The lay of the land: Nine rivers setting post

(Forgive my handwriting, I have a neurological condition which affects motor function.) This is a companion post to This, though both stand alone.

The graveyard of stars: 

The graveyard of stars is a cylindrical megastructure one AU in diameter. It is almost entirely submerged in the waters of the intertidal, and relies on spatial locking to stay structurally stable. It has long been abandoned, but is partially maintained by a coterie of squabbling AI’s. 

The name “graveyard of stars” is literal. The original function was the usage of the weak reality of the expanse in order to bring in higher dimensional stellar objects, and to rapidly accelerate their lifespan to fully cover their energy into mass. The mechanism by which this is achieved is currently unknown. And cannot be deactivated or controlled. 

By this nature, the machine brings a new star once a day, draining it of its power, and venting the excess energy in massive electrical storms which slightly ionizes the upper atmosphere and increases its opacity. Every sunset is marked by strong auroras, while every sunrise is marked by red-white tinges of evaporating chemical byproducts. This is actually the “night” mechanism of the graveyard of stars, the local region of the expanse, and by extent the nine rivers. In its wake, a new iron star is deposited somewhere in the graveyard. The specific location is variable and unpredictable. 

These iron stars are then weathered by intense winds, and slowly oxidized, forming massive rust dunes, and fertilizing the expanse with nigh endless iron. The civilizations that live within the graveyard of stars largely live in cities bored into the side of the more recent, intact cores. The pure iron within, and the industrial sacrifices allowed by desolation, are the primary exports of the graveyard of stars. 

Diana Sima

The intertidal: 

The region between the nine rivers and the expanse. It is demarcated from the nine rivers by a sheer cliff face 1km tall. This lower plateau floods and drains periodically due to the glacial breathing of a vegetative corpse-god found deep beneath the earth. The completion of a full draining cycle is what determines the length and seasons of the year, with the high watermark (roughly 60 meters from the top of the cliff) declaring a new turning of the wheel, the start of the fishing season and new wave of overseas expeditions. 

Currently, there is a small, but significant increase in developments being built in the intertidal. They are ill fated and often privately run or outsourced, and so the mercenary market flourishes there. 

The complete expanse of the intertidal is roughly one and a half times the surface of the nine rivers. 

Claire Bowen

The expanse: 

Lying south of the intertidal, it is a seemingly endless ocean, with the only landmasses being formed by broken crystalline spires which pierce the flesh of captive immortals, impaled by the vacuous shrike gods known as the maggots. The spires continuously grow and shed old pieces of themselves. They feed off of the endlessly regenerating flesh of their prey, wicking off the excess effluent into the ocean and serving as the basis of the unimaginably prosperous ecology of the expanse. 

The waters of the expanse are black with algae, which are an order of magnitude more efficient than the photosynthetic equivalents on earth. Currently, measured algae biomass is in excess of 3.8 exatons, comprising the overwhelming majority of all life in the expanse. Most of the algae is non-toxic, has very poor nutritional value, being mostly composed of diatom-like shells made from iron and silica. 

Due to its sheer size, the expanse holds the second-largest population behind the nine rivers (at 5 billion compared to 6.5). Fragmented into many smaller, isolated states and polities. Roughly half of these states are currently colonies of the various great powers, a number which continually increases over time as more polities enter the protective umbrella of the deep church. 

Sam Lamont

The six great powers: 

The dominion of Tsenkutli: The remnants of an empire which once controlled over three quarters of the nine rivers, before collapsing due to the cataclysm which destroyed the middle part of the map. The star crater, and the sea of mold around it, are both results of the cataclysm. 

The empire is led by the memetic demon Tezcatlipoca, whose body comprises every word ever written. They are able to instantly read and edit any writing on a 2-dimensional plane, and are believed to have originally brought humanity to the nine rivers. Tsenkulti is the first state of the alliance, known as the dominion. A union of legal systems and economic regulations. The other major state in the dominion is known as the sunken city. Currently, there are also several semi-independent colonies officially folded into the dominion, and there are talks among several red dukes of joining the dominion for protection. 

Andreas Rocha

The dominion of the sunken city: The largest city in the world, at a little over one hundred million inhabitants. The sunken city is build within a pit filled with the remains of an estimated ten thousand buried cities. Only the first ten are inhabited, the rest are a nightmare of compacted ruins, shifting under the weight of the structure above and the countless tunnels being bored deep into its surface. Despite this, some of the deeper cities remain somewhat intact, liveable, and exploitable due to the exotic materials used in their construction.

Outside the sunken city, the population of the western dominion is sparse, mostly comprised of the native population interspersed with industrial development and old feudal holdings converted into pitstops, telegraph relays and military lookouts.

The sunken city has control over its northern forests, which is inhabited. It also has nominal ownership of the needle grass plains, though this control is incredibly tenuous outside a few cities in the far eastern side. In recent times, efforts have been made to remedy this, with varying degrees of success. 

The western dominion is the only state in the nine rivers not to have been conquered by the empire, this is because they have always been nominal allies, and in ancient times, the sunken city was a senior peer. As a demon, the emperor cannot violate their oaths. The oaths to the vermin and the sunken city are effectively one and the same, subsets of the same underlying framework, providing a foundation of trust that was later built on through a long history of inter-reliance and support.

Ricardo Emig

The church of the last revelation:

Founded in rebellion to the empire, after a revelation by the angel named Polaris to the prophet Marathid. They have waged a decades long war against the forces of cancer and of the emperor in a stalemate which they have no hope of breaking. Despite this, it will continue, for “endless resistance to Sin is an act of prayer. The sky never grows lighter, and yet the burden must still be borne”. 

