Avatar Design

Definitions

An Avatar is the premier war machine of the present age. Often humanoid (to minimize pilot acclimatization difficulties), piloted by neural interface, and built using components around a modular Core, which contains the primary power systems and the cockpit. These cores are then connected to extremities, such as arms, legs, gun pods, and so on, Avatars can take on lesser, non DNI using craft with ease-especially since technological degradation has made producing systems of their quality prohibitively expensive.

Avatars come in a few common forms:

• Aerospace Fighters: Although difficult to interface with, Aerospace Fighters are relatively easier to produce and can achieve flight agility unheard of in any other design.
• Tanks: Again, like ASFs, tanks are extremely hard to interface with, but relatively simple to produce, and their primary advantage is single purpose lethality. Tanks are generally specialist gun carriers, mounting single heavy ranged weapons rather than an entire arsenal of smaller systems, and are best suited for a 'sniper' role although their ability to mount thick armor and heavy defenses allows them to take a lot of punishment.
• Hybrids: In general 'hybrids' are nonhumanoid half-and-half machines, like humanoid torsos mounted on tank bases, or fighters with the ability to deploy arms and reverse-knee legs and so on.
• Humanoids: Two arms, two legs, maybe a pair of wings or other things, one head. Simple body plan. The problem is that they're expensive and difficult to produce. Although powerful jack of all trades generalists if properly designed, they do not achieve the same
• Exotics: Exotics are generally a catch all for designs which do not conform to these plans, such as transforming variable fighters, spider robots, and such.

Design Basics

The only system an Avatar technically requires is a Core, but having a disembodied torso (or equivalent) floating in space is generally not the best of war machines. Past the core, most mecha have a series of additional components that are used to expand their capabilities. Each of these components has a number of slots which can be filled with equipment, and occasionally allow external stores to be used (i.e. Hardpoints).

However, throwing on components willy-nilly can negatively impact a machine's Agility and Speed, and each component requires a certain amount of Power to use, which is generated by the core and any auxiliary generators mounted. Agility is impacted by a machine's default agility modifier, and impacted further by the number of spaces used.

Subtract (total number of spaces worth of equipment)/25 from the final agility score of a machine, rounding normally. Note that all Cores have some level of maneuvering drive integrated (and in the case of tank cores, treads or hover systems) and thus you do not explicitly need thrusters to maneuver in space.

Strain

Strain is the measure of the difficulty in synchronizing with a machine. The closer an Avatar is to the human body plan (assuming, of course, a human pilot) the less difficult it is to synchronize with an Avatar. Nonhumanoid parts such as turrets, wings, thruster pods, and so on increase Strain. Furthermore, some systems have additional synchronization difficulties (especially semi-autonomous drones).

Most pilots will have two arms, two legs, and a head, while Angeloids will have two arms, two wings, two legs, and a "turret" (i.e. a head). Each limb or head over or under these numbers will add +2 Strain per mismatched limb. Some inhuman limb types add even further strain beyond this.

Qualities

Agility represents an Avatar's maneuverability and to some extent its speed. Agility is used to evade direct-fire attacks, to attack in melee, to control the range, and to basically outmaneuver the enemy. Despite all the inertial dampening built into an Avatar cockpit, high-G maneuvers are still exceedingly stressful and therefore a machine's agility is capped by the pilot's Body score.

Electronics represents an Avatar's electronic warfare capability. Although of limited use against unguided direct-fire weapons, it allows an Avatar to jam/spoof guided weapons, interfere with the control systems for drone weapons such as bits, and detect stealthed units. More importantly, it also allows an Avatar to better aim remote weapons such as bits and pods.

Stealth represents an Avatar's stealth qualities, gained from a variety of methods, from sensor-absorbent material, angled hull plating, metamaterial cloaking, or even high power lensing fields. Most Avatars have a stealth of 0, i.e. they are not low visibility at all. Every point of uncancelled stealth (that is, stealth not cancelled out by an enemy's Electronics) adds +0.5 to the machine's agility at medium range and +1 at long range. Round fractional points up. Stealth is also used to sneak around, in which case it's an opposed roll between the sneaking Avatar's Reactions + Stealth versus the other Avatar's Knowledge + Electronics.

