BCG's Boss Upgrades were a good way to make fights more dynamic than the usual TRPG fashion where people blow their best powers at the beginning then clean up from there. At least on paper, mostly. The execution of Boss Upgrades had some issues. In particular, many of them could only trigger their effects after getting a Turn when they had already lost at least one Level of Threshold. Depending on the Initiative order and the rest of their kit, they may or may not explode violently without ever getting to use the defensive abilities that are supposed to keep them alive.
To help alleviate this issue, BCZ has Boss Upgrades with more instantaneous effects and offensive buffs, guaranteeing that Bosses will at least take out one of the PCs even if they can't withstand the focus fire of 2+ units targeting them. The last time I did this, I kept count of the number of defensive abilities that could come online too late to matter (The total was 5). I'll do the same this time. Let's jump in!
Aura of Dark Majesty
This amounts to autocasting 6 Genre Powers. Of these 6, 5 can do Damage to PCs, and Your Fate is Sealed stops healing to potentially doom the targeted PC to an imminent explosive fate. The Upgrade needs a decent amount of Systems (because it uses Die for Me!) and the effects only happen once, so it's not very good against Squads with long-term survivability. Fortunately, the allure of glass cannons is so strong in the system that this won't be the case for most GMs, making it a fairly effective Upgrade. Fun Fact: Your Fate is Sealed was Crush the Insect once upon a time. Looking back, I still think that it is a lot more fitting... Just a lot less fair to play against too.
Caustic Touch
PCs get tons of Upgrades that encourage them to build around the use of specific Weapons. Bosses didn't really have that... Not until the expansion, at least. I tried to pick effects that would be universally useful and were more interesting than a simple bonus to Might/extra Damage. If the effects were also things that Boss Weapons in BCG couldn't already do, that was a bonus. This Upgrade was co-designed at the same time as the Boss Weapons in BCZ to help make them compatible with each other. The effects are very powerful and getting hit by something like Tentacle Lash or Magic Bullet when this is at Level 4 will wreck multiple PCs. All in all, it's pretty great!
Overheating Field
The least harmful part of Electromagnetic Detonator, but weaponized in an area so large that it is potentially devastating. The passive Damage is in the PC's control, and they could simply choose to not spend any Energy, but if they do then it is going to add up fast. I think this went straight from its first version to print without any changes. It's... Largely okay, really. Not a lot more to say about it.
Portable Battlefield
It is a somewhat common trope that the heroes sometimes fight a monster that draws them into a zone that is under their control. At first its area of effect also counted as Extreme Terrain... But that was way too good, so it got nerfed to Difficult + Defensive Terrain only instead. The end result is that it is kind of weak. Flavorful - but weak. Now don't get me wrong, a +4 to Defense to the Boss and all of its Grunt buddies at Level 4 can be brutally effective... Except for the part where all the NPCs must bunch up and make themselves super vulnerable to Blasts and Bursts. Delayed Defensive Upgrade Count: 1. On top of all its problems, its likely that the Grunts will die long before the Boss hits Level 3-4. Sheesh, I should've put more thought into this one.
Power of Despair
The Beam-based counterpart to Caustic Touch. The idea with this one is that it lets the Boss mix and match Beam Weapons of different Boost values however they see fit, plus it also provides a viable sink for Behold my True Power. The first Turn or two (or however long until you hit Threshold Level 2) may be a little awkward as you're probably going to have trouble utilizing your Weapons and Powers effectively, but after that the Boss is a total murderbeast. Delayed Defensive Upgrade Count: 2. The Defense bonus counts as an Active Defense, so there's plenty of counterplay options against this, but because it's half an offensive buff and half a defensive buff it does not suffer from coming online in the middle of battle like Adaptive Morphology or Afterimages do.
Rules of Nature
The last of the six Boss Upgrades in BCZ is specifically designed for single-target specialists that overpower the PCs taking them out one at a time. The debuff + buff combo is strong, and the autodamage + healing even gives the Boss an element of inevitability that makes it trivial to overpower PCs in a 1v1 situation. Delayed Defensive Upgrade Count: 3. Much like Power of Despair, this isn't entirely a defensive Upgrade, so there's a lower risk of a single round of focus fire removing most of the value this Upgrade could grant.
