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Feedback Appreciated: Heroic Power Armor Game


Ric Conway

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So the deal is this: Near future, Tech-based powered armor. My current thinking is to make this an Heroic game so that the focus is on the characters. Each "driver" or wearer of the armor will have a chosen field of study. Either a hard science or perhaps something a little more on the fringe.

Equipment will consist of a base-model exoskeleton, but several "mission mods" can be loaded on hardpoints at major joints (shoulders, back, Left and right arms, left and right legs) depending on what the job might call for. Think of Iron Man meets Thunderbirds, or, Centurions, if you remember that show...

So the question is: Thoughts on Character point and Disad limits? Norm Cha Max will be included.

 

Thanks!

 

-EB-

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If the characters aren't paying for equipment including the armor (whether built as OIHID or as piloted vehicles) then you could go with anything from 150-250 points.  The higher you go, the easier it is to implement a basic competency package (like piloting, weapon familiarities, etc..) that everyone has to have which then clearly defines to the players what their individual budgets are to personalize their PC's.

 

I would also recommend looking at the equipment Perk rules.  They create a structure for some player to carry more equipment than others without actually paying for the specific items as in a superhero setting.  It's sort of the heroic version of a gadget VPP that's under the control of the GM and removes most of the necessity of actually constructing everything the PC's use.  Ballparking the numbers is fine.

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For near future setting stuff, I would suggest Kazei Five in the Hero store. There is plentiful information on cyborgs and powered armor. It's worth a look.

 

As to the powered armor, you can approach it one on two ways. If you build the characters as Superheroic sorts, you can allocate points: 150 points on the person inside and 250 for armor and use Heroic amounts of Disadvantages instead of Superheroic. The other way would be to build Heroic characters and have the armor as part of equipment.

 

The first method gives you a point value on overall capability of the character, and the second way hides the points of the armor and treats it as equipment. In the case of an Iron Man or Bubblegum Crisis sort of powered armor setting, using superhuman build rules puts it all on one page a little more cleanly.

 

My two cents on the matter.

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You don't have to use superheroic rules to get equipment to show on the same character sheet.  OIHID or Foci based 'power armor' that adds to STR as a secondary characteristic can still be split off as equipment.  The real costs just won't show in the output unless added to notes or substituted for $ cost.  (This all assumes that you are using Hero Designer).  If you go the vehicle route then you will need a separate character sheet for the mech/vehicle. 

 

If you do go with a Foci or Vehicle based approach you should study the rules dealing with damage to Foci and Vehicles as in both cases can cause the 'armor' to lose abilities with damage.  If this is to a central story hook of the game you would probably want to create some damage charts ahead of time to speed up gameplay combat time.  With a Vehicle approach it's possible for the Vehicle to take Body damage without the Pilot also doing so.  With a Foci or OIHID approach the rules are primarily geared to determine damage to the Pilot.  However, If the Pilot/wearer takes Body, so does the 'armor' (How much Body it has is determined by the how many active points its built with I believe).

 

It really just depends on whether you want to be in control of the tech vs. letting the players design their own custom stuff.  If the former is what you are after I would

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