Mega Man Skirmish Quest is a tentative title. Something more inspiring appreciated.
Some dude from /tg/ posted in the MegaMan VG board the other day, looking for help in designing a tabletop game for the series. His plight inspired me to attempt one here. The following rules are just a first draft, untested and available for major revisions. The core gameplay simulates moving 25mm models of reploids and mavericks around on a square-tiled board. Characters are meant to be played without using dice, as part of the skill in playing the original games was in how you moved and positioned Mega Man, since there were no reaction abilities and every hit connected. Therefore, this game is about how you move your characters and when to perform actions, similar to the skirmish quest Floors. In fact, a lot of these rules have been built upon those of Floors and the Mecha Mercs SQ, so special thanks goes to Runner_Scholar (Floors) and CognisCommand (Mecha Mercs SQ).
I only have time to work on these rules, not GM them. So if there's interest, I'll revise these and add them to a PDF for 1d4chan or something, so others can run their own games. Feel free to use these mechanics in other games as well, as with a little editing you could make a Super Metroid or science fiction game with them.
A database to help with character creation is in the works.
The following is the first draft. btw GM in this game refers to Game Man, cause Mega Man maaaaan.
GETTING STARTED
You can create a character during roll call by posting a name, bot code, and trip code.
[Bot Code]Name Trip
Your name choice is up to you. Your bot code is a three letter code which corresponds to the reploid/maverick chassis of your choosing. A bot code will be assigned an additional number by the GM if there are multiple players using the same character. You can also upload a picture or sprite of your character (like so) since those are aplenty for this series, just make sure your character is clearly presented for the GM.
Your character template has six layers:
Attributes
Parts
Actions
Skills
Inventory
Currency
Attributes are your bot's qualities.
Parts are your bot's current equipment, which affect Attributes and Actions.
Actions are the basic abilities your bot can perform for one action point.
Skills are complex Action combos and passive modification programs.
Inventory is item storage.
Currency counts Zenny and 1UPs, resources that allow your bot to purchase things or more life.
Attributes contain six qualities specific to your bot:
Health [HP] - health points, reaching 0 means death.
Energy [ENG] - resource for actions requiring power, can be refilled using items.
Action [ACT] - number of actions available to your character.
Armor [ARM] - measures damage prevention, damage taken equal to or lower than this number is cancelled.
Line of Sight [LOS] - visual range, can be used to find hidden enemies, items, and paths.
Movement [MOV] - distance in tiles your character can move per action point.
Parts are equipment that modify attributes and determine a character's available actions. Characters start the game with specific parts, but these can be exchanged when new ones are found during play.
Armor parts: modify ARM and may give some elemental immunities (if elements are added in later drafts of this game). Modifiers are ignored from the character's rear.
Sensor parts: modify LOS and may give special vision like heat/night/x-ray or special effects such as light.
Mobility parts: modify MOV and determines extra movement actions such as jump and dash.
Main weapon: determines Basic Main and Charged Main actions. Does not require ENG.
Sub weapon: determines Basic Sub and Charged Sub actions. Requires ENG.
Actions are commands your character can initiate by expending action points and energy. The following are commonly used by many characters:
Movement Actions use action points, rarely energy.
Move: move your bot a number of tiles up to its MOV stat.
Jump: move your bot a number of tiles up to its MOV stat, ignoring terrain effects.
Dash: move a number of tiles up to your MOV stat, and count how many tiles you've moved. For every two tiles, add +1 MOV to your next movement action. You can dash more than once.
Weapon Actions use action points and energy, but energy is reserved for sub weapons. All weapons have a basic attack and a charged attack: basic attacks only require an action point to use, while charged attacks require the weapon to be charged first before being used. Charging costs one action point - using the weapon again for another action point will release the charge, performing a Charged Main or Charged Sub attack (simulating the controls in the Mega Man series). Like in the game series, you can choose to only charge your weapon and wait for a better opportunity to use it (only spending one action point); however, when reserving your charge, you cannot use the basic attack of the charged weapon. For now, the general rule is that charges can be reserved up to one turn during combat, whereby you lose it when that turn ends. How long charges can be reserved can be changed by the GM.
Basic Main: the basic use of your main weapon (e.g. pew pew). Costs 1 ACT.
Charged Main: a more powerful attack than basic with added special effects and properties (e.g. pew pew to MAH LAZER!). Costs 1 ACT to charge, 1 ACT to use.
