Power Core Combiner RPG outline

[Gomess]

Sooo should I even bother trying to construct some stats yet?

Honestly, I was hoping I'd just be given four stats and 20 points, or something. The sheer amount of variables here is almost overwhelming.

Or, wait, am I supposed to roll dice to decide stats too?

[Shockwave]

I think there's too many categories. The "solid construction" category is especially confusing. Generally, weapons would fall into one of two categories either ranged or melee. I can see subcategories but almost all weapons I can think of would fall under either of one of those two umbrellas. Energy I get but even that still is either going to be ranged (lazer gun) or melee (lightsaber).

[Shockwave]

Sooo should I even bother trying to construct some stats yet?

Honestly, I was hoping I'd just be given four stats and 20 points, or something. The sheer amount of variables here is almost overwhelming.

Or, wait, am I supposed to roll dice to decide stats too?

Generally yes, you would roll your stats. You would be given the set of stats to roll up and then would roll for each one and that would be your base character.

[Gomess]

Hold on, we can't possibly roll for stats if Dom's letting us choose altmodes. What if chance results in a tank that can move faster than a jet? 8|

[Shockwave]

Hold on, we can't possibly roll for stats if Dom's letting us choose altmodes. What if chance results in a tank that can move faster than a jet? 8|

That's what's known in D&D as a "racial ability". In other words, certain types of characters get modifyers for their class, size, etc... so the jet would have a base stat that is higher than the tank's for speed. Inversely, the tank would have a higher base number for armor than the jet. And so on.

[Gomess]

Oh, ok, I guess I can pare my question down then.... What the heck should I be doing now?

With all these higher-echelon decisions being made and walls of text being posted, I'm feeling a tiiiny bit left outta the loop.

[Dominic]

Along with base stats by class/type/race, I was thinking of letting you guys spend points to upgrade stats, rather than rolling.

Gomess, are there any special weapons or abilities that you would like to see make their way in to the game, such as cerebro shells (which would be expensive) or Junkon like ability to pull one's debris back together? Post it here. (I have no illusions about getting every weapon or ability on the first pass. But, I figure if you guys make suggestions, we can get a pretty good catalogue of them to play test.)

I broke weapons down into the 3 categories I did because I plan for all 3 to be relevant in terms of points cost and damage.

Dom
-saving point values for last.

[Shockwave]

Wait. I mean, until we know the details of the mechanics even for things like character creation it's really going to be impossible to create a character. You can get some details now like alt mode (which it looks like you've already selected), character name, personality traits, etc... but until Dom comes up with the point scale and number system we're not gonna be able to do much else.

[Dominic]

Sorry that it is taking so long.

I am going to handle the built in traits that Shockwave mentioned as part of the alt modes.

In terms of mechanics, I think that the best way to handle alternate modes is to treat them as being similar to weapon and system upgrades. Just as having some kind of speed system (for example) would modify one's speed stat when it is used or having a force field would increase a character's resitance to injury when it was on, a vehicle mode would change =/- a character's stats. (The base change in speed for a jet would be the class/race trait that Shockwave mentioned.) This would allow for a character to have middling speed in robot mode (unless they were a speedster like Blurr) but also be able to fly really fast as a jet.

To touch on something from earlier, the more I think about it, the more I am thinking that (if only for play testing), point parity among the players will be secondary to having you guys come up with characters that will allow us to test differnt types of mechanics. For example, Gomess' character would be very expensive. But, it would pay to have a character on that scale that was also playable early on.


Dom
-actually has some rough ideas for naval tactics, thanks to Gomess.

[Ursus mellifera]

I'll be really excited to see the first draft of all the rules in an understandable, coherent format.