It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. Mostly due to a very busy full-time job and being exhausted from running Another Anime Convention. But that does not mean that I’ve been sitting on my laurels. In fact, I’ve been pounding out and cleaning up material for the public release of Hydrogen, a free RPG that will be available exclusively on RPGBOMB.COM. The system is great for mecha style anime and cinematic modern day games as well. I’ve seen it used for Robotech, Macross, Gundam, and Stargate, with no need for retooling.
Hydrogen originally was developed by TJ Lanza, who ran a Robotech game at a store called the Wizard’s Tower. I've been working with TJ on Hydrogen for a long time now, we both share a love for the mecha genre and this game does it for us. With luck, others will like the work we did and use it.
TJ had been running the game for a year or so but I never played in it. With 4 kids, it’s hard to find a time to sit down and breathe let alone play in a weekly game. I had been able to sneak in to the store to play Star Wars with my wonderful friend Tommy. Sadly the game finally died as all games do and we were sitting around trying to figure out what to do next. That is when I learned that TJs game had ended (or possibly imploded too, I can’t remember exactly).
Since I was a big fan of Robotech, I figured I’d give it a shot, figuring we would play for a while and see what happened. I remember saying to someone, “It’ll be fun, but I doubt it will be a great campaign”. Boy was I wrong! I honestly fell in love with the system first, it was the best pieces of Mekton, bolted onto the rest of Fuzion.
TJ is an excellent GM and is willing to fiddle with the game to make it work, adjusting rules at the table to make things enjoyable yet balanced.
Now I like Fuzion but I have a few issues with it, and although this game didn’t fix all of them, it had three really bright spots, which drown out the remaining problems.
First…free experience. No, this isn’t just giving characters free XP, you have to roll really well…or really badly to get it. Here is how it works. The game used 2d6 for its randomizer. If you roll boxcars, you do really well AND you get a point of experience in the skill you were using. If you have enough free XP to increase your skill level, you do so, right in the middle of the game. Now this is pretty easy, you just get a +1 bonus to your rolls with that skill. This also happens if you roll snake-eyes. So yes you fail miserably, you might get really hurt, but you learn from your mistakes. At the end of the game session, you look at your character sheet and you can get a sense of what your character has been through.
Second…complications. These are disadvantages but without the huge list. You the player, make up the complication, with the GM guiding you as to its cost, how it works. Now this requires a GM that is willing to work with the players but if you have that type of GM, you can have loads of fun with it. We’ve had characters with complications titled “Don’t Let Her Touch That” (for my character who was known for taking things apart, putting them back together and having parts left over), 1:144 Scale Mecha Madness (for the character that is always putting models together, not a life threatening problem but kind of annoying), When Will the Hurting Stop (the same character also trips over stuff, bumps into things, but only outside of a mecha), and the Root Beer Imperative (the character MUST drink root beer if it’s an option). That is only a small sample of the number of options that the complication system allows.
Lastly…Luck. In the game, if you are important, you have a name, if you have a name, you have Luck points. Now Luck points come back every game session, so you are expected to spend them, if you don’t then there is something wrong with you J Luck lets add to die rolls, move hit locations on yourself, take actions out of turn, take multiple actions, and even adjust the storyline. For instance one of my players wanted to have his character’s sister, who is a galactic rock singer (think Sheryl from Macross Frontier, instead of Minmei please), show up in the game. I charged him a single point of Luck for it. Luck is a nice, simple way for the players to have some narrative control without things becoming overwhelming.
Needless to say, that campaign ran its course, finished, another one ran its course and mostly finished, a third has played through and is on hiatus and will start again soon. The fourth campaign is underway and is almost complete. I’ve gone on to run my own campaigns as well, first play by mail, then finally at the table where the game truly shines.
Expect more Hydrogen rumblings in the near future, maybe a couple of pages from the rules. I'll see if I can post some character sheets for Carnage.
Tags: Mecha Hydrogen Carnage
