JoeNotCharles
First Post
I don't think a new thread is necessary - we're already on the second thread here! People can still talk about other sci-fi ideas in this thread and just skip the posts on mechs if they're not interested.
For the idea of pilots using a different rule set, I was at first thinking that they'd be stripped-down 4E characters, like minions or something, but the important thing is that they don't have access to "powers" in the 4E sense because in this system those are built into the mechs. But then I thought, if you're cutting them down that much, why not make them really simplified and use a rules-light system like FUDGE? (It depends on how much of the campaign you intend to have take place outside the mechs.)
I just mentioned "transformers" because that's pretty much what the Druid is - I didn't intend them all to be transformers. And I really like Protoculture as a power source, because I'm a big Robotech fan. The Eva's would work for this too. The big difference is that with Protoculture, some alien races - the Invid - used it to create fully biological mechs, but humans have adapted the power source itself to work with machines built from the ground-up by humans. The Eva concept is that humans have basically stolen the alien mechs themselves and are wrapping human technology around it.
Anyway, I was thinking about the Divine power source, and I fleshed it out a lot. The more I wrote, the more great adventure seeds I thought of, which tells me I'm onto something. Here's what I came up with:
The Progenitor Power Source
The Progenitors were a race of advanced aliens who seeded life throughout the galaxy. Millions of years ago they were at war with the Necrons, masters of Unlife or Anti-Life which attempted to invade our galaxy from somewhere beyond. It is thought that the Progenitors seeded the cosmos in order to ensure that whenever Necron troops arrived at a new star system they would find living beings already there to oppose them.
Both Progenitors and Necrons are long gone from our galaxy, although there are myths saying that they may still be found lurking in the depths of space. However, remnants of their technology can still be found. Progenitor technology is unique in that its workings are utterly incomprehensible to science, but it can be used by members of Seeded races if they surrender their will to the machine. Their devices have a wide variety of effects. Necron technology is, unfortunately, easier to make use of, but its effects are uniformly harmful - they involve the creation of machines or creatures opposed to life as we know it (ie. "undead"). Although the godlike Necrons themselves seem to have vanished, some of their soldiers and servitor races still remain in suspended animation, and fools and madmen still occasionally create new creatures of Anti-Life by meddling with their technology.
Progenitor devices are sealed orbs, 0.3m to 2m in diameter, in a variety of colours. By bathing a Progenitor Orb in an energy field and focusing one's mind on it to surrender the will (called "channeling" the orb), a descendant of a Progenitor Seed Race can cause it to open. This absorbs the surrounding energy and releases it in a wave which causes (or seems to cause) an effect in local space, sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle. Many devices have effects that directly attack Anti-Life creatures. Another common trait of Progenitor devices is that they do not merely cause an effect, they rewrite reality so that effect has always been in place. For instance, a channeler could invoke an Orb after taking damage, and not merely repair the damage but cause it never to have happened. (The leading scientific theory is that this wave somehow changes the universal physical constants in the local area, such as the speed of light, the force of gravity, and the direction of time. Many dismiss this "theory" as pseudoscience.) It is not known how the orbs detect that a user is focusing their will, since no known form of telepathy can be detected. However, users have learned by trial and error exactly what form their thoughts must take to influence individual devices, and sometimes to exert limited control over the effect (such as choosing the target of a damaging effect). The thought pattern required involves aligning yourself with the goals of the Progenitors and requesting that the device carry out the function given to it by the Progenitors. (It seems unnecessary to have more than a vague knowledge of who or what the Progenitors actually are and what their goals may be.) Skilled channelers are able to give themselves fully and sincerely to this process for the brief period necessary to invoke the Orb's power, and then return fully to their own consciousness. Some see themselves as tricking the Orb with a faked show of devotion, while others see themselves as truly following the Progenitors' goals, which mostly seem to be related to the creation, preservation, and advancement of Life in the universe.
The largest orbs are all a uniform two meters in diameter, and perform a single standard function. Due to the reality-warping nature of these functions, only one two-meter orb can be used in a given time period. Because of their standalone nature, it is easy to collect different two-meter orbs without affecting other systems. (These modular orbs correspond to Channel Divinity feats). Smaller orbs create effects by working in concert, and so replacing or expanding the network of orbs is a highly involved procedure involving mapping the connections between orbs and a lot of trial and error. (These correspond to class powers.) Often the precise layout of orbs designed to give access to a certain effect will also allow secondary effects that the designers did not intend, such as offensive options originally created during the Necron wars. This explains why many Progenitor powered mechs have powers targetting Anti-Life despite its rarity.
