BCG Remastered SRD Update

Hello, hello, hello beautiful gentlepeople once again. I am here, on the last day of the month, just a few hours before the clock announces it is no longer July, here to share an update to the BCGR SRD with you all. Without further ado, here's the download link and here's the changelog:

Rules v1.5 Changelog:

• Everything has flavor text now!
• Added a new functionality to Equipment Tests for canceling penalties to using Skills without Equipment.
• Made Intermission Damage mechanics less lethal.
• Intermission Grunts only have one Plot Armor Layer and do not get to Test Willpower to avoid Defeat.
• Added a narrative rule called The Dramatic Finish at the end of the Operations section.
• Clarified in the Skills section with Skills can carry Disadvantages for using them without Equipment.
• Deceptive Fighter slightly buffed with additional options. 
• This is my Battlefield now lasts one Round but lets you change Terrain types per use to compensate.
• Come at Me Bro lasts one Round but now you autoroll 10 on punishment attacks.
• I am a Loose Cannon now halves bonus and self-Damage but the bonus applies to everything, not just a single attack.
• Stake my life on it is Reaction Speed instead of Setup and can be used to make a self-destruct attack now.
• Techniques increase the Tension cap to 20 instead of 10.
• Clarified that Superheavy Machinegun can, in fact, be used to Suppress despite being a Line.
• Living Weapon was rewritten to make sense under the new Deathblow rules.
• Simplified Invasive and Crush the Insect.
• Did you notice Antimatter Shot was missing from the previous version of the SRD? Well, it's back now. Rejoice.
• Magic Bullet's now gains +1 Advantage instead of adding Tension to Damage.
• There's an introductory oneshot scenario at the end of the SRD now. It has two difficulty settings (Tutorial and Challenging) and can be run on either Combat Only or Full Narrative modes. The scenario includes two pages of setting information.

A lot of these are things that I talked about in previous blog posts. Others are corrections on things that changed too far during the previous update. And others are part of the ongoing quest to try and make a bunch of complicated and/or bad options be simple and/or good instead. I figure I can talk about them later during the long wait for the proper, full version of the Remaster. Instead, I want to talk about something else, part of what I am hoping to achieve with this Remaster.

One thing that vanilla BCG doesn't do very well is tell you what playing the game is like, beyond giving a few examples or making anime references and hoping that's enough to grasp what the system is trying to do. That's what I'm trying to correct with the addition of the Dramatic Finish rule and the inclusion of a oneshot introductory scenario.

I'm just going to copy and paste the Dramatic Finish rule here so we both know what I'm talking about:

The Dramatic Finish

When the GM confirms that a PC has Defeated an NPC, and after figuring out whether said NPC flees, ejects, dies, lives or whatever other fate happens to them, the owner of the PC has the right to narrate a Dramatic Finish. This is a spectacular description of the PC finishing that Enemy off.

The description should be appropriate to the result of the Might Test. If the result is the exact number needed to defeat them, then a lucky ricocheting projectile hit the enemy in the back or it collapses from a combination of many small cuts of your blade. If, on the other hand, the Might Test gets a result over 30 and overkills the enemy by 10 Damage, then your mech burns with a bright battle aura and punches a robot into a mountain so hard that the mountain explodes, or you can shoot a beam so powerful

it launches the enemy off-planet and into the sun. If there was no Might Test, judge it based on the Damage dealt.

The appropriateness of a Dramatic Finish depends on the tone of the game. The group should discuss beforehand to decide the levels of realism people can work with.

That's it. It's barely even a rule. It's more of a suggestion. But I think that does a lot for helping make the game feel like a game about cool robots doing cool robot things. This plus having a whole anime episode included in the SRD ready to run with its own prewritten plot (albeit an extremely basic one) is going to do a lot for newer players and GMs to grasp what makes the game work.

Oh yeah. It doesn't have any art right now, but the scenario is going to have art. Like this:

While the power of the imagination is unlimited, having art to sell you on the idea of what the units look like is going to help you get more immersed and invested into the fantasy the game provides with noticeably less effort. Also, I like having art, when I can afford it. So there.

Hopefully I can put up the SRD with all the art sometime August. I'll see you all next post.

Gimmick Out.

Introducing Battle Century G Remastered

I really wanted to post this last month, but it wasn't in what I'd call a presentable state. It's still incomplete, but what is finished is good enough to use. Without further ado, let me tell you about Battle Century G Remastered.  

This baby's got big 80's energy.

In order to explain what Battle Century G Remastered (BCGR for short) is, I first need to explain what it isn't: It is not a second edition of the game. BCGR is an update and improvement to BCG, but doesn't break away from the mold enough to count as a second edition. If the current version of BCG is v1.2 and the suggested balance changes & errata I posted a while earlier are an unofficial v1.3, this would be the game's v1.4 update. 

Here's what the finished version is going to have:

• A compilation of the rules in BCG and BCZ.
• Integration of the errata and suggested balance changes posted way back in 2018. 
• A handful of additional improvements to Intermission abilities (Miracles, Equipment, etc.)
• Substantial editing and rewording to make the text easier to parse.
• Improvements to the alternative rules modules in BCZ (plus some new ones).
• Updates to the premade NPCs in BCZ.
• A better, more fleshed out and cooler setting.
• A premade campaign scenario 6 to 12 episodes long.

Currently, I'm up to the first four bullet points. You can check out the System Reference Document here. The remaining four bullet points (particularly the final two) are going to take longer to finish.

Here's the full v1.2 to v1.4 Changelog: LINKING IT BECAUSE IT IS SEVEN PAGES LONG. I'm also noting which ones are from v1.3.

So I've been wanting to make a second edition of BCG for a while, because there are a bunch of things in the game that I think I would do differently today. There are two problems with it though: 1) It's very different from BCG, it's like the jump from GGG to BCG. Still recognizably the same game, but I can see some considering it a downgrade. 2) It's gonna take a long time to finish and I think I owe you all some content before that's done.

This Remaster is that content. BCG:R is my way of saying thank you for sticking with BCG after all these years. I don't want to spend millenia tweaking and adjusting rules again, but I think I can make a few changes here and there to make the game just a tiny little bit better for everyone.

I've learned a lot about game design since BCG came out. Making MP, in particular, has given me the chance to practice with tighter worldbuilding, easier character creation for beginners and premade campaign scenarios to help give GMs a good idea of how the game should go. I intend to put these skills to use. Once it's finished, the Remaster will be the same BCG experience but with a prettier package and easier to learn.

The one thing I will be sad to see go is the flavor text. The little references like Sunbot 3 and the Nu Ganmen make me smile to this day, years later after having written them. But BCG is a game that can be somewhat difficult to get into and a more cohesive and better written out setting makes that part so much easier. Flavor text can be a big help to properly convey worldbuilding so I should redo every entry from the beginning. Some references may survive the process, others may not. I think it's a worthwhile price to pay.