So while BCG has 5 Upgrades that are supposedly there to help Bosses survive attacks from the PCs, BCZ has 3. None of these three of them are purely defensive. Also, except for Portable Battlefield, all of BCZ's Boss Upgrades have very direct and impactful effects. I'd say that 5 of 6 is a good score and that BCZ makes it a lot easier for Bosses to keep up with 2 PCs.
Next: New Boss Weapons.
Gimmick Out
Jun 24, 2018
Jun 17, 2018
BCZ Retrospective XXIII: New Boss Powers.
The Boss Powers in BCG are primarily defensive, with some Powers that do Direct Damage for offensive purposes. I largely tried to avoid direct attack and defense buffs, because Bosses could end up being unbeatable when you stack those with the buffs they can get at Threshold Levels 3 and 4. In BCZ the PCs have many more ways to buff themselve and also have access to all sorts of new utility powers, upgrades and weapons... So I figured I would give Bosses the same utility toolset plus the simple attack and defense buffs that BCG didn't give them.
Much like I did for the original set of BCG Boss Powers, I'll be grading these on how much they let you ham it up as GM by calling them out loud. Without further ado, let's begin!
Catch me if you Can
This gives Bosses access to something that they would otherwise not be able to do: Teleport. It's not amazing, but if your Boss depends a lot on positioning and already has most of its kit, then this is a pretty decent pick. Ham Rating: Medium. The name fits pretty well and it's a pretty okay taunt, but it's the least bombastic thing in the world.
Crush the Insect
This is a very, very nasty surprise to pull on PCs with low Systems. Everything I said about Invasive in the BCG Retrospective applies to this Power: It's a cheap trick that can be very frustrating and unfun, so it more than does its job but it should be used sparingly... Or with parties that are ready for and expect Plot Armor Damage. Ham Rating: Good. This really should've been called "Crush you like an Insect", then it would've been Great.
I Can Read Your Every Move
I set out to adapt Combat Profiling, specifically by making the rules as similar as possible, and the results are... Mixed. On one hand, it's pretty simple and flavorful. On the other hand, it doesn't really do a lot. The buff only occurs during your next Turn, and the PC has control over whether it happens or not. Arguably, this could've been better as a pseudo mind control power, where the Boss 'predicts' what is going to happen and/or sets up a trap and forces the PC into it. My other problem with it is that the buff is only relevant to Bosses that specialize in direct combat, and this is the kind of power that you give to NPC tricksters and tacticians who should have Systems higher than Might. Ham Rating: Great. The callout is very flavorful and threatening, so at least we end on a high note!
Marked for Death
This is one of those straightforward attack and defense buffs I mentioned... And it's a pretty good one! +4 Attack and Defense, even if it is only against a single target, shoudl let you down a PC in 3 attacks instead of 4 and possibly negate some debuffs that need to meet your Defense to have an effect. Probably my favorite of this whole bunch, in mechanical terms, because it goes on so many builds. Ham Rating: Medium. A simple change like "Mark you for Death" would increase the rating to Good. It's easy enough to make the change and make yourself understood, so it's not bad.
Souls Bound by Gravity
I don't remember what came first, the idea of naming a power after Char's phrase or making a debuff that removes Flight. Whatever the case, the result is inarguably flavorful. It originally didn't have a range limit, which made it kind of bullshit as all Extreme Terrain anywhere forever would wreck your shit until the Boss died. At least now the Boss has to be close to the PCs and can't spend its Turns running away while forcing them to suffer Extreme + Difficult + Withering Terrain hell combos. Ham Rating: Meh. This depends entirely on whether you get the reference or not and, even then, it's not a particularly menacing line. Bump this to Great if you're Shuuichi Ikeda.
You are in my Sights
Aiming is a pretty good and simple buff, but it's too good to make it easily accessible to PCs without jumping through a hoop por two. With that said, there's no reason that Bosses can't have it, and if I'm going to do that then might as well let them use it to buff Grunts and Rivals as well. Ham Rating: Good, but would be Great if it was "Sniping the Targets" or even "I've Got you in my Sights."
