Topic Two: Brewing your Biotech

[Premier]

Hey Spliceheads,
As I was wrapping up the Splicers article "I am Legion" (an episodic adventure with source material) written by Slappy for the Rifter 71/72 double issue, it was really enjoyable working with Slappy, Guy LeDouche, NMI and TagsPB on the NPC cast that will debut in the adventure. What amazed me was the diversity in ideas and load outs on the various OCCs and especially how War Mounts, Gorehounds Host Armors and Living Body Armor were equipped and how each person approaches the enhancements.

This leads me to the next Splicers topic:

1. When enhancing and equipping your Biotech Armor, War Mount, Biotic or rounding out your Gorepoack; what approaches, considerations, favorites and necessities do you utilize or have?

2. Do you improve and upgrade by experiences and anticipations or do you have a general plan and objectives when you upgrade that you strive for?

3. What's the highest level you have played and what O.C.C. was it?

[TagsPB]

Well.....first......I check name spelling

1. When enhancing and equipping your Biotech Armor, War Mount, Biotic or rounding out your Gorepoack; what approaches, considerations, favorites and necessities do you utilize or have?

For a war mount or gorepack I draw on real life for inspiration and try to enhance around them.


2. Do you improve and upgrade by experiences and anticipations or do you have a general plan and objectives when you upgrade that you strive for?

General plan and guide

3. What's the highest level you have played and what O.C.C. was it?

Not yet

[Shark_Force]

1) i do try to have a general plan. i like to include at least one unlimited use ranged weapon with at least decent range, preferably that can damage both biological and mechanical enemies if necessary, and at least one melee weapon that also works on both machine and human. they don't necessarily have to be integrated into the character's main equipment (carrying around a pod rifle or a concussion staff are viable options). beyond that, i like to improve defence, especially focusing on automatic dodge and inexpensive sources of MDC. i am also a fan of trench foot mines and other explosives or AoE attacks, because i feel the setting focuses a lot on ambushes and asymmetric warfare (ie the splicers are generally going to be a small group facing off against larger, more powerful enemies, and anything that lets you fight a group is a good thing. something that lets you fight a group without betraying your location or even necessarily your presence is an *amazing* thing). i'd like to someday be able to fit in a stealth field, but that hasn't ever happened for me.

2) as noted above, i generally have at least a partial plan. i certainly do buy enhancements that i expect to progress further down the road (i am particularly a fan of spore dischargers, as a fully-upgraded spore discharger is an absolutely devastating weapon to use against the machine and can be very hard to pinpoint where the shots are coming from; obviously, you don't start with a fully upgraded model though). as to whether the plan changes, well... unfortunately that leads us to number 3.

3) sadly, i haven't got a regular group to play splicers with. love the setting, love the mechanics behind it, but i haven't ever been able to take a character from level 1 to level 2, let alone level 5 or 6.

i do suspect that my general plan for enhancements will be modified along the way, but alas, i do not have any experience to conclusively say that i would. there are certainly lots of enhancements i'd like to try, but i seldom have the chance to try them all.

[Premier]

1. When enhancing and equipping your Biotech Armor, War Mount, Biotic or rounding out your Gorepoack; what approaches, considerations, favorites and necessities do you utilize or have?
Biotech Armor( i.e.: Host Armors, Living Body Armors and Proto- Host Armor:

Because this is the sole surviving armor that I will need to rely on, I typically base it for survival and then offense. This may depend however on the O.C.C. I'm developing as well. For example, an Outrider, I know that my most offensive invest capabilities will be invested into the War Mount. So I'll rely on making anti-personnel and defensive styled enhancements to my Host Armor to best support my War Mount and the big bulls-eye painted on our backs. Dreadguards, Roughnecks and Packmasters, I base on the character personality, though I tend to favor a solid melee weapon and certainly something significant for long range combat that will work effectively against Machines and Splicers. With the ability to have hand held long range rifles, I keep in mind of picking something that my armor doesn't already have to give my character more versatility. For Archangels, its all about living dangerous and being able to take enemies down and quickly taking out the next target(s); so its all offensive heavy and auto dodge for me.

