Last time on Curse of the Viper! - the Desert Cobras went to Canada, Ms. Florance Vie Silette turned out to be an E.F.F. traitor, the remaining COOOOBRRRAAAAAS got their shit pushed it by a man named Lieutenant Rolfe and subsequently by an unknown Black Beast of a Mobile Suit. Now, having returned to California Base, the Desert Cobra Squadron has been promoted to the Cobra Corps., but with a catch! Due to their fiasco out in Canada, the stand-in commander is forcing them to play a simulated game of Capture the Flag against an unknown enemy Mobile Suit team without even showing them a preview of the map, and failure to adequately win the scenario will result in termination of the Cobra Corps. and court marshalling of the entire squadron, including the newbie members that were just assigned to them! Will the COOOOBRRRAAAAAAS be able to defeat their unknown enemy at Capture the Flag, or will they get fragged and tossed aside like worthless pilots? Find out next time, on Curse of the Viper Z!
----------RPG Background and Overview----------"Curse of the Viper" is a tactical Forum-based RPG set in the universe of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, in the year 0079 of the Universal Century, where mankind has moved its burgeoning population into tubular space colonies. A war has been raging between the Earth Federation (E.F.S.F.) and the Principality of Zeon (Zeon) since January 1st of 0079, where Zeon's controlling power - the Zabi Family, began waging a war for independence against the E.F.S.F. Eight months have past since the war began, and after many atrocities from both sides - including nuclear arms and dropping inhabited colonies onto the Earth, which has destroyed a large section of Australia - over half of humankind's population has been lost, and the Antartic Treaty was signed, prohibiting the use of these tactics for the remainder of the war. The Zeon faction has gained a leg up in the war with the mass production of their latest weapon - the Mobile Suit - a humanoid work-horse robot measuring about 18 meters in height. Due to Minovski Particles that have made most forms of radar useless during combat, the power of these Mobile Suits in close to mid range combat has been a deciding factor for the 8 months that have passed in the war thus far.
This is all the background history of the Mobile Suit Gundam series you will need to know in order to participate effectively in this RPG.Players who join the fight will be under the flag of the Principality of Zeon, fighting to win the "Spacenoids" freedom from the oppressive rule of the Earth Federation. Specifically, they will be fighting in a Mobile Suit Squadron known as the Desert Cobras, an experimental operations team under the command of Atrius Schliend, a cold and methodical man who seeks to achieve the mission above all else. In terms of gameplay, Atrius Schliend is the GM-controlled squadron leader who will give instructions on how to complete key objectives and help the players stay alive and complete the mission. However, most turn-by-turn tactics will be left up to the players to decide, with Atrius' movements being decided based on the tactics the players have chosen. While he is powerful (especially in the early game as you are learning how to play), he is still human - if you play too poorly, he cannot ensure your victory, and he can die. Remember this is a tactical, teamwork based RPG - no matter how good you are, you're not superhuman, you're not Shinji Ikari, you're not the Megazord, etc. Keep this in mind. While there is the potential of characters ejecting from their Mobile Suits upon defeat, a character who dies is lost forever, and that player will need to create a new one, and will not be able to rejoin the game until the next time the Squadron is resupplied.
----------Joining the RPG----------To join, fill out the below form for your Pilot:
-Name:
-Gender: (Male/Female)
-Age: (15-65)
-Birth Place: (See Maps)
-Appearance / Clothing:
-History / Background:
-Combat Style:
Simple? No? Let me give you an example to show you how simple it really is.
Example of Character Creation:
Name: Atrius Schliend
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Birth Place: Taklamakan Desert, original birth place unknown.
Appearance / Clothing: He has darkened skin from a life in the desert, and straight, unruly hair grown out to the base of his neck. He's commonly seen wearing a thick, tan trench coat, a faded green shirt, and a pair of semi-torn up brown jeans.