So I think the BCZ Boss Powers average out to good, if not spectacular. Two are solid, two are conditional, one is meh and the last one is PTSD-inducing on munchkins without systems. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't pick out better names for them, but from a mechanical standpoint there's only one dud among them. And, er, that's it! I really don't have much more to say here. There's no big essay or profound realization to be had here. Sometimes stuff is just okay and that's fine!
Next: New Boss Upgrades
Gimmick Out
Much like I did for the original set of BCG Boss Powers, I'll be grading these on how much they let you ham it up as GM by calling them out loud. Without further ado, let's begin!
Catch me if you Can
This gives Bosses access to something that they would otherwise not be able to do: Teleport. It's not amazing, but if your Boss depends a lot on positioning and already has most of its kit, then this is a pretty decent pick. Ham Rating: Medium. The name fits pretty well and it's a pretty okay taunt, but it's the least bombastic thing in the world.
Crush the Insect
This is a very, very nasty surprise to pull on PCs with low Systems. Everything I said about Invasive in the BCG Retrospective applies to this Power: It's a cheap trick that can be very frustrating and unfun, so it more than does its job but it should be used sparingly... Or with parties that are ready for and expect Plot Armor Damage. Ham Rating: Good. This really should've been called "Crush you like an Insect", then it would've been Great.
I Can Read Your Every Move
I set out to adapt Combat Profiling, specifically by making the rules as similar as possible, and the results are... Mixed. On one hand, it's pretty simple and flavorful. On the other hand, it doesn't really do a lot. The buff only occurs during your next Turn, and the PC has control over whether it happens or not. Arguably, this could've been better as a pseudo mind control power, where the Boss 'predicts' what is going to happen and/or sets up a trap and forces the PC into it. My other problem with it is that the buff is only relevant to Bosses that specialize in direct combat, and this is the kind of power that you give to NPC tricksters and tacticians who should have Systems higher than Might. Ham Rating: Great. The callout is very flavorful and threatening, so at least we end on a high note!
Marked for Death
This is one of those straightforward attack and defense buffs I mentioned... And it's a pretty good one! +4 Attack and Defense, even if it is only against a single target, shoudl let you down a PC in 3 attacks instead of 4 and possibly negate some debuffs that need to meet your Defense to have an effect. Probably my favorite of this whole bunch, in mechanical terms, because it goes on so many builds. Ham Rating: Medium. A simple change like "Mark you for Death" would increase the rating to Good. It's easy enough to make the change and make yourself understood, so it's not bad.
Souls Bound by Gravity
I don't remember what came first, the idea of naming a power after Char's phrase or making a debuff that removes Flight. Whatever the case, the result is inarguably flavorful. It originally didn't have a range limit, which made it kind of bullshit as all Extreme Terrain anywhere forever would wreck your shit until the Boss died. At least now the Boss has to be close to the PCs and can't spend its Turns running away while forcing them to suffer Extreme + Difficult + Withering Terrain hell combos. Ham Rating: Meh. This depends entirely on whether you get the reference or not and, even then, it's not a particularly menacing line. Bump this to Great if you're Shuuichi Ikeda.
You are in my Sights
Aiming is a pretty good and simple buff, but it's too good to make it easily accessible to PCs without jumping through a hoop por two. With that said, there's no reason that Bosses can't have it, and if I'm going to do that then might as well let them use it to buff Grunts and Rivals as well. Ham Rating: Good, but would be Great if it was "Sniping the Targets" or even "I've Got you in my Sights."
So I think the BCZ Boss Powers average out to good, if not spectacular. Two are solid, two are conditional, one is meh and the last one is PTSD-inducing on munchkins without systems. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't pick out better names for them, but from a mechanical standpoint there's only one dud among them. And, er, that's it! I really don't have much more to say here. There's no big essay or profound realization to be had here. Sometimes stuff is just okay and that's fine!
Next: New Boss Upgrades
Gimmick Out
Jun 10, 2018
BCZ Retrospective XXII: New Beam Weapons.
If Melee Weapons needed more utility/aoe potential and Shooting Weapons needed more generalist tools, then Beam Weapons needed to complement existing builds using similar Energy costs. This may seem like a sort of OCD-ish quirk, more than a legitimate requirement concerning game balance, but it doesn't matter how powerful your gun is if it's too expensive or its drawbacks are too impractical for your build. Likewise, if it is too weak and cheap, then it won't slot into builds that are already made with higher costs in mind. So I deliberately looked for abilities that could make sense at costs 2, 3 and 4. My original idea was to focus primarily on 2 and 3, but most of the ideas I could think of were too powerful and thus leaning towards 4. Here's how it all ended up:
Boost 1: 2 Weapons.