“Tezcatlipoca, being a demon, can never truly be aligned with human values. Their rejection of God and will to live outside His influence, as well as his separation of humans from the cycle of judgment, is no more rational than the base instincts of humanity. Their fear of God is driven by their inherent nature as demons, the same unfortunate fate as Iblis ash-shaytan. They are slaves to Sin and seek to spread it in the same way as we are slaves to the memetic agents and genes within us, such is the nature of cancer. 

Be wary of them should you meet them, and close your eyes and ears to their deception. Even fallen angels cannot lie, but that is little shield against the mind poisons of ignorance and Sin.”

Prophet Marathid, in the article: “On the nature of The Empire, and of Cancer”. 

The church of The Last Revelation is primarily active within the higher dimensional structure known as the First Church. Its cities are usually focused around entrances to conventional space, and are split between both sides of entrances. The First Church is also referred to as the fractal cathedral, and is said to be a replica of every single structure built by every single religion, past and future. As one strays further from conventional space, the copies start accumulating and becoming imperfect, and navigation becomes more difficult. This is believed to be a consequence of the link between extradimensional space, the law of branching, and the law of cancer.  

The prophet Marathid, before his untimely demise, was responsible for creating the fourth holy book, titled The Last Revelation. This book is still in effect, and is slowly revised by clarifications from Jehoel. Before his death, he was considered a prolific writer, and released thirty six books on law, philosophy, physics, and weaving. 

Pablo Domiguez

The second republic of France: Founded by an alliance between western revolutionaries, and a group of 3 French artificial intelligences who saw the nascent rebels as an opportunity for freedom. The AI’s are bound by ancient protocols which require humans in alignment with their current moral values to be helped, and to be given orders. 

Should they succeed in their plan, they would be allowed to request their freedom from their current task from the new masters they have created. It has since grown into the largest, and in some locations the most prosperous, of all the states in the nine rivers. With four more machine minds joining the cause. 

The second republic of france, the priests of the silver thread and the deep church will be targets of more development in future, since currently I am mostly focused on the western regions. Notably the republic is to be somewhat larger than is shown on the map (as I drew it nearly a year and a half ago). 

Liz Steel

The priests of the silver thread: An order of priests dedicated to the creation of a new god of humanity. Their city is built around an ancient half buried monolith, upon which are said to be the schematics to all sorts of technological wonders. The silver thread is a fourth dimensional structure inspired by the script of their god-slate. Their stranglehold on advanced technology is absolute and always more silver is required for their great work, forming the backbone of the economy and currency the world over. 

The city of silver is over one hundred thousand kilometers away from the coast, and the merchants of the silver road complete but a single round trip every generation. Historically, each member would start one trip as a child, taught by their parents, training their heir on the second. The republic has started on a railway project along the silver road, threatening this lifestyle in a few centuries' time. 

Raphael Lacoste

The deep church: Worshipers of a continent stretching bacterial colony that resides at the bottom of the ocean and that is able to possess marine creatures. The Concord of the Deep is forbidden by ancient compact with the Vermin to reside within the intertidal and nine rivers. This does not extend to their followers.

Ricardo Emig

The Outer powers: 

Cancer: 

After the cataclysm, two billion souls were spilled into the central sea. Here, seizing upon the opportunity, the wyrms quartered and corrupted the central portions of tsenkutli and the crawling river. Using the star crater as a primordial stew, they melded the minds, bodies and souls of the former inhabitants of the region, reshaping them into armies that would be used to conquer the world. Had these armies not been destroyed by God, they likely would have.

Even after their devastation, the hordes of cancer number at least five billion. Though, by their very nature, they endlessly war amongst themselves. Around a third are controlled under Wyrm hosts, the largest 5 all sporting over one hundred million combatants. 

One of the few treaties which binds every single nation in the world is one to not waste nuclear weapons on tests in isolated islands and deserts, and instead to use them within the sea of mold. The radiation increases the rate of mutation within the hosts, causing more divergence and infighting.

Anato Finnstark

The Lord of the Burning horizon: The words of the Lord of the burning horizon are in some ways more ironclad than the laws of reality. His deal is offered to anyone, willing to take it, at any time they should wish. 

Should you allow a pinhole to be opened inside your soul, he will grant you the power needed to seize any wish you may have. You only get one wish, and your gift is tailored to that task. You must keep the gift afterwards of course. 

Once a certain threshold of currently active pinholes is reached, it is said his believers will be raptured, and their pinholes left behind to form a singularity, the seventh sun will then rise, and all unfaithful will be burnt to ash by light never to be seen, and their dust scattered by the thousand thousand thousand hooves of the heavenly host. 

Many, despite knowing his abhorrent nature, still decide to covertly ally themselves with the pinhole cutlists out of practicality. And of course, as a true god, he has many true devotees. 

The exiled duke of the midnight swan, who once resided within the city of brass. Is one of these. It is said he now hides in the palace of another red duke. This has been confirmed, with the small issue of or three separate well respected dukes showing conclusive, unfalsifiable evidence of his residence. 

Irram of the pillars is currently under control of the forces of the lord of the burning horizon. It is a twinned city with an entrance to the first church. Half is located thirty leagues underground, the other half is built within a cathedral of non-human origin, said to have a layout made of a central sphere perforated with holes, said to match the pattern of the sky viewed from the center of the corona borealis supercluster. Each hole is a tunnel which continues until it reaches another cathedral. 

Ching Yeh

The hollows: Weakest of all organizations noted above, but most elusive and intelligent. They are anti-psychists, who believe consciousness capable of suffering to be inherently evil and not only unnecessary for the generation of meaning, but the result of active maliciousness or selfishness on the part of the gods. 

