Shatterdome: A Semi-Roguelike Tabletop Game System

[Creed]

So, around two days ago, I was feeling oddly inspired.

I enjoyed watching Pacific Rim more that a lot of other movies recently. During a fistful of popcorn, I started hashing out how I'd combine it with one of my great loves: tabletop gaming.

This is the work in progress that I've been stewing over in my spare time. I'd love to hear a little feedback on things I may have looked over, but there's still a lot for me to type up. So far, Ranger generation is really all I've got down into a document, the rest is all up here.:smallwink:

Provided I finish this in a reasonable amount of time, I'm going to need some volunteers to fight giant trans-dimensional sea monsters.

Shatterdome GoogleDocs:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WRhb2qzRQfD1lFeFeQM3uObcg5hjFOEy6Hui7u2FPiI/edit

[ShadowFireLance]

Looking pretty good; *Ahem*
I voulnteer as tribute to play in this game! :smallwink:

[Amechra]

Two American Rivals get a +6 bonus to Patriotism rolls.

AMURICA!

EDIT: Funnily enough, two Canadian Rivals get the exact same bonus! Maybe state that the bonus doesn't stack with Patriotism?

[Admiral Squish]

Well, the movie posters have stats for speed, armor, and power, so you probably need to have those as the main attributes. Armor can influence damage mitigation and total HP, power affects strength and the energy required for weapon systems, and speed affects defense and initiative.

Also, for the sake of speed, you should likely have some method of randomly-generating kaiju.

Also, seems that the jaegers should be tougher than the kaiju at the base level, since a jaeger is expected to return to the fight over and over, but kaiju only have the one headlong charge.

[ShadowFireLance]

Well, the movie posters have stats for speed, armor, and power, so you probably need to have those as the main attributes. Armor can influence damage mitigation and total HP, power affects strength and the energy required for weapon systems, and speed affects defense and initiative.

Also, for the sake of speed, you should likely have some method of randomly-generating kaiju.

Also, seems that the jaegers should be tougher than the kaiju at the base level, since a jaeger is expected to return to the fight over and over, but kaiju only have the one headlong charge.

However, A Single Kaiju can take down two Jaegers, so it's always odd, maybe Otachi and Leatherback were unique?

[Admiral Squish]

However, A Single Kaiju can take down two Jaegers, so it's always odd, maybe Otachi and Leatherback were unique?

Well, they're not going to be WAY more powerful than the kaiju, just a little bit tougher. All the jaegers in the movie had like 3-10 kaiju kills, but each time they went into battle there was a serious risk that they'd go down.

[Creed]

Two American Rivals get a +6 bonus to Patriotism rolls.

AMURICA!

EDIT: Funnily enough, two Canadian Rivals get the exact same bonus! Maybe state that the bonus doesn't stack with Patriotism?

That was the intention.

Rivals can be a mixed blessing, because if it's an American and anything else, there's a -2 penalty to NH. Inspired by the relationship between Hansen and Raleigh, even though they never linked, it was a possibility.


Well, the movie posters have stats for speed, armor, and power, so you probably need to have those as the main attributes. Armor can influence damage mitigation and total HP, power affects strength and the energy required for weapon systems, and speed affects defense and initiative.

Also, for the sake of speed, you should likely have some method of randomly-generating kaiju.

Also, seems that the jaegers should be tougher than the kaiju at the base level, since a jaeger is expected to return to the fight over and over, but kaiju only have the one headlong charge.

Those stats were the intention yes. Each one will also have a basic tonnage, a la Mechwarrior, to limit the weapons systems.

Randomly generated kaiju are in the works, yeah. They'll be more of an alternative to monster-manual-esque entries if the Kaiju Master is pressed for time.

That was one of the major struggles in the film, but in this alternative timeline, double events and triple events are much more common. That said, they're lined up to be on a power ratio of one Jaeger to one Kaiju. So it's reasonable for a group of four players to be facing a Quadruple event of Kaiju!

[Admiral Squish]

Finally saw the movie. SUPER-AWESOME.

Do you think there should be rules for 3 pilots, or more, as demonstrated by the crimson typhoon jaeger?

Also, limb loss rules will be very important, I believe.

Oh, and special moves. How do you plan to deal with them? Each mech had a handful of them, but I don't think you should just have a list of options PCs can choose from. Seems limited to me. Maybe we could come up with a set of guidelines, allowing players to come up with their own, perhaps with a few examples.