AD3VA

More story-wise, you want to give your players as many freebie effects to let them interact with the plot, as well as stressing that 'Stoic Child Soldier/Clone Who Has No Emotions' should not be their character. If you have multiple factions, have them actively trying or already having succeeded on recruiting the pilots to their side as agents. Give them those accidental murder mysteries falling into their laps, or psychic visions of the future, or hostile groups trying to fuck with them constantly. Your players are going to want to play someone who wants to be normal instead of getting in the giant robot, and unless you cut that line of thought off they're never gonna do a single fucking thing other than shoot the Angel when they're told and go from one scene to the next.

Here's a better idea.

Try OREva - it's being actively developed at the moment and is a solution to running Evangelion in the One-Roll Engine system.

docs.google.com/document/d/11XFhyE88iKOyOaoen-AhZ6At6qVTcM7lMzaQpVHJkA0/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks.

Is it worth including an OD or is that more trouble than it's worth?

It seems like it could be fun to give the OD the mission information and have them feed that to the pilots in their own way.

It really depends on who your OD is. A bad OD is no worse than a bad pilot, they won't really do anything they don't see the Quck Time Event prompt for. A good OD though lets you have an intermediary for any nefarious plots going on in the background, but comes with the sticky situation of giving one player authority over another. If you have someone who really wants to be the OD, and you're confident they're not a shitlord, then it's totally worth it. Treat them like another Eva for determining Angel Difficulty, though. Their effects can add up quick.

Speaking of story, any suggestions for other mythological elements perhaps from non Abrahamic religions that would suit?

Hindu/Buddhist?

I flop between various other religions in a new cloak of Evangelion paint (Ragnarok, Un/Seelie Courts, Ancient Egyptians, etc) and idly looking for the crazier conspiracy theories (Hollow Earth, The Edgar Cayce Prophecies, faked moon landings, etc)

Then I usually wedge one of each together until I get something I like, then sand the edges off and paint it Eva colored.

Currently I'm working with the idea of Eden and the two trees. Humanity already has the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge, which is where not-NERV HQ is based. The Tree of Eternal Life is what Not-SEELE are after, with them having the idea that consuming it will give them a shot at taking God out for good. Meanwhile, the 'Messiah' wants to destroy the Tree of Knowledge in the belief that it would allow what's left of humanity to escape from the horrible post-apocalyptic world.

The conflict is more about Free Will than Individuality, but maybe there's someone who wants everyone to turn to irn bru too.

Just use Strike!, AD&D is the original sin.

This is awesome. Have you run any playtests yet?

Not yet, although I am gathering players for a playtest to take place sometime during Wednesdays from 2 PM to midnight ish, EST (the exact timeslot TBD but probably around 3-4 hours per session). If you're interested, my discord is CPA#5256

It seems a bit simplistic?

Correct. Just because something is simple doesn't make it worse. It makes it easier to modify and houserule, as well as easier to understand, and combat/dice resolution takes significantly less time, allowing you to fight more Angels and undergo more mental breakdowns in the same amount of time as before!

Also, it doesn't require 70 pages of charts and tables.

That's fair, and it certainly wasn't a dig. I just think the Evas might lack character though when they're broken down to 5 stats and a weapon. I suppose the EVAs never had much character anyway, at least not compared to the pilots.

That's a fair point, although Evas do have more than just five stats, with extras and whatnot. But yeah, ORE is generally more of a roleplay heavy system than one focused on extreme mechanical complexity and simulationism.

I do like the Distinguishing Features you can roll for in Adeva, but that wouldn't be difficult to port over.

Which is why the MaOCT works though, because by default the Evas aren't unique but MaOCT makes it very easy to create ones that *are*. You can create Evas with lamia-like snake bodies or scorpion tails or eight arms if you want.

Not at all, no. I'll likely port over many of the stuff from Ad Eva in an optional module later.

Currently, all Evangelions possess the same body plan, but rules for changing it up will likely be introduced in the future.

>Currently, all Evangelions possess the same body plan, but rules for changing it up will likely be introduced in the future.
I feel like this should be a priority since it plays to the strengths of MaOCT.

It's not a necessity for running Evangelion, so I've elected to put it on the backburner for now.

I feel like a lot of the ideas that went into AdEva were cool, and they certainly folded a bunch of neat new material into the setting to expand your options, but they just bit off more than they could chew in terms of game design.

I've run a couple campaigns in it. They were a blast, but the game mechanics themselves were really clunky. At the same time the game had a very distinct... feel? For all its clunkyness, I'm not sure that I would have gotten the same results with another system.

Can't find you under that tag on Discord.

That's 100% my discord

I agree. There's a certain charm that the Dark Heresy roots of "You're awful, your options are awful, everything is awful, and it only gets worse as you get better". It just fits Evangelion's style, when suddenly someone loses a limb or gets 'Nam flashbacks and everything turns to damage control.