So that's what I'm doing. I haven't said anything about what I want to do for the setting, modules, etc. but I'll get to that in future posts.

Gimmick Out.

Remember The Game I Made Last Year?

You have no idea how hard it was to make blogger display this thing at a reasonable size.

It's been not one nor two or even three months since the first version of Monsterpunk, but a full half year. That means a loooot of things changed, so this post is going to be a very, very long one. First order of business, here's the download links for Monsterpunk v.099 (Dropbox and Mediafire). A long while ago I said the next version would be v0.91, but this is v0.99! That's how much has changed.

Moreover, it could use a few more editing passes, but I'd like to keep it more or less as is until the proper v1 release.

Speaking of v1, here's the plan for the near-to-medium-term future: Later this March or during early April there'll be a kickstarter for Monsterpunk. The game needs art, layout touchups and I'd like to add some premade content for new players. Assuming the game gets funded, it'll come out around October so you can hang out with and fight monsters during the spookiest of months. And after that, I'll put out a SRD just like I did for BCG.

This game is a lot less finnicky than BCG was so with any luck things should go much smoother. Additionally, because it's so much easier to balance, I can make a lot more content for it and it's a lot less difficult to do so, so I'm quite eager to start writing weird classes, monsters and all that other good stuff.

Let's get started with the castle of words that is the changelog - but first, I want to point out is that there's a crapton of new sidebars all over the place. You've got sidebars for playing without your equipment, sidebars for spicing up the narration of limit techs, sidebars for the weight of orgonium coins and the list goes on and on. I would list them all but I forgot to make a note of them while I was writing them... So I don't actually remember which ones are old and which ones are new! Basically, keep an eye out for new sidebars as you read, there might be new stuff in pages that are not mentioned below.

Okay, now let's get to the castle of words!

Oh and by the way I really like how the art is coming along. 

Introduction

•Added a Foreword at the beginning. Not super important but I'm including it here for completion's sake. It's sort of an expanded "what is roleplaying" section but more conversational than explanatory. 
•Expanded the Inspiration section. More and better links to mythology resources plus a list of games and fiction you can use to base your MP games off of.
•Updated the Glossary to new terminology. Just a housekeeping thing.

World of Monsterpunk

•The Demihuman Empire from the game's backstory is now called the Pandemonium Empire. This will make more sense if you read some of the new lore/have read last week's post.
•Added an Abridged History of the Age of Monsters. It is not quite a timeline but sheds considerable light on some things about the setting that weren't explained before.
•Added a section for playing as independent groups. Some of it was moved from faction management, but other parts are rewritten or brand new.
•Orgonetech is now called Magitech. You can now say 'orgone technician' and have it be not confusing as to whether you mean orgone techniques or orgone technology.
•Orgonium coins are now called Biomarks. For clarity's sake, we now have two distinctive terms to separate from pure Orgonium crystals and the coins made out of those.
•Fairy Circles are now Fairy Rings, Living Architecture is now the Hermetic Megalith and Weather Control Towers are Midsummer Maypoles. The rest of the book refers to those three things as Teleportation Circles. Living Architecture Forts, and Weather Control Towers. It was inconsistent of the fairies to give one of their big magitech advantages a fantasy-esque name and the other two very functional and agnostic ones.
•The Fairy Council members now have the title of Prince (gender neutral). The Principality is an aristocracy, but since I never defined the various titles the nobility could have, there were no mentions of princes anywhere, so it was a Prince-less Principality and that's kind of weird.

Game Rules

•Formal rules for Group Tests. These were a sidebar suggestion. They were tweaked and made into proper rules now.
•Sanity is now Humanity. Old Humanity deleted. No sanity mechanics. No morality mechanics. Humanity is now lost only as a consequence of twists, through the use of limit breaks or some self-healing tricks.
•Humanity loss transforms you into a monster called a Fiend rather than making you insane. Fiends are either temporary antagonists that can be brought back to PC status with help of the other PCs or left to become long-term antagonists.
•Buffed Wealth Tests. Only lose Wealth on a Twist. May now also purchase a single-use Skill Advantage item. The buff helps make Wealth Tests more relevant and also makes Wealth less of an obvious twist dump stat, especially useful now that Humanity is now only lost strictly as a player choice.
•Rage and Fear are no longer lost when the source becomes Hidden and the afflicted must attempt to locate the source. This a stealth Mentalist buff. Their Invisibility had negative synergy with those effects and I would rather buff the conditions than give them different powers.
•Charm is no longer lost when the source becomes Hidden. See above for the reason.
•Poison and Burn effects are switched. Burn is now 3 Delayed Damage, Poison is 6. Most of the venoms in this game are the kind that should be more lethal than being on fire. It also helps some of the classes using those status conditions needed a bit of rebalancing. I didn't list down all the affected techs so assume that any class that could inflict Burn or Poison has had those Techs tweaked.
•New Combat Action: Limit Break. Trade 1 Humanity for the ability to fight while at 0 HP, making yourself immune to damage and most status conditions until the end of your next turn. Can be done once per Day. PCs can win any fight as long as it is remotely fair (and there aren't multiples per day) but relying on this crutch will eventually transform the whole party into Fiends - a fate much darker than the death of one or two of them. It is possible to 'exploit' this mechanic, but the way to do so involves character development and roleplaying between the party so I'm closer to calling that a feature than a bug.

Character Creation - General Changes

•Character Feats deleted. Other Feats renamed to Features. Character Feats slowed down character creation and forcing everyone to remember them slowed down the flow of combat. The most interesting ones have been absorbed into Class Features or got made into Alternative Features for Chapter 5.
•Role Techs deleted. Role Techs slowed down character creation and were very boring. The Alternative Features in Chapter 5 preserve part of their teamwork function for PCs that want to focus on their role more.
•Levelup bonuses changed. Here is the new table.