Boost 2: 6 Weapons.
Boost 3: 4 Weapons.
Boost 4: 8 Weapons.
I'm not super happy with the Boost 4 glut there, but it's sort of how things turned out. I think that if I'd had the opportunity to do all 20 Beam Weapons at once (instead of doing them in two waves for two books), I could've figured out a way to make half the Boost 4 Weapons into Boost 3 and reshuffled some other abilities to make them more consistent. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and I had to keep the new Weapons balanced not just with each other but also with the older options. With this in mind, their Boost cost will be an important metric for my judging.
And about that balance... Well, I guess it's time to get started on the individual entries:
Magneburst
It's a Weapon that works as a Defense, and is better than Maneuvering if your Systems/Speed are super low. This used to be able to gain Long Range and it was ridiculous. It is still kind of obnoxious, specially since a ton of Grunts can spam this to make a Rival or Boss immune to everything but AoEs. While we could argue whether this is balanced or not, I'll just say that creating a cloud of Interference Terrain is not a Boost 2 effect.
Burnout Edge
A handy debuff, but suffers from not having an effect that lasts a whole Round. This way, they still refresh their Energy, so all it really does is stop Active Defenses and possibly Boost Powers. This would've been better as a Boost 2.
Fangs
Fangs are the only Remotes optimized for tanking. The idea is that you use them to Engage while staying away, that's why they have a Guard of 10. With some Active Defenses like Shielding Aura, they can pull off the feat of fully dodging some Weapons and only being weak to automatic Damage and lucky rolls of 8+. I think this merits its Boost 3.
Gravity Knuckle
Gravity Knuckle used to push for 5 Zones doing an added 5 bonus Damage. That was kind of insane, so I toned that down to 3 Zones and 3 bonus Damage. It's an okay utility Weapon for Melee or Beam specialists, but the Boost 4 really hurts. It's a decent pick, but you rarely want to spend that much Energy on anything but a finisher, so I wonder if I could've tweaked with the numbers until making it balanced for Boost 3.
Ground Zero
It is with a deep and heavy sigh that I admit I screwed up with this one. Ground Zero is worth using without Boosting, and if you do Boost it, then it probably murders the fuck out of the battlefield. This used to gain Long Range when Boosted, which was the most insane thing ever and allowed optimized glass cannons to make a 21x21 square of absolute death that didn't hurt allies. The only easy fix I can think of would be a flavor fail: It would be only an aoe, without a longer Range than 1, when Boosted. Then it would be good, but not as ridiculous as it currently is. It's definitely a Boost 4 Weapon, I got that part right at least.
Graviton Gun
A pure utility gun. It's not a big effect though. At first it pushed or pulled the target towards either end of the line, but that was a little bit much when it sent multiple baddies crashing in one direction. It's handy, but not super exciting, so I guess it is okay at Boost 2. Not super proud of it but at least it isn't awful.
Point Singularity Projector
This was a commission from the Kickstarter. The idea was to have a Weapon that wants to be used withthe Assist Action much like other Weapons want to be used with Aim or Suppress. It's got a good rate on Advantages to Energy spent, encourages teamwork and brings a new kind of build to the game. It's really good! It was, in fact, so good that I completely forgot I was supposed to get back to the creator about it because all the other commissions were so much harder to get right. After like a year of our last contact, I got back to them again and things were fine. Boost 2 is maybe a bit too generous but it's not a noticeable balance concern.
Bits
Ah,Funnels Dragoons Aerods Flying Shooty Things Bits, a Mecha staple. Now, at last, people can actually use them as a Weapon and not as a Support Upgrade. You can either protect them with a combination of Range, Crippling and Active Defenses or just send it to the other end of the battlefield so that Enemies won't be able to blast it and you at the same time. Boost 3 is perfect.
Lux Cannon
This was a Weapon that I tried out in BCG but it was too good. So what changed? Well, now there's more ways to build shooty beam dudes than to make them glass cannons and there's more ways to build tanky characters meant to withstand punishment than to hope your Absolute Barrier holds. It's still quite strong, so it's worth the Boost 4.
