Character creation, and playing the game in general.

So, the entire point of this game is a relatively simple system that is d20 based and easy to learn. I'm borrowing quite a bit from 4th edition DnD, and X-com enemy unknown. (The computer game that is a serious amount of fun.) I'm going to set it up on a grid system, once I find an online table top program I like, we'll get this going.

As for the basic stats and game play, like 4th edition, we have 3 separate defense types, physical, energy, and psychic. If an opponent fires at you with his plasma rifle, it rolls against your energy defense, if a kaiju is trying to claw your jaeger, it's physical defense, you get the idea.

Also like 4th edition, saving throws are very simplified. The 'save DC' (number you have to beat) is always 10. There will just be modifiers to that. (Example, a kaiju breaths a plasma breath that has a -5 penalty on the save for exceptional accuracy, your skills give you a +3 bonus to saves, which would make it a total of -2. Roll a 12 or higher and you succeed.)

Your character doesn't have 'stats' as it were, they have skills. Your characters intelligence, wisdom, charisma, is entirely based on your roleplay. As far as strength and dexterity go, when you're facing xenomorphs and halo elites, things so much stronger than a standard human, it comes down to training and skill, not physical power.

As such, you have ranks in skills, each skill has 10 ranks, the more ranks you have, the greater your skill as listed below.

Giant Robot Skills:

Jaeger CQC: The skill of punching, swording, sawing, etc. Any time you try to hit an opponent with either a jaeger fist or object, you add the amount of ranks to the roll. At ranks 4, 7, and 10 the jaeger pilot gains a +1 defense bonus against melee attacks, and at ranks 5 and 10, you gain a +4 damage bonus for all CQC attacks. (+8 at level 10)

(Required skill for all Kaiju grappling situations.)

Jaeger Marksmanship: The skill of using jaeger sized energy weapons, rail guns, artillery, etc. Like with close quarters combat, at ranks 4,7, and 10 the pilot gains a +2 bonus to all ranged attack damage. Throwing things, like freighters or gas containing semi trucks, uses this skill. At levels 5 and 10, you gain a +2 range bonus to all ranged weapons. (+4 at 10)

(Ridiculously slow charging plasma cannons... check!)

Jaeger Survival Training: This skill encompasses mostly passive skills that can be done in Jaeger combat. At rank 4, 7, and 10 this skill adds a +1 defense to both physical and energy defense. Each rank also increases any stealth rolls should you attempt to try and ambush an enemy Kaiju. Every 3 ranks of this skill increases and combat perception rolls to detect things like sneaking units, covenant ships staying in clouds, or a xenomorph sneaking into the knee joint. The final ability this grants is if the Jaeger has internal defense measures they gain a +1 per rank to the attack rolls of the defenses. At ranks 5 and 10, the internal defenses gain an extra damage dice, and at ranks 5 and 10 the jaeger gains a +2 bonus to init in jaeger battles. (Example: Internal steam jet defenses deal 2d4 normally, at 5 ranks it would be 3d4 and at 10 ranks it would be 4d4)

That covers jaeger combat skills, now we move onto human sized combat skills.

Marksmanship: Even if you have a katana, you're still going to be using your assault rifle much more than your samurai skills. Each rank gives a +1 to hit, and at ranks 4, 7, and 10 you gain a passive +1 damage to all ranged combat damage. Grenades, howitzers, and any other advanced artillery or energy weapons use this skill as well.

(Laser Sniper Rifle. Far more deadly than a katana.)

Survival Training: This skill covers stealth, hand to hand combat, and all manner of defenses. Each rank increases stealth rolls, and follows the defense bonus rules like those in the Jaeger entry. Every 3 ranks also increases perception rolls, like the Jaeger skill. This skill also governs everything with close quarters combat. Want to cut that xenomorph in half with a katana? Pump this skill. Every rank increases hit chance, and every 3 ranks of this skill gives a +1 to CQC defense, and at ranks 5 and 10 the warrior gains a +2 bonus to damage, making that chair leg you picked up go from 1d3 to 1d3+4, possibly slaughtering a xenomorph in a round. At ranks 7 and 10, the warrior gains a bonus +1 HP as well.

(What 10 ranks of Survival Training looks like.)

Combat Intelligence Training: This skill covers an extensive education of combat skills. Chemistry capable of making explosives, medical training and anatomy, computer skills, physics, essentially this skill makes you the Samantha Carter of the group, (with medic skills too, because she is not that kind of doctor... My age is showing again.) At rank 3 you can use med-kits, at rank 4 you can make basic explosives, with a damage max of 2d6, and at rank 7 you can hack any human computer. At ranks 5 and 10, the explosives max increases a dice, to 4d6 max, and the medkit gains a +2 healing bonus. When the skill is maxed with 10 ranks, the critical hit range of all weapons increases from a natural 20 to 19-20. At every 5 ranks this skill also grants a +1 to all defenses, psychic included, and a +2 on init rolls made in human scale combat. The more ranks of this skill, the more your character understands alien languages as well.

There is one final skill trio, neutral skills. These are not directly combat related skills, but will have passive bonuses to all types of combat and general role play situations.

Perception: The ability to notice things, beyond just seeing and hearing. This skill imparts a bit of wisdom, noticing things that others don't, piecing together things you heard a long time ago to notice a pattern, important for any detective. Every rank increases any combat perception roll by +1, which stacks with the perception bonuses from other sources, such as survival training. At ranks 4, 7, and 10, the player gains a +1 bonus to any saving throw, and at ranks 5 and 10 you gain a +1 to all defense types, and at 10 ranks, you gain a bonus to critical threat range, making it 19-20. (If the game goes on long enough that you gain multiple critical threat increases, it becomes 18-20.)

Knowledge: A catch all skill for world knowledge not covered by Combat Intelligence Training. This skill grants a +1 per rank to any knowledge roll, which occur mostly out of combat. At ranks 5 and 10, the dice of medkits, explosives, and Jaeger special weapons increase by 1 dice size from your characters expertise of all subject manner associated with various weaponry/anatomy. (Example, medkit goes from d4 to d6 to d8, explosives from d6 to d8 to d10.) At 10 ranks, the critical threat range in all combat forms increases by 1. (Can hypothetically make crit range to 17-20 if you maxed out a lot of skills.)

