PMIM: A Visit to the Archive

The Archive, E. Eridani II, 26 May 2430

“Provost, I am grateful for the offer of a message of Lost Earth, but a man of the worlds such as I must take practical matters into account.”

“Of course, Margrave . We scholasts understand that not all can be as devoted to knowledge as ourselves. The message contains, as well as its historical content, a previously unknown tread design for the Hippo amphibious tractor.”

“Tractor?”

“A vehicle used for pulling farming machinery in the Seeding era.”

“The very idea! Using vehicles for something a donkey could do.”

“In the days of our forefathers, when Earth was not yet lost, they had the wealth for such marvels. In these times, the Hippo is most notable for having interchangeable parts with the Mammoth GST.”

“And so these treads will work on Mammoths?”

“Precisely, my lord.”

“And what benefits would they provide?”

“The message indicates superior performance in muddy ground, but, of course, we at the Archive have no Mammoths to test this with.”

“Very well. I have asked my seneschal to send a tithe of wheat from my estate on New New York. It will arrive within the week.”

“Many thanks, your lordship.”

Tech Havens

Some research stations and other minor colonies retained advanced technology despite the damage done by the Revanchment Wars. Generally, these are on inhospitable worlds, with limited manufacturing capabilities and small populations. In many cases, only sealed environments are habitable, and without external support, the population is severely limited. Some tech havens posess technologies that are not replicable elsewhere.

Notable Tech Havens

• The Archive at Eridani is located on the surface of Sirius II, a barren husk of a world blasted by its enormous sun. The inhabitants live in a library-city dug into the crust, which holds the last recordings sent from Earth. Many of the transmissions are encrypted, intended for the Earth-bound factions’ colony ships. The Archivists are willing to sell redacted copies of messages, some of which include details about technologies that are otherwise lost, but refuse to divulge any information about the intended recipients or the originating factions.
• New Sumer is a tidally locked world, one side in constant day and the other in eternal night. The majority of the population lives in the twilight zone, eking out a subsistence existence by growing a variety of grain crops. Two tech havens exist on New Sumer, one at each pole. The Day City performs a variety of high-energy manufacturing, including aluminum refinement. The Night City is officially a monastic retreat, but is noted as a source of military and political advisors for the nobles of the Fioran Confederacy, and as a convenient destination for their inconvenient relations. By decree of the Fioran Council, no residents of the polar cities are permitted to operate free-moving vehicles - all movement of heavy goods within the polar cities is done by train, while external transit must be done by non-residents.
• Hermes 7 is a space station near the Alpha Centauri warp point. The station maintains a small clean room and integrated circuit fabrication facility, and as a result has a disproportionate influence for its small size.. Weapons are forbidden in the main wheel of the station, and the exits from the docking wheel are heavily guarded by mercenary troops from Nieu Friesland.

Seven Swords for Seven Kings: The Green Knight

Seven Swords for Seven Kings is a dungeoncrawly Zelda-inspired campaign I'm beginning to build, using 3.x based mechanics with a custom set of classes. The first of these, the Green Knight, is presented below.

The Green Knight

HP: 1d10
BAB: Good
Saves: Fort Good, Ref Poor, Will Poor
Skill Points: 4+Int
Proficiencies: Simple and Martial Weapons, Light, Medium, and Heavy armor, and shields.
Class Skills: urgh

Level	Basic Stances Known	Intermediate Stances Known	Advanced Stances Known	Special
1	2			Stances, Speak with Animals
2	2			Fleet of Foot
3	3			Woodland Stride
4	3	2		Warrior’s Stance
5	3	2		Immovable Object
6	4	3		Reactive Stance
7	4	3	2	Master’s Stance
8	4	4	2	Mettle
9	4	4	3
10	4	4	3	Grandmaster’s Stance

Stances: As a swift action, the Green Knight may assume a stance he knows. At most one stance may be active at a time; when the Green Knight activates a new stance, the prior stance is deactivated. The Green Knight may leave their stance as a free action. The Green Knight begins play knowing two stances from the Basic Stances list, and gains additional stances according to the chart above. In addition, whenever the Green Knight levels up, they may replace one stance they know with another of the same category.

