bpmasher

Robot Warriors lost me at advantages being a negative value, and disadvantages being a positive value. It's totally upside down compared to modern Hero specs. I stopped reading at that point, and turned to Ultimate Vehicle, which resulted in the Atlas writeup I did. The END reserve for mecha in TUV give a mechanism for overheating and taking recoveries, which is genius on part of the writers. I think they knew folks would go to Battletech mecha for inspiration. I am still figuring out which armor values and END reserves to use for various mecha. Maybe take the heat sink values off the published Battletech mechs, and reverse engineer them to provide END and REC values for specific mechs.

Here's the classic Atlas with modern styling:

I don't know whether to go theatre of the mind or just mapped combat with these versions of mechs. The original idea was to use BT minis alongside with other vehicles and foot soldiers on the table. You can do that with the BT board game itself though, so I don't know whether I'm going to just ditch this project or work it into something. I had other ideas for mecha, and the Ultimate Vehicle seems to be able to do robot suits passably, so I could create a homebrew campaign around a military-themed game with mecha.

Cracked open Ultimate Vehicle and started tinkering. Here's the result. Atlas 7-D (assault 'mech) Size: 10 Length: 10" (20 meters) Width: 5" (10 meters) Mass: 100 tons DCV: -6 STR: 60 KB: -10 BODY: 20 SPD: 4 (3" per phase, 54km/h) Armor, front: 2+18 (20 DEF) (coverage 180 degrees) Armor, rear: 2+10 (12 DEF) (coverage 180 degrees) Weapons: Heavy autocannon RKA 4d6½, 5 charges (1 ton of ammunition) Long-range missiles RKA 2d6, AF20, 12 charges (2 tons of ammunition) Short-range missiles RKA 3d6, AF6, 15 charges (1 ton of ammunition) 4x medium lasers RKA 3d6½, increased END cost (x3, 15 END per shot) Power Plant: Endurance Reserve (60 END, 60 REC) Systems: (same as TUV book) Mech sensors, Radar Nightsight System Mech communications system Ejection seat Life support

Sounds workable. I had this idea to run Heavy Gear-esque mecha for another campaign idea. Trying to wrap my head around the Robot Warriors book right now. Theater of the mind seems to be the way to go when minis aren't available (too few mecha war games).

@Chris Goodwin How would you create a robot that carries different weapons depending on the mission (using them like an infantryman, with hands/extra limbs)? edit: I'm reading through the original Robot Warriors at the moment.

I'd love to run a military-themed campaign using my Battletech minis in tandem with Hero System created characters. The Dark Champions book has good military templates, and one could do a special forces game where the players are a scout team working for a mercenary company in the Inner Sphere. If I get the Clan Invasion box, it could be either a clan game or an inner sphere game. Dark Champions has tons of guns in it too, and one could just "re-skin" them using the lore and weapons manufacturers of the Battletech Universe. I'm picturing a mech pilot loadout with a PDW, camouflage cloak, survival kit and rations for a long-range scouting unit, for instance. Something like the long-range desert patrols in World War 2.