(To knowledge!)

Nature Empathy: A unique skill that encompasses animal handling/empathy, spirin connectivity, and even psychic ability. Every 2 ranks of this skill grants a +1 to hit of any psychic attack that the character or spirin bonded to the character may have. and ranks 4, 7, and 10 the character gains +1 psychic defense, and +1 to psychic damage. Every 5 ranks the characters spirin bond enhances, and the spirin gains +2 to hit and damage in all attack forms, and grants an additional +1 stat bonus when melding. At 10 ranks, the spirin gains an instant evolution upgrade and sizable stat bonus, and if the human doesn't already have a natural psychic attack, he gains one that deals 1d8+3 damage base. (That is counting the bonuses from 10 ranks of Nature Empathy.) If the character does have a psychic attack, the dice size increases by 1. (Example, the 1d8+3 psychic attack above would become 1d10+3)

(Seeing the world very differently than you or I.)

That is all the skills of the game. When making a character, you will pick 1 of 6 background origins, which will have set base stats. You will then be given 3 points, 2 points, and 1 point that you choose to place in each of the 'skill sets.' (Example: A player is a combat jaeger pilot, he places his 3 points in 'Jaeger Combat' skills, his 2 points in 'Neutral' skills to pump his perception, and 1 point in marksmanship, rounding it off.)

Each time you level up, you gain 1 rank that you may place in any of the 9 skills available. Every 5 levels you gain 1 bonus hit point, and 5 in Jaeger combat. Until players start becoming more genuinely powerful, you will be gaining a level almost every game you play.

Now that we've covered the skills and dice roll basics, let us cover the actual character creation process. You get to choose 1 of 6 origins, which is your background. You have some limited flexibility in that you can choose your characters gender, name, and have some stat options, as covered above, but overall this is your character. The main part that determines the combat numbers is when you make your Jaeger and combat gear, which will be covered in another post.

There are 3 military backgrounds and 3 civilian backgrounds, let us start with the military backgrounds.

Combat Jaeger Pilot: You are an X-com soldier, with previous experience battling Kaiju, and access to the 2 remaining X-Com Jaegers, the 'Green Machine' and the 'Lobster Monster.' [YOU CAN RENAME THEM, I KNOW THOSE AREN'T THAT GOOD] (The 'Green Machine' is a multi-energy sourced 'environmentally friendly' Jaeger, and the 'Lobster Monster' is made from scavenged alien materials and a special metal that is left behind in the remains of the comet that comet kaiju arrive in. These will both be described fully in the 'Building Jaeger' post coming up in the near future.) You have total freedom in what country of origin is, your gender, age, and general character background. The one requirement is that your character was held back from fighting the 'Necro Gear' that wiped out our most recent Jaeger program, and has some sort of feelings about that. (Will be covered in the world back story post.)

Starting Points: Jaeger CQC, 4 ranks, Jaeger Marksmanship, 4 ranks, Jaeger Survival Training, 3 ranks, Marksmanship, 2 ranks, Survival Training 2 ranks, Combat Intelligence 2 ranks, Perception 2 ranks, Knowledge 1 rank, Nature Empathy 1 rank.

Starting Perks/Traits: Basic Training, Combat Specialty Kaiju, Experienced Warrior, Unique Starting Option Pre-Built Jaegers, or 55 Jaeger credits to build a Jaeger. (More on that in the gear post) 10 credits personal combat gear. 1 Bonus perks/traits. If building their own Jaeger, they gain one bonus jaeger trait/perk.

(Old school Jaeger Pilots. Excessive shininess no longer required.)

Infantry Specialist: Your character is a member of an elite special force from a country of your choosing, who has recently accepted an offer from the X-Com planetary defense initiative. You have experience battling the invasion forces of your homeland. Like the Jaeger Pilot, you have free reign on gender, age, country of origin, etc. You have access to the X-Com project's most advanced human-scale weaponry and armor. Depending on your country of choosing, you have a different combat specialty. If from South America, you have Xenomorphs, Africa is Necromorphs, North America is Covenant or Overseer, Europe is Covenant, Asia is Covenant or Overseer, Middle East is Necromorph or Overseer, and Australia/Pacific Islander/Indonesia area is Covenant or Overseer.

Starting Points: Jaeger CQC 3 ranks, Jaeger Marksmanship 2 ranks, Jaeger Survival 2 ranks, Marksmanship 4 ranks, Survival Training 4 ranks, Combat Intelligence 2 ranks, Perception 2 ranks, Knowledge 1 rank, Nature Empathy 1 rank.

Starting Perks: Basic Training, Combat Specialty (Dependent on home region), Experienced Warrior, Close Quarters Combat Training, Marksmanship Training,  1 bonus perk, 45 Jaeger credits, 20 credits personal combat gear.

(Efficient and bad ass in any combat situation.)

Combat Support Specialist: A for a time unsung hero that has experience as a combat medic, explosives disarming specialist, and amateur scientist. You came onto X-Coms radar by saving your squad with your fast on your feet thinking, and are now receiving training in taking a larger role tackling the invasion forces. You have access to X-Com's most advanced laboratories, which will give you first dibs on X-Com's newest 'gadgets.' You gain more 'accessory' slots than any other background, (this will be covered in gear.) allowing this character to carry a multitude of medkits, grenades, high powered tasers, communication equipment, etc. This background has complete freedom for gender, country of origin, etc.

Starting Points: Jaeger CQC, 1 rank, Jaeger Marksmanship 1 rank, Jaeger Survival training 3 ranks, Marksmanship 2 ranks, Survival Training 3 ranks, Combat Intelligence 4 ranks, Perception 3 ranks, Knowledge 3 ranks, Nature Empathy 1 rank.

Starting Perks: Basic Training, Experienced Warrior, Impromptu Science, Support Specialty Slots, (3 bonus accessory slots, 4 total, most backgrounds only have 1 slot for accessories, will be covered in gear.) 2 bonus perks/traits. 45 Jaeger credits, 15 personal combat credits, 2 free bonus minor accessories.