Speak with Animals: 3/day, as the spell

Fleet of Foot: At level 2, the Green Knight may take a five-foot step as a swift action, in addition to the usual five-foot step.

Immovable Object: Starting at level 5, if the Green Knight needs to make a Reflex or Will save and has not moved since the start of their most recent turn, they may instead make a Fortitude save.

Warrior’s Stance: A 4th level Green Knight may assume the Warrior’s Stance. When this stance becomes active, the Green Knight selects two Basic Stances they know. While Warrior’s Stance remains active, the Green Knight gains the benefits of both stances they selected.

Reactive Stance: The Green Knight may assume a stance he knows as an immediate action.

Master’s Stance: A 7th level Green Knight may assume the Master’s Stance. When this stance becomes active, the Green Knight selects one Basic Stance and one Intermediate Stance they know. While Master’s Stance remains active, the Green Knight gains the benefits of both stances they selected.

Grandmaster’s Stance: A 10th level Green Knight may assume the Grandmaster’s Stance. When the Grandmaster’s Stance becomes active, the Green Knight may select two stances they know, at most one of which may be Advanced. While the stance remains active, the Green Knight gains the benefits of both stances.

Basic Stances

• Adder’s Strike: While this stance is active, 5-foot steps provoke attacks of opportunity from the Green Knight.
• Leopard’s Quickness: While this stance is active, the Green Knight may make a number of attacks of opportunity per round equal to his level plus one.
• Shelter of the Oak: While this stance is active, any allies within 10 feet of the Green Knight gain a +4 bonus to AC.
• Eagle’s Eye: While this stance is active, the Green Knight makes ranged attacks as though the range increment of his weapon were doubled.
• Carpet of Vines: While this stance is active, enemies of the Green Knight move at half speed while within 15 feet of the Green Knight
• Bear Arms: While this stance is active, the Green Knight’s reach is increased by 5 feet.

Intermediate Stances

• Nature’s Guardian: While this stance is active, melee attacks against the Green Knight’s allies provoke attacks of opportunity from the Green Knight.
• Maze of Thorns: At the start of each round in which this stance is active, each enemy within 10’ of the Green Knight takes 1d6 piercing damage for every two levels the Green Knight has, rounded down. Reflex save DC 10 + Con + 1/2 level for half damage
• Bramble Ring: While this stance is active, enemies of the Green Knight within 15 feet of the Green Knight act as though they are on difficult terrain.
• Blessings of the Wild: While this stance is active, the Green Knight gains Fast Healing equal to their level.
• Avalanche Strike: While this stance is active, when the Green Knight makes a full attack, they may make an additional attack at their highest base attack bonus.
• Vortex Wall: While this stance is active, a vertical wall of wind is projected from the Green Knight, reaching 20 feet into the air and 45 feet in total length. Effects as wind wall, but the wall must be straight and centered on the Green Knight.

Advanced Stances

• Grasping Roots: While this stance is active, whenever an enemy of the Green Knight is within 20 feet of the Green Knight, they must make a Reflex save once per round or become entangled. Enemies that succeed move at half speed. While Grasping Roots remains active, entangled enemies cannot move. If they spend a standard action and succeed on a strength check (DC 15 + 1/2 the Green Knight’s level), they are disentangled and can move at half speed for the remainder of the round.
• Eye of the Storm: The Green Knight projects windstorm-force winds with a radius of 40 feet. They are not affected by any winds while Eye of the Storm is active.
• Air Walk: While this stance is active, the Green Knight may move through the air at his normal speed. As the Druid spell.
• Nature’s Wrath: Enemies with 30 feet of the Green Knight take 1d6 damage for every two levels the Green Knight has, rounded down. Reflex save 10 + Con + 1/2 level for half damage.

