WickedCadrach

Emily is awfully tempted by the ambush spot. But it relies on the chance of a convoy happening through. If the area is as rife with kaiju as the captain claims, she could end up surrounded once the fighting starts. She'll grit her teeth, spend the Fate point and resist the compell. Just the scouting. We go for the head, not the small fries.

//Notice (+1) + Aspect (+2) + Fudge roll (++00) = 5 // (Also, here's my char sheet where I'm tracking stuff. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Na6T3m_kcGmiaYG-mXa9yEHxHnqVQqRurDthRCW3lb0/edit?usp=sharing )

Emily ignored the comment on her cigarette. Given her condition, it seemed everyone—not just her superiors—had some tidbit or recommendation to give her about her health. If it was anyone but Captain Payarkoon, the words would have been answered by a boot instead of the silent death-stare she gave. Hell, she very nearly said the sharp rebuttal on the tip of her tongue anyway, but the idea of getting a runout in even the icy water running from the mountain was too tempting to risk being grounded. So instead, Emily looked down and followed Magda's finger with her eyes, taking in the lay of the land as her brow furrowed in suspicious confusion. "Hive's setting up shop in the middle of kaiju territory with no overwatch?" It felt insane, even for them. The Hive certainly had no issue sacrificing bodies for a goal, but sending in manpower—hell, even drones—without securing the area first felt like idiocy of the highest order. So Emily and her captain at least agreed on one point: "Yeah, they're up to something." Emily took the offered meds, silently combining the pills with her existing stash while she palmed one and listened to the light rattle they made returning to her jacket's inner pocket. She inspected the injector and strapped it into a canvas pocket on the thigh of her pants, within easy reach if needed. She'd used 'null' before. Years ago, she'd known a comms staffer who could dilute it and sold it as a 'sleep aid', but these days meds were too precious for that sort of black-market to be tolerated. It was too bad. She could have used some last night. As Magda poked her in the chest and made her comment about none of them being disposable, Emily had the feeling the captain's words weren't hollow. She really meant what she said. It was just a shame it was bullshit. The truth was that they were—every last one of them. After eleven years of fighting, Emily had seen heroes chewed up, lives given to strike a blow against an enemy that never seemed to show signs of weakness. They were mourned; speeches were given to inspire the next set of heroes so that they could die in turn and inspire the set after them. Every one of them was disposable. And maybe Emily was most of all. It was hard to think otherwise when Doc Grim had told her the truth, that with all her implants she'd be lucky if her body held out until forty. That had been five years ago. Since then, half of her heart had been replaced with silicon and cellulocarbon weave and her left leg exchanged for full-metal below the knee. Emily popped one of the little pills keeping her alive, closing her eyes and lowering her head as she swallowed and took a steadying breath that whirred in the slit vents on her neck. "Understood. I'll have Scylla ready in fifteen. Whatever they're up to, I'll figure it out." Or shut it down, she added silently. If she was dying for this cause, she sure as hell wasn't going to miss a chance to make as many Hive bastards as she could do the same. //As Emily inspects the map, I'd like to see if I can 'create an advantage' by picking out good vantage points, ambush spots, and approaches that Magda may have missed in her planning. If I can do that and make a roll, I'd also like to spend the first of my 3 Fate Points to invoke my aspect These scars spell 'never again' for +2, because Emily is extremely diligent and vigilant when it comes to stopping the Hive.//

A BioFrame using plant-life instead of animal features is a cool idea! Like you say, very golem-like

