A lot of people seem to like the thought of using this system to do a transformers game. Its crept up in a few of the threads. So I thought it may be good to start a seperate thread where people can talk about this.

It seems to me the kind of issues this kind of setting/game that are persistent in coming up in other threads are:-

A) power levels: some bots are big some are small. (my thoughs are you are selective about player options, although troupe play with smaller partner bots or human allies may be an interesting angle too though)

B) transformation mechanics. (My thoughts are that among the generic rules there may be rules for shape shifting in fantasy settings, but this won't neccessarily be a good fit for changing between large robot and vehicle modes ans some innovation would be needed)

C) the kind of stats and scales would you would use. (You are looking at silhouette 3 player characters that may be able to move quite fast relative to humans even before changed ito vehicles)

This is just really commenting on the trends in other threads.

I do think this is a kind of game i would like to play and i think there is a wider merit in thinking about these points to provide a framework for other mecha oriented settings beyond that of the transformers.

What do other people think?

12 minutes ago, Deadsun said:

C) the kind of stats and scales would you would use. (You are looking at silhouette 3 player characters that may be able to move quite fast relative to humans even before changed ito vehicles)

Remember though that technically by RAW strapping a jetpac when your silhouette 3 makes you a silhouette 1 vehicle though (Star Wars Rules joke for those that find the comment confusing)

Beasts which have different Silhouettes in Star Wars work perfectly fine at personal scale. Transformer "Archetypes" would just have different Silhouettes that then influence the amount of xp as well as the usual Characteristics and traits seen in the Species choices of SW

My first idea was sorta Transformers: The Masquerade, with the autobots as the camarilla and the Decepticons as the Sabbat. Where you have to keep the conflict hidden and you could only pick eath vehicles as your alt mode.

But I might be coming around to a more anything (Dinobots/ spaceships/ wathever the f*** the Terrorcons are.) goes setting.

What do you guys think?

You would need to blend the vehicles rules with the personal scale rules. For example all the bots would have vehicle scale armor, wound threshold, strain threshold and weapon damage. This wouldn't matter when they are just fighting each other, but will give a major power boost against regular humans.

Now that I think it would probably be a perfect way to handle superpowered characters. If you have super-toughness, instead of just having an insanely high wound threshold, you would just have a vehicle wound threshold. And if you have invulnerbility, you would have vehicle armor. Similarly if you have a energy blast or other offensive superpower it would do vehicle scale damage. That way you can wade through mooks, but other superpowered characters would still be a challenge and regular people can still be dangerous to you if they attack with a tank or something like that.

15 hours ago, Deadsun said:

A lot of people seem to like the thought of using this system to do a transformers game. Its crept up in a few of the threads. So I thought it may be good to start a seperate thread where people can talk about this.

It seems to me the kind of issues this kind of setting/game that are persistent in coming up in other threads are:-

A) power levels: some bots are big some are small. (my thoughs are you are selective about player options, although troupe play with smaller partner bots or human allies may be an interesting angle too though)

B) transformation mechanics. (My thoughts are that among the generic rules there may be rules for shape shifting in fantasy settings, but this won't neccessarily be a good fit for changing between large robot and vehicle modes ans some innovation would be needed)

C) the kind of stats and scales would you would use. (You are looking at silhouette 3 player characters that may be able to move quite fast relative to humans even before changed ito vehicles)

This is just really commenting on the trends in other threads.

I do think this is a kind of game i would like to play and i think there is a wider merit in thinking about these points to provide a framework for other mecha oriented settings beyond that of the transformers.

What do other people think?

Just spitballing ideas here; I'd run a Transformers game without much change to the basic system. I don't think I'd make them vehicles, I'd just treat them as having Wounds and Strain, soak and Defense, as normal characters. I wouldn't use vehicle rules much at all, at least not the Hull Trauma/System Strain/Armor/etc stats. Humans aren't going to be a threat at all unless they specifically have weapons that will be able to hurt them, and any serious attack by a Silhouette 2+ metal creature is going to kill just about any human you put on the table. Humans are one-hit kills, and unless they attack in large groups or with anti-vehicle weapons I'd ignore any damage they could inflict.