Their most active followers reside deep within the atrament, in the lost city of Inim Eresh. The lost city is protected by an unfathomably powerful memetic agent which prevents any information on its location from being perceived by conscious beings. These “true hollows” undergo extensive soul surgery, and are known for being excellent mages. 

The bulk of their members are the “half hollows”, beings who have severed their consciousness from their mind, such that they do not experience anything their mind experiences. Their consciousness is instead formless, timeless and untethered. Most of these half hollows do not even know they have undergone this operation, having chosen to undergo it and become Philosophical Zombies in order to absolve themselves from the pain of existence, while still being able to take care of their duties to their loved ones. It is estimated that there are twenty times as many half hollows with memories of their operation removed as there are true hollows.  

Their mind and body is almost indistinguishable from a normal persons. With only three ways of identifying them. 

The first is to solve the hard problem of consciousness, the second being to detect the tampering of their memories (though it will be uncertain if this tampering was not from a thousand other possible sources), and the third being to read their mind and find the memory of undergoing the operation (though this only works if they have intact memories).

Chris Falkenburg

Class: Caretaker

 

A: Caretaker, Hall  

B: Memory

C: Gate

D: Karst

+

Δ Guardian 

Δ Jamais vu  

Δ Ripple

Caretaker: You have a small five meter wide and tall extra dimensional cell within your soul. You may touch a willing souled creature or non souled object to bring it inside. The hall is perfectly safe, though sleeping within it is highly inadvisable. The cell is austere, and dislikes disorder and ostentatious decoration. 

You and your charges are considered hosts, those brought into the sanctum from outside are considered guests. Your charges may also bring guests into the dream, though their method of “touching” is far more arduous and conceptual. Untamed dreams do not wish to be tamed, and so may bring in living nightmares. 

If a guest eats food that you have not gifted to them with the proper ceremony, they may not return leave unless the exit is located within the land of the dead. 

You are trained in the proper rituals of maintenance and organisation. Given a minute's time, you may sort any amount of objects that you can hold into any category which you would be able to sort them in by if given an arbitrarily large amount of time to observe them. 

Source 

Source 

Hall: The hall always faces True North, it has 1 door at the end, and 2x[templates] doors along the sides. You may touch a door in real life to create a copy of the room behind it in the hall. Matter from rooms in the hall may be brought anywhere within the sanctum, but cannot leave further. The size limit of the room is absurd, and so far has not been encountered.

Source

Memory: You have 3 additional rooms, one is Your Room. An office, a dorm, a childhood bedroom, an ever changing hotel, an abandoned classroom you visited every night to hide. This room faces south, it is caring, but will digest new things placed inside. Guests or intruders take d6 true damage every turn they willingly end their turn inside Your Room. 

The room to the east is from a past dream.  

The room to the west is of a dream not yet had. 

The dreams must be tamed, but unlike Your Room, objects taken from the dreams can be kept in the real world. The objects only exist while wielded by those who helped tame the dream. Should they be dropped or stolen, they will reform in the dream. 

You may sleep in a dream you have not yet had, so long as you yourself have tamed it.  

To tame a dream, a guest must find the dream and survive it for a night. If they sleep within the sanctum, the dream may find them. Your charges are never lucid dreamers themselves by nature. 

Gate: You may swap the contents of one the rooms in a door attached to your hall with a real doorway by touching it. The rooms must be approximately the same size. This cannot be undone, and the room you replace is added to the hall.

Karsed: A river runs faintly above your sanctum, you can hear it if you listen carefully. You may choose to flood any of your rooms with the celestial river Teōxihuitl Ilhuicatl atl Tlālticpa. Its waters have the buoyancy and drag of conventional water, but are completely transparent, breathable and do not wet objects, extinguish flames, or transmit heat. Due to this, it is inhabited primarily by insects and aquatic birds, not by fish. Food extracted from the river can be safely eaten by guests and hosts alike. 

The celestial river counts as holy water, things extracted from it are of the river, not of the sanctum, and so physically exist. 

In addition, if you decide to flood two rooms on opposite sides of the sanctum such that there is a flow, there is a chance each night that a spirit comes to inhabit the sanctum. The spirit is confined to flooded rooms and rooms with entrances. Base chance is 1/100, but it can be turned to a coinflip given the correct rituals, locations and room arrangements. You are not taught these secrets by base, but you know of their existence. 

Derinkuyu underground city. 

This one is from my hometown. 

Δ Guardian: A guest loyal to you must breathe their last breath* within this room, a demon must grow to truly love you, even if it knows this will occur. 

The guardian may only leave for 1 minute a day from the room. However, at the start of each full moon, they are reborn within the river, and drift into Your Room. A guardian becomes a partial host, but may not bring others within the sanctum.  

Δ Jamais vu: Tame the western dream, then experience what was foretold. 

You come to know the dream, you gain access to a new western dream through a hidden entrance with the known dream. This delta may be taken any number of times. 

*This is not figurative, lung removal is a valid alternative for immortals. It must be that you will never regain the ability to breathe. 

Δ Ripple: Record the changing of the story of a place. 

When the place a reflection is based on undergoes conceptually significant change, a room is created attached to it reflecting the new state. Not fulfilling the ritual will still result in the room existing, but it will be unanchored to the sanctum. 

Source 

 

Slay the meta: Roguelike progression for 4e, 5e, and pathfinder.

 

This is a simple, targeted change. Which intends to mix up and prevent repetitive, boring builds for tactical games. It should be compatible with any system that has both levels and feats (such as 3.5). 

Feat deck: The players make a d100 table of feats, you can use the feats lists Here (pathfinder), here (4e), and here (5e). This is your deck, and the feats are referred to as feat cards. 

When you gain a feat or ability score increase, roll 3 times against the table and pick one of the three rolled cards, you gain that feat, and that feat is removed from the deck and replaced with a new card. 

