some really excellent videos in his Age of Strife quest on this subject. The short version is: If my first vote is not in the majority, please switch to my second vote to see if it is in the majority.

System vote
1) Adeva
2) BESM

Character Position Votes
1) Reaver Pricepts
2) Transport Fleet Command (why am I getting a Rogue Trader vibe from this one?)
 
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