Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: The Rule Book

I've recently updated the rule book on Tabletop Simulator, and it occurred to me that people may want to have a look at it without purchasing that fine product. I certainly enjoy reading other people's rule books for their games, although what I have is a 'work-in-progress' without the lovely graphic design polishing that a commercial product would warrant. Maybe people will read this and realize that a Titanomachina set is what is missing in their life? Maybe just enough to justify putting graphic design on my Patreon as stretch goal, so I can afford it. 

Currently I'm more concerned with making sure the rules accurately reflect the game, and as I find time and energy I plan to update it according to feedback. I may even go whole-hog and keep a change log, for that full Quality Cargo Cult experience.

September 1, 2021 Titanomachina Rule Book for Tabletop Simulator

In fact, here's a list of stuff that needs updating: 

• Diagrams featuring screen-shots of Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator
• Layout, from the current 3-column landscape to something more like a 10"x10" booklet
• Cover art
• Logo
• Somehow fiddle Target, Damage, and Traits into their own 3rd level sub-sections?

What else needs updating? 

 

Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: Shuffling the Deck [of Eos Configuration #2]

 

Titanomachina is designed to have a lot of moving parts, so that players can move them around as it suits them. Which is fantastic for advanced players, but can make beginners feel out of their depths. Additionally, my technical limitations with Tabletop Simulator mean that I cannot yet implement the plug-and-play Titan parts I have for the real-life prototypes I've made. So I've set up default Titan configurations, figurines and decks in Tabletop Simulator, so that beginners can get right into the game, and advanced players can still get stuck in fine-tuning the decks for the available figurines. 

In some cases, the default decks have been found to be wanting. When I set them up I followed a few arbitrary rules that I thought would make each configuration beginner-friendly; a crew member in each of the first four draws, a limb in each of the first four draws, the weapons front-loaded into the first two draws, and maximize the options available in the first draw of 8 cards. In general it has worked.

This has not worked particularly well for the Eos configuration #2, perhaps because this Regent configuration of Eos departs considerably from the baseline Reaper configuration in mounting more limbs and weapons instead of turrets, capacitors, and jets. Moreover, the Plasma Howitzer is a serious energy hog, requiring a player to sacrifice the activation of three other systems in order to itself be activated. Having two of them in the first draw (or perhaps even the first two draws) of the game does enable this configuration of Eos to hit really, really hard on the first round. But only if a target decides to dally directly in front of the immobile Eos, and either way someone's day is going to be ruined (either by making such a rookie mistake, or not). Then the Eos is going to have to play keep-away for the next few rounds before those howitzers can recharge. Not a great introductory experience. 

I think a much more beginner-friendly ordering of the cards would be to put one of those howitzers in the third draw, and likewise more evenly spread the Eos' six limbs amongst the first four draws (currently Leg, Leg, Arm-Arm, Arm-Arm). Lacking any turret, this configuration of Eos will enable the use of Their limbs to both shoot and scoot, rather than either/or. All those limbs should make this Eos more agile, not less.

So, here's what I figure I will do: 

1. Update Eos' configuration #2 deck default order to something like:

1. Initiate 3, Plantigrade Leg 1, Plasma Howitzer 2, Extra Armour 1, Arm 3, Deflectors 1, Sensor 1, Mega Gun 2; 
2. Master 1, Buzz Saw 1, Extra Armour 3, Sensor 3, Arm 4; 
3. Initiate 4, Plantigrade Leg 2, Plasma Howitzer 1, Extra Armour 2, Arm 1; 
4. Adherent 2, Deflectors 2, Arm 2, Sensor 2 

2. Move my plans for a booklet about the cards and the default configurations available in Tabletop Simulator up my list of things to do. Maybe beginners will appreciate having something to read about and consider before throwing down in Tabletop Simulator. 

Titanomachina: Exploring the Design Space

Recently I've been playing with the idea of figuring out how to implement kaiju in Titanomachina, because people love having giant monsters for giant robots to punch, and kaiju are pretty awesome. In doing so it has occurred to me how much design space I have left open, particularly when certain things like the amount of space on cards and dashboards is considered. Here's the dashboard for a giant ape, for example. I haven't really figured out what to do with the area labeled 'HABITAT BUILDINGS' but the rest of it is pretty standard. What's not standard are the systems.  