Charts and tables weren't any problem, the problem was that I had to use a fucking python script to calculate combat if I wanted it to go faster then my dead goldfish on a foot race. But all the grainy simulation was actually some of my favorite parts. You can't really feel the dread of your electrolaser suddenly having to emergency vent, your vibroknife breaking into the angel, your power cord being crushed, Eva and pilot broken arm, hyperventilating in a plug that's quickly getting too hot to stay in, surviving purely by your AT Field (and indiscriminate fate point use), all in a single battle, when these things aren't really options.

Isn't the combat just Dark Heresy but with a different turn system and simplified movement/ranges?

BCG has optional rules for that corruption and madness in the (free) expansion book iirc

Let. It. Die.

Yeah, but the thing is that adeva ends up having a lot more modifiers, between pilot stats and merits, Eva stats and merits, and Angel stats, merits and AT Field. Also most angels have non standard body plan, so you never memorize what the hit table means, gotta check every time. While all of this applies to DE in a sense, most things there die in a shot, maybe two. Adeva combat can last multiple sessions per angel, the numbers fluctuating all the time. In the end, it adds up.

The best part of EVA are the mechanics and logistics, you brainlet. I got harder erections with Rebuild's Operation Yashima than that with Asuka's second plugsuit.

I'm toying with the idea of using Arthurian mythology but what would the endgame for an Arthur or Mortred figure be?

t. autism
also implying it's the girls' plugsuits that get me going

I think the least realistic thing about EVA is how quickly they're able to mobilise international resources.

>Fighting burly, four armed alien Asura.
Yes please!

Ah... the ancient search for a good Mecha system.
As fruitful as ever.

Shinji and Kaworu have serious tuck game.

Nah son, he looks like a hungry skeleton.

>the dread of your electrolaser suddenly having to emergency vent
>your vibroknife breaking into the angel
>your power cord being crushed

How does AD3VA handle these in particular? Asking because the other stuff you're referencing is already a part of OREva but technical failures aren't part of the rules yet.

I' agree but, Japan's Japan. Their nearly insect level coordination and integration might hinder their social intelligence but if anyone can move 160 gigawatts (actually a very low amount, Anno is a fucking dumb hack desu) it's them.

The umbilical cord is possible target and can pretty easily be destroyed. Area attacks do a good job of it. That leaves you with internal power unless you can attach another cord.

There is a lot that can go wrong in V3 Eva combat. You can run out of power. You cn lose arms. You can supercharge your Synch Rate so you are a dex wizard but the next critical hit against you will knock you the out so hard your physical body gets a scar. Your weapons can have slow recharge times, or you can intentionally overheat your polythermic melee weapon for extra damade at the risk of it melting down in your hands.

The fluff only adds to the 'god, we are really pushing it here' vibe. The heavy antiorbital railgun damages the ozone layer every time it is fired. The strongest Sonic Weapon was reserve engineered from lab notes following an explosion where every person on the sonic weapons dev team fucking died. While working on graviton weapons, they accidently time dillated a bunch of lab techs, and built that into a gun after they got them out. Multiple weapon entries mention an automatic N2 shell rifle that has been redacted from Nerv's records following some kind of catastrophic accident, and this is in a world where everything Polythermic weapon entry ends with "lab burned down again, improve fire suppression systems during reconstruction".

Ad3va never had rules for Beast Mode did it? Just berserk?

Correct. IIRC, the reason for that was BMJ said it didnt really serve any purpose. Its flashy, but kind of a shit supermode that doesnt really do anything? And its downsides are not recognizeable. So either its not worth doing and its a big complicated trap, or it is worth doing and theres no reason not to do it round one almost every fight.

I assume there's risk involved due to the requirement of a backdoor to activate it. The behaviour of the pilot makes me think it probably relies on a very high synchrate which is dangerous in itself. The advantage would be an improved physique I think.

Cool beans. Pretty much everything in the first paragraph here is already incorporated into the rules for OREva since they're instrumental to the proper Eva feel. Good to see we're on the right track.

>You will never convince anyone at your table to try any kind of Evangelion game

The problem is that if you make a character whose point is to go beast mode and tear shit up, then the downside effectively doesn't exist. If the downside is so bad that you don't even want to beastmode, then what the fuck is the point of the option if using it is worse than getting your ass kicked fighting the normal way?

Yeah, it might suck getting the high synchro and quickly going crazy because you're hulking out once a week, but if you make a character meant to do that then you, the player, have already accepted that as a consequence that you're OK with. At that point the downsides are either pointless or too high to be worthwhile.

Its basically all the problems inherent in the Beserker class from previous editions, except you can control when it happens.

