Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[farik]

A friend and I have decided to start running a Savage Worlds version of Starship Troopers. We'd played the Mongoose Publishing game at Gencon and while it had a nice feel we didn't think the combat aspect was as Fast, Furious, and Fun as it should of been so we decided to do a conversion. It's now nearly 6 months later and I in a ridiculous fervor to be furrow am now sitting on piles of material. More than we'd ever have a chance to playtest. So I'd like to start sharing and hear any feedback you Savages have to share.

[Virgobrown72]

I'd like to see what you got...
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"Anything smaller is just fiddly, and fiddly is not one of SvgW's three Fs..."

[farik]

Well here is the Standard equipment for a player character

Standard Equipment
1 day’s Field Rations
2 Canteens of Water
3 Extra Magazines of rifle ammunition
Combat Belt
Lizard Line
Combat Knife
Brunham TW-102-s ‘Peacemaker’ Pistol
1 Extra clip of pistol ammunition.
Morita TW-203-a
M-1A4 Power Suit (M-1C8 for soldiers ranked Corporal and higher)

Field Rations: Described by most troopers as one step better than starving to death, these packs contain all the vital calories, nutrients and minerals needed by an athletic man or woman to sustain them for a single day. Virtually flavourless and completely self-contained in the form of white, chalky bars, they are usually a trooper’s last option for food if there is any other choice available. Each ration pack provides a trooper with enough basic nutrients to keep him alive for one day.

Canteen: A two pint container of water carried by Mobile Infantry troopers, these are compulsorily carried, even on short-term deployment. Canteens are typically made of antiseptic polymers or sanitised metal; a special lining keeps water microbe-free. Used properly, they never have to be cleaned during their ten year operational life cycle.

Combat Belt: This is a military grade mesh belt with several pouches and compartments for critical gear such as ammunition magazines, power cells and other small items. Combat belts can hold any one toolkit in addition to up to eight one pound or lighter objects. The key benefit to a combat belt lies in its accessibility. Getting an item from a combat belt is a free action. This can be done once per round; retrieving a second item, putting away an item, or retrieving the tools needed to perform one skill check in a round is normal a action. (wt. 2 lbs)

Lizard Line: A cable dispenser with a built in launcher that allows troopers to extend the line anywhere within its maximum length (25”), these items are used for climbing, rappelling and many other uses that only occur to troopers in the heat of battle. The grapple tip on the end of a lizard line does not deal appreciable damage and the line dispenser cannot be used as an effective weapon, but it will go effectively where a trooper wishes it to and its automatic rewind is strong enough to pull him up a sheer surface with his full gear at a rate of 3” per round. Lizard lines cannot anchor in surfaces harder than stone. (wt. 3lbs)

Combat Knife: The end result of over 5,000 years of blade technology, the standard issue combat knife of the Mobile Infantry has a poly-carbide blade with an edge that never needs to be sharpened and an impact resistant design that can withstand the impact of an atmospheric re-entry without breaking. A complete survival kit (twine, hook, sewing kit, basic first aid, matches, compass and one cyanide capsule for use if captured) is hidden in the knife’s handle.

Type Damage Wt. Cost Notes
Combat Knife: Str+d4 3 25 Contains supplies that add +1 to survival rolls

Brunham TW-102-s ‘Peacemaker’ Pistol: The ‘Peacemaker’ is the culmination of handgun technology dating back to before the long wars and the formation of the Federation. Capable of killing a man in a single shot and seriously injuring a bug, it is a Mobile Infantry trooper’s standard sidearm and arguably their most important possession next to their Morita rifle. There is talk of a TW-102-a with the ability for a controlled three-round burst, but field trials have failed to produced a version stable or dependable enough for general issue.

Type Range Dmg ROF Cost Wt Shots Min Str Notes
Flechette pistol 12/24/48 2d6 1 $200 2 30 — AP 2; Semi –auto

Morita TW-203-a Assault Rifle: A field tested and combat ready improvement to the Morita TW-201-s, this version of the weapon is a more precise killing machine. Capable of a three-round burst that does not waste ammunition, the TW-203-a was developed in response to increased Skinny activity in the galaxy. The aliens do not require mass firepower to kill, making it more efficient to use three-round bursts to penetrate their unusual armour. Against bugs, the TW-203-a is just as effective as any other rifle; some troopers swear by the new weapon’s burst fire as it allows them to accurately gauge how many rounds they are using against each target.

