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Some More Game Ideas
Slay the Dragon
The Star Kingdom is being menaced by a terrible astro-dragon!
You must defeat it before it kills everyone.
Fn+1
Bring your fastest ground-only mek, and leeeeeeeeets get ready
to race!
Convoy
It's a post apocalyptic road trip, and your job is to keep the
Wasters from robbing the annual supply run to Lost Angeles.
Bread and Circuses
It's melee and thrown weapons only as you fight viscious beasts
and your fellow mekators for the amusement of your Emperor.
Keerahthrakkazrogt!
(Translation: "It is a good day for someone else to die!")
Aliozoids
It's March 15, and the aliens have invaded. Oddly, they only seem
to fly in grids of ten by five, and all perfoprm the same maneuver
at the same time.
Oh well... they explode just the same. Man the city defences and
blow them out of the sky... because if they get too close, they
drop the mecha, and they DON'T all act stupid and alike.
Gymkhana
It's time for the annual sports and clubs exposition put on by
all Geocity's high schools. Go outside and be sociable, for once,
while you compete or man one of the booths. |
The Siege of Fort Agron
A four-level team arena and OVA
Teaser blurb (what the characters get told a week ahead of time):
Get in the pod for this one, and you'd better have brought some
friends... You've got to make atmospheric entry, lay seige to
a fortress, clean out its (demonic /alien /evil, take your pick)
inhabitants, and stop their mad leader Agron from destroying the
world! Space and Reentry protection will be provided for those
mecha not incorporating it in their designs.
General description:
Level One (space/airborne):
A little rendered movie is shown, with a space battleship launching
little dots, that fly toward the camera. They rapidly get closer,
revealing the players' mecha riding on little mini-space-shuttle-like
reentry sleds. Each player is treated to a closeup glamour shot
of themselves zooming past the camera, while the soundtrack they've
picked for "High Drama" is played. Next, the scene cuts to wings
of the fighters they're about to engage, looking nice and sinister,
with the "Enemy" soundtrack. Return to a camera close to the original
one, that shows the shoals of enemy fighters coming up from the
planet to meet the players...
This level is standard arcade fare: get past the baddies, kill
as many as you can. The reentry sleds move at MA 15 (Down or sideways
only, though) and have an MV of -4. They are equipped with a 8K
energy weapon, a 4K BV3 projectile weapon with 40 shots, and four
20K missiles. they each have 32K, and a 6K reactive shield, which
they can shoot out of. If your reentry pod is reduced to 0 kills
it is NOT destroyed, only damaged enough that your mecha will
arrive on the ground with only 2/3 of its kills intact. The pods
cannot be totally destroyed, as they are required for moving on
in the game.
The enemy fighters are of two types: Light ones that have 10K,
MA 18, MV -4, and a 8K BV 3 gun, and Heavy ones that have 16K,
MA 12, MV -5 and a 12K BV2 gun. There is one Heavy and four Lights
for each player mecha.
The playing field is 600 hexes deep and as wide and long as needed,
the enemies can't go below this point but remember: the reentry
sleds can only go DOWN or SIDEWAYS, NEVER back "up". Once a player
gets below this area, the option of pausing (for bathroom breaks,
quick Dew refill, etc.) while the rest of the players catch up
is given and the next level intro is played.
Level Two (the siege):
The rendered intro for this level begins with the players' mecha
in their little pods zooming out of a rubble-strewn area and towards
the planet, then shows each player their mech, still kneeling
on the sled, as they start reentry. bright red streamers lick
around the sleds, and a radio hail is heard. (I know, I know,
this is unrealistic, but maybe it's something not blocked by reentry
ionisation effects. Hyperwave or something.) However the comm
windows are handled, one pops open showing a bridge bunny (or
bridge stud if that pilot indicates they'd rather look at hunky
guys) who tells them good work clearing an orbit for the ship,
now they have to make a safe zone for the Big Nasty Siege Cannon
to be landed to breach the fortress gate. He or she then wishes
them good luck and ends the message, and the camera lets the pod
fall away from it to a sparkle of light.