Masterpiece

Landedam, Dortheim, 15 May SY 2428

While a young apprentice worked the bellows, Albrecht’s tongs held the final tread segment in the furnace. Satisfied that the metal was hot enough, he withdrew it and lay it back on the great anvil of the workshop. A fellow journeyman took up a hammer and began striking while Albrecht used the tongs to reposition the work under the hammer. As the metal cooled, Albrecht took a ruler and magnifier and checked his work; for the tread to be accepted as a masterpiece by the Treadwright’s Guild, each piece needed to meet the millimeter tolerances of the original Galactic Standard Template, rather than merely fitting together as a whole. Finding the piece slightly out of tolerance, he plunged the work back into the furnace; another round of heating and hammering should finish the job.

Setting: The Mammoth and the Galactic Standard Template

A main battle tank originally of Seeding-era design, the Mammoth is meant to run on anything that burns and fire anything that explodes. Aboard the resource-rich mining cities of Jotunheim, Mammoths are powered by jet fuel and fire discarding-sabot tungsten projectiles using the latest explosives. When operated by the tanker-barons of the Spinward Reach, the Mammoth’s turbine generator is run on refined vegetable oils or even distilled alcohol, and black powder launches round lead shot from the same smooth bore cannon.

The engineers of the Seeding era designed a range of vehicles, appliances, and heavy equipment that could be produced, operated, and maintained with the contents of a 200-ton standard colony module. Further, a computerized Galactic Standard Template system could automatically modify the designs to account for local variance in available resources, handling alloy variations and even using different metals entirely. GST military vehicles are designed with interchangeable weapons, although in the Plasteel Age, manufacturing precision has fallen to the point where weapon replacements require months of work by expert mechanics and engineers. As such, tanks based on the Mammoth design can be found mounting every 10-ton weapon, from lasers to plasma cannons.

By 2430, no full GST systems are still in operation in the Core Kingdoms, as a result of sabotage and destruction in warfare. Some blueprints are common, however, and are frquently copied, traded and sold. Some Tech Havens are rumored to possess GST systems with fragmentary databases, and the enclaves of the Outer Black are often built around a partially operational GST, though they typically lack the resources and fabrication capacity to take full advantage of it. The discovery of a new GST design is a cause for celebration and conflict. More than one war has been launched by a power-hungry noble in possession of a newly recovered GST blueprint, trying to seize the advantage before the new design can be replicated.

PMIM Playtest matches 1 and 2

Had a friend (Richard, who did the monte carlo simulations previously) over to do a playtest of PMIM. We played two games, using the Take and Hold scenario presented earlier. I took a balanced force: a Timber Wolf and a Vinge, two Tyrants, two Mammoths, three GEVs, three units of infantry, two Beetles, and two units of ODA, with a mix of anti-tank, anti-light, and anti-infantry weapons.

The first game, he went with a heavy composition: a Timber Wolf, a Vinge, seven Tyrants, and two Mammoths, armed with a mix of heavy autocannons and particle beams. That heavy composition had a pretty clear edge over my balanced composition when it comes to combat, but I won by victory points - GEVs can jump from their starting position to the capture zone in the first round, and that, combined with more units to seize points in the midgame, gave me enough of an edge to hit 10VP before my forces were quite wiped out. One major factor in this game was the fact that not all of my units could actually damage any of his units; my infantry had lasers and the Beetles were armed with LAC, with STR 1 and 2 respectively.

The second game, he took a Mjolnir with a gauss and a heavy particle beam and a Paladin with a heavy particle beam and a heavy autocannon as his Warmechs, filling the rest of his ponts with infantry and ODA units, armed with a mix of light autocannons and light plasmas. His first shot on my Timber Wolf took its left arm with the Gauss Gun out, and it was all downhill from there - I didn’t have much in the way of long-range anti-tank that could push for his Warmechs, so he was able to pick most of my vehicles apart before I could get in to hit his mechs, and he outnumbered me with infantry by a fair bit. I’m not sure how the game would have gone otherwise, or if dual 15-ton guns on my Timber Wolf would have made it easier to cope with an early weapon loss.