(The one on the right keeps the one on the left alive... sometimes reluctantly.)

And then onto civilian options.

Eccentric Billionaire: You are a Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, or Oprah in power armor type of character. (You are in the Forbes top 5) Using your own extensive global business network, you've managed to build your own Jaeger, and possibly the most advanced human made power armor on the planet. You feel an almost philanthropic desire to save the world, and have essentially forced yourself on the X-Com project. They just happen to be desperate enough to accept the resources at your disposal. This character is used to having things their way, and like a Tony Stark, does not play well with others, and is very self centered. This character is also not a trained soldier, the strength of the technology available to him is what makes up the difference.

Starting Points: Jaeger CQC 2 ranks, Jaeger Marksmanship 2 ranks, Jaeger Survival Training 2 ranks, Marksmanship 1 rank, Survival Training 1 rank, Combat Intelligence 4 ranks, Perception 4 ranks, Knowledge 4 ranks, Nature Empathy 1 rank.

Starting Perks/Traits: Narcissistic Personality, Infinite Resources, 3 bonus traits/perks. 85 Jaeger credits, 32 personal combat credits.

(I wonder which one Oprah would use?)

The Survivor: You are a poor, but incredibly talented scavenger from Africa. For the last several years of your life you have been facing the Necromorph threat, and you have macguyvered together not only impressive combat gear, but a full scale Jaeger. Your machine isn't as tough or well put together as a military model, but it has many special abilities that make the Jaeger much more effective than it appears. This background has a unique starting point, which will be in Eqypt on the 2nd mission of game play. This will grant this background unique information unavailable to the other backgrounds. (You will still be able to play in the first mission, which is going to be a test of my Kaiju combat system in a computer generated world, your Jaeger will be involved as an AI that you control.)

Starting Points: Jaeger CQC 2 ranks, Jaeger Marksmanship 2 ranks, Jaeger Survivability 3 Ranks, Marksmanship 2 ranks, Survival Training 3 ranks, Combat Intelligence 3 ranks, Perception 3 ranks, Knowledge 2 ranks, Nature Empathy 2 ranks.

Starting Perks/Traits: Scavenged Necro-Gear Tech(Non-Reactor), Bonus Primary and Secondary accessory, both in Jaeger and human scale gear, Unique Starting Point, Combat Specialty (Necromorph), Experienced Warrior, 2 Bonus Traits/Perks. 25 Jaeger credits, 5 personal combat credits.

(Surviving in an irradiated necromorph infested hellhole against all odds... with ingeniously made scavenged gear.)

The Earth Spirit: You come from a rural, very naturally pleasant area. You seem to be along the next step in human evolution though, you can understand animals instinctively, you are more in tune to the spirin world, and you can melt the brain of lesser creatures with your mind. You do not want to fight at all, but your greater connection to the spirin world has made you feel the pain of countless atrocities, and you can't sit on the sidelines any longer. The spirin collective informed the X-Com project of your whereabouts and value, and you were picked up. You have the weakest combat abilities of all backgrounds, but your psionic abilities make you a wizard on the battlefield. Your spirin is also stronger than normal, and can enhance your own psychic abilities. In addition, depending on spirin traits and bonus traits/perks chosen, you might unlock 'Psion Synergy Bonuses' for even greater power.

Starting Points: Jaeger CQC 1 rank, Jaeger Marksmanship 1 rank, Jaeger Survivability 2 ranks, Marksmanship 1 rank, Combat Survival training 1 rank, Combat Intelligence 2 ranks, Perception 5 ranks, Knowledge 3 ranks, Nature's Empathy 5 ranks.

Starting Traits/Perks: Bonus Psychic Spirin Trait/Perk, Sixth Sense, Psychic Assualt Major Ability, Psychic Assualt Minor Ability, 2 Bonus Traits/Perks.  25 Jaeger credits, 5 personal combat credits.

(Possible Nature Spirit/Spirin merged form.)

That covers our 6 possible backgrounds, each player can pick one, there can be no overlapping. (Sorry, you can't all be billionaires in Iron Man suits. Only 1 of you can.)

So now that we've covered the skills and backgrounds, what do those perks/traits mean? This is the list of the effects of those listed above. There will be many more in a later post, closer to finishing up the character creation process.

Perks/Traits:

Basic Training: You have had basic military training, this imparts a passive +1 to all attack and damage rolls, and all 3 defense types. This stacks with every other bonus given from skills/gear/etc.

Experienced Warrior: You have actual combat experience, this translates into your character starting 2 levels higher than everyone else. This gives you 2 extra points to distribute in your skills as you see fit, and places you closer to the HP increases at level 5.

(What two extra levels looks like.)

Combat Specialty (Insert Enemy Type Here), You have exceptional experience, training, and often malice for the type of enemy chosen. Whenever facing the chosen enemy type, you gain +2 to all attack rolls, damage rolls, stealth, knowledge, intimidation, etc. Your critical threat range also increases from a natural 20 to 19-20 against that type of foe.

Close Quarters Combat Training: Whether it is advanced martial arts, boxing, a lot of bar brawls, or just accumulated over a lifetime of close encounters, your character is much more effective when the enemy gets to close. You gain +2 to hit and damage with all melee attacks, and you gain a +2 defense against all melee attacks.  A nice passive bonus of this skill is a +1 HP, as you're tougher than normal as well.

"And this kids, is how you smash a man in the face with his own helmet...."

Marksmanship Training: You have advanced military training with all manner of long ranged weaponry. This skill grants a +2 to hit and damage with all ranged weapons, and grants a situational bonus to the range of whatever weapon they are using. (Example, grenades might have a +2 max range while a sniper rifle gets a +10.)

Support Specialty Slots: You gain 3 minor accessory slots, which can hold items like med-kits, grenades, communication equipment, stun guns, etc. The support specialist will have a list in the gear post that will list the options available starting. The communication equipment can call in airstrikes though, so think on that.

