I've been trying to GM an online game for maybe 3 years? with this system. I made like a million post.
What this game desperately needs is a monster manual - a little packet of pregenerated generic characters and maybe a few big names for GMs to use. I've made an editable character sheet and stats for Outback and a Vehicon so far, if anybody wants them. These are the first characters I've made; they mostly exist to help me get in touch with the system.
Does anyone have any old character sheets? They'd be really useful for generic/canon characters. A few other notes: 1. The Demolition skill's name is confusing. It could probably be changed to "Charge" or "Bull Rush" or "Crash." As it is, it makes inexperienced players think it's an explosives-related skill. 2. For my own purposes, I treat function/non-function skills differently. Instead of being outright off-limits to characters without those skills, they're treated at half the stat, rounded down, with no crits. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me that certain characters lack the basic capability to throw a punch or hide behind a wall, but it does make sense that untrained characters would operate at a significant disadvantage. 3. I retract my previous first-glance statement about critting on the stat instead of on a 1. The current system makes sense with the other mechanics of the game, although it does sacrifice the "natural 20 (1, Triumph, 100, 18, etc., depending on system) moment" for important rolls in other RPGs. My players for next week are super-excited, even though they're not TF fans and it's only planned as a one-shot. The character creation process is really great for getting you hyped up for the game.
If anyone wants to write up any character sheets, they can upload them to WikiAlpha. Here is one I just tried. It's Hotlink, the Decepticon Seeker weapons engineer from the first episode of the TV series and on of last year's Botcon toys! http://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/images/5/55/Tfrpg-hotlink.pdf
I would totaly love to play this its been my dream to play a D&D type game. (I am a verry lonley person. )
I'd totally be down for a PbP dealie. I'll post the PDFs of character sheets I've made when I get off of work (roundabouts 12am). EDIT: Sheets: Outback Generics - May change to "companion" to better represent expendability Vehicon Seeker 2 Pregenerated characters (out of 4 planned) for playtest next week "Doc" Subarus Maximus - Engineer (Medic) Alt-mode: Crappy Sedan; Former Head of the Traxis Neighborhood Watch, a trio of minivan minions known as the Vanguard. Countdown - Scout, Alt-Mode: Rocket. Main form of transport for group. I cheated a little with the pregens - they start with NAIL without paying for it for story reasons. I rerolled for Countdown a few times to make sure he had the stats to handle the burden of being "the ship." Since I'm GMing non-fans, I'm partially selling the franchise, so I wanted their ship to be a character rather than an object, for novelty.
That's been in the works for a little while, but it's slow going. I can see your concern. I was trying to borrow all the language from commonly thrown-around Transformers terms, and Demolition always made me think of a derby with cars smashing into each other, and that was the kind of image I was trying to conjure. (To this day I cannot ask someone to roll "Dash" with humming the G1 Japanese theme song to myself.) I may take you up on your suggestion of "Crash", though. That change certainly won't break the game. (Please note, everyone can throw a punch or hide behind a wall, neither of those are Function Actions.) The reason why I structured it the way I did - only with Communications can you open a comm-channel, for instance - is because I wanted to embrace the notion that you are Robots, and if it's beyond your Function to do something it's actually beyond your programming. I'm frustrated in other RPGs when playing a human that could not do all things available to me as a human. (What do you mean I can't pick the lock just because I'm a wizard?) But with Robots, it makes sense, and the limitations I feel make as much flavour as their capabilities. I'm glad to hear it. If you need a table of random Weapons / Technology etc. in order to help against "too many options paralysis", just email me at [email protected]. Have a fun time gaming. //Panjumanju
Generally, I've run it Rank (or maybe courage) being the charisma stat. The logic being behind that is; the more personality characters seems to have to the higher rank they are in the shows. Not prefect logic or correct all the time. But it works well enough
Tables for truly random character generations, including names, colors, gender, abilities, etc, would be cool. Someone who could program that into a webs site so they it generated a truly random transformers character that you could print... that would be cool. Now take it to the next level, and allow the generation be be based on a seed number, that someone gets off a UPC code, and program that into an android app that works on phones with barcode stats, and you could generate characters based on scanning barcode labels!
That's a pretty intense idea. The random generation tables I have right now for my own purposes are pretty crude. The problem is, many of the choices for creating a character depend on each other - most of the Subgroups are only available to Vehicle.Modes, for instance. It would require a much more complex system of checks and balances in order to generate a character with the push of a button, let alone a scan code, as cool as that would be. //Panjumanju
It would be super-complicated, and well beyond my own meager programming knowledge, but I could see it working. The barcode seed thing would require connection to something like tfu that has details for almost every toy that's come out, but simple random generation would be a matter of data input straight from the book. Could be interesting.
How many squares do you move in Hover? I'd assume vehicle mode speed attribute, but it doesn't actually say that.
You Move whatever your Move is in that mode, be it using Dash or Wheels or whatever, just, slightly above the ground. Hover is not a Move in itself, it augments movement so you can go over water, lava, and some rough terrain. It's very useful. //Panjumanju
Here is TFcon's Project Z in TFRPG rules: http://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/images/1/12/Tfrpg-projectz.pdf
Any idea how much the cost of an improved version of mass shifting would be? It would allow a character to choose either of his two sizes in both modes, for instance a casseticon who can choose to be a big robot, big tape, a small robot or a small tape?
