An idea that won't grow with me

[Rob Lang]

I started Icar when I was 14. It was all about zombies, then robots and destroying stuff. Most of the setting has matured with me (and the players, who have got older but arguably not matured) and other bits I've warped from their original intention because, well, I was 14.

I'm now working on a giant city-smashing machine called the Mk 8. When I was a young 'un, the Mk 8 was the pinacle of the arms race. One of these killer-rabbits showed up and it was time for the players to retreat. They were feared. I could make blood drain from the player's faces by the time I said "Mark ei...".

The problem is that it's not very elegant. Neither am I, to be fair, but I am not sure how it fits anymore. I've been through the drawings from when I was a teen and there are a bunch of stompy-looking robots that are either scaled up ED-209s or some sort of Manga-esque mech. Do I really need the stompyness? Probably but I do feel that of all the ideas I had, this one is having the most difficulty aging gracefully.

Are there any ideas you're living with, either in games or in games worlds that are a reflection of a much younger self?

[J.K.Mosher]

I'd love to see the images, but for a "city-killer" in theory you don't need stompy-ness.

Think the nerco-mongers from the Chronicles of Riddick (the spire was fearsome and did nothing but drop a ball of energy that wiped out a planet.

You could make it under the theory that it's untouchable (ie it hovers above the city like the ships ID4) and thereby you need to escape cause you can't realistically affect it. Think Death Star for an even better example.

Stompy means it has to move which means it has joints, which means there are a way to attack it. (though probably not effectively in any manner) What about a way for it just to appear like a monolith type item, and as it sits in the center of a city or the edges it causes vibration shock waves in the planet's crust causing sympathetic vibrations to build and eventually cause the structures and area around the Mark VIII to crumple into dust/rubble.

As for me just about everything in my head is a creation of something from my youth, but my favorite is a "home-brew" Battletech weapon that I translated/converted for use in a Star Wars D6 game (btw it's called the SLG - or Small Laser Gatling . . . picture Jesse Ventura from the Predator with a power pack on his back and a minigun that unleashes lazer bolt blasts instead of 7.62 ammo.) - It was insanely OP.

[Onix]

I'll second a Mk 8 redesign. It sounds awesome. It should be either a last resort or first strike weapon though. It's dicey to use but if you're losing anyway, send in a Mk8. If you can sneak up on a civilization, send in the Mk8s.

Maybe it's easily picked apart by cruisers if intercepted, but if a planet doesn't have orbital support it's highly effective.

As for stompyness? Hmmm. I like stompy but in this case I'd have to say no. It should be some kind of monstrous thing, but repurposed from civilian life like the big eye. Giant earth mover?* Giant tunnel boring machine?*

*Now with 8000% more lasers!

Things I'm stuck with? Hmmm. I've had some really goofy aliens that I designed for my first RPG Galactic Legions, but I haven't been stuck with them. I've redesigned a lot of them to make more sense, and I've used some of them in our home campaigns of The Artifact.

The one alien that I really can't get a redesign on is a race called Kacars. They're tall, flying humanoids with a horse head, insect like mandibles, yellow velvety fur and a fleshy bulb on the top of their head that they smell with.

I can make almost all my other aliens work, still have a similar feel to their old selves and look biologically plausible. But I just can't get the Kacars right. They're just too weird. The odd thing is they were one of the most popular races of the 19 in the game.

[Wannabe writer]

Perhaps the big stompy is a ruse? perhaps its in fact a nanobot cloud that reduces most things to dust, after incorporating energy and matter into the cloud.

[Rob Lang]

Thanks everyone, I have some other ideas for a doomsday machine or two. I think I might just go avant garde and have it not look like a robot at all - perhaps more like an ellipse with thousands of tiny death-holes in it!

[J.K.Mosher]

Just a thought . . . seeing as the running theme of the Droids is they adapt designs rather than create their own.

Make the Mark VIII a suicide machine. Let's say the Droids took a cruiser design and adapted it to make it a singular machine, that dives from orbit into the target area causing a impact crater of appropriate size, and follows that up with a self destruct further eliminating all opposition . . . and let's suggest a "CLEAN" type of explosion that only wipes out biological life, and not the resources the droids want to harvest.

The AI of the system would target the densest populated target area, or area of most resistance and be the ultimate "SHOCK & AWE", with it being basically a self aware warhead the Droids would only unleash it when absolutely/statistically needed as it would be a waste of needed resources to use them willy-nilly.

The sight of this "Suicide Bomber" would be the ultimate fear as it would not follow traditional or evolving Droid tactics. It is all about causing mass causalities and destruction. You could even up the death tally by making the final explosion also unleash a blast wave filled with nano-machines . . . that get spread over and infest than harvest everything . . . stripping metals and carbon from all available sources . . . a micro-machine plague.

[J.K.Mosher]

One other idea . . . kinda meshes with your "ellipse" idea . . .

Floating Solar Lazer Array . . . Harnes the very light that gives life and allow the Droids to cinder-ize all who oppose them.

[Onix]

Death egg?

Death bunny ears!

Death floating peace sign!

Death Macey's day parade float!

Death Keyboard!

Death Disco Ball!!!

Death Hello Kitty!

Death Penguin!

Death Rollercoaster!

Death Horse!

Death Hose?

Er, sorry, I thought if I spewed out some really bad ideas, one might end up being not so bad and actually be good. It. . . well, it didn't work.

[J.K.Mosher]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

On the general topic of ideas that don't grow, looking back on my old XenoeXodous game (aka Dramatic Action Now/DAN system) is a bit difficult, its a very clunky system. The setting is still very nice, though I've borrowed/canabalised parts of it for other concepts, so it isn't quite as singular as it once was.

As to the Mark VIII specifically - why does it have to change? The droid wars were a few centuries ago - and the droids had only limited understanding of humans -right? Simply making something that is attempting to be dragon/godzilla/evil voltron seems to be right up the alley of things trying to use psychological warfare while not having real psyches.

Of course, they're so big/obsolete/wasteful these destroyers got left behind, and abandoned - just waiting for someone to accidentally wake it up.

Read about the designed by Keith Laumer (the inspiration for Steve Jackson's Ogre) . Super tanks don't have knees, lower ground pressure, and are (in theory) easier to repair. Roving box of doom, dropped from orbit, you can't kill it piecemeal, you can't divide and conquer, caries a gigaton suicide charge so even defeat is relative.

On the other hand, what if they are not simply moving gun platforms? If these are some of the oldest still extant droids, they may have developed their own intelligence, desire for conquest, or thoughts on the universe. Don't you think the players would enjoy going on a series of missions for a strange benefactor, only to meet it face to face when an entire section of a mex-city gets up and walks away... [insert evil laugh here]

The idea of a continental siege unit that can tear down anything solid before it really presses you towards the creation of hard light Gaia that can be simply moved out of its range.