Divergence Amahara
An alternate timeline from Wartime Amahara, Space Cruiser Amahara or Student Council Amahara. Even after the Sixty Years war, Even after three decades of cold war. There is no peace.
Introduction
In this world, the Rossiya Empire managed to check, though not defeat, Napoleon. Though gravely wounded the great bear was not slain. Over the next hundred years, Rose Europe fell into a series of shifting alliances between Francia, Karlsland and Rossiya as the three powers struggled for dominance.
The Sixty Years War, from 1918 to 1978 saw considerable games made by the New Rossiyan Empire and it's Charismatic young Tsarina Tatyana the Great against all other powers, offensives against a distracted Danuby, Francia and Karlsland managing to regain much of the territory lost to the Rossiyan Empire of old. The same opportunism prevailed in the East, where the Rossiyans exploited the Middle Empire and the Dominion of Amahara's distraction to make considerable territorial gains, even going so far as to take control of the Chishima Islands in the far north, despite the efforts of the Amaharan fleet.
Tatyana died aged eighty nine in 1990, and Rossiyan fortunes began to wane. For ten years now the Rossiyan Empire has been growing steadily more ill governed by her son, Vladimir. The Middle Empire and the powers of Rose Europe are circling, and the Rossiyans traditional New Britannia allies distracted by events in Rafflesia America and weary of foreign matters. The various Rossiyan dominated populations of eastern Rose Europe were growing increasingly restless under the harsh taxation schemes to pay for the lavish lifestyle of the elite and the large armies used to oppress them. In the East, the Middle Empire watched its old lost territory with jealous eyes.
In December of 2000, facing the seeming inevitability of economic and technological eclipse by the Danuby, Francian and Karlslander 'Triple Alliance' signed in the wake of the 60 years war, Vladimir decided to make a gamble. He would unleash his army against the White Rose before it could further grow, and seek to claim the rich resources and industries of the area to prop up his crumbling empire. He miscalculated however, and the armies of the Triple Alliance were waiting. Armoured warfare on a scale not seen even at the height of the Sixty Years War now rages through eastern and central Rose Europe, with the military-technological achievements of thirty years of peace facing off against one another. As the war enters its sixth months, more and more Rossiyan and allied troops have been drawn West to be thrown into the boiling cauldron of war.
Now, far from Europe Tsar Vladimir is about to discover that he's not the only person willing to take a gamble.
The Situation in Amahara, July First 2001
Half a world away, the gods still sleep in the Land Closest to Heaven. In the last twenty four hours, units in the Dominion's Northern Army were put on full alert. Weapons, fuel and ammunition have been issued and all leaves have been cancelled.
General Takatsukasa Reiko, the charismatic young commander of the Army's Central Readiness Force has arrived to take command of the Northern theatre, replacing the previous Commander, General Takagaki Oda, who has recently been taken unexpectedly ill. Officers and troops are now being briefed for Operation Thunderhead: The liberation of the Chishima Islands.
You
You are members of the Dominion of Amaharan Army's newly formed Tactical Armour New Technology 0 Group, responsible for the operation of the Dominion of Amahara's new humanoid battle machines, codenamed STRIPES. These fast, highly mobile power armoured units are the secret pride of the Amaharan Army, are expected to form the Vanguard of Operation Thunderhead.
The Dominion expects great things from you, and now, you're about to get a chance to deliver.
Character Creation
You are a trained soldier of the Dominion Army, specially picked from any of the other branches of the armed forces for your aptitude for piloting a STRIPES to serve in the TANT0 group. Due to the new nature of the branch, and it's eclectic mix of people from both the Army and Navy, even taking people directly from civil defence units some of you maybe quite eccentric. If you get results however, its all fine.
Stats
You are one of the elite, with 22 points to spend. Your hitpoints are your Physical + Faith. All stats go from 1 to 7 with an average of 3.
Physical
Your general toughness and skill at things like athletics and striking with melee weapons
Coordination
Your general skill at doing things at a distance (like shooting) or fine motor skills like surgery
Wits
Your quickness of mind, and ability to act on your feet
Intelligence
Your general knowledge and wisdom.
Charisma
How personable you are. Often used to persuade idiot superiors and call in fire missions
Resolve
Your willpower and courage. Maybe spent for a reroll.
Faith
Your faith in the sleeping gods of Amahara. Acts as a perfect defense.
Traits
You have 3 traits
Art of War
You know a heck of a lot about war. In modern times this not only extends to knowing a lot about the ancient greats of strategy, or even the doctrine your own forces, but as the master said, knowing the ways of the enemy as well. As such you may roll intelligence to gain limited understanding of enemy intentions.
Catlike Agility
Grants a reroll for grace-based bodily control such as controlled falls, balance, jumps to and from moving platforms, etc.
Civil Defense Force
You were in highschool before being tapped to pilot giant robots. Gain one fate point (a reroll you can use any time in the session for any reason without spending resolve).