Let's take the limbs, for example. Positioned at the four corners of the Titan's System Diagram these reflect how the giant ape is mostly quadrupedal and how those stubby legs aren't really kicking anyone except as a matter of last resort. Both Massive Arms and Stubby Legs have the normal option of combining a Walk action with an Attack action, but also the option of combining a Walk action with a Jump action, enabling the giant ape to jump over and swing around buildings in a single, combined action. Obviously those Massive Arms are going to be better at it than the Stubby Legs, but it's going to give that giant ape the mobility it needs, and represent the agility we've come to expect from 100m+ mega-simians. I think I'm going to peg the Massive Arms at Effect 3, and the Stubby Legs at Effect 2, and then have them at Charge 1 for the Walk & Attack, and Charge 2 for the Walk & Jump.

This walking, jumping, and attacking is almost all the ways that the giant ape is going to move around and inflict damage, and so to back these limbs up there's a Brain and Spine that will be able to Operate other body parts, for Effect 2 and Effect 1 respectively. Our giant ape will also be able to bite effectively, able to inflict Shock with such a bite, but that's to represent its ability to hang onto things with that bite as well as bite chunks out of its opponents. With sufficient fore-thought that giant ape is going to bite whole systems off though. Those share eyes will be able to Scan, allowing the giant ape to seize the initiative from whatever it's fighting. The flexible body will enable Twist actions so that the giant ape can swing its limbs, jaws, and gaze around a little more freely. 

Now the muscles and the heart at interesting because I want to try a full 9 options for Full Power, with the Muscles also being able to Block incoming attacks, and the Heart itself propelling that mammalian physiology to the heights of energetic violence. To offset the ability to continuously double down on punching and movement, the cost of activating these Full Power actions will be Charge 3 for the Muscles and Charge 2 for the Heart, effectively allowing the giant ape to activate a limb for some movement or attack and then to reactivate it for every five cards or so. The heart is, after all, a muscle that we use the most. With only 19 cards the giant ape is going to find itself needing that frenetic rate of activity, because it has no shields and no ability to repair damage... 

So these are 'new' systems, and they certainly need some more development, but they show how there's various actions available that can be mixed and matched for new systems, either as choices or combined actions. I've had suggestions for drone systems, teleportation systems, weapons that fire multiple shots (attacks combined with... attacks. BRILLIANT!), systems that create buildings, systems that pull rather than push, systems that push sideways, systems that increase the charge cost for systems played that round (an EMP pulse), systems that re-jig a Titan's system diagram (the so-called configuration cog), weapons combining both High Explosive and Armour Piercing, or that combine Shock and Hard Rounds, and so on. Having tracks instead of limbs (just Walk, no Attack), auto-repair instead of crew (just Repair, no Operate), or active counter-measures to Block an attack so that it doesn't hit the Titan at all. If giant robot/monster media has shown us anything, it's that there's all sorts of weird and interesting stuff out there that could be fun to implement in games. I think Titanomachina has a handy assortment of levels and ports available for expanding beyond the existing game without, as it were, bogging down the existing game engine of playing cards to carry out actions on the board. 

Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: Initiative Update

I decided to go ahead with the updates to initiative, so I implemented the initiative track on the board, and reverted the game track to the board as well. The board can still be tiled with four other boards for a larger table and more players. The initiative track (and the game track) should centralise these elements of the game, tying together who gets to go next, and how much time is left to accomplish goals (and re-activate systems!). 

Notably I also updated the dashboards so that the now unused space for an initiative dice now tells players how many habitat buildings that particular Titan configuration has. 

I have also updated the rule book to reflect these changes, particularly the initiative change, but also the changes to the particular game elements. Rather than change for the sake of change (who doesn't love just changing stuff for no reason?!) these changes should make it easier for players to get started, grok initiative, and be more aware of the ticking clock of the game track. 

