FATE of the Liberation Union Strike Team

[WritesNaughtyStories]

The world isn't exactly broken - well, it doesn't look broken, although it really is in terrible shape. But, you have to look hard to see it.

Part of the reason you have to look so hard, is there was no single point of failure. No catastrophe. Rather is was a slow cancer that consumed the world in the guise of protecting it from kaiju. The all - encompassing tumor is The Hive. It's the government, the corporations that keep it solvent and the deadening, soul drinking, human powered machine that keeps the elites wealthy, drunk on power and fat on the flesh of the masses. And even its name is a lie. Hives are egalitarian, efficient and just. The Hive is none of those things.

The public's food and drink are all laced at the source with emotion blockers that act as a lifelong chemical lobotomy. It makes them easy to control and unable to muster the outrage to fight back against the manipulative, exploitive society that's been crafted for them. Their military is a vast array of biomechanical warmachines called BioFrames. They're 10 meter tall humanoid monstrosities piloted by soldiers drafted at by lottery at 16 and given a hardwired emotion dampener that can be switched to aggression by their commanders. These mechs are grown from edited kaiju DNA over control circuits, weapon armatures and dermal plating,

Outside the bland arcologies and mega cities, in the few remaining wild places the Liberation Union have fought a long slow war against the might of the Hive. The Liberation Union is far smaller and has almost none of the industrial might of the Hive, but they do have all their wits and pilots that love their mechs, And each other.

These squads of pilots and their bonded mechs are far more capable than those of the Hive, despite using very similar technologies. The E-gates that control the Hive soldiers are supported by neural blocks in the BioFrames to keep the pairs from bonding. LU Strike Teams have no such inhibitions. The physical and neurological interface between BioFrame and pilot can be intimate, even sexual, and by embracing that, the LUST are far more effective.

 

We'll be using FATE to run this game, FATE is collaborative so we'll work out character and game parameters together, I'll get a mechanics guide posted soon.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

FATE is very focused on story and doesn't use a set array of attributes. Instead the main feature of characters are Aspects. Aspects are defining phrases about Why things matter. Lots of things in FATE have Aspects but characters have 5. The basic guidance for Aspects is: Say more than one thing, be double edged and keep the phrasing simple. One of my favorite example of this is instead of saying "Computer Genius" change the Aspect to "Nerdy McNerdson" because Nerdy McNerdson implies computer genius, but adds a layer of potential awkwardness, potential distraction by cool gizmos and some knowledge about roleplaying games and/or comic books. "Hot shot BioFrame Pilot" doesn't say nearly as much as something like "Maverick's got nothing on me".

Supporting Aspects are Skills. They're what generally gets things done. Everyone has all the skills, just at different ratings. Each character gets one skill at +4, two skills at +3, three skills at +2 and five skills at +1. Normally FATE give 4 skills at +1, but since we're adding a skill to the list, we'll add one slot so the number of +0 skills is still 7 Skills work by adding their rating to the result of 4 FATE dice. They have an equal chance of rolling +1, 0, or -1. Roll dice, add skill, 0 is a mediocre success. 8 is "legendary"

The skills are:

• Athletics - agility and speed
• Burglary - pickpocket, forgery, security systems
• Contacts - who you know and how good you are at networking
• Deceive - lie, disguise and misdirect
• Empathy - reading people, especially emotionally
• Engineering - making and fixing stuff
• Fight - melee
• Investigate - ask questions, search for clues
• Lore - history, general knowledge
• Notice - our friends in D&D call this Perception
• Physique - strength and toughness
• Pilot - operate a vehicle, car, boat BioFrame, fighter jet
• Provoke - getting under people's skin to get them out of their game. Not quite intimidate. More like annoy.
• Resources - not just wealth, but what you can get ahold of by knowing where to look
• Sex- building Synch with your mech or otherwise using sex to achieve mechanical effect on the game
• Shoot - yep, that
• Stealth - sneak, hide, move silently
• Will - mental toughness

There are some other things to know, but for the moment, that and a list of skills should be enough to get the character creation chat started. Or, @WickedCadrach, do we want to use the three phases?