The tl;dr is that everyone has +1 Trick, +2 Skill Expertises, +1 Feature, plus some reshuffling of where things happen on the levelup ladder. The loss of Character Feats and Role Techs hurt, the added versatility of the extras here isn't quite as strong but it's more fun and all classes get additional compensation buffs plus Limit Breaks too so it should be fine.
•Gestalts are now called Hybrids. A more agnostic name. Note that Gestalts in-universe are still called that, the name change is just for the rules sections that reference the specific Class type.
•Ubermensch are now Solos. A more agnostic name. Also I got some mentions of people being uncomfortable with the term.
•Hybrids get +5 HP and 1 Monster Trick. Hybrids were already struggling to keep up with the other Classes so they get the best compensation bonus of everyone.
•Riders get +2 Speed (only when riding) and 1 Monster Trick. Pretty obvious compensation for the loss of Character Feats. The riding condition is to further make it clear they should be always riding.
•Summoners get 1 Monster Feature and 1 Monster Trick. Not as much as the other Classes get but Summoners are already very powerful.
•Solos lose -5 HP -2 Speed and gain 1 Feature, 1 Basic Tech, 1 Support Tech and 1 Trick. They can also poach from any Monster Class. This is a complete rework of Solos more or less, because they had many issues: They were repetitive from lack of basic techs, very same-y from lack of monster partners and lastly they couldn't spam support techs from level 1 so they were always 2nd best at their specialization. Now they're the same as everyone else but with slightly worse stats and slightly better versatility.
•Everyone gets +1 Free Language. Monsters no longer give bonus Languages and instead some of them have prerequisite Languages. This is a stealth buff to Solos, giving them an extra Language, while everyone else is basically unaffected. 
•The Linguist Trick has been buffed to let you understand all written and spoken languages. Buff to what was a very weak Trick that didn't really need to make you roll for the benefit.
•Most Techs have had their Ranges halved (rounding up). The old ranges assumed there would be lots of cover (of the half and full cover types both) or that battlefields would be small, either scenario would prevent long range builds from getting a bunch of free attacks in. Without either of those things, sniping and kiting melee fighters is way too easy. This change balances both melee and ranged specialists without forcing the GM to do that through battlefield design. Assume most attack Techs have had some of their values messed with in order to adjust, maybe keeping range but trading damage for it. I won't mention changes to specific Techs unless they're significant.
•All the Status Mastery Features have been changed to to Status Prowess Features. They work on all attacks (not just Limits) and also when an enemy nulls their status too, in exchange they no longer let you add the status to techs that don't have it. The Status Mastery line alternated between doing too much (against enemies who didn't resist or couldn't heal the status) and too little (against enemies who did resist or heal the status). Now they're more generally useful.
•Survival now works with feral monsters too. If you can convince a bear not to eat you, you should be able to convince an owlbear of the same.
•Listening is now called Contact and is explicitly about telepathic connections so strong that you lose your sense of self while experiencing somebody's memories, feelings and thoughts. I'll miss how Listening made enemies pour out their tragic backstories that caused sanity loss but this makes much more sense with Humanity as collateral.
•Understanding has been renamed to Faith and is more or less the same as before. Name has been changed to better differentiate it from Contact.
•Rewrote many obsessions. Mostly at the 0 Humanity level. Some are the same as before but about half of them had large overhauls to make Fiends centered around them into proper antagonists.
•Added several pages for adapting PC concepts to each Faction or to play them as an independent group. I figure this will come in handy.
•Touched up the Example Builds not just to adjust them to rules changes but also to make them play easier wherever possible. Half housekeeping half improvement.

Character Creation - Class-Specific Changes

Alchemist
•Truth Serum and Amrita buffed. Panacea's effect is now spelled out in the entry. All three Tricks were bad and/or unclear.
•Emergency Care and Surgical Precision reduced from 2 HP to 1. With the addition of an extra Feature at Level 1 (plus another down the line) and the versatility of being able to pick Techs from Monster Classes, it was too easy to negate single-target attacks.

Blood Knight
•Exploit Opening replaced with Offensive Marking: You and all Allies within 3 meters gain an Advantage against targets you’ve Marked. The Blood Knight is primarily a melee class and that doesn't work too well with attacks of opportunity that could originate from 5+ meters away. Offensive Marking benefits them, suits their aggressive personality more, and helps allies focus enemies down.

Changeling
•Fey Analyst can now Track for one question and upgrade it to fully scan an enemy for two questions. Compensation for the loss of the Assess feat line. Also the old Fey Analyst was neat but not powerful enough for its slot.

Chosen
•Slayer's Instinct lets you Track whoever you Mark. Used to be a free Assess, which is now a much worse thing without the Assess Feat line. This also helps compensate the loss of free Tracking on whoever happened to be the party Assess user.
•Martyr's Destiny renamed to Regeneration and loses 1 Humanity when activated. This is so I can give to the Giants as well. Oh and because in this post-sanity future most self-healing tricks include Humanity loss in some way. The name is a lot less cooler but we'll live with it, I guess.

Dragoon
•Rumormonger, Instant Friend & Know Their Price replaced with Fast Recovery, Gang Boss & Base of Operations. The old Tricks were flavorful but they were basically conditional autosuccesses on some social rolls. This was too redundant with Voice of Reason, not to mention kind of underpowered and uninspiring. The new Tricks are much cooler and more generally useful.

Daybreaker
•Retainer replaced with Light of Truth. Retainer is now exclusive to the Dragoon, but the Daybreaker gets a unique Trick with social, exploration and combat applications which is more than fair compensation.
•My Fateful Hour grants +1 HP to Focus Orgone while Wounded. My Fateful Hour was made with the old Healing Factor Character Feat in mind, which, well, was kind of better than most other Feats TBH. With the loss of Character Feats, this seems like a good way to fix this Feature.

Elementalist
•Find Weak Spot can now inflict Vulnerable for one question. Compensation for the loss of the Assess feat line.
•Now Slows instead of Dizzying. The Elementalist was in a unique position where it had easy access to arguably the two strongest status conditions in the game, now that all Hybrids get a big buff in the form of +5 HP, they need to share both status conditions with the rest of the class(es). This change keeps their cold-based techs symmetrical in terms of effects with the fire-based techs. See Graviton Ranger for more info.

Graviton Ranger
•Call Your Weapon replaced with Fast Recovery. The Graviton Ranger was the only tank class without any self-healing Tricks, which is a real bad thing to be especially with the loss of 5 HP. Fast Recovery is not exactly a self-healing Trick, as it needs the help of an ally to be a proper healer, but if you do meet that condition it is arguably even better as it incurs no Humanity loss and doesn't need corpses to feed on or anything like that. 
•Now Dizzies instead of Slowing as a specialty. One of the class's worst aspects was the redundancy of slowing and restraining specializations in the same class. By taking Dizzy from the Elementalist the class should have a much easier time keeping up with the other tanks after the -5 HP reduction.

•Pull of Gravity can now affect any number of targets within the area of effect. This was pretty weak. Between everyone having lower attack ranges and the multitarget capability it is now in a much better place.

•Deleted Slowing Shot and Boosted Charge. They were both very meh, so they've been replaced.
•Dazing Punch is now an Advanced Tech that causes Dizzy. New Basic in its place called Drag and Drop that damages and slides. The new Techs are SO much better!
•New Advanced Tech: Dazing Shot. Dizzies from a long distance but does no damage. Dizzy is very hard to balance. I think this Tech mostly gets it right.

Mentalist
•Read Your Next Attack can now inflict Suppress for one question. Compensation for the loss of the Assess feat line.
•Decoy Technique now endures lethal damage at 1 HP once with a free Invisibility thrown in. Another conditional Disadvantage to attacks that got the axe along with Character Feats. It now happens to be much cooler than it used to be.
•Stab and Flee now moves before the attack but loses Accurate. This is pretty much necessary for the Tech to work as intended if you want to use it while making yourself Invisible in the same Turn.