Enhancements

Avatars may mount additional crit-free (but costly) Enhancements, representing things like being heirloom technology, having a near-sentient battle AI, etcetera. These cost MBP but do not cost space or criticals.

External Components

External Components have several stats:

Connectors: The number of discrete additional components which can be added. There are three types of connectors which attach certain systems. Adapters exist to modify these connectors, but :

Limb Connectors: These are used to attach things like wings, arms, and legs.

Turret Connectors: Heads, gun turrets, and whatnot.

Space: The amount of internal space a component has.

Durability: The ability of a component to resist damage. Durability reduces the effect of hits to the component in question.

Strain: Some components, being nonhumanoid in nature (i.e. tank treads, reverse joint legs, etc), add strain to a vehicle, increasing the psyche requirement. This is in addition for any strain for a nonhumanoid body plan.

Armor

Armor is a cheap way to protect units from various weapons. Armor in this system is unified-there is no such thing as patchwork armor. Various armors exist, some of them providing excellent overall protection, while others provide additional benefits. An Avatar may have only 1 armor type (applique armors do not count as they are equipment, not armor). An Avatar must choose an armor type.

Standard: Standard armor is your average armor, with no real strengths or weaknesses. An excellent combination of compactness, durability, and cost effectiveness.

+2 Durability

Cost: 0

Foamed: Foamed armor is lighter but much bulkier for equivalent protection, meaning you can have more of it at the cost of internal space, providing additional durability compared to standard armor but reducing available equipment volume.

+3 Durability, -1 Space to all components.

Cost: 1 per component

Monocoque: Monocoque armor integrates the armored shell and the skeleton of a machine into a single unit. This drastically cuts down on durability but grants significant additional internal volume.

+5 Space to all components (maximum: Doubled space), -2 Durability.

Cost: 0

Smart Skin: All armor has integrated sensors and electronic countermeasure emitters, but smart skin compromises structural integrity further for additional bandwidth and local processing power. This reduces the durability benefit but greatly increases a machine's electronic warfare ability.

+2 Electronics, +1 Durability

Cost: 1 per component

Hyperdense: Super-high-density armor plating. Heavy, huge, and exceedingly bulky, hyperdense armor restricts a machine's agility.

+5 Durability to all components, -3 Agility.

Cost: 2 per component

Stealth: Stealth Armor combines integrated EM countermeasures, chromatophores, and proper angling to reduce any sort of signature. However, the extremely low-radiation design of stealth armor means that various sinking systems have to be replaced by less efficient methods of dumping waste heat, which put a strain on the power system and distribution network. Similarly, stealth armor is also rather fragile.

+3 Stealth, -2 Power.

Cost: 1 per component

Distortion Plating: All armor has integrated low power integrity fields which reinforce it and deflect micrometeors and other minor threats (thus meaning that daily wear and tear won't even scratch the paint) but only Omega Dust components can provide a meaningful amount of deflection against military grade weapons.

+2 Durability to all components, +1 Shield Bonus, Omega Dust

Cores

Cores contain a machine's cockpit, the power distribution subsystems, and such. They can even be fit with engines, modular armor, and weapons. A machine may only have 1 core.

Tanks

Tank Core: An Avatar core intended for use by a tank. As such, it has an extremely low number of connectors but a high amount of space and excellent armor thickness.

Connectors: 2 (1 large turret, 1 small turret)

Base Durability: 5

Component Space: 30

Base Criticals: Cockpit (6), Internal Structure (8)

Tank cores have their cockpits placed extremely deep behind (literally) meters of armor and shielding, and thus ignore the first two cockpit hits. Tank cores are huge bricks with very stable centers of mass and therefore inflict an Agility penalty of -3.

Supertank Core: Holy shit it's a giant flying space tank. The difficulties in synching with a supertank core are only equalled by the raw lethality they can put out.

Connectors: 4 (2 large turrets, 2 small turrets)

Base Durability: 8

Component Space: 55

Base Criticals: Cockpit (7), Internal Structure (10)

Superank cores have their cockpits placed extremely deep behind even more meters of armor and shielding, and thus ignore the first three cockpit hits. They also penalize agility inordinately, inflicting a penalty of -8.

