Showing posts with label mechanoid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mechanoid. Show all posts

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Character Challenge 20 of 31: Mechanoid Invasion Communications Engineer

Trying another Mechanoid Invasion character. Based on straight rolls again, several stats are above average and a few below average. Apparently he is not particularly handsome but still quite charismatic based on the physical beauty and mental affinity scores! Thinking a communications engineer may be nice to have around (or in need of rescue), let me present Eugene O'Haren.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ymO4O

An inveterate smoker, Eugene is rarely seen without his backpack full of comm equipment: cords, adaptors, power cells, spare boards, tools. Some call it his bag of holding as he always seems to have what he needs. At just over 6' tall, he sometimes seems threatening to others with his glare and constant wreath of smoke, yet his actual demeanor rapidly wins people over. He has friends throughout the various colonies that he can count on, and who seem to count on him to fix comms in a moment's notice. He rarely cusses and has only good words for people he deals with, even if they have damaged the equipment that he has to repair. The invasion by the Mechanoids has only phased him a bit as he has not been on the front lines, but as time goes on, he is starting to lose friends and people he knows to their vicious attacks. He is getting darker as time goes on.

While his primary skills are in repairing electronic equipment, has can drive most ground vehicles and has started pistol training. He carries a SB-14 sidearm all the time now. He has always carried a laser lance, but now he knows better how to use it as a weapon and not just a tool.


Random Stuff

I am sort of reminded by this post from Role Play Rescue about feeling guilty about not doing something in our hobby of choice all the time. Sometimes I feel as though I should be doing more and share a similar guilt. Then I also remember this is supposed to be fun, and if it is not fun, and I am not getting paid for it, why would I do it? And it is fun for me, though as per the title, it is often a challenge to fit creating a character in every day for a month. Even with weekends giving me more time to stock up a bit! But the challenge lies in reading other blogs: they seem to have much more in-depth characters, and are exploring new games, and other things that seem to let them do more than me. And sadly, that also spills over in my professional world as a software developer: I just really want to write code, but now having to learn all about Docker, Kubernetes, Azure, all the new frameworks. So, I experience imposter syndrome not only at work but at play! But I also recognize a lot of that is self-perception and in looking at what I do actually do, I must know at least a little bit! And that comparing myself to others is not the way to go in general. Stepping back, I can see that my life has been mostly successful, and I have the things that really matter: family, friends, my health (physical, mental and [mostly! :)] emotional). And I note that I perhaps do far too much introspection on these posts! 

2024 Challenge


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Friday, January 05, 2024

Character Challenge 5 of 31 : Mechanoid Invasion Commando

 As I am hoping to run a Mechanoid Invasion game this year, I am pre-emptively creating a cast of characters I can use!

Buster Gordon had been on Gidean-E for 3 years when the Mechanoids invaded. What was a fairly routine and boring post ended up being a life-changing and incredibly dangerous term of service for the tall commando. While not fleet of foot nor particularly fleet of mind, he is a strong marksman. Now he often is taken to sites in the cargo compartment of Marissa's jump jet, and hope he survives for the pickup. A veteran of several raids against the harrowing mechanical monsters, he has seen many of his squad killed, often in a gruesome and horrific manner that the Mechanoids seem to delight in. He has a grim outlook on life now, and has the thousand-meter stare down pat. 

He has his checklist before each mission and inspects his equipment thoroughly. He is mostly "by the book, ma'am" but has some flexibility. As each mission has seen new horrors, that flexibility is increasing. He has not yet used the M.A.A. / Multi-Arm Antagonizer but has put in a request for one for his next mission. However, he has not trained in experimental weapons, so his requests have been denied. But the number of soldiers left may leave the military little choice.


Several AI images, the first being how I see our titular commando (yes, his name is an amalgamation but that is half the fun sometimes!) I chose anime style when writing the prompt. 






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Tuesday, January 02, 2024

Character Challenge 2 of 31: Mechanoid Invasion Marissa Key P.A.V.M.

Way back in college I had a copy of the first Mechanoid Invasion book. I tried to run it but it was pretty fatal to characters. I recently bought the reprint and may even try to run a game sometime this year for that. And it will still be pretty fatal for the characters I believe...

Characters have 8 stats rolled by 3d6. and Kevin Siembieda plays the way I like to play: straight as rolled an in order. Though like most of the time I allow one extra roll to be used wherever you like. Though if you roll lower than the other rolls, then fate has spoken.

IQ 10. Simply indicates the intelligence the character has. Which can be a very loaded term - what sort of intelligence as there are all sorts of intelligences that we humans have.

ME 10 Mental endurance indicates how much mental and emotional stress the character can take before succumbing to madness.