Came up with a campaign skeleton where I create a number of maps with my warmat terrain, and things will develop naturally from the outcome of the battles the characters will face. I also decided to let my players create their own super powers. I am going to give one or both player characters junior leadership, where they can command a number (squad) of men, and I will run the squad following orders as best they can. I have this vision of the battlemat being set up where I give the players a tactical map of the situation with no enemy troops on the map, and they have to decide where to send their men, where to set up support weapons etc. Sometimes they might have tank support available as well (I have a couple of painted Sherman tanks). Might have to come up with morale rules (EGO rolls?) for the NPCs and ze Germans they will be facing. I don't know how to deal with that yet. Maybe a loss of a man will have the rest of the squad or fireteam have to roll morale, and see if they freeze, go beyond the call of duty or flee. A morale table might come in handy, where 1-2 is flee/rout, 3-4 is freeze, and 6 is a beyond the call of duty result where they gain a bonus to further morale rolls. I'll call this campaign Fireteam '44 - Normandy. When I paint up my 20mm collection some more we'll get to the Soviet bear versus Nazis in Ukraine or something. Some Normandy -specific stuff: 1. Bocage acts as heavy cover for men, so -4 to -6 to OCV versus infantry in bocage. Use the upper body (High Shot) hit location chart to generate results when firing at troops in bocage. 2. The Germans are Osttruppen (low morale, low training captured Soviets and other nationalities) so they have low OCV/DCV but they're armed like regular German troops, so MG42s, Kar 98ks and Panzerfausts will be available to them. Later on in the campaign the foe will be much more fierce in a fight, when facing Fallschirmjaegers and panzer divisions. 3. The initial air drop scenario will have random scatter directions with a scatter diagram roll on d6s. The jump itself is resolved as a skill roll, where a fumble (natural 18) results in injury and the character will have to be recovered by other squad members. A normal success is further rolled on the scatter dice, just with less deviation than a failure. A critical success lands you on the spot you chose.

Drum Technique - Holding the sticks.

Yeah I bounced around some concepts in my head (on paper). Character options: (TEMPLARS) Politician/orator, agent, inquisitor, soldier/officer, occultist (ASSASSINS) Pirate, woodland indian, half-blood, savage, criminal, shaman Werewolf, Vampire Combat will be melee-focused with muskets firing at the beginning of combat. I wrote up some weapons stats (muskets, flintlock pistols, tomahawks, swords). I might use a spell memorization system if I don't come up with something more interesting. Hit locations, disabling, endurance all in use. Some way to deal with harsh environmental conditions like frost and storms.

I'm going with the pulp approach, include some pirates, outlaws, savage men and possibly werewolves and vampires into the mix. The metaplot will revolve around Templars vs. Assassins from the Assassin's Creed game line.

I don't have the Pulp Hero book, but I was wondering whether it would have stuff/character powers for a colonial America game based in the FIW period? I have this idea for a mixed fantasy and historical game based on my reading of the Crucible of War book by Fred Anderson. It covers the Seven Years War from the American perspective and gives tremendous setting materials for a game to be based on it. I don't know what style to run the game in yet, but I'm fascinated by the period, and the concept of Wilderness War. Maybe I'll throw in some werewolves and goblins.

For genre/theme it's either Dark Champions (modern-day city soldiering, like the Division video games) or straight up fantasy, using pawns from Pathfinder for a variety of monsters and character options on the table. To make it more gamey, all sorts of bennies/tokens can be used to track character hits, endurance (simplified) and index cards for new items that have some sorts of power imbued in them (magic stuff). Drawing on index cards might seem excessive but handouts will make the game more engaging. Simplicity for the inital design is key, so it can be modified later with more options.

This is sort of a continuation to my wargaming Hero hack, where players trek along a hexcrawling map, with tactical combat taking place on hex sheets with dungeons/battlegrounds drawn on them. Nothing new under the sun, but having miniatures made me come up with all sorts of uses for them. Characters are made with Body becoming Hits (if converting), and weapon damages are transformed into damage points, where each die becomes equal to one Hit. Abilities like deadly blow will be gated behind character points and progression, or not allowed in the game at all, depending on genre and the thematic effect the game is going for. Magic and magic items can be more deadly/useful, but are usually not allowed for beginning characters. Skills are replaced with a Profession -skill, which includes everything the character knows, without using extensive skill lists. This might take a bit of work on the setting (background) so everybody can be on the same page about the skills that are included in a profession. You could tie all sorts of special items and effects to professions, like a cook creating such exquisite meals that the characters gain more character points per encounter/adventure, or a blacksmith being able to create weapons for the whole party. Resource management should be a concern for characters, and encumbrance/long-term fatigue can be factored in as resources. Story elements like characters motivations and the big baddies can be random, or created bespoke (in adventure briefing) so there is a sense of ongoing accomplishment for players after tackling a personal challenge.