Narcissistic Personality: You are a completely self centered rich douchebag trying to save the world. You must have things your way, you genuinely don't give a shit about bureaucracy, social etiquette, and other niceties. This stubbornness grants a +2 psychic defense, if you don't role play this properly though I will punish you in some way.

(Google image search for "Rich Douchebag.")

Infinite Resources: You are worth literally billions of dollars. You have your own Jaeger bays, labs, ships, aircraft, staff on hand, and a world wide network of businesses and connections. This grants a passive +6 on any knowledge roll made out of combat, and a +2 bonus to those made in combat. (If you don't know it, good chance someone connected to your business can find out for you. This also unlocks the 'Billionaire Bonus Perks' which are awesome. Like a personal fleet of flying drones that can bombard your opponents.)

Scavenged Necro-Gear Tech: Part of your Jaeger you pieced together from the remains of the 'Necro-Gear' that washed ashore after the last great battle involving Godzilla and the remains of our Jaeger fleet. (More on that in the back story post to come.) This individual piece of gear is more advanced than anything available to us, but it is only 1 piece, and you can not pick the 'reactor' or 'core' pieces. It must be something like 'fist' or 'knee' or 'shoulder' or something along those lines. It will have a unique ability though whatever it is. (You can also pick 'plating' for a big defense boost if that floats your boat.)

Bonus Primary/Secondary Accessories: Gaining one free for both Jaeger and human scale combat. Primary accessories are things like weapons, armor, solar powered Jaeger shoulders, etc. Secondary accessories would be like grappling hooks on your armor/belt/gun, or perhaps the internal defense steam jets mentioned above.

Sixth Sense: You can sense impending danger, this grants a +2 bonus on all defense types, and a +2 on all perception rolls.

(We'll call that 'Earth Sight'...)

Bonus Psychic Spirin Trait: Your spirin gains an extra trait/perk. Must be chosen from: Psychic Mind, Enhanced Human Synergy, Mind Meld, or Psychic Spirin.

Major Psychic Ability: I will make the master list later, but these are the major psychic attacks. Direct damage, aoe stuns, etc. will be here. If you have an idea for something, let me know and I'll figure it out. (Example: "I want to be pyrokinetic! Can I cast fireball d00d!?!?!" GM: "Umm... sure, lets figure something out....)

(No, your code name can not be "Pyro.")

Minor Psychic Ability: More passive and support skills, like increasing defenses, mild healing, detecting enemy types and the like. (Similar as above, chat with me if you have something specific.)

So there you have it, there is of course more to come... you're asking "how do I figure out HP, and I want more perks and traits to pick!" Yes, there will be more to come, but between this and the Spirin post, we can start to carve out our chosen characters....

Later this week, I will post the full known history of the setting, (Known to players, I mean.) so stay tuned alien hunters!

(Holy Fuck! It's James Spader!)

All About Spirins

1/10 complete redo.

I've decided to redo this post completely, it was just too all over the place, I didn't like the pacing, order of things, etc.

So lets start this again.

Basics, what are spirins? Friendly energy based life forms that have multiple abilities, from sustaining life to taking on empowered battle forms, a unique aspect of the game inspired by the Lufia II capsule monster system, Pokemon, Monster Rancher, and other 'evolve your monster' type of ideas. (Things my inner 9 year old loves.) They are my way of being able to revive people, sustain a warrior below 0 HP, greater incorporate 'magical' style powers, and help give humanity a fighting chance against the invaders.

How does one make a Spirin?

Every player character will get a spirin, which will 'bond' with them during a unique time in their background story, covered on a player by player basis.

A player picks a primary type, and a sub type, most of which can be doubled. (If you want a full fire elemental, you can pick fire/fire, for example.) Each category has sub categories, though I'm only writing in the stats for the main form. (Each sub category will have slight alterations, maybe a point more of HP for 1 fewer energy defense, for example.) The main difference in the sub types will be how they evolve, and special abilities, rather than numbers.

When picking an animal type, you must pick a subtype, (Like for Reptile, a specific type of reptile, like snake or turtle.) and for elemental you may pick the element itself, or a subtype. The subtypes modify the elemental types significantly more than the animal subtypes do, changing around stats, attack forms, etc. Plant is counted like an animal type, meaning you must pick a subtype, but space is elemental, you can pick space or a subtype.

Animal types first...

Avian, +3 HP, +2 all defense types, +2 movement speed, weak base attack, highly maneuverable.
Subtypes: Flightless Birds, (Emu, chicken, etc.) Amphibious birds, (Ducks, penguins, etc.) Birds of Prey, (Owls, Eagles, etc.) and Flight Birds, (Hummingbirds, pigeons, pretty much everything else.)

 Reptile, +4 HP, +3 physical, +2 energy, +1 psychic, moderate to strong attack, special moves dependent on subtype.
Subtypes: Lizard, (Anole, Chameleon, Komodo dragon, etc.) Turtle/tortoise, (Box turtle, leatherback, snapping, etc.) Snakes, (poisonous or constrictor) and amphibians. (I know they are their own thing, just putting here for simplicity.)

(Teenage mutant ninja squirtle....)

Mammal, +4 HP, +2 all defense types, moderate attack.
Subtypes: Herbivores, (Bunny rabbits, Cows, Elephants.) Carnivores, (Little Kitties, Big Kitties, etc.) and Omnivores, (Rats up to Grizzly Bears.)

Insect, +3 HP, +2 physical, +2 energy, +1 psychic, moderate-high attack, exceptional special attacks.
Subtypes, Ants, (Leafcutter, Fire, etc.) Beetle, (Cockroach, Ladybugs, Goliath beetles, etc.) Flying, (Flies, Bees, Dragonflies, etc.) Misc insect. (praying mantis, termites, etc.)

(Don't you just want to squeeze it?)

Arachnid, +3 HP, +2 physical, +2 energy, +1 psychic, high attack power, exceptional poison attacks.
Subtypes, Spiders, (Hunting or web spinning) Scorpions, and Anthropod. (Centipedes and milipedes, just lumping here for simplicity.)

Elemental Types,

Earth: +4 HP, +4 physical, +2 energy, +2 psychic, -1 movement speed, moderate attack power, limited special attacks.
Subtypes, Soil, Gems, (Emerald, Diamond, etc.) and Metals (Gold, Copper, Steel, etc.)