History / Background: He was a desert mercenary, living an almost tribal life after an ill-fated childhood. He rarely talks outside of battle, so little is known about him beyond what they forced him to put on the paperwork to join. Why an earthling like him has joined the Principality of Zeon against his own kind is unknown. While participating in several early space skirmishes against the E.F.S.F. before being reassigned to Earth, he shot down several enemy battleships using a unique pattern of Bazooka fire said to be like the jaws of a viper quickly closing on their prey. This is what has earned him his combat title, "The Viper."
Combat Style: A distance fighter, akin to a Sniper. Specializes in Speed and Long Range.
----------Birth Place Resources----------Space Colonies - Click to View:Side 1
Side 2
Side 3 (Zeon Homeland)
Side 4
Side 5
Side 6 (Neutral Territory)
Side 7 (E.F.S.F. Territory)
World Map - Click to View:-Erm... it's Earth. Figure it out.
----------Combat and Battle Pane Explanations----------All combat will be explained in "Battle Panes", a sort of freeze frame or ongoing novelization of each turn as it happens. The description of each Battle Pane will be the full summary of all the actions taken, the reactions from the enemy, and a situation to work out of for the current Battle Pane. The map will be presented to the players in the form of an image, that will be painstakingly made by me in Photoshop, showing the locations of the player units, all known enemy units, and giving the players a good idea of what the terrain looks like. This overview will be updated with each Battle Pane, and should be easy to follow.
During each Battle Pane, a character is allowed a default of 5 Actions that he or she can perform, and also allowed to do things such as communicate over comm-channels, which do not require Actions to perform. An action is considered things such as:
1. Moving.
2. Switching weapons.
3. Attacking with the equipped weapon.
4. Reloading the equipped weapon.
Note that the concept of Actions is open-ended. While these are basic ones, what you can actually do during combat is limited only by your imagination. You can also perform "Combo Actions", which require two Actions but allow you two combine two simple movements into one "Action." These would be things such as strafing and firing the weapon simultaneously, etc., and again are fully open-ended.
After firing your weapon, next to the action you perform it in, you should note how much ammo is left in your weapon. For weapons such as Machine Guns that have variable fire rates, you should note how much ammo you shot, as well. This saves me tons of work.
When moving in a Mobile Suit, you should remember that there is no distance cap per action. However, moving farther in a single action will delay how long it takes for your next action to trigger (as should be logical, since moving farther takes longer). Note that there are also 3 types of Movement - Standard Movement, Booster Dashing, and Booster Jumping. Standard Movement is standard - walking or running with the Mobile Suit. Boost Dashing is a quick dash using the boosters (duh) that quickly propels you up to four spaces, unless the machine specifies otherwise. However, a Boost Dashing takes a moment to begin, making it risky in close quarters, and the higher speed makes it far harder to turn and weave. It is great for evasive maneuvers such as strafing but weaker for crossing larger sections of the map. Booster Jumping is a type of movement only available on Earth and maps with gravity - put simply, the main boosters are used to launch the unit airborne until the end of the Battle Pane. This has many obvious advantages, but takes the longest to initiate and can only be used a set number of times between resupplies, so it must be used sparingly.
----------Terrain Explanations----------There are several different base terrains that combat can take place in. While each map will have its own features and obstacles to overcome, all maps will follow one of the four following baselines:
Space Combat: This is a 360* battle, set in the void of space. Enemies can come at you from all sides, and you have to be aware in order to survive. This type of combat does not affect how your Mobile Suit operates aside from it not being on solid ground.
Lunar Combat: This is a ground-based battle with a twist. The low gravity forces you to fight as if on earth, and doubles the maximum high attainable by your Mobile Suit's boosting system. The ease of Mobile Suits to stay airborne in this terrain combined with the usually large amounts of outcroppings to hide behind will generally lead to a plethora of unique situations and strategical opportunities. It is not uncommon for a Mobile Suit that Booster Jumps in these conditions to stay airborne for multiple Battle Panes if it jumps high enough, allowing for pseudo-air combat.
