I've been dreading this, but as a lot of people on the ATmosphere asked me... Here's nothing. I'll delve into the last mental image of V_DRIVE's design "manifesto" or as I prefer to call it... Book of standards. This "document" will put my idea, my mission, and what I want with the game in plain view. It's most likely going to be a HUGE read, so get something to drink and let's get to it!
Idea
Well during the past few years (coughs in since 1998 and 2003), I had a little obsession with the mecha genre being more than just something you watch. It's a game but also it's more like engineering practice.
All games I had this unnatural and totally unhealthy (huh who would have said with the diagnosis) fascination about... Were extremely complex and required more thinking than playing. And that's the type of mecha tabletop game I was looking for. And I did find it! Battletech. Unfortunately... It's not as satisfying as I wanted it to be. A few missing bits and pieces that didn't work well with my idea. I mean it WAS A wargame, not a roleplaying game. And I finally decided, back in 2020, that it was maybe time to make a game of my own. With possible knowledge I had accumulated till then. Maybe I was ready. I wasn't...
I had the basics prepared, I had the VRAČ core prepared, I did the T0 parts... And I noticed nothing was actually done. Everything felt half-baked. Everything felt... Just not up to scale how I wanted it to.
And it just festered in the back of my mind. And I did what I do best. I let it fester, I left it to evolve, and in the meantime I finally tackled DOMAIINS.
Which was a huge mental leap for me. And in the few years which I've decided to do some more risque stuff... It paid off.
IDEA V2
Along with the whole legal stuff I've been going trough, and inevitable rebrand to decouple my old stuff from the post legal stuff now... Cue V_DRIVE resurfacing. Plus me playing some more mecha games, and Front Mission on switch coming out. So yeah I had ideas. I had ideas and I had, what I perceived more experience in putting my thoughts into games and actual mechanics.
And there was another thing which helped: The full on push for zines and different format of indie games. Long dead are the times of single two column tomes! Long live indie shenenigans!
Little did I know that this, plus me getting a few Fria Ligan games as presents, which had decoupled books for players, GMs, world, etc... That it was OKAY to actually make a game with like 10 PDFs!
And once again my interest and willingness to look at V_DRIVE perked up! But also... New thoughts raced in, new ideas, new mechanics, new executions for things I wanted!
And I finally gotten to the part where I can with pride say: I know what I'm doing!
Book of Standards
First and foremost, as all my projects go, I need to pen a books of standards. A little document that will detail how I want this to be designed, how I want this to look, to feel, to play. And this publication is that. It is finally my commitment to what I want this game to be.
And here are the short points!
d6 based
Played in 3 distinct "phases": MERC, TECH, MECH
Complexity in learning and play
Evolving meta timeline
Dice base
The initial version of V_DRIVE used a fancy little 3d8 idea. But as I want all my games to be more haptic but also easier to get and start playing. I decided to return to the classical D6. But also to keep the numbers consistent, I decided to use 4d6 again. But instead of DOMAIINS' usage as counters. This time it's a double usage with the dice. Dice both show chance of success but also magnitude of success by being used as "oracles". Dice are thrown and you add a modifier. Nothing new. But once it's done and the success is measured. You consult the dice faces to see the actual end result!
Each die should be it's own colour or somehow marked off to represent the following four:
Skill
Peril
Intelligence
Luck
So you can totally SPIL the dice. Yeah not even sorry for the lame puns anymore! Anyway. The thing here is that the dice are codified to be used in the game as a "code". This allows both the GM and the Players to engage in a more meta oriented type of game and not just rely on pure luck.
The phases
So in my mind V_DRIVE as a game makes NO SESNE if it's not done in phases that interact.
Players can pick between either MERC/TECH on a daily basis while the MECH part is the "meat and potatoes" of the game. The idea here is to try and emulate a more soap opera vibe of mecha anime where the main thing is the interaction of characters with each other AND with the machines.
All choices in the MERC/TECH part of the game impact on the MECH part of the game directly. Creating connections with others in the MERC part lets you bypass or even make some encounters easier, while giving potential allies and various other twists and turns to a combat scenario! The TECH part lets you tune and change your mech to suit whatever mission needs you have. Giving you an edge over others with your machine. Where someone lacks in interpersonal skills, they can make up with technical skills.
At the end of the day, this is a mecha game so the MECH part of the game, aka the combat in huge machines of war, is the main focus. All the rest is just buildup that leads to the nitty and gritty complex fights that erupt from corporate greed.
Pedals and Hotass, Driver's licence required
I yearn for complexity! Not Lancer style complexity. It's a cute game, and I like it. But it DOES NOT feel like mecha to me. Maybe powered armour. Not mecha. Maybe it's me driving manual. Maybe it's just me getting to drive a tank once... But mecha... I mean in all shows mecha are machines, complex. Things that pilots stumble in intially...
And that's what I want to portray. That huge daunting complexity. That overly complex need to endlessly forget something in heat of battle. Plus haptic knobs and switches feel.
So complexity is needed. But also, let's be honest. We all love complexity in games. SPECIALLY MECHA STUFF! I mean if you're reading this and didn't think: Armored Core...
I don't think this game is for you.
But if you ARE... Ho boy!
We're talking about a game where the basis is basically (Initially for T0, gets more complex with more constraints later on) "pick every part individually".
You're making your mech from scratch by picking the body, head, each arm, propulsion, thrusters, pylon loadout, weapons, software, etc. And then tuning it! A game where you'll have 3 character sheets and several papers to prep yourself for the game. Tons of "phyiscal" reminders as well.
Mechs have several "scales" but the one I'm most proud of is the basic "HP" being 10k.
Track all, from weight, speed, fuel usage, pilot stress, reactor output, weapon ammo, etc. It's a game for someone LIKE ME!
Story progress
And a player like ME! loves a good meta story tied in with the game progression! You'll also like a game who's progression and availability on parts is tied in with more meta sources and actual player input / suggestions.
That's the basic idea I have, but also I want that people shape the world as it goes. So the more people play and the more people are into the story, the more input I'll have on what kind of "corpos" and what to add to the whole thing.
The story has a set "timeline and idea". But also there are other ideas and options, which would be added as core pdfs or even as additional content later on, so that no two games are the same.
Final words
Basically that's it. I've trailed off more and more but all in all this is what I want and how V_DRIVE will go forwards with.
I will post more such documents as I continue developing this.