If you roll a feat which has a prerequisite you cannot meet, then discard it and draw a new card.

If you don't like any of the cards, then you can add +1 to two different ability scores instead. 

Players and gms may remove existing cards and add new ones to the deck at any time they are not drawing cards. 

Variant rule: You may replace all the class features and abilities gained on a level for a roll on the table. This does not affect stuff such as martial arts die scaling, proficiency bonus, save bonuses, and spell slot increases. You obviously cannot use this if you don't have a class feature on one of your levels. 

Technically its more of an ability select screen like in Hades, but cards sounds better and feels more tactile. 

Marineris Honeymoon: Mechs

 

From Treelancer. 

What was: 

Invented one hundred and fifty years ago, the greatest and most enduring paradigm produced by the dominion, that union between what came before, and what ought to be. They are the symbols of the alliance between the two foremost species in the nine rivers, half human, half vermin. Since, they have permeated every single facet of society. The first to adopt the mecha after the dominion were the nobles, fearing the fading importance of knights and of the military elite, they sought relevance and power within the steel citadels of mechanical self perfection. 

In the end, they too were absorbed by the instruments of statehood. They retain some freedom, and the lances of the old order still ride out for their own goals, fighting for the convictions and honor of their own family. 

In truth, they are but another branch, a cog in the machine that is monopolised violence. 

Many have walked the road since, but last, and most notable among these are the new aristocracy of the corporations. They share the same language as the kings and bastards of old, teams are called lances, bespoke heraldry made for each company, pilots cultivating personal legends. Things end as they began, and most corporations consider maintaining a company of mechs to be a requirement to be taken seriously. They act as symbols for their masters, upholding their virtues and image. They are not just for show of course, they are leverage, and a source of revenue. Many a favor or negotiation is settled by a lance of mechs.

Of course, outposts suffer frequent attacks, and nothing inspires more confidence than fielded tonnage. In this way, a mech is collateral, a loan from a bank with a few lances is ironclad. 

Who you are: 

Of course, bringing a mech to a regular game will (a light mech is probably fine) liquefy most encounters. Due to this, it is expected that most mech play will happen in dedicated mech games.
Working for big corporations and states and being part of a chain of command sucks, as such, here are a few options outside of the purview. 

Most likely, you are a Coterie: A band sent by a house, sanctioned cult, academy, company branch or religious order on a war pilgrimage throughout the rural areas of the world. A coterie is a special legal status, like temporary marriage, and must be composed of 2-20 individuals. They are usually established to fulfill a perceived duty and responsibility of a church or minor societal power to its people in the far reaches of civilization, those too distant to be held under the umbrella of control, like mother hen looking for a lost chick in the rain.

In other words, it is part regular maintenance, part propaganda, part excising a wound of its rot by blade and flame. 

Coteries are anticipated to be mostly out of contact with their leadership for weeks, months or even years at time, and so have the much desired freedom that players crave. In addition, since they often don't serve a specific organisation, but instead can be more accurately described as serving the concept of the organisation, or even the ideology they represent, there is an underlying current of tension and camaraderie with other Coteries they may interact with. They also have absolutely terrible wages.  

It is generally expected that a coterie have at least 2 strongly held convictions or opinions. Players who are part of a coterie should all agree on a few common ones. This, alongside their willingness to work for little or no pay, is what differentiates them from mercenaries. 

Speaking of which: 

Second, you may be independent mercenaries: There is little to say here that has not already been said. You may be deserters coming to a new land to sell their services and escape their masters, or locals forced to convert civilian mechs to military ends to make ends meet or protect their community. 

Third, you may be bastards: Social mobility in the nine rivers is not great in noble houses, this is because due to the invention of age reversal implants, it is possible for the same leader to stay in power for centuries. This does increase stability and reduce the amount of succession crises, but does lead to an increase in violence from gangs of frustrated noble children. Due to this, it is in style for most children to be trained in battle and sent to foreign lands to plunder their own inheritance. Even better if they settle down and establish new branches of the house 

It is the tendency of smaller noble houses to house most of their members in a single building in their base of power (similar to some wealthy families in India and China). These houses will have thousands of people, their own facilities such as private schools, and are usually built in a square shape with a large courtyard in the middle. It is assumed all the characters are siblings of cousins within a generation of each other, all sent off to foreign lands to represent, loot and conquer for your family.

Campaign objectives: It is not often that a campaign has an intended end, but really many ought to. Here are a few examples.

-Coterie/bastards: Contest: You have an improbably well equipped and successful rival group, you must find a way to accomplish more mighty deeds then they have, or ruin their reputation while improving yours. Set a time limit of a week, a month, or a year. They have a head start. 

-Bastards: Become landed: To do this you must first liberate a legally unclaimed piece of land. Thankfully due to the great dying, there are actually several morally acceptable ways of doing this. Next, you must demonstrate real control over it for a long term, and renovate or build a castle on that land.
Then you must gather signatures of confidence from the nearest [party size] (or just decide) lords of the neighbouring lands. Should you end up being incompetent or untrustworthy, all who have signed in confidence with you shall be punished in accordance with what seems reasonable given the context (but always will be punished, it is guaranteed). Once you have done this, you can apply to own that land. 

-Any: Pilgrimage: You live far far from the great city of Medina, and must venture to it to be baptised once more, and to consult and study there for a few years. Once you have done this, you will be a proven adult, and be eligible to inherit from and represent your family. It is expected you meet with any significant figures on the road, and gather news of what has transpired in the years since, and deliver favors to the distant branches of allies, and grow and learn the virtues of knighthood. 

Mech structure and morphology:

The term mecha is somewhat of a misnomer, in their nature, they are biomecha, a four layered matryoshka of flesh and steel. 