Oblivion Buster
It's the strongest single-target Weapon in the game, and it shows. While the ability to destroy Threshold Levels instantly is great for keeping super tanky PC/Rival builds in line, this Weapon shows how much of a problem it can be when Bosses are vulnerable to it. Bosses are at their most threatening for a very brief window of like 1 Turn, which Oblivion Buster can bypass. Even if you give them things like Oldtype, it's taking out at least 2 Levels. Buff it enough, and it's going to be 3. It's appropriate, but probably a bit much, and shows that destroying Levels as a Weapon effect is a worse idea than just bypassing Active Defenses. Definitely earns that Boost 4, though, and all its other drawbacks too.
So, Beam Weapons. Some are good, some are meh, and some are exceedingly exploitable. I'm a lot less happy about them than I am about the rest of the armory. I also think I screwed up with the Boost costs in general but that would've needed a rework of a bunch of BCG Weapons to do it properly, so it's not as much of a problem to me on a personal level.
But that's just me being a perfectionist! Feel free to tell me how wrong I am, how much the 'meh' Weapons are really cool and good, how the exploitable guns are fine and I'm just an overreacting whiny baby. I'd make a poll but it looks like Blogger removed the option to add those for some reason. What the crap, Blogger.
Next: Boss Powers.
Gimmick Out.
Boost 1: 2 Weapons.
Boost 2: 6 Weapons.
Boost 3: 4 Weapons.
Boost 4: 8 Weapons.
I'm not super happy with the Boost 4 glut there, but it's sort of how things turned out. I think that if I'd had the opportunity to do all 20 Beam Weapons at once (instead of doing them in two waves for two books), I could've figured out a way to make half the Boost 4 Weapons into Boost 3 and reshuffled some other abilities to make them more consistent. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and I had to keep the new Weapons balanced not just with each other but also with the older options. With this in mind, their Boost cost will be an important metric for my judging.
And about that balance... Well, I guess it's time to get started on the individual entries:
Magneburst
It's a Weapon that works as a Defense, and is better than Maneuvering if your Systems/Speed are super low. This used to be able to gain Long Range and it was ridiculous. It is still kind of obnoxious, specially since a ton of Grunts can spam this to make a Rival or Boss immune to everything but AoEs. While we could argue whether this is balanced or not, I'll just say that creating a cloud of Interference Terrain is not a Boost 2 effect.
Burnout Edge
A handy debuff, but suffers from not having an effect that lasts a whole Round. This way, they still refresh their Energy, so all it really does is stop Active Defenses and possibly Boost Powers. This would've been better as a Boost 2.
Fangs
Fangs are the only Remotes optimized for tanking. The idea is that you use them to Engage while staying away, that's why they have a Guard of 10. With some Active Defenses like Shielding Aura, they can pull off the feat of fully dodging some Weapons and only being weak to automatic Damage and lucky rolls of 8+. I think this merits its Boost 3.
Gravity Knuckle
Gravity Knuckle used to push for 5 Zones doing an added 5 bonus Damage. That was kind of insane, so I toned that down to 3 Zones and 3 bonus Damage. It's an okay utility Weapon for Melee or Beam specialists, but the Boost 4 really hurts. It's a decent pick, but you rarely want to spend that much Energy on anything but a finisher, so I wonder if I could've tweaked with the numbers until making it balanced for Boost 3.
Ground Zero
It is with a deep and heavy sigh that I admit I screwed up with this one. Ground Zero is worth using without Boosting, and if you do Boost it, then it probably murders the fuck out of the battlefield. This used to gain Long Range when Boosted, which was the most insane thing ever and allowed optimized glass cannons to make a 21x21 square of absolute death that didn't hurt allies. The only easy fix I can think of would be a flavor fail: It would be only an aoe, without a longer Range than 1, when Boosted. Then it would be good, but not as ridiculous as it currently is. It's definitely a Boost 4 Weapon, I got that part right at least.
Graviton Gun
A pure utility gun. It's not a big effect though. At first it pushed or pulled the target towards either end of the line, but that was a little bit much when it sent multiple baddies crashing in one direction. It's handy, but not super exciting, so I guess it is okay at Boost 2. Not super proud of it but at least it isn't awful.