Emily Kehrer, callsign 'Patches', sat on the corner of the steel barrack's flat roof. The dark walnut-brown of her hair, bound in a high ponytail, blew out like a pennant, and her mountain-grey camo jacket—pilfered from a Hive soldier and patched with resistance motifs—flapped at the collar as it shielded her lithe, athletic frame from the chill wind rising through the peaks. One combat-booted foot was planted up on the edge of the glorified tin-can she sat on as the other dangled off over the sharp mountain face below. For the moment, she kept her eyes closed, the youthful smoothness of her twenty-six years was broken in small scars, cyber-surgery lines, and the cracks that were already settling from eleven years of guerilla fighting. Just then, those eyes were crinkling in involuntary winces. She held a small black cylinder to her lips and inhaled, the tip glowing green in a simulated ember. As she lowered it, a series of slit vents in her neck like gills released the smoke back into the mountain air. The cyber in her head was misbehaving at altitude and the pressure was already killing her, so her captain's bark to fall in and receive orders was doing nothing for her but adding an edge to the frown already on her lips. "Yes, ma'am," Emily said finally—just loud enough not to get some bullshit about insubordination—and clenching her cigarette between her teeth she leapt down. As her feet impacted the ground, she felt a metallic grind in her knee, the muscle and servos momentarily fighting each other as they fell out of sync. The frown now became a full scowl and for a moment, she nearly reached for the little orange bottle in her jacket, but she held off on dosing. She could already count the remaining pills on fingers alone, not including thumbs... Instead, she gave her knee a solid thwack. A moment later, she lifted her leg, giving a few practice flexes and extensions before putting weight back on it. She supposed that was one of the perks of piloting a BioFrame. Once she was hooked in, she didn't have to use her own jury-rigged limbs... most of the time. As Payarkoon tugged her into the office, Emily was again amazed at how much strength was in the shorter woman's grip, and how—despite Emily being a full five centimeters taller, at least—the older woman seemed so comfortable manhandling her. For a moment, Emily considered locking the cyber in her legs just to hold her ground against the tug, but she decided against it. She had too much of a headache for any of that shit today. "Lieutenant Kehrer, ready to receive report, ma'am," Emily said flatly, taking a fresh pull from her cigarette as the door into the office closed behind them.

Feels fair.

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.

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.

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 )

Inoria doesn't 'get' Grom yet. But I like him

I like this. Proud to serve under Captain Payarkoon. 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.

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.

Probably a good idea. We're really going to confuse anyone who comes stumbling in late curious about BBB, lol

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.

Inoria gave a resolute nod, glad to see that she and Fel were of the same mind when it came to their quest. Yes, if she was doomed to travel in the company of this disreputable and cold-hearted dwarven mercenary, then she would take comfort in the company of the lovely, intelligent—and honest—rabbitfolk wizard. "Lady Silvane, I must admit, the only part of this quest that troubles me is the thought of venturing into the jungles. I am used to the climate of the north where bracing winds make the air clean and where the chill rolling down on the shadows of the mountains makes the warmth of a fire is a welcome comfort. I understand from my studies that jungles are an entirely different sort of place. Having been there before, do you have any parting recommendations or ways we can prepare for our journey?" Setting her goblet on the table once more, she clasped her hands in front of her to stop her nervousness from being so apparent. "I believe the only thing I require is your counsel and then I will be prepared to make this teleportation into Chult." (Provided Syndra doesn't give us a recommendation Inoria can act on, once her companions are ready, she's also ready to go.)

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.

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) 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).

I'm having a little trouble with the idea of fighting while having your senses wrapped up in a synched-VR-dream. Maybe being able to use Synch instead of Shoot/Fight could be a Stunt instead of a general rule (or the sort of skill bend that usually costs a Fate Point)? Like, not every bonded Bio-Frame and Pilot can do it, even if their relationship is good, because you're essentially fighting blind using pure shared-instinct (or something like this).

That's fair. If pilot and mech's minds are too similar then there's no reason for the Bio-Frames not to be completely independent.

I was imagining something similar. Beyond that, I was thinking that because the Bio-Frame mech and the pilot are neural-linked, they have a level of virtual sense-sharing and might project mental experiences into each other. For a well-synched pilot x mech who trust each other (and aren't reflexively pulling their minds back), I imagine they'd be able to immerse each other in VR projections from each other's minds. So for example, yes, my Bio-Frame mech is a ten-meter tall lizard with autocannons, and in a literal sense, I'm hooked into an internal pilot's seat with throbbing tentacles, silicone and metal sensor rods, or other things like that. But while I'm neural-linked my mech might pull me into a full sensory experience of being beside a pre-war lake house while they manifest themselves as a gruff, stubbled man with the same color eyes as my mech's sensor array. If you're not in a combat situation where you need to be aware of the surrounding world, I could see mech and pilot neural-linking going very deep with what sort of shared experiences are possible. (And of course, then there's the more grounded player x player interactions too)

Not me picturing robo-godzilla blushing demurely and tugging at her head-mounted laser array with a shy nod. Really though, that is a fun idea. Cool. I'm going to have to log off for a bit, but think I should have time to come back and put up a character later today.

