(image thanks to Endless_Serpents)
KNIGHTS FLYING CROWN: The Erratic aka Random Squad
Beam Saber is a game about the pilots of powerful machines in a war that dominates every facet of life. They are trying to do their time and part, and get out physically and mentally intact. The organizations that perpetuate The War through all of known space are too incomprehensibly huge to take down. There is no “winning” The War, there is only surviving it. Hopefully you can make things a bit better before you move on.
The War is ongoing. Five factions have risen and continue to fight each other across the galaxy. Recently, Earth, thought to be extinct, is discovered again, renewed since it's devastation when humanity left. It's control would provide a boon to any faction that could take it, though the Independents living on it will not go quietly, as the major factions also continue to battle over other planets and resources.
As the Izyan Conflict seethes, about to boil over, this is where you come in.
When you sign up, I will randomly generate your Pilot and Vehicle.
How to Play:
When it comes to an ACTION ROLL:
We decide Position: Controlled/Risky/Desperate and Effect: Limited/Standard/Great
You the player decide if you want a Collateral Die (you get an extra die while the GM makes something not nice happen. This is the same as the Devil’s Bargain from Blades in the Dark)
You roll your action rating, ?d6 and take the highest. 1-3 Failure, 4-5 succeed with consequences, 6=succeed without consequences.
When you receive a consequence, you can resist by rolling the appropriate attribute (Insight, Resolve, Prowess) and taking stress=highest number. Depending on context, you can completely negate a consequence, or you may just reduce it (level 2 harm becomes level 1 harm, etc.)
How will this work on a forum, since there can be so much back and forth in a system like this?
-Each roll will be important. Going to try not to focus on the little stuff, each roll should be a serious, important decision and whose effect will change the situation
-I will generally post a position on my posts (controlled/risky/desperate or Gather Information(no risk)) based on the context/scene/engagement roll.
-When unknown/uncertain, just assume risky/standard. We can change afterwards if we need to, nothing is set in stone!
-You can always push for worse position to get greater effect. risky/standard becomes desperate/great. Controlled/limited can become risky/standard. Just post how the situation is more risky or desperate.
-In the beginning, there may be a lot of OOC back and forth and that’s okay. It may move slowly as we get used to playing and using the system on the forum.
This is your squad:
(Everything about this squad was rolled randomly, including the name!)
Knights Flying Crown
-The Knights Flying Crown works for a Democracy. (+1 Materiel, +1 Personnel at Mission Reward)
-Alderson Drake, a fiery and passionate politician, is your direct superior.
-Your patron’s faction goal is to Manufacture Heroes. Act against a specific Squad at least 2 Tiers higher than the players’ squad. This can be done by attacking regions controlled by that squad, denying that Squad mission objectives, luring that Squad into acting irrationally, etc. (Don't worry about this too much for right now)
-Your squad playbook is Consulate:
Ten-dollar words. The War complicates everything, especially communication. The right gesture, sound, or look can launch a thousand ships. You've got the skills to gesture those ships to the right place, at the right time.
Your FOB(Forward Operating Base) starts with Quarters(you sleep there) and Insight Training(more downtime xp when you train that attribute)
Your squad's reputation is Savvy.
Your Forward Operating Base (FOB) is Unusual, it is an amusement park.
Your starting ability is Silver Tongues: Each PC may add +1 action rating to Command, Consort, or Sway (up to a max rating of 3).
Your FOB has a Workshop: Workshop: The FOB has a space filled with tools, materials, and a database such that the Long Term Project, Salvage, and Fix Downtime Activities can be worked on without leaving the FOB.
Your FOB is Hidden.
Your Squad contact is Kiffen, a tired butler.
Positive Squad Status: Theocracy: The Cult of Earth Lost (Tier II-W Theocracy) is a group that believes this planet is too imperfect to actually be the cradle of humanity. GOAL: to prove this isn’t Earth. Helped Knights Flying Crown with hiding their FOB. +1 status
Negative Squad status: Theocracy: The Wrights of the Ascent (Tier I-W Theocracy) are dedicated to building infrastructure in Theocracy held areas. GOAL: to glorify the Theocracy with monuments. Somehow, we received a Workshop and they were denied. -1 status
I will be using google sheets fillable forms for the squads and pilots playbooks/sheets here:
Knights Flying Crown Squad/Pilot sheets
The rulebook you can purchase here:
https://austin-ramsay.itch.io/beamsaber . There is also a free quickstart rulebook that should have most of what you need.