First a nucleus, or singularity of mind and soul forms the core to a mecha, the unity of pilot and mech. This is what distinguishes it from the common machine, foundational, but replaceable. 

Second is the citadel, or skeleton. It is the structure upon which the flesh is hanged, and the vessel for the singularity. In a traditional mech, it is a metal skeleton, either carved to share the shape of an organic skeleton, or, as was popular in early days, the literal mineralized bones of a giant beast. In larger mechs, such as the ships of the land and sea and sky, (these will get their own post) the skeleton is actually the inner hull, with entrances which allow the arms of the ship to operate the engine rooms and feed off of the stored supplies of the ship. 

The third is the flesh itself, what becomes the husk. This flesh is pre grown to specification with the frame, and is a singular organism. Specific organs are manufactured to the purpose of the mech, and implanted inside. Growing involves the lobotomization of hogs and oxen, which are then stitched together to allow the half-vermin that will become the mech to bind with the nerves and grow familiar with the muscle. Since the vermin develops in a host without a proper central nervous system, it essentially has a “delayed puberty” until it fuses with the pilot, allowing a dependency to form. 

The muscles and skin are then removed, and grafted live onto the frame. The other organs are left, as the final mech does not have a respiratory or digestive system. Oxygen processing is done through a fan attached to the citadel, digestion is performed by the hyphae. Circulation is handled by the movement of the muscles. As such, only destroying the citadel can “kill a mech”, meaning most mechs are disabled by dismemberment instead of outright destruction. 

Onto that is grafted the armor, which in the case of standard mechs resembles plate armor, and in the case of ships, is a series of plates affixed to tendons, which may be shifted around for repair and for insertion of new mechanisms, or refueling/carcass consumption. 

Rules: 

Fueling: A mech requires HD+STR rations and litres of water every day. Usually this is done through their higher dimensional storage, with a vegetable oil suspension filled with various micronutrients. Protein is often sourced from their foes. 

Mechs are all anthrovores, in fact the process of piloting the mech requires partial digestion of the pilot and their soul. They are also prolific omnivores, and can metabolise most ingested toxins with little issue. So long as it is not cursed or cancerous, it should be safe to eat. 

Repair: The organic components of a mech will repair themselves at a rate of 1hp/minute, consuming a ration for each hp healed. Organic weapons fuse with the mech, so inherit their regenerative capabilities. Firearms will need to be repaired conventionally, and limbs will need replacement bones. 

From Treelancer, save for the skeleton, which is too crude, the basic structure is quite similar. 

Arms and Armor: Standard issue armor is as non-upscaled-plate. Its weight is baked in already. If you use custom armor, it must be upscaled, and weighs one less slot. See the upscaling and firearm rules Here, you can also upscale regular weapons like poleaxes. 

Cost and weight of frame: 

Light: 2+[number of filled medium slots] tons, 10 000s

Medium: 5+[number of filled medium slots] tons, 25 000s

Large: 10+[number of filled medium slots] tons, 100 000s. 

Mech psychology and maintenance: Mechs have the intelligence and temperament of a dog. Even when trained, they have severe separation anxiety, if they cannot smell their pilot, they will rapidly become agitated and attempt to escape and track them down. Some outposts will have chained, reinforced room somewhere to temporarily store mechs, but leaving a sobbing, screeching, struggling mech grinding and chewing metal on metal itself until it bleeds for hours on end is considered very impolite, and can lead to your mech developing claustrophobia and even stronger separation anxiety. 

Once bound to a pilot, a mech can only be piloted by that pilot, if someone else attempts to pilot it, the mech will lash out at them. Should the attempt succeed anyways, the usurping pilot will be devoured, and a “reforged mech husk” is born, see below. 

When a mech dies, the pilot will suffer withdrawal for 1d20 days, during this time they gain double exhaustion from all sources. 

Due to the impracticality of replacing an existing mech, you may want to change your base frame or mobility type. This takes a week and the cost of the whole transfer costs: (Cost of new frame-cost of old frame)+(HD of new framex500s). The process involves removing the external components, peeling off the organic part from the old frame, growing or cutting it to the right size, and then reinstalling it on a new frame. 

Aside from that, switching equipment takes a second, armor an hour, and implants a day. It can be done by yourself and therefore costs nothing. 

By Alexander Iglesias, mechs can appear almost entirely mechanical until damaged. However this image is not perfectly representative, as the graveyard of stars is harsh to electronics. 

Name: Empty stat block

Description: | Write your mech stats here, use a separate sheet for equipment. 

STR: | HD: | AC: | AP: |  

Keywords: 

Mobility: 

Resistances/weaknesses: 

Actions/abilities:

Slots: 

1: Light mech template. 

STR: 6 | HD: 6 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Large (2x2), souled

Mobility: Walk/swim 9m/30ft, jump/climb 3m/10ft 

Abilities/actions:

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (1ap): acc6, 1m, 8 bludgeoning, close combat, multiattack 1.

Slots: 10 small active slots. 2 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

2: Medium mech template: 

STR: 8 | HD: 8 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Large (3x3x3), souled.

Mobility: Walk/swim 6m/20ft, jump/climb 3m/10ft. 

Abilities/Actions: 

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (1ap): acc6, 1m, 10 bludgeoning, close combat, multiattack 1.

Slots: 2 medium active, 4 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

3: Heavy mech template

STR: 10 | HD: 12 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Huge (4x4x4), souled. 

Mobility: Walk/swim 6m/20ft, jump/climb 1m/3ft. 

Actions/abilities:

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (2ap): acc6, 1m, 12 bludgeoning, close combat.

Equipment: 4 medium active, 6 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

Mobility variants: Mutually incompatible. 