I have no problem with it, in theory. Only that we're a little light on players, and I'm not sure how many you're hoping for @WritesNaughtyStories before you feel up for committing to a game. Even if we end up holding out, I'm happy to make a character and put them on the thread. Sometimes it's less intimidating to join in when there's someone already there and a template for making a character.

I think we'll cover our bases by just having a Sex skill. It can work the way Drive skills tend to work in other RPGs. You just kinda assume everyone can do a narrative level of driving in a modern setting, but as soon as someone tries to get a specific outcome or tries to perform under extraordinary pressure, then you call for the skill roll. Same thing here. Characters and Mechs can just have narrative sex, but if someone tries to accomplish something (raise my Sync with my mech, get the handsome enemy spy to give up the location of the base, etc) then you're making a Sex roll.

I like that idea for the Sync track. I'm up for this. I'd like to propose that civilians get medication, but military personnel get an implant so their commanders can switch them between calm obedience and overclocked adrenaline-pumped focus with the push of a button. Could be cool if the Empire's dirty secret is like in Equilibrium and the rebels know that the high-command are not on any kind of emotion altering tech (the privilege of the elite). Ok-here's my thought (bear with me). What if the bio-mechs imprint on their pilots? Unhampered by neural-blockers and with rebel pilots free of emotional blockers, they form a bond as soon as they allow someone to pilot them, and whether that bond is good or bad, they're kinda stuck with it. Imperial mech pilots can switch their bio-mechs freely because of all the blockers: convenience and reliability at the cost of ever having truly brilliant pilot/mech pairs. This gives a lore reason why the bio-mech's features would be more-or-less locked in with the pilot as a set of Gear Aspects that work better or worse depending on Sync quality. The flipside is bio-mechs just having their own character sheets and being independent enough that someone's mech could literally leave them for another pilot that they get on with better. (Depending on how wild we want to get, people could each get a mech and pilot sheet and not necessarily be playing their own mechs. Like, Player A plays pilotA and mechB while Player B plays pilotB and mechA. Idk, could bog down gameplay, just a thought). Right now, I'm leaning toward the first arrangement. But if the idea of mech-swapping while the squad finds their best match is appealing to people, I could get behind the second. (Or some third way of approaching this that I've just not considered yet, obviously, lol)

The easy answer with FATE is to give each character a Stress Track that's just Sync (In addition to the regular Physical and Mental Stress tracks). At zero Stress, all is well. Acting against the interest of the mech (going into dangerous situations, inciting jealousy, etc) can build Stress and Consequences just like getting punched or intimidated can hit Physical and Mental Stress + Consequences. The issue with this idea is it might get tricky if one person is trying to juggle the loyalty of multiple mechs? Unless that's not something we're worried about. We can also just give the squad it's own super-character-sheet that sits one level up from everyone's individual characters. Unit Cohesion can be a Stress Track on the squad's character sheet. (I once did this with FATE game based around gang turf wars, a la The Warriors. The players' gang had a Loyalty Stress Track to measure how reliable all their low level soldiers and dealers were as well as a Cash Stress Track that was hit by buying, repairing, bribing, etc). Exploring the lore side a little... It could be interesting if part of the rebellion's motivation is to liberate mechs under these neural inhibitors? Maybe it's not just mechs. Maybe all people in the Evil Empire receive some kind of neural 'prod' implant that allows large scale monitoring and loyalty enforcement? I'm happy to have this all happening on one planet, too. Just one Earth-like planet with a global Empire busy fighting rebels on one side and kaiju on the other. While the rebels are trying to overthrow the Empire and also protect themselves and the common-folk from kaiju devastation. Also, I'm thinking the mechs can act a little bit on their own. If we are thinking they're basically cyborged-kaiju with a pilot seat to enable high-level tactics and precision, then on their own (poor Sync + no neural inhibitor) they can still fight/move in basic, feral ways.