Overall, balance seemed pretty good, although that was partly down to the scenario rules disadvantaging the low number of units in the tank-heavy composition.

Timber Wolves might be undercosted, but I’d need to look at some alternate 12-point mechs to really decide that (and mech costs don’t have much to do with the costs of other units - the Timber Wolf is probably stronger than a pair of Tyrants, especially since it can take the Gauss Gun).

Light Lasers seem a little weak, but it’s hard to see what to do to buff them without stepping on something else’s toes; 4REP would be an instagib on infantry, a range increase would be put them at a longer range than anything else, and a damage increase would make them stronger than the LAC.

The Mjolnir seemed to be more effective than the Paladin, though that might just be because the Paladin didn’t bring its HAC into play consistently. I’m inclined to think that the Mjolnir should be an 18-point unit, since the heavy particle and Gauss gun combination was extremely effective.

I’m considering adding a requirement to take some light units in certain scenarios. Take and Hold nerfs the all-Tyrants strategy by making unit count matter for victory points, but all-Mammoths would create the same issues for an army that takes some STR 1 or 2 weapons, while putting a few more tanks on the table. I’m not sure how that would have affected the game; Richard would have had to make some tradeoffs, but APDS might have worked as well as the HPB and HAC lineup did, once you account for the 50% more shots being fired.

We noticed that I hadn’t revised the Heavy Mech defense values in the last rules update. That was a mistake on my part, but I’m not sure I shouldn’t just leave them at 6 DEF to keep them killable.

Richard also convinced me to rename Particle Cannons to Particle Beams. That means there’s a unique acronym for every weapon without needing to get creative.

I should be posting a revised ruleset in the next couple days; I’m hoping to get some of the bullet points I had in the first rules post turned into prose.

Giver of Rings

Giver of Rings

Smoke from the great fire filled the plasteel rafters of the feast hall. As the skald finished the saga of Sven Bear-burner’s settlement of Delta Ursae Minoris II, Oli Redbeard stepped forth to lead the next part of the celebration.

“A toast! To our hero, the slayer of giants! To the master of this hall, the ring-giver! To Egil Svenson!”

Mead sloshed as the gathered warriors raised their glasses. “Egil!”

The honoree sat at the end of the hall, surrounded by the spoils of battle: gold and gems, of course, but far more precious to the Ursans was the aluminum and copper captured from an ore hauler as it returned to its base.

“Pietr, come forth.” called Egil.

A black-haired giant of a man, clad in furs, stood and walked toward the throne, limping slightly from an injured leg.

“For our rock, my berserker, twenty kilos of alum and the duke’s knife.”

Pietr knelt to receive the knife. “Many thanks, ring-giver.”

As he returned to his seat, Egil called for another warrior, giving him a kilo of copper and a gold ring. The celebration would go on far into the night, and in the morning, the men would take the spoils of battle to the settlement’s autofab, where the precious copper and aluminum could be worked into the marvels of their forefather’s time, the Second Age of Exploration.