[WickedCadrach]

I'm happy to use the 3-phases, unless you'd rather skip it. I'll put what I have to start and you can let me know

 

Emily Kehrer - (feels like she should have a callsign, but I'm undecided on what)

Spoiler

Emily is a Silicon-hearted mech hacker (high concept) who is Staying alive, one pill at a time (trouble). 

Her skills at exploiting and sabotaging the electronics and software components of Bio-Frames, as well as dumber 'tin-can' mechs and drones, make her a valuable asset for the Liberation Union. It's almost enough to make up for her sharply calloused way of dealing with her squad-mates. Almost. But Emily doesn't really care. Between her cyber-prosthetic pulmonary pump and the dozens of smaller bone-welds, synth-muscle replacements, and wired nerve reconstructions, she feels like she has more in common with mechs than people anyway. 

Surviving the hellscape of her world as a guerilla fighter, Emily has been shot, blown up, and left for dead too many times to keep track anymore. Her cyber-prosthetics—mostly stolen or jury-rigged copies made by LU technicians—keep her going, but the medications to prevent cyber-graft rejection and keep the chronic pain of her injuries from killing her are difficult to come by and impossible to manufacture outside Hive medical facilities. 

As a teenager, a kaiju incident destroyed the factory district where she worked alongside her parents manufacturing base components for Bio-Frames as well as full-metal mechs and drones. Her parents were killed and she would have been too had a Liberation Union squad not swept in to drive off the kaiju (and liberate some mech parts from the district for their trouble). Taken by the LU, Emily spent an agonizing three months, as a fifteen-year-old girl, detoxing from the Hive's emotional dampening drugs while simultaneously grieving the loss of her family and enduring the agony of her first cyber-implants. When she came out the other side, she was ready to fight—and for eleven years now, she'd done just that. For her, These scars spell 'never again' (First Aspect). 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Is Silicon-hearted something more than just cybernetic? It feels like it might hint at a fondness for the relative permanence of machines, do I have that right?

[WickedCadrach]

3 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

Is Silicon-hearted something more than just cybernetic? It feels like it might hint at a fondness for the relative permanence of machines, do I have that right?

You are reading that correctly . I went with a triple-entendre. 1) Literal cyber-heart 2) Loves electronics and mechs 3) she has a cold aloofness / not tender-hearted or warm-hearted.

[DreamsnThings]

I have a few things in mind but I need to figure out how my or mechanic/engineer interacts with the world on a scene to scene basis, what should I consider a "standard" encounter? how does a roll work?

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I think your mechanic should be like a combat medic for the BioFrames. One part Healer, one part Mechanic. You are never far from the action and can jump in when a Frame needs help.

When the Strike Team disables a Hive frame, you're nearby and can jailbreak it 

[WickedCadrach]

13 hours ago, DreamsnThings said:

how does a roll work?

FATE uses a fudge-die system. This means you roll 4 dice and each die can be +1, +0, or -1 (on a d6 it's usually, 1 or 2 = -1, 3 or 4 = +0, 5 or 6 = +1). Your character will have a set of skills with a bonus of +0 to +5. Anything significant to your character, a situation, or the setting will get reflected as an Aspect that can be invoked for a bonus when it's relevant (for instance, if I'm making an Stealth roll to hide from pursuers, I might invoke the 'Densely Forested' aspect that the GM put on the terrain to give myself a bonus).

When the GM calls for a roll, it's:
Skill rank (+0 to +5) + Invoked Aspect (if any +2) + 4 Fudge Dice
So if we assume I'm escaping from pursuers and I have a +3 Stealth skill, I'll roll my Fudge dice. Let's say I got +1, +0, -1, +1. Adding those up, I get a net +1. I choose to invoke the Densely Forested aspect the terrain has for +2 and end up with 3 + 1 + 2 for 6. Assuming the pursuers aren't extraordinarily great trackers, I probably got away (GM will set a target number for success). 

Side note: you might have seen the Character aspects I put in bold for the character I'm working on. If one of those is relevant, you can invoke those for rolls too. So in my example, if I was playing a character with an aspect like "I am one with the shadows" or "Proud Ninja of the Nobunaga Clan" then I could invoke my character aspect for that +2 instead of hoping for some situational aspect to call on. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Part of character creation in FATE is called the Phase Trio - which @WickedCadrach has started, Each character sketches out and adventure of starting point (the first phase) and the other players come back and get involved in it in some way (the second and third passes), There's a more detailed breakdown here, at the FATE SRD.

