Adeptus Evangelion - Mecha Game (accepting a few more)

[The Great Triangle]

There certainly won't be any problem with you guys getting to use the EVAs, though I do like the idea of being able to defeat more than one angel using good old fashioned high technology and logistics.

[ShadowFox89]

 I did make a pilot at one point who kept demanding a sidearm :P

[Latooni Subota]

Okay, Mass Effect 3 playthrough complete! I can focus on other things now! XD

The AdEva system is pretty okay for all the things an Eva rp would entail, imo. I like it.

[ShadowFox89]

 Gonna grab a head start on statting up my Eva....

At 2012-03-10 21:11:03, ShadowFox89 (uid: 26413) rolls: 3d10 Result: 18

3, 7, 8 for distinguishing features. Let's put the 3 into History for REDACTED (9 on that roll for Leaper), 8 into Construction for Reactive Armor, and 7 into Mutations for Small Frame.

[Latooni Subota]

At 2012-03-10 22:03:21, Latooni Subota (uid: 13273) rolls: 4d10 Result: 22

2, 7, 4, 9.

History: Resurrected.
Construction: Lightweight Chassis
Mutation: Small Scale Model
Soul: Angelic

Apparently in the test runs the Eva got critically damaged, and they used an . . unorthodox way to fix it. That was probably a bad idea. XD

[ShadowFox89]

  :-[

I forgot to roll for the soul >.<'

At 2012-03-10 22:32:32, ShadowFox89 (uid: 26413) rolls: 1d10 Result: 4

So 3, 4, 7, 8. I'll still go with 3 in History. 7 into Soul for Mighty Soul. 4 into Lightweight Chassis for construction, and 8 into Mutations for Multiple Eyes.

So:
History: REDACTED [Leaper]
Construction: Lightweight
Mutation: Multiple Eyes
Soul: Mighty

Best outlook seems to be Skirmisher, focusing on ranged weapons.

edit: Easier to do this on Invisible Castle-

2d10=12, 2d10=9, 2d10=7, 2d10=10, 2d10=18, 2d10=4, 2d10=13, 2d10=14, 2d10=8, 2d10=15, 2d10=6

18, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. Dropping the 4 because it's lowest.

[Kimera]

Is this game full?

An evangelion game sounds pretty awesome as it is one of my favorite animes.

[The Great Triangle]

I was actually thinking of having people simply pick the attributes of their EVA, instead of rolling for it.  (you're free to roll if you want to, of course) 

For house rules, if it doesn't annoy everyone too much, I'd like to simply remove all the personal scale rules from Adeptus Evangelion, which leaves characters with just three characteristics: Combat Skill, Willpower, and Synch Ratio.  (along with fate points and wounds)

As a further change, I would have advances tied to tech tier, instead of rank, increasing the number of available advances at any given time.  The biggest theme based change I want, though, is to remove AT deflection from every class, since I want blocking attacks with an AT field to be a big deal, rather than something that any EVA can inherently do. 


As for cities to start in, here are my ideas:


Tokyo-3    Of course, we could set the geofront in the same familiar setting, with the retractable city and such.  This would be good for keeping people on the same page, but it does lack originality somewhat, and make it harder to tell a different story from the original series.


Shanghai-4 Shanghai was destroyed in World War 3, World War 4, and by the Chinese government for being too uppity.  The city is a constant maze of construction, working desperately to rebuild itself yet again as Angels come to silence the Geofront.  The central district of the city is the Forbidden City, a massive fortress built by the government to protect NERV, large sections of which resemble the Great Wall.  Thanks to an extra MAGI supercomputer in the Forbidden City, technological research in the Shanghai geofront is faster.


Neo New York New York was miraculously spared destruction in the world wars caused by the Second Impact.  ...Because the city had already been destroyed by tidal waves.  New York now rests under 50 feet of water, but people still live in modular apartments built into the old skyscrapers of downtown New York City.  The Geofront itself lies under manhattan island, which was spared from the tsunamis by epic levees which hold back the ocean, as well as border the lawless gotham district underneath New Manhattan Island.  NERV commands a significant naval force in Neo New York from the World Trade Center, giving them greater anti-angel capability than usual.


Giza Built in the shadow of the Great Pyramids, the Giza Geofront HQ is less "Fortress City" and more giant refugee camp.  The UN forces at the settlement couldn't keep the crowds of displaced from Africa and the Middle East out if they wanted to, so the grand Pyramid headquarters are surrounded by a massive tent city, sustained by the still fertile Nile river.  Preventing massive loss of life during angel attacks in Giza will be almost impossible, but the desperate refugee population does offer a ready and eager labor force for any construction projects, enabling NERV to easily build in better defenses for the Geofront.


