Power Core Combiner RPG outline

[Dominic]

Now, I'll agree there should be some limits, like you can't just create cracked out ultimate undefeatable merge group ever (and I think the points/upgrade system would prevent that anyway),

Well, in theory, the point system would keep things even. You *can* have a cracked up and coked out merge team. But, odds are that the other guy has one that is roughly comparable. Long time gaming groups that re-use the same characters over several years typically have this issue. In theory, everybody is over-powered. But, they are all over-powered, so the moderator could throw all manner of things at them with no real concern for fairness. I know of one group that ended up retiring their old characters and making them NPCs in a later campaign (involving new players) and another where the team evolved in to god-moded Marty-Stus.

but creativity and should be encouraged in this project, not stiffled and that's going to be a certain level of self indulgence.

{/quote]

I agree. But, I think that encouraging people to stay away from easy/obvious things ("used the same restroom as Optimus Prime once") forces more creativity.

For example, I (lazily) came up with a Huffer recolour....Pipes. But, I then went the extra mile and made a new guy out of it, PitStop and his Minicon pal TireIron. Of course, my new problem is that I changed the basic look of the character and now need an extra Dirtboss to customize. But...anyway. You get the idea.

The same principle could apply for interacting with established characters.

For example: I really wish I could fly. So, I'm probably going to go for a character with a flight based alt mode. Now, trying to create a character with, say, six alt modes with some aerial, some aquatic and some ground based would be taking it too far. It almost sounds like you're trying to say "We're not doing fanfic here" but, we ARE doing fanfic.

Well, lets avoid the worst sort of fanfic then.

And, there is nothing wrong with having a sex-changer (well, aside, form the unfortunate prefix). If you accumulate enough points to make a six changer, then bully for you. Your six-changer likely will not have many (if any) drones or Minicons, and would find itself outnumbered and/or outgunned. But, them is the breaks. It would make for a hell of a battle though....

but the existing ones are prominent characters and we'd have to assume that they have enough of an impact in their universe that they would wind up affecting the lives of bots they'd never met.

Which is why there is no need for them to meet.

I'd also hate for this to turn into Starfleet Lawyers where there's going to be a lot of rule mongering. I mean, yes, rules should be established and obeyed as much as possible but it shouldn't interfere with having fun. That's the ultimate goal here: Fun.

Unfortunately, this will require a certain amount of rules lawyer activity. There are gaping holes in the posts above, and that is not even accounting for other aspects of the game.

As for death, I think we could assum "stasis lock" unless the death is such that there would be no chance of repair (like with disintigration or disolved in acid, eaten by nanites or scraplets or anything that results in the nonexistence of the body).

Remember though, it has to be something that translates well in to the game itself. "Stasis Lock" and "CR Chambers" were cheap and easy ways to make BW characters all but immortal. But, there was rarely if ever any demonstrable cost for their use. That is bad in fiction, but unworkable for a game. (And, if somebody wanted to, they could leave their severely damaged character in repair bay, and allocate points to making an all new character.)

Of course, here is a sample problem: What to do if a player loses their character in the middle of a long-term campaign...and lacks the points to effectively repair or replaced said character?

I am thinking that points could be awarded for winning games over-all, achieving objectives or defeating opponents (be they players or NPC). But, could points be shared among players?

dunno, do Dom's rules preclude a flight-based altmode? I admit I skimmed 'em.

This gets in to a problem I alluded to in the first post, and in the fan-character thread.

How to scale the questio of speed with a ground based guy v/s an air based guy. Taken literally, in G1, Optmus and Megatron are as fast as Jetfire.


Dom
-what about multiple non-Minicon characters per player?

[Shockwave]

The God Moded Marty-Stus thing is currently happening in my best friend's D&D game. I joined in a few years ago and it... didn't go well. When my character got stolen in the theft when my car got broken into, I never bothered to go back and create a new character nor restore the old one. It was just too unbalanced. It works well for those that have been playing for a long time though. Building to that point is the fun of the game. Reaching that is the reward of the challenges of the game.

Stasis lock and CR Chambers actually could work well in a game though. I hate to keep bringing it up but WFC has a similar system using heal stations and there's even a "weapon" called the repair ray which players can use to heal other players (it siphons energy from enemies). It would really just be a matter of points to use the CR Chamber vs. having the team medic patch you up.

Regarding established characters... I get that you don't want to tread on Hasbro's IP, buuuuuuut... this is a TRANSFORMERS campaign. If we don't have some of those characters involved in the game (obviously as NPCs) then... um... why call it a TF campaign? We might as well just make up another name of our own creation at that point. Sorry, but part of role playing is that we're going to want to play roles that interact with some of our favorite characters. It doesn't have to dominate the game, but it should be in there somewhere but they should be prominent enough to at least justify using the name. And just using a few thematic similarities here and there isn't gonna cut it.

A good DM will make sure that they don't give the party anything they can't handle. This is an RPG, not a video game, unless we're going to have some sort of "unlimited lives" rule. I mean, the idea is that the DM will challenge the players but not to the point of frustration. It is not the goal of the DM to kill off the player characters, it's the goal of the DM to help the players advance their characters to the level that they will need for the next part of the campaign. This is something I was talking about in the video games Samus Aran thread. Grinding should be avoided as much as possible as in a table dice version that would get enormously tedious very quickly.

In D&D, there are preset number ranges for speed for certain animals and races. Something similar could be adapted here. There could be a limit for walking, a higher limit for ground based (wheeled), aquatic based, jets, biplanes, aerial animals, etc... I'm sure we can come up with something that works.