Air: +2 HP, +2 physical, +3 energy, +2 psychic, +2 movement speed, weak attack power, flight.
Subtypes: Storm, (Hurricane, Tornado, etc.) Lightning, Fog/Clouds,

Water: +4 HP, +2 all defenses, moderate attack power, healing abilities.
Subtypes: Saltwater, Ice, Steam.

(Ice elemental spirin)

Fire: +2 HP, +1 physical, +3 energy, +2 psychic, high attack power, DoT abilities, no subtypes.

Unique Types, The following two types have limitations with what they can mix with.

Plant: +5 HP, +1 physical, +1 energy, +2 psychic, weak attack power, support abilities, like healing and crowd control.
Subtypes: Fungus/Mold/Lichens, Flowers, (Roses, Carnations, Morning Glory, etc. Not big stuff) Fruit Trees, (Apple, Citrus, Banana. etc. 2nd largest subtype.) and Hardwood Trees. (Oak, Eucalyptus, Sequoia, etc.)
Mix limitations: Can only mix with Animals types, (primary or sub.) Plant, (Plant/Plant, though you can mix, like Flower and Hardwood.) Space, and Earth.

Space, +1 HP, +3 physical, +4 energy, +3 psychic, -1 movement speed, moderate attack power, unique and powerful abilities.
Subtypes: Radiation, Gravity, Time
Mix limitations: Can only be a subtype.

(Plant and Space... acid no longer required.)

To determine your spirins starting stats, you add stats from type 1 with stats from type 2, and I will make the attacks according to the type and style appropriate for a level 1 spirin. Say you want a bad ass thunderbird, something like this...

(A spirin thunderbird)

You can't start with something like this, but selecting 'Avian,' (Bird of Prey) and 'Elemental Air,' (Lightning) can set you along that path. At level 1, you might have something like a pygmy owl that can cutely squeek out little lightning bolts, growing as you feed the spirin into perhaps a Falcon with some lightning claws, before eventually becoming the storm bird above.

Continuing with our example, the spirin above would have Avian and Lightning as starting stats. 

Avian granting +3 to HP, and +2 to all defenses, air adding +2 HP, +2 physical and psychic defense, and +3 energy defense. Avian adds +2 movement, and Lightning actually doesn't add Air's +2 movement speed. (Penalty for increased damage potential) To determine the starting stats, we just add it all up. 

3 and 2 HP is 5, and the defense numbers add up to +4 physical and psychic, and +5 energy. This would make the totals 14 physical and psychic, 15 energy, (10 is the base, just like DnD) and 7 movement speed, (5 is the base.) The Avian has weaker attack ability, so it uses 1d4 for damage, and lightning adds long range energy attacks. Thus I would give the level 1 thunderbird a melee attack that did 1d4, with a chance for extra energy damage, and a long range 1d6 electrical burst, that has a cool down.

The spirins to hit rolls are often the same, or nearly the same, as whatever the bonus to physical or energy is. The example above would have a +4 attack on the melee attack, and a +5 on the ranged lightning bolt.

Now that you have your stats, you can pick a trait/perk. Unless you picked 'The Earth Spirit,' you only get 1 of these.

(A perk is a weaker bonus, a trait is a larger bonus with a negative effect.)

Perk options: 

Adrenaline Rush: If your Spirin, in any morphed form, loses 50% of its health, the creature gains +2 to hit and damage, +2 to movement speed, and 2/- DR (Damage reduction). This transfers into Giant Kaiju Merge mode, the numbers increasing to 4 each.

Psychic Mind: Whenever your spirin is merged with your human mind, you can perform a weak, but very accurate, psychic assault. This also grants a +1 passive bonus to the human's psychic defense, this bonus becomes +4 during melding. 1d4 damage base, must be used in spirin merge, gains in strength each time the spirin level increases.

Enhanced Human Synergy: If a Spirin chooses to meld with a human to enhance the humans combat ability, the bonus increases from +2 to +3.

Hardened Carapace: Whenever the Spirin takes on its physical form, it gains a bonus to Physical defense and HP. It gains a +2 physical defense, and +2 hit points. In Kaiju form it gains +2 defense and 10 HP. The physical appearance also takes on a more rugged, armored appearance.

Trait Options:

Tri-form: You get to pick an additional sub type, making a 3 elemental/type spirin. This translates into more attacks, and greater defenses (AC and damage essentially). The form itself is unstable though, which causes a penalty of at least -3 to HP in small sized form and at least -15 in Kaiju form. 

Mind Meld: Your spirin has  a much greater connection to the human mind and body than the animal or elemental. Whenever your spirin is merged with you personally, whether it is for Jaeger piloting or human scale combat, the bonus doubles from +2 to +4, and in addition, you gain 4 additional hit points, becoming super human for short sustained times. However, if the Spirin is in any of its physical forms, (Kaiju included) it suffers a -2 on all attacks and damage, and a -1 to all defense types. It even weakens Kaiju mode by 10 hit points.

Feral Spirit: The opposite of the above, the spirin's physical form is stronger in every way, including HP, (+2 physical and energy defense, +4 hit points, damage dice increase 1 size, +2 hit and damage bonus.) However, the spirin may only meld with a human to stabilize them, or slow a xenomorph parasite, no stat increasing. 

Psychic Spirit: Your spirin is different than any other, it can not take animal form, and it's merging ability is weakened, granting only a +1 bonus when merging. When in its natural form it can psychically assault its foes, something most creatures can not defend against. In Giant Kaiju Merges, it causes the form to lose 20 hit points and 2 physical defense and 1 energy defense, but gives the form at least 1 psychic based attack. This form grants the spirin +4 to psychic defense in all combat forms.

Combat options: What exactly can spirins do?

As far as human sized conflicts go, Spirins have the following abilities. 

Physical combat form, based on the type and subtype explained above, when HP reaches 0, the spirin simply casts off the physical form and takes some time to rejuvenate.  

