ChromeStrike (0.9.91)

Still not quite dead.

Mentioned what would be in this update in the last post. I'll save the additional Mobile Infantry / Heavy Power Armor stuff for later. As always eagerly awaiting comments and feedback.

Here's the new version.



0.9.91

Fixed some typos in the Pile Driver and Plasma Cutter weapon descriptions

Custom weapons now have +1CR before modifiers for weapons that are 1cr or less (instead of only 0cr weapons)

Clarified that the Halberd, Explosive Halberd, and Plasma Cutter does not wound self

Power Armor (Mobile Infantry) now come stock with y-racks and no longer need to spend 2cr as a result. Yeehaw.

Also generally edited the Power Armor (Mobile Infantry) page. Clarified and added additional customization options

Grenade Launchers can now indirect fire and can mix and choose freely between three ammunition types at no cost

Rocket Launchers now have an additional follow-up attack on a penetrating hit

Grenade MG's now have two attacks and Hit +1 (changed from just AP0 and Damage x2)

Special weapon ammunition can now be used at will instead of being forced to be used for the first four shots

Added a Mono-TL Scope to the upgrade section; first* HELD type upgrade that enhances a Held weapon with a built-in Targeting Laser

Added a bit of explanation at the start of the Armory on shots/weapon ammunition

Reduced Shredder and Assault Shotgun shots to 10 and 16 respectively (down from 12 and 20)

Added Heavy Chemical Lasers; heavier and more expensive Chemical Laser (what else would you expect?)

Added Photon Beam Emitter; shorter range Laser that interferes with Control and shoulder part usage

Added Neutron Radiators; a new fun way to commit war crimes in ChromeStrike!

Laser/Flamethrower/Incendiary High-Itensity Fuel ammo now has further reduced range and -1 to hit

Reworded how long the Targeting Laser buff persists for allies

Battle Tank armor now counts as 3+ to the rear and top

Removed the Smart-Loader upgrade from the upgrades list as it's now included by default with all weapons

Added an Underslung GL upgrade to the upgrades list; single shot Grenade Launcher addon

Railguns may no longer be moved and fired without treads, now matches the Sniper Cannon

Shotgun buckshot ammo now increases number of attacks by 1 instead of doubling them; oversight with the addition of the Assault Shotgun

*Moved Emerald Garden's Aquatic Treatment from the SPECIAL AMMO bit in Ballistics to the Upgrades table to consolidate it with the new Held upgrades

ChromeStrike - Power Armor Brainstorming and WIP 0.9.91

I am presently adjusting to living in an off-grid cabin and about to finally start a new full-time job. Not quite dead yet.

The upcoming update is fairly light and simple, but I've been tempted for a while now to really expand on the Mobile Infantry / Heavy Power Armor stat-blocks in the Appendix. I am something of a power armor fetishist (even more than mechs to be honest), and having expanding rules for customing Power Armor would be really neat. I've already got a rough draft up for Heavy Power Armor which includes more in-depth rules for adding on new weapons and upgrades, and I'll probably come up with something slightly more expansive for character-class Recon Power Armor and similar. Is this something anyone would be interested in? I'll probably reformat the 'building the Heavy PA' rules to be one chunk and have the common Corp loadouts/spec models be their own seperate list, similar to standard statblocks that you would find in the appendix. Half to keep the Appendix clean and half to keep the layout even slightly sensical.

Other than my Power Armor fetish the upcoming update has some weapon buffs and the inclusion of several additional entirely new weapons. I'm also considering working on some (optional) rules for stealth and RADAR mechanics, but I haven't come up with anything that I am happy with quite yet. If and when I include something along those lines it'll probably be a little further out patch-wise.

Finally, I've also been considering statting up a whole bunch of sample NPC mercenaries in their own little booklet. Keeping something like that up-to-date with balance changes could be a headache, however. That anything anyone would be interested in? More specifically, what sort of content/additions/fixes would anyone like to see?

Thanks a ton to all the GM's and players out there who enjoy ChromeStrike. Your continued support and amusement helps motivate me to keep developing the game.



