Robotic Fighter Force (sign ups)
Jul 24, 2013 18:44:55 GMT -8
Post by JW% on Jul 24, 2013 18:44:55 GMT -8
My name is Jake "Jay" Hawke. If you're reading this...
If you're reading this... what? I'm dead? Probably. Everyone dies someday, and my day will be sooner than most... but for all I know I gave you this while I'm sipping chocolate passion punch from my mansion and we're having a good laugh about it remembering those days of adventure. Let's start over... where to begin... maybe I should start... with the rebirth of magic.
It wasn't magic like you'd hear about in fairy tales. For all the cosmic horror it brought us, this was... somewhat... rooted in the science we know. At least, the science my grandfather knew. Nuclear terrorism, bio-warfare, genetic engineering... hard science in his day, yet none of that explained the sudden birth of dragons. kaiju, cryptids, monsters whatever you want to call them. There were dozens of names for them at first, and today there are hundreds more.
It was a startling wake up call to humanity. My grandfather told me that we had grown used to being the top of the food chain. These days I can't even imagine what that would be like. I can't contemplate what the first human to see one of these... I'll call them kaiju as my own personal choice. Actually, the first human to see one I don't want to contemplate, as they likely met a gruesome death at the creatures jaws or worse. Death tolls from the initial kaiju were high. My grandfather remembered arming himself and becoming a kaiju hunter. It's a miracle my father was even concieved given how little we knew at the time. Most conventional weapons of that time were useless against all but the weakest of kaiju.
But gradually we learned more. We felt we were starting to get a foot hold on a new life, and these monsters, most of which seemed to be speices of a single nest or perhaps just one unique life form, could be exterminated. A global network of international hunters and soldiers was created, my grandfather one of the first to sign up. We didn't connect appearances of kaiju with the other odd events globally. Mysterious islands that 'time forgot' appearing, intercontiental flights taking far longer than they should, strange lights in the sky, unrepeatable miracles of science nearly revolutionizing the world... even today we don't really know exactly what all of that was.
Because something else caught our attention so strongly that we reset our entire calendar. The first Daikaiju. It came out of the Pacific ocean, breaking so many laws of physics that my grandfather said half the worlds scientists went stark raving mad right on that day. Our world had gone from what was normal into a scifi drama in merely a generation. And with the first Daikaiju's appearance we were thrown even deeper into what had thought to be fiction. We were now firmly in the world of a disaster horror movie.
The first Daikaiju, a sort of tunneling reptilian whale ape about 35 meters tall, if you missed it's description in school, is believed to have been dispatched by repeated airstrikes and naval bombardment. We never did find the body. We would later declare it to have been a 'Class 2' Daikaiju. Causing roughly the same devestation as a tropical storm of that nature, but instinctively, or intelligently, targeting massive population centers. Two more Daikaiju, 'Class 1's hit within the same month. By the time the first official 'Class 3' hit, the military of each national superpower had already been strained to deal with such threats, and the damage property and loss of life was immeasurable.
We started building massive walls, construction feats never before attempted. First attempting grand efforts like walling off known kaiju 'hotspots' from the rest of the world... and when that failed we started trying to defend the 'hotspots' of humanity. Cities ringed in great walls to keep the titans outside at bay... underground bunkers to protect the population, re-enforced or built deep into the hardened bedrock to protect against tunneling monsters. Within my father's generation we witnessed humanity being driven 'mostly' underground, with only defense bases being above ground. Population levels plummeting. A growing despair found itself rooted in all our hearts as we witnessed the end of humanity. Not with some self made catasrophy, not by war or sweeping plague or global extinction event, but whimpering underground as beasts we didn't understand claimed the world as theirs.
Then came the miracle. Investigating ancient myths, in particular the story of the island of Talos, my father was part of the support team who discovered the One Hundred. One hundred of the specially trained elite of the world, my father-in law one of them, rumored to be genetically augmented and bio-engineered specifically for battling kaiju in all their forms, were given their weapons. Like the kaiju, these came in many names. Engineworks, GreatArmors, UberJaeger, MechaniGolems, MegaDeus, Giant Robots... as a personal note, I like to call them Mecha, even if that is often a bit vague.