Predator
•No Escape replaced with Quick Regenerator, +1 HP to Focus Orgone while not Wounded. No Escape didn't do very much for a class that already can Track at least one target per Turn. Fast Regenerator is the >50% HP counterpart to My Fateful Hour, making the Predator a very solid offtank combined with the +5 HP buff.
•Misshappen Camouflage replaced with Chameleonic to autoroll 10. You could argue that many of the Predator's Tricks are just conditional Stealth autosuccesses, might as well give them the real deal in place of the worst of them.
•Great Endurance replaced with Find Your Target. As the game's Tracking specialist, it's kind of weird that they didn't have the closest thing to long-range Tracking. I don't think anyone will miss Great Endurance.
•Spear Arm replaced with Hunter's Pounce, with increased mobility and auto-tracking. The change is to further differentiate it from Grasping Tentacle, as they were kind of redundant (and also Spear Arm's math was wrong).

Raptor
•Scan the Area replaced with Find Your Target. It was more or less the same thing but with more words and a chance of failure. I think of this as a buff at the cost of a tiny bit of uniqueness.
•Slow Falling replaced with Integrated Tools. Integrated Tools is one of the few ways to stack Advantages to Skill Tests, so it's very useful, if not spectacular, which is much better than the completely useless (for a flying specialist) Slow Falling.
•Raptor loses Efficient Aerodynamics and gains Winds of Zephyr, +1 HP while using Focus Orgone while Airborne. Efficient Aerodynamics is pointless when you can perpetually stay Airborne through Support Techs, all of which grant flight. Winds of Zephyr gives the Raptor enough sustain to become one of the game's most flexible and self-reliant classes.

Reanimator
•Lich now costs 1 Humanity to store your soul in or to recharge the philactery. Most self-healing Tricks now make you lose Humanity.
•Reap Soul replaced with Two Heads are Faster than One. Reanimator was the only character class with two self-healing Tricks. Now they get something else instead of that.

Reaper
•To Whom go the Spoils replaced with One With the Shadows, +1 HP to Focus Orgone while Invisible. The inconsistent healing of TWGTS has been replaced with a much more reliable heal bonus, albeit one only for specific builds. With its high speed, invisibility, and regeneration, the Reaper is a terrifying assassin.

Siren
•Halo of Protection Healing reduced from 2 HP to 1. The Siren already had some of the best healing and crowd control techs. With the +5 HP buff, they're the hardest to kill healer in the game outside of maybe Daybreakers perpetually running away from enemies. This nerf, much like the nerf to Alchemist healing Features, is necessary.

Swarm Master
•Spider Net buffed to prevent enemy movement rather than halving speed. It was very weak. Now it's noticeably more useful.

Undead
•Intimidating Gaze replaced with Vanishing Act. This is mostly for lore reasons, as ghostly undead should have the ability to turn invisible. Intimidating Gaze, while useful, was the weakest link in the chain.

Giant
•Two Heads are Faster than One replaced with Regeneration. Giants couldn't keep Two Heads are Faster than One, even if it was flavorful, because that would allow Solos to poach it, causing the universe to divide by 0. More seriously, most Giant Tricks were on the underpowered side and this is both powerful and a flavorful fit, so there you go.

Elementalist and Elemental
•Rise from the Ashes loses 1 Humanity when activated. Same reasoning as Lich and Regeneration.
•Elemental lore rewritten. Now a lot less vague and make more explicit about their role in the world.

Mentalist, Siren and Horror
•Suggestion clarified that it does not work against enemies in combat. Rectifying a preeeetty important oversight in the old version.

Predator and Undead
•Ghoul's Hunger loses 1 Humanity when used. Another self-healing Tricks that loses Humanity.

The Genre Master

•A whole bunch of housekeeping. Nothing too mechanically important beyond the changes to the Poison and Burn Techs in the NPC Creation section. 
•A section with several pages of ideas for running games using all the factions as allies or enemies as well as fully independent games. There's like 50 of those in there. You're bound to find something you'll like.
•Instinctive Action can now be used for a Basic Tech OR to remove a single Arcane, Mind, Bind or Delayed Damage Status Condition. It wasn't intended for the Dizzy status to block Instinctive Actions and this change is more interesting than just making the attack go through Dizzy just "because". If Dizzy and Silence get the Boss to stop making extra attacks to heal the condition, they're still doing their job.

Alternative Systems

•Added 16 Alternative Features themed around the 4 roles. These can be taken in place of the regular Character/Monster Features. This is how you can hybridize into two roles now that character feats and role techs are gone.
•Faction Trick purchases are kept as volatile items instead of having a duration of one Week. This is a very big buff, allowing you to trade Wealth for Tricks that don't have a set expiration date. I actually kinda want to expand on this idea and make more Tricks purchaseable in a marketplace outside the faction rules but that's probably OPAF so for now they'll just stay here.
•Translator Implant languages are kept as long as you keep the volatile item in question. It's a slight nerf necessary to keep PCs from learning every language forever with the temporary purchase of a single Translator Implant.
•Secret Projects renamed to Magitech Projects. It's a better name. Not an amazing one, but it works.
•War Atrocity does 2 Vitality and 5 Humanity damage to PCs in the area. Housekeeping mostly. Please don't nuke your friends thanks.
•Adjusted Dual Classes, Custom Classes and Level 0 Classes to the new class kits. Housekeeping mostly. This might need tweaking in the future, as some combinations are even more exploitable than before and giving all Solos the ability to poach from Monsters makes the Custom Solos lose a lot of their luster. For now I guess it's ok since the rules are already for groups experimenting with extreme optimization, but I'll keep an eye on it.

I blame blogger for any transparency issues.

And that, I believe, is all. I find myself without words after having typed all that, so uh... Closing Statement Goes Here! Exclamation Points for Excitement!

I'll be back in a couple weeks with a crowdfunding campaign. Until then,

Gimmick Out.

I Made Another Game

I almost missed making an update this month, but I actually managed to pull it off. More importantly, I've got something to show for all I've been doing this entire time.

Here There Be Links:

Monsterpunk v09 Beta
Monsterpunk Character Sheets
Monsterpunk Tech Cards and Feat Sheet

I'll save up the big posts about the game for a later time and just get this out the door ASAP. Right now I need to do something that doesn't involve writing, proofreading or math.

...That leaves surprisingly little, actually.

GLHF.

Next: A lot of writing, proofreading and math... Probably.

Gimmick Out.

The Battle Century Errata, Troubleshooting & Balance Changes Documents

Monsterpunk is on the horizon, but before I fully reveal it to the world I want to do one last thing for BCG. That's these three documents here:

Errata

This is the most important document and the one that will could get integrated into the books proper. Most of it are fixes editorial mistakes, clarifying complex rules text or rewrites to rules that just plain didn't work properly. There are a couple of mechanical changes, but they're the kind that address multiple issues with the game rather than being pure balance changes. It saves me time to change a general rule as errata here instead of adding a bunch of balance change suggestions in its place for the documents below.

