The Deal (Scras' CthulhuTech Game)

[Scrasamax]

Since CthulhuTech is a Kitbash of The Call of Cthulhu and Mecha anime, I feel it is totally appropriate and fitting to steal other things to make a game, and The Deal card system looks solid for exploiting the idea.

The intent of the game is a combat heavy survival based game intended for a single sitting. Characters arent going to be developed, there arent going to be monologs or extensive dialog. Characters are also going to trend towards short lived also, so the Deal is also going to be used to quickly replaced dead characters.

Stuff I want to use
Mortal Kombat:
Tekkunin cyber ninjas - advanced character type, integrated body armor, basic and intermediate combat actions, integrated weapons such from blades to body mounted guns. Tekkunin have access to general Power Armor gear

Lin Kuie Ninjas - basic through advanced combat actions, and access to parapsychic powers. Level one Lin Kuie can only use basic combats, intermediate level can use more intensive techniques, and level three ninja can use elemental powers like Sub-Zero or Scorpion. Lin Kuie can use special Fatality cards to execute stunned foes. Level 3 Lin Kuie can use Brutality Cards and execute multiple fatalities against stunned foes.

White Lotus Society Combatants - The rest of the cast mostly, array of martial arts abilities, generic sect but able to execute fatality cards.

Street Fighter

OSI - generic agents, can execute extensive combo attacks for large amounts of damage. Also gain a bonus when attack inanimate objects, such as vehicles and structures ala the destroy the car bonus stage. OSIs have access to parapsychic abilities, with most being increased strength, stamina, and speed. Some can use kinetic attacks and elemental attacks (Hadoken, shoryuken, sonic boom)

Shadaloo - generic bad guys, have the same parapsychic attacks and combos as OSI. These are underworld guys who have less than valorous reasons for fighting the baddies. Psycho-powers are more predominant than kinetic attacks.

StarCraft
This game is providing a lot of material. The gear from the core CthulhuTech game is painfully forgettable and artistically bland. So, rather than trying to show a bunch of guys pics from a PDF I'm taking gear from more well known sources.

Terran Marine - Infantry power armor, very common unit. Can use a number of different weapons, including hyperedge blades, shields, and a variety of melee and ranged weapons. Basic character class, upgradable with add-on gear.

sample add on gear:
Titan Plating - bonus to armor
Armor Shield - bonus to armor, can only use one handed weapons
basic rifle upgrades to autocannon and then gauss rifle
assorted other weapons
Hyperedge blade - melee weapon with armor pierce ability

Firebat - marine power armor with flame throwers instead of guns, massive damage at limited range, splash damage, and no armor defeating ability. Better base armor than marine, higher base damage.

Sample gear:
quad flamers
improver burners
quad burners
plasma cannons

Ghost - light infantry, stealth ability, laser designator, sniper.

Cannot use power armor gear, uses basic infantry gear, can use combat cards, but cannot use fatalities or C-C-C-Combos.

Ghost Special Action Cards:
Artillery Strike from Siege Tanks
Yamato Cannon Strike
Apocalypse Missile strike
Enhanced Stealth Suit

etc and more to come later (wife wants computer)

[EchoMirage]

I certainly recommend stealing as much fluff from Battletech and Starctaft, but also other juicy games like Battle Isle 2-3, Warhammer 40k, Bioshock, or WarMachine (the Cryx dreadnoughts may be valid inspiration for Cthulhu mecha).

[Scrasamax]

Not familiar at all with Battle Isle, BioShock, or WarMachine. I am using a stripped down version of the Warhammer 40K rules since I can run it all with two D6. That should make it simpler for gaming with drunks.

[EchoMirage]

WarMachine is a steampunk / thaumatech minis board game. You get bulky pseudo-Russian mechs, sleek pseudo-English mechs and creepy Zerg-undead mechs too

[Scrasamax]

So this is what I've gotten so far.