Babylon    Despite its name, the Babylon geofront is located in the Italian alps, far away from any existing settlement.  As a result, a consortium of the world's richest individuals paid untold trillions to carve a new Tower of Babel from the living rock of the alps, to act as a capstone to NERV HQ.  Underneath the Tower of Babel lies the Metropolis, a massive underground city filled with the drone like laborers who built the Tower of Babel.  Labor unrest is a common problem, and the Pope doesn't particularly approve of the apocalyptic imagery of the city, but it does provide an effective double layer of ablative armor for the geofront.  The only weakness of Metropolis is the Heart Machine; a gigantic fusion reactor that runs the pumps keeping the Metropolis from flooding.  If an Angel or terrorists were to destroy the Heart Machine, thousands would surely die in the resulting floods that might even inundate the Geofront.

[Latooni Subota]

Uh . . . the deflective capability of the AT Field is sort-of the primary function of the field, and it's already well-balanced by the fact that you have to lower your deflection in order to try and neutralize the enemy's field. If you took away that ability from the Evas, they wouldn't be Evas. Also, we'd die REALLY fast, taking a lot of damage nonstop.

I'm not sure I like these house rules, since it's really changing some of the core functions of the system. I joined because I LIKE the system as-is, and wanted to play in it's ruleset. :(

[ShadowFox89]

 I'd have to agree with Latooni. Taking away the personal level stuff, the AT Field deflection, and you have... Well, not NGE.

[KnowThySire]

I've been observing as to not interfere too much, while studying the PDF so that I could get an understanding of it. Although it is a lot to take in, I kind of see what Latooni and Shadow are saying. Not only are core elements of the game going to be missing, but, as an NGE fan in general, it's definitely getting away from the point of the genre.

[The Great Triangle]

Well, I don't really see why a mecha game should have 11 different characteristics, only about 3-4 of which are relevant when piloting a mech.   Having that much granularity only seems to slow down play.

My main motivation for removing the personal scale is that your characters are 16-18 year old children, and I feel that it's out of theme for them to be able to have the mechanical ability to do a whole lot.  By not having stats for the characters, I want to encourage freeform roleplay, and not have any mechanics around to distract from that sort of thing, since I don't believe mechanics serve the purpose of typical social encounters as depicted in Evangelion.  (If Shinji and Kensuke go camping together, it doesn't serve the story to roll against Kensuke's wilderness skill to see if the two get lost in the woods.  Similarly, if Toji beats the snot out of Shinji, it doesn't really serve the story to roll on the critical table to see if Toji breaks Shinji's sternum and kills him.)

As for getting rid of the AT deflection, it is something I do plan on having become available to player characters, but I don't want it from day 1, because it goes against my own understanding of Neon Genesis Evangelion for a kid to get inside an EVA for the first time and project energy fields that make them immune to conventional weapons.  Angels have a pretty easy time getting through AT fields anyway, and I plan to balance the lack of AT shielding by using weaker angels that do less damage per attack, until the group develops AT shielding.  That's my own personal interpretation, and the main reason I stick with it is that situations like the Jet Alone robot would look really silly if it were obvious that EVA units were just as invincible as angels.  Surely someone must have fired a stray rocket at an EVA while it was being piloted? 

I see being able to project a defensive AT field as a perk of reaching a synch ratio over 100%, and a kind of smoking gun that shows that an EVA is an angel.  I would still prefer, however, a lack of defensive AT fields in the early period of the game, to make mundane threats more powerful, and not give the PCs the implicit ability to take over the world if they could only solve the battery life issue. 


On the other hand, I can see, mechanically, why it might mess things up to not have any deflective capability, since PCs would have no reason to  not throw all their ATP into neutralize maneuvers, but on the other hand, they have very little incentive not to already, since most Angels can easily breach a typical EVA pilot's AT field.  Anyway, if you can quote specific instances from the early episodes of the show where an Angel's attack gets deflected by an AT field, I'll change my mind right quickly!  (but ideally, I would want youtube video.  There's a semi subliminal shimmer effect of an AT field coming online in episode 3, but my main reason for being skeptical of day 1 AT deflection is the fact of Asuka's EVA-02 displaying a deflective AT field being a crowning moment of awesome.)


I'm perfectly willing to compromise, and if the overwhelming majority is that you want to play strictly by the rules as written, then I'll be willing to accomidate, though I have some misgivings about the portions of the system that are just legacy cruft from Dark Heresy, since I feel that those don't really contribute to the game. 

[ShadowFox89]

 I'm just not sure about adding so many houserules to the system, especially when I've only played the game and system less than five times.

Not sure what you mean about tying rank into tech tier. Do you mean character rank?

[The Great Triangle]

Not sure what you mean about tying rank into tech tier. Do you mean character rank?

Yes; I mean character rank.  Rather than micromanaging the amount of xp I give out, I'd rather that the rate of advancement were simply controlled by degree of victory in battle.

As for the housrules, I'm not really adding rules, I'm subtracting them, with the objective of making the game a bit less likely to spiral out of control or be excessively difficult to understand rules wise.  Alongside the Dark Heresy rulebook sections incorporated into the game, Adeptus Evangelion comes out to be about a 450 page system, which, even after playtesting, seems a bit excessive to be stable.   