Progenitor Mechs:
Mechs using the "Progenitor" power source have a series of hollows located near the central reactor which can hold Progenitor Orbs. This allows the pilot to shunt power from the main reactor into the hollow while channeling in order to activate an Orb. Standard configurations often come with common and well-understood orbs, but there is always expansion space for pilots to install their own orbs. It is possible to use Progenitor Orbs with mechs using other power sources by installing them in an external containment unit and hooking up a system to shunt power to this unit, but mechs built from the ground up to use the Progenitor power source transfer energy to the Progenitor Orbs more efficiently.
The design of new Progenitor mechs involves cataloguing the known effects of progenitor orbs working in various configurations, basically by trial and error with little attempt to find any pattern behind them. (Such efforts have been made, but always come to nothing.) With the exception of the modular two-meter orbs, trying to install random orbs into a mech or design new orb networks on the spot is a losing proposition - hundreds or thousands of man-hours of work goes into finding the correct pattern of orbs for a new power. Each government creating a mech series has dictionaries of orb effects, compiled at great effort, which are a closely guarded secret and a prime target for industrial espionage. Discovering orb effects is an art, not a science, and designers must be expert channelers as well as the correct temperament to lead such huge projects. Although many of the top designers seem to have developed an intuition for finding new effects (and thus, they are incredibly valuable and targetted personnel), none have been able to formulate their instincts into a scientific rule or pattern. If anyone could discover such a rule it would have incalculable value.
Example Progenitor mechs:
Chaplain-class (reskinned Cleric) - Contains a series of orbs designed to repair damage and alter local spacetime to give favourable conditions to allies.
Paladin-class - Contains a series of orbs designed to alter local spacetime in ways that hinder enemies and force them to target this well-armoured mech.
Avenger-class - Contains a series of orbs designed to focus damage on enemies, including a valuable series codenamed "Enmity" which retroactively rewrites failed attacks.
Invoker-class - Contains a series of orbs codenamed "Covenant", which performs wide-ranging alterations of spacetime which damages enemies and inflicts harmful conditions on them.
For the idea of pilots using a different rule set, I was at first thinking that they'd be stripped-down 4E characters, like minions or something, but the important thing is that they don't have access to "powers" in the 4E sense because in this system those are built into the mechs. But then I thought, if you're cutting them down that much, why not make them really simplified and use a rules-light system like FUDGE? (It depends on how much of the campaign you intend to have take place outside the mechs.)
I just mentioned "transformers" because that's pretty much what the Druid is - I didn't intend them all to be transformers. And I really like Protoculture as a power source, because I'm a big Robotech fan. The Eva's would work for this too. The big difference is that with Protoculture, some alien races - the Invid - used it to create fully biological mechs, but humans have adapted the power source itself to work with machines built from the ground-up by humans. The Eva concept is that humans have basically stolen the alien mechs themselves and are wrapping human technology around it.
Anyway, I was thinking about the Divine power source, and I fleshed it out a lot. The more I wrote, the more great adventure seeds I thought of, which tells me I'm onto something. Here's what I came up with:
The Progenitor Power Source
The Progenitors were a race of advanced aliens who seeded life throughout the galaxy. Millions of years ago they were at war with the Necrons, masters of Unlife or Anti-Life which attempted to invade our galaxy from somewhere beyond. It is thought that the Progenitors seeded the cosmos in order to ensure that whenever Necron troops arrived at a new star system they would find living beings already there to oppose them.
Both Progenitors and Necrons are long gone from our galaxy, although there are myths saying that they may still be found lurking in the depths of space. However, remnants of their technology can still be found. Progenitor technology is unique in that its workings are utterly incomprehensible to science, but it can be used by members of Seeded races if they surrender their will to the machine. Their devices have a wide variety of effects. Necron technology is, unfortunately, easier to make use of, but its effects are uniformly harmful - they involve the creation of machines or creatures opposed to life as we know it (ie. "undead"). Although the godlike Necrons themselves seem to have vanished, some of their soldiers and servitor races still remain in suspended animation, and fools and madmen still occasionally create new creatures of Anti-Life by meddling with their technology.