Rough Heavy Power Armor Rules





Future Patch 0.9.91 as-is

Fixed some typos in the Pile Driver and Plasma Cutter weapon descriptions

Custom weapons now have +1CR before modifiers for weapons that are 1cr or less (instead of only 0cr weapons)

Clarified that the Halberd, Explosive Halberd, and Plasma Cutter does not wound self

Power Armor (Mobile Infantry) now come stock with y-racks and no longer need to spend 2cr as a result. Yeehaw.

Also generally edited the Power Armor (Mobile Infantry) page. Clarified and added additional customization options

Grenade Launchers can now indirect fire and can mix and choose freely between three ammunition types at no cost

Rocket Launchers now have an additional follow-up attack on a penetrating hit

Grenade MG's now have two attacks and Hit +1 (changed from just AP0 and Damage x2)

Special weapon ammunition can now be used at will instead of being forced to be used for the first four shots

Added a Mono-TL Scope to the upgrade section; first* HELD type upgrade that enhances a Held weapon with a built-in Targeting Laser

Added a bit of explanation at the start of the Armory on shots/weapon ammunition

Reduced Shredder and Assault Shotgun shots to 10 and 16 respectively (down from 12 and 20)

Added Heavy Chemical Lasers; heavier and more expensive Chemical Laser (what else would you expect?)

Added Photon Beam Emitter; shorter range Laser that interferes with Control and shoulder part usage

Added Neutron Radiators; a new fun way to commit war crimes in ChromeStrike!

Laser/Flamethrower/Incendiary High-Itensity Fuel ammo now has further reduced range and -1 to hit

Reworded how long the Targeting Laser buff persists for allies

Battle Tank armor now counts as 3+ to the rear and top

Removed the Smart-Loader upgrade from the upgrades list as it's now included by default with all weapons

Added an Underslung GL upgrade to the upgrades list; single shot Grenade Launcher addon

Railguns may no longer be moved and fired without treads, now matches the Sniper Cannon

Shotgun buckshot ammo now increases number of attacks by 1 instead of doubling them; oversight with the addition of the Assault Shotgun

*Moved Emerald Garden's Aquatic Treatment from the SPECIAL AMMO bit in Ballistics to the Upgrades table to consolidate it with the new Held upgrades

ChromeStrike (0.9.90)

Sorry for such a long wait before updating ChromeStrike. I have been very busy with real life full-time work and my ChromeStrike Unity project. Despite this, the homebrew remains my baby. As always, I will have it on at least the back of my mind, and I'll always be lurking and reading accounts/feedback of those who have played it. In the future it is theoretically possible that I could enlist some help to reformat the book entirely and see about getting it published on some small-print website service somewhere. Remains to be seen. Until then, enjoy the new changes and content.

My goal for this update has been addressing feedback from anonymous posters and youtube reviews. I'm still very proud of how comparatively rules-light the system is, and the critically acclaimed mech building, so I don't think there's much to be improved there. Instead I've shuffled chapters of the book around and added a 'quick start' guide earlier in the book, quickly walking people through character creation, mech creation, and the basic fundamentals of the game. Hopefully this will be enough to satisfy those complaining about the layout. Also, the table of contents now has hyperlinks. Should be nice to have.

Other than the formatting improvements I've also added the Islamic megacorp (al-Najm al-Khafi), a whole heap of melee weapons and part upgrades, and the long missing CT-02, CO-02, and NRB-02 mech models have finally been added to the appendix. I've also snuck a few other new things into the game. Feel free to read the massively bloated changelog.

Also I've officially changed ChromeStrike to Beta instead of Alpha just to stick it to the man.

Here's the new version.



0.9.90

Reformatted the book; moved various chapters around

The table of contents now has hyperlinks for the various chapters and sections

Added a Quick Start Guide early in the book with a brief synopsis of character creation, mech creation, and basic game rules

Added optional skill progression to Characters

Characters are now encouraged to have a call-sign, or pilot alias, for when they are murdering things to death in their mech

Fixed some inaccurate CR costs on the Very-Quick Reference page

The Bionics section in characters has been renamed to Cybernetics and extended with consumables, more fluff, more cybernetic upgrades, and the addition of side-effect rules.

A new prime has been added- the al-Najm al-Khafi! Cheapish spidertank mecha parts, high-end melee boosting parts, and additional stealth parts!