[Latooni Subota]

I can understand simplifying the character scale stuff, if you don't plan on having us do much that's extremely important other than the piloting. I have to stick to my guns on the Eva-scale rules not being fiddled with though. If I wanted to play in what would amount to Jet Alone, I'd go play Mekton or RIFTs or something. The AT Fields are important, and having access to the other abilities without the PRIMARY ability of the AT Field is just weird.

[The Great Triangle]

Since I don't know the system well enough, I'll go ahead and let the PCs have their deflective field, then, though as a setting consideration, I'm still not quite sure how to deal with the implications of all piloted EVAs being immune to all attacks short of an N2 mine. 

(I don't really like having to use science fiction hypertech as a countermeasure either, so my solution will probably involve using the AT fields of large crowds.  I want to take a more lighthearted approach to the source material, and a happy ending is harder to acheive if the scenario ends up introducing a new king of nuke to humanity after the alien threat is overcome.)

[ShadowFox89]

 AdEva doesn't always match up to NGE, but it tries it's best.... Like the AT Tech, which doesn't have a corresponding character in NGE...

As far as not liking to use Sci-Fi hypertech, does that mean we shouldn't count on Masers, HE-Antimatter rounds, Positron weapons, etc?

I mean, one of the big draws for me for NGE is the seriousness of it and the implications of having a bunch of young adults being in control of walking WMDs.

[Latooni Subota]

To be fair, we're piloting what's basically artificial angels, since nothing else works reliably on them. It is VERY MUCH SO a high technology sci-fi thing. They pilot them because there's no other choice in order to defeat them. There shouldn't ever be a situation where the Evas will end up fighting against traditional human forces. Now, that doesn't mean that it won't happen for some reason or another . . .

BUt yeah, what ShadowFox89 said.

[The Great Triangle]

Oh, you can certainly count on getting the doomsday arsenal and more! 

I'm even perfectly happy to accelerate technological research for your EVAs; I just get nervous imagining rogue warlords running around with that stuff. 

In general, you can easily count on having sci fi weapons, but you'll also have to watch out for the fact that they're going to filter down to conventional military forces sooner or later.  The Angels are going to be really dangerous, but in the end, humanity is just as much of a threat as the angels, best embodied by SEELE. 

Ultimately, if you get access to S2 engines, reality warping, and personal WMDs, the main theme of the game will focus on keeping those things from being used to hurt humanity just as much as defeating the angels.  I'll likely include a fourth technology tier designed to encompass this theme.


Anyway, here's the cast list for the game:

4 EVA pilots (statted out player role)
  -Any number of reserve pilots (EVAs will be provided as original pilots retire, or new EVAs become available based on plot)

Operations Director (optionally statted player role)

Tactical Commander (takes control of some operations director functions)

Science Director (non-statted player role)

NERV Commander (NPC role)

[The Great Triangle]

Here's what I've gotten up on the wiki so far:

https://elliquiy.com/wiki/Adeptus_Evangelion_Game

The changes amount to the elimination of 7 characteristics, and a slight simplification to the career paths.  For any effects relating to toughness, willpower is substituted instead.

[ShadowFox89]

 I'll go with it, I haven't really played enough to give serious comment.

Can we have characters with previous interaction between them? Might be interesting to have a Misato-Kaji relationship between two of the pilots or something.

[The Great Triangle]

I'll go with it, I haven't really played enough to give serious comment.

Can we have characters with previous interaction between them? Might be interesting to have a Misato-Kaji relationship between two of the pilots or something.

Linked character backgrounds are encouraged, and a good way to set up character drawbacks like Dependent, Fanatical, and of course, Second Fiddle

[Latooni Subota]

Since it wouldn't be NGE without a neglected child, could my pilot be the daughter of the NERV Commander, or another important NPC figure?

Edit: I will likely go Skirmisher or AT Technician. Probably AT Technician.

At 2012-03-12 01:01:43, Latooni Subota (uid: 13273) rolls: 8d10 Result: 57

2 +10, 9 +4, 8+ 8, 9 +7
32, 33, 36, 36

At 2012-03-12 01:07:43, Latooni Subota (uid: 13273) rolls: 2d5a6 Result: 9

Wounds: 9

[ShadowFox89]

 Hmm.. Wanna connect our characters Latooni? Though I was thinking of making a Neo Spartan, which doesn't seem to be one of the choices....


edit:

2d10+20=38, 2d10+20=30, 2d10+20=37, 2d10+20=31

Not bad on stats. 38, 37, 31, 30.

2d5+6=14

And wounds is great too.

[The Great Triangle]

Since it wouldn't be NGE without a neglected child, could my pilot be the daughter of the NERV Commander, or another important NPC figure?

How about daughter of the Mayor of the city, who is a SEELE conspirator?

(though base commander is perfectly fine, particularly if you want to decide some of the attributes of the Commander to suit your character's story better.)