Surface Combat: Combat on Earth. This is basic combat under the normal pull of the earth's gravity. This combat type has no negative effects on your Mobile Suit, aside from being weighed down by gravity. Air combat is possible in this terrain, but Mobile Suits not specifically designed for flight on Earth will fall back to the ground at the end of the Battle Pane.
Undersea Combat: This is the hardest type of combat to be engaged in. Pilots that are not acclimated to this type of combat are far weaker under these conditions. All non-amphibious Mobile Suits are also far slower and suffer HP drain underwater. Depending on the type of Mobile Suit being piloted, this type of battle will resemble either a Space battle or a Surface battle, creating interesting dynamics that leave Amphibious suits at a heavy advantage.
----------Range Explanations----------There are several different combat ranges. These include Proximal, Short, Medium, Long, and Extreme. The effect these ranges have on combat depends on the terrain.
Proximal: A melee attack. This range is unaffected by environment. In game terms, this Range is 1 Square anywhere around the unit, including diagonally.
Close: Close range, but not close enough for a Proximal weapon to cause damage. This range is unaffected by environment. In game terms, this Range is 3 Squares in a diamond around the unit.
Medium: An average combat distance that most weapons function at. This is the same as Long range when located in [Space] and [Lunar] environments, due to the lowered gravity. In game terms, this Range is 4-12 Squares in a diamond around the unit.
Long: A far range that only certain weapons can function at. This is the same as Medium range when located in [Space] and [Lunar] environments, due to the lowered gravity. In game terms, this Range is 13-20 Squares in a diamond around the unit.
Extreme: A range for [Space] and [Lunar] battles only, that can only be attained by battleship cannons and beam rifles. These weapons can hit units far beyond the normal range of weapons.
----------Mobile Suit and Weapon Selection----------Obviously, this is a mecha based tactical RPG, so we need mecha. When initially joining, each player will have 300 points at their disposal, with which to "buy" a starting machine and a gear loadout. These points
carry over, and are used for changing or upgrading mechas, changing weapons, etc., so there is benefit to being stingy. However, being too stingy can get you and possibly the whole party killed - so be sure you're confident in your loadout.
The Zaku series of Zeon Mobile Suits use a "Clamp" based system to hold things such as weapons and ammunition on their machines, in addition to what is held normally in either hand. See the
bottom-right supplementary image of the Zaku I (click!) for an example of clamps in action. Since that picture should say all that needs to be said, let's move on to the meat - our mechs and our guns. Click the name of each mecha or gun for a visual. It should be noted that all weapons besides the Heat Hawk and Knuckle Shield can be doublehanded to increase accuracy, so you may not want to fill both of your Mobile Suit's hands with weapons. You must also have a suitable empty clamp or hand to place a weapon on/into when changing between weapons, else the weapon being switched from will be dropped, so keep this in mind as well.
Info on available Mobile Suits, Weapons, and Upgrades can be found here.Example of Mobile Suit Selection:
[Character Info Here.]
MS-06C Zaku II Early Production Type
Cost: 180 points.
HP: 40
Speed: 12
Armor: 12
Booster Speed: 25
Booster Jump Fuel: 2
Clamp Count: 3
Clamp Locations: 1 on the side of each hip, 1 under the booster pack.
Special Properties:
--Shield Right: Right Shoulder Armor can be used as a Shield.
--Spike Left: Left Shoulder Armor can be used as a spiked ramming instrument against enemy Mobile Suits.
Usability:
[Space/Lunar/Surface/Undersea]
Built in Armaments:
None.
Right Hand: 280mm Bazooka - Cost: 70 points.
Left Hand: None - Doublehanding 280mm Bazooka.
Clamp Equipment:
--Right Hip Clamp: 105mm Machine Gun - Cost: 50 points.
--Left Hip Clamp: None.
--Back Hip Clamp: None.
Total Cost: 300 Points.