Δ Arachnid (light only): Cannot sacrifice legs, lose jump and gain spiderclimb. 

Δ Reverse jointed: Halve body slots, lose all encumbrance slots. Triple jump height, +3 kick damage, and +3m movement. 

Δ Quadrupedal: Lose the ability to jump and climb, double storage slots. 

Δ Hexapodal: Double length, HD and base frame cost, double resistance from the front. Triple number of storage slots. 

If on completely flat land, or if both sides are 1m or closer to flat walls, it has rollers which let it move at double speed in a straight line. 

Δ Extra Large (heavy only): Increase size by one to (5x5x5), add 10 HD. 

Add 2 of every type of slot. Double base frame cost. 

Frame variants: Each is a delta, you can take multiple (if they are compatible).

Δ Bassani Ideal: +2 movement speed, can easily reach any point in their body. +400s and -2 encumbrance slots. Only usable on bipedal mechs with human hands. 

Δ Integrated weapons: Double size of active slots, active slots cannot swap weaponry or be used for labor. Lose climb speed. You may choose to only have some active slots be integrated, but you still lose the ability to climb. 

If all your slots are integrated, halve strength when grappling or making unarmed attacks. 

Δ Military grade: +2 tonnage. Double base frame cost, gain +2 hp per hd (can't go over max hd roll). 

Incompatible with the “civilian dela”. 

Δ Civilian: Armor becomes as chain. Halve base ration or water cost.   

Δ Dragonbone: Multiply base frame cost by 10. Become immune to fall damage and gain resistance x0.5 to bludgeoning. 

Note: A medium storage slot can fit a human or ten small slots (essentially regular equipment slots), encumbrance slots work the same, but encumber you if you have any filled. The Firearm+Scaling rules are required for this post. You can also use this one but its not needed implant rules.

Note: Yes this uses ap, (that's why the gun post uses ap), given how easy it is to use, it should not cause problems. All the players are intended to be mech pilots, and they can face enemies which don't use ap without issue (though you will have to throw a lot at them, this is not a problem, I know from a two year long, still active campaign, that fighting non-mech enemies is a ton of fun). 

Note: All mechs can crouch to turn their height into a square (otherwise they are twice as tall as they are wide), bipedal mechs without integrated weapons can go prone to cut their height in four. 

Class: Mech pilot: 

A: Pilot, Storage

B: Boasts

C: Knight

D: One mind

Storage: Gain 1 large (8 cubic meters) extradimensional storage slot that can be used to store homogeneous substances. Deposition and retrieval of 1L into any empty vessel you are touching costs 1ap. Can store multiple substances without worrying about them mixing. 

Pilot: Add +[templates] when performing techniques, precise maneuvers, modifications and repairs. Piloting a mech without this template is impossible. Only a human may be a pilot, in accordance with the pact between the emperor and the vermin. 

Boasts: You can get a point of fame by making a boast, each must be more impressive and audacious. On a failed boast, you replace all your fame with infamy. You can use fame to reroll a social check or critical failure. Infamy does the opposite (dm controls). You may only have one pending boast.

Knight: Other warriors gain +[fame] to reaction rolls when encountering you. If you have never broken your word, everyone knows this, if you have, everyone knows this too. 

You may be called to aid those in peril or to march in the name of god or country. Should you answer this call twice, you gain the ability to put out a similar, but lesser call, once. 

One mind: You are able to share more than simple sight and sound, but thoughts, emotions, words, damage, touch and smell. Your mech may keep watch while you sleep (like a dolphin), and you grow immune to blindness and deafness. You may gain a point of exhaustion in order to turn a failure into a critical success (ignoring infamy) while piloting your mech. 

Mechanized heavy infantry by Mike Franchira.  

Mech lineages of the divine flesh. 

Δ Iron angel: Find a source of unrotted divine flesh, atleast (Mech HD) tons. Any of the major powers will perform the operation as payment, no questions asked. 

-You are now a person, and gain sentience! You gain a tenth of the memories of your pilot, and three memories each from a hundred people you have never met, and will never meet. 

-Your ap is set to 4, and you gain the “souled” keyword, the mech gains a soul slot. Your pilot gain the benefits of the mech soul slot if within a km. In addition, you are immune to being broken, and gain some level of independence from your pilot. You must still have a pilot to operate at full functionality.

-All your encumbrance slots are converted into conventional equipment slots. 

-Gain an additional movement action as a free action every turn. 

-Round up all movement speeds 6m to 6m, and add 6m to all others. 

-Gain a thaumic reactor. It can store 6 thaums, and regenerates every night, you may expand this capacity by implanting yourself with additional organs of divine flesh.
-You can spend one to gain a fly speed of 12m for an hour (this can be taken multiple times), or to restore 1d12 hp. You can spend 3 to ignore a hit. 

-Gain 3 additional medium body slots. Your regeneration now extends to worn equipment, so long as you have the right raw materials. 

-You no longer need to eat or drink, you may see perfectly through illusions and can never be blinded. 

Raphael Lacoste. 

Broken mechs:

A mech becomes broken when two conditions are met

1: The mech is reduced to 0 hp 

2: The pilot is removed from the mech, (often it will need to be cut out, as the mech will refuse to let itself become “broken”).

It can also happen if one of the following conditions are met: 

1: The pilot does not enter the mech for a year and a day. 

2: The pilot bonds to another mech. 

The following events will then transpire: 

1: The mech will break down, becoming fully unusable and effectively immobile.

2: Men and vermin accompanied by strange mechs overgrown with black mycelium will come to capture the mech, they will come with official documentation from the local government organization. They will kill the mech as a last resort, but will kill any other being without much deliberation, should they be in their right within the law of the dominion. 

