HORSETRON: Defender of Equestria [OOC]

This popped in my head out of nowhere but I knew I absolutely had to run it.  While Voltron is the most obvious inspiration for this due to having the most experience with it and the US form of Power Rangers, any combination of giant robots and super sentai may possibly be in play.  With ponies.  This is a campaign that may sometimes come off campy but its heart is in the right place.  Slightly self aware but opting not to be openly snarky.  You're playing in a campaign where ponies pilot robot horses that combine to form a giant horse (that's still a quadruped).  

The five members of the team would represent the concept of a Five Man Band.  Definitions fluctuate but I'll elaborate on how I view it for the campaign in a bit.  

Campaign thread

Player Build Structure:

Personal GM Quirks and General House Rules

Our Heroes:

Players are currently: Level 3

Well, this has got my interest. I'll make a character sheet in a litle bit.

This sounds like fun! Quick question,though, will all the fighting be done in the giant robots? I figure I should know that before putting together a character sheet.

Nope. Separating you from your robot would be less fun if you were totally screwed. I'm contemplating the robots be a conjured weapon/form since those are contained playstyles but not sure. Would rather not but just might have them be separate combat builds.

I will not be opting to join this, but I just wanted to pop in and say that this is the greatest idea ever and you are amazing.

I might join if I could be the 6th ranger aka the Green Ranger

Not necessarily. Im just saying in the possible off chance he is looking for an extra player I would join. If not then no harm no foul.

deonte9109 wrote:I might join if I could be the 6th ranger aka the Green Ranger

Highly unlikely.  It's a concept that can work in this genre if done well but it really needs to be handled properly.  I'd like to get the team itself built up and fully developed.  In fact, why not submit for the main team?

Fury of the Tempest wrote:I'm joining! Through I have to admit, I'm saddened to see Focused Evolution banned. Why's that?

Short answer: I simply dislike it in its current form.
Long answer: The current form feels a bit too overtly min-maxy.  It's something I might allow in incredibly specialized cases like an elementalist and even then I'd oddly be more comfortable with a Companion with it if the companion were a full character that could be killed.  The other reason is that unlike other campaigns I'm running, I'd like to lean a little bit more on the concept of each player's Element/Virtue.  Seems like it would fit in line with some parts of the genre.

As far as Leader submissions, all have the potential to be Lancers to another Leader pending on who all enters.  Also, can't see your build Fury but I'd much rather wait until the background and such is done anyway.

Most characters from the show won't directly appear in the campaign.  Some side characters might show up in differing roles and I may pull characters from other parts of the franchise since I'm pretty open about being a G1 fan.    Mane 6 won't exist and neither will Celestia and Luna.  The latter two are interesting since that means the throne is open.  I may fill it with an NPC but it's also possible for a player with Sweet and Elite to be the overruling prince/princess of Equestria.  It's a double edge sword in some ways but it is an option.

I've come to the decision that for the combat side of things, the character and their mech will have the same combat builds but will be flavored differently.  Singular characters versus mechs will not be treated as combat but rather as skill checks.  Allows the ability to sidestep some of the scaling issues (a mech shoots/smashes you...you just sorta die) while on the other hand others still give you breathing room for heroism like dodging out the way, slashing a wire, or planting a tracer so the team can follow the enemy to their secret base.

Ok, I've come up with the first draft for a potential Big Pony, but I guess I should wait to post it until you ask.

Also, one more question, should we pick out weapons?

@mjh6: As far as weapons, would your character carry a weapon? That's a type of flavor I'd like to leave individualized. An overt guard or martial artist probably would while a medic or diplomat may not. Go ahead and post your build since comments can be made on it.

@Fury: Odd, I tend to not have difficulty getting Pony Creator pictures in. I usually use the export option to save a PNG to my hard drive then I just Insert -> Image using the drive location.

I'm going to first make an aside before directly commenting on the build. I like the design of the builds in the official documents since they feel like they fit the concepts without being purely numeric. There's seemingly lesser valued options such as weather crafting that I think have a fair bit of worth but tend to be removed from many builds. The way I see it, GE should be used to make races while the utilities should be used to make individuals. It's why Pick of the Litter and Highborn are actually among my favorite additions to the system. I think "worth" may be an interesting thing to think about since I think the way to improve some abilities is to put them through more use. I don't think players should make "underpowered" builds on purpose but rather they should try to work out how to improve things with the GM. I guess that sorta explains where I'm coming from on overall build thoughts. I actually build NPCs with most of the same restrictions as player characters.

For the character submission, I'll note you have nine combat talents without Dangerously Talented. However, I do see a support pattern. On the utility side, I see it's designed as an all rounder with specialties in vision and support abilities. I probably should have simply mentioned no Magic Drains as opposed to just singling out Focused Evolution due to the previous comment about Elements. Empathetic is weird in that it's one of those things where I want to love it but the massive bonus makes me give it dirty looks. I think I'm willing to tolerate it because of all sorts of fun things it allows as a GM if someone is naturally "always on" in sensing emotion. As a level 2 you technically have one more utility though that goes to your mech. I might slightly rethink that setup.

The level 2 thing was a concession to give you an extra level and thus an extra utility talent since one goes to the mech. But I just had a "Scootaloo bumps her head on the lantern" moment. See, I'm overthinking this. All I need to do is basically give everyone a free Companion of sorts for the mech. I'll work out the exact specifics for them since they get more than a regular Companion does but that solves so many problems I was having. Against other mechs, they'd use their listed stats and a combat build mirroring the pilot. Against individuals...it get weird. But regular dudes aren't going to just punch out your mech.

So are we working with level 1 or level 2 characters, because I'm almost finished with mine.

Level 1 but characters will get the mech as a freebie companion/secondary build.

Okay, so here is my first try, with a possible Big Pony unicorn. Still need to ad the background, but right now I just would like his build examined, since I don't have a lot of experience making characters.

You know what, I can't resist. I think I will build a character. What roles are unoccupied? I'd like to be the smart one, if at all possible.

Here's my application for the Smart One. I'll probably work on it some more later.

Edit: Oh... wow...

Lapis-Lazily wrote:You know what, I can't resist. I think I will build a character. What roles are unoccupied? I'd like to be the smart one, if at all possible.

It's actually not on a first up basis. I need to figure out an official deadline for submissions, though. Plus, there's possibility for roles to shift.

Expressing interest as Comic Relief/Heart character. Cause I don't think we need to worry about having only one female character in a Pony Tales game.

Here's the stat setup for your mechs:

HorseMech Structure:

Flavored right, there is reason to put attribute points in places other than just Brawn for your mech.  Perhaps the onboard magitech computer allows you to make better History checks?  Any number of concepts may work.

So, would the mech computer be able to talk? Because I think that would be neat.