Notably, this would reduce the contents of a 2-player Titanomachina set to:

• 2x Titan figurines, 
• 12x Weapons, 
• 54x cards (12x Weapon cards, 8x Crew cards, 30x other System cards, 2x blank Dashboard cards, 2x Personality cards), 
• 1x Board (20" square), 
• 20x Shield tokens, 
• 1x Deadline token, 
• 40x Habitat Buildings,
• 45x Road tiles 
• 1x Dry-erase Marker,  

Titanomachina: Proposed Change to Initiative

Recently I had a suggestion with regard to a change to how initiative works in Titanomachina. For those who haven't read the latest rule book hosted on Tabletop Simulator, Titanomachina works by players taking turns by either playing cards out of their hands, or by passing, and when both players pass then the round is done. In particular, the player whose Titan has the highest initiative takes the first turn in the round, with the order of play being highest initiative score to the lowest. Titans can increase their initiative score, by activating sensors or taking damage to extra armour, and if they increase higher than 6 then it rolls over back around to 1. 

Firstly, this is a bit complicated. Secondly, once a Titan's extra armour is destroyed (or if it doesn't have any to start with, which is a real possibility) there's no way of forcing that Titan's initiative to roll over. There's also a certain bad feeling with regard to the cost of increasing initiative, with sensors requiring one other system played face-down to charge them, and extra armour requiring damage, for a single point increase. Players can increase the points more by activating crew with an operate action. But that's something like 3 cards at minimum just for that first action. 

The suggestion is to replace the +1 initiative point from sensors and extra armour with +1 initiative position. So rather than keeping track of 1-6 initiative points, the players merely need to track the turn order, who's going first, second, third, etc. So rather than the player with the highest initiative going first, the player going first goes first. Simplifies things eh? 

This dovetails nicely with me trying to make the initiative easier for players to read, as it was sometimes difficult for players to look across the table at each other's dice. Putting an initiative leaderboard on the game board seemed like the best solution of the ones I'd considered since it doesn't increase the number of components, and could piggy-back on a reversion to an earlier board that had the game track integrated instead of separate. Doing so would allow me to reduce the number of components by getting rid of both initiative dice and the separate game track. Markers for the initiative leaderboard would be required, but those wouldn't have to be dice; they could be spare habitats. 

 Of course, I'd be making the Tabletop Simulator version double-sided at the least, because why not? 

In addition, this opens up some real estate on the dashboards, where they have a big, empty space for the initiative dice that rarely gets used as such. I think putting the number of habitats available to that Titan configuration is a good use of that space. 

Titanomachina on Tabletop Simulator: Wave 4 Ideas

In thinking about how I want the 4th wave of Titan configurations to look, I've also been considering how I'd like the Titans to look once I've managed to find someone who know can figure out how to export the .3MF 'paint' settings to TTS. At least I'll be able to give them decorative skins, although I'm inclined to release the files that let people 'paint' their own Titans. 

So, first in line for once is Styxx. I think it would be something to make this configuration of Styxx a gunboat, swapping out the Jump Jets for another Capacitor to get the most out of those Plasma Shotguns. In this case in particular Styxx should probably use Her limbs for mobility to maintain a healthy distances, and a constant barrage of Shock attacks from the Plasma Shotguns to prevent effective return fire. 

In the case of Eos, they definitely need a Raptor configuration, which is rather more ape-like than avian, stealing their cousin's Big Arms and loading up on the Jump Jets and Capacitors for a more frenetic experience. This one is going to want to control the initiative, because getting hit first is not going to work out well...

Tethys recapitulates a previous configuration's Plantigrade Legs and Big Arms but takes them in a different direction from Her usual, shocking aggression, mounting two Rocket Pods and two Laser Blades. Combining long ranged weapons with a kind of T spread of damage, this configuration may be capable of disarming an opponent in short order. 

Typically Rhea is a wrestler, using Her agile limbs and hard rounds weaponry to push other Titans around. In this configuration, Rhea is more of a boxer, with just enough firepower to reach out, but also the speed to get in close and dominate an opponent close in. Certainly She's not going to want to sit back and exchange shots with any of the Titan configurations above, and She'll need clever use of Her crew to really batter an opponent.