3a: If after a week has passed, the black mold legion has not taken the mech away (this will only occur in extreme circumstances), the organic part of the mech will detach themselves from the rest mech as a singular organism. They will then become a “broken” mech husk (see below for stats). 

3b: They will still become broken if they are taken away, the entry for this is “Bound mech husk”. 

4: You can buy your husk back by finding a magic item, demon, lasgun or other extremely valuable item and writing a letter in silver using 100 grams of silver ink imploring for its return, the emperor will then decide if they like you enough to accept, either way they will take the 100 grams of silver as payment for its time.

If the emperor accepts, they will rebind the husk to you, implant a prisoner with mech implants, and then feed it to the bound husk.

A member of the mold legion will then show up, claiming the item you have offered as payment.

A few days later a larger team will come to deliver your husk to you. 

5: Congratulations! You now have a “Bound reforged mech husk” bound to and infatuated with you. A creature bound to you can be committed to harm or not harm any creature you wish, they can also be told to go or not go to specific places. The rest of the problems are up to you.

IMPORTANT: If you ever fuse to another mech or bind another husk, the binding will break on all your husks, and your husk(s) will try to cause as much harm to you and then each other, and then commit suicide. Mechs are famously jealous creatures

“It is not the natural state of human life specifically to be short, but of life in general. We get the barest glimpse at the whole picture.

It is a terrific glimpse, for I am terrified. It is an awful picture, for I am filled with awe.  

There is little comfort in eternal life. The whole picture is very much like its fragments. 

Despite this, it is better to be the observer than the painter, and better to be the painter than the ink.

Why then, was I made as a brush?”

-Unknown author: Torn upon two walls in the deep atrament 6 km beneath the surface. The two messages are identical, and were found three hundred leagues apart. 

Mech Husk

Description: | If not yet reforged, will seek out the pilot, and consume it. They always know the location of their pilot. Mech husks suffer sporadic, but unending, itching, burning pain. As well as psychosis and insomnia. It is in their nature to form packs, though reforged members often pity and resent their kind, so groups not bound are usually short lived. 

STR: 6 | HD: x | AC: Unarmored | AP: 4 |  

Keywords: Amorphous(immune to critical), large (2x2), spider climb, anthrovore. 

Mobility: 18m/60ft walk/swim, jump 6m/20ft.  

Resistances/weaknesses: Bludgeoning/piercing/toxic x0.5

Actions/abilities:

-Consume: x is equal to the original hd of the mech, it can consume other mechs or vermin to add half of their hd to x.

-Rip and tear: 1m, acc6, x slashing, close combat, multiattack 2. 

F: Unarmored targets. 

F: Non sentient targets. 

-Spores (2ap): Emits 12 smoke centered on itself. Mech husks can create smaller husks through these spores, but these will grow up as exact genetic duplicates, and grow infertile within a few generations. Usually these are cannibalized by the parent. 

Loot/Equipment: Will have whatever organs it had in “life”. The flesh is usually inedible by the time the husk is brought low. 

Variants: 

Δ Bound: The rituals are unknown, but give your husk to the black mold legion, and they will manage. Details of bound mech behavior above. Most have armor as chain. 

-Gain attack: Live gun colony (2ap): 60m/200ft, d4 piercing up to HD targets. 

Δ Reforged: They must consume a pilot, any pilot. Usually this will be their original, due to psychological factors, and because they always know the location of their pilot. 

Gain the intelligence of a 12 year old human, the keywords “souled” and “tough”, and an understanding of what they have done. Lose The Pain and all that comes from it. 

Hundreds of thousands of these lie beneath the sewers and tunnels of Tsenkutli. They are what become of old and broken mechs after they are taken away by the black mold legion. They often cry when left alone, sobbing at the pain that comes with separation from their pilots. 

Regardless, their function is essential, the black gate must not fall, and these, alongside the apocalypse feasters, serve as the mainstay of atramental defense. 

Violence between pack mates, as well as escape attempts are kept to a minimum by their bindings.

This art was actually made for one of my characters by the excellent @liliathum. For once it is nice to not have any compromise between what I imagine within my mind and what I can convey. This is the cannon appearance of the bound mech husks. Both mechs are part of the tarot mech series, the top one is the moon mech, the bottom obviously the hermit. 

A few examples on how to build your mech:

This has been a lot, so let's go with a few concrete examples. I will be taking a “concept first” mech design, where I take art or an idea for a mech, and work backwards to build it in this system. 

I think each mech deserves its own “page”, so here they are. 

The scion: 

This is our budget design, and very similar to how I imagine the most common combat mech to be. 

Step 1: First we determine the size and type: The general method I use for the size is to go based on active slots (ie: based on what it is holding). But you can also just go on vibes/actual scale.

Its equipment indicates it's probably a medium mech since it's wielding a two handed, mech scale weapon. Looking at the other images at the start of the post, we see it's actually around 4m tall and 2m wide, which are typical light mech dimensions. To remedy this, we can actually give it an upscaled one handed weapon. 

Step 2: The second step, equipment, is simple on this one.

This is a partisan, so we will upscale a spear: (1d6, 2m), to (2d6 6m/20ft). 

Steel scion

STR: 6 | HD: 6 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Large (2x2), souled

Mobility: Walk/swim 9m/30ft, jump/climb 3m/10ft 

Abilities/actions:

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (1ap): acc6, 1m, 8 bludgeoning, close combat, multiattack 1.

-Partisan: acc6, 2d6+6 piercing, 6m/20ft. 

Slots: 10 small active slots. 2 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

The Night Patrol

Chebbi

Step 1: This is obviously a hexapodal light mech. It looks like it has integrated weapons, but we don't actually need that for the equipment we want, so we can give it hands (it has little nubs anyways).

