TF Views

8 hours from now will be 4:40 am Boston time.

Joking aside, playing mechanics will be difficulty. I should probably research old online RP to see how this worked.


Dom
-might play test a little tonight.

Dominic wrote:8 hours from now will be 4:40 am Boston time.

Joking aside, playing mechanics will be difficulty. I should probably research old online RP to see how this worked.


Dom
-might play test a little tonight.

I'm going to email you the files I have tonight and maybe we can use some of the mechanics in those. We were playing it pretty regularly for a few weeks before life got in the way.

Dominic wrote:Joking aside, playing mechanics will be difficulty. I should probably research old online RP to see how this worked.


Dom
-might play test a little tonight.

Try looking up something called Paladian. It's supposedly the system used for the Robotech RPG and a lot of the mechanics should be transferrable to TF.

Here's what I have left of the TF RPG I was running (which isn't as much as I thought). It's basically character things that a player can roll for if they can't or don't want to decide such things for themselves.

Transformers Background/Traits tables

1: HOMELANDS

Iacon, Polyhex, Altihex, Vos, Tarn, Kaon, Tagan Heights,
Blackrock Aerospace Plant, Junk, Quintessa, Cybercity, The Ark, Trypticon,
Metroplex, Metrotitan, Scorponok, Fortress maximus.


2: WEAPONS (ranged)

lazer, machine gun, missile launcher, grenade launcher, cluster bomb,
mines (various types), particle beam, fusion cannon, null rays,
mortar shells, cerebro shells, electro scrambler, incendiary missiles,
stress fracture, surface to air missiles, depth charges, torpedoes,
acid pelets, heat seaking missiles,
wave gun (shoots waves of various types of energy), glass gas gun,
"the water gun", torque gun, flame thrower,

3: WEAPONS (melee)

Thermal sword, Energon sword, light bending sword, superheated sword, mace,
club, warhammer, axe,

4: SPECIAL ABILITIES

read minds, detect/read signals, see infrared, electro magnets,
antigrav, rockets, cracked out hearing, cracked out vision, energon detection,
stealth, detect stealth, hologram projection, cracked out smelling,
evade detection, roller skates, "spy arm", aid/jam transmissions, can function
under water, fly, teleport, impervious (thick armor),

5: WEAKNESSES

leak oil, leak energon, gets stuck mid transform, takes longer to transform,
speak backwards, speak in rhymes, "Grimlockspeak", "Insectispeak",
depression, cowardess, halucinations, insanity, susceptible to heat, susceptible to cold
susceptible to damage (not heavily armored), susceptible to water, susceptible to radiation,
susceptible to electrical damage, too slow, too fast, wires degrade quickly,


6: OCCUPATIONS

scientist, warrior, medic, archivist, operations, Elite Air Corps., Elite Guard,
Matrix Archon, "empty", computer programmer/specialist, leader/political, inventor,
recon, spy, courier, architect, security, demolitions, gunner, bombadier, search and rescue,

I know Dom would rather focus on the gameplay mechanics at the mo', but I would appreciate someone explicating the universe we're working with here. I still don't get "Aligned", since it clearly doesn't mean that the movies, Animated, Prime and the IDW G1 ongoing take place in the same timeline. That'd be daft. So, which series are we working with?

The "Aligned" continuity primarily applies to Prime and WFC. The movies are definitely unrelated and the IDW G1 comics aren't either, although they recently retconned some origin story bits to better follow WFC. But so far, the only things explicitly stated to be in the continuity are Prime and WFC.

So uh... essentially it's a Prime RPG...?

The focus for Dom is on PCC, which haven't appeared in any fiction (bar a few in some online post-ROTF episodes).

I'm not worried about continuity specifics--at this point we've got a fairly standard set of tropes that I don't think it matters much. An Optimus Prime and Megatron lead the factions. This is true at some given point in virtually all TF continuities.

I'm worried about my character looking like an overly-complex pointy-everything'd long-chinned lump of shite, though.

In all seriousness, I'd like to pin the aesthetics down at a pretty early stage. Should I just hit TFU.info and scan the PCC toys for inspiration?

Yeah, looking over the toys is a good idea. If you want any of the figures, let us know and we can ship some stuff to you.

I plan to customize figures of my characters. But, that is not mandatory, expecially as we are not playing on a board in person.

I know Dom would rather focus on the gameplay mechanics at the mo', but I would appreciate someone explicating the universe we're working with here. I still don't get "Aligned", since it clearly doesn't mean that the movies, Animated, Prime and the IDW G1 ongoing take place in the same timeline. That'd be daft. So, which series are we working with?

"Aligned" uses elements from all past iterations of the franchise. For example, Barricade (from the movies) and Lugnut (from Animated) co-exist alongside characters and settings from the "Unicron Trilogy" (Velocitron is shown in "Exiles") and new characters from the "Prime" cartoon, such as Makeshift.

Think of it as "synoptic" Transformers. If you can get a copy of "Transformers: Vault", I would recommend it. I can look for and if possible ship a copy to you if need be. (Even if you are not trying to get a handle of the modern franchise, "Vault" is an amazing for a fan.)

Point of information: "Aligned" also includes the "Exodus" and "Exiles" novels.

Transformers Background/Traits tables

Got the email. Thanks Shockwave.

In related news, I play-tested 3 rounds last night. (I was tired, or would have done a bit more.) It took me 5 minutes to play and resolve three loosely handled rounds of pursuit and combat. I used RotF Hubcap and Brimstone as test cases. Neither have ranged weapons or Minicons, which kept things simple. Combat is setting up to be exceptionally destructive, which means that players will need ample opportunity to earn points during the games if we set up for campaigns.

I also want to see about streamlining combat. Last night was easy because I was tweaking stats while playing and I did not have to explain to myself what was happening.


Dom
-might try to test out a PCC character tonight.

Ok then, simple question: Could my character utilise G2 aesthetics?

Yes, I am purely focusing on aesthetics at this point. Honestly, Aligned sounds like a lazy perfunctory mess, but I'm gonna work with what I'm given 'cos I like the sound of another RPG.