Point Singularity Projector
This was a commission from the Kickstarter. The idea was to have a Weapon that wants to be used withthe Assist Action much like other Weapons want to be used with Aim or Suppress. It's got a good rate on Advantages to Energy spent, encourages teamwork and brings a new kind of build to the game. It's really good! It was, in fact, so good that I completely forgot I was supposed to get back to the creator about it because all the other commissions were so much harder to get right. After like a year of our last contact, I got back to them again and things were fine. Boost 2 is maybe a bit too generous but it's not a noticeable balance concern.
Bits
Ah,
Lux Cannon
This was a Weapon that I tried out in BCG but it was too good. So what changed? Well, now there's more ways to build shooty beam dudes than to make them glass cannons and there's more ways to build tanky characters meant to withstand punishment than to hope your Absolute Barrier holds. It's still quite strong, so it's worth the Boost 4.
Oblivion Buster
It's the strongest single-target Weapon in the game, and it shows. While the ability to destroy Threshold Levels instantly is great for keeping super tanky PC/Rival builds in line, this Weapon shows how much of a problem it can be when Bosses are vulnerable to it. Bosses are at their most threatening for a very brief window of like 1 Turn, which Oblivion Buster can bypass. Even if you give them things like Oldtype, it's taking out at least 2 Levels. Buff it enough, and it's going to be 3. It's appropriate, but probably a bit much, and shows that destroying Levels as a Weapon effect is a worse idea than just bypassing Active Defenses. Definitely earns that Boost 4, though, and all its other drawbacks too.
So, Beam Weapons. Some are good, some are meh, and some are exceedingly exploitable. I'm a lot less happy about them than I am about the rest of the armory. I also think I screwed up with the Boost costs in general but that would've needed a rework of a bunch of BCG Weapons to do it properly, so it's not as much of a problem to me on a personal level.
But that's just me being a perfectionist! Feel free to tell me how wrong I am, how much the 'meh' Weapons are really cool and good, how the exploitable guns are fine and I'm just an overreacting whiny baby. I'd make a poll but it looks like Blogger removed the option to add those for some reason. What the crap, Blogger.
Next: Boss Powers.
Gimmick Out.
Jun 3, 2018
BCZ Retrospective XXI: Shooting Weapons
Shooting Weapons have a higher power ceiling than Melee Weapons and they can also attack from longer distances. BCG had, in my opinion, too many niche or utility Shooting Weapons and not enough generalist options. This led to the creation of a metagame where most of the optimized Shooting specialist builds were of the glass cannon variety, built around using one or two specific guns and sacrificing everything else. My goal with BCZ was to add some variety and make it easier for more generalist builds to compete with the specialists. So let's see how they turned out, on with the show!
Anti-Mecha Cannon
Crippling is a pretty good debuff and with Long Range you could potentially 1v1 harass someone the entire fight with impunity. I considered making this Slow instead of One Shot, but it was still too good. As a One Shot you can build around it (and other One Shots) to keep the most dangerous threat Crippled every turn while you shoot from safety. It's not something you can pull off at low PLs though, so this is a niche weapon with secondary use as an utility/finisher.
Hyper Launcher
Blast 3 is HUGE and Unreliable doesn't hurt artillery builds as much as other drawbacks like Slow and One Shot. You can use this any turn, every turn, to wipe low Threshold Grunts with all but the worst of rolls. It lacks Long Range, but it's a great pick if you want to spam Blasts without having to perform shenaniganry with Slows and One Shots.
Lockdown Missile
Would you believe me if I told you that this used to be a Support Upgrade? The original idea simply surrounded one zone with barriers and let you lock out someone out of the battle forever, unless they had the appropriate Upgrades or enough friends to beat you up and stop trolling them. This was waaaay too good as a 5 MP Support and still uncomfortably griefy as a 10 MP Support, so it became a One Shot Weapon with a decent Blast radius instead. With a way to resupply One Shots you can still murder someone while keeping them out of the fight the entire time, but you have to be close to them and have to be careful about not trapping yourself in there too... And they could still fly over or teleport through your barriers, so it's not as easy to abuse. Still good though. Just make sure you're not making the GM/CoPCs miserable while you're laughing your way to victory.