The BEI-01 chassis now only has 3+ armor from the front and sides; Chinesium chassis now gets hit at 4+ from behind- the PLA never retreats

The CO-02 chassis now also has +1 STR and 4+ armor on the chassis (others are still 5+); buffed from 5+ everything

Reworded the bonus of the BEI-02 Arms; now grants +4 Missile Capacity instead of +100% (was still referring to the old missile rules). Did the same for the BEI-02 chassis.

Added Cooling Tank to Shoulder Parts; partial stealth for campaigns and minor Missile DR boost

Reworked (Shoulder) Missile Hardpoints. Now grant +2 Missile Capacity and allow an extra missile to be fired each turn. Missile meta?

Missile Hardpoints are also no longer allowed to be purchased as built-in parts- was an oversight.

Added Heavy Missile Hardpoints to the shoulder parts list, just in case you can't get enough missiles. Grant +4 Missile Capacity, -1 SPD, and can be jettisoned once empty.

Added Gyro Stabilizer to the shoulder parts list. Allows the use of a 2H weapon in that arm but can no longer Swap it out in combat.

Added Hot Fibers (chassis) upgrade to part upgrades. Boosts mech Strength at the risk of damaging the arms when using melee attacks.

Added Active Camouflage Cloak (chassis) upgrade to part upgrades. Does about what you would expect.

Added Holster (chassis) upgrade to part upgrades. Does about what you would expect.

Added Forearm Shield (arms) upgrade to part upgrades. Built-in melee weapon that doesn't occupy a hand. Cheaper version of the EG Multitool.

Moved Secondary Arm from Shoulder Parts to Upgrades and renamed it to Secondary Arms (Plural); is now a Chassis Upgrade

Added Melee Override (head) upgrade to parts upgrade. More expensive, non-compatible head Software upgrade that also boosts Crit Chance in close-up combat.

Increased Shredder shots to 12 (up from 7) and Assault Shotgun shots to 20 (up from 12)

Added Explosive Sticks, Halberds, Explosive Halberds, and Plasma Cutters to the mech armory :DDDDD

Clarified with Shotfists and Pile Drivers that their shots are not consumed on a missed attack

Reworked Pile Drivers slightly; down to AP2, have a hit penalty, and shots increased to 4 (from 2)

Light Rocket Pod decreased to AP0, Rocket Pod decreased to AP1

Added info on how the Swap action works when holding two 1H weapons and swapping to a 2H one

The melee manuever now explicitly allows a player to attack with all equip melee weapons at once instead of punching or kicking

Reworded the Ready Attack action very slightly

Re-added in rules in the game about part hit locations, since I seemingly accidentally removed that entirely from the book somehow

Added in a much more expanded section about how GMs can balance enemy encounters and devise missions for their players In the World of ChromeStrike, MechList now runs an ongoing list of top fifty mech jockeys. I swear I'd just change the base setting to that one from your homebrew campaign (yes, you, you know if you are you) if I could get away with it.

Reworked character sheets in the book, also included Omar's sheet near his companions for completion sake and minor OCD

Finally added the long missing CT-02 "Shadowhawk", CO-O2 "Onryō" and NRB-02 "Koschei" mechs to the appendix. Welcome aboard you three.

Added an alternate Gunner loadout to the NRB-03 "Destroyer"- hideously minmaxed build for when you want a total party kill

Added al-Najm 01, 02, and 03 mechs to the appendix

Reordered the mechs in the appendix such that they are no longer randomly scattered around mixing the various corps models together

Added MULEs to the appendix- autonomous robot assistants which carry weapons for mechs

Rewrote the stat block for Tactical Nukes under Power Armor slightly

Fixed the 'spotting Stealth Power Armor' Perception check in their entry; is now a 2d6 test instead of a 1d6 test

Added another entry in Power Armor and Stealth Power Armor for using them in character-scale combat, in case that was missed earlier in the book in the character armory

Transport Helicopter weight and carry capacity increased

Land Transport modified- weight greatly increased, credits increased, given additional wounds

My personal website page on ChromeStrike is no longer just placeholder lorem ipsum text, eat shit (affectionate)