Type Range Dmg ROF Cost Wt Shots Min Str Notes
Flechette rifle 24/48/96 2d8+1 3 $900 8 60 — AP 2; Auto; 3RB

POWER SUITS

The standard issue M-1A4 suit issued to members of the Mobile Infantry, power armour is the greatest ally and closest friend a trooper can have. In the words of Johnnie Rico of Rasczak’s Roughnecks:

‘Powered armour is one-half the reason we call ourselves ‘Mobile Infantry’ instead of just ‘infantry’. Our suits give us better eyes, better ears, stronger backs (to carry heavier weapons and more ammo), better legs, more intelligence, more firepower, greater endurance, less vulnerability.

‘A suit is not a space suit – although it can serve as one. It is not primarily armour – although the Knights of the Round Table were not armoured as well as we are. It is not a tank – but a single M. I. private could take on a squadron of those things and knock them off unassisted if anybody was silly enough to put tanks against the M. I.

‘A suit is not a ship but it can fly, a little – on the other hand neither spaceships nor atmosphere craft can fight against a man in a suit except by saturation bombing of the area he is in (like burning down a house to get one flea!)

‘We are the boys who go to a particular place, at H-hour, occupy a designated terrain, stand on it, dig the enemy out
of their holes, force them then and there to surrender or die.’

With a suite of servos, electronics and augmentation equipment as advanced as human science can create, a power suit turns its wearer into something inhuman. Tireless, protected from the elements and shielded against all but the most serious forms of harm, it is easy for a Mobile Infantry trooper to feel like a god among men when using one. It is only the sudden swipe of a bug mandible or the disorienting blast of a Skinny beamer that brings him crashing down to reality again.

Benefits & Drawbacks of Power Suits
M-1A4 powered suits and their command variants, both suits have a battery life span and air supply for eight hours, as well as a reserve supply and back-up battery with a further hour’s worth of power which allows the wearer to survive for up to nine hours in hostile environments (space, underwater and so on).

Integral Equipment
A power suit (both standard and command) includes the following equipment items as built-in devices that cannot be mislaid or lost.

Improved Arm Servos: The suit is fitted with powerful arm servos, which increase the wearer ’s Strength. Increase Strength by two die types.

Targeting Computer: The computer compensates for movement, range, wind, and such like, granting the firer a +1 bonus to his Shooting rolls.

Visor: Also called a snooper because of its various visual and aural enhancing modes, the visor is a wrap-around piece that
can be raised or lowered with a shake of the wearer’s head. Operated by staring at certain reticules and blinking, the visor is a standard part of the M3-a tactical helmet and a vital part of a trooper’s combat kit. It grants ultraviolet, Infravision, and Low-Light Vision out to a range of 33” each. They essentially allow a trooper to make out his surroundings despite any distractions and obstructions that may be present.

Periscope: Attached over the left audio sensor of the M3-a tactical helmet and activated by raising one’s eyebrows in a quick, tight expression, this thin visual stalk raises to a height of two feet, allowing a trooper to see over the walls of a fortification. The periscope also allows a trooper, if he has a weapon capable of doing so, to make indirect fire attacks (can fire around corners or over walls as if they have near total cover).

Communicator: Built into the M3-a tactical helmet and the back plate of the suit is a high-band communications rig with an effective vertical range of high orbit and a horizontal range of five miles. This communications gear has three channels, each of which can be set on the fly or pre-programmed before a mission. Changing or setting a channel requires a Knowledge: Computers check (-2 during combat).

Helmet Lamp: A powerful flashlight that casts a circle of light 2” in radius up to a distance of 20”. The helmet lamp has four coloured lenses in red, green, blue and amber, interchangeable by blinking rapidly, for use during different ‘marking’ missions. It also has an ultraviolet bulb that is only visible in the ultraviolet spectrum.

Environmentally Sealed Bodysuit: There is no way for gases, liquids or other contaminants to get at a trooper inside a suit of powered armour. This protects him from all attacks except acid and neural disruptors that use these mediums for transmission. Sealed suits also protect a wearer from harmful atmospheres and vacuum; they are the reason a trooper can survive in deep submersion or in the void of space.