Macrowave Cannon
A commissioned Weapon. It was inspired by an old design from when this game was called GGG, which only survived to BCG in the form of a Boss Weapon. It may read as a Beam Weapon, but it's just plain Shooting. Which is good for it, because otherwise it'd be even more difficult to use properly. Because it is so strong and has such a huge aoe, the recharging time isn't as much of a drawback as you may think, since it is likely to end or make unloseable the battle when you use it with some buffs.
Mounted Blaster
A long, long while ago, Shooting Weapons granted an Advantage for standing still while using them, rather than granting two for Aiming with them. While I think the current version of the Shooting Keyword plays a lot better, the simplicity of having a guaranteed Advantage that you could gain just by losing some mobility was nice to have. This is a callback to those days, allowing most types of gunners to trade in the Movement that they may or may not even be using for attack parity with Meleeists.
Radiation Bomb
This is Bombardment's evil twin. Or, well, eviler twin. While Bombardment is a ruthless, efficient killer. Radiation Bomb will either tickle you or hurt you way more than Bombardment could, making it the cruel sadist of the relationship. While Bombardment is a great Weapon, it does feel like a flavor miss sometimes when you try to use it to represent particularly nasty weaponry like napalm, nerve agents or, well, radiation bombs. So I made Radiation Bomb because there clearly just weren't enough ways to create huge explosions and destroy everything everywhere forever in this game already.
Rapidfire Machinecannon
Another simple gun. Shooting Weapons in BCG had more roles to cover (short range, long range, area, debuff, etc....) than Melee ones, so as a consequence they were generally more complicated and had more drawbacks to use. This is why there's so many more Shooting Weapons that just grant one Advantage (or inflict a Disadvantage) in a specific sitaution in BCZ.
Sentry Turret
It's the only non-Beam Remote! The flavor is that you're planting down an aimbot that has a wide reach and hits hard but is fragile and immobile. In a previous version, it got an automatic roll of 10 to the Might Test. In another, it was Crippling. The autorolling 10 was weird because it arguably did reduced Damage compared to weaker guns when they rolled highly, which led to some moments where it felt bad to use. Crippling from Long Range is, as I have already said, way too good. The final version is nothing amazing, but if you shield it with your body and Engage baddies that would snipe it then it will provide a reliable source of damage every Turn.
Torpedoes
This Weapon is so niche that it's way more likely to be used by specialized NPCs than by most PCs. But it also serves another function in that it is an example of how homebrewers might want to balance their own custom Weapons. This might not seem like a big reason, but given that I wasn't sure whether I was going to end up making a Custom Weapons system or not (and I didn't) I wanted to put it in BCZ to at least provide a little guidance by example.
Tracer Rifle
It's a focus fire Weapon that, while weak, grants a +2 to every other friendly that coordinates with you. This makes it very powerful, particularly if you've got a low Might build and don't really care all that much about doing Damage yourself. It is a very nice side gun for support oriented builds.
Other than the griefing potential of the Lockdown Missile (Which has been described ''legitimately the funniest thing i've seen in a game" by one of its live witnesses and as "the full spicy meme experience" by another, so I think of it as more of a feature than a bug) I don't have any significant issues with most of these. Even the ones that look difficult to use properly, like the Anti-Mecha and Macrowave Cannons have a unique role that works for them, without being overpowered. All in all, a very nice set.
Next is... Oh, it's Beam Weapons. :sweating_emoji: Oooh boy.
Gimmick Out.
Anti-Mecha Cannon
Crippling is a pretty good debuff and with Long Range you could potentially 1v1 harass someone the entire fight with impunity. I considered making this Slow instead of One Shot, but it was still too good. As a One Shot you can build around it (and other One Shots) to keep the most dangerous threat Crippled every turn while you shoot from safety. It's not something you can pull off at low PLs though, so this is a niche weapon with secondary use as an utility/finisher.
Hyper Launcher
Blast 3 is HUGE and Unreliable doesn't hurt artillery builds as much as other drawbacks like Slow and One Shot. You can use this any turn, every turn, to wipe low Threshold Grunts with all but the worst of rolls. It lacks Long Range, but it's a great pick if you want to spam Blasts without having to perform shenaniganry with Slows and One Shots.
