VIRTUAL MEKTON ============================================================================================= Sidebar: Hi, I'm Isa Shinzato. I will be your Sempai here at Intron High. If you follow your orientation book as we go along you shouldn't have any trouble getting around. Let's get started, shall we? {insert picture here} ============================================================================================= CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Welcome to VIRTUAL MEKTON, a supplement for Mekton Zeta. You will need a copy of Mekton Zeta and Mekton Zeta Plus in order to use this game supplement. Please visit the R.Talsorian Games website (www. talsorian.com) for further information on ordering. This supplement provides setting information as well as game statistics and advice for running adventures in the exciting world of Virtual Mekton (VM). This is a world where angst-ridden high school students battle each other for honor and prestige using virtual robots called VMs. This setting is unlike any other, and the possibilities are endless. Virtual Mekton combines teenage intrigue with kinetic giant-robot combat. No military ranks, no dashing mecha-jocks, no brooding heros, no invading aliens., just plain fun. SETTING The world is Earth, the time isn't very far away from today. Not much has changed. Kids are still kids, parents are still parents, high-school is still high-school. Nothing has really changed except, of course, the advent of Virtual Mekton! Virtual Mekton is a wildly popular after-school recreation using several linked cockpit simulators in a large arcade. These arcade centers can be found in malls around the world. Not only can the people play against each other, they can play against anyone that wants to join from around the world. The games can range from one-on-one challenges, to multi-player, last-man-standing arena combats, to team-oriented strategy events. The game environments are fully immersive, from the simple arenas to the fully-detailed virtual battlefields complete with weather conditions. There are two levels of play in Virtual Mekton. The first level is the classic one-shot arcade games favored by the casual player. The second level of play is the Campaign mode. In campaign mode the players can create and modify their VMs to meet new challenges - and keep their opponents guessing. The default school location is Intron High in Geocity. Geocity can be located anywhere in the world to fit your campaign world. For more information see the chapter on LIfe In School. ============================================================================================= Sidebar: small description of a one-shot arcade game ============================================================================================= CHAPTER 2 The Characters The characters are regular high school students. Their lives revolve around classwork, homework, VM construction and combat, the opposite sex, and - in general - growing up. Characters physical and mental stats are limited to no more than 7. Any stat that goes above this, the point cost is doubled (an 8 costs 10 points, a 9 costs 12 and a 10 costs 14). In addition to the regular stats, two more have been added: Family/money and Relationship With Parents (RWP). RWP will (in very general terms) define how your parents view how your life is going and their opinions on what needs to be fixed. This stat will fluctuate wildly as you do (or fail to do) things in the game. This stat will be tied into your family objectives(see below) Money/Family will do the same thing it did in Mekton II. It establishes both your starting money/ allowance and sets your family status (E.G. middle class, rich, poor). Note that RWP and Money/Family are not bound by the physical/mental limit costs. For a starting character skills there are only a few limits, beyond this there are no boundries. The limitations are: VM Programming and VM Design are limited to 1 (ONE). As the PCs design and test their VMs will this skill develop. IPs will be awarded for building a successful VM that wins, Not as many for building one that consistantly loses. Combat skills are limited to no higher than 3 for starting characters. These are kids, not professional Mercs. Some might have learned how to use a gun for hunting, or martial arts for discipline, but they are not of a professional caliber. Be reasonable with these skills, and REQUIRE a player to have a VERY good reason for having a level 3 in a dangerous skill. Professional skills are not allowed. Professional skills are defined as any skill, that in real life, that would require several years of specialized education to aquire. Examples include: Medicine (for doctors), Law, Law enforcement,teaching, and so on in this way. These characters have yet to escape high-school. Semi-professional skills, such as Go Without Sleep, Ignore Deadline, are allowed. All other skills have no limits, but - once again, remember that these are students, and have yet to finish learning and growing. Please keep in mind that all of this (the stats and skills) are in relation to adults. If you are running a straight high-schooler game or running an adult based game then creation rules are normal, with the exception of the VM skills. Those remain limited to starting levels of 1 (one). There is an upside to all of these limits: A PCs stats and skills can improve. Your PC can improve his stats by allocating time to go do sports, or reading lots of books or whatever is relevant to improving what you want improved. To do this you have to set PRIORITIES. Thanks to the competeting time demands in a teenagers life, they have to allocate their time carefully. To do otherwise would cause even further havoc...and get them grounded until after graduation. There are 6 priority categories that PCs will have to balance. These categories are: Family This covers chores, "quality time" and family activities School This covers your grades, how much time you spend on homework and so on Social This covers your social status in the school, are you a nerd,jock or prom queen? VM Training How much time do you practice to keep your edge? VM Design How fast can you fix up a new VM to meet a challenge, or an arenas preconditions Job do you work, if so how much? Trying to get promoted? To balance out these demands, players will assign each category a priority code on a characters weekly basis (for each GAME week). The priority codes are A through F, A being the highest, F being whenever you get around to it. After the priority codes are set, the player will have to tell the GM what objective he wants to accomplish for each. There MUST be at least one objective per category (except Job - if you don't have one(looking for a Job counts as an objective)). The objective can be as simple or as complex as the characters needs are. Failing