By AARON SKETCHLEY (aaronsketch@HOTdelete_thisMAIL.com)
Over the coming weeks and months, there are some large changes planned to the Sketchley Game Rule Modifications to make them more quick, amongst other things. Please ignore the dust and so on. Thank you.
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über-Simple Rules ------------------------------------------- |
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über-Simple Character Creation & Skills ------------------------------------------- |
1D20 + (skill % + attribute + G-Load)/20 [round down].
Eg: VF: 1D20 + (%+PP+VF G load)/20 = D20+4 (where 4 comes from (75+12+10=97/20)
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2 BASIC POSTING AND PLAYING RULES
3 GAME RULE MODIFICATIONS 4 POSTING |
5 TECHNICALITIES 6 COMMUNICATIONS AND SPECIAL VEHICLE ABILITIES 8 MISCELLANEOUS |
www.Google.com is a convient resource for conversions to metric. For example: 5 foot 7 inches in centimeters.
Not just in the game, but on all message boards on the internet you participate in. Many members are non-native English speakers, and it helps them, as well as everyone else, for posts to be as free of spelling errors as possible. All anyone here has to go on is your written word. So, if there are multiple errors, people can easily misunderstand you. A simple spell checker can help a great deal. The MRG even has one built in!
When character death happens, the player has the options of using the "I'm Back" drama points option, or creating a new character for the game. An effort will be made to incorporate the newly created character into the game as soon as possible, but a wait may be required until a suitable time in the story crops up.
Save yourself and everyone else the trouble, by posting in the OOC topic or PMing the GM that you are unavailable. Not only will you be able to rejoin the game with your existing character, you will have created goodwill that will get you into other games.
If you have been removed from the game, your character will, in most cases, become an NPC. Not all PC turned NPC are killed. Some are just written out of the story. If you return later, with a sufficient excuse (such as there was a major earthquake), you can still play your character, as long as they are still alive.
| VF (Vehicle) Base Ability Chart | |
| 8 | Zentraadi Soldier (outside of mecha); tank |
| 10 | Regult |
| 12 | VF-1, VA-3, VF-4, VF-5000, VF-11, VF-14, Gnerl Fighter Pod, Gluag, Nousjadel-Ger |
| 13 | VF-3000, VB-6, VF-9, VF-171*, VF-25*, Variable Gluag |
| 14 | VF-17, VF-22, VF-27*, Queadlunn-Rau, Pheyos Valkyrie |
| 15 | VF-19 |
| 16 | ?YF-22? |
| 17 | ?YF-19? |
* EX-Gear reduces the VBA by 1. For example: a VF-25 (VBA 13) equipped with EX Gear, has a modified VBA of 12, for pilot attribute comparision purposes. However, it still has a VBA of 13 for VBA comparison purposes in combat.
Combat Range
Not applicable to mecha/vehicle combat.
The prose description is where one gets to show their imagination and creativity. One isn't expected to be John Grisham or technically savant like Tom Clancy (of course, the more the better.) At the very least, what is expected is the simplest statement to summarize one's intended actions; even if they are vaguely worded yet describing the intended action quite well. Generally, I am fairly relaxed, but things that don't follow common sense and/or are written unclearly will cause unexpected things to occur.
Examples:
Examples: Example: 1 Dodge, 2 Search orders database, 3 active auto-pilot, 4 dodge, 5 prepare for reentry, 6+ pray
The action summary isn't always needed. However, when used, one must keep in mind the amount of time it takes to do a task.
When in doubt about missing key info to make one's post, ask in the OOC thread. Do not "post first, ask questions later." The GM should have an answer within 24 hours. If there isn't an answer before the next scheduled GM update, the character will be skipped. This is the one (of two times) that the character will be safe from harm and keep up with the group. (The other time is when the player has a preannounced leave of absence.)
Unless otherwise stated, character will continue moving as the player last indicated. At the speeds that VFs fly at, this may mean that the opponents may be in the range of a VF's weapons for only a fraction of a melee round. Of course, characters will not drive into the ground UNLESS if the GM gave advance warning that the player(s) must post a change of direction. In all other cases, the direction will be changed from a dive into the ground to level flight OVER the terrain, and NOT ducking around behind cover.
Lastly, the more effort put into the plan behind one's character's actions, the more likely they are going to succeed. This doesn't mean that a player must be a John Grisham class prose writer. This means using the tools that the character has and the terrain that the character is in to creatively overcome the obstacles that crop up in a game. Ergo, well thought out text has automatic success.
This is, of course, governed by a) anime logic, b) common sense and c) the abilities of the character in question. For example: A 1st level, Hand to Hand: Basic trained character is NOT going to be able to successfully do a spinning leap kick in their VF-19 to knock the gun pod out of their opponents hand. However, the same character could kick the dust on the ground over the enemy's visual sensors and cause enough confusion and distraction to roll to one side and then spray the opponent with gunfire.
Therefore, some actions may be lumped together. For example: activating a PPB or Active Stealth; activating a radio, changing (or aligning) the frequency and transmitting a short spoken message; and so on could be feasibly be lumped together and constitutes 1 action.
Unrelated activities should not be lumped together. For example: walking and/or changing ones facing could be lumped together, but walking and checking the radar should not be lumped together.