Troubleshooting

This section is too large to add it to the books, so it's going to stay as a google document. As the name says, it is basically a FAQ, mostly involving quirky rules interactions. Most of the questions come from the comments section and the discord server. Some of the answers may contradict things I've said in the past, and if they do, you should consider what is in this document to be my final word on the subject.

Balance Changes

Last, but not least, a bunch of suggestions to improve your BCG + BCZ experience. They're just that, though, suggestions. Most of them are strict improvements to the rules, but if there's something you don't like in them, you can just pick and choose what to use what to leave in there. Want to nerf Absolute Barrier but don't want to cap Tension? Cool, that's why this is a google doc of suggestions only.

And now a quick FAQ:

Are you going to make more content for BCG?
No. Consider these documents a parting gift to the game, at least until I decide it is time to rebuild the whole system for a second edition.

What if the errata needs its own errata?
The documents are open to comments, so if you spot a typo, are confused about a ruling or have a suggestion about a balance change, leave it there.

So you will be updating these documents?
I'll probably do a round of typo fixes later at the least and continue to answer more questions for eternity. Mmmaybe I'll add some additional suggestions or tweak existing ones later, but no promises there. If I do it, don't expect it to be a regular thing.

I found another typo, can you add it to the errata doc?
Leave it in the errata document as a comment somewhere and I will get to it eventually.

When can we expect the PDFs to be errataed?
Probably by the end of the year. I want this to be the last errata update, so I'll wait to make sure that we won't need future errata fixes.

That's it! I may do the rest of BCZ as a Retrospective at some point, but the next thing I want to talk about is my new game. With any luck, the next post will be about Monsterpunk's open beta.

Until then!

Gimmick Out.

It is that time again.

Time for playtest material! Yup. I wanted to do some previews the last two weeks but honestly couldn't pick just what of all the delicious expansion content to show, so instead here's a whole bunch of stuff!

This is basically all the setting-agnostic expansion content, the rest of the new material (to make the game more fantastic, gritty, or what have you) will come in later. Have you ever wanted a robot that could teleport? What about making a support bot that can heal over 10 points of threshold every turn? Well I have good news for you, but instead of telling, I'll just show you - in link form: BCZ Public Beta v0.3

As always, good luck and have fun.

BCG Experimental Rules 2015

It is time for the second and final BCG Experimental Rules document. This is the last wave of changes before release, meaning that your feedback is more crucial than ever. I'm fairly confident this stuff is solid enough that it will make the game better as a whole, but I've been wrong before. Let's not waste more words and get right down to business, hmm?

Here is your download link and below is your summary of tweaks:

General Changes

-Impassable Terrain now deals damage to units that are forcefully slammed into it.
-Shooting Weapons no longer gain a +5 range bonus from Aiming, that bonus goes to Long Range Weapons instead.
-All Blasts now have their own individual blast radius. All other area of effect weapons have been keyworded as either Burst or Line Weapons.

Upgrade Changes

-Artillery Frame works with all Blast, Burst and Line Weapons but has the blast radius bonus reduced by 1.
-Guardian of Steel has a reduced range of 1 Zone around the user.
-Superior Morphing now includes Features along with External Upgrades and Weapons.
-Duelist Model works only with Melee Weapons.
-Resupply can spend multiple uses at once with one Action.
-Housekeeping updates to all Upgrades that need to reference Blasts, Burst and Lines. Of note is that Interference Bomb got its name changed to Jamming Barrage.

Weapon Changes

-Assault Rifle and Rocket Punch got minor buffs.
-Boosted Lance got a minor nerf.
-Electrosapper Pods and Resonance Cannon have been tweaked to make them more enticing.
-Housekeeping updates to all Weapons that need to reference Blasts, Burst and Lines. Of note is that Finger Net’s debuff has a longer duration and smaller radius.

Enemy Changes

-Colossus affects units that fly if the user can fly as well.
-Energy Drain steals one half of the target’s Energy.
-Possession now is clearer and simpler to use, though it only works with Default Weapons now.
-Housekeeping updates to all Enemy abilities that need to reference Blasts, Burst and Lines.

We have two months and change left to make alterations to the game itself. Let's make the best of them, Gimmick out!

BCG April Update

Ah, Easter. In my corner of the world, it is known for being the year's one four-day weekend, making it perfect for meeting friends and family, taking a mini vacation trip somewhere close, and writing roleplaying games.

That is how people usually spend their holidays, right? Shutting themselves in and writing stuff, no? Anyway.

Today I have for you a middle of the road update. The text has less typos, is better organized, and in general things are clearer. There's still a lot of layout work to do (the current page backgrounds and sheets are placeholders) so I will probably do another of these updates with 'quality of life' improvements in 1-2 more months. Hopefully after that the game will be finished.

A few weeks ago I brought up what you were going to see today, and the grand majority of it remains the same. A few things did change between then and now though, so let's go over them quick.

Two Promotions and two Demotions

The grand majority of changes are buffs, and they are either pretty inoffensive buffs or obviously necessary. Those are 'Stable' changes, while the more adventurous and dramatic changes are called 'experimental' and have their own separate pdf.

Two supposedly Stable changes stood out in discussion as being perhaps more strong than intended: Interference Bomb and Electro-Sapper Pods. To ensure that their power level is fine they'll go in the experimental manual for now. In the meantime, Interference Bomb will halve the Might of all Units in an Area, while the Pods remain as-is because a bonus 1-3 points of Damage isn't a bad deal anyway.

Two Experimental changes got promoted to Stable: Powered Rifle and Your Fate is Sealed. They aren't really significant enough to warrant months of testing, though they are quite powerful if you make the most out of them. Your Fate is Sealed which denies Tension and healing entirely but only for one Round. Powered Rifle which takes a bit from its Boosted counterpart and has improved Range when you Aim (A Range of 20 is not too difficult to get), but can only be used against targets at least at Range 5.

Because sometimes you just need to shoot beyond the horizon.

Changes I Forgot to Mention

Tweak things back and forth while testing them out long enough and you will forget to note down some of them. While checking out feedback and comparing it to my notes I realized that I forgot to bring up a few more changes. Here they are:

-Experimental Reactor got a slight nerf to cost 2 Energy instead of 1.
-Got you Where I Wanted lets you move the target a number of Zones equal to the entirety of the Damage.
-Take One for the Team lets you redirect all of the Damage towards the user.
-Bloodlust was missing its Level 2 buff, now it grants 5 Might.

Two are welcome buffs, one is a moderate nerf to basically the game's best damage increasing ability, and the last was kind of obligatory. There really is not much else to say.

An Absolute Barrier works pretty well with Take One for the Team.

Expanded Experimental Material

Three weeks was more than enough for me to notice some of the more obvious problems with the first draft of the Experimental Content I posted. It was also enough to come up with some more things to try out. The most dangerous change (yet also the most exciting) was by far the buff to Commander Type, I did say that it was potentially extraordinarily powerful... And that's basically what it was.