Each one of them able to level the playing field, giving one human opperator a chance to go toe to toe with a class 2 daikaiju and have a good chance of victory. Weaponry that, for the most part, is identifiable, yet with output and abilities well beyond what the science of the time could even imagine. Each one so different from the other ninty nine that they were akin to magic.
So, my father became a magician. And he trained me, letting me become a true wizard. We learned how to repair the Mecha, should they become damaged in their brutal battles. We learned how to duplicate a number of their systems. There were still 'black boxes' built into them, the piloting interface and power cores for example. The One Hundred Mecha that we had been granted was still the limit. We still had a finite resource until we cracked those 'black box' mysteries. But we got better at keeping the mecha working, we even found ways to make them work better. One hundred dwindled to eighty... Class 4 daikaiju appeared, rarely, but enough to remind us that our strength wasn't just our courage, it was our technology working in tandem with our teamwork that bought victory. Sometimes at a cost.
When a mecha was thoroughly destroyed beyond salvage it was a painful loss to all of humanity. But what hurt the most was when the mecha was disabled, and the pilot lost. That left us with a useless 40 meter tall gravestone to one of our heroes. The 'black boxes' just seemed to stop working when the pilot wasn't there to operate them. It was like each time they entered their control station, their cockpit, whatever system the Mecha used, that person was judged, and only one person in all the world met that Mecha's aproval. And the loss of the pilot was far far more common than the complete destruction beyond salvage of the Mecha.
Only one person could operate their Mecha... and we weren't going to erradicate the kaiju threat in one generation. My father in law, stubborn and prideful though he was, grew old like any man. Being a Mecha Pilot was not without it's perks of course. He had fame, he had wealth... any of us who lived on the surface and fought kaiju on a daily basis have a sort of... 'rock star' status. Were we to retire back into the underground cities, which thanks to advances in living condition technology, automated production systems, and the lower global population, are far closer to utopia than anything my grandfather could have imagined already, would find ourselves in luxuries that only the elite of humanity could have, Mecha Pilots most of all. But duty and fate wouldn't let my father-in law retire. Not, at least, until we discovered that the one person who could operate their Mecha could spawn a blood line. Any child of the One Hundred inherited their parents ability to wield the weapons that were saving humanity. I like to think that my father-in law, even though he died before he could retire, is at peace. He only sired two daughters, a shame to his asian heritage, but he was able to train one into the warrior goddess who captured my heart.
I'd like to tell you this is the story of how our one hundred warriors pushed back the kaiju threat. How we reclaimed most of our world. How I fell in love with the daughter of one such hero, and how I lent her my strength, the strength of wisdom and technology if not fighting strength, when she took up the mantle of hero from him. How I wish I could tell you this was that story. It was the story I wished had never ended. It was the story where I was young and heroic. It was the story of my beautiful Sun and her firey strength, her gentle shyness, and her loving courage. That was the story of how my daughter came to be. My wonderful, treasure Patricia.
But that story... came to an abrupt end. A 'Class 5' Daikaiju attacked, the first and only of that level of power recorded to date. So many pilots, 'defeated'... the light of my life snuffed out along with many others as they finally beat the beast into a state of coma deep in the volcanic area known as Yellowstone, it's body burning away even as it tries to heal in it's coma. No, this isn't the story of them. This is the story of what came after. The story of how I could go on without Sun. This is the story of my daughter, and all the other orphaned children who have the heritage of heroes.