Progenitor devices are sealed orbs, 0.3m to 2m in diameter, in a variety of colours. By bathing a Progenitor Orb in an energy field and focusing one's mind on it to surrender the will (called "channeling" the orb), a descendant of a Progenitor Seed Race can cause it to open. This absorbs the surrounding energy and releases it in a wave which causes (or seems to cause) an effect in local space, sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle. Many devices have effects that directly attack Anti-Life creatures. Another common trait of Progenitor devices is that they do not merely cause an effect, they rewrite reality so that effect has always been in place. For instance, a channeler could invoke an Orb after taking damage, and not merely repair the damage but cause it never to have happened. (The leading scientific theory is that this wave somehow changes the universal physical constants in the local area, such as the speed of light, the force of gravity, and the direction of time. Many dismiss this "theory" as pseudoscience.) It is not known how the orbs detect that a user is focusing their will, since no known form of telepathy can be detected. However, users have learned by trial and error exactly what form their thoughts must take to influence individual devices, and sometimes to exert limited control over the effect (such as choosing the target of a damaging effect). The thought pattern required involves aligning yourself with the goals of the Progenitors and requesting that the device carry out the function given to it by the Progenitors. (It seems unnecessary to have more than a vague knowledge of who or what the Progenitors actually are and what their goals may be.) Skilled channelers are able to give themselves fully and sincerely to this process for the brief period necessary to invoke the Orb's power, and then return fully to their own consciousness. Some see themselves as tricking the Orb with a faked show of devotion, while others see themselves as truly following the Progenitors' goals, which mostly seem to be related to the creation, preservation, and advancement of Life in the universe.
The largest orbs are all a uniform two meters in diameter, and perform a single standard function. Due to the reality-warping nature of these functions, only one two-meter orb can be used in a given time period. Because of their standalone nature, it is easy to collect different two-meter orbs without affecting other systems. (These modular orbs correspond to Channel Divinity feats). Smaller orbs create effects by working in concert, and so replacing or expanding the network of orbs is a highly involved procedure involving mapping the connections between orbs and a lot of trial and error. (These correspond to class powers.) Often the precise layout of orbs designed to give access to a certain effect will also allow secondary effects that the designers did not intend, such as offensive options originally created during the Necron wars. This explains why many Progenitor powered mechs have powers targetting Anti-Life despite its rarity.
Progenitor Mechs:
Mechs using the "Progenitor" power source have a series of hollows located near the central reactor which can hold Progenitor Orbs. This allows the pilot to shunt power from the main reactor into the hollow while channeling in order to activate an Orb. Standard configurations often come with common and well-understood orbs, but there is always expansion space for pilots to install their own orbs. It is possible to use Progenitor Orbs with mechs using other power sources by installing them in an external containment unit and hooking up a system to shunt power to this unit, but mechs built from the ground up to use the Progenitor power source transfer energy to the Progenitor Orbs more efficiently.
The design of new Progenitor mechs involves cataloguing the known effects of progenitor orbs working in various configurations, basically by trial and error with little attempt to find any pattern behind them. (Such efforts have been made, but always come to nothing.) With the exception of the modular two-meter orbs, trying to install random orbs into a mech or design new orb networks on the spot is a losing proposition - hundreds or thousands of man-hours of work goes into finding the correct pattern of orbs for a new power. Each government creating a mech series has dictionaries of orb effects, compiled at great effort, which are a closely guarded secret and a prime target for industrial espionage. Discovering orb effects is an art, not a science, and designers must be expert channelers as well as the correct temperament to lead such huge projects. Although many of the top designers seem to have developed an intuition for finding new effects (and thus, they are incredibly valuable and targetted personnel), none have been able to formulate their instincts into a scientific rule or pattern. If anyone could discover such a rule it would have incalculable value.
Example Progenitor mechs:
Chaplain-class (reskinned Cleric) - Contains a series of orbs designed to repair damage and alter local spacetime to give favourable conditions to allies.
Paladin-class - Contains a series of orbs designed to alter local spacetime in ways that hinder enemies and force them to target this well-armoured mech.
Avenger-class - Contains a series of orbs designed to focus damage on enemies, including a valuable series codenamed "Enmity" which retroactively rewrites failed attacks.
Invoker-class - Contains a series of orbs codenamed "Covenant", which performs wide-ranging alterations of spacetime which damages enemies and inflicts harmful conditions on them.