Combat Engineer
You're a combat engineer, and thus know how to bridge streams, build dams and blow stuff up with massive amounts of explosives. Inside and outside your STRIPES
Commander
You're the unit leader, and responsible for calling down off map support and generally doing planning and stuff. Also dealing with your (possibly) idiot superiors
Concentration
When conducting extended non-combat tasks, you may spend Resolve to ignore all negatives such as may be caused by bullets flying past your face, explosions, and so on.
Cold Blooded
You don't react to death and danger like a normal person and need not make any Resolve rolls against obvious concrete signs of such as the ominous sound of the artillery or bullet impacts all around you. Nor are you bothered by even the worst of gore. Besides keeping your cool generally on the battlefield, this greatly reduces the effect of suppression but the lack of flinch reflex also causes you to misjudge danger. Unlike Daredevil this is to some extent a lack of common sense.
Daredevil
You are courageous and deal with fear better than others. When confronted with a Resolve roll against danger, you may, if needed, make a free reroll. So long as you pass, you get a free reroll for any one roll on the relevant dangerous act as if you had spent Resolve.
Hot Blood
You are hot-blooded. When you spend Resolve for a reroll, instead turn the action into a full pool of 10's.
Martial Artist
Pick a style of armed or unarmed martial arts. You gain a free reroll when using this art, in or outside your STRIPES.
Kappa Affinity
You are a fish. Swimming, diving and holding breath (within reason, Resolve in minutes if it matters) are unrolled actions. You can also see and even fight reasonably well underwater. Applies in and out of your STRIPES.
Lapis Eyes
You have very good visual awareness and acuity so you rarely miss things you're looking for or at. This is generally unrolled but does not help with things outside your visual arc or wide, cluttered environments. For scanning the entire background for danger/enemy/anything interesting, you roll Wit twice and take the higher result.
Mecha Otaku
You're a secret or not so secret mecha Otaku, and just can't stop grinning about getting assigned to STRIPES. You also likely know almost as much about them as
Medic
Turns your Intelligence skill into a medical aid skill. This is not heals, so to speak, so don't expect to really fix someone up after they've been shot in the face. Having you around really makes everyone else feel better though! A single success of medical attention stops bleeding and stabilises most battlefield wounds. Each additional success restores one hitpoint. Hitpoints can only be restored once per session.
Nekomimi
You are a catgirl. Your ears perk up to let you hear things or notice things when something's really wrong. This is automatic.
Otherspeak
You speak another language in addition to your native Amaharan.
Political Connections
You're a well connected sort, and get to reroll charisma on support requests. You may well also get additional information and other benefits.
Rossiyan Expert
You know a heck of a lot about Rossiyans, and may roll intelligence to remember any particular fact about them. If you combine this with art of war you may well previously have served in an aggressor unit simulating Rossiyan practice
Scrounger
You have uncanny luck finding basic necessities and useful gear out of depots, caches, or just scrapheaps. Uses your Tech skill at full pool. It can be rolled while scrounging to hunt for something specific or it can be rolled at some later point to see if a desired item happened to have been found in a previous scrounging session.
Shrine Maiden
You went to a parochial middle school which is kind of a quaint thing these days, but there you have it. Much like the medic, it is mostly a matter of morale. A Shrine Maiden's Intelligence skill is treated as her knowledge of priestessly things. She can spend one Faith to reduce the difficulty of any task by half your Faith (round up) after the fact, or appeal for dramatic divine intervention (though good luck with that being practical on the battlefield of the 1970's).
Suppressed Presence
Your stealth and sneakiness are enhanced, raising the difficulty of detecting you. Stealthiness is dependent on Wit or Athletics.
Tinkerer
While most pilots know how to fix their STRIPES to a limited degree, you may well have been on the design team.
Trap Layer
Represents a deviousness and understanding of trap and ambush that goes beyond the mechanical understanding of how to camouflage or rig a grenade to go off from a trip wire. Provides a bonus to such activities based on half Intelligence(round up).
Zealot
Allows the limited recovery of faith from shrines based on the character's Faith.
STRIPES
STRIPES are the most advanced battle machine currently deployed by the Dominion of Amahara. STRIPES are small, highly agile combat machines capable of maneuvering through any terrain and carrying a much better armour and weapons load than standard infantry. They are even more mobile than the previous 'Stone Crab' Walking Tank, and integrate many lessons learned in its design.
At the core of each STRIPES unit is the Bunraku system, an advanced motion capture system based on both military advancements and advancements made in the civilian gaming industry. The Bunraku 2 system, used in all production model STRIPES goes further, using small implants and advanced flight suit technology to actually augment the wearer's movements.
In game terms this means that the statistics of your STRIPES are added directly to your character statistics for the purpose of doing anything while wearing one. Be warned however: The Bunraku system is finicky, even for an expert. While wearing a STRIPES any ones rolled on your dice subtract one success from your overall diceroll.