Removed the 'ChromeStrike as a wargame' bits as it's an extreme tertirary interest and should be its own short, supplimental rulebook instead of book bloat

Added some placeholder AI-generated artwork here and there in the book- will be removed later if/when published

ChromeStrike (0.9.88b)

Not much to say for this one. I've gotten a bit of feedback on 0.987, and that in addition to some time to think has given me some more thoughts on what is needed. Many of the slight changes that didn't make it into the last version are being added with this one. This takes the form of several clarifications and fixes for some of the new rules. Missile costs have been fixed, enemy vehicles with old attributes have been updated, and several personal-scale weapons have been slightly balanced. The Shredder has also been given some much needed love, being updated into a 10cr heavy weapon. As always, see the patch notes for more in-depth details on the various changes.

Here's the new version.



0.9.88b

Melee Weapons are now a Useful skill, to match Martial Arts.

PDW weapon price decreased.

Assault Rifle Wounds increased by +2.

Breachers are now AP3 and Wounds increased by +1.

HE Grenades are now AP-1 against vehicles instead of AP-2.

Satchel charges now deal two hits to vehicles.

Clarified how armor Wounds are removed when wearing layered armor.

Light PA and Recon PA weight has been increased.

Twitch+ Fibers now increase melee AR by 2 and DR by 1, Strength penalty remains at -1.

The Carbine rules text has been clarified; also explicitly usable as a melee weapon now.

The Shredder has been changed into a 10cr flak cannon.

Light Missile CR increased to 4, now is AP1.

Medium Missiles CR increased to 6, now has AP1, two attacks, and three shots.

Anti-Air Missiles CR increased to 6, now has three shots.

AP Missile CR is increased to 8.

Incendiary Missile CR is increased to 8, shots increased to four.

Fire and Forget Missiles shots increased to four.

Fixed and updated a few 'bestiary' entries that I'd missed with correct CR costs and derived attributes.

Artillery/MLRS missiles now cost 3CR each, up from 1. Now has a 3x3 blast that hits other targets at AP1, and deviates 2d6 grid spaces on a miss.

Power Armor (Mobile Infantry) weight increased. I like chunky Power Armor.

Deleted a few duplicated ChromeStrike headers in the bestiary.

Copied the Gutter Power Armor over from the barely finished OPFOR expansion.

Reactive Fire now explicitly does not work against enemies already in line of sight, and is at -2 if not prone or crouching.

Heavy Missiles now cost 9cr, have three attacks, and three shots.

ChromeStrike (0.9.87)

Most of my time now-a-days is spent leading the production of Towergirls: the Game and working. This doesn't leave me with a ton of spare afternoons to fitz about with pen and paper games, as fun and relaxing as it is. There's also the inclination part- while it's all well and good to say "make a game for yourself", you still want to see at least some kind of feedback and use. Not only do games need criticism to progress and advance, but it's a little disheartening to get zero interest.

Fortunately, ChromeStrike has always held at least a bit of interest. Over the past few years there's been plenty of valid criticisms and feedback on it. It was and remains an alpha-stage game, so there were several places in the rules that were lacking or cross-referencing stuff that simply didn't exist. Semi-recently a GM running a neat ChromeStrike game chucked some feedback at me, in addition to an excellent session/gaming recap of their campaign. This led to me reading the thing several times, and then peering through other archives and discussions. While reviewing playtestings, criticisms, fan-additions on Pastebin and Google Docs, one thing led to another.

ChromeStrike is my baby. Not satisfied with the state I left it in, I've taken the time to give it a tune up and attempt to address some of the issues people were having with it. All that said, here's the new version, along with patch notes. When new issues turn up I'll likely fix those sooner than later.



0.9.87

Speed is now denoted as being 12 MPH or 19 KPH, in addition to the normal grid movement capacity.

Turns take place over a span of two seconds, narratively almost simultaneous.

Added pilot suits to the character armory, courtesy of the unammed Google Docs anon.

Added a whole heap of character equipment and weapons, most of which is shamessley stolen from the Google Docs anon. Thanks, Google Docs anon.

Each class of mech equipment now has some additional information about the setting and usage.

