GODZILLA: A (brief ) REVIEW

Okay, I’m a self-admitted Godzillaholic. The king of all monsters means I lot to me, and so I was excited about the new reboot directed by Garth Edwards and I was not disappointed. The film starts out in the far flung year of 1999, where Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) and his wife head a nuclear power plant in Jinjira, Japan. Then a seemingly unnatural earthquake cause an apparent meltdown, in which Miss Brody is killed, the area is supposedly commentated. 15 years later, Ford Brody, their son, now a bomb-disposal expert in the navy, is called to Japan as his father, having become a bit of a conspiracy loon, has been caught trying to sneak back into the quarantine zone. Turns out there is a conspiracy going on involving an organization called MONARCH and a trio of creatures that predate man’s arrival on this planet…

              

  The first part goes by quickly, or at least feels like it does, but I feel that has more to do with advertising empathizing the conspiracy aspect more than actual film does-which makes sense , because once the monsters start rampaging around cities, it becomes pointless to try  a deny their existence. The full appearance of the creatures is a “slow-burn” but this helps build the impact when we do see them in all their terrible glory. The human cast does a good job of giving us an anchor-point in all these epic events, giving us something familiar to launch onto with everything going to hell, without taking away from the events themselves .  The monsters, especially Godzilla, are awe-inspiring, and feel like really creatures that could possible walk this earth. Overall I recommend this film 4 out of 5.   

Pacific Rim Accelerated v2

 Inspired by "magical girls with Mecha" game Princess Drive I've decided to edit my Pacific Rim conversion for Fate Accelerated.

Now, things like the piloting the Jaeger (each ranger/PC rolls 2 fate dice each) and the Jaeger's Approaches (the Rangers/PC's Approaches are added together, and divided by 2, rounded up if needed) are still the same. BUT the Jaeger itself, instead of being a random collection of aspects and stunts, has a stress track,  can take consequences, and has a stunts/aspects the same way a Ranger does. A Ranger can choose to take stress/consequences in the Jaeger's place-but if he/she gets taken out, then the remaining PC only rolls 2 dice, to show how difficult it is to pilot a Jaeger solo (I'm thinking putting some other disadvantage to solo piloting, like you take 1 automatic stress at the end each turn, but I'm afraid that'll make it too difficult)

As for character advancement, a player can choose to advance/alter his Jaeger in the place of his Ranger (with the permission and agreement of his partner, of course), with the exception of the Jaeger's approaches, which are depended on the ranger's. Same thing during character creation-you want your Jaeger to have a  fourth stunt? You're going to have give up one of yours. No, you can't spend one of your free stunts on the Jaeger, or vice-versa. Free stunts can only be spent on the PC/Jaeger who had them originally    

I was also thinking of making Kaiju be defined by their category: A Cat-3 Kaiju would have +3 to all actions, have a 3-block stress track, take 3 consequences, etc.  This would be simpler to generate, but I'm worried that the GM will have to bust out the big kaijus way too early (depending on how close you want to stick to canon).    

I might create some sample Jaegers/Kaiju latter (by "Latter" I mean "Judgement Day") so stay tuned! (Unless you have something better to do. Hell, I'm not going anywhere)

Go big or go extinct: The Fate Accelerate Pacific Rim conversion

This builds up on the FAE mecha rules previously posted. 

  When inside the Jaeger, both pilots add together their Approaches, and average them out. Each ranger only uses 2 fate dice instead of 4-both results are taken together. 

When taking stress, both players take an equal amount-unless on player decides to take an additional stress or 1 stress and one consequence (Thinking of switching this to just taking a consequence) . If one pilot is knocked out, then the other continues to use only two dice, to represent the strain of piloting a jaeger solo.