We'll get all of this sorted and when we do it'll be awesome. Personally, I enjoy coming up with stuff like this.

[Gomess]

Surely existing TF characters can exist as NPCs (if you can have those in a tabletop-style RPG), and if the moderator/dungeon master/whatever is concerned about the extent of their relationship to the player characters, well, it's up to them to rein it in, right? Say your character once met Optimus Prime, Dom could bring in Optimus Prime at one point and *he'd* choose whether or not Prime says, "Oh, yes, good soldier *pat on head*" or "OMG U R EVUN BETTA AUTOBOT THN ME Y I EVEN BOTHER?! <33"

[Onslaught Six]

Here's a great video Spoony did about the whole Famous NPC debacle (and crazy powersets):
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2011/10/29/ ... r-no-jedi/

It's pretty long but worth watching if you have the time, but the basic thing I want to point out is at one point he was DMing a Star Wars campaign and his characters were escaping from some Imperials on Hoth. They make it out, so Spoony throws in some flavour text of Darth Vader coming out to shake his fist at those damn rebels. The players response became, "Fuck it, we're turning this bitch around and killing Vader." They bombed the entire facility and then got out of their ship hunting Vader. (And these were low-level, presumably non-Jedi characters.)

Honestly I'm more concerned with the actual rules of combat and play than anything else--if I want to roleplay, I'll write a regular-ass fanfic.

[Ursus mellifera]

Could I get in on this? I enjoyed your (Dom's) game concepts from years ago, and I know quite a bit about table top games.

[Gomess]

Gaiz, let's have a simple "I'm in" / "I'm maybe in" / "I'm not in" from everyone. I think we could have a lot of fun with this intermittently over the festive period.

[Onslaught Six]

Time and rules permitting...yeah, I guess?

[Dominic]

It would really just be a matter of points to use the CR Chamber vs. having the team medic patch you up.

The in-game explanation is less important than the cost:benefit question though. The play should not be able to just hand-wave being destroyed away.

there's even a "weapon" called the repair ray which players can use to heal other players (it siphons energy from enemies).

Something like that needs to be expensive to acquire or use because it is almost *too* useful. (It heals the player's pieces while damaging an opponent? That is a textbook example of power gaming.)

Think of "death coil" in "War Craft II". That spell is so damned useful, and *very* cheap to use considering what it does, draining an enemy and healing a player in one move.

Regarding established characters... I get that you don't want to tread on Hasbro's IP,

I also do not want it to turn in to name-dropping and run-ins. GW avoided this problem until the last few years. But, like I said in the review, appearances by the Emperor (and more so the Primarchs) are becoming routine. I know that I have not posted it yet, but settings are as important as characters in something like this. Players will have the chance to fight campaigns in the Manganese Mountains and capturing Energon storage facilities. That is plenty of TF action right there.

Grinding should be avoided as much as possible as in a table dice version that would get enormously tedious very quickly.

Agreed.

Something similar could be adapted here. There could be a limit for walking, a higher limit for ground based (wheeled), aquatic based, jets, biplanes, aerial animals, etc... I'm sure we can come up with something that works.

True. And, this nicely shows how hard it is to develop logical and consistent stats for characters. (Expect huge amount of revision here.)

, "Oh, yes, good soldier *pat on head*" or "OMG U R EVUN BETTA AUTOBOT THN ME Y I EVEN BOTHER?! <33"

I want to avoid both scenarios because neither adds anything to a game.

Not every appearance of Optimus should be on a level with "The Last Church on Terra", (read it damn you). But, "Last Church on Terra" should be the goal.

They bombed the entire facility and then got out of their ship hunting Vader. (And these were low-level, presumably non-Jedi characters.)

How did they even get the bombs? That may well have been the moderator's fault for not defining the game enough.

Honestly I'm more concerned with the actual rules of *character generation* and *basic*movement* than anything else--

Fixed.

Could I get in on this? I enjoyed your (Dom's) game concepts from years ago,

Why thank you sir. This is heavily derived from that actually. (The bigges difference is that we will not have ot make custom figures of our characters because we are not playing in person. Paper and pens will do nicely enough.)

Gaiz, let's have a simple "I'm in" / "I'm maybe in" / "I'm not in" from everyone. I think we could have a lot of fun with this intermittently over the festive period.

I hate to put a damper on this, but I will be luck to come up with basic movement and fighting rules by Christmas.


Proposed amendment to character generation:
Third modes would cost 50% of the base character cost. Each additional mode after that would cost 2/3 of the base cost. Fractions would be rounded up in both cases.

So, a decachanger would cost just shy of 8x a regular character. (And, that would not be counting any associated Minicons or drones or other upgrades. In theory, somebody could pour all of their points in to getting more modes, and have no armour or firepower to speak of.)


Dom
-break is over....

[Shockwave]

The repair ray in WFC is the most expensive weapon in the game (costing 1250 points, more than twice the cost of the most expensive offensive weapon, the X-12 Scrapmaker which is 600). And the thing with the repair ray is that it only works on other players, you can't use it on yourself. Last I used death coil, it only kills, it doesn't heal (unless you mean that it heals the death knight using it which if it does, I've never noticed).

[Gomess]

Rather than having lots of extraneous repair equipment, can't we just have a totally decked-out medic capable of all but reviving the dead at the cost of their own mobility? I'd be more than happy to play that character. Very similar to Scramble.

Oh, wait, actually this brings up one of the few things I know- and like- about tabletop gaming: CLASSES! Are we having classes? I love classes. TFs being described as "tanks" (literally lol), "buffers", "controllers", "mages", all that stuff.