Mechs have 48 hours of operational time. This is now denoted in several more places in the rulebook.

Mech Dodge Rating is now 2 + Pilot Agility + Control + Modifiers, as opposed to the old (1/2 Pilot Agility) + Speed + Control + Modifiers.

Heavy Machine Guns now only jam on an unmodified 2-, from 3-. (Now 5.56% each turn used, down from 16.66%)

Heavy Machine Guns range increased to 25, from 20. Now matches the MG57.

Jackhammer ammunition increased to 15, from 12.

Shredder ammunition increased to 7, from 5. Shredder price decreased to 4, from 5.

Assault Shotguns have been added. They are a shottie variant of the HMG.

Shotfist now deals three hits, up from two.

Combat Shields and Anti-Missile Shields are now allowed to be used as AP0 melee weapons.

Minimum Missile range has been increased to 15.

Missiles may now be upgraded to Short Range Missiles. They are slightly more costly, and deal less damage, but have a close range band.

Hand-held and shoulder missiles now cost +100%, up from +50%.

Missiles and special ammunition are now consumables/finite. :DDD

Weapons have been split up and organized into more categories.

Weapons now have electronic security measures that prevent the immediate use of salvaged weapons.

Added some quick and simple rules for modying existing weapons.

Twitch+ Fibers added to upgrades (torso). Grants +1 AGL and -1 STR for 3cr.

Character Attack Rating is now 2d6 + (Attribute). Defense Rating is now 6 + Agility.

A Morale failure now results in -2 Attack Rating and Dodge Rating for the scene, rather than being forced to attack only the closest enemy.

Skill checks are now 2d6 + Attribute + Bonuses, and attempting to roll equal or higher than an arbitrary difficulty.

Added the Reactive Fire utility action for characters.

Reaction rolls are now also 2d6 + Grandeur + Bonuses, the higher the result being better.

Added rules for Intimidation, First Aid, and healing injuries.

Parts are now cheaper to repair to full Wounds when not fully destroyed.

Salvage rules have been reworked entirely, with the addition of suggestions as to how players could salvage, rules for hiring scavengers, and alternate simple rules.

Last, but not least- I learned a work-around for Apache OpenOffice full-page background image wonkiness that makes formating and editing considerably easier.

ChromeStrike (0.9.866)

I've been playing around with anydice more, and over the past couple of days have realized a fault with skill checks. As is, characters at most might have like 8 effective value with skill checks (5 Attribute + 3 Skill Ranks)- while this is okay in personnel combat, and having attacks miss a decent portion of the time, it is less so fitting for trade skills. Who wants to fail in repairing a mech or diplomacy 50% of the time, especially when trained in it? To this end characters may now take a couple of hours, or a day, to receive a -1 or -2 modifier to their roll. That should even it out a bit.

It should also be noted that many of the maneuvers from mech combat (Kneel, take cover, aim, etc.) are also performable in personal combat. Personal combat still needs to be heavily redone in order to be more gritty, and in-depth, but this should still help improve it that much more.

Enjoy.


Rulebook- 0.9.866

ChromeStrike (0.9.865)

Work on my programming project has winding down. Ideally one of these upcoming days/weeks I'll be able to find a new developer to head the project. Until then, I've been taking more time to work on other projects, such as ChromeStrike. This version of ChromeStrike has a much needed change to attributes and character creation. Ideally it'll pave the way for some more character shenanigans. Don't be surprised to see more developments on the expansions, too.


Rulebook- 0.9.865

Changelog-


0.9.865 GOOD TO BE BACK EDITION

Charisma has been replaced with Appeal.

Beauty has been replaced with Grandeur.

New characters are now assigned ten attribute points and ten skill points.

Attributes start at two, by default, and may be raised as high as six.

Skills now have ranks, ranging from +0 to +3. Useful/combat skills cost one point per rank, and hobby or relatively useless skills are half a point per rank.

Perks have been modified to match higher attributes; the circumstantial attribute bonuses are larger.

Initiative has been heavily inflated. Es okay.

In combat, only half of Perception contributes towards attack rating, and half of Agility towards dodge rating.

Personal skill checks are now 2d6 under Attribute+Skill+Any Perk Bonuses.