I haven't decided how to handle fate points yet-do the PC's pool and spend them together when invoking? Does the GM give both of them a fate point when compelling, or just person's whose aspect he's using?(I'm leaning towards the second, as the compel effects both of them)     

FAE Mecha

I just recently got my physical  copy of Fate Accelerated (also available in pay as you want electronic  format), and sense everyone and there mother is hacking it. I decides to due the same:
So, here's my Mech hack, inspired by/ripped off from Robotech FAE and Camelot Trigger

First create your character like normal. Then create your mech: A mech has 1-2 Aspects (like 'Untested prototype', 'old rust bucket' or 'powered by passion!') and 2-3 stunts (like 'Defensive Fencer: I get +2 when flashily defending against a beam saber attack') representing it's systems and abilities . These Stunts/Aspects are only available in your mech

In the place of taking  stress or consequences, you can choose to 'shut down' or 'disable' your mech's aspects/stunts.To negate 2 Stress (or a mild consequence) shut down one system.  To negate 4 stress (or a moderate consequence) your opponent decides what system to shut down. To negate 6 stress (or a severe consequence) you must shut down two systems-you pick one, your opponent picks one.

These rules can also apple to Kamen rider/Power ranger-esque super heroes- getting your systems shut off represent being beaten back into normal form

more Rogue Space goddies!

Okay, Last Monday, I actual  played Rogue Space for the first time. but I used some house rules for currency , so we didn't have to flip thought the book. Requisition Points.
Each Player gets 4 of them. A L weapon/armor  cost 1 Requisition Point, An M Weapon/armor  cost 2  Requisition points, etc.   Gadgets and Devices work the same way-if you want a computer that gives +1 when hacking , that's +1 RP.  But if want something like a strength enhancing gauntlet, the cost will be a combination of how big the bonus is, and how many times it can be used per day (so a clocking field that adds +2 to your attempts to hide, but only has enough charge for 1 uses per day,  would cost 3 RP) I tend to assume that the PCs automatically have things  like food and oxygen mask etc     

More Mass effect Rogue Space stuff (at long last!)

Hey gang, remember my last post where I said I would post the rest of Rogue Space -Mass Effect stuff latter today? well...there was a fire. And a plague. And horde of Locus. Among other things.
But anyhow, here's the alternate version of the mass effect races to Rogue Space:

Asari: Can use a failed biotic power twice before having to 'push' it OR can take two biotic powers at character creation. Restricted to the  Rogue/scoundrel archetype, with +1 to empathy

Turians are restricted to the warrior/solider  archetype, but get half off weapons and armor at character creation

Korgans are also restricted the warrior/soldier  but get a close range head butt attack (M)

Quirans are technicians, with +1 to repairing, and get an extra +1 when dealing with ship systems. In a addition, they get +1 to damage rolls against synthetic enemies

Salarians are also Technicians, with +1 to Scientific, and can move an extra 5 feet/1 space in movement OR can uses tech powers the same way asari use biotic powers

Humans (optionally) get one extra luck at level 1

I have no idea about what to give the Drell, or the Batarians

anyhow, if you need information on weapons and Biotic/Tech powers, go to Mik's Minis Blog, as I feel he did all the hard work for me. I'll get back to you latter, with some of the house rules I used in my first game   

Rogue space -mass effect

I've been recently  been messing with this rules light RPG called   Rogue Space , a space opera game, very easily customizable, and I thought to myself 'wouldn't  this be great for a Mass effect game?' apparently, somebody else had  the same idea! Now, I like how this guy handled weapons, biotics, and tech powers, (and see no reason to change any of it)  but not some much how he handled races-their's only three of them and they seem a bit over powered...So I've decided to post my versions of the mass effect species.

Now, I have two 'versions' of my mass effect race write-up (try saying that 10 times fast) : one is done the way main rules suggest you do alien races: restrict them to one archetype (class, basically) but give them a special ability to make up for it, and a more 'DnD' kind of way-giving each race +1 in one attribute, but -1 in another , with humans having no advantage or disadvantage, letting anybody be any archetype. I'm going to post the second kind first-more balanced, easier to type

Asari: +1 empathy, -1 fighting   

Korgan: +1 hit points, -1 empathy

Salarian : +1 scientific, -1 repairing

Qurian: +1 repairing, -1 acquiring

Drell: +1 acquiring, -1 scientific

Turian: +1 fighting, -1 acquiring

will probably post the alternate versions latter today, and check out the sample rules!   It comes with a mini adventure generator