At the end of the day the only way to effectively counter a Commander Type User was to cut off their energy supply...  Through another instance of Commander Type. In consequence I retouched and weakened it a little. It is still very powerful though, so be careful if you want to allow it in a game.

That's the bad news. The good news is that there are two new buffs: Don't Give Up now restores an amount of Threshold equal to the user's Systems and Overcharge costs 5, so that you can combo it with the Experimental Commander Type.

Closer and closer to a viable Mecha concept.

And last but definitely not least...

Attribute Advancement Changes

All PCs under the Experimental rules start with 100 Character Points and 100 Mecha Points to spend however they wish at Power Level 0. Each Power Level also grants them 20 Character Points and 20 Mecha Points, plus a Genre Point and a Genre Power. Attributes start at 0, and you Enhance them in instances of +2 each, as shown in the table below.

I pinky swear that any resemblance to mechanics from GGG is coincidental.

Let's quickly go over what this accomplishes:

Elimination of leftover points: The way the math worked previously it made getting 4's and 5's the one surefire way to avoid having a leftover of points. I was aware from the beginning that low PL characters would look a bit same-y Attribute-wise, but even after that the increases tend to come in '15s' (4 to 6 or 7 to 8) because otherwise you'd have 1-4 spare points you can do nothing with. With everything coming in multiples of 5 that would no longer be a problem.

Starting characters have more XP and can spend it on whatever they wish: This allows for a little bit more variety in what starting Characters and Mecha can do. The total XP at Level 1 is basically the same amount, but being able to do whatever you want with it does help. It is also less confusing because you don't have to manage a predetermined amount for Attributes, a predetermined amount for abilities, and then the amount you can do anything with. This one is all upside as far as I'm concerned.

High Power Level characters have less XP: This one is half upside and half downside. On one hand it cuts down on some of the more powerful strategies that PCs of PL 4 and 5 could get away with... On the other hand, that's not always a bad thing. Having less XP at the high end makes things easier to balance and also weakens Grunts and Bosses, not just PCs and Rival NPCs.

Your Attributes can only be in even numbers: Again this one has its pros and cons. The con is that there is less freedom in how you can distribute your Attributes and you can't really make a Character with slightly under or above average Charm, it has to be strictly average, bad, or great. The game already grades your Attributes by twos, though, so it is not really a big change in that regard. Also, by having all Attributes be always even, we could reinstate the old rule of always rounding halved values up. I'm not entirely sure this is the right call yet, but the main reason BCG roundes values down is that there is a lot of Attribute halving going around and the balance of the game is better when Attributes are rounded down, not up.

Attributes are slightly cheaper to increase and more convenient to manage: Even if there is less XP to go around, Attributes are actually cheaper to increase now so endgame PCs can end up with builds that are pretty similar to the ones in the current version of BCG. It might sound like a loss of 40 points, but it is really more like a loss of 20-30, and it is spread through five Power Levels. It does not hurt that much, but it does mitigate the commonality of some late game obscene combos.

There's a few more side effects, and honestly I should go more in depth into the numbers there, but I think it should get a post of its own if I am going to do it justice.

That it feels similar to this is a nice bonus.

One More Thing

Terrain. Yes, that thing is Terrain. There has been some (quite a bit of) confusion over how Terrain and Terrain-like effects work. The troubleshooting section does clarify this, but it keeps coming up so perhaps I ought to rewrite how they work so that they're more intuitive. Currently abilities like Flyer and Anti-Gravity let you ignore Terrain, but not Terrain effects like those of Incinerator or Ensnaring Trap. Terrain effects also do not stack, so you can't be set on fire twice but you also can't be set on fire while having mines detonated under you. Well, you can, but the second effect will not do anything.

The general idea was that I could let the effects be stronger if they couldn't stack, for example Ensnaring Trap halves two Attributes when I originally was going to make it only halve Speed. I do like the way Terrain itself works, but the abilities that cause Terrain effects might be in need of a touchup. Hence the poll you see to the right.

I could rewrite abilities like Incinerator or Ensnaring Trap so that they create Zones of Extreme or Difficult Terrain, thus they would function in the way that seems to make the most sense, without having to change any other rules. But I could also change Terrain slightly and make the negative conditions stack if you apply multiples of them on the same Zone or target.

I hope to get the production gears spinning a little bit faster in what is left of this month and the next. I have a schedule more or less planned out, so there'll be lots of things to discuss in the near future. The schedule itself should be the subject of a post coming soon, as well.

But that's for another day. Today Easter awaits. Have a Happy Easter if you celebrate and a Pleasant Sunday if you don't.

Shining a Light on Theoretical Energy Weapons

I've been exploring the beam variants being polled, and they're good enough to merit some playtesting by now. I've got proof of concept drafts using Variable Beams (the most popular) and Boosted Beams (tied for second most popular and far easier to design than the other choice). This is going to be a wordy post! You have been warned.

Before going any further let's recap what Variable and Boosted Beams looked like the last time we met them:

Beam (Variable)
The energy-based equivalent of either of the above, Beam Weapons can be laser cannons or blades made of light. Their output varies depending on how much Element G is pumped into the weapons themselves. With enough juice, they are harder to dodge and pierce the armor of targets much better than their more physical counterparts. You may spend as much Energy as you want when using a Beam Weapon, increasing the result of the Might Test by half the amount spent.

Beam (X) (Boosted)
The energy-based equivalent of either of the above, Beam Weapons can be laser cannons or blades made of light. Their output varies depending on how much Element G is pumped into the weapons themselves. With enough juice, they are harder to dodge and pierce the armor of targets much better than their more physical counterparts. Beam Weapons have an optional Energy cost between parentheses you can pay for to grant them an Advantage to their Might Test.

When it comes to designing Variable Beams we have to keep in mind that, even if they scale slowly, they still let you transform essentially half your Energy into Might. They give you options, and in any game with strategy elements options are powerful. To keep them at the same MP cost of other Weapons they wll need to have drawbacks, and drawbacks that hurt them at that.

A Powered Rifle user that attacks from far away can afford to safely pump everything into its damage output while a friend tanks for them, making it essentially better than an Assault Rifle. Even if it were to have something like Overheating, it would only take back a minimal fraction of how much Damage it can dish out, so it is not as simple as just slapping the first drawback you can think of on it.

The most important thing about Boosted Beams is that they are essentially two weapons in one, having a boosted and an unboosted state. You can spend energy for a powerful attack, or not spend any for a weapon that is a bit weaker than average, this is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to designing them. At least in theory.

In practice high energy costs would almost never be worth it. Let's take Radiant Fist (as you know it) but at a cost of 4 or 5 optional Energy. Not only is all that Energy not really worth a single Advantage, but without the Energy cost then it is basically a better Zweihander. A straight adaptation was not going to be possible here either.