Never played AdEva, but if its based on DH, then it should come with insanity/corruption rules

OREva sure does. It uses the Madness rules from Nemesis (which are roughly the same as those used in Unknown Armies) to simulate the psychological trauma of being a teenager forced to couple with a giant armored monster.

It's going to be situational. It may be that beast-mode chomping through an AT Field is going to be the only way to take it down before the city gets squeezed into Irn Bru. It may also be a suitable option if your standard weaponry is out of commission.

Mari goes into beast-mode when she thinks the situation calls for it but she fights as a sniper and the like too. I don't think there's ever any sign (Outside of her knowing the command code) that it's something she's specialised in.

Taking a tripcode for easier question answering.

In OREva, Beast Mode is a: considered an AT Power (so it requires an XP expenditure to unlock to begin with), b: lasts one turn at default, up to a maximum at four turns at maximum AT Expenditure, c: locks your synch ratio at a very high rate, which means your pilot runs the risk of being severely injured if they aren't careful, and d: disallows you from using AT Powers while it's active, since you no longer have the concentration to perform complicated feats of physics-fuckery.

Of course, to some people that risk may be worth it for the raw power, but it is, as many things are, one playstyle of many. People who want to use Beast Mode every single combat as their first action are free to do so, but they know that their pilot is going to be spending about 60% of the time in the hospital and another 20% at the therapist.

So I don't want to start my own thread for this but I would like to run a Front Mission style campaign for my group while we take a break from the 5ed game we have been playing for the past 6 months or so.

What systems should I start lookinh into? I only have experience with Pathfinder, D&D, Shadowrun, and Traveller so I dont know where to look for giant robot action.

I guess there's no "mecha general" so, what kind of robot?

Here are some examples of the feel I'm going for

youtu.be/5pH08Nb8AkA

youtu.be/jKFtPdCysR4

Oh you said front mission I'm fucking retarded desu.
Anyways I think you may be able to cook something up using Battletech, or VOTOMS. I recommend VOTOMS personally, if you want to keep foot soldiers relevant like Patlabor.

Votoms looks interesting. Ill have to play a few rounds of vombat against myself and see how I like the feel of it.

You guys are missing the bigger picture here.

The thing you guys fail to consider is what NERV will do once someone goes Beast Mode.

Is NERV even aware that Beast Mode exists or is it something that SEELE somehow sneaked into their designs for one of their puppet pilots?

Can all Evas even use Beast Mode in the first place? 02 was the first combat model, and may therefore be the first to have the option. Not every player will get a combat Eva.

Player activates BM, loses nerve endings to half their body preventing them from ever walking and fapping left handed again and develop schizophrenia. NERV completely dismantles the unit and casts each part into high density bakelite before burying them on the Moon and impaling the Moon with the Lance of Longinus. After much deliberation the pilot is terminated after all (he was just released from the mental hospital and started to adapt to his life in a wheelchair, what a shame) out of fear of mental contamination of the other pilots who are simply told he committed suicide for never playing soccer again.

If a GM has trouble prevent it from being overused he is a bad GM. You can take this as far as you need/want to.

>combat EVA
There's a non-combat EVA..?

mine is minmaxed for dancing and corporate sponsorship

Hey man is this online or offline? I'd love to join in if you'd have me. I've played a bunch of games but am always up for another.

00 was a prototype, 01 a test unit. 03 and 04 are also combat units. After that are the mass production evas. There was also provisional unit 05 in Rebuild.

But 00 01 02 03 and 04 were all combat. Prototypes and tests yeah, but always for combat. Mass production Evas are also for combat, just combat against humans. I don't know about Rebuilt because I've jumped ship on that garbage.

00 Was definitely not built for combat.
They wasted dozens if not hundreds of units before they finally built this one that could actually be controlled or even so much as move under its own power. You've seen the Eva graveyard.

01's Case is "arguable" at the very best. It was in fact build to initiate instrumentality, hence being built from Lilith as opposed to Adam like all other Evas. Unlike 00, 01 is actually outfitted for combat, but that's an afterthought. Combat was always *the next step*.

It was the first EVA designed from the start to fight against Angels. Everything prior was a prototype.

It'll be online but I haven't planned a start date or anything yet.

Hey there, it seems I can't message you, so I sent you a friend request.

Would you accept me into the group? I haven't played a game in it in nearly a year but I used to be in them all the time until my current group got tired of AdEva. If you're interested in trying out the OD ruleset I'd be willing to take the plunge.

I once tried to run a Borderline game but ended up quitting right after the first combat since it didn't work out. I know there are more complex games, but this was still too crunchy for us.