Chronology

• The First Colonies: Mankind reaches the stars using slower-than-light travel and cryosleep.
• The Seeding: humanity invents the warp gate, and launches them to the stars in robotic ships
• The Lost Centuries: Earth is destroyed in nuclear war. Some escape by slow boat or warp gate, but no clear picture of the events ever emerges.
• The Joining: The colonies reconnect as warp gates arrive. A golden age of science, an age of mourning for the lost Earth.
• The Second Age of Exploration: The pre-Seeding colonies launch colonies of their own on freshly seeded worlds.
• The Stagnation: The limits of the Seeding’s original warp gate network are reached. Competition for the limited space of colony worlds leads to war. The Warmech is developed as a military variant of civilian loader frames.
• The Collapse: Wars result in the destruction of many of the warp gates. Trade and diplomacy collapse as a result. The interstellar empires of the first colonies collapse. The rump states become the Core Kingdoms. Many technologies are lost, as their manufacture requires resources that are no longer readily available through interstellar travel.
• The Reconnection: An FTL drive that can arrive at the wreckage of a gate is developed by the Fioran Confederation. Rebels sieze a jumpship, reverse engineer the drive, and broadcast the plans to every world they can reach.
• The Wars of Revanchment: The Core Kingdoms go to war to reclaim their former territories. Although some technologies are reinvented, many are permanently lost, and the destruction of most autofabs means computers are no longer easily replaceable. The end of the Silicon Age.
• The Plasteel Age: the present day, everything is barely maintained, factories exist in some places but the tools to build them no longer do. Remaining pieces of high technology are now the basis of government throughout the settled worlds.

While Hammers Fell, Lances and Points, Take and Hold

Fiction: While Hammers Fell

outside Landedam, Dortheim, 3 Aug SY 2428
Albrecht shifted in his seat, unused to the cockpit of the Beaver’s Promise, the Vinge medium Warmech that had been granted to him on reaching the rank of master in the Treadwright’s guild. He would almost have preferred his former seat as a commander of a Tyrant superheavy tank, the cornerstone of Dortheim’s industry and defense, but his new station demanded he take arms as a Mechholder of the Guild.

“Attention all units, drop pods hit in ten! Nine! Eight!..”

Albrecht looked up and saw the smoke trails descending towards the field in front of him.

“Seven! Six!”

Albrecht shifted again and set his hands back on the unfamiliar controls. Though he had piloted loader frames as an apprentice, they lacked the responsiveness and degrees of freedom of a proper Warmech.

“Five! Four!”

He flicked off the safety on his left arm plasma cannon, then the autocannon on his mech’s right arm.

“Three! Two!”

Albrecht tensed on the triggers, ready to answer whatever emerged.

“One! Impact!”.

A pod smashed into the ground a quarter klick ahead, out of effective range of the plasma cannon, but well within range for an autocannon. Albrecht sighted on it, started his mech lumbering forwards. “With me, men!”.

The pod opened, unleashing a Basset, ten tons lighter than his own Vinge. Behind it, man-sized pods released their cargo: a squad of mercenaries in power armor. Albrecht fired his autocannon at the Basset, ripping an arm off it. Behind him, his old Tyrant opened up with its heavy laser, burning a pair of mercenaries out of their armor. The answering fire was deadly; three of his apprentices, called up as infantrymen, were slain. He steadied his aim again, trying to close with the Basset before it could do more harm.

The invader would have none of it. He backed off and took cover behind his pod. “Jacob, I need a flanker.” His journeyman, acting as a GEV pilot, responded immediately, sending his Ascarid screaming forward to the left, taking the Basset from its flank. Albrecht broke right, followed by the Tyrant, though his apprentices lagged behind on foot.

As the Ascarid fired on the Basset, the enemy mech charged forward, trying to keep the pod between itself and Jacob’s plasma cannon. Albrecht smiled - the Basset had played right into his hands. As it closed to 100 meters, Albrecht fired with his own plasma cannon. He scored a hit on the left leg, smashing its workings open. The Basset stumbled, but responded with an answering burst of plasma fire, though its light plasma cannon couldn’t penetrate his heavier armor in one shot.

The Tyrant behind him fired again, this time focusing on the Basset. The beam raked across the Basset’s torso, baring its interior to Albrecht’s next burst. As the Basset stumbled forward, Albrecht took aim again. This time, his plasma cannon smashed through the right leg of the Basset, sending it careening to the ground. As his apprentices sawrmed it, Albrecht moved on; a downed Warmech was no threat, and was as likely to be spoils of war for the Treadwright’s Guild as it was to be salvaged by the invaders.