to meet an objective can result in your character landing in hot water. Meeting, or exceeding the objectives in some spectacular way can provide some unexpected benefits. ===================================================================================================== Sidebar: "What do you mean 'You aren't spending any time with your family' - we're arguing now.... doesn't that count?" Overheard near an arcade. ===================================================================================================== Here are some examples of meeting objectives: For Family: for meeting your objective, you could be given a bit more on your allowance, or you could get out of chores for a couple of days (resulting in more free time!). Failing to meet your objective here could result in grounding - with the computer locked up, or result in your parents demanding you spend more "quality time" with the family and less time playing those @#$%! video games. For School: Doing well here can net you FREE skill points (education is a good thing). Failing (literally) can result in study halls and detention. Depending on how much you mess this up, it could impact on your Family. For Social: Friends are useful. Being social can get others to help you do things. They can help you find a Job, help you code that spiffy auto-plasma cannon in about 1/4 the time you could do it. Being Anti-social can result in you making Enemies, getting picked on at School (taking down your grades) And really ruin your chances of getting a date for the Prom (EEEWWWW!!! Go out with THAT geek - I Think Not!). Flubbing here can also do a real bad number on your REP (more on that later). For VM Training: The more you practice, the better you get. If you don't practice you can lose your touch. Realistically, failing to practice will give you increased chances at Fumbles and/or catastrophic Fumbles. If you don't practice you will fumble an a 2 or less on a d10, and you will get a catastrophic fumble on a roll of 1 on a d10. You will also be at -1 on initiative. This may seem a bit harsh, but you will be going up against those who do practice - and they will know what to do when Something Goes Wrong. If you practice, you lose nothing and can work out the bugs in your or your teams tactics. For VM Design: learn by doing. If you don't try to design a VM, you can never create your own. You will be stuck buying off-the-shelf componants....and those only go so far. Failure doesn't cause problems here, success could mean victory. For Job: do well here and you can get a promotion (more MONEY!!) or at least keep your job when you blow something. Failure here means you can be fired. Being fired means you have no money. No money means you can't pay the arcade to use and show-off your Godlike VM. Note: Success here could mean you find a job (if you didn't have one in the first place) or find a better job. If you haven't noticed there is one thing missing from the above list: SLEEP! If your PC doesn't get at least 8 hours of sleep, they will be at a -1 for every third skill check. (you are kinda tired), for having 6 or less hours, the will be at a -1 for every other check (you are feeling very sleepy), and for 5 or fewer hours of sleep you are at a -1 for all checks (you're bushed!) Depending on how much sleep you miss may reaquire a Go Without Sleep roll vs diff 10 (for 7 hours of sleep). The difficulty goes up by 5 for every 2 hours of sleep you miss (miss 4 hours roll vs diff 20). If Successful you move up one category (6 hours sleep + roll means you are at a -1 for every third check). Imbibing prodigious amounts of caffinated beverages will give bennies to the roll...but only the GM knows when the caffine crash will happen. CHAPTER 3 RELATING TO YOUR PARENTS Your overall relationship with tyour parents is determined by three related items: Family Status, RWP, and Parental Rep (PR). For starting characters your PR is equal to your RWP stat. When asking your parents for a favor, your roll is RWP + PR +1d10 VS the difficulty of the task (set by the GM). Bribes of chocolate, pizza, extra work(before they ask), or anything else that caters to their...vices could result in positive modifiers (nope, a Bribe skill roll own't work here). Note that while PR can be negative, it cannot go higher than 10. ====================================================================================================== Sidebar: First you have all of the chores done, then there was the fresh coffee, the car is washed and waxed....just what are you up to? ====================================================================================================== Whenever your PR is lower than your Fam/Money stat, your parents generally look down on your behavior as being beneath the family honor(+5 to all diff. when dealing with parents). If your PR ever goes negative...well, the results are never pretty. See the table below marked "BAD PR". The other thing your PR affects is how much money you get for an allowance. Average the lower of your RWP or PR stat with your money/family stat and multiply the result by 10. If that is not enough to cover your expenses, there are several fine fast food establishments that would be more than happy to compensate you Y100 for a weeks worth of work. How to determine PR: Parental Rep fluctuates wildly over the course of a single game. Most of the things that affect it are, well, negative. There is light at the end of the tunnel, however. Any week that you successfully complete your Family objective you can improve your PR by your RWP stat times a modifier based on the priority you gave your family. PR Modifiers Talking back to parents -3 for each parent involved talk back to teacher -2 per teacher get home late -1 (late for dinner late) get home LATE -2 (after cufew late) wild party at home -6 get caught at wild party -4 Damage family vehicle -4 fail a class -6 per class get an F on a test -4 per F get a D on a test -2 caught tormenting sibling -1 bad language -2 traffic ticket -2 skip chores -1 caught...um...in flagrente delicto w/ boy/girlfriend - Fam stat Win a VM tourney +1 (-1 if PR is less than Fam stat) Win a Major VM Tourney +2 (-2 if PR is less than Fam stat) Complete a Priority A family goal +(RWP * 2) Complete a priority B family goal +(RWP * 1.5) round down Complete a priority C family goal +(RWP) Complete a priority D family goal + 1/2 RWP (min 1) Complete a priority E family goal +1 What happens when you have Bad PR? Bad PR Consequence -1 Lectured (and "Quality Time" will be required) -2 Loss of allowance -3 grounded for the day -4 grounded for a week (no phone) -5 grounded indefinitley (TV, No phone) -6 and lower grounded indefinitley (as above and you lose your VM gear Roll PR VS diff 20 to get it back) These effects are cumulative. If you are grounded you lose your allowance and get lectured.