This story may be tragic, filled with heartbreak. It may be uplifting and triumphant. That is for you to decide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Character sheets:
Mecha Pilot
NAME:
AGE:
EXPERIENCE PILOTING: (not just sorties or training, but also the style they use. A one to ten skill level should be included)
APPEARANCE:
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE: (hopes, dreams, how they'll react to the stress of being forced into life or death combat, favorite color, etc)
GEAR: (Include clothing fasions favored, particularly the flight suit and what they would likely have in their pockets)
FURTHER BIOGRAPHY: (Include parents and any immediate family)
Mecha
PILOT:
NAME:
APPEARANCE:
CONTROL SYSTEMS: (what the cockpit looks like and how the pilot thinks they are controlling the mecha. Has little actual impact)
POWER CORE: (Type and rank. See 'Power Cores')
PARTS: (see 'parts'. A numberline will be provided if you don't want to include it yourself)
ADDITIONAL NOTES: (if you want to give your weapons more dramatic names, list it here)
Support Character
NAME:
JOB:
APPEARANCE:
FURTHER BIOGRAPHY:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you're reading this... what? I'm dead? Probably. Everyone dies someday, and my day will be sooner than most... but for all I know I gave you this while I'm sipping chocolate passion punch from my mansion and we're having a good laugh about it remembering those days of adventure. Let's start over... where to begin... maybe I should start... with the rebirth of magic.
It wasn't magic like you'd hear about in fairy tales. For all the cosmic horror it brought us, this was... somewhat... rooted in the science we know. At least, the science my grandfather knew. Nuclear terrorism, bio-warfare, genetic engineering... hard science in his day, yet none of that explained the sudden birth of dragons. kaiju, cryptids, monsters whatever you want to call them. There were dozens of names for them at first, and today there are hundreds more.
It was a startling wake up call to humanity. My grandfather told me that we had grown used to being the top of the food chain. These days I can't even imagine what that would be like. I can't contemplate what the first human to see one of these... I'll call them kaiju as my own personal choice. Actually, the first human to see one I don't want to contemplate, as they likely met a gruesome death at the creatures jaws or worse. Death tolls from the initial kaiju were high. My grandfather remembered arming himself and becoming a kaiju hunter. It's a miracle my father was even concieved given how little we knew at the time. Most conventional weapons of that time were useless against all but the weakest of kaiju.
But gradually we learned more. We felt we were starting to get a foot hold on a new life, and these monsters, most of which seemed to be speices of a single nest or perhaps just one unique life form, could be exterminated. A global network of international hunters and soldiers was created, my grandfather one of the first to sign up. We didn't connect appearances of kaiju with the other odd events globally. Mysterious islands that 'time forgot' appearing, intercontiental flights taking far longer than they should, strange lights in the sky, unrepeatable miracles of science nearly revolutionizing the world... even today we don't really know exactly what all of that was.
Because something else caught our attention so strongly that we reset our entire calendar. The first Daikaiju. It came out of the Pacific ocean, breaking so many laws of physics that my grandfather said half the worlds scientists went stark raving mad right on that day. Our world had gone from what was normal into a scifi drama in merely a generation. And with the first Daikaiju's appearance we were thrown even deeper into what had thought to be fiction. We were now firmly in the world of a disaster horror movie.
The first Daikaiju, a sort of tunneling reptilian whale ape about 35 meters tall, if you missed it's description in school, is believed to have been dispatched by repeated airstrikes and naval bombardment. We never did find the body. We would later declare it to have been a 'Class 2' Daikaiju. Causing roughly the same devestation as a tropical storm of that nature, but instinctively, or intelligently, targeting massive population centers. Two more Daikaiju, 'Class 1's hit within the same month. By the time the first official 'Class 3' hit, the military of each national superpower had already been strained to deal with such threats, and the damage property and loss of life was immeasurable.
We started building massive walls, construction feats never before attempted. First attempting grand efforts like walling off known kaiju 'hotspots' from the rest of the world... and when that failed we started trying to defend the 'hotspots' of humanity. Cities ringed in great walls to keep the titans outside at bay... underground bunkers to protect the population, re-enforced or built deep into the hardened bedrock to protect against tunneling monsters. Within my father's generation we witnessed humanity being driven 'mostly' underground, with only defense bases being above ground. Population levels plummeting. A growing despair found itself rooted in all our hearts as we witnessed the end of humanity. Not with some self made catasrophy, not by war or sweeping plague or global extinction event, but whimpering underground as beasts we didn't understand claimed the world as theirs.