Basic Sub: the basic use of your sub weapon, costing ACT and ENG. Acts like the special weapons Megaman gains from boss fights.
Charged Sub: advanced form of sub weapon, can act differently from basic form. Costs 1 ACT to charge, and ACT and ENG to use. Charged sub attacks use more ENG than basic ones.
Actions that deal damage also have their own stats to quantify what they do and how to use them.
Attack [ATK] - damage value that subtracts target's HP. Can be reduced by armor.
Energy [ENG] - energy cost for using the action.
Range [RNG] - the max distance in tiles your target can be for you to use this action.
Rapid [RPD] - the number of times ATK is dealt to target.
Special [SPC] - special rules for action. Can be additional AOE damage, can be a status effect. Use your imagination and fit it within a square tile gameboard.
Skills
If actions are akin to basic button controls, skills would be similar to your character's special button combos. Skills often combine two or more actions for a high ACT/ENG cost into a new technique, or they can passively buff or modify your character's existing attributes and actions. In example, a certain skill for a certain bot could combine dash and a saber weapon for a running slash attack. Another skill would replace dash with jump, creating a spinning jump slash attack, where your character hopscotches over a target while dealing damage.
These skills can be found in program chips (PCs) and added to your bot's memory. Every bot has certain skills availalbe from the beginning of play, as well as empty memory slots to equip any new program chips you find in your missions. New memory slots may be bought with currency as an upgrade or attained by using a Memory Chip/Cube.
Inventory
Your character's item storage. Similar items stack. At a minimum, there should be at least 4 item slots.
Items you may find:
health capsule- restores some hp. Ten of these can be combined to create a health tank.
energy capsule- restores some eng. Ten of these can be combined to create an energy tank.
health tank- restores all hp.
energy tank- restores all eng.
HP-UP- increase hp
ENG-UP- increase eng
parts
program chips
memory chips/cubes
and more...
Currency
There are only two currencies currently: Zenny and 1UPs. Zenny is your purchasing power in the game, obtained from defeated enemies, random caches, or completeing missions. Use it to buy items or upgrades. 1UPs allow your character to escape death and continue playing. They are hidden throughout mission areas, and it is up to the GM to design interesting ways to get them.
Sample template to post during rollcall. Once a database for this stuff is finished, this template will be easier for potential players to complete.
That's all for now.
Styles may be added as well. You can design custom ones for mavericks.
Potential database for bot codes
>>46445258
I see that Jump is just like moving but without terrain hindrance, so what's stopping the players from bunnyhopping everywhere?
Maybe have Jump consume an action point as well, or that Jump can only move half of your move point cost.
Also remember that SQ terrain isn't flat, but may come in levels. Maybe have Jump cost move points per height level as well?
>>46446537
You're right. With elevation, Jump could allow your character to reach an elevation equal to their MOV stat. Horizontal distance could be half of MOV, rounded down.
Jump and Dash won't be the only movement actions. There could also be Charge, Slide, Warp, Float, and others. Depends on the parts/skills you have and the ones you'll find.
I should clarify Combat and whatever phases will occur during play.
Combat
- you spend action points to declare attacks.
- targets must be within weapon range and not obstructed by other characters, elevation, or impassable terrain.
- if cover mechanics are added, cover terrain in a tile next to your character will modify your Armor, but only from that direction.
- attacks auto hit, so no dice rolls are needed.
- damage is equal to an attacker's weapon's total ATK value minus target's total ARM value (with modifiers).
- attacks to a target's rear ignore part bonuses to Armor.
Missions will be split into areas, similar to the rooms you see in Mega Man games. Each area will start with combat phases: Player Phase and Enemy/NPC phase. During the Player Phase declare your actions like so:
>Move 2 N
>Jump 2 UP, 1 N (jump direction key: first note distance moved vertically up or down, then distance in cardinal directions)
>Fire Buster at target
During combat phases you can find hidden items. Once there are no enemies left in an area, combat phases end, and a GM can decide to move to the next area, or let players roleplay and continue to find hidden items and paths. Some hidden paths may lead to hidden areas.
For roleplay stuff on maps, outside of combat, where random outcomes could occur, a GM can use dicerolls of their choosing to determine what happens.
>>46447075
In addition, a character can Jump down to an elevation twice their MOV stat before accruing HP damage. Or, to further simulate the game series, your character can jump down from any height and not take damage. Any preferences?
Better database