Rules: Lances, Points, and Unit Selection

The basic unit of organization for typical armies in Plastic Mechs and Iron Men is the Lance, composed of a Warmech and its supporting vehicles and infantry. In principle, each Lance is worth 36 points total, although scenarios will generally specify only a total points limit and a number of Warmechs to select, rather than requiring that forces be precisely divisible into Lances. For instance, the Take and Hold scenario has a limit of 72 points and two Warmechs, so a valid selection would be two Lancelots at 15 points each, 6 Mammoths at 4 points each, and 9 infantry squads at 2 points each, although this selection cannot be broken evenly into two lances with one Warmech each.

Scenario: Take and Hold

Sides: two, symmetric.
Points: 72 per side.
Warmechs: 2 per side.
Map: 20x14 hexes, short grain.
Deployment: Each player deploys along a long edge of the map. Infantry deploy within four hexes of the edge, vehicles and Warmechs within two hexes of the edge.
Objectives: Six objective hexes are located along the center line of the map, with a 1-hex radius capture zone around them. At the end of each round, if one players has more units adjacent to an objective, that player gains one Victory Point. The first player to end a turn with more than 10 Victory Points while having more Victory Points than their opponent wins.

PMIM Units and Weapons 2.0

After some discussions on IRC and seeing some Monte Carlo simulation data helpfully provided by a friend, I’ve updated unit and weapon stats from the previous rules post. ACC and DEF have been changed across the board - weapons now have 0 to 2 ACC and units and warmechs have 7 to 8 DEF. Ranges have been increased for most weapons. New Light and Heavy Plasma Cannon variants have been introduced. Infantry and Orbital Drop Armor units can now use 5-ton weapons with a -1 penalty to RNG, and the Beetle costs only 3 points. Finally, the Mastodon has been renamed the Tyrant to reduce confusion with the Mammoth.

Chassis

Chassis	WND	MOV	DEF	ARM	SPT	PTS
Infantry	4	1	8	0	5*	2
ODA	4	1	8	1	5*	3
Beetle	3	3	8	1	5	3
GEV	2	4	8	1	10	4
Mammoth	3	2	7	2	10	4
Tyrant	5	2	7	2	15	6
Nebula	3	4	7	2	10	6

* Infantry and Orbital Drop Armor units use 5-ton weapons with a -1 penalty to RNG..

Weapons

Weapon	RNG	ACC	RPT	DAM	TON
Sabot cannon	4	0	1	4	10
L. Plasma Cannon	2	0	1	3	5
M. Plasma Cannon	2	0	1	5	10
H. Plasma Cannon	2	0	1	6	15
Minigrenades	3	0	2	3	10
L. Autocannon	4	1	1	2	5
M. Autocannon	4	1	3	2	10
H. Autocannon	4	1	3	3	15
L. Laser	5	2	3	1	5
M. Laser	5	2	2	2	10
H. Laser	6	2	2	2	15
L. Particle Cannon	5	1	1	3	10
H. Particle Cannon	5	1	1	4	15
Gauss Gun	6	1	1	5	20

Humanoid Warmechs

Warmech	TONS	SPT	MOV	DEF	ARM	WARM	WLEG	WTOR	PTS
Heavy
Paladin	120	30	2	7	2	4	4	4	18
Mjolnir	110	35	2	7	2	3	3	4	16
Lancelot	100	30	2	7	2	3	3	4	15
Medium	60-90
Timber Wolf	80	30	2	7	2	2	3	3	12
Vinge	60	20	2	7	2	2	2	2	10
Light	35-50
Basset	50	15	3	8	1	3	3	3	9
Ultralight	20-30
Ripper	30	10	4	8	1	2	2	3	7

Avian Warmechs

Warmech	TONS	SPT	MOV	DEF	ARM	WTOR	WLEG	WCEN	PTS
Corvus	40	10	3	8	1	2	3	6	8
Shrew	20	5	4	8	1	2	2	4	6