Then came the miracle. Investigating ancient myths, in particular the story of the island of Talos, my father was part of the support team who discovered the One Hundred. One hundred of the specially trained elite of the world, my father-in law one of them, rumored to be genetically augmented and bio-engineered specifically for battling kaiju in all their forms, were given their weapons. Like the kaiju, these came in many names. Engineworks, GreatArmors, UberJaeger, MechaniGolems, MegaDeus, Giant Robots... as a personal note, I like to call them Mecha, even if that is often a bit vague.
Each one of them able to level the playing field, giving one human opperator a chance to go toe to toe with a class 2 daikaiju and have a good chance of victory. Weaponry that, for the most part, is identifiable, yet with output and abilities well beyond what the science of the time could even imagine. Each one so different from the other ninty nine that they were akin to magic.
So, my father became a magician. And he trained me, letting me become a true wizard. We learned how to repair the Mecha, should they become damaged in their brutal battles. We learned how to duplicate a number of their systems. There were still 'black boxes' built into them, the piloting interface and power cores for example. The One Hundred Mecha that we had been granted was still the limit. We still had a finite resource until we cracked those 'black box' mysteries. But we got better at keeping the mecha working, we even found ways to make them work better. One hundred dwindled to eighty... Class 4 daikaiju appeared, rarely, but enough to remind us that our strength wasn't just our courage, it was our technology working in tandem with our teamwork that bought victory. Sometimes at a cost.
When a mecha was thoroughly destroyed beyond salvage it was a painful loss to all of humanity. But what hurt the most was when the mecha was disabled, and the pilot lost. That left us with a useless 40 meter tall gravestone to one of our heroes. The 'black boxes' just seemed to stop working when the pilot wasn't there to operate them. It was like each time they entered their control station, their cockpit, whatever system the Mecha used, that person was judged, and only one person in all the world met that Mecha's aproval. And the loss of the pilot was far far more common than the complete destruction beyond salvage of the Mecha.
Only one person could operate their Mecha... and we weren't going to erradicate the kaiju threat in one generation. My father in law, stubborn and prideful though he was, grew old like any man. Being a Mecha Pilot was not without it's perks of course. He had fame, he had wealth... any of us who lived on the surface and fought kaiju on a daily basis have a sort of... 'rock star' status. Were we to retire back into the underground cities, which thanks to advances in living condition technology, automated production systems, and the lower global population, are far closer to utopia than anything my grandfather could have imagined already, would find ourselves in luxuries that only the elite of humanity could have, Mecha Pilots most of all. But duty and fate wouldn't let my father-in law retire. Not, at least, until we discovered that the one person who could operate their Mecha could spawn a blood line. Any child of the One Hundred inherited their parents ability to wield the weapons that were saving humanity. I like to think that my father-in law, even though he died before he could retire, is at peace. He only sired two daughters, a shame to his asian heritage, but he was able to train one into the warrior goddess who captured my heart.
I'd like to tell you this is the story of how our one hundred warriors pushed back the kaiju threat. How we reclaimed most of our world. How I fell in love with the daughter of one such hero, and how I lent her my strength, the strength of wisdom and technology if not fighting strength, when she took up the mantle of hero from him. How I wish I could tell you this was that story. It was the story I wished had never ended. It was the story where I was young and heroic. It was the story of my beautiful Sun and her firey strength, her gentle shyness, and her loving courage. That was the story of how my daughter came to be. My wonderful, treasure Patricia.
But that story... came to an abrupt end. A 'Class 5' Daikaiju attacked, the first and only of that level of power recorded to date. So many pilots, 'defeated'... the light of my life snuffed out along with many others as they finally beat the beast into a state of coma deep in the volcanic area known as Yellowstone, it's body burning away even as it tries to heal in it's coma. No, this isn't the story of them. This is the story of what came after. The story of how I could go on without Sun. This is the story of my daughter, and all the other orphaned children who have the heritage of heroes.
