Please excuse the lack of a proper post this week, I've been busy with a thing.
Here are some rough snippets straight from the oven.
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In MAC Attack each faction is based on a group that splintered from HumanityFleet upon completing their voyage across the stars. Early on I knew that I wanted one of the factions to have organic MACs, bordering on kaiju as much as mechs, with a hefty dose of Tyranid bio-titans.
This faction ended up as New Genesis and I love the way they’re looking in Amanda’s fantastic artwork. They have their origins in the terraforming division of HumanityFleet, and it’s implied they’ve adapted a little too hard to their new home.
New Genesis had something beyond a special rule. They could recruit an entirely different type of MAC, representing their bio-mechanical creations. They didn’t need to worry about facing, they didn’t track heat, and their weapons needed inert gland modules to support them. They were very efficient and manoeuvrable, but a bit less versatile than a fully equipped standard MAC. They certainly felt unique.
But I wasn’t really happy with them in play.
It wasn’t that they were too strong or too weak, but instead it felt like they bypassed two of the fun challenges of the game: heat management and manoeuvring big clunky units.
They kind of felt like beginner MACs that you’d include in a stripped down version of the game, and that didn’t feel right for a faction that was supposed to be experimental and scary.
So now they have a special rule just like the other factions, and their MACs don’t get a new classification of their own. They get a little bonus move and rotation at the start of their move to maintain some of that ultra-mobile feel, but each module destroyed causes extra damage, as all their parts are so intricately entwined with each other. Organisms are just less modular than machines, I guess.
I go back and forth on how I feel about weird niche subsystems in games. I understand the appeal, but I think I’d rather strive for achieving a unique feeling without bypassing the fun parts of the core game. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.
If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.
Nova wrote about the concept of Hyperdiegesis, teaching me a new word in the process. I chimed in on discord, so I get a nice mention in there too.
I guess it's the text version of this artwork thing I wrote about before. An intriguing little detail that makes you wonder about an unexplored element of the setting.
I love them in films and books, where I can decide to breeze past it or let myself imagine what lies beyond the mist.
In RPGs I find them great sources of inspiration as a GM, but I probably wouldn't use them at the table as-written. If my version of Obi Wan is going to mention the Clone Wars off-hand then I'd probably have at least a rough idea of what the Clone Wars were.
The Clone Wars are a good one to chew on, because I think it's a detail that has a medium amount of juice.
A juicy little detail should immediately impart something to the reader, even if there's no further explanation in the text.
By that measure, "You served my father in the Clone Wars" is okay. Clone is an interesting word, and it conjured as least a few possibilities to mind. Let's explore some alternatives.
"You served by father in the Second Zalthkar War" is bad. Really bad. The word "war" is broad, and kind of boring for such a horrific concept. Zalthkar certainly isn't helping out either.
"The Seventh Zalthkar War" is still bad but better. At least we can start to imagine that Zalthkar is a war-torn place, or perhaps the name of an ongoing enemy.
"The Zalthkar Revolution" gives us a bit more juice. At least now we have a stronger notion of what Obi Wan was up to.
"The Zalthkar Massacre" would give us something to chew on. Which side was Obi Wan on here?
But I don't think "The Clone Massacre" sounds right. Perhaps "Clone" is a juicy enough word that it needs the relative dryness of "War" to really shine through.
There's a reason why this is all especially interesting to me right now.
Do you ever think about nerve stapling?
As I've shouted before, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a masterclass in delivering a game setting. The nerve staple is a delicious little juicy fruit that exemplifies this.
You see the icon above as a button on the control panel for each of your colonies. Using it supresses unrest, though it also counts as an atrocity, which can have diplomatic ramifications.
The game never explained to me what the nerve staple was. Even though the icon is evocative, the name alone does so much of the heavy lifting. You don't need the game to explain what happens when you hit the "nerve staple" button and your colony's unrest decreases. The juice flows fast.
I'm trying to tap into that energy for the setting of MAC Attack, with one example being a pretty obvious nod to the nerve staple.
Each faction gets a little quote underneath the portrait of their leader. Like this guy:
But then further down the same page you also get a quote from one of the other factions, offering an alternative look.
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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.
If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.
They warn you about the danger of being shredded by gunfire. Being incinerated in a reactor meltdown. The brave pilots who burn up in drop without seeing a moment of battle.
They don’t warn you about the cockpit.
Twelve hour patrols in a cage of fogged-up glass and rattling alloy. Sweat soaked seat, padding crushed to paper, squeaky faux-leather. A kick to the arse with every step.
Always hot or cold. Never warm.
Sucking on a tube of soot-stained water, an aftertaste between metal and rubber. RationPaste kept too cold in the locker, all ice crystals and tomato paste with a caramel chew.
Brakes once tuned to supreme sensitivity, now slammed on or off. Left arm twitchy, right arm lagging. warning lights that just won’t quit.
If you’re tall your knees are in for a bad time. If you’re short you might not reach the ejector.
The FlakVest pinches. The helmet is small but heavy, an ache in the temples and the neck.
The air tastes like radio static. The radio sounds like a sputtering engine. The engine doesn’t sound like anything, it’s all enclosed, but it shakes the whole MAC at just the right frequency for a toothache.
Most of the buttons don’t do anything, but some of them overheat the reactor. The silent running switch looks just like the headlights. The armour panel release is just below the impact brace.
The whole thing is insulated, so you don’t get fried when you’re hit with a JoltCannon, but don’t touch the display panels. They can give a little shock of their own.
The atomiser keeps the whole thing sterile. If you can’t stand a vinegar haze in your eyes you can disable it down in the manual switchbox. Pilots say this is the most important part of your cockpit, so most engineers hardweld it shut. You’ll be the most popular jockey in camp if you’ve got a cutter that can get through it without shorting the whole interface.
Every pilot complains about the waste system, but you’ll hear nothing from me. If we keep moaning they’ll only change it, and right now at least it goes in the right direction.
Anyway, good luck out there, you’ll love it.
What's all this about?
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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.
If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.