It's such a shame since I had a nice twist planned for the first few sessions:
The game is set up as a side story of NGE located in Berlin and the players are fighting against first few angels in simulations made from attacks to Tokyo-3 and seeing them happen on the news.
After Ramiel however, they get an alert of an angel sighted in the Baltic Sea and moving after the UN fleet that left a few days ago. It's their first actual combat situation and it's against Gaghiel.
When the creature is defeated, it's a few days of celebration until one day they get news that Tokyo-3 has fallen and majority of east asia has turned into LCL under Third Impact.
Now that the show timeline is completely thrown out of the window, all bets are off and the real game begins.
Basically what happened, was that because Shinji and Asuka never fought Gaghiel, they never formed a deep enough bond to survive Israfel.
Luckily however since Israfel isn't THE Adam, the impact was a lot smaller in scope but still absolutely devastating.
If you really want to lay the blame of this hypothetical apocalypse at one person, it would be Asuka who stubbornly tried to outperform Rei.
And before you call me a reifag: Asuka > Rei

I'm 99% going to be using Adeva for it.
I'm on Kogi#9546 if you want in, but it may be a couple of weeks before anything starts.

Everyone talks about angels but what naming conventions, if any, do you have for EVAs?
I use one where Japan has 0(n), America has A(n) and Germany/Europe has E(n). The pilots can give names for their EVAs but all the official documents use aforementioned number designations.

Sent a request.

I'd think maybe different suffixes depending on the type of EVA but it seems like a minor thing.

I've seen Eva units named after Arthurian knights, but with a battleship sort of reference wording. Which is to say, you didnt call Unit 02 Mordred, it was The Mordred. The Galahad. The Lancelot.

Ive also seen a [common word] [unique word] name scheme. So lets say your team of Evas are referred to as Strikes. That gives you a roster of mechs with names like Strike Air, Strike Horn, Strike Fury, etc.

One GM I saw fluffed it as the Evas getting heavily rebuilt after fights, so any time an Eva got diwned they built a new one to replace it. So you start off with a Mech named Explorer. Fight 3, it gets killed and from then on you pilot Explorer 2. And so on.
This actually led to a pretty hype endgame, when the HQ got blown up amd the production facilities got trashed. In order to have something to commit yo the final battle, they had to repair old downed units cannibalizing parts. So after all this time, you went into the finale in Explorer 1 again.

Arthurian Knights are a good thought. Though it makes me think of naming them like tanks, after historical figures or the like.

fuck me i gotta rewatch eva after reading this thread

Read the manga if you haven't

The only time I really got into Ad Eva, the GM and players were... apprehensive about how I was apply mad science when they finally discovered what my Ops Director was doing.

Oh no! I was dosing them with LSD to get them better Sych Ratios! I was having one of them use the KT power to build a Roman Ring projector so I could have precognitive insight into battles against the Angels. OH NO! I went and injected the Third Child's non-pilot pregnant girlfriend with angel based stem cells in an attempt to bootstrap human evolution! OH NO! I made the second child's crippled brother maintain a three foot radius ACTUAL AT SHIELD through a mixture of drugs, electroshock therapy, Nietzsche philosophy, and the aforementioned Angel stem cell treatment.

Apparently I was the Bad Guy!

The Survival of the Human Species was the MOTHER OF ALL OMELETTES! Some eggs were gonna get broke!

But noooooo... I'm suddenly the villain!

Hmmmm
Why did you need to use the close family of the children instead some third world people you bought on the dark meet ?

Well, the non-pilot girlfriend was only a non-pilot because her synch ration couldn't get over 30, so he figured it was a good place to start.

The other's brother was a close relative, crippled, and easily manipulated. And if not for his spinal injury, would have been the second child.

There were a few other morally reprehensible things I did.

Once gain, human race and extinction.

Yeah yeah, but with using the close family you ignored the social Stern and created an intake testing environment, also you ignored half of my question.
Both is pretty sloppy for a fellow man of science.

I wish I was there for that game, friend. "Ends justify the means" under this sort of situation is high-tier villainy.

Best fucking thread on Veeky Forums right now.

Holy fuck, I'm hyped to run an Eva-themed game.

Be careful you don't crush your players.

The only important question is whether it worked.

How do people like their angels? Giant monsters or uncanny humanoids?

Weird but definable. I like to think of it like "lovecraftian, but without coping out on the description"

Bringing in third world people? Because I needed people what could synch with an eva, god damn it!

I was trying to bootstrap human evolution through millenia of change in less then a year!

And then my character came to an ignoble end mostly because the game isn't designed to have people manipulate their own AT fields, the other players were uncomfortable with my character, and so SEELE unceremoniously knocked him off, despite the fact that I had my major breakthrough!

How would we rule beast mode in ad3va then?

A high synch-rate locked state that gives a phys bonus but prevents the use of ranged weaponry?

For tabletop I think the giant humanoid type is probably the most fun to deal with since you can fight them more directly. If the game's combat system is good it lets you engage more with the engine.

My suggestion from personal experience: don't