Rise of Neo-Jove

Welcome onboard the Neo-Jovian frigate Haydée, formerly the Juan Carlos IV of the Republic of Cygnus. A relic of the Solar War, the ship had been laid up for half a decade before being seized by a group of Neo-Jovian commandos. A few short months of overhaul couldn't remotely put to right decades of hard use and poor maintenance, but nonetheless the renamed Haydée was launched, unfortunately without mobile suits.

Character Rules

Characters have a set of attributes representing key elements of themselves. Each has a distinct but broad effect. They are as follows:

Physique: This is the raw physical prowess of your character while she is on her own two feet, governing everything from strength, agility, endurance and athleticism. It also covers general physical fortitude and G-resistance.

Wits: This is your character's ability to react well to rapidly-changing situations and not be caught with your jaw on the floor when something unexpected occurs.

Intellect: This is your character's mental acuity and memory, both short and long term.

Clarity: Your character's ability to act with wisdome and deliberation; the uncanny ability to make the correct choice and not fumble over your own fingers.

Perception: How finely-tuned your character's senses are, as well, it covers fine detail work and hand-eye coordination (yes, this means you play videogames with Perception).

Charisma: This is your character's ability both to sway people to your side and to pick up on subtle social clues.

Aleph: This is your character's ability to detect, interpret and apply 'Aleph waves', quantum brain energies. Most humans have this at 0.

• Physique provides the following bonus: +0.4 Kinetic Defense, +0.2 Energy Defense, +0.2 Electronic Defense
• Wits provides the following bonus: +0.2 Kinetic Defense,+0.4 Energy Defense, +0.2 Melee Defense
• Intellect provides +0.6 Electronic Defense, +0.2 Command
• Clarity provides +0.2 Kinetic Defense, +0.2 Electronic Defense, +0.2 Melee Defense, +0.2 Command
• Perception provides +0.2 Energy Defense, +0.4 Melee Defense
• Charisma provides +0.4 Command
• Aleph provides +0.2 to all defenses

In addition, characters may also have Skills. Skills are much more specific than attributes, and cover certain situations only. Note that Skills are not necessary for a character - an office worker does not need to have the Office Management skill to be considered competent at this job. General ability to perform gainful employment, hobbies or function in society is a function of Attributes - Skills represent particularly hightened ability.

Mecha Rules

Unit Stats

All units have several defenses; these are holistic values representing said unit's ability to avoid being struck/damaged. The cardinal attribute listed for each is the most important stat for the pilot to increase them. They are as follows:

Kinetic: Defense against conventional bullet-guns, flak and similar. Because evading with continuous Gs as opposed to instantaneous moves is the best way to avoid a volley of kinetic fire, the cardinal attribute is Physique.

Energy: Defense against directed-energy weapons ranging from lasers to mega particle beams to Higgs sprays. As evading DEWs requires the ability to react instantly to a warning sign, the cardinal attribute is Wits.

Electronic: Defense against self-correcting weapons (ie, guided missiles), which in general tend to carry very powerful warheads. As the primary defense against guided weapons is jamming, chaff and the like, the cardinal attribute is Intellect.

Melee: Defense against close-in fighting weapons, such as beam swords, shining fingers and radiation waves. As the best way to avoid being struck by such weapons is to read the enemy's moves and counter them; consequently, the cardinal attribute is Perception.

All weapons will be specifically listed as one or more of these types, which determines the target number for the attack roll. If they are of more than one type, they are considered hybrids, meaning they combine multiple defenses together - for example, an anti-tank missile might be a Kinetic/(1/2)Electronic. In this case, the attacker's target number would be the full value for Kinetic Defense plus one-half of Electronic Defense.

Speed: The bonus the unit gets to Phase Rolls on the ground (ie, wheels or legged mobility). A second value in brackets gives the maximum number of range brackets a unit may move by if this is not 1. Note that any unit that does not have a Speed entry is functionally immobile on the ground.

Thrust: The bonus the unit gets to Phase Rolls on in the air or space (jet or rocket propulsion). A second value in brackets gives the maximum number of range brackets a unit may move by if this is not 1. Note that any unit that does not have a Thrust entry is functionally immobile in the air or space.

Output: How much Power the mecha's onboard power system generates per turn. This may be 0 for vehicles or mecha with fixed-output power systems or battery-powered units.