The players all land together on a rolling field, dotted with
the occaisional bush or tree. The fortress they've been sent to
take out is visible in the distance, it looks like the techno-castle
from later apisodes of Lion Voltron with a drawbridge on the front
and the central spire moved to a corner. The reentry pods are
at the starting point of this level, and if the player has any
missiles left, up to two of them can be pulled out and handled
like a LAW rocket, assuming they have hands and a place to stow
any normally handheld weapons. The oppostion on this level is
eight mechs and eight pillboxes, which have to be cleared out
before the My God That's A Big Gun can be landed safely. Note:
adjust the numbers as you see fit if the players are particularly
weak, strong, few, or numerous. That's what a GM is for, after
all.
The enemy mechs are big and well armed, but clunky as all get-out,
if you trip one it'll probably not be able to climb back to its
feet before you have time to kill it. They each have 35K, a pack
of five 4K missiles on each shoulder, and 8K cross-linked beam
guns on each arm instead of hands. They have MA 4 and MV -6, and
are very tipsy, not to mention ugly. Ugggly with a capital "UGH!"
The pillboxes have 6K BV5 guns, whose in-game appearance is a
constant stream of little packets, like the bottomless machineguns
of WWII movies. The gun is behind partial cover, as is the user,
a mecha-size demon/alien/badguymecha with a level 3 AI. If the
shooter is killed but the gun is intact, they can be used by the
players, but they can't be dismounted and carried. The pillboxes
should also have a supply depot, figure it to be a Repair and
a Rearm Weapons powerup for each player. Other powerups can be
found behind trees or in bushes if the GM likes them, if not then
it'll just be a little trickier to beat this level.
Once the mechs and pills have been killed, the option to pause
is again given, then the Level Three intro is played.
Level Three (indoor/urban):
The same bridge bunny from the Level Two intro comes back, again
commending the players for their success and saying that the Super
Destrutionvax Omnibullet Lobber is on its way, while the main
view shows a beeeg reentry pod coming through the lower part of
the atmosphere. After the red flares die down the outer shell
burts apart and parachutes deploy to slow the cargo (revealed
as a truly stupendous gun) to a soft landing. The chutes are cut
loose and blow araw as the gun powers up, vairous lights and glowing
panels lighting up. Cut to the castle, where three seriously nasty
tanks have just rolled over the drawbridge, which raises closed.
Back to the gun, which flares up a bit (Energy bulge! Kazowie!)
and fires a bright white-edged-with-purple Utter-destructo-ray
that reduces everything to blue glare and black silhouettes. The
shot sails over the three tanks, which melt into the ground anyway,
and then spatters against the gate for a second or two before
bursting it inwards and shutting down. The player mecha are shown
running towards the fort, while the bridge bunny urges them foreward
to victory.
Note: whether the repair/reload powerups in the pillboxes were
found or not, all players should start this level with topped
off weapons and 50% of their total kills restored. If they didn't
find the powerups, assume that supplies and a fast tech crew were
sent down with the Quantum Osciallating Megahelix Blaster.
This is your classic "Goldeneye" shooter, where the players are
trying to penetrate a facility and the inhabitants are trying
to kill them for it. In this case, the inhabitants are demons/aliens/mecha-clad
baddies with 16K each, and either a 6K rifle or a 4K BV2 pistol
and 6K sword, with the pistol/sword wielders being commanders.
Regular troops have IA4, comanders IA5, all of them have MA 4
jumpjets. If the mecha-clad baddies route is being taken, presumably
anyone without the mecha has the sense to have run away, or got
charbroiled by the Bloody Huge Firearm. GMs should improvise a
maze for the players to fight through, with powerups as desired
to spice up the action or save the hour (or not), arranging things
so that the players are around half strength again before they
reach the end and the door to Level Four.
Level Four (indoor/urban):
This is it, the big finish! The movie starts after the players
beat whatever guards have been put on the door to this level and
form up to face it. It shows the doors opening, and a bunch of
officer units with a special paintjob coning through, taking our
heros captive in the face of their obviously overwhelming power.