You would almost have to create a series of options starting characters could buy; it makes sense for an increased cost to transform into an F-15 fighter jet or a tank, than an F-1 race-car or a Land Rover. Alt forms could be themes based on Characteristics; Brawn-based alt modes could be Tanks, Semi trucks, Construction Vehicles, or big tough animals. Agility-based alt modes could be fighter jets, sports cars, and nimble animals. Cunning based alt modes could be tape decks/iPods, stealth craft, non-descript cars, and stalking animals. Starting XP could be further spent on increasing Silhouette, additional alt-modes (triple changers), or special attacks only available in certain modes.

One thing is for certain; the alt mode needs to have an advantage. It could be better speed and maneuverability, better weapons, bonus skill ranks; something to give the players a reason to transform and transform often.

Oddly enough, way back during the d20 boom, FFG published serial-numbers-filed-off Transformers RPG called Mechamorphosis as part of their Horizons line. It handled alt-modes, ability score points, bonus feats, starting gear, and 'special powers' by using a priority chart not unlike that used by earlier editions of Shadowrun. I actually got to play in a mini-campaign where the GM put the serial numbers back on, and it was surprisingly fun. Even got my 'bot (alt-mode of a souped-up muscle car) into a high-speed chase with a bunch of Not!Dreadnoks that turned into an impromptu demolition derby, much to the alarm of the female Not!Joe field agent that I wound up 'rescuing'

Personally, I'd be rather tickled if FFG opted to resurrect Mechamorphsis under the Genesys line. Especially since if they were to do a licensed TF game, it'd probably be for the movie version. Though if that were the case, there would probably be extensive rules for adding explosions to your scenes.

As for the alt-modes, things like cars and dirt bikes were cheap to purchase, while bigger vehicles such as 18-wheelers and airplanes were far more expensive, so you could have a campaign where the PCs had different alt-modes, but the guy that turns into a jet probably won't have as many extras as the guy that turns into a car, but both have more extras than the guy that turns into a hyper-tech starcruiser.

1 hour ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

I'd be rather tickled if FFG opted to resurrect Mechamorphsis under the Genesys line. Especially since if they were to do a licensed TF game, it'd probably be for the movie version. Though if that were the case, there would probably be extensive rules for adding explosions to your scenes.

Now that I know this is something that exists? God, yes, let's see FFG resurrect Mechamorphosis under the Genesys umbrella. That would be fantastic, especially if it mirrors the Marvel/Sunbow G1-slash-IDW G1 TFs.

One other thing I think most of you are missing are the inherent "superpowers" possessed by a large number of TFs such as invisibility (Mirage), teleportation (Skywarp), magnetic influence (Windcharger's "magic hands"), force field projection (Trailbreaker), super-strength (Brawn), sonic booms (Thundercracker), shadow melding (Ravage), extreme jumping (Springer), etc. Not sure how any of this would work, but I'd absolutely like to see these options in character creation. Again, I'm thinking a GURPS Powers-style book may be necessary...

18 minutes ago, Harlock999 said:

Now that I know this is something that exists? God, yes, let's see FFG resurrect Mechamorphosis under the Genesys umbrella. That would be fantastic, especially if it mirrors the Marvel/Sunbow G1-slash-IDW G1 TFs.

One other thing I think most of you are missing are the inherent "superpowers" possessed by a large number of TFs such as invisibility (Mirage), teleportation (Skywarp), magnetic influence (Windcharger's "magic hands"), force field projection (Trailbreaker), super-strength (Brawn), sonic booms (Thundercracker), shadow melding (Ravage), extreme jumping (Springer), etc. Not sure how any of this would work, but I'd absolutely like to see these options in character creation. Again, I'm thinking a GURPS Powers-style book may be necessary...

You're right, I did completely forget about those...huh.

With Mechamorphosis at least, much of the mechamorph's "special powers" were based upon D&D spells, ranging from cantrips to 3rd level spells. Which being based off of D&D 3.X, was easy for them to do since most folks that would be playing Mechamorphosis would have a copy of the PHB handy. How high a spell level you could pick from depended on what priority you put special powers at (with lowest priority giving you nada if memory serves).