Battery: The maximum amount of Power a mecha's onboard power system can store. The amount of Power in a battery may temporarily exceed its maximum value - the hyper mega beam cannon is being powered directly by the reactor while also drawing down the battery. Any excess at the end of the turn is removed.

Stealth: This is a measure of how difficult a vehicle is to detect with sensors. See Advanced Actions for more detail.

Armor: Armor is 'soak' and reduces the damage taken by all attacks. Armor may not reduce an attack to 0 damage unless Armor is more than twice the damage inflicted by the attack.

Durability: Durability is essentially how difficult it is to render a machine unable to fight. More durable mecha can fight longer. It is essentially the unit's 'hit points'.

Targeting: Targeting is the effectiveness of a unit's targeting system and provides a bonus to all non-melee attacks performed by the unit.

Carrying: This is a value for how much 'stuff' a mecha can carry externally, such as mecha-scale assault rifles, missile packs, sensor pods, etc etc. Most giant robots and aircraft have high carrying values as they use externally-fitted weapons. Carried weapons and systems provide flexibility, but the downside is that they are much easier to lose.

Weapon Stats

All weapons have a short statline. Most important is their weapon type and their attack bonus.

Next are their Damage Thresholds, which are where increased damage is inflicted - the beam dwells longer or the shell strikes at a favorable angle and penetrates deeper. Thresholds are rated related to the base defense target; thus a threshold of of (+4) means that the attacker needs to beat the target's defense by 4 or more.

Following is Range, which is the maximum distance at which the weapon may effectively engage. Many weapons also suffer losses to accuracy (Attack penalty), impact energy (Damage penalty), or both. Any penalties listed for these (such as -1 Attack) are per range bracket, starting at Very Close.

Many weapons also have Tags, which are a standard set of special rules which may modify how weapons work in specific situations. Some particularly unique weapons may have custom special rules.

Ranges

From nearest to most distant

Brawl

Point Blank

Very Close

Close

Not So Close

Moderately Close

Moderate

Moderately Far

Distant

Very Distant

Extremely Distant

Extreme

Extreme x2 (x3, x4 etc for exceptionally long range weapons)

Equipment

Control Systems

Combat vehicles must forward immense amounts of data to their pilots in a way that is instantly understandable, likewise, they need to effectively translate the pilot's commands into actions. A number of different methods of varying complexity and utility are used, and unless otherwise noted they can be mixed and matched as desired.

Screen: The simplest form of combat-worthy controls, Screen controls are not particularly different from 21st century aircraft cockpits save they have several high-definition screens instead of cockpit glass. They have no modifiers.

Panoramic: An upgrade to the Screen system, Panoramic cockpits wrap the entire interior of the cockpit sphere in vision screens. The vehicle itself is removed from sight or replaced with a wireframe via image processing, giving the pilot a nearly unobstructed view in all directions. Panoramic Cockpits double the Wits bonus for vehicular defense.

Trace: A more athletic sort of cockpit, Trace systems do away with most of the complicated control hardware of other control methods, instead essentially 'tracing' the actions of the pilot. Appropriately-caliberated force-feedback completes the package. Trace systems double the Physique bonus for vehicular defense and add Physique as a bonus to any Brawl actions.

Synaptic: Originally developed under the code-name Zero System during the Solar War, the so-called Synaptic control system is a neural bridge connected directly to the vehicle's control processors. While it does require settled brainwaves to operate properly (making it incompatible with a Trace system), it is effective at replacing clumsy physical controls. Synaptic controls double the Clarity bonus for offense and defense and add 50% of Clarity to Gunnery actions.

MMI: The MMI (Man-Machine Interface) system supports the pilot with a powerful combat analysis and support expert program. This essentially acts as a 'combat secretary' for the pilot, with the best ones learning alongside said their pilot to perform actions essentially reflexively. MMI systems add one-half of the character's Intellect to Wits and Perception for vehicular defense purposes.

Telescopic: Despite the name, the Telescopic system is actually a sophisticated data-collecting and sorting algorithm and hands-free controls such as eye-tracking targeting. Telescopic targeting increases the Perception bonus to Gunnery by 50% and also adds 50% of Perception to Electronic attack actions.

