Behind the scenes work.

Hello there everyone, Well I've been doing quite a bit of data entry over the last couple of days. Most of your character sheet should be getting close to 90% complete, I've tried to cross reference as much information as you might need in order to make the first game run smoothly. I have also set up a several player handout sheets in the Journal section (under the headings, "getting to know your Mecha" and "Simulation Training"). These should provide new players with some familiarity to the Destroids and Veritechs, which jogging everyone else memories. If you should find a mistake in something that I have written please PM me as to where it is and I shall correct it. This was fairly slow and laborious work so I fully expect errors to have crept in, I have also been working between several different books which has not assisted either. I have also been working with one of the players Joshu , who will hopefully coach or assist me in generating Macros for each player. These represent fast roll options and can add a lot of flavor/atmosphere to the game if we get them correct. Failing that I have manually entered each players starting weapons into their respective character sheets, and when PC's engage in combat then this will provide us with a fall back option. Please feel free to have a look through everything that has been presented thus far. The next game shall be on the 23rd of May look forward to seeing you all.

Also, if anyone decides to create their own macros, the roll20 wiki has a bunch of helpful points on how that system works. <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Macros" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Macros</a>

Had a try at some of them last night Joshu, they did not go so well. Still learning, hopefully I'll get there soon. Also on a side note, I have had to shift the next session to the 24th instead as something personal has come up. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause.

There is an in-game character sheet for Palladium games and the sheet has all the macros you need. If you enable the character sheets you won't have to create a bunch of other macros separately.

The character sheet doesn't have a page for mech statistics, so we made macros for those. Also, it doesn't really handle some features like burst or wild fire well. For the most part, though, it's all you need.

You're right the character sheet doesn't have a mecha stat location and you may need to make a few macros. The sheet does allow you to add as many WP macros as you'd like under the combat tab. Then I just used the HTH combat area for all my mecha stats... but it's not perfect. I wouldn't readily have "out of mecha" HTH stats. I think burst and wild fire are things for mundane combat outside mecha. They use damage for single bullet and then modify with damage and strike bonus. However I don't think these rules apply to mecha combat. "Do not add this strike bonus to your character's hand to hand or Mecha combat skill bonuses to strike." (pg 47 top left, end of 2nd paragraph) Only use the "Mecha Combat Rules" chapter for mecha attacks. (starts pg 48) I think that's how it works. Although if we do a bunch of adventuring out of mecha we may need more macros and stats... Again the sheets aren't perfect but I thought it might make it easier. I didn't know if you were already using them.

Hmm, In regards to Mecha shooting I have found this personally to be a little confusing. Some weapon options have the damage modifiers pre assigned for single shot, burst and full melee burst. I would assume that the modern weapon proficiency's for strike bonuses actually do apply in this case. These being: +3 for aimed shot, +1 for burst fire and no bonus for wild shooting/spray. The reason for this line of thought is that some invid are permitted to carry out strafing runs, or fire excessive energy bursts. If a lesser damage shot had the same likelihood of hitting as a high powered shot, then there would be no advantage to shooting at lower power. GM's would not use low powered enemy shots and there really would be no need for the statistic to exist. I would like to put this question to the group. Does my reasoning make sense or have I over looked something glaringly obvious. How have the other GM's played this concept before?

I agree with you on that. If the invid get a +3 while aiming and a +1 burst like everyone else in ground combat, then those options make more sense. My officer's pod would only have 1 weapon with a burst fire option, and it has limited ammo which would naturally restrict how much I use it, so I'd say your ruling on this doesn't affect me too much. Still, if it makes the invid aim instead of burst shot us every time, I'd say go for it.

It is rather confusing but I think those rules only apply outside of mecha. "Do not add this strike bonus to your character's hand to hand or Mecha combat skill bonuses to strike." (pg 47 top left, end of 2nd paragraph) The aimed and burst fire rules which multiply damage, (like X5 for long burst for 30% of ammo), rely on human sized ammo amounts and standard clips not the giant ammo drums of mecha.... The reason we know this is every entry for a ballistic weapon with ammo on a mecha has it's own specific rules listed for how bursts work on that weapon. Example; pg 84 Sentinels GU-XX gun pod, rate of fire, short or medium bursts and lists specific damage and how much ammo it uses (clip has 20 medium bursts while a mundane assault rifle could fire 3 long bursts which use 30% of ammo each time). Totally different from the short/medium/long burst of the modern weapon proficiency area description. Then lists the GU-XX in the Beta and it has the same damage but lots more ammo... so if using the Modern WP rules the 2 identical weapons would do different damage and use different amounts of ammo. Take a look at all the mecha weapons and you'll see they each list their own damage and how much ammo is expended with each type of rate of fire. You can also see from the enemy invid stats that aimed and burst fire strike bonuses don't exist. Example; Armored scout, 2 pulse beam cannons, lists single blast, dual blast and burst (burst is specifically listed as 4 to 6 blasts). You see bursts, wild, and aimed shots are based on using very particular weapons with recoil and specific ammo amounts.... most mecha beam weapons disregard both of these things.... The armored scout has it's bonuses all laid out and it makes no mention of other fire modes only specific attacks and damages with particular strike bonuses. Example; Page 47 of the Macross book, VF-1 GU-11 gun pod lists short burst, long burst and full melee burst but you can once again see the ammo use is totally different. All the mecha gun pods also state they can only fire bursts I could certainly still be wrong and it's up to the GM to decide. But try to find any example of combat in the book where a "mecha" uses an aimed shot or wild fire... or even a burst which uses the rules for long burst (X5 damage and 30% ammo). I don't seem to find any. I'm going to check the new edition for a more clear explanation...

Ok I found a few things... Robotech II the sentinels page 129 in the invid shock trooper twin plasma cannons damage area I saw this, " ... , strafing run (wild burst shooting) -- 2d6 MD." interesting because it's a mecha weapon with a specific damage and an unlimited payload. So we know that they can make a "Weapon Proficiency" type attack. Only with the appropriate modern weapon Proficiency (WP) can you make, "aimed shots, call shots and wild fire" and you can make bursts without proficiency but with severe penalties. So I think the bonuses do apply in mecha in certain times and for certain weapons. (+1 burst and +3 aimed) However to make an aimed shot you can't be moving so generally just first round stuff for most mecha... Bursts on the other hand are all the time and the +1 to them may be significant. although I'm not sure exactly which mecha weapons we have specifically a WP for... we have elite "combat" training in these specific mecha but it may be handled with the HTH mecha combat charts and the "Weapon systems" skill which gives +1 on basically all mecha weapons. The new edition does have more clear rules explanation and relatively easier character creation but it is organized poorly and the rules are generally cut and pasted from the Rifts new edition. (PM your email to me so I can send you links for pdf) The new books do seem to explain the rules in more clear and concise way but I'm still fine with old school...