This story may be tragic, filled with heartbreak. It may be uplifting and triumphant. That is for you to decide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Character sheets:
Mecha Pilot
NAME:
AGE:
EXPERIENCE PILOTING: (not just sorties or training, but also the style they use. A one to ten skill level should be included)
APPEARANCE:
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE: (hopes, dreams, how they'll react to the stress of being forced into life or death combat, favorite color, etc)
GEAR: (Include clothing fasions favored, particularly the flight suit and what they would likely have in their pockets)
FURTHER BIOGRAPHY: (Include parents and any immediate family)
Mecha
PILOT:
NAME:
APPEARANCE:
CONTROL SYSTEMS: (what the cockpit looks like and how the pilot thinks they are controlling the mecha. Has little actual impact)
POWER CORE: (Type and rank. See 'Power Cores')
PARTS: (see 'parts'. A numberline will be provided if you don't want to include it yourself)
ADDITIONAL NOTES: (if you want to give your weapons more dramatic names, list it here)
Support Character
NAME:
JOB:
APPEARANCE:
FURTHER BIOGRAPHY:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{Power Cores, Parts, and Weapons}
Power Cores
Power Cores are what give your mecha the power to move, attack, and do what they were built to do. Cores come ranked one to ten(though in order for a mecha to walk a minimal of rank 2 is needed), as well as having different effects which is how mechanics have divided them.
1) Super Atomic (a basic, dependable power core, delievering efficent power through breaking of atomic bonds of a heavy element. To determine it's rank, pick a number between 1 and 10, the higher the better.)
2) Hydro Plasma (playfully called "steam powered", the mecha has channels of energy that flow through it's body and 'leak' out as steam jets and it breaths in fluids to cool itself. The mecha starts off with the lowest amount of power, but will start growing in speed, strength, and firepower the hotter it runs. To determine it's rank, pick two numbers between 1 and 10 with a difference of at least 3. The lower number is the initial output, the higher number is the maximum output. The median of the number is what is counted as it's "true" rating.)
3) Exotic Matter (The mecha draws power from an interaction with materials science only theorizes about. The power output of these engines is somewhat less than the standard of the Super Atomic, but clever pilots have found ways to utilize the exotic matter to bend the laws of physics. Pick a 1 to 10 rank, and then subtract from that two points for every ability you have linked to your core.)
Exotic abilities include but are not limited to levitation, protective forcefields, and regeneration, and each draw power from your core like any weapon linked to your core. So an "Exotic Matter, Rank 5" power core with Forcefields runs the same as a "Super Atomic, Rank 3", but can generate a forcefield that will stop up to 3 points of damage(2 points if it has to shoot, 1 point if it has to walk).
4) Ambient Absorption (the mecha somehow draws a selected type of power from the world around it, leading it to, in normal circumstances, be almost as efficient as the Super Atomic mode. However under certain conditions the mecha could find itself with much lower output due to a lack of fuel, able to overclock itself when in a fuel rich environment, and even able to negate through absorption if it is attacked with the specific kind of energy it was intended to absorb. A number between 1 and 10 is used to describe the rank that it would normally operate at and the energy being absorbed(heat, light, etc) is declared at creation.)
5) Spiritual (basically the mecha is fueled by the pilots life force/psychic energy/fighting spirit through an unknown means. As such there's an advantage of the pilots determination being able to 'overclock' the system, but the pilot tends to take trauma damage during a fight. The 1 to 10 rank is what it would normally operate at, despite being subject to a range equal to the pilots experience.)
