The Energon Pub

Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:09 pm

I have stats for a game that can be played at home with your own toys! It's fun if you like rolling dice and like moving the combatants with your own hands. It can fill the time while the missions/arena battles are running and keep people sane if HMW goes down again. Let me know if anyone is interested!

News Credits: 7 · Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:10 am

Interesting, I made up a game that sounds similar. I move the toys around the floor and they fight each other using their tech specs. What's yours?

Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:43 am

It uses a simplified RPG-style combat system. Each character has HP, AC, ranged attack and damage, and melee attack and damage, for six stats. I use a d20 for attack and several d6 for damage.

I have two methods for generating stats. The old one uses points based on toy size, dividing the points among the six stats. The new one I've been testing converts the toys' tech specs, but is unbalanced for over-specced characters.

I also use special rules for movement and mission objectives, but the basic stats are the bulk of the system.

Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:20 pm

If anyone wants details, post here or pm me.

News Credits: 7 · Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:50 pm

DETAILS. I think this could be fun to play.

Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:31 pm

Sounds like your just using a modified version of D&D. You'd be better off coming up with something a bit more original that would fit TFs, and use the TF stats. With six stats, you're not really sticking to TFs very well.

I always kicked around the idea of either D10+stat or 2D6+stat for skill/attack/defense checks. Damage would be figured on a D6 per stat point basis (brawling would be equal to Strength D6 and weapons attacks would be Firepower D6, for example, a bot with 6 FP would do 6D6 damage. Bots would have their Endurancex20 for Hit Points (a bot with Endurance 6 would have 120 HP, and their Rank score would act as Damage Resistance to represent armor like in HMW (i.e., a bot with 8 Rank hit for 20 points of damage would take 20-8 or 12 points of damage). Skill would attack, Speed would defend, Intelligence would cover non-combat actions like healing, inventing, sabotage, piloting, etc. I never really worked out how Courage should work, though... Obviously I'd continue using HMW as an inspiration and have it affect attack frequency somehow.

Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:50 pm

It sounds sufficiently amusing for TF collectors please lay down the skinny for us.

Sat Jan 05, 2008 4:29 am

This is the new version of the stat-generation system. It converts the tech specs and is easier to use than the old level system. However, it can be unbalanced if tech specs are not scaled properly (like RID being over-specced).

AC (armor class) = Spd + Int + (size x10)
HP (hit points) = size x (End + Rnk) EDIT: x10 (left out accidentally)

ranged attack bonus = Skl + (size x5)
ranged damage = Fpr x size x 1d6

melee attack bonus = Crg + (size x5)
melee damage = Str x size x 1d6

SIZE MULTIPLIERS
.15 micro (mini-cons, micromasters, Nebulon partners)
.30 mini (mini-bots, cassettes, some others)
.45 basic (scout class, gestalt limbs, Beast Wars basics)
.60 deluxe (deluxe class, G1 Autobot cars, deluxe beasts)
.80 mega (voyager class, Dinobots, seekers, etc)
1.0 ultra (gestalts, ultra beasts, some others)
1.5 super (leader class, most large G1, Tidal Wave, etc)
2.0 supreme (G1 Scorponok, Primus, Unicron, few others)
2.5 ultimate (Fortress Maximus)

Note that AC and attack bonus are largely determined by specs, so a minibot still has a chance to hit a gestalt. Hit points and damage are determined by size, so a gestalt can flatten a minibot.

In all cases, use a d20 to attack (with bonus to equal or exceed AC) and several d6 for damage (round or use bonus points as needed).

This makes for battles that depend on toy size, character abilities, and luck of the dice. You can add special rules for movement and alt modes, as well as mission objectives and anything else you want. Have fun!

Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:58 pm

The older, more balanced way requires much less math. The downside is that you have to choose the stats yourself. It goes like this: each character has a level based on size and awesomeness. A minicon might be level 1 or 2, a cassetticon or G1 minibot might be 3 or 4, scout class should be about 5 or 6, and up from there. Ultra class (combiner size) should be at least 12, and the max is 20.

Each character gets 6 points per level to divide among the stats, and there are the same six stats as above. This way, you don't need advanced calculations. One point gets +1 AC or +1 attack or +10 HP or +1d6 damage. Also, AC starts at 10.