Sample Card

Armor Marine                          Type: Infantry
Attack: 3/3 (melee attack/firearms attack)     #1 (number of attacks)
Strength: 3/3 (melee/standard firearm)
Toughness: 3
Health: 1                                                     Keywords:
Armor: 3+                                                    Power Armor
                                                                    Infantry
Initiative: 3
Orgone: NA

This represents a level one basic marine in a power armor suit. I am thinking of merging the ranged and melee attack numbers for the sake of simplicity, but if I did that I might have to start writing out the basic weaponry on the card too. I want this to be drunk simple. Plus it looks a tad more impressive when you see card options that lack a ranged skill (SOLDIER ala Final Fantasy 7).

The rest should be pretty simple, Strength is checked against Toughness (weapon or user strength). If strength wins, target is wounded and looses a health point. Armored units get an armor check to see if the armor takes the hit. The marine above has a good armor check (roll 3, 4, 5, 6 he lives) But as a unit levels up, their armor check doesnt improve, his armor suit is the same if he is a green rookie or hardened veteran.

Orgone is the generic magic trait taken from CthuluTech where it is the scientific measurement of magical ability. Armor Marine has a NA rating because he has zero potential for activating arcane gear, magic, etc. The SOLDIER doesnt have combat armor, just light combat armor and a melee weapon, but has an Orgone rating of 8 (roll 2D6, if equal to or lower than rating spell works, if not, spell fails and no other actions are taken). So the SOLDIER can use magic action cards, Limit Break cards, and Summoning cards, assuming there is a keyword match between them and the player bought said card with points.

Keywords are pretty simple and amazing.

As the marine levels up, he gets more than improvements in his weapon skills and toughness and number of attacks, he gains new keywords. Some keywords only available to level 2 and 3 Armor marines:

Command - this keyword is attached to action cards, like Artillery Strike, Close Air Support, Reinforcements, and the like and represents the ability of officers to call in effects outside of the immediate scene of action. Command is limited to military type actions and represents organization and communications.

Leadership - The big brother of Command, Leadership lets the level three armor marine bring in assets outside the current scope of the engagement. Samples of Leadership: Orbital Bombardment, Tactical Nuke, Tank Support, Mecha Support. This is pretty much the same as Command, but in CthulhuTech fashion is an advanced military player calling in the most impressive ordinance available to the conventional military. Orbital bombardment is calling in support either from an airborne warship, or from a satellite system cough cough ion cannon cough cough. Tanks and mecha (ramping up massive armor values and staggering damage) remain in action until the current scenario/mission is complete, or they are destroyed. In contrast, a Summoning spell only lasts a scene, a limited number of turns, or until the summon is defeated by the enemy. The summons are going to be intentionally tough to last until their duration runs out.

[Scrasamax]

Armor

Infantry Armor
This category comprises the basic armors worn by most infantry and personnel units as opposed to power armor or vehicles. At best, this armor has a save of 5+ and is basically little more than flak jackets, helmets, personal combat suits and the like. There are specialty infantry armors such as stealth suits, infiltration suits, and the like, but these rely on special materials or other systems to avoid damage rather than absorb or stopping it.

Power Armor
Space Marines, Starcraft Terran Marines, battle suits, etc. Power armor is a heavy metal suit with an internal power source, assisted movement and mechanically augmented strength and such. It has an armor save of 4+ (cheap and knock off armors) or 3+ (good armor). Power armor can employ larger and heavier weaponry than infantry units, and can also employed powered melee weapons such as hyperedge blades, sonic hammers, lightning claws, and the ubiquitous power fist.

Heavy Armor
Rarely used, Heavy armors are half again as large as conventional power armor and mount larger weaponry. Heavy armors have armor saves of +3 like regular armor, but can mount an additional gear card regardless of level and can use two handed power armor guns with one hand. Thus, a standard heavy armor suit can dual wield power armor assault rifles, or a pair of railguns, etc. Heavy armor is rarely used because it cannot stand up to anti-tank and mecha weapons employed by infantry and traditional battle armor and fall short of standing toe to toe with tanks and mecha.

Given the relative power of tank and mecha weapons it is assumed that getting hit is fatal for a power armor unit. Secondary and support weapons will have listed armor piercing values, but getting hit with a volley from a 75mm autocannon, mech grade particle cannon, or laser is going to be nasty. Mechs and heavy gear is on the back burner for now.