Mechanikal Updates
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:54 pm
So as I was traveling from town to town this weekend, I had a new idea about Mechanix, based on a kind of extension of the ideas we were discussing over on Frappr (which, as always, I can't track down so I'll cross my fingers and hope that Almighty Benny, BrikWars Genius can figure out where they were).
To recap from memory, the new idea for the Mechanix is that they give you something to do on your opponents' turns (other than upload live photos to the forums, if you aren't Honorary THE MAN Olothontor).
When the Mechanik wants to start work, he declares during his turn that he's using his Action for Construction, and rolls 1d6 for range. Everything within that many inches of himself will be spare parts (unless it's an opponent's functional vehicle or something), but he has to wait until the turn is over. From that point forward, any time it's one of the opponent player's turns, the Mechanik can build with those parts however he wants, constructing new Creations or repairind or modifying existing ones, limited only by the usual Creation rules. He must stop whenever it's not an opponent's turn, and his new creations and modifications activate when it's his own turn again.
The old card in progress can be found here, still waiting for Evil Wayne's artwork:
http://www.brikwars.com/downloads/cards/mechanik.jpg
Pretty straightforward, right? It really brings the construction back into BrikWars, which I think is of critical importance. But I was thinking of how to handle his repair abilities specifically, and the 'patching' idea that somebody was talking about a year or two ago, and this is what I came up with last night.
First of all, I'd like to change the Creations rules so that Armor is limited by Size; that is to say, a structure that's 3" long (Size 3) would have a maximum Armor of 3d10 (Structure Level 3). As a bonus side effect, this would mean that large structures would get weaker as you did Size Damage to them - a Size 8" super tank with 3d10 armor would keep the same armor level for the first couple inches of damage, but when it's reduced to 2" its effective armor would become 2d10, at 1" the armor would be 1d10, and when it's destroyed at 0" the burning rubble that remains would have effective Structure Level 0 for armor of 1d6. I like this kind of vicious cycle, and it makes General Damage a little more attractive in comparison with Component Damage.
The reason I want this new wrinkle in the system is so that Mechanix can do Patch Repairs. Rolling a die and saying "this many points of general damage are repaired" has always seemed a little lame to me. So instead, Mechanix making repairs have to build a Patch onto the main body of the object that has a Size at least as large as the object's current Structure Level. The Mechanik can make as many patches during his construction phase as he likes, limited only by time, the spare parts available, and the amount of damage to repair.
So in the case of the super tank above, reduced to effective Size and Structure Level of 1, the Mechanik would have to build a Patch at least 1" long to repair the first point of damage, a separate 2" Patch to repair the second point, and 3" Patches for every point after that, since the tank's Armor doesn't go above 3d10.
I like this because it's building-intensive, which is good, and because you'll be able to see which vehicles have been battle scarred because of the (hopefully) ridiculous patchwork that covers them. I'm not sure yet how to handle pulling parts off of one side of the vehicle to build a patch on the other side, for instance. Also I want to put limits on the armor level of any new creation the mechanik builds from scratch, probably maxing out at 2d10.
So what do you guys think?
To recap from memory, the new idea for the Mechanix is that they give you something to do on your opponents' turns (other than upload live photos to the forums, if you aren't Honorary THE MAN Olothontor).
When the Mechanik wants to start work, he declares during his turn that he's using his Action for Construction, and rolls 1d6 for range. Everything within that many inches of himself will be spare parts (unless it's an opponent's functional vehicle or something), but he has to wait until the turn is over. From that point forward, any time it's one of the opponent player's turns, the Mechanik can build with those parts however he wants, constructing new Creations or repairind or modifying existing ones, limited only by the usual Creation rules. He must stop whenever it's not an opponent's turn, and his new creations and modifications activate when it's his own turn again.
The old card in progress can be found here, still waiting for Evil Wayne's artwork:
http://www.brikwars.com/downloads/cards/mechanik.jpg
Pretty straightforward, right? It really brings the construction back into BrikWars, which I think is of critical importance. But I was thinking of how to handle his repair abilities specifically, and the 'patching' idea that somebody was talking about a year or two ago, and this is what I came up with last night.
First of all, I'd like to change the Creations rules so that Armor is limited by Size; that is to say, a structure that's 3" long (Size 3) would have a maximum Armor of 3d10 (Structure Level 3). As a bonus side effect, this would mean that large structures would get weaker as you did Size Damage to them - a Size 8" super tank with 3d10 armor would keep the same armor level for the first couple inches of damage, but when it's reduced to 2" its effective armor would become 2d10, at 1" the armor would be 1d10, and when it's destroyed at 0" the burning rubble that remains would have effective Structure Level 0 for armor of 1d6. I like this kind of vicious cycle, and it makes General Damage a little more attractive in comparison with Component Damage.
The reason I want this new wrinkle in the system is so that Mechanix can do Patch Repairs. Rolling a die and saying "this many points of general damage are repaired" has always seemed a little lame to me. So instead, Mechanix making repairs have to build a Patch onto the main body of the object that has a Size at least as large as the object's current Structure Level. The Mechanik can make as many patches during his construction phase as he likes, limited only by time, the spare parts available, and the amount of damage to repair.
So in the case of the super tank above, reduced to effective Size and Structure Level of 1, the Mechanik would have to build a Patch at least 1" long to repair the first point of damage, a separate 2" Patch to repair the second point, and 3" Patches for every point after that, since the tank's Armor doesn't go above 3d10.
I like this because it's building-intensive, which is good, and because you'll be able to see which vehicles have been battle scarred because of the (hopefully) ridiculous patchwork that covers them. I'm not sure yet how to handle pulling parts off of one side of the vehicle to build a patch on the other side, for instance. Also I want to put limits on the armor level of any new creation the mechanik builds from scratch, probably maxing out at 2d10.
So what do you guys think?