Fighters

Fighter Core: A Core designed for an aerospace fighter. Extremely lightweight.

Connectors: 2 (2 standard limbs)

Base Durability: 0

Component Space: 25

Base Criticals: Cockpit (4), Internal Structure (4)

Gunship Core: A heavier fighter Core. Unlike fighters, they typically mount significant passive defenses rather than just active ones.

Connectors: 3 (2 standard limbs, 1 small turret)

Base Durability: 4

Component Space: 35

Base Criticals: Cockpit (4), Internal Structure (6)

Humanoids

Basic Humanoid Core: Cores designed for humanoid use.

Connectors: 5 (4 standard limbs, 1 small turret)

Base Durability: 4

Component Space: 20

Base Criticals: Cockpit (4), Internal Structure (6)

Super Robot Core: A larger core used for heavy frames or super robots.

Connectors: 5 (4 large limbs, 1 small turret)

Base Durability: 6

Component Space: 45

Base Criticals: Cockpit (5), Internal Structure (8)

Super Robots are large and have plenty of redundant systems, and therefore ignore the first cockpit critical hit.

Limbs

Wings

Standard Wing: Used by a fighter frame and "angelic" humanoid frames, wings are intended primarily to mount maneuvering systems or hardpoints, and automatically start with wingtip hardpoints.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability: 0

Component Space: 6

Base Criticals: Large Hardpoint (1), Internal Structure (3)

Cost: 1 MBP

Standard Wings find it much more efficient to mount hardpoints and thrusters and as such consider them as half size. Items of size 0.5 can be mounted 2 per space. Wings add +1 agility if they have a functional thruster system.

Stub Wing: Stub wings are smaller, fatter wings with less area but significantly more durability. These are typically only found on gunships and ASFs which emphasize survivability above throw weight, rarely finding their way onto other designs.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability: 2

Component Space: 6

Base Criticals: Large Hardpoint (1), Internal Structure (4)

Cost: 1 MBP

Stub wings add an additional +1 agility if they have a functional thruster.

Arms

Arms add +2 accuracy to any weapon integrated in them due to their superior articulation and dexterity.

Standard Arm: Arms are more mechanically complex, with artificial musculature, multiple points of articulation, and surprising manual dexterity. This is a standard arm, designed for general purpose use.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability: 1

Component Space: 10

Base Criticals: Hand (1), Musculature (3), Internal Structure (3)

Cost: 1 MBP

Destruction of the hand destroys any handheld weapon.

Heavy Arm: A heavy arm is an oversize limb, normally used in very large frames or super robots.

Connectors: None (uses large limb)

Base Durability: 2

Component Space: 15

Base Criticals: Large Hand (1), Musculature (4), Internal Structure (4)

Cost: 2 MBP

Heavy Arms ignore the first musculature critical.

Weapon Arm: Weapon Arms provide additional weapons stability but have no hands, trading versatility for available space. In general, most of their space is typically taken up by a large hand to hand or ranged weapon.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability: 2

Component Space: 18

Base Criticals: Musculature (3), Internal Structure (3)

Cost: 1 MBP

Weapon Arms have a Psyche Cost of 1.

Weapon Pod: An "arm" built around a single gun (or cluster of them). These systems have no actuators, just a whole lot of armor plate.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability: 2

Component Space: 10

Base Criticals: Internal Structure (4)

Cost: 1 MBP

Weapon Pods have a Psyche Cost of 2. Weapons are half size when mounted in weapons pods.

Kinetic Ram Arm: Kinetic Ram Arms are standard arms with additional reinforcement, high-power musculature, and electromagnetic accelerators for increasing limb velocity (and therefore melee impact) but sacrifice space for this.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability: 2

Component Space: 7

Base Criticals: Hand (1), Accelerators (1), Musculature (3), Internal Structure (3)

Cost: 3 MBP

As long as the Accelerator functions, all melee attacks gain a further +1 accuracy and +2 penetration.

Legs

Legs are generally in constant motion to counterbalance arm movements and thrust vector, and as such mounting weapons on them subtracts -2 from weapon accuracy (guided or drone weapons are immune).