They take the players up a spiraling staircase around a huge cylindrical
doodad with a drill on the bottom, held in a gantry in the lower
part of the main spire of the castle. About midway up the spire,
they come outside onto a large control balcony, and are kept at
one corner with the gaurds in the other corner and Agron himself,
in a regal looking mecha and deep purple cape, in front of a big
control panel. Beside the control panel is another staircase up
the outside of the tower, vanishing around the side away from
the players. Agron congratulates them on their battle prowess,
adding that it would take him years to assemble as great a force
as they have just defeated again... but all for naught. They are
too late, he is about to activate his World Heartworm and escape
in his personal starship, gesturing at the staircase beside him.
At this point, he is interrupted by a Blatomatron Overkiller Deluxe
ray (like the one used on the gate) stabbing vertically down from
the sky and vaping most of the gaurds on their end of the balcony.
The bridge bunny from earlier pops up in a comm window, saying
that they managed to open a gap in the planetary beam shield for
a few seconds, but the players are on their own again. Agron,
who was thrown to the ground by the force of the attack, gets
up as the "movie" ends and the players are free to act again.
He leaps to the controls while his remaining guards (one for each
player, there were a LOT of guards) try to keep the players at
bay while he works.
Each guard has IA5, a 4K BV2 pistol, a 6K sword, MA4 jumpjets,
20 Kills, and SP 6 armor. Agron himself has IA7, a 8K EMW sword,
a 4K BV3 pistol, and can throw little balls of darkness from his
palm. The little balls of darkness are SFX weapons that blind
the opponent's sensors for 1d6 rounds on a called shot to the
head. If they hit anywhere else, they do nothing but turn the
servo flat black for 1d6 rounds. Agron will be almost finished
messing with his controls when someone finishes off his guard,
leaving a Big, Red, Candy-like Button flashing on one part of
the panel. (Note: The control panel is indestructible, as is the
rest of the balcony. Sorry, guys.)
If no one pesters Agron when they have the chance (unless they're
helping a teammate about to get their lugnuts handed to them)
Agron will push said red button and flee up the staircase, leaving
the players with ten actions to chase him or consider the error
of their ways. At the end of that time, the top of the spire will
split open and a rocket will take off, while the Planetary Heartworm
in the lower part of the spire digs into the ground at ferocious
speed. It digs until it reaches lava, then explodes... cut to
view from outer space. Agron's rocket zooms past the camera, Agron
laughing inside, as bright red cracks form on the planet below.
They spread as a glowing dome expands from their origin, then
the whole shebang goes up like a pinata stuffed with gunpowder.
You lose, game over, 50% of the rank points earned to this point
in the mission dissappear.
Assuming that the players do engage Agron before he has a chance
to finsish the startup sequence, they will probably end up killing
him. If someone pushes the big red button anyway, they can escape
the bang in his rocket, the ending movie similar to what's described
above except that instead of Agron laughing, the bridge bunny
will call and say that the mission was unsuccessful, but at least
Agron was stopped before he could destroy any more planets. No
rank penalty except to the button pusher.
If all goes off smoothly, the bridge bunny will pop up and congratulate
them profusely, then tell them that the captain wants to speak
to them. The captain will also congratualate them, announce any
rises in rankings, and tell them that a shuttle is coming to retrieve
them, and they are all invited to dine at his table at dinner.
Final Notes:
Any player who pushes the Big, Red, Candy-like Button and starts
the world destroyer device gets -100 rank points (Ow!!!) and +3
Rep. After all, how many VM pilots have an entire planet on their
kill sheet?
Each opponent destroyed should be worth two or three rank points,
assuming we're using the system I posted a while back. Agron's
personal guards should be worth an extra point or two, Agron himself
an extra four or five. Points go to whoever makes the final hit,
as judged by the arena computer. This is a big fight, it's entirely
possible that some or all players will go up a rank, unless disaster
strikes.
The arena can also be used for team versus battles, with the doomsday
device sitting idle as a bit of funky scenery.
A proposal: either players bring their own soundtrack CD and enter
tracks into a dialog to set their play prefs, or they can choose
from frequently-updated music at the arcade. For the price of
a normal music cd, they can get one custom-burned with their favorite
tracks (even multi-session! This is ... (dramatic fanfare) THE
FUTURE!) and have their prefeneces from the last game already
in the VMA pilot database.
Wow, this was a long one... Indeed, it was. What do you think
of it?
OVA created by CrystalDrogn |