Lockdown Missile
Would you believe me if I told you that this used to be a Support Upgrade? The original idea simply surrounded one zone with barriers and let you lock out someone out of the battle forever, unless they had the appropriate Upgrades or enough friends to beat you up and stop trolling them. This was waaaay too good as a 5 MP Support and still uncomfortably griefy as a 10 MP Support, so it became a One Shot Weapon with a decent Blast radius instead. With a way to resupply One Shots you can still murder someone while keeping them out of the fight the entire time, but you have to be close to them and have to be careful about not trapping yourself in there too... And they could still fly over or teleport through your barriers, so it's not as easy to abuse. Still good though. Just make sure you're not making the GM/CoPCs miserable while you're laughing your way to victory.
Macrowave Cannon
A commissioned Weapon. It was inspired by an old design from when this game was called GGG, which only survived to BCG in the form of a Boss Weapon. It may read as a Beam Weapon, but it's just plain Shooting. Which is good for it, because otherwise it'd be even more difficult to use properly. Because it is so strong and has such a huge aoe, the recharging time isn't as much of a drawback as you may think, since it is likely to end or make unloseable the battle when you use it with some buffs.
Mounted Blaster
A long, long while ago, Shooting Weapons granted an Advantage for standing still while using them, rather than granting two for Aiming with them. While I think the current version of the Shooting Keyword plays a lot better, the simplicity of having a guaranteed Advantage that you could gain just by losing some mobility was nice to have. This is a callback to those days, allowing most types of gunners to trade in the Movement that they may or may not even be using for attack parity with Meleeists.
Radiation Bomb
This is Bombardment's evil twin. Or, well, eviler twin. While Bombardment is a ruthless, efficient killer. Radiation Bomb will either tickle you or hurt you way more than Bombardment could, making it the cruel sadist of the relationship. While Bombardment is a great Weapon, it does feel like a flavor miss sometimes when you try to use it to represent particularly nasty weaponry like napalm, nerve agents or, well, radiation bombs. So I made Radiation Bomb because there clearly just weren't enough ways to create huge explosions and destroy everything everywhere forever in this game already.
Rapidfire Machinecannon
Another simple gun. Shooting Weapons in BCG had more roles to cover (short range, long range, area, debuff, etc....) than Melee ones, so as a consequence they were generally more complicated and had more drawbacks to use. This is why there's so many more Shooting Weapons that just grant one Advantage (or inflict a Disadvantage) in a specific sitaution in BCZ.
Sentry Turret
It's the only non-Beam Remote! The flavor is that you're planting down an aimbot that has a wide reach and hits hard but is fragile and immobile. In a previous version, it got an automatic roll of 10 to the Might Test. In another, it was Crippling. The autorolling 10 was weird because it arguably did reduced Damage compared to weaker guns when they rolled highly, which led to some moments where it felt bad to use. Crippling from Long Range is, as I have already said, way too good. The final version is nothing amazing, but if you shield it with your body and Engage baddies that would snipe it then it will provide a reliable source of damage every Turn.
Torpedoes
This Weapon is so niche that it's way more likely to be used by specialized NPCs than by most PCs. But it also serves another function in that it is an example of how homebrewers might want to balance their own custom Weapons. This might not seem like a big reason, but given that I wasn't sure whether I was going to end up making a Custom Weapons system or not (and I didn't) I wanted to put it in BCZ to at least provide a little guidance by example.
Tracer Rifle
It's a focus fire Weapon that, while weak, grants a +2 to every other friendly that coordinates with you. This makes it very powerful, particularly if you've got a low Might build and don't really care all that much about doing Damage yourself. It is a very nice side gun for support oriented builds.
Other than the griefing potential of the Lockdown Missile (Which has been described ''legitimately the funniest thing i've seen in a game" by one of its live witnesses and as "the full spicy meme experience" by another, so I think of it as more of a feature than a bug) I don't have any significant issues with most of these. Even the ones that look difficult to use properly, like the Anti-Mecha and Macrowave Cannons have a unique role that works for them, without being overpowered. All in all, a very nice set.
Next is... Oh, it's Beam Weapons. :sweating_emoji: Oooh boy.
Gimmick Out.
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