It's really easy though - tell us something about what your mechanic did and what the big picture of the character is (high concept aspect - WickedCadrach's is Silicon-hearted mech hacker. So, when she's involved in electronic warfare against Frames or drones, she can spend a FATE point to invoke the aspect for a +2 on her roll. But I, as the GM, can compel Emily to fail a Sex roll with the same aspect (due to her cold, aloof nature) by offering her a FATE point. She doesn't HAVE to take it, but, if she doesn't she'll pretty quickly run out of FATE points.

Your mechanic might have a High Concept of something like Mech mechanic with a heart of gold. You can invoke it to get a bonus on fixing Frames and I can compel it to make you hesitate when it comes time to do violence.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I've been trying to decide if we want to go through Game Setup as well. I feel like most of this is done, but are there any specific game Aspects or NPCs we think we need to formalize?

Are we content with the Current Threat being Increasing Hive Attacks?

[WickedCadrach]

I'm happy with Increasing Hive Attacks as the current threat. Maybe to bring in the kaiju a bit we could also have an impending issue like Strange Evidence of New Kaiju Breed?

May be helpful in initial posts if we formalize a couple key NPCs. The one that leaps to mind is our squad leader or LU cell leader. Maybe hammering what our location is currently (whether we have a mobile base or are posted in Liberation Union controlled territory). I don't have a strong opinion on either. Maybe we're currently in a former Hive mining district that was destroyed and not deemed worthy of reconstruction? Somewhere that could be a plausible border or no-man's-land.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I have a thought about the kaiju but, but yes we can add Strange Evidence of New Kaiju Breeds,

My thought is this: The Hive is starting to build "disposable" settlements where they forcibly resettle people in high risk kaiju zones so they can broadcast the destruction and justify big, new military investments. All of which will be used to eliminate the Liberation Union.

I have tentatively set the squad in the South Eastern Command Sector (because I'm super clever and that leaves us with LUST of the SECS).

So, the SECS Commander (who, for those fans of late 80's sleaziest hair metal, should be named Zodiac Mindwarp) probably needs some definition. Much as I love the Love Commando, their name is NOT Zodiac Mindwarp, I think we'll go with Magda Payarkoon. She was born to pilot a frame. I feel like her mom took over her father's Frame after he was assassinated by a Hive Murder Squad - while she was pregnant with Magda, so Magda has felt the presence of a Frame's mind her whole life - which makes her kind of short with people who don't quite get it right off. Is that suitable? Refinements? Additions? More Details?

Anyone or anything else we need.

Edited March 25 by WritesNaughtyStories

[DreamsnThings]

1 hour ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

Strange Evidence of Mew Kaiju Breeds,

Mew kaiju? we are getting catzilla?

on a seriousness note though I guess I need to pick a niche high concept for the character and go from there... Coffee powered Greese monkey anyone?

seriously though im drawing a blank, mostly because im still not entirely sure how the jailbreaking angle of things... work... like... that sounds more of a coding thing rather than a mechanical aspect of the process? we spoke of these being... bioframes? are they like... fleshy robots? what... are they?

...the only idea I really had that I really like is leaning into making her a bit of an odd one and have her "bioframe" actually be a blackbox of a destroyed one embedded into some cybernetics she has... with her personality being warped as her minds kinda shared between her and the bioframe, without either being in full control... so maybe flipping the concept a tad and having the high concept be something like "symbiotic disharmony" with both sides acting like an old married couple in one body... balancing both the needs and wants of the human and the frame half in one body, and since she cant directly "pilot" we can frame the jailbreaking angle as something she does via this connection... if this was DND she would be almost like an enchantment wizard, charming enemy frames to switch sides, or possibly directly interacting with the tech in non bioframes through her mechanical half...

this might be a little off the intended scope, but i think well musing I found a fun idea

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I like the idea of her having a Frame personality that lives in her head  - kind of a multiple personality.

Let's work out what that looks like by first figuring out what BioFrames are.