MA 12 Mental affinity is the character's magnetism or charisma. Ris as that is apparently a word now. The sign of a natural leader.

PS 9 Physical strength. The raw physical strength of the character.

PP 15 Physical prowess is the manual dexterity and agility of the character.

PE 16 Physical endurance. The strength of the character's physical constitution and resistance to fatigue, disease and poison.

PB 12 Physical beauty. The physical attractiveness of the character. Hmm, another loaded term and relative to so many things!

Spd 14 Speed, how fast the character is strictly in terms of running the mile. PP (physical prowess) is how fast they are with weapons and the like.

Hit points are the PE, with 1d6 added per level. 16 HP. Armor and vehicles are damage soakers and have S.D.C., structural damage capacity,

I did not roll any 17 or 18s, so no bonuses. They do have a height and weight table, so rolling on that I get a 1.95m tall person weighing 86.18kg (almost 6'4" and 190 pounds. So a tall, relatively thing person, and rolling my traditional roll, a woman). 

Next is what does our character do? There are 7 OCC (Occupational Character Classes) to choose from, along with an optional one, the native Rovers. OCCs have skills, and the player picks the percentages. Looking at her stats, she can pick just about any of those roles. Seeing as I like flying characters, I choose P.A.V.M. - Pilot Air Vehicle Mechanic. Yes, the book is almost ALL acronyms!

At level 1, Marissa Key, has for her major area of expertise:

  • P.A.V. 46% general familiarity with all air vehicles and the likelihood of comprehending their operations. It also indicates the probability of executing complex maneuvers successfully.
  • R.A.V. 30% of repairing air vehicles
  • O.R.C.E. 25% to operate and repair communications equipment, This does NOT include sensory equipment such as radar.
Then we get 2 level 3, 1 level 6 and 1 level 9 elective.
  • W.P. Handgun Lvl 9 - weapon proficiency with a handgun giving her an 88% chance to hit with a +3 to hit bonus. I'll have to read on how the bonus interplays with the percentage. Ahh - the hit is based on the regular armor class, so that is where the +3 comes from. The 88% is the chance of using any handgun. Similar to Traveller's later systems of skills. 
  • Medical Lvl 6 40% for simple field combat first aid
  • P.G.V. Lvl 3 40% piloting ground vehicles
  • Repair Electronics Lvl 3 35% to repair all electronic equipment, including radar. 
Okay, there are the stats and skills, but just who is Marissa Key? Doing some images searches for tall science fiction pilots (and it seemed 90% of the images were all pale blonds, which does say a lot about our society I am sure), found one that sort of works though with her height and weight should be thinner but hey - it is a bulky flight suit.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZkO38


and clothing for any occasion!

The story takes place on Gideon-E, far from Earth. The Mechanoids invade the planet and will basically destroy it, They have an insane hatred for humanoid creatures (which is a GM secret!). All the colonists can really do is try to hold on.  From the home page:
The story of the Mechanoid Invasion‚® is a tragic one that spans the galaxy and generations of people. The Mechanoid Invasion‚® starts on a distant planet being colonized by humans, until the Mechanoids arrive. The seemingly alien mechanized monsters intend to strip the planet of all its resources and literally carve it up into pieces and haul it away. The loss of human lives mean nothing to them. Indeed, the Mechanoids seem to delight in capturing, torturing and slaughtering what humans they can find. Can nothing stop the destruction?

Marissa is a captain of the small military forces, happily flying her Hover Jet Fighter to mostly transport passengers and high value cargo between the various colonies. Carrying her IB-10 sidearm when her craft was shot down by a Wasp, she managed a few shots against the fearsome target before ejecting from the failing craft. She got back to the colony to find it in ruins, and has been fighting ever since.

Tall and somewhat gangly, her red hair is usually in a ponytail. An expert shot with handguns, she smiles a lot but talks very little. Few know much about her past as she rarely talks about that, but she has had a few light romantic attachments while being stationed at the colony. She loves slow-burn practical jokes. She managed to let the major believe she was an Esper by her friendship with his aid, who kept her well-supplied in various things about the man. 

I also found this site that links to a form-fillable character sheet. Which is what is showing below. Until I filled that out, I had not realized that the humans AC is pretty bad: cloth armor is an AC of 2 meaning that they only get missed if a 1 or 2 is rolled. Most games have base humans at 50% chance or so (AC 10 on the ascending scale). Sadly that is where the light battle armor (LBA) starts and that is only available to those in that service. Think that is why it was pretty fatal: regular people could not be missed when shot at.


And thinking the Iroquois from 0-Hr may be a good hover jet!

2024 Challenge

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