Command Cockpit: Often being an actual second seat with a tactical holotank and the like, Command Cockpits are made to enable in-flight tactical management at a level above 'stay on my wing'. Command Cockpits increase the Command bonus of a vehicle by 100%.

Scarlet Curtain

Introduced into service early in the Solar War, the Scarlet Curtain is a broad-band particle 'fogger' that disrupts most form of electromagnetic sensing over a large area. The reddish haze it generated when operating gave it the popular name. Proving effective at disrupting missile fire control and long-range targeting, the Scarlet Curtain was decisive in shaping tactics both during and subsequent to the conflict.

Scarlet Curtains provide a substantial boost to Electronic Defense to both themselves and nearby units - both friendly and enemy. Any weapons firing into or out of a distance within the Not So Close range bracket of the emitting unit or point are effected by the Scarlet Curtain. (note that in practice, the effect fades over distance as opposed to being sharply curtailed - this is a simplification) The Scarlet Curtain affects friendly fire control as much as it does enemy.

Additionally, as Scarlet Curtains are an area effect (as opposed to a literal curtain), hostile units can penetrate them in order to negate much of the effect. If combat occurs up close, the following effects happen:

At Not So Close, the Scarlet Curtain operates at half effectiveness.

At Close, the Scarlet Curtain operates at one third effectiveness.

At Very Close, the Scarlet Curtain operates at one quarter effectiveness.

At Point Blank and Brawl, Scarlet Curtains provide no bonus.

Due to the scattering effects of the Scarlet Curtain, conventional ECM, chaff and point defense systems are drastically degraded in effectiveness. A unit under a Scarlet Curtain halves its intrinsic Electronic Defense and the effects of any specialized communication gear it may have.

Furthermore, while multiple Scarlet Curtains can 'stack', the effect can only get so 'thick' - after a certain point, the particles simple clump up and take longer to dissipate. To calculate the effective strength of a group of Scarlet Curtains, add up the total strength of all Curtains and then divide that by the single strongest source. For every doubling (x2, x4, x8, etc), add +1 to the effective strength of the highest source and use that as the overall strength.

Finally, because Scarlet Curtains are particles with a half-life, when they are no longer being replenished (due to deactivation or destruction) the effect will degrade over time. For every turn that passes, treat all units as being progressively one step 'closer' (with those at Moderately Close and beyond as being a single range bracket).

Modifying Your Machine

External Fittings

While most vehicles are designed to carry a certain amount of exterior hardware (as per the Carrying stat), sometimes you want to carry more - more propellant, more guns, more verniers, more batteries. The downside to this is that it will often unbalance a unit and exposes a larger amount of hardware to damage.

For every multiple of Carrying in external equipment a unit has, it suffers -1 to effective Armor when calculating Glancing hits - even a light strike can be dangerous when you have a poorly-shielded reactor feeding a strapped-on beam cannon! Some external systems are designed to be jettisonable, which can be done at any time before dice have been rolled.

Fabricators

Building things requires a certain number of work units. Some items (normally large or complicated ones that are particularly slow to build) will have a work unit 'cost' of a value times another value. This represents the maximum work units applied at any one time and how many consecutive cycles this needs to be done.

Example 1: An item with a requirement of 6 Work Units needs to have 6 Work Units applied to it to be completed - it could be 1 every cycle, or 6 in one cycle, or 2 for three cycles.

Example 2: An item with a requirement of 4x2 Work Units needs to have a total of 8 Work Units applied to it - however, no more than 4 can be applied to it at any time.

• Fabricators use two resources: Feedstock and Dust

Cannibalizing Machines

Vehicles such as space fighters and mobile suits can be stripped down and their vital components removed. This is commonly done to damaged vehicles that cannot be repaired due to time or material constraints. As a general rule, cannibalizing a machine takes a single Work Unit to remove all of its components (reactors, weapons, etc), as vehicles are meant to come apart for maintenance. Putting them all back is a different matter.

Examples

Hylas

Primary Operator: White Rose Kingdom

Role: Generalist Grunt Suit

Kinetic Defense:

Energy Defense:

Electronic Defense:

Melee Defense:

Speed:

Thrust:

Output: 2

Battery: 5

Stealth:

Armor: 2

Shields: 0

Durability:

Targeting:

Carrying: 4

Fixed Armament

• Head Gatlings
• 1 Alpha Edge Sword