With regards to how to implement that into Genesys, probably need to wait and see how they're going to handle magic in general, and probably build from there. Certain "special powers" probably wouldn't be all that pricey, such as Springer's leaping or even Ravage's near-supreme stealth capabilities, while others such as Skywarp's outright teleporting or Trailbreaker's force fields would obviously be more costly. Things like Brawn's boosted strength or Mirage's generally short bouts of invisibility or even Thundercracker's sonic booms would probably be mid-range.

Of course, if you start delving into what IDW is doing with the Gen1 crew, then the special abilities can start getting all sorts of screwy. And that's not even getting into gestalts and combiner teams.

3 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

With Mechamorphosis at least, much of the mechamorph's "special powers" were based upon D&D spells, ranging from cantrips to 3rd level spells. Which being based off of D&D 3.X, was easy for them to do since most folks that would be playing Mechamorphosis would have a copy of the PHB handy. How high a spell level you could pick from depended on what priority you put special powers at (with lowest priority giving you nada if memory serves).

With regards to how to implement that into Genesys, probably need to wait and see how they're going to handle magic in general, and probably build from there. Certain "special powers" probably wouldn't be all that pricey, such as Springer's leaping or even Ravage's near-supreme stealth capabilities, while others such as Skywarp's outright teleporting or Trailbreaker's force fields would obviously be more costly. Things like Brawn's boosted strength or Mirage's generally short bouts of invisibility or even Thundercracker's sonic booms would probably be mid-range.

Of course, if you start delving into what IDW is doing with the Gen1 crew, then the special abilities can start getting all sorts of screwy. And that's not even getting into gestalts and combiner teams.

I'm wondering if you could incorporate the tech specks of the toys into character creation.

Gestalt: All players need to be of the same combiner team (unless the game is set during Combiner Wars) One player get's the "leader" token and decides the course of action, all other players vote on the action. add one negative die (in adition to any others) for each player who voted against. (add onepositive die if all players agree.) Then pass the leader token to the right.

Personaly I think Soundwave with his small army of cassette bots (I think he has about 10) is one of the more broken ones. I guess each cassette bot would count as one "special power" and maybe be an npc.

22 hours ago, Robin Graves said:

My first idea was sorta Transformers: The Masquerade, with the autobots as the camarilla and the Decepticons as the Sabbat. Where you have to keep the conflict hidden and you could only pick eath vehicles as your alt mode.

But I might be coming around to a more anything (Dinobots/ spaceships/ wathever the f*** the Terrorcons are.) goes setting.

What do you guys think?

I think I want to run this game now.

That is, if I don't get to play in it.

On 6/30/2017 at 5:09 PM, Robin Graves said:

I'm wondering if you could incorporate the tech specks of the toys into character creation.

Gestalt: All players need to be of the same combiner team (unless the game is set during Combiner Wars) One player get's the "leader" token and decides the course of action, all other players vote on the action. add one negative die (in adition to any others) for each player who voted against. (add onepositive die if all players agree.) Then pass the leader token to the right.

I'd actually make the Combiner work like a starship; there's one pilot and 4 copilots. Different weapons can be used once per turn by any character, or they could take other Vehicular Actions.

I know Combiners are supposed to have problems integrating, but i see a vote system backfiring and each player just agreeing to the current leader's action to avoid the setback dice.

I've never heard of Mechamorphosis before and really wish I had. This is now my most wanted addition to Genesys!

13 hours ago, DarthGM said:

I'd actually make the Combiner work like a starship; there's one pilot and 4 copilots. Different weapons can be used once per turn by any character, or they could take other Vehicular Actions.

I know Combiners are supposed to have problems integrating, but i see a vote system backfiring and each player just agreeing to the current leader's action to avoid the setback dice.

I was gonna say "but everybody get's to be the leader" but then there might arise problems like this:

Leader 1 (no not the one from go-bots!): "Charge the enemy! Prepare for melee attack! Leeeeeeeeroy Jenkins!"

(next round) Leader 2: "Fall back and shoot them with our big gun."

Leader 3: "charge back into melee!"

Leader 4: "Step back and shoot the guns."

And so back and forth, back and forth. sigh. Yeah starship might work better.