Combat Merge, the spirins can meld with the physical body, enhancing stats like defense, strength and perception. This translates to a +1 to +4 to combat stats depending on perks, traits, and ranks of Nature Empathy. (Adds only to Melee damage, the spirin can't make your bullets hit harder.)

Healing merge, the spirin can meld with a human body to slow the progress of a xenomorph, or stabilize a dying soldier. If any character falls in battle, the allied spirin will automatically go into the human and keep the body alive until you can get them medical attention. (In other words, even if you drop below 0 HP, the spirin will keep you alive as long as the mission itself is victorious.) The spirin can slow the effects of all kinds of radiation, poisons, cold damage, etc. When the Spirin is focusing its energy to prevent that damage, it can't assist in battle in any other way though.

In giant robot combat, the spirins can merge with the pilot to enhance their combat ability, since we no longer require 2 minds to pilot a Jaeger. They can also separate and take on their physical form, to try and fight off invaders that break into the Jaeger, like a xenomorph or predaton. The final option they have requires at least 3 spirins to merge together into a large form, capable of fighting Kaiju. The stats are determined by the spirins involved in the merge.

Level 1 spirins add 20 HP base to a Kaiju Merge, (Modified by traits of course, a feral spirit or harden carapace adds 40, tri-form adds 5.) and the defenses are adding the total numbers from the spirin types and dividing by 2. Taking our Thunder Bird from above, he has 14 in two defenses, and 15 in energy. Dividing those bonuses, +4 and +5, by 2 gives +2 and +2.5.  If the spirin merged with 2 similarly set up spirins, each would add +2 to  physical and psychic, and 2.5 to Energy, giving the kaiju merged form a total of 16 physical and psychic defense, and 17(17.5, but always round down) energy defense. The attack rolls are determined in much the same way, the physical attack would be +6, and the energy attack would be +7.

Attacks are determined by the relative strengths of the merges. Keeping with the example above, the Avian/Thunderbird mix has weak to moderate attack power, if it merged with two other weak-moderate attack forms, the overall damage is just weak-moderate. (Which means 1d6-2d6 for damage dice.) If one or more of the Spirins have a higher attack value, say one of the above was Avian/Fire, it might have a single high damage attack to show that heritage.

(An enormous spirin, showing earth, plant, reptile and amphibian aspects.)

The possibilities are rather endless for Spirin Kaiju Merges, and that is exciting for me. It is a gamble having the groups spirins merge however, the spirins can't just remove themselves from the merge whenever they want. If your Jaeger has a Xenomorph in it, and the Spirin is in Giant Merged mode, if the xenomorph sneaks up on you and kills you, it can't separate itself and come to stabilize you. All spirins must agree to seperate, and even then it takes several minutes for the gathered energy and matter to be abandoned properly so nothing is harmed, spirin or earth. (Should the spirins suddenly massively split, it causes an explosion like a psychically fueled fusion bomb... that kills even their own kind... so they only do that if there is literally no other option.)

The final aspect of Spirins is the evolution aspect. Spirins can feed on many types of alien materials, from Kaiju to xenomorphs to plasma rifles. Depending on what the spirins are fed, they will grow into more and more advanced 'forms' taking on some aspects of what was fed to them. For example, the level 1 thunderbird from earlier gets enough evolution points to become a stronger form, if the bulk of those evolution points came from eating alien plasma weaponry, it might develop a plasma breath weapon in the next form. Careful though, whatever you feed to your spirins can not be used to research, which might slow development of more advances for the X-com planetary defense project.

At level 1, a Spirin takes 10 'evolution points' to level a spirin up to form 2, it then takes 20 points to go to 3, 30 to 4, etc. The spirins don't have knowledge of their kind that have evolved past level 4, they say most of their strongest sacrificed themselves trying to save the Artherians back in their home galaxy. Each time a Spirin levels will be a unique growth, depending on how the player wants the creature to form, and what they've been fed. (Say you took lizard and want to become a crocodile, and not a komodo dragon, those will be different) All stats will increase however, and there will typically be 1 additional 'power' unlocked each spirin level.

That covers Spirins numerically, the Nature Empathy skill adds to Spirin power as well, granting bonuses to merging, and the spirins' attack and damage, and spirins don't gain 'character levels' like players do, so they'll be stuck 'in forms' for larger periods of time, but doing things like melding for combat bonuses is always useful, even if the Covenant Elites are just too buff for your level 1 spirin.

(Artist's rendition of the spirin energy collective.)

Now that we've covered the numbers behind spirins, lets delve more into the history of the Spirins.

The Spirintcusarans, as they call themselves, are from a unique world that formed in a binary dwarf star system, with a white dwarf and a blue dwarf, which bombarded the worlds of that system with unique radioactive energies, causing life to form along a radically different path.

The Spirins called their twin stars Artheria and Numeria, calling their system either the Artherian, Numerian, or some mix of the two. The stars are apparently not visible from Earth at all, being multiple galaxies away. They explain that their evolution was rather dramatic, the humanoids of their world, (which they describe as 'Like us, only different.' Whatever that means.) would sometimes give birth to an irradiated hybrid/energy/flesh thing. The flesh part would die, but the energy would be cast off, and start to form a strange cloud in the atmosphere, that over thousands of years grew very very thick, and started to grow sentient.

The spirins tell us that a few of their 'kind' went and made contact with the carbon based life, and while it took sometime, eventually the spirins discovered that their energy forms allowed them to integrate with all manner of life, experiencing life from a multitude of existences. This, and the spirin collective consciousness, led to a very early global existence between the  humanoids on that world, which stopped tribal warfare and ushered in eons of peace.

The spirins tell us that they advanced technologically, in every way except warfare, far beyond our current levels. They began to explore the stars and discovered a great ring on the edge of their star system. They studied the ring for a time, and integrated part of the command net into their ships. (We later use technology based off this for our Galactic Net, spoken of in the history post.) They could then activate the rings from their own ships, and dial in different space addresses, their advanced mathematics adjusting for the ever expanding nature of the universe.

They began exploring the universe, and discovered that they were not alone. They met the Covenant, and initially had a peaceful relationship with that faction. The Covenant was interested in the Artherians understanding of the 'Halos' as they called them, and the Artherians were interested in their advanced ship technology.