6) HyperBiological Process (this is what most kaiju use. It resembles a normal biological process yet breaks various laws of thermodynamics and physics by scaling the system up beyond what should be the breaking point. The rank depends on the kaiju size and power, generally about one more than the 'class' of daikaiju though with some variation). The trade off for the HyperBiological process is that the mecha's speed no longer seems determined by it's weight the same way, as this kind of power is stored in every cell of the body, rather than hydraulics it has muscles which are supplied nutrients via blood. A Hyper Biological's speed is determined with the formula: (C/(HP/60))
~~~~~~~
Parts
A mecha is made up of various parts. Typically this means a head, a torso, two legs, and two arms but there are additional parts that either add a layer of armor or even whole new limbs(wings, tails, etc). Each part has it's own number of hitpoints, and when that part is damaged to 0 hitpoints it ceases functioning and all parts that are connected to the torso through it also cease functioning(you can't use the gun in your right hand if your arm has been chopped off at the shoulder).
The more hitpoints your mecha has, the more power is needed to move it. 1 point of power is needed to move 20 hitpoints one step. Given that the minimal number of hitpoints possible for a mecha is 26, your power core should be at least rank 2 in order to walk.
Mecha stand at about 40 meters. Give or take. The less hitpoints you use for your 'parts' the smaller your mecha is presumed to be. A rough "size rank"((HP-15)/10) will be assigned based on the total number of hitpoints your mecha has, and that along with pilot rating, power core rating, and speed rating(based on your power core divided by your total hitpoints divided by 20 or (C/(HP/20))... basically how many steps your mecha can travel with all power devoted to moving it. If the mecha has flight ability the speed is considered +2.
All the primary hitpoints(head, torso, arms, legs and wings by default) are to be expressed on a one to one hundred number line. Additional hitpoints(armor and wings if desired) are to be expressed on an additional number line that overlaps the first.
Head: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Typically houses the cockpit and is uses as an ejection system to save the pilot by launching the mecha's head safely away from the battlefield. Can have one lesser weapon mounted on it and Helm.
Helm: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Surrounds the head adding additional armor but negating any head mounted weapons. Can have one standard weapon mounted on it.
Torso: 8 to 16 hitpoints. Houses the power core, can also house an ejection-less cockpit. Can mount one Superior weapon on it or as many Exotic abilities as desired if the power core is an Exotic Matter system. Can not use Superior weapon if a Breastplate is mounted, but can mount it as a hold out weapon for if the Breastplate is destroyed. Can mount two manipulator weapon holsters.
Breastplate: 6 to 16 hitpoints. Additional armor for the front of the torso. Can mount one Superior weapon on it, two standard, or four lesser.
Backplate: 6 to 16 hitpoints. Further armor for the back of the torso. Can mount one Superior weapon on it, two standard weapons, four lesser weapons, or one flight system.
Left Wing: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Back mounted limb, can be flight system or manipulator. Cannot be mounted if Backplate is in place. If both wings are active flight system is assumed.
Left Wing Mount: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one standard or two lesser weapons.
Right Wing: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Back mounted limb, can be flight system or manipulator. Cannot be mounted if Backplate is in place. If both wings are active and not manipulator flight system is assumed.
Right Wing Mount: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one standard or two lesser weapons.
Left Arm: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Shoulder mounted limb with manipulator. Can mount one standard weapon, two lesser weapons or Left Vambrace.
Left Vambrace: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one lesser weapon.
Right Arm: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Shoulder mounted limb with manipulator. Can mount one standard weapon, two lesser weapons, or Right Vambrace.
Right Vambrace: Left Vambrace: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one lesser weapon.
Tail: 4 to 16 hitpoints. Hip mounted limb. Can function as two legs if over 8 hitpoints. Can mount one standard weapon or two lesser weapons.
Left Leg: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Hip mounted limb. Can mount one lesser weapon or Left Boot.
Left Boot: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one lesser weapon or manipulator weapon holster.
Right Leg: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Hip mounted limb. Can mount one lesser weapon.
Right Boot: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one lesser weapon or manipulator weapon holster.
Manipulator Weapon: 2 to 20 hitpoints. Counts as a Standard weapon, requires a manipulator limb to utilize. Two manipulator weapons can be combined into a superior manipulator, but as this requires two holsters and two manipulator limbs, the effect is roughly the same. Manipulator weapons always use ammunition unless they are melee only.
