General RPG Rules DiscussionDiscuss the rules of any game except D&D or Pathfinder, such as Arcana Evolved, Mutants & Masterminds, Star Wars Saga, d20 Modern, and the like.
What if the Chariots of the Gods were mechs? AKA Mecha Omega design thread
In the distant past, Earth was conquered by a cruel race of alien taskmasters from the Omega Sector, who enslaved the primitive earthlings as they had thousands of worlds.
These aliens controlled enormous machines that the earthlings worshipped as gods and to honor them huge monuments and altars of stone were built at Stonehenge, Crete, Pompeii, Angkor Wat, Beijing, Uruk, Cusco, and along the Nile, Ganges and Mississippi Rivers.
Confident in their ability to awe the primitive locals, their greatest war leaders were given their own mechs to control, to fight on behalf of the taskmasters both on Earth and in space, as they expanded ever outward.
These war leaders came to realize how cruel and genocidal their "gods" were and rose up against them, throwing off the yoke of the taskmasters' oppression.
Returning to Earth, they ruled in the Taskmasters' place, not always wisely or well and sometimes fighting with each other or turning into tyrants every bit as cruel as the taskmasters they had served.
Eventually their mortal selves past and the great war machines faded into memory. Those who had never seen them first hand interpreted the heroes through their understanding of the universe. The Omega Sector Taskmasters became gods, their war leaders became heroes like Aeneas, Arthur or Gilgamesh.
In 600 BCE a group of Chaldean astronomer-priests in South America saw the signs in the sky they had been waiting for: the Taskmasters were returning to Earth.
Ball games were held to find the greatest, bravest heroes, worthy of the weapons of the gods. When the invasion was met in orbit around Earth, these heroes found themselves joined by other groups of diligent sky-watchers from Britain and Egypt and the three were able to throw the force, which was really just a scouting party to determine how the insignificant little planet, which was still a part of the Omega Empire by ancient claim, had progressed over the millennia.
In 2012, the Omega Taskmasters have returned again. Not with a minor scouting force but one large enough to return the primitive backwater to their lawful control.
The galactic resistance against their tyrannical rule has exploded into a full revolt and Earth has been selected as the perfect forward base to crush the resistance.
As Earth's military forces are defeated with ridiculous ease, the Chaldeans and the Magi work quietly, recruiting groups of idealistic young heroes to take up the weapons of their ancestors.
The last free people on Earth will either save humanity or doom it to an eternity of servitude.
It will feature plenty of FX, including innate abilities, small mechs combining into big mechs and Kaiju.
The inspirations for the setting would probably be Shogun Warriors (Marvel comic from the 70's about combining mechs), chariots of the gods, alien invasion, the Avengers (Kree-Skrull war to be precise), along with various conspiracy theories and a good dose of alternate history.
For example, Alexander the Great's tutor Aristotle was a Black Magus (those who tap the Omega Energy for selfish purposes) and used that ability to increase Alexander's Strength. Alexander then embarked on a conquest of numerous Omega Matrices in Persia, Egypt and India, tapping more and more energy and eventually becoming a godlike figure, prompting his generals to poison him out of fear of his growing megalomania.
In short, it's a bit of a kitchen sink, yahoo, modern/sci-fi setting.
Beyond the obvious Von Daniken link, I detect a dash of "The Last Starfighter" in here, as well as a taste of the first mecha shows that got aired in the USA- things like "Robotech" and "G-Force"- and a little bit of the Stargate series. Some "Big O", even.
Should be fun!
It might be fun for some of the ancient mecha to be buried under/disguised as what we think of as stone monuments- the Sphinx, the heads at Easter Island, the now destroyed Buddhas in Bamyan valley in Afghanistan, the lost Colossus of Rhodes, Phidias' ivory & gold statue of Zeus ( Statue of Zeus at Olympia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) and so forth.
Before I forget, do you mind if I post a link to this thread in "My favorite thread" listed in my sig? (Its a thread about campaign/plot ideas, started by someone else.)
Danny, let people know about this thread in any way you want! Within the law of course
And actually, you hit the nail on the head. Omega Energy is stored in stone monuments.
The Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, the Palatine Hill in Rome, in Stonehenge etc.
There are also more recent attempts to harness pockets of energy, using very carefully laid out series of monuments in places like Washington DC.
Since 500 BC, there's been a schism between those Magi who think their job is to protect the Omega Energy and tap it to defend Earth and those who think they should tap it for anything, especially their personal power.
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