Stats
You have 21 points to make your STRIPE, split between the following statistics
- Move: skill at moving around, jumping, climbing and striking in melee so on (associated with physic)
- Grace: skill of shooting and doing delicate things (associated with coordination)
- Reaction: skill for reacting to the unexpected (associated with wits)
- Electronics: skill for using your crafts inbuilt ECM and electronic systems (associated with intelligence)
- Persona: your skill at looking cool as you act, frightening foes and impressing allies. (associated with charisma)
- Armour:: not based on another stat. Each point of armour reduces the amount of damage you take by 1.
Your STRIPES has a similar number of hit points to you. It's funny how that works.
Traits
You may have up to three traits, but only one type.
Additional hard point
Your suit can carry an additional weapon
Anti-aircraft tracking
You can track aircraft and helicopters better, negating any penalties to attack them.
Antimissile System
Your STRIPES is fitted with an experimental antimissile device. When you come under a missile or rocket based attack, roll Wits + reactions and reduce the successes by that number.
Awesome Looking
Your mecha is awesome looking can reroll any failed Persona checks.
Close Combat Type
You gain an additional melee weapon hard point and may act three times per round in melee combat.
Command Type
Gain +1 Armour, +1 Persona and +2 electronics
Custom
Gain +2 Mecha build points
Engineering Type
Gain +2 armour, and all the tools you need to efficently use the Combat engineering skill in your STRIPES
Explosive Reactive Armour
Gain +4 armour on the first 4 hits to your suit.
Extra Ammo
All your weapons have double the number of shots.
Heavy Weapons Type
You have two additional ranged weapons hard points, double ammo and may fire up to 2 weapons per turn. However your suit is heavier than usual, -1 to move
Improved Jump Jets
Gain a reroll to any maneuver that uses them.
Improved Sensors
you have extremely good sensors. gaining a reroll on any attempt to use them.
Land Spinners
Your STRIPES is much faster than usual, gaining a reroll on any roll to move quickly or cross distance.
Low Maintenance
Anyone working on your mecha gains +2 to their intelligence for the purpose of maintaining or fixing it.
Marine Type
Allows free movement in water without penalty, and a reroll on any action while underwater.
Stealth Coating
All enemies are at minus 2 to locate you.
Sniper Type
Removes all penalties for range and gains +2 on coordination/grace rolls for shooting.
Surveillance Type
Your unit is designed as a scout. Gain the effects of improved sensors and stealth and +1 to Move.
Typhoon Cannon
Your STRIPES is fitted and carefully balanced for a Typhoon tactical electromagnetic cannon. You may utilize this weapon.
STRIPES weapons
In general a STRIPE may carry 3 weapons plus it's slash harkens. One weapon must be ranged, and one must be melee. Certain types may carry more however.
Melee
HF Katana
- -3 init/+5 damage
- -3 enemy armour
HF Wakizashi
- -2 init/+3 damage
- -2 Enemy armour
HF Naginata
- -6 init/+4 damage
- +2 effective Physic
- -3 enemy armour
HF Nodachi
- -4 init/+6 damage
- -3 enemy armour
Weighted Tetsubo
- -6 Init/+8 Damage
- -4 enemy armour
Ranged
Anti-Material Rifle
A giant rifle, the size of a tank cannon. Often used by sniper types
- -4 Init /+12 Damage
- -6 enemy armour
Assault Gun
A big thirty millimeter assault rifle
- -1 Int/+6 damage
- -2 enemy armour
ATGM System
A fire and forget ATGM system designed to deal with enemy tanks at long range.
- -3 Init/+12 damage
- +2 Accuracy
- 6 shots
- -4 enemy armour
AA Missile Pod
A fire and forget, IR guided ground to air missile. The design is an enhanced version of the MANPAD and short ranged missile system used by Amaharan infantry
- -1 init/+5 damage
- +8 accuracy
- -1 enemy armour
- Air Targets only
Gatling Pods
Several large multi-barrelled cannons mounted on the suit's shoulders or arms. Not very damaging but very fast firing.
- -4 Init/+5 damage
- attacks 6 times per roll
- -1 enemy armour
Grenade Launcher
A large grenade launcher. Generally mounted under an assault gun or on the STRIPES back like a mortar
- -3 Init/+9 damage
- Burst
- 8 shots
- Maybe underslung with an assault pod at -1 additional init penalty to both systems.
- -3 enemy armour
Rocket Pod
A set of light rocket pods.
- -4 Init/+7 Damage
- Burst
- 10 shots
- -4 enemy armour
Slash Harkens
All STRIPES are fitted with these small but highly useful jet propelled blades. Not only can they engage enemy targets, but they also let you climb stuff.
- +5 Damage
- Short Range
- -2 enemy armour
Typhoon Cannon
A heavy electromagnetic cannon, the Typhoon is still mostly experimental, but is capable of defeating main battletank
- -2 Init/+10 damage
- attacks 2 times per round
- requires a trait
- -8 enemy armour