The Steps of Building Your Armour:
Assemble Your Armour
Choose Systems
Add Flavor
Connect Your Pilot to the Armour
Step One: Assemble Your Armour Frame
A suit of armour has five equipment slots, corresponding to a specific body part. If you are using these rules for a setting other than CAMELOT Trigger, feel free to combine different slots for different shapes. these slots are mostly cosmetic, but visualizing your armour is the first step to walking around in it. What are the five things you want your armour to do? You can decide on your own, or choose cool things from other mecha media. If your gaming space has access to media, have some inspirational clips play in the background. Take a moment or two to think about how the equipment works, like perhaps the gun on your back slot might be mounted on the armour’s shoulder.
CAMELOT Trigger features the basic design of “head, front torso, back torso, arms and legs.” A non-human design, like a snake, might be “head, front body, mid body, end body, tail.” the Emergent often use non-human designs to throw off knights trained to fight human armour. In your game, you may allow non-human designs or change the human armour configuration to something like “head, torso, left arm, right arm, legs.” the slots are there to help visualize the armour.
Example: Aaron wants to build armour for his Zodiac Templar. Since he’s taken CANCER as his call sign, he wants his armour to look like a big, upright crab. He selects a head, front torso, back torso, arms, and legs as his armour frame. If he wanted a frame that looked like a giant crab, he could have chosen top torso, bottom torso, pincers, legs and legs.
Step Two: Choose Systems
You may choose either an internal or external system for the slot. Each slot gets one major piece of equipment. Your armour has lots of cool gadgets, but the equipment highlighted in the slot is the best feature. Internal systems are things built directly into the armour. External systems are items the armour holds, rides, or wears. A gun on the arm as an external system means the armour holds it, whereas an interior version might be directly built into the arm.
Internal systems give your character a higher skill level while in your armour, replacing the skill, although you may use the character’s skill if it is higher. These skills also affect available consequences while in the armour. Each slot offers a spread of skills ranging from getting one skill at Great (+4) to four skills at Average (+1). For example, if you have Fair (+2) Blast and the internal system has Average (+1) Blast, you are better off with your natural skill.
Internal systems substitute skills to simulate two things. the first is a collection of smaller equipment that adds up to a bigger punch. Rather than working out the specifics of fire-linking weapons or protection tonnage, internal systems combine those smaller pieces into a single bonus, allowing the knight to focus on skills outside the armour. A game where everyone has a vehicle often features several characters who take that vehicle skill as their main focus. You can be a Great armour pilot by simply devoting a slot to a system that gives you that bonus—it doesn’t apply outside the armour, nor if the system is shut down.
External systems work like many stunts, such as giving you a +2 for a skill in a narrow circumstance, the ability to swap out one skill for another, or the power to otherwise break the rules for the cost of a fate point. these do stack with internal systems, so if you have armour with a Great (+4) Blast and give it a weapon that adds +2 for targets up to two zones away, that’s a Fantastic (+6) when blasting at long range.
External systems add bonuses to the pilot’s existing skill. If the skill is provided by an internal system, it adds to the internal system’s skill. External systems enable the armour to specialize in a battlefield role. these systems can be used multiple times on the same skill, so long as the specific situation for each system is different, or substitute one skill for another in a very specific circumstance.
Example: Aaron wants his CANCER armour to absorb a lot of hits. For his head slot, he takes an external system to reduce the severity of a consequence once per battle by spending a fate point. The Templars are known for their great skill at armour, so he chooses an internal system to give his knight Great armour skill. His back slot is filled by an external stunt that allows him to repair a system mid-battle. His arms slot is taken up by an internal weapons system that gives him Melee and Daunt at Fair. Finally, his legs system allow him to place a scene aspect on a successful armour defense with style with a free invocation.