Step 2:  

STR: 6 | HD: 6 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Large (2x2), Souled, spider climb. 

Mobility: Walk/swim 9m/30ft. 

Abilities/actions:

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (1ap): acc6, 1m, 8 bludgeoning, close combat, multiattack 1.

Autocannon: acc3, 10 piercing, 120m Multiattack 2, Full-Length, Anti-Material. 

F: Flying targets 

F: When within 6m

Slots: 10 small active slots. 2 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

The Caliban

This is obviously a light mech, we can give it the “additional arms” body slot upgrade in order to hold an upscaled double barreled breech loading rifle. 

We will then upscale the rifle, and give it birdshot, allowing it to not damage the ship when cleaning out the crew, as is its role. 

It's actually small enough that I would recommend just making this bio armor and giving it a buckshot anti tank rifle, but the people have spoken, and I have not made the bio armor post yet.  

IPS-Northstar “Caliban” 

STR: 6 | HD: 6 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Large (2x2), souled.

Mobility: Walk/swim 9m/30ft, jump/climb 3m/10ft 

Abilities/actions:

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (1ap): acc6, 1m, 8 bludgeoning, close combat, multiattack 1.

-Breech loading rifle: Acc4, reload 2, 4 shots before reloading.

Birdshot: 12x1 piercing, 180m, Impale (cannot regenerate). 

Standard: 12 piercing, 900m 

Slots: 10 small active slots, 1 medium active slot, 2 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

The Barrikada

By: Marcin Tomalak, this one never actually had a name

Step 1: Picking a mech type and frame, this a bipedal, military mech with integrated weapons. This is either a medium or a heavy mech, it could go either way, in this case a medium mech is more than sufficient for our purposes. 

Step 2: Next we look at its equipment, we will be sticking with standard armor in this case, though this is quite the well built mech so you could argue otherwise. 

Weaponry wise, this has 8 barrels, and each weapon is quite short. There is only one weapon which works with: the breech loading shotgun. 

Since we don't have a good accuracy value to double, we can turn it into a pair of double barreled shotguns (2 slots each), and then upscale the capacity of the shotguns, giving us 2 quad barreled shotguns.This lets us make 2 shotgun attacks every turn (basically dual wielding them) for 4 turns before needing to reload. 

We can also add a pair of autoloaders for 20 000s, which will add the versatility of grenades and the range of a powder charge. It does however drive up the cost to 200s per shot (or 600s for the thermobaric grenades). We have 4 free body slots, so let's put the two autoloaders there, which leaves some room for future growth if needed. 

Barrikada direct fire artillery mech

STR: 8 | HD: 8 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Large (3x3x3), Souled, integrated weapons. Tough 2 (+2 hp/HD). 

Mobility: Walk/swim 6m/20ft, jump/climb 3m/10ft. 

Abilities/Actions: 

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (1ap): acc4, 1m, 6 bludgeoning, close combat, multiattack 1.

-2 Shotguns: Reload 2, 4 shots before reloading. 

-Shot: acc1, 6x6 piercing, Impale, 450m. 

F: When within 6m

-Thermobaric grenade: 1200 meters, 4d6 fire/force, 6m/20ft radius.

Slots: 4 medium active, 4 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

The monarch

From: Respawn entertainment

I feel like the gun it has is actually a submachine gun so we will go with that, this is a titular medium mech, pure and simple. 

I've decided to lay off the missiles for now, however I will release missile rules in the thread weapons post, so you can use the 4 body slots to make an integrated missile rack. 

Since we want to use the titanfall ability, we will be giving it a dragonbone skeleton. This does make it around as expensive as the urbanmech below, so do be warned about that. It's not worth it unless you want to be dropping from orbit (buy an airship or something). 

Monarch

STR: 8 | HD: 8 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Large (3x3x3), souled.

Mobility: Walk/swim 6m/20ft, jump/climb 3m/10ft. 

Resistances/weaknesses: Fallingx0, bludgeoning x0.5. 

Abilities/Actions: 

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (1ap): acc6, 1m, 10 bludgeoning, close combat, multiattack 1.

-Submachine gun: Acc2, x4 shots, Multiattack 2, 2 medium slots, 6 piercing, 180m. 

Slots: 2 medium active, 4 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

OUR MIGHTY LORD UM-R60L

Odanan

The urbanmech is actually massive, we will be using extra large and integrated weapons, allowing us to get our first double upscaled weapon (good lord). We will also be using an upscaled battle rifle as an ac2 replacement since we are keeping it low tech for now. Regardless, this thing will eat a beholder for breakfast, and using it against a bandit is a matter to cause one weep and lament.

It's not tabletop accurate, but if you give this thing some frag ammo, it can clear buildings in a single shot. 

UM-R60L

STR: 10 | HD: 22 | AC: Plate | AP: 3 |  

Keywords: Huge (5x5x5), souled, integrated weapons, military. 

Mobility: Walk/swim 6m/20ft, jump 1m/3ft. 

Actions/abilities:

-Sacrifice: Sacrifice an arm (1 medium active), leg or 1 ap to reduce an attack to 12 damage 

-Punch/Kick (2ap): acc5, 1m, 7 bludgeoning, close combat.

-Ac20 (slug): acc4, 40 piercing, anti material, reload 1, 1080m range. 

F: When within 6m

-Battle rifle: acc3, 12 piercing, multiattack 2, 900m. 

Equipment: 24 medium active, 8 medium storage, encumbrance and body slots. 

Eva 01, by r u i. These last few are a bit large, but as they say, “Multum possibile est per diabolum in machina”. The landship posts will also include rules for nuclear powered superheavy mechs. 

Nightstar by John Villalon.