Standard Leg: Legs are mechanically complex systems that let a machine walk. As a rule of thumb, a mecha needs two working legs to walk. Legs are typically longer and significantly larger than arms, and therefore more durable.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability: 4

Component Space: 12

Base Criticals: Musculature (4), Internal Structure (4)

Cost: 1 MBP

Legs may mount a foot at no cost. Feet allow a machine to stand upright without the use of levitation systems, but have no real additional benefit.

Heavy Leg: An oversize leg found on super robots or very large frames.

Connectors: None (uses large limb)

Base Durability: 6

Component Space: 18

Base Criticals: Musculature (5), Internal Structure (6)

Cost: 2 MBP

Like the standard leg, but the first critical hit to musculature is ignored.

Thruster Assembly: Thruster assemblies sacrifice musculature for additional space to mount drives. With additional heavy-duty power couplings they give excellent maneuverability (but no real speed) advantages to their users, at the cost of additional psyche strain.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability: 4

Component Space: 8

Base Criticals: Internal Structure (4)

Cost: 1 MBP

Thruster Assemblies consider thrusters as half size when mounting. Thruster Assemblies cost +1 Psyche (they have no hip joints).

Turrets

Heads

Standard Head: Your standard head, with a variety of designs from the utilitarian to the baroque. Typically mount the sensors and various other systems needed to look around in a humanoid frame as well as a point defense weapon or two.

Connectors: None (uses small turret)

Base Durability: 0

Component Space: 6

Base Criticals: Sensors (2), Internal Structure (2)

The basic sensors of a standard head give +1 Electronics per functional system.

Reinforced Head: A tougher, sturdier head.

Connectors: None (uses small turret)

Base Durability: 3

Component Space: 4

Base Criticals: Sensors (1), Internal Structure (3)

The basic sensors of a reinforced head give +1 Electronics per critical.

Turrets

Small Turret: Mount a single gun (sometimes a Dual Weapon), and generally little more than that. Gunships, tanks, and the like often use these to mount lighter weapons to harass and destroy lightly armored targets.

Connectors: None (uses small turret)

Base Durability: 3

Component Space: 6

Base Criticals: Internal Structure (3)

Small Turrets consider the largest weapon they mount to be half size (round up). Small turrets cost +2 Psyche.

Large Turret: Large turrets are the small turret on steroids, typically mounting very large weapons (quite often multiples of them)

Connectors: None (uses large turret)

Base Durability: 6

Component Space: 24

Large Turrets consider all weapons they mount to be half size (round up). Large turrets cost +2 Psyche.

Sensor Turret: A fragile turret design intended to mount sensors equipment.

Connectors: None (uses small turret)

Base Durability: 0

Component Space: 5

Base Criticals: Sensors (1), Internal Structure (2)

Sensor Turrets consider sensors to be half size. Their basic sensors give +1 Electronics. Sensor turrets cost +2 Psyche.

Internal Components

Internal components are the "meat and potatoes" of a machine, as they provide most of the functionality. Without any internals, a design is essentially useless.

Basics

Internal Components have the following stats, plus a note of any special bonuses they grant.

Size: How large a component is. Each point of size requires 1 point of space.

Durability: Some particularly durable components can take more than 1 critical. Most systems will have durability 1.

Power: Some generate power (Power: +X). Others use power (Power: -X). A machine should have a net equal or a slight surplus to power, although it is possible to enable or disable systems to manage power (as a GM, if you take too long to do this over IRC I will set you on fire so go power neutral if you don't want to deal with that hassle)

Penetration: A weapon's penetration ability. More penetrative weapons can deal damage to more heavily armored machines.

Range: Weapons have four ranges: Melee, Short, Medium, and Long, matching the four range brackets.

Melee Weapons can attack at point blank range only. Melee weapons are generally significantly smaller for any given level of penetration.

Short Range Weapons are dogfighting weapons employed at less than a kilometer (i.e. mecha equivalents of FPS shotguns). They engage at short range with +2 accuracy and at melee range with +0 accuracy but cannot engage at any other range.

Medium Range Weapons are workhorse weapons. They have a -4 accuracy penalty when engaging at melee or long range, a -2 penalty at medium range, and no penalties at short range.

Long Range Weapons are optimized for longer ranges and are slow to track and fire. They suffer no penalties at long range but have a -1 penalty at medium range, a -4 penalty at short range, and a -8 at melee range.