How's the conversion work going? I have an interest in this as well.

I was under the impression that the 4th edition is easier to run because the book is more concise.

Might not get the BBB, but Heroes of Vengeance is available in hardcopy on ebay. Just for the sake of completeness

I've looked at 4th edition Champions and I might be getting the book. The system seems simpler than 5th or 6th editions, but are there other reasons to buy into 4th (plus sourcebooks)?

Good stuff. I'll work with it.

I'm tempted to pull a "shadowrun" on this campaign and put all the races and aliens on Earth, with alternate history and the possibility to FTL-travel to the Pact Worlds later on in the campaign. I know Golarion is it's own thing, but the space is vast, and possibilities are endless

Meanwhile, I need to start looking at equipment (Dark Champions staple). I'm going to go loose on weapons limitations due to class, so that everybody can wield the weapons they buy familiarities for. Pilot dudes can use PDWs like tankers, give them assault rifle damage, a range mod of 0, Perception modifier of +3 to +4. Actually most of the characters will benefit from having these weapons, I gotta dig up my weapons pictures to get a visual. A subvocal mic and radio systems for all member of this "squad". Personal body armor that looks like clothing. Grenades and explosives. I'm thinking about equipment in terms of The Division video games, where a single person packs a ton of firepower. Not necessary, but some situations might call for it. The weapons in the Starfinder corebook are mostly magic effects tied to a weapon (cryo, flame, toxins) etc. I can work on this with the Hero rules and include some of them in the later phases of the campaign. Maybe I will make these weapons the rarest of all, so that the baseline guns will still be slug-throwers and lasers. Cyberware. biotechnology and drugs can be created with Hero, take some direction from Star Hero and Starfinder books, but not strictly canon.

I don't know, you gave me a lot to think about. Maybe it could be division that broke off the Starfinder society when something disastrous happened to SFS members in the past. Maybe a number of society members were kidnapped for human trafficking and drugged to become slaves. Maybe the PCs are a group that were loved ones or relatives of these people, and formed a clandestine "gang" to deal with the culprits. The crime, whatever it was, affected the PCs to trigger their thirst for vengeance and breaking off on their own to get even. Possibly the Starfinder society regards them as criminals, and keeps tabs on former members. Watched -disadvantage. I have to look into the Pact Worlds book to find antagonists for the player characters and see what kind of campaign I can form out of the existing factions.

I should probably watch those movies for research. I made the race conversions on paper a while ago, with Star Hero and the Starfinder book at hand. Was pretty straightforward to convert the stats. Characters are the easy part. Creating a fun story for the players to interact with will be more difficult. I don't know if I'll go the Batman -route or something more paramilitary, but it's forming slowly in my head.

I want to use my Starfinder pawns for a game (I have 3 packs, including Alien Archive 1), and to FINALLY use Dark Champions again for a game, since it's my favorite HERO System book. I just got the idea for a mash-up game of vigilante heroes as aliens and elves, dwarves and ANYTHING ELSE in the Starfinder universe. It's probably going to be a game focused on the Absalom Station of the Starfinder universe, with the option of branching out to different worlds once the game has been established. Costumed (alien) vigilantes brandish their assault rifles and laser guns against the dark villains of corpse soldiers, pirates and criminals. I need an angle of approach, but I have the style elements ready in my head. I want to emphasize slug-thrower guns, cybernetics and traditional forensic techniques for this game, and add some science fantasy into the mix. It's a wild swirling of imagery but I think I need to do this game as a b-day present for myself. Creative juices are flowing right now.

I got the Robot Warriors pdf plus the guide for later editions. Will it be easy to convert Battletech mechs to this version of Hero? I want to create a campaign around the mechs I have collected so far (AGOAC box), and make it FUN!