~~~~~~~~~
Weapons: Come in a combination of three levels(lesser, standard, superior) with lesser dealing half damage while superior deal double damage. If the weapon is powered by the mecha power core then it does damage equal to the amount of power devoted to it for that turn plus it's level adjustment(to a minimal of 1 point of damage). Alternatively the weapon may use ammunition, in which case lesser weapons deal 2 damage and can fire 8 times before their ammunition is exhausted, standard weapons deal 4 damage and can be fired 4 times, while superior weapons deal 8 damage and can be fired only twice before reloading.
Power Cores
Power Cores are what give your mecha the power to move, attack, and do what they were built to do. Cores come ranked one to ten(though in order for a mecha to walk a minimal of rank 2 is needed), as well as having different effects which is how mechanics have divided them.
1) Super Atomic (a basic, dependable power core, delievering efficent power through breaking of atomic bonds of a heavy element. To determine it's rank, pick a number between 1 and 10, the higher the better.)
2) Hydro Plasma (playfully called "steam powered", the mecha has channels of energy that flow through it's body and 'leak' out as steam jets and it breaths in fluids to cool itself. The mecha starts off with the lowest amount of power, but will start growing in speed, strength, and firepower the hotter it runs. To determine it's rank, pick two numbers between 1 and 10 with a difference of at least 3. The lower number is the initial output, the higher number is the maximum output. The median of the number is what is counted as it's "true" rating.)
3) Exotic Matter (The mecha draws power from an interaction with materials science only theorizes about. The power output of these engines is somewhat less than the standard of the Super Atomic, but clever pilots have found ways to utilize the exotic matter to bend the laws of physics. Pick a 1 to 10 rank, and then subtract from that two points for every ability you have linked to your core.)
Exotic abilities include but are not limited to levitation, protective forcefields, and regeneration, and each draw power from your core like any weapon linked to your core. So an "Exotic Matter, Rank 5" power core with Forcefields runs the same as a "Super Atomic, Rank 3", but can generate a forcefield that will stop up to 3 points of damage(2 points if it has to shoot, 1 point if it has to walk).
4) Ambient Absorption (the mecha somehow draws a selected type of power from the world around it, leading it to, in normal circumstances, be almost as efficient as the Super Atomic mode. However under certain conditions the mecha could find itself with much lower output due to a lack of fuel, able to overclock itself when in a fuel rich environment, and even able to negate through absorption if it is attacked with the specific kind of energy it was intended to absorb. A number between 1 and 10 is used to describe the rank that it would normally operate at and the energy being absorbed(heat, light, etc) is declared at creation.)
5) Spiritual (basically the mecha is fueled by the pilots life force/psychic energy/fighting spirit through an unknown means. As such there's an advantage of the pilots determination being able to 'overclock' the system, but the pilot tends to take trauma damage during a fight. The 1 to 10 rank is what it would normally operate at, despite being subject to a range equal to the pilots experience.)
6) HyperBiological Process (this is what most kaiju use. It resembles a normal biological process yet breaks various laws of thermodynamics and physics by scaling the system up beyond what should be the breaking point. The rank depends on the kaiju size and power, generally about one more than the 'class' of daikaiju though with some variation). The trade off for the HyperBiological process is that the mecha's speed no longer seems determined by it's weight the same way, as this kind of power is stored in every cell of the body, rather than hydraulics it has muscles which are supplied nutrients via blood. A Hyper Biological's speed is determined with the formula: (C/(HP/60))
~~~~~~~
Parts
A mecha is made up of various parts. Typically this means a head, a torso, two legs, and two arms but there are additional parts that either add a layer of armor or even whole new limbs(wings, tails, etc). Each part has it's own number of hitpoints, and when that part is damaged to 0 hitpoints it ceases functioning and all parts that are connected to the torso through it also cease functioning(you can't use the gun in your right hand if your arm has been chopped off at the shoulder).