So far, his armour looks like this:
CANCER Armour:
Head: (Once per conflict, spend a fate point to reduce severity of a physical consequence by one step)
Front: (Great Armour)
Back: (Once per scene, spend a fate point to bring a system back online)
Arms: (Fair Melee/Fair Daunt)
Legs: (Gain a boost with two free invocations when you defend with Armour and succeed with style)
Step Three: Flavor Your Systems
Building and adapting stunts is one thing, but adding flavorful descriptions to the equipment goes a long way to defining your mecha setting. An external gun that provides +2 to Blast at long range is nice, but there’s a lot of difference between a Neutron Tunnel Cannon and a MDK-3000 Sniper Rifle. Internal systems are also named. A Good (+3) Intimidation system could be an Intimidating Paintjob or a Psion Wave Generator. Naming the equipment gives everyone an idea on how it interacts with the story, and also suggests how aspects can be built to assist (or complicate) the working of the system.
Example: After discussing ideas with the rest of the players for names, his CANCER armour looks like this:
CANCER Armour:
Head: Shell Helmet (Once per conflict, spend a fate point to reduce the severity of a physical consequence by one step)
Front: Templar Meditation Tank (Great (+4) Armour)
Back: Self-Repair Pack (Once per scene, spend a fate point to bring a system back online)
Arms: Crackling Energy Mace (Fair (+2) Melee/Fair (+2) Daunt)
Legs: Hyper-Kinetic Transmotors (Gain a boost with two free invocations when you defend with Armour and succeed with style)
Aaron envisions his armour as having a pair of arms that end in claws with energy that arcs between the pincers, with a self-repair pack that looks like a shell, which blasts off after its used.
Step Five: Connect Your Armour to Your Pilot
Name your armour. It may be the model number, a classification, or even a personal nickname. Another common choice is a type of medieval weapon. this big suit is there to protect your character from hostile environments and the deadly weapons of a future war, so give it a cool name.
Also consider using one of your knight’s aspects to make a personal connection with your armour. this often comes with the high concept aspect, like
Barrister the Bold, Champion of Europa! or
Templar LIBRA. It could also connect with your Trouble, like
Edge Knight or
My Father Wants His Armour Back. Even the phase trio allows for some drama over the armour like
My Mother Was A Templar? or
Exiled to the Wreck.
Customizing Armour
Players who want to jump into the action can look in the Armoury thread for several examples of pre-built armour. Swapping out a system or two is very easy, and moving things around requires only a bit of re-skinning. Adapting stunts to systems is also very easy. Here are some examples:
Internal Systems
Focused (Great +4): these Systems illustrate a strength of the armour, like big guns, tough armour, and so on. Be careful about investing in too many Systems like these: if they are damaged in battle, the drop in skill can be the difference between life and death.
- Quad Laser Guns (Great Blast)
- Templar Meditation Chamber (Great Armour)
- Plasma Chainsaw (Great Melee)
- Fearsome Skeletal Paintjob (Great Daunt)
Wide (+3/+1, +2/+2): Wide Systems can be configured in two ways. An even split is a good mix of smaller Systems covering multiple areas in which the knight is found wanting. A tilted split shows something of secondary importance to the armour while shoring up a weakness.
- Scout Scrambler Suite (Good Skulking/Average Mark)
- Multi-Phase Plasma Riffe With Bounty Computer (Good Blast/Average Larceny)
- Biosynthetic Enhancement (Fair Vigor/Fair Zeal)
- Emergent Recognition Database (Fair Lore/Fair Mark)
Broad (+1/+1/+1/+1): these Systems deal with weaknesses in either the armour or the knight. A Broad System boosts skills that are Mediocre when out of the armour. Knights who aren’t devoted to being crack pilots often have a Broad System to keep them alive during battle.
- Basic Stealth Package (Average Mark/Average Skulking/Average Lore/
- Average Lineage)
- Trainer’s Loadout (Average Blast/Average Zeal/Average Vigor/Average
- Melee)
- Balanced Tactical Build (Average Melee/Average Armour/Average Vigor/
- Average Devotion)
- Short-Range Attack Software (Average Blast/Average Zeal/Average Vigor/
- Average Mark )
External Systems
Strategic (Overcome): these Systems give a bonus to overcoming obstacles,
either built into the scene or attached to a knight.
