[MZ] Looking for players for a Mekton Zeta PBeM... From: sw@eyrie.org (sw) Date: Thu, 01 May 1997 00:00:00 +0000 I'm looking to see if there's enough interest out there to justify running a Mekton Zeta PBeM (please reply by email to me, not the group. ^_^;;) We'll probably go fairly fast, loose and abstract, with the emphasis on play rather than statistics and number-crunching. I'd hope for a one day/turn rate, or at worst three days/turn. Lemme know. (scrabbles for the 'series sheet' -- aha!) --Basic Series Information-- Premise: Alien Invasion Genre: Somewhere between Sentai and Sci-Fi, with Giant Robots in it Tone: Light-Medium Realistic or Cinematic: Yes Tech Level: 7-8 Starting Year: Earth Year 2035 -- Medical Technology: "You did *what*? With his *head*? And a Rhinocerous? My *God*... That's horrible! <pause> Did it work?" New Technologies: If there are any weird things out there, even Popular Science hasn't heard about them yet. Special Rules: G-Factor --Player Character Information-- Role of the PCs: "Greetings, [Insert Name Here]! You have been chosen by our sophisticated computer systems to be one of the few... the proud... the warriors who will stand tall against the [Insert Enemy Here]! Only you, [Insert Name Here], and the others who have been selected, have the strength... the will... the [Insert Motivational Factor Here] to succeed against this, the greatest threat Earth has ever faced! Join us! It is your [Insert Cosmological Factor Here]!" "That was great, Professor... it's time for your medicine now..." Type: Cinematic, Primary Requirements: None, except being willing to risk death, pain and/or mortal embarassment for money, glory, and/or the fact that you know Earth will be crushed under the heels of an alien empire if you don't. Limits: May not be older than 20, may not have any Mecha skill at greater than +5. Pros & Templates: All from Zeta are available, even Game Designer. -- ESPers: That knowledge is classified, Citizen. ESPer PCs: Only Wild Talents allowed, unless you want to play a Government Spy(tm) or something like that. ESPer Power Level: No greater than +3. Frequency of ESPers: That knowledge is classified, Citizen. -- Aliens: None that you know about, although your Aunt Bernie has been acting strange recently. How Common?: None that you know about, but I just bet they've infiltrated the DMV, and have been flourinating our water all the while. Alien PCs?: Not unless you want to play an Alien Spy. --Government and Culture-- Government: The same mess o' confused stuff we have on Earth today, only with a slightly more powerful U.N. Culture: Ditto. Except for the U.N. bit. Languages: Lots and lots. --Mecha Technology (Known)-- Role of Mecha: Battlesuits, some Roadstrikers used as military shock troops and commandos. Large mecha relegated to special ops and artillery units, generally. Roadstriker-size mecha common in the construction industry, especially in space and underwater. Availability: Fairly common. Requirements: Cold power-plants. Weaponry: Primarily projectile weapons and missiles, some beam weapons. Not Available: Techno-Organics, Lightspeed, Teleportation, Transformables, Combiners, Stupid Mekton Tricks. --Space Technology-- Starships: Government/Military only. Space Travel: Shuttle service to space stations, Moon, Mars. Sublight Drive: Yes, TL7. Hyperdrive: "You've been watching too much Star Trek, kid." Space Environments: Orbital colonies, several bases. ---- (No, this isn't a complete history or anything, just a thumbnail. Geez.) It's 2035, 20 years after the Third World War and the triumph of defensive technology over the Nuclear Threat. Robbed of the ability to strike at each other with strategic weapons, the nations of the world returned to having to fight each other the old fashioned way. But with tactical weapons still able to do far too much damage to conventional forces, the world's militaries turned to a new weapon -- the Mekton <fanfare>! To the great annoyance of weapons designers, the war promptly and for no good reason -- ended. Instead of the invincible armies of battle machines they envisioned, funding was cut back so that the only thing they could afford to produce were a few scaled-back Special Ops suits. Thus, the Mekton was forever stuck in small-time roles (which was probably what it was best for). Wars were now generally fought as small actions between battlesuit-equipped commandoes -- the few, the proud, the men in metal underwear. And so things stayed much the same for 20 years (with a brief heating up when the nations realized that being in space meant a brand *new* place to go and shoot at each other). And in the five great supernations of the world (The decadent European Confederation, the complacent United Nations of North America, the impoverished Russian Alliance, the upstart East Asian League and the potentially-great African States -- South America forgot to keep sending the payments on their missile defense systems and is now a massive glowing crater, possibly as revenge for the G.M.'s having to take a year of Spanish in high school), life goes on. Well, until the Aliens invaded, anyway. Referenced By Up