I'd been thinking they are carefully grown cyborgs. Muscle tissue augmented with technology, nerves to interface with weapon systems and pilots. Armor plating grafted over it all. I think the Frames' own, limited intellect, is primarily housed in their brains. Their senses are probably augmented - targeting computers, ultra violet spectrum  etc.

Could those electronics could be how your mechanic got the personality stuck in her brain? I think she has some kind of a chip of her own, something to help her diagnose the Frames' cybernetics.

[DreamsnThings]

frankly the more I think about what Bioframes look like... the more horrified I frankly am XD

visibly picturing meat robots just... is horrific honestly x.x aesthetically I dont know what to imagine

[WritesNaughtyStories]

AI and I are still fighting about this, I feel it as ickier more meat stretching over robotics, but this is headed the right direction. Needs more Giger and Clive Barker. OK, I don't know who saw that, but the more I look at it the more I hate it.

I've gotten a couple of image that are less dog shit, but nothing I'm happy with.

Where I am stylistically is somewhere between Giger's Biomechanics and the grisliness of Hellraiser's cenobites and a 40K servitor, with less goth, more sleek sexiness. Does that allow anyone to imagine an frighteningly beautiful biomech?

One thing I've been thinking about - I think all the frames are distinct and have names and personalities. What does everyone else think.

Edited March 25 by WritesNaughtyStories

[WickedCadrach]

23 hours ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

Magda Payarkoon. She was born to pilot a frame.

I like this. Proud to serve under Captain Payarkoon. 

 

16 hours ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

One thing I've been thinking about - I think all the frames are distinct and have names and personalities. What does everyone else think.

Yes to this. But I think Hive mechs have that uniqueness suppressed. I think it would be interesting to have Hive mechs be more 'RoboCop-like', with their extra resources going to more 'control modifications' and trending toward uniform design. When the LU takes a mech and jailbreaks it, part of the process is getting all this extra crap off it so the beautiful unique creature underneath can flourish and be the stronger for it. Thoughts?

 

I'm happy to have mechs run the gamut from gross, 'raw-meat and wires' to 'beautiful scales and skin (feathers even) between sleek chrome'. Humanoid to Cronenberg and everything in between. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

7 minutes ago, WickedCadrach said:

Yes to this. But I think Hive mechs have that uniqueness suppressed. I think it would be interesting to have Hive mechs be more 'RoboCop-like', with their extra resources going to more 'control modifications' and trending toward uniform design. When the LU takes a mech and jailbreaks it, part of the process is getting all this extra crap off it so the beautiful unique creature underneath can flourish and be the stronger for it. Thoughts?

 

O had given this some thought. Maybe Hive Frames are manufactured identically - like clone troopers - but once they're freed, they begin to develop distinct personalities depending on their experiences and the pilot they bond with. Does that cause physical changes or do they  adopt new weapons, paint jobs and tattoos (that's a lot of ink for the record)

11 minutes ago, WickedCadrach said:

I'm happy to have mechs run the gamut from gross, 'raw-meat and wires' to 'beautiful scales and skin (feathers even) between sleek chrome'. Humanoid to Cronenberg and everything in between.

I hadn't thought of this quite so broadly, but I love the idea of a feathered BioFrame or some gorgeous, iridescent insect.

[WickedCadrach]

It feels thematically appropriate that the Hive would try to control the uncontrollable. I think they'd 'try' to make their BioFrames all identical, but the instability of the kaiju DNA they use makes it so that every Frame already has uniqueness that is then suppressed by tech. Once the tech is removed, those inherent biological differences become more distinct and stronger (and of course, I think it's cute if pilots and Frames want to do paint and decorations to highlight their uniqueness )

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I'm going to try to get a starting post for the game up today.

@WickedCadrach, can you tell us about the barracks the pilots live in? Oh, and what's your BioFrame's name and what are they like?

@DreamsnThings, can you tell us about the first time you liberated a Hive BioFrame? And what is that BioFrame's name and what were they like? Does it have a pilot now?