- Pneumatic Pitons (+2 to Zeal when climbing)
- Ionic Scanner (+2 to Mark when dispelling stealth fields)
- Streamlined Armour (Use Armour instead of Zeal when attempting to overcome a zone obstacle)
- Reactive Boosters (Use Armour instead of Zeal in a contest involving speed)
Tactical (Advantage): Tactical Systems create advantages on the battlefield or assist in removing them from opponents.
- Lockjammer Delta (+2 to Armour to remove a Target Lock)
- Isolation Ba$es (+2 to Mark when detecting armour that has the aspect
- Stealth Fields)
- Double-Barreled Cryoblaster (+2 to Blast to create Frozen aspects)
- Electromagnetic Trident (+2 to Melee when putting a Disarm aspect on an opponent)
Offensive (Attack): these Systems enhance attacks in specific situations.
- Plasma Mace (+2 to Melee against armour with at least one shut-down
- System.)
- Autofire Delta Gun (+2 to Blast when attacking a target surrounded by
- Vassals)
- Sonic Destabilizer (Use Daunt instead of Melee on your first attack in a
- conflict to inflict physical stress)
- Holographic Sight (Use Mark instead of Blast to attack targets exactly two
- zones away)
Defensive (Defend): these Systems enhance defense in specific situations.
- Celestial Countermeasures (+2 to Armour against attacks from exactly two zones away)
- Reactive Sensors (+2 to Zeal against explosives)
- Recognition Database (Use Lore instead of Armour to defend against attacks from Emergent opponents)
- Knuckle Duster (On a success with style when defending with Armour, you may inflict a 2-shift hit on your attacker instead of getting a boost)
Specialty Armors
Combiner
Choose “Combination Socket” as one of your Systems. When you combine with armour that also has the right Combination Socket System, the following occurs:
the Combined Form has its own stress track, with one box for every armour that’s part of the combined form.
the Combined Form gets a mild consequence for every pair of Combination Socket Systems in the Combined Form.
Everyone rolls initiative but the Combined Form uses the lowest result.
the Combined Form gets an action for each active knight inside. Each knight may use a skill or System once in a turn.
Example: While traveling between the moons of Saturn, the GEMINI Templar are ambushed by brigands. After a round or two of battle, their stress boxes are filled, so they choose to join into their Combined Form. Any further attacks target the stress box of the Combined Form, and they may now take an additional mild consequence. After the battle, the Combined Form has taken two mild consequences of Dented Arms. When they separate, the GEMINI must decide whether each has a mild consequence, or if one takes two consequences and upgrades one to a moderate.
Siege Armour
Siege armour is much larger than standard armour, built like a Combined Form, except it always stays in that form. Instead of a Combination Socket, the equipment slot is filled with Superstructure Pylons. the bigger they are, though...
Siege armour has its own stress track, with one box for every segment that makes up the massive craft.
Siege armour gets an additional aspect for every pair of Superstructure Pylons. A common choice is Massive Size.
Siege armour is considered its own zone.
Siege armour uses the skills of one commander.
Siege armour initiative is always Mediocre (+0).
Siege armour takes a number of actions equal to the number of segments in its construction. Systems may only be used once per turn, but multiple Systems of the same type may be built into different parts.
Example: The Medusa Moon makes a surprise attack against Avaluna Base. All armour attacking it get to go before it does, but then each section takes an action on Mediocre. The first segment rolls to attack an armour with Blast, then the second rolls to attack with Melee. The third launches escort Vassals, and the fourth creates an advantage using nearby wreckage. Finally, the fifth moves the siege armour to sit inside a different part of the battlefield.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:18, Tue 22 Apr 2014.