Lastly, always keep in mind that unless otherwise stated the character or the vehicle being piloted by the character will continue moving along the same vector at the same velocity (or rate of acceleration) as last indicated. The adverse effect of this is that a vehicle at high speed will probably only be in range of it's target during a portion of a melee round and will probably end up moving way out of range if the player doesn't take action to change that rate of movement. Note: the GM won't have characters flying into hills, canyons or the ground unless if fair warning has been given. However, if the player doesn't post explicitly what direction, speed, heading, weapon used, target fired at or action specifically being performed, the GM will creatively interpret the intended action and the result probably won't be what the player intended.
Due to the nature of PBP (play by post) RPGing, a lack of posting by players, without notice, can stop the entire story. To discourage this here are the required posting guidelines:
Enforcement: These guidelines will be really enforced during combat or when the story really needs to move. If you are going to be gone more than a week, tell someone. Otherwise we are all waiting for you. A simple PM or OOC post could save everyone a lot of trouble.
As gun pods fire at 1800 rounds per minute, or faster, they can expend all of their rounds in 3 melee rounds (or 600 rounds per melee round). 100 is given because it is perceived that an action requires aiming, possibly leading the target, and depressing the trigger and possibly more.
In this arrangement, if one FAST pack is destroyed, malfunctions, rendered useless from battle damage or is ejected, the details revert to a single units details. In addition, the flight characteristics of the vehicle may be sufficiently disrupted so as to force either a reduction in speed or the ejection of the remaining FAST or Super pack.
As for missile loads, the GM will endeavor to list the stats reflecting their individual loads, so that there is no argument when the use of a FAST pack is lost.
In all cases, active sensors will be detectable by one's opponents. Passive sensors will not be detected.
The scale (size) or power of the sensor makes no difference beyond additional range or more finely tuned detection abilities, as all sensors of the same type are based on the same physics. For example: a ground based orbital search radar and a VF mounted radar operate on the same underlying physics. The prime difference is range (in active searches, the power on the ground based radar array is a couple orders of magnitude greater then that available on a VF) and received detail (the ground based radar has a larger receiving antenna that receives a greater variety of minute details. In addition, the radar array has been designed for that purpose whereas a VF's combat radar is designed for fast, quick scans.)
If support (AWACS, ELINT Seeker, Capital Ship, Funny Chinese, etc.) is available, it is recommended that players use it for radar targeting information. Or players could have 1 VF flying with the radar on (and dodging incoming fire) with one or two escorts to defend it. The radar using VF then broadcasts tactical data to the other VFs in the squad.
Active Standard Radar (Search, Air Combat, Aircraft/Ship Control tower, etc.) is based off of sending radio waves at a certain frequency out (and this is invariably limited to a small arc only.) The radar receiver 'listens' for any returns at the same frequency that have bounced off of a solid object (airplane, ship, mountain, etc..) Passive radar merely listens for radar waves without emitting any of its own.
Therefore, jet fighters only detect solid stuff in the sky, and not the sky itself. When aimed at the ground, the search radar will detect what is moving between the ground and the radar array. But such objects are much harder to spot, as there are many radar returns from the ground that are cluttering the radar screen. This ground clutter provides a cover that pilots monopolize on by flying nap of the Earth; effectively disappearing in the ground clutter.
Receiving is the opposite of transmitting: receive the encoded burst of information, decode the information, play the transmission (or view the received materials.) In general, this costs one action, no matter the situation.
Notes:
In Macross Plus, Isamu does make reentry, but during the initial (and perhaps most dangerous) phase of reentry, his cockpit is positioned away from his direction of travel. The underbelly of his VF gets superheated, but the cockpit does not. The implication is that there has been an improvement in the material used in the canopy, as long as it is kept away from the superheated air. However, this GM's call is that the cockpit will become heated to the point that the pilot will suffer from heat sickness.
Therefore:
Take note that increasing the angle of reentry increases the amount of heat generated from air friction exponentially. This GM considers any angle over 45º to do that. Technically, any angle less then 15º (or is it 10º?) will cause a reentering vehicle to skip across the atmosphere and back into orbit (or beyond.) Relax: the angle of reentry isn't something that is that important to the game. Just a simple note if it's in the safe zone or in the risky zone is sufficient. Of course, the more details, the better.
Does active stealth erase the gravitational and magnetic fields that a VF creates?
No. In fact, it may increase the ambient magnetic field a VF creates. These fields are much easier to detect in deep space where the background noise of other spatial objects is minimal.
Does active stealth hide or conceal the stream of particles released by the engines?
No. In an atmosphere, these are normally undetectable (beyond heat and some potentially unique radiation emitted from a VF's thermonuclear engines.) In deep space, those streams of particles could forseeably used to track a vehicle like a bloodhound dog. However, the 'scent' won't remain very long due to solar winds.
Is the active stealth energy field going to appear as a spatial disturbance?
Possibly, it depends on the training and success rate of the sensor operators in question. If yes, there is a large chance that the enemy will flee the approaching spatial disturbance without realizing it's true nature.
For a quick, rough guide, ¥100 JPY is about $1.00 USD. There are, of course, some differences in prices, but we aren't going to worry too much about that (if you do want to figure out the purchasing power parity (PPP), I recommend googling the Big Mac Index to get a better idea of comparible prices.)
In ,y games, Zentraadi warriors are elite, well-trained, and specialized warriors. The vast majority of Zentraadi do not have mechanical abilities. However, they are all assumed to have fortification skills and should be considered just as lethal in, or out of, their vehicles.
Players are warned to fear Zentraedi opponents that have comparable numbers to the amount of players in combat.
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