This relative peace, and limited trade, lasted until the Spirins actually discovered our world, in 1561 our time. (about 100 years after first contact with the Covenant.) They found ancient ruins on Saturn's moon Titan, and set up a listening post. They discovered that a group called 'The Overseers' was subtly controlling the evolution of our world, and not letting us get past a certain evolutionary point. The spirins, who by trading with the Covenant had actual effective space weapons, appeared over Nuremberg, Germany in 1561 our time, and fought off The Overseers. They then returned to Titan, leaving a small team to protect Earth from the Overseers, the most recent of that groups activity being in the 1950's, during multiple sightings around nuclear test sites at that time.

(A woodcut from 1561 of a supposed alien invasion in 1561)

This intervention in 1561 had dire political consequences for the Artherians and Spirins. The Covenant, unknown to the the Artherians, is under the ruler ship of The Overseers... and thus the Covenant declared war on all Artherian Colonies. The space battle was mostly a draw until the 1970's our time, when the Overseers discovered several Artherian Rift Coordinates, and began sending Kaiju to Artherian worlds.

The Artherians were initially defending themselves with space based weaponry, but it was causing too much damage to the planets themselves. Then, in the 1980's our time, the Spirins discovered their ability to merge, forming battle creatures to combat the Kaiju. The Artherians were winning for a time, until they began sending category 4's and 5's, which the Spirins could not stop.

The Artherians were losing ground, then we had our victory in 2025, knocking out the entire rift network for 10 years.

This gave the Artherians a much needed respite, and the war turned to more conventional methods of war. The Artherians and Spirins even reclaimed a few of their worlds...

2035 our time, The Overseers launch an all out assault on both Artheria and our own star system, launching many powerful kaiju against Artherian worlds, 3 Category 1's against us, and sending infiltration teams of Predatons with Xenomorph eggs to many outposts around the universe, the one on Saturn's moon Titan included.... causing the Spirins, without their Artherian hosts, to hibernate until we found them 11 years later.

2040, The Artherians are losing... badly. When on their most remote colony, one we would eventually colonize for a short time, appeared a mystical, highly advanced energy life form, called an 'Ascendant Being.'

(An ascendant being.)

The 'Ascendant Being' taught a single Artherian engineer the secret to making 'Gears' highly advanced battle robots capable of taking on practically any Kaiju. Within 2 years, the Artherians had several gears built, and the Kaiju stood no chance. One gear could, with a little Spirin help, take on multiple category 5 Kaiju.

So in 2045, the Overseers launched their most devastating, and unpredictable weapon. An ancient device that the Spirins say wasn't built by the overseers, but probably the same race that built the space ring system. This weapon contained Necromorphs... something even Spirins can't protect from.

The civilian population was getting completely consumed, so in desperation many spirins sacrificed themselves, tearing apart their own psionic consciousness in massive explosions, while what few Artherians could escape fled to the farthest reaches of space...

The Spirins of our world have been completely severed from whatever remains of the home collective. The great distance, and the psionic disruptions are too great for them to bridge, but when we do find new spirins, like those on the colony, they gladly join our own spirins collective, adding new knowledge to our own.

When we discovered the abandoned, lifeless spirin colony in 2069, we learned the fate of the Artherians. They were completely consumed by the Necromorphs, and in the year 2066, a team of Predatons was sent to that particular world, they made their way to the artifact, activated its secondary function, eradicating all the necromorphs on the planet, breaking them down into nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, and other fundamental building blocks of life... a deadly, efficient terraforming...

The Spirins have placed their full confidence in us for their continued survival, and while they don't entirely understand technology in general, they have been invaluable both for their mystical powers, but also their 3rd party knowledge of Artherian technology. They don't know it fully themselves, but they've been able to point our own engineers in a general direction, leading to advances in all kinds of technology, most recently single pilot Jaegers...

Thus concludes our redone Spirin post. Much happier with it overall. As of this posting, we have an NPC with Tri-Form Avian, Ice, and Radiation, a Reptile(Alligator Lizard)/Earth(Soil), and a pure Earth/Earth, with Feral Spirit and enhanced human synergy added on. (The Earth Spirit there, completely negated the Feral Spirit debuff with it essentially.) I'm excited to see what the other 4 backgrounds will decide.

Extraterrestrial life and other threats to humanity.

The world in which our sci-fi nerdiness takes place has many threats to it, discovered all over space, and coming from multiple sources. Let us meet some of our factions...

Let us start with the only allied alien race to humanity, the Spirins. Energy beings with great abilities, that require carbon based life to form a symbiotic relationship with to more fully exist in our world.

(A spirin in it's more 'natural' state.)

Each player will have an allied spirin with them, which they will make at character creation. Spirins can augment a players stats in all kinds of combat, if they get face hugged they can keep the parasite from killing the host for a period of time, they can merge into massive creatures and fight Kaiju, and they can inhabit more mundane life on earth and alter it into combat ready forms to help out with the alien invasion. The spirins will get their own post, as they are one of the more complex parts of this game, having many different abilities, combat options, and an evolution system that is based off of what the players allow the spirins to absorb or eat.

(A spirin in a dragonfly.)

As far as a bit of world history goes, we initially discovered the first Spirins on Saturn's moon Titan, which is the location of humanities 2nd  colony. On Titan, humanity also discovered something else alien, and not nearly as nice as the spirins...

(The most frightening thing out of the 70's and 80's) 

On Titan we found a ruined base complex underneath the ice mountains. These creatures have proven to be absolutely horrifying to our civilian population. The early colonist brought several eggs back for study, and several of the colonists themselves were infected, though the spirins they had found were slowing the process of the parasite. We studied and attempted to save the colonists that returned from Titan, but in the end humanity failed, and a queen was born in the Andes. Now, decades later, many population centers in South America have been completely taken over, and the continent is in a perpetual fight with the xenomorphs specifically. If it weren't for the fact that the spirins and pretty much all other alien life forms despise xenomorphs, we would have most likely been overrun. In fact, a few of the aliens seem to prioritize killing xenomorphs over even our most elite soldiers. The most obvious of those is what we have dubbed 'Predator Class' aliens, though the Spirins call them 'Predatons.'