The more hitpoints your mecha has, the more power is needed to move it. 1 point of power is needed to move 20 hitpoints one step. Given that the minimal number of hitpoints possible for a mecha is 26, your power core should be at least rank 2 in order to walk.
Mecha stand at about 40 meters. Give or take. The less hitpoints you use for your 'parts' the smaller your mecha is presumed to be. A rough "size rank"((HP-15)/10) will be assigned based on the total number of hitpoints your mecha has, and that along with pilot rating, power core rating, and speed rating(based on your power core divided by your total hitpoints divided by 20 or (C/(HP/20))... basically how many steps your mecha can travel with all power devoted to moving it. If the mecha has flight ability the speed is considered +2.
All the primary hitpoints(head, torso, arms, legs and wings by default) are to be expressed on a one to one hundred number line. Additional hitpoints(armor and wings if desired) are to be expressed on an additional number line that overlaps the first.
Head: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Typically houses the cockpit and is uses as an ejection system to save the pilot by launching the mecha's head safely away from the battlefield. Can have one lesser weapon mounted on it and Helm.
Helm: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Surrounds the head adding additional armor but negating any head mounted weapons. Can have one standard weapon mounted on it.
Torso: 8 to 16 hitpoints. Houses the power core, can also house an ejection-less cockpit. Can mount one Superior weapon on it or as many Exotic abilities as desired if the power core is an Exotic Matter system. Can not use Superior weapon if a Breastplate is mounted, but can mount it as a hold out weapon for if the Breastplate is destroyed. Can mount two manipulator weapon holsters.
Breastplate: 6 to 16 hitpoints. Additional armor for the front of the torso. Can mount one Superior weapon on it, two standard, or four lesser.
Backplate: 6 to 16 hitpoints. Further armor for the back of the torso. Can mount one Superior weapon on it, two standard weapons, four lesser weapons, or one flight system.
Left Wing: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Back mounted limb, can be flight system or manipulator. Cannot be mounted if Backplate is in place. If both wings are active flight system is assumed.
Left Wing Mount: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one standard or two lesser weapons.
Right Wing: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Back mounted limb, can be flight system or manipulator. Cannot be mounted if Backplate is in place. If both wings are active and not manipulator flight system is assumed.
Right Wing Mount: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one standard or two lesser weapons.
Left Arm: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Shoulder mounted limb with manipulator. Can mount one standard weapon, two lesser weapons or Left Vambrace.
Left Vambrace: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one lesser weapon.
Right Arm: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Shoulder mounted limb with manipulator. Can mount one standard weapon, two lesser weapons, or Right Vambrace.
Right Vambrace: Left Vambrace: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one lesser weapon.
Tail: 4 to 16 hitpoints. Hip mounted limb. Can function as two legs if over 8 hitpoints. Can mount one standard weapon or two lesser weapons.
Left Leg: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Hip mounted limb. Can mount one lesser weapon or Left Boot.
Left Boot: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one lesser weapon or manipulator weapon holster.
Right Leg: 4 to 8 hitpoints. Hip mounted limb. Can mount one lesser weapon.
Right Boot: 2 to 6 hitpoints. Can mount one lesser weapon or manipulator weapon holster.
Manipulator Weapon: 2 to 20 hitpoints. Counts as a Standard weapon, requires a manipulator limb to utilize. Two manipulator weapons can be combined into a superior manipulator, but as this requires two holsters and two manipulator limbs, the effect is roughly the same. Manipulator weapons always use ammunition unless they are melee only.
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Weapons: Come in a combination of three levels(lesser, standard, superior) with lesser dealing half damage while superior deal double damage. If the weapon is powered by the mecha power core then it does damage equal to the amount of power devoted to it for that turn plus it's level adjustment(to a minimal of 1 point of damage). Alternatively the weapon may use ammunition, in which case lesser weapons deal 2 damage and can fire 8 times before their ammunition is exhausted, standard weapons deal 4 damage and can be fired 4 times, while superior weapons deal 8 damage and can be fired only twice before reloading.