Miscellaneous

Component Armor: A series of internal braces, internal bracing, and reinforcement that adds to the ability of a system to withstand damage. Component armor is not actually a discrete item, but rather a design philosophy of compartmentalization and protection. As such, there is a limit of 1 component armor + 1 additional component armor per 10 space in a system.

Size: 1

Durability: 1

Power: 0

Cost: 2 MBP

If a body part with component armor is hit, criticals must first be allocated to component armor before any other allocations are made.

Expansion Connector (Standard): Used to attach more systems to the Core (or even to a limb!) expansion connectors allow frankenbots with multiple heads, five limbs, and other grotesque mockeries of the human body plan. Or you can use them to add arms to a tank.

Size: 3/8

Durability: N/A

Power: 0

Cost: 0 MBP

There is no actual limit to the number of expansion connectors you can mount, except for the fact that they take up space. They take up spaces equal to the number before the slash on a Core, and equal to the number after the slash on a limb. Standard Limbs may not mount more than 1 connector, while Large limbs may mount 2 (so yes, you can put two arms on a tank turret). Large turrets may mount these expansions as if they were Cores, as an exception to the above rule (they also use the smaller size).

Expansion Connector (Large): Like the expansion connector but fucking huge. They either allow a machine to mount a large external component instead of a standard-size one, or allow them to mount one in addition.

Size: 4/7

Durability: N/A

Power: 0

Cost: 0 MBP

The number before the slash on "Size" is the size of a large expansion if it replaces a small one, while the number behind the slash is just adding a large expansion connector. These connectors may only be added to Cores.

Structural Reinforcement: Thicker skeletal struts, more durable materials, and additional shielding provide increased durability.

Size: 1

Durability: N/A

Power: 0

Cost: 1 MBP

+1 Internal Structure critical to the component it's mounted in. Structural Reinforcement cannot more than double the number of IS criticals a component has.

Holster: Used to carry a handheld weapon when not in use.

Size: 1+

Durability: 1

Power: 0

Cost: 0 MBP

A holster can house a weapon up to 4 times its size. So a Size 4 holster can carry up to a size 16 weapon, for example.

Small Hardpoint: A Small Hardpoint allows carrying any equipment up to Size 4, like a standard hand. However, hardpoints do not have the benefits of hands and cannot carry multihanded gear.

Size: 2 (or 3 for 2 small hardpoints).

Durability: 1

Power: 0

Cost: 1 MBP

Hardpoints are more vulnerable to damage-any form of actual damage to a component with hardpoints also strips away a hardpoint-carried item if it exists (the exception being applique armor).

Large Hardpoint: Large hardpoints allow carrying equipment up to Size 6. They are in all other ways identical to small hardpoints.

Size: 3 (or 5 for 2 large hardpoints).

Durability: 1

Power: 0

Cost: 2 MBP

Hardpoints are more vulnerable to damage-any form of actual damage to a component with hardpoints also strips away a hardpoint-carried item if it exists (the exception being applique armor).

Powerplants

Primary

Primary powerplants are extremely massive nanogauge taps, massing somewhere around 0.3-0.5 kilotons. These are assumed to be the default state of affairs. However, machines not mounting nanogauge taps add +3 to agility and +5 to rolls made to change or resist changing range brackets. Most machines mount 1 standard tap, some mount 1 split tap, and some mount 2. Super robots and supertanks may mount a spin generator. Note that a nanogauge tap is generally not destroyed when its durability is exceeded, it is merely rendered useless (similarly, the system's size isn't the mass of its wormhole, but the mass and bulk of the supporting systems and power distribution equipment). Similarly, a spin generator can be destroyed but the punishment that requires is enough to make it largely irrelevant gameplay wise.

A machine may only mount a standard or split nanogauge tap unless explicitly allowed dual taps or a spin generator via the paths taken. All other machines have to run on one single tap.

Nanogauge Tap (Standard): A standard nanogauge tap provides most of the power needs of a machine.

Size: 6

Durability: 5

Power: +48

Cost: 0 MBP

Nanogauge Tap (Split): A split nanogauge tap typically provides provides somewhere between 1/6 and 1/2rd of the power of a standard tap. These are more compact but also provide much less power and are somewhat more vulnerable to damage.