Posts
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
A Scout: A DANGEROUS SNIPER AND EXPLORER
Your playbook ability is Determination: When you roll a failure on a risky or controlled action you can choose to make that a partial success by changing the position to desperate. This does not grant XP for taking a desperate action.
Your History is Criminal: A burglar, a con artist, a gang member, a drug pusher, or other person who preys on vulnerabilities.
Your Tragedy is "Your Orbital Station home was used as a kinetic weapon."
Your Opening is "Driving a taxi in areas autocars can't navigate"
Your Drive is "Find someone worth leaving The War for."
Your Ally is Teucer, a veteran sniper, who works for Democracy, their Squad is The Dark Room (Tier II-S Democracy) is a black ops deniable asset deployed from a stealth orbital platform. GOAL: to eliminate enemy VIPs.
Your Rival is Layla, a humane tracker who works for a Corporatocracy, their Squad is Calazar Strategic Deployment (Tier II-W Corporatocracy) is a military company of fans of the Calazar media franchise. GOAL: to raise funds for the next CalazCon. You are ideologically opposed to Layla.
Things to be decided:
Your name:
Your Callsign:
Your Looks:
Your Actions: You start with 2 Hunt, 1 Survey. You should put 1 point in any action based on your History and 1 point based on your Opening. You should also put 3 points specifically into Vehicle Actions. You then have 1 last point to put anywhere.
If you'd like any of these last things to be randomly rolled, I can do so!
Here is the link to the google spreadsheet that has your character sheet: Knights Flying Crown Pilot/squad sheets
When you've finalized your Pilot, I will roll your Vehicle.
Not knowing your randomizer rubric, I think it would suck to say put a bunch of points in Battle if the vehicle is then (randomly) built as a Bombard machine.
EDIT EDIT: I see that vehicles are class-specific, I'll put my (9) points back in.
Sorry for confusion. You have 11 points total. 3 from playbook. 1 history. 1 opening. 3 vehicle. 2 extra. +1 from Silver Tongues. Don't feel you need to assign points until I generate your vehicle though.
Vehicle:
Wheeled, Industrial Arms, Human Hands, Practical Core, Armed Head, Armored Cockpit, Crystal Shell, Powerful Style,
Manufactured by Dark Skies Security Inc.
Model: Glaive
Version: Custom
Quirks: Flexible Structure, Military Workhorse, Light-footed, Blinding Boosters
Load: Medium
All the vehicle stuff except Load doesn't tie with any mechanics, right? Just something to spur the imagination?
Edit: so Quirks and Load are the only mechanical bits. Quirks you can spend, but the phrasing is simply narrative/fictional.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
An Empath: AN EMPATHETIC AND COMPASSIONATE PSYCHIC
Your playbook ability is Broadcast: When you push yourself in addition to the normal benefits you can do one of the following: Use your mind to instill a powerful undirected emotion in others -- paralyze a person with your mind or voice.
Your History is Criminal: A burglar, a con artist, a gang member, a drug pusher, or other person who preys on vulnerabilities.
Your Tragedy is "Shown the lie of their own life."
Your Opening is "Studying military strategy in preparation of war"
Your Drive is "Create a new renewable energy source for peacetime."
Your Ally is Hatsu, a brash musician, who works for Theocracy, their Squad is The Church of the Blessed Execul (Tier III-W Theocracy) is the largest branch in Izya and receives limited offworld backing from Execul. GOAL: to convert the masses to their branch of the Celestial Myriad
Your Rival is Kausar, a kind murderer, who works for Autocracy, their Squad is The Jovangellian Jackals (Tier II-S Autocracy) are the diplomats and spies for Jovangel in Izya. GOAL: to keep Izya divided until the Jovangellian military arrives in force. You and Kausar are the last 2 survivors.
Vehicle:
Hover, Industrial Arms, Tentacles, Practical Core, Armed head, Spacious Cockpit, Crystal Shell, Fashionable Style,
Manufactured by Spirit Forge Cloister
Model: Endeavor
Version: MK1
Quirks: Redundant Systems, Light-footed, Splintering Carapace, Fixed Hardpoints
Load: Light
Things to be decided:
Your name:
Your Callsign:
Your Looks:
Your Actions: You start with 2 Study, 1 Survey. You should put 1 point in any action based on your History and 1 point based on your Opening. You should also put 3 points specifically into Vehicle Actions. You then have 2 last points to put anywhere.