Example: a level 9 character (reissue Soundwave, for example) has 54 points. They might be divided like this:

11 to HP (110 HP)
8 to AC (18 total)
12 ranged attack (1d20+12)
10 ranged damage (10d6)
7 melee attack (1d20+7)
6 melee damage (6d6)

This is about 90% compatible with the other system (tech spec conversion), but may make slightly less powerful characters. I recommend using only one system for both sides.

News Credits: 42 · Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:50 am

Dragonoth wrote:a cassetticon or G1 minibot might be 3 or 4

Never underestimate a cassette. :wink:

I like the sound of this, shame I dont know any other collectors who'd play it around here, its all Rifters and Vampires where I live.

EDIT: Games Workshop should get off their arses and team up with Hasbro. That would be an awesome game system. I might eventually buy some of their miniatures if that was the case.

Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:09 am

I may have to give these a try. My family is big on RPGs but we dont' do miniatures all that often. This would be fun for all though. Thanks for psoting them. I may have to try it with my Classics tonight!

Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:02 pm

Psychout wrote:I like the sound of this, shame I dont know any other collectors who'd play it around here, its all Rifters and Vampires where I live.

People in your area actually play Rifts? :shock:

I have to scrape around looking for people to play any RPG let alone ones that know what Rifts is!

News Credits: 42 · Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:27 pm

ashe5k wrote:
Psychout wrote:I like the sound of this, shame I dont know any other collectors who'd play it around here, its all Rifters and Vampires where I live.

People in your area actually play Rifts? I have to scrape around looking for people to play any RPG let alone ones that know what Rifts is!

Rifts is awesome.

Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:41 pm

Rifts was a good game. A little unbalanced between different character types (some, like the Glitter Boy, are ridiculously more powerful than the rest), but a very cool setting.

Of course, when I wanted to play a Palladium game, we always ended up breaking out the TMNT.

Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:53 pm

See I think Rifts is one of those games where if you're looking for balance a good GM can do it, but if you're looking for balance out of the box, then forget. Personally I like that there are some start classes that can get nailed in their first combat. It's a brtual world and the base game really shows that.

That being said there are a few classes I wont' let people play at the start anymore.

Back onto the figures game, I'm not sure aobut the dmages or the hit points on this one. I did up a few of the classics and Megatron in Classics can annhilate Prime with one shot if he rolls right. If we were using D&D rules it'd make it even worse as Megs has a ranged damage of 1D6 x 8 (If I did the math right on the first example) which means if he does max damage on Prime he'd take Prime down to -32 hit points. :shock:

Granted you're more likely to get and average, but even then Prime is down for the count as an average would be about 16 - 25 damage or so which still kills Prime in one hit. Not sure if I'm goign to tweak the dmage output a bit or if the hit points just need bumped up a bit. I mean if I wanted ot play a REALLLY quick game I'd leave it as is, but I'd like it to last longer than 2 or 3 rounds. lol.

Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:12 pm

That's odd, my Classics Prime has 108 HP, and that's the deluxe with the crappy waist.
#-o

I meant to put size x (end + rnk) x10! sorry

On another note, I've played Rifts a few times in Nebraska, but I don't know if people play where I live now. I like D&D, and my friends here play Call of Cthulu. I also think White Wolf is fun, though I prefer werewolves to vampires.

News Credits: 42 · Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:14 pm

Dragonoth wrote:I prefer werewolves to vampires.

Mage>All

Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:19 pm

I never could get into White Wolf's stuff, a lot of it is too politics-based and I never did like multiple-success die mechanics. We always played a home-brewed game when we wanted to play in that genre.

Currently we've got D&D and Spycraft campaigns going strong. Can't wait to see 4e D&D.

Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:46 pm

Dragonoth wrote:That's odd, my Classics Prime has 108 HP, and that's the deluxe with the crappy waist.
I meant to put size x (end + rnk) x10! sorry

That fixes quite a bit right there. lol. Course now I have to go change all my playing cards.

What I'd ended up trying out was changing the damage bonus to be a plus instead of times so Megs long range attack was 1D6 + 8 so he'd deal a max of 14, which would have come very close to killing Prime in one hit, leaving the poor guy with only 2 HP left.

I think I like maxing up the hit points a bit better.

Mon Jan 14, 2008 10:57 pm

ashe5k wrote:
Dragonoth wrote:That's odd, my Classics Prime has 108 HP, and that's the deluxe with the crappy waist.
I meant to put size x (end + rnk) x10! sorry

That fixes quite a bit right there. lol. Course now I have to go change all my playing cards.