Size: 1-3

Durability: 4

Power: +8 per size.

Cost: 0 MBP

Spin Generator: Used only by super robots and supertanks, spin generators are massive, multikiloton affairs that provide incredible amounts of power (more than most machines can use, in fact!). In theory one could fit one in a standard frame but the space premium would make it far too vulnerable to carry a valuable system such as this.

Size: 20

Durability: Infinite (functionally indestructible)

Power: +200

Cost: 0 MBP

When allocating damage, no damage can be allocated to the spin generator.

Secondary

Auxiliary Generator (Fusion): Auxiliary Generators provide additional power. Fusion is safer but less powerful than antimatter. Often battery-powered machines have at least one aux generator to provide trickle-charging and self-recovery abilities.

Size: 1

Durability: 1

Power: +1

Cost: 1 MBP

Auxiliary Generator (Antimatter): Auxiliary Generators provide additional power. This one is an antimatter version which provides greater power than a fusion generator as well as infinitely more excitement. And by excitement I mean explosions. Even with emergency venting and blowout panels an amat generator going off will irreparably ruin any component it's placed in.

Size: 3

Durability: 2

Power: +10

Cost: 1 MBP

If destroyed, the entire housing component is automatically destroyed (due to the antimatter blowing up) and a Penetration X hit is inflicted on any component it is attached to. PROTIP: Don't put your antimatter powerplants in your avatar Core.

Superconducting Battery: Superconducting Batteries add limited duration power to a machine. These are generally used for fast interceptors, but may also be used to allow a machine to fire extremely large and power-hungry weapons.

Size: 1

Durability: 1

Power: up to +10

Cost: 1 MBP

A superconducting battery stores 10 power and may provide up to +10 a round. Superconducting batteries can be recharged by any other power source at a 1-1 ratio.

Antimatter Battery: Instead of using 'safe' superconducting capacitors, insane people use antimatter as a power storage medium. Unlike generators, the amount of antimatter carried is relatively tiny, but the result is still dangerous.

Size: 1

Durability: 1

Power: up to +10

Cost: 1 MBP

An antimatter battery stores 40 power and may provide up to +10 a round. Antimatter batteries may not be recharged in combat. If destroyed, the residual antimatter inflicts another critical hit on the machine. Antimatter critical hits are always allocated by the defender.

Enhancements

Armor Enhancements

Applique Armor: Applique Armor represents additional armoring of a component above and beyond "standard" protection. Applique Armor can be mounted either internally or externally. External applique armor is generally termed modular armor.

Size: 1

Durability: N/A

Cost: 1 MBP

+1 Durability to component (max 1 applique armor per 3 space for any component, round up)

Ablative Armor: Ablative Armor greatly increases durability but wears away after each attack, successful or unsuccessful.

Size: 2

Durability: N/A

Cost: 2 MBP

+4 durability to component. Each hit to the component deals a minimum of Minor Damage (i.e. reduces durability by 1) until all bonus durability from ablative armor is gone.

Limb Enhancements

Actuator Enhancement System: AES increases the speed and precision of the enhanced limb, making weapons it wields more accurate. Typically only found on arms.

Size: 3

Durability: 1

Power: -1

Cost: 2 MBP

All weapons wielded by the enhanced limb are at +2 accuracy.

Triple Strength Myomer: Increased muscle contraction speed and strength provide additional power to any melee weapons and allow increased limb capacity.

Size: 2

Durability: 1

Power: -2

Cost: 2 MBP

All melee weapons wielded by the enhanced limb are at +1 Penetration. Adds +2 to the maximum size of weapons that can be used as handheld weapons by that limb, and to the maximum size of any two handed weapons.

Mobility

Thrusters

Reactionless Thruster: Your basic reactionless thruster, used by any mecha.

Size: 2

Durability: 1

Power: -2

Cost: 2 MBP

+1 Agility.

Reaction Thruster: A reaction thruster provides much better power efficiency but is larger and more fragile than a reactionless system and is nonstealthy.

Size: 8

Durability: 1

Power: -3

Cost: 2 MBP

+3 Agility, -2 Stealth.

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