We have a total of ten weapons to rewrite. Taking these issues into account... How hard can it be?

From Concept to Gameplay

Of our ten weapons some can be adapted very easily and others... Not so much. Let's go over them in alphabetic order.

Beam Rifle: This one is easy, since I wrote up both examples last week. Let's move on.

Beam Saber: See above. We have two of eight in the bag, hopefully the rest will be just as easy.

Charge Cannon: This is our first bump in the road. A Variable Charge Cannon needs a considerable drawback or else it becomes a Rail Bazooka that can also fire continuously if it needs to. A Boosted Charge Cannon has similar issues on top of being conflictive from a conceptual standpoint, because you can power it up with energy and with an Aim Action, with both powerups having different effects.

Grand Weapon: A giant weapon that hits for a lot if you spend more energy to make it even stronger. This is already a thing that Variable and Boosted Beams do by themselves so it doesn't have much of a place anymore. It could keep a similar role by being more efficient about the Energy to Might ratio but that is going to need a considerable drawback if it is not going to be massively overpowering.

Infinite Blade: This one is relatively simple to adapt, though it will take a little bit of tweaking. The Variable version can grant a Range bonus based on the amount of Energy spent to power it up. Likewise, the Boosted version would have a Range bonus if you were to pay the Energy cost.

Incinerator: As easy as it gets to adapt outside of the Saber and Rifle. Both versions only really need a drawback to compensate for the Weapon's extra ability. Overheating is the perfect choice, making sense conceptually (this is a giant flamethrower we are talking about) and mirroring how it can hit foes more than once.

Lux Cannon: See Grand Weapon. Finding this one a role is going to be specially hard considering that Shooting Beams are more convenient than their Melee siblings. Both of these might need a total rewrite or outright replacement.

Powered Rifle: Like the Incinerator, this one only needs a drawback to keep it from being always better than the Assault Rifle. Slow is the obvious choice - it makes sense that a long range beam cannon would need a moment to recharge. That it stops Powered Rifle users from being absolute kings and queens of long range shootouts is a nice bonus

Radiant Fist: Radiant Fist can afford to have its own custom rules because it is a big flashy supermove. But at the same time, I'd like to keep things simple and not make it overpowered. The Variable version is probably strong enough, while the Boosted version could afford to be a little stronger when powered up.

Reactor Overdrive: At the risk of repeating myself a lot, this one is in a similar position to Radiant Fist (see if you spot the pattern) just with the balance issues that you have to keep in mind when it comes to Shooting Beams. The ability to choose whether to hit one or multiple enemies is a powerful one, and I can't just give it Slow because that basically doesn't do anything, so this is going to force me to get creative with drawbacks. Keeping this one from having too much rules text will be the biggest challenge.

Infinite Blade and Charge Cannon were going to need a tweak. The former would have its maximum range toned down because I'm not letting a Melee weapon that costs 5 MP outreach the grand majority of Shooting ones, even if it costs a few Energy points to do so. Charge Cannon could continue to exist as the gun that you can charge up for an area of effect attack, but giving it a relevant drawback (like Slow) would conceptually make it lose its 'continuous' firing mode. A name and description change (while keeping them more or less the same weapons otherwise) might be in order.

While I could adapt Grand Weapon and Lux Cannon, I'd rather set them aside and come up with something new instead of being redundant. Its not like we couldn't use more weapon variety! The departure of Grand Weapon and Lux Cannon leaves us at a loss of Beam weapons that are bigger and badder than the others while also being repeatable. I don't have to make Weapons that hit harder than the others though, they just have to feel like they're stronger.

I ended up going conceptually with 'huge blade that chops limbs off' and 'a gun that is actually two guns' under the names of Beam Ripper and Double Blaster. The former works for anything big like axes or scythes. The latter suits double barreled rifles and shoulder mounted cannons.

Gundam: Your #1 inspiration for beam weapons in all shapes and sizes

Weapons of Assault and Battery

I touched up the descriptions of Beams a little. The only thing really worth mentioning is that 'boosting' a beam is now a verb.

Beam (Variable)
The energy-based equivalent of either of the above, Beam Weapons can be laser cannons or blades made of heated particles. Their output varies depending on how much Element G is pumped into the weapons themselves. With enough juice, they are harder to dodge and pierce the armor of targets much better than their more physical counterparts. You may spend as much Energy as you want when using a Beam Weapon, increasing the result of the Might Test by half the amount spent.

Beam Saber (Variable)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam.
A favorite for its low energy consumption, solid armor-piercing power, compact size and overall practicality. Mass produced and made standard issue for most factions.

Beam Rifle (Variable)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam.
Cheap to produce and easy to use, it makes a great all-purpose Weapon if you can get around its craving for energy.

Beam (X) (Boosted)
The energy-based equivalent of either of the above, Beam Weapons can be laser cannons or blades made of heated particles. If you pump Energy from your Mecha into them, they are harder to dodge and pierce the armor of targets much better than others. Beam Weapons have an optional Energy cost between parentheses, you can boost them with an Advantage to their Might Test by spending that much Energy. You can boost a Beam Weapon once per Action.

Beam Saber (Boosted)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (3).
A favorite for its low energy consumption, solid armor-piercing power, compact size and overall practicality. Mass produced and made standard issue for most factions.

Beam Rifle (Boosted)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (3).
Cheap to produce and easy to use, it makes a great all-purpose Weapon if you can get around its craving for energy.

Okay so we already saw these last time, but I'm including them for the sake of completeness. Let's get to the good stuff.

Incinerator (Variable)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam, Overheating. Passing the Might Test with this Weapon will inflict the effects of Extreme Terrain on Enemies during their next Turn.
Someone just had to devise the equivalent of a giant flame-thrower, giving birth to the best friend of terrorist organiza-tions that own giant robots.

Infinite Blade (Variable)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam, Slow. This Weapon's Maximum Range is twice the Energy spent on it.
This weapon's length is theoretically infinite. The only thing keeping it from reaching the moon is that most Gears just do not have the power to make that happen.

Powered Rifle (Variable)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam, Long-Range, Slow.
A Weapon for providing support fire at long distances, combining accuracy with penetration power. It can pierce through all but the most heavily armored of foes if you take a moment to align the sights.

Mega Beam Cannon (Variable)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam, Slow. If you take the Aim Action with this Weapon before firing it gains the Blast ability.
An oversized cannon that can blast multiple targets with one pull of the trigger. If given a moment to charge, its explosions will level buildings and outright vaporize infantry.

Incinerator (Boosted)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (3), Overheating. Passing the Might Test with this Weapon will inflict the effects of Extreme Terrain on Enemies during their next Turn.
Someone just had to devise the equivalent of a giant flame-thrower, giving birth to the best friend of terrorist organizations that own giant robots.