What I'd ended up trying out was changing the damage bonus to be a plus instead of times so Megs long range attack was 1D6 + 8 so he'd deal a max of 14, which would have come very close to killing Prime in one hit, leaving the poor guy with only 2 HP left.

I think I like maxing up the hit points a bit better.

It's calculated so that it should take 3 or 4 hits to take out an evenly matched opponent, on average. Sorry for the mistake before. It must have been like 007 with the "golden gun." A decimal error like that can get you 10¢ cheeseburgers at McDonalds!

Rat Convoy wrote:Currently we've got D&D and Spycraft campaigns going strong. Can't wait to see 4e D&D.

I'll try 4th ed when it comes out, as RPGA is switching to it. I'll buy only the PHB unless I really like it, though (too many 3e/3.5 books).

Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:02 pm

Psychout wrote:
Dragonoth wrote:I prefer werewolves to vampires.

Mage>All

Never got to try those. I think the system is good, simple enough but with options and flexibility. The first time I played was with my long-time friends in Lincoln, NE. Half the party was werewolves, the other half were reformed vampires. :-P

Haven't played much since then, as my friends in Iowa City prefer Call of Cthulu or D&D, but it's fun. (I get to play the Munchkin card game's version of Whitewolf, Munchkin Bites, sometimes.)

Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:49 am

Has anyone come up with any movement or initiative rules for this?

For initiatives I've just been using a d20 roll to see who goes first. I hadn'te really gotten around to speed and intelligence being a bonus to initiative yet, just using straight rolls.

For movement I've been toying (it's a play on words) with the idea of speed being the bulk of the rule for that. Basically if your bot or con has a speed of 6, you move 6 inches on the playing surface. If their in vehicle mode they move twice as fast, so a Speed 6 would get you 12 inches.

The other thing I was thinking of was range. Within an inch or so of the opponent and I'm thinking that's automatically Melee damage, but how far is too far out for range? Maybe rank and intelligence for this one? so if you had rank 6 and intelligence 9, you'd be able to fire on someone 15 inches out? Maybe double that.

Just a few thoughts to flesh it out if you're looking for that sort of thing. This would make it easier for two people playing though.

Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:27 pm

I didn't want to get into too many detais about movement, as I think miniatures games take too long. I allow a TF to move and attack, or transform and attack, or move and transform. I have movement before attack, but I only use a "reasonable" range of movement (more for jets than robots, for example) instead of calculating it.

Feel free to add any rules you like. This is just the bare-bones combat system designed to make the stats and allow dice rolls.

Also, a d20 for initiative is good. If you like, you could add a bonus based on the rank of each side's commander.

News Credits: 1 · Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:12 am

Wow! This takes me back almost 20 years ago. My dad, who'd dome some game design in the past (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chainmail_%28game%29), came up with a system using the tech specs for stats, dice for movement, and cotton balls for "ammo". I remember playing Powermaster Prime against Pounce and Wingspan. Took a while cause I couldn't hit the side of a barn.

I later tried to come up with something for Beast Wars that would take the Engeron fields into account, needing to make a saving throw to stay in robot mode. Sadly, I never did get to test it out.

BTW, if a company were to make an official rules system for Transformers I'd most likely be Wizards of the Coast as they're owned by Hasbro.

Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:23 am

Master Maximus wrote:Wow! This takes me back almost 20 years ago. My dad, who'd dome some game design in the past (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chainmail_%28game%29), came up with a system using the tech specs for stats, dice for movement, and cotton balls for "ammo". I remember playing Powermaster Prime against Pounce and Wingspan. Took a while cause I couldn't hit the side of a barn.

I later tried to come up with something for Beast Wars that would take the Engeron fields into account, needing to make a saving throw to stay in robot mode. Sadly, I never did get to test it out.

BTW, if a company were to make an official rules system for Transformers I'd most likely be Wizards of the Coast as they're owned by Hasbro.

Wizards is pretty much the only company that could do it. I doubt we'd see Hasbro farming it out via license when they have their own company for that sort of thing, and Transformers is one of their more popular brands.

Unfortunately, the chances of seeing one are miniscule. The RPG market is not terribly good. Heck, Wizards is having a hard enough time keeping the Star Wars RPG afloat, and that's a much bigger property than TFs.