If you'd like any of these last things to be randomly rolled, I can do so!
The link to the pilot sheets in the OP should take you to your character sheet.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Callsign: Observer
Location: <ERROR>
//This is a [VERY COOL] class engagement.//
//All combatants ready for [FUN].//
//Observer cannot play, but wishes you all the best.//
ENCRYPTION LOADING...
END TRANSMISSION
Also, props for running all that RNgeneration, it looks like mad work!
Callsign: Dice
Look: Decorated face, Cold eyes, Flowing hair, Muscular Body, Scavenged Outfit
Actions:
History: +1 Interface
Opening: +1 Scan
Vehicle: Maneuver +1, Destroy + 1, manipulate +1
Extra: +1 Bombard, +1 Bombard
Look at all those Vehicle skills! Wow.
Edit: You also get to put 1 into Command, Consort, or Sway.
Note: When I roll, when I get a "reroll" option, I just reroll using google because I can't be bothered to come back and roll more with geth. Twice I had to reroll your last action points and just kept getting 4's, haha.
You want everything random or do you want to choose name/callsign/looks/actions?
Nice! One change because I didn't think about it is changing the first name to Ron. I don't think I could do role playing a woman justice.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Happy to sign-up if you still need more pilots.
Rick Christine Tsubasa
Look: Rugged face, Uncertain eyes, Braided hair, Voluptuous body, Scavenged outfit
You are an Envoy: A STYLISH AND PERSUASIVE SOCIALITE
Your playbook ability is Like Looking into a Mirror: You can always tell when someone is lying to you.:
Your History is Spiritual: a choir member, a yogi, a priest, a psychologist, or other person invested in spiritual well being
Your Tragedy is "Family killed as collateral damage."
Your Opening is "Catching deserters as a bounty hunter"
Your Drive is "Make sure that my friends will have a good life."
Your Ally is Duri, an idealistic servant, connections to Independent faction, Squad is The Burden (Tier II-S Independent) is an anti-Offworlder group with no unified post Offworlder plan of government. GOAL: to remove all the offworld Factions
Your Rival is Candan, a naive diplomat. Works for Oligarchy faction. Squad: The Mace Arc (Tier I-W Oligarchy) are a frontline infantry Squad with the gear to punch above their weight. GOAL: to take down higher Tier squads. You and Candan were former lovers.
Vehicle:
Treads, Tentacle Arms, Tentacle hands, Practical Core, Hi-Tech Head, Armored Cockpit, Ceramic Shell, Powerful Style,
Manufactured by Whittaker Fine Goods Company
Model: Uppercut
Version: Prototype
Quirks: Military Workhorse, Common Parts, Flexible Structure, Redundant Systems
Load: Heavy
Things to be decided:
Your Callsign
Your Actions
You are a Soldier: A MIGHTY, VIOLENT WARRIOR
Your playbook ability is Not to be Trifled with: When you push yourself in addition to the normal benefits you can do one of the following: perform a feat of physical force that verges on the superhuman—engage a small gang on equal footing in close combat.
Your History is Art: An architect, a sculptor, a writer, a composer, or other person creating art.
Your Tragedy is "Horribly burned by a chemical weapon attack."
Your Opening is "Stuck in prison for petty crimes"
Your Drive is "Make the enemy remember my name."
Your Ally is Ibex, a disciplined warrior, connections to Autocracy faction, Squad is The Hyenas (Tier I-S Autocracy) are a mech Squad focused on close quarters combat. GOAL: to make a mess of the foe.
Your Rival is Alix, a jovial medic. Works for Theocracy faction. Squad: The Cult of Earth Lost (Tier II-W Theocracy) is a group that believes this planet is too imperfect to actually be the cradle of humanity. GOAL: to prove this isn’t Earth. Relationship: They wronged you.
Vehicle:
Quadrupedal, Industrial arms, Ornate hands, Ornate core, practical head, Homey cockpit, Ceramic shell, Sleek style,
Manufactured by People’s Dept. of Manufacturing
Model: Raider
Version: Obsolete
Quirks: Ominous appearance, Redundant systems, Blinding Boosters, Light-footed
Load: Medium
Things to be decided:
Your Name, Look, Callsign, Actions. Let me know if you'd like to roll for them!
-I do want to ensure a safe 'table'. If there is anything you would like to change about your character due to discomfort, absolutely do so. Even if you just want something rerolled to get a different random result, just ask.
-If the randomly rolled options have jump-started a cool idea for your character, go for it!