For War Mount: I like a juggernauts that can dish some massive damage. I must admit, seeing the original Splicers script where the Behemoth had Light Cell eye lasers plus the rockets and Casting cannons, has painted an image in my head that I can not shake. So every time I roll up a Behemoth its got to have the eye lasers to handle the close range opponents. After that I go for the cheap MDC enhancements such as reinforced exoskeleton, Horned Defense, additional MDC, etc., then the enhanced regenerations. The Grendel, Strider and Zephyr are different in approaches, but I usually load up with heat cannons, LIghtning Dischargers and Bio-Energy Expulsion Vents for area of effect, strafing attacks and damaging both machine and Splicers.
Haven't rolled a Leviathan, Dracos or other War Mount, yet.

For Biotic: I aim for a beast super soldier with predator like aspects. So anything that helps align this objective I am game for, but I also like to improve the enhancement tree based on the experiences of the character.

Gorepacks: Ah... My bread and butter of Splicers. I enjoy rounding out a Gore pack. Typically I look to assign versatile functions (i.e.: A hard hitter, a tank/defender, a speedster/stealth and the support units (saboteur and stealth/sensors). Now while they may be assigned these functions, that doesn't mean they wont cross over into each other's expertise as I want my pack to survive and stay intact. SO I still equip with cheap MDC and regeneration enhancements. I tend to model my Gorepacks like that of a wolf pack or boar hunter packs. Some are trackers and recon, others are bayers and the last are the catch dogs or luggers. My Packmaster is the one who typically delivers the coup de grace to the soften targets when necessary. Sometimes however, a certain Gorehound may just shine in the moments of gaming and I may deviate from my original plan if I see the enhancements in a whole new light or tactic that I think works better. For example, a Speedster that has Chameleon camouflage armor might go form saboteur and stealth to initial striker and interceptor or I might pull my hard hitting, melee fighter into a more defensive/counter striker functionality to help protect the rest of the pack when they are engaged. Nothing like having hard hitting back-up that you know is a finisher.

2. Do you improve and upgrade by experiences and anticipations or do you have a general plan and objectives when you upgrade that you strive for?

For most part see above, however, I know with some gaming experiences, some things tend to take a life of their own and new ideas are born instantly. For example, the Biotic that I played that at the POH 2015. There were several of us playing pre-gen Biotics and the game took a wild turn with major chaos and hilarious strategies and the wildest warfare that I have not seen in years. Lets just say... that we Biotics (3-4 of us pre-gen Biotics) were all seen as a lower caste system and taboo to the Great House, and yet when the battle got started against a sentry tower and a field of popper mines, the Packmaster player sent several of his Gorehounds to us and we rode them like steeds, roaring and charging into the fray. Galactus Kid's character was leading the charge and he and one other were swooped up by our comrades (still atop of the Gorehounds) who were Outriders flying Zephyr War mounts. So picture two Zephyrs flying while cradled underneath them are Gorehounds with these crazy Biotics roaring atop of them, flying into battle. All we needed was the Flash theme music from Queen. The ironic and funny thing is, ever one who did in fact touch Biotics ended up dying during the attack. However, the concept of these tribal Biotic s riding Gorehounds birthed the idea of "The Unbridled" for me and Galactus Kid. Now we have some nice Biotic ideas brewing that I would not have thought of in a million years. Man... I enjoy Role playing. I'm sure other Splice heads can relate.

3. What's the highest level you have played and what O.C.C. was it?
I haven't had many opportunities of playing as a player; mostly as a Splice Master. The few times I did play with other campaigns, the highest was a first level, Biotic. My preference however is my most prized favorite OCC, the Packmaster.

[NMI]

First off, it was an awesome experience helping support this article, especially since I recall the original "I am Legion" article you sent me a long time ago.

As to your questions:

1. When enhancing and equipping your Biotech Armor, War Mount, Biotic or rounding out your Gorepoack; what approaches, considerations, favorites and necessities do you utilize or have?

I kinda went based off what was suggested for the various NPC's. Some though, I wasn't given anything other than OCC, so I winged it. Why not have a Behemoth War Mount Rider with his own super powerful Casting Cannons/Rifles? A Grendel War Mount Rider that is a martial artist! A crazy and wild Dread Guard with Tentacles, various ranged melee weapons that is a whirlwind of doom! A Behemoth that is a TRUE walking tank of death with increased MDC, force fields, etc.. OH YEAH!

2. Do you improve and upgrade by experiences and anticipations or do you have a general plan and objectives when you upgrade that you strive for?

It varies. Sometimes I just try and cover a little bit of everything that I can. Sometimes I theme it. Sometimes I "plan" it.

3. What's the highest level you have played and what O.C.C. was it?''

I haven't played actually, only GM'd.