Edited March 26 by WritesNaughtyStories

[WickedCadrach]

Off the slope of a green valley wall—where mobile bio-reprocessors bore into the soil and churn a mix of plant matter, minerals, and micro-nutrients into the dirt-tasting bricks that supplement whatever rations and food stores the Liberation Union can steal or buy off the black market—there is a a jagged cleft in a range of chill, frost-capped mountains, wrapped in shadow from the surrounding mountains. Clinging to that rocky surface like lizards are a series of compact steel trailers the size of shipping containers, rotated on their external gyros to allow something like level ground inside. On the valley floor, a massive VTOL carrier squatting on powerful plasma-jet thrusters hums like a monastery of meditating monks as its geo-thermal taps and solar panels recharge the power reserves in case it needs to reclaim the scattered utilities and barrack containers and beat a hasty retreat. 

Within two of the steel trailers, port-hole hatches open to the chill mountain air, are rows of bunks on hinged frames meant for easy detachment or to be folded against the wall and secured. Mismatched blankets with frayed edges and threadbare holes patched with old bits of clothing and tent cloth are tucked into the bedframes, and the lucky ones even have flat pillows—or at least bundles of scrap cloth wrapped in a pillowcase. Welds in the wall show where hardened AP rounds have left pocked scarring from previous firefights, and the air is full of the sanitized scent of aerosol antibacterials fighting against the insidious threat of disease that has haunted every war camp since ancient times. 

A BioFrame pilot sits on the edge of a bunk and cracks the chemical heater of the MRE they've been issued in lieu of real food. They are joking with a drone pilot who just got off their overnight watch and is stripping down to collapse into their bunk, and both subconsciously nod along with the quiet riot of a neo-punk guitar riff playing on a sleeping bunkmate's comm where it lies on their chest and under their palm, the miniature speakers turned low while the comm charges off a line running to the barrack container's wall and exterior solar panels.

Outside, as the sun breaks over the mountains, the light illuminates the shadowed slope below the barrack containers. In a loose paddock, shuffling with the whir of servos and animalistic vibrations like sighs or grunts, the LU Strike Team's BioFrames react to the pale, cold sunlight with small stretching movements and adjustments that either move them into the light or back away from it as their unique personalities and biology prefer. 

~~

Among the BioFrames, is Emily Kehrer's Frame. It's on the smaller size, one of the 8-meter class sometimes casually called a 'flea'. Humanoid in shape, its form bends toward cephalopod where it's head bulges in a rounded dome and eight tentacles roil off its back in two lines of four up the spine. Beyond this, it has a distinctly feminine appearance in the humanoid elements of its body and its black flesh is covered with white-steel chitin plates and flexible ivory-colored impact weaves to protect its tentacles. 

When they first bonded, Emily knew this frame deserved a name that fit, one that let the Frame know Emily didn't think it should be underestimated. She ultimately stole a name from a chaos-metal band she was introduced to in the first few months of being freed. With her new-found emotions, she'd embraced the rage of those first few months and the violent vocals of Lizzie Al-Azhar had helped her through the pain and to reach sixteen. And so, she named the new Bio-Frame Scylla. 

Scylla has a defiant streak that comes out whenever it seems she's not being taken seriously. And she has a history of breaking ranks to take on larger foes if the orders seem needlessly protective or imply she's weak. At least in her own feral mind, Scylla is Small but Deadly. 

The nature of the black flesh beneath her augmented plating causes Scylla to ooze a slick, viscous fluid that allows even her mechanical parts to move much more quietly than then chunkier Frames. Between her smaller stature, the difficult nature of her tentacled limbs, and this slick coating, Scylla can be difficult to pin down and excels in aquatic or coastal environments. She is Slippery as an Eel. 

With a Sophisticated Sensor Array housed in her yellow eyes and domed head, Scylla can make excellent use of long range precision laser weaponry housed in her forelimbs and tentacle array. She is extremely useful in forward positions to call in bombardments from artillery platforms and the more massive Frames that house heavier firepower. 

General Appearance: Additional attached weaponry may vary. 

Spoiler

 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

How does Scylla feel about thee cool, dry air this far up the mountain side?

[WickedCadrach]

6 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

How does Scylla feel about thee cool, dry air this far up the mountain side?

Definitely less than thrilled. She is spending most of her time in the paddock curled into a tight ball that attempts to conserve as much moisture as possible. Emily is also annoyed because the high altitude messes with the fluid pressure in some of her cybernetic parts, so both pilot and Frame are in a state of standoffish annoyance.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Would it be fair to think of the pair as cranky?

[WickedCadrach]

Feels fair.