Extending Blade (Boosted)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (4). If you boost this Weapon, its Maximum Range becomes 10 for this activation but it gains the Slow ability for this activation.
This weapon's length is theoretically infinite. The only reason it doesn’t go farther than it currently does is because they just haven’t figured out how to keep the excessive output from breaking the device itself.

Powered Rifle (Boosted)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (3), Long-Range, Slow.
A Weapon for providing support fire at long distances, combining accuracy with penetration power. It can pierce through all but the most heavily armored of foes if you take a moment to align the sights.

Charge Cannon (Boosted)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (4). If you boost this Weapon, it gains the Blast ability for this activation but you do not regenerate Energy during your next Turn.
A portable, pistol-shaped beam cannon with two different firing modes: Continuous and Charged. Continuous fire provides an accurate, consistent supply of firepower. The Charged mode can blast multiple targets with one pull of the trigger but will force your systems to go into cooldown for a moment afterwards.

Old friends with new faces! Their descriptions are mostly the same with some concessions here and there to adapt them in a way that works. The Incinerator risks taking Damage in the same way that it has a chance of dishing out extra points, and the Powered Rifle is made Slow to basically mirror the Sniper Rifle. Extending Blade and Mega Beam Cannon are obviously slight tweaks to Infinite Blade and Charge Cannon, but adapted to their corresponding Beam mechanic. Now let's have a look at the finishers!

Radiant Fist (Variable)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam, Technique, Overheating. When using this Weapon you add all the Energy spent to the result of the Might Test instead of halving it but you do not regenerate Energy during your next Turn.
The ultimate in close range finishers, the unit’s hands are equipped with an extremely damaging system, from electric colliders to a radiation pulse that glows with an awesome power.

Reactor Overdrive (Variable)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam, Technique, Overheating. If you take the Aim Action with this Weapon before firing it gains the Long-Range ability and attacks all Zones within Range in a straight line aimed in a direction of your choice. After using Reactor Overdrive you do not regenerate Energy during your next Turn.
You overload and expose the Gear’s generators redirecting the power surge towards outside rather than your own systems. The process may cause lasting damage to your own machine, but the brutal energy blast released is much more certain to do even worse for whoever is on the receiving end of it.

Radiant Fist (Boosted)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (6), Technique, Overheating. If you boost this Weapon, it gains an additional Advantage to its Might Test for this activation.
The ultimate in close range finishers, the unit’s hands are equipped with an extremely damaging system, from electric colliders to a radiation pulse that glows with an awesome power.

Reactor Overdrive (Boosted)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (6), Technique, Overheating. If you boost this Weapon, it gains the Long-Range ability and attacks all Zones within Range in a straight line aimed in a direction of your choice for this activation but you do not regenerate Energy during your next Turn.
You overload and expose the Gear’s generators redirecting the power surge towards outside rather than your own systems. The process may cause lasting damage to your own machine, but the brutal energy blast released is much more certain to do even worse for whoever is on the receiving end of it.

The Technique duo of Radiant Fist and Reactor Overdrive did not change all that much. They're very strong and might even require toning them down a little, but being expensive and more or less single use means it should work out fine. Now let's pay a visit to the new kids on the block and offer them a cup of sugar. Is that still a thing? It sounds so weird to someone who knows people they've only met over the internet better than their neighbors.

Beam Ripper (Variable)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam, Slow. You choose which Areas this Weapon Maims
The Foundation's 'Beam Rippers' are giant beam weapons taking the shape of axes, scythes or other similar oversized blades. They are unwieldy devices that eat Element G like breakfast, but prove invaluable when it comes to subduing Cryptids. Chopping the key body parts of giant regenerating monsters turns out to be pretty useful when you're trying to capture them alive.

Double Blaster (Variable)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam, Overheating. When using this Weapon choose one option of either adding all the Energy spent to the result of the Might Test instead of halving it or attacking two Enemies instead of one, you gain the chosen ability for this activation. After using Double Blaster you do not regenerate Energy during your next Turn.
A double barreled beam weapon that can be split into two separate rifles, making it as good as two guns in one. It is not just versatile but powerful, perhaps too powerful for its own stability, tending to overload and self destruct after consecutive uses.

Beam Ripper (Boosted)
Melee Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (5). If you boost this Weapon, then you choose which Areas it Maims for this activation.
The Foundation's 'Beam Rippers' are giant beam weapons taking the shape of axes, scythes or other similar blades. They are unwieldy devices that eat Element G like breakfast, but prove invaluable when it comes to subduing Cryptids. Chopping the key body parts of giant regenerating monsters turns out to be pretty useful when you're trying to capture them alive.

Double Blaster (Boosted)
Shooting Weapon (5)
Effect: Beam (5). If you boost this Weapon, choose one of having an additional Advantage to the Might Test or attacking two Enemies instead of one, you gain the chosen boost plus the Overheating ability for this activation.
A double barreled beam weapon that can be split into two separate rifles, making it as good as two guns in one. It is not just versatile but powerful, perhaps too powerful for its own stability, tending to overload and self destruct after consecutive uses.

They're powerful alright, but you cannot carelessly spam them so you have to juggle between different Weapons. Double Blaster in particular is very strong, and if you alternate between Aiming and Attacking with it you maximize its strength while minimizing its drawback... But a foe can alternate between Attacking and Maneuvering to counter you, or ruin your key Turns with a well timed debuff to your Energy.

(Incidentally, Support options could afford a slight buff to make sure this is a viable counterstrategy for longer than 2-3 Rounds. I'm on it.)

Particular care was taken with the Shooting Beams to ensure they are competitive with the other firearms. Powered Rifle would let you shoot +2 Beams from waaay in the distance with impunity if it weren't Slow, but keeping it from firing consecutively lets Assault Rifle keep its niche as a constant source of Damage. You could make a similar argument for Extending Blade as well, and these both play pretty well together if you alternate between using one and the other. The Mega Beam Cannon, Double Blaster and Reactor Overdrive can shoot multiple targets but complicate things for you in your next Turn and two of them have a strong kickback. Rail Bazooka has better Range and doesn't do a number on your reserves, while Riot Weapon can be repeated with ease.

The Glittering Crux of the Matter

This is a proof of concept draft. The numbers could be off, but they seem reasonable after some examination. I will be playtesting these on my own to see whether they work better or not. If you choose to do the same, tell me how it goes.

Tuning up (or down) the rest of the armory would bring all Weapons more or less in line. Dueling Blade goes down, while the Electro-Sapper Pods go up. I won't be changing them much, just enough to keep their power level close to each other and one option does not outshine the rest. I don't want to be rewriting stuff from scratch, I'd rather tweak what is already there. Beams are an exception that I'm willing to experiment with to see if it works.

I don't think it is possible to have a game where all options are perfectly balanced with each other, not if we want something with more nuance to it than Rock Paper Scissors, but I can definitely craft a wide variety of strategies that all are more or less useful depending on the kinds of challenges you face.

If this goes well I'll be doing more posts in the future about stuff I'm testing out and not just the end result of said testing.