(Armored, deadly, and apparently not waterproof.)

The predatons are the elite of the elite as far as ground invasion forces go. These creatures seem to be given assassination missions that are very high risk, elite Jaeger pilots, world leaders, the best soldiers we have. There is more to this faction of the invaders however, as we have recorded footage of them killing xenomorphs, On one occasion protecting a school room of children from many xenomorphs. These creatures have incredibly deadly weaponry, and apparently no love for their fellow invaders. Predatons also hunt openly another horrible, and recent, addition to our planet, a horrible creature called a necromorph.

(Zombies... forget zombies....)

The necromorphs have only been on our planet for a short amount of time, having arrived from a crashed human ship in Africa. These creatures absorb absolutely everything they can, and Africa is now mostly taken over by this plague. Only a few scattered countries still stand against the onslaught, and council resources are constantly getting sent to this region to handle necromorph related threats. Sometimes we must deploy Jaeger based weaponry, as the necromorphs grow to that size sometimes. Just how big is that anyway?

(Kaiju were the first way the overseers tried to conquer us.)

Kaiju are giant monsters, what we built giant robots to punch in the face with. 'Kaiju' class sized monsters are anywhere from 40 meters on the smaller side to over 100 meters on the big side. (Think 100ft to 400ft. Massive) These creatures were originally defeated many many years ago now, but the overseers have opened up multiple rifts since then, and still send these genetically engineered monstrosities through at somewhat regular intervals. (Not as regular as they used to however, since they've begun an actual ground invasion.) The delivery methods have changed though, as have the types of kaiju. After the initial rift was closed, the kaiju arrived encased on comets, and they, unfortunately for us, were far stronger than the rift kaiju that were being warped in. Thankfully this woke up what appears to be some sort of ancient creature that was asleep in Antarctica, something we've called Godzilla.

(We must flee!)

When the new kaiju arrived, we had dismantled nearly all our remaining jaegers, we were horribly outclassed. The Godzilla creature then emerged, and killed the kaiju, then helped himself to half of New York before retreating back to the ocean. Godzilla tends to appear every so often, often times when a creature seems 'worthy' of a fight, which have been our absolute most powerful jaegers or the most deadly kaiju, and he wins. He also tends to go after all manner of larger life as a food source. A truly chaotic force on this world, that we don't know as much about as we'd like. We do know that he has 'claimed' Japan as his home 'territory.' For this reason we have established the councils main base of military operations in an underwater base off the coast of Japan. We only have a few Jaegers stationed there though, as to not entice an aggressive response from Godzilla. Godzilla only seems interested in large scale threats though, ground invasion forces from all other factions seem to be beneath his notice.

(The dominant ground invasion forces.)

Armed with advanced plasma weaponry, with the elites having shield and cloaking technology making them comparable to predatons. These creatures have no apparent love for the other factions in the invasion forces, especially necromorphs and xenomorphs, and seemed to be tasked with the bulk of invasions on a large scale city level. They tend to take prisoners, are obviously intelligent, and from what we can tell live in some sort of regimented religious society. There is another invasion force though, which we call the overseer race, which appears to be in charge.

(Those in charge... we think.)

With all these problems all over our planet, you'd think humanity would be united, but that is not the case, the final, and possibly most deadly, opponent is the various alien cults. We have 3 that are the most deadly to us, the Kaiju cult, which is led by a former Jaeger pilot, this cult has actively tried to sabotage our Jaeger program, and at one point was out top priority, but they are no longer. There is a cult dedicated to the Xenomorph, which is unfortunately also led by a former X-com soldier, who kidnaps people to be host for the parasitic life form. The most recent cult however, and our top priority among the human cultists, the necromorph cult. They have been trying to spread the necromorph plague, and convince willing people to undergo the horrifying transformation. (You're gonna want to click that...)

Humanity, despite our technological advances and the spirin allies, are fighting a losing battle... We are in a very real danger of losing our homeworld.




 

A new adventure, of sci-fi in origin.

Alright, so I'm going to be running a new game in the relatively nearish future, so here is a set up: I am working a shit ton, and don't have the time to keep creating the world of my amazing DnD. (Check out my DnD blog here.) Instead, to satiate my creative gaming place, I'm making a weird catch all world where multiple sci-fi franchises are represented in some way. It will be set in a somewhat distant future where humanity has a few space colonies, and is certainly more advanced than today, having giant robots. The world is going to mix aspects of Aliens, (Xenomorphs) Predators, (Which I'm naming Predatons to sound somewhat different.) even necromorphs from Dead Space, with the worlds of X-Com, Godzilla, Pacific Rim, with Halo, Stargate, and Star Trek mixed in. Confused? Watch this Honest Trailer for Pacific Rim to get partially the insanity that I'm going for.  There is going to be a lot going on, with the fate of humanity itself on the line. Thankfully, I have a hand in creating the world and back story itself, otherwise there is no way I could manage all of this. This is a general mission statement/what to be looking for to my possible players.

3 basic sizes/styles of combat, Giant Monsters, and Giant Robots to punch to Giant Monsters in the the face!

Human sized, with horribly frightening aliens to face!

Tank and Up class: Whether it is some sort of Exo-suit, battle tank, AC, (Armored core, for those unfamiliar) or a mech, heavily armored large, but no where near giant weaponry, typically for large scale/city scale battles. (These will be the most rare most likely in game play)

The actions of the players will determine the fate of humanity itself... Earth is in a struggle for its survival... and every decision will have consequences...

More details and specifics to come, but let us highlight some of the main stars!

Giant Robots!

Giant Monsters!

Scary old school aliens!

Even more alien types to mix in!

Frightening undead things that make zombies wet themselves!

And an overlord style race to tie it all together in a complicated political/action/horror/sci-fi RPG that spans absolutely anything and everything that my insane mind decides to throw at my players. 

Details on character creation, Giant Robot creation and the general history/timeline of humanity will follow in the future. Stay tuned alien hunters!