Air Supply: A reserve air supply is built into the chest plate of a power suit. This extends the eight hour supply in the trooper’s armour to nine hours before becoming exhausted. This reserve unit replenishes itself naturally over the course of 24 hours if exposed to a breathable atmosphere and can be instantly refreshed with the right equipment at a SICON outpost or aboard a Fleet vessel.

Jump Jets: The reason for the word ‘bounce’ in a trooper’s terminology, jump jets are situated in both a trooper’s boots and his armour as a collapsing backpack unit. Allows the wearer to jump 2d6” horizontally or 1d6” vertically, they simply enhance the trooper’s jumps. If a trooper is hit mid-jump the suit allows the trooper to land safely, thus not taking further damage from falling.

Temperature and Biological Regulator: Powered armour has a built-in Autodoc. The autodoc comprises a small computer linked to the character via a network of sensors inside the suit. Whenever the character is wounded, the autodoc makes a healing roll, with a Healing skill of d8. Each roll still takes 10 minutes as normal. The autodoc also pumps the wearer full of stimulants, granting him +2 to recover from being Shaken.

Belt Readout: All forms of power suit have a small computer attached to the front of their main belts. This readout is intended for another’s use as the wearer is not generally capable of seeing its screen. This device monitors health and physical condition constantly (see above) and transmits this information to a command suit’s visor display. It can also be used by hand; at the touch of a button, a user can tell the wearer’s current condition, (fatigue, number of wounds, poisons present, disease, etc).

Command and Control Suite: M-1C8 Command suits also incorporate a special five channel communication rig with a ten mile horizontal range that grants a +1 bonus when making Knowledge: Computer checks for establishing communications and dealing with interference. This is a superior rig that adds weight to the suit, but its profile is part of the armour itself and does not make a visible difference.

Type Armor Weight Cost Notes
M-1A4 +12 171 $500K Covers entire body, no encumbrance effect while it has power
M-1C8 +12 174 $550K Covers entire body, no encumbrance effect while it has power

[peregry]

Some random notes:

The MI suits could probably bear to have increased jump distances. I've messed around with various types of Battle Armor stats for my Battletech conversion, and found that it doesn't break things to badly. 1d6 isn't very much of a jump in game term (between 3 and 18 ft), and fall far short of the types of vertical leaps described in the books.

My biggest notes of concern is that these feel underpowered compared to what is seen in the books. The armor value seems low, and I saw no notes if it qualified as Heavy Armor or not (it should), small arms are explicitly described as being ineffective against the MI.

The guns also feel generally underpowered. While nicely in line with the weapons in the Core book, that really shouldn't be the case in my mind. This, of course, depends on how you're statting the bugs, but it might be good to generally up the numbers a bit to give the game a bit more epic feel.
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- Peregry
It is always giant stompy robot time!

[farik]

Rather than trying to emulate the novel we're converting from the rpg which drew heavily from the Roughnecks TV Series. Basically it splits the difference between the lower tech of the movie and the near ultra tech of the novel.

We've been play testing to fine tune the bugs but yes bugs are intended to come in massive waves or attack with the element of surprise. Bugs are easy to shoot but they move fast and are lethal in close combat.

One of the reasons we chose Savage Worlds over the original mechanics was because we wanted troopers to be able to mow down hordes of bugs without lots of book keeping.

[peregry]

Ahh, those stats are alright for the Roughnecks style gameplay. Well, except maybe the gun stats, which I still feel are to low.

A track I took when making Gear for Savage Battletech was to never recreate the wheel. It didn't matter that a the Federated Longrifle was the dominate assault rifle of the setting, when you stat it out, it ends up being just another assault rifle with similar stats to the M-16. If that is the case, just reuse stats that already exist and note it in your rules. (IE, this weapon uses the stats for the Steyr Aug...)

In other words, only Stat that which is not covered in the rulebooks you already have.

Random side note, if you want to be truly shooting down horde of bugs, you may want to consider upping the RoF for your standard weapons. A RoF 5, for instance, would make it distinctive and allow for larger hordes due to the auto-fire rules. Yes, this makes your assault rifle better than things in the Core book, so what? It's a science fiction setting, tech should be a bit better than it is with the more real life firearms.
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- Peregry
It is always giant stompy robot time!

[farik]