Rules:Untitled Mecha Game/Misc

Skills mergers and clarifications:

• Wardrobe and Style skill has been merged into the Personal Grooming skill.
• The Interrogation skill has been merged into Interview skill.
• The Jury Rig skill now includes the ability to perform sabotage
• Acting can be used for any sort of impersonation or cover maintenance. Fast talking is ad-hoc and improvisational.
• Seduction and Human Perception has been merged into the Social skill. Social covers all "being a person" checks. Some Human Perception may also be covered by Interview or Awareness skills in the appropriate, high stress contexts.
• Disguise no longer covers the acting itself. It is just the disguise. 
• Know languages: Character are assumed to know enough French and German to get by, but their accepts are terrible unless they spend points or are native speakers. 
• Programming: This indicates the use of assembly, you poor bastards.
• Pick lock and Pick pocket have been merged into a new Legerdemain skill.
• Sing, Play Musical Instruments, Dance, Gamble, Paint/Draw, Photography and Film, and Write/Compose have been merged into a new Hobby skill. For every 2 points in the skill, pick an additional hobby you indulge in. This skill will come up in the downtime mechanics. You can also take the appropriate Expert skill instead or in addition. For example, someone with both Hobby +4 (Gamble, Drawing)  and Expert: Mathematics +4 would not only understand statistics, but be able to apply that knowledge in leisure activity.

Cinematic Time, Character Mortality, and Catastrophes

The Iron Irregulars is structured like a TV series. Each session is an Episode. Episodes take place during a Season. During the Season, there is a Mid Season finale and a Season finale

Characters are shielded from serious consequences during most Episodes. If a character would normally suffer a catastrophic loss due to a die roll, they instead narrowly escape. This results in the Game Master gaining Tension (represented as a steadily growing stack of poker chips) and a character gains Karmic Debt (written onto the character sheet) as follows:

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Bad Thing Avoided	Tension Gained	Karmic Debt Gained
Mecha major system destroyed Serious lasting character injuries	1	0
Mecha destruction Character dismemberment	2	1
Character death	4	2

During any Episode, Tension can be spent to add additional enemies, force player rerolls, or to activate Villain abilities (such as inexplicable escapes). During mid season finales, Tension can additionally be used to activate a rolled catastrophe at 2:1 ratio. Thus, to cause Character dismemberment, the GM would have to spend 8 tension. During the season finale, Tension to activate catastrophe is spent at a 1:1 ratio. So long as a character has Karmic Debt, the game master gains that much Tension to be used against that character. In addition, any time a character generates Tension, they generate additional tension equal to their Karmic Debt. Finally, Karmic Debt can be called in by the GM. The GM spends 10 Tension, less the amount of Karmic Debt to end a character subplot in tragedy (such as the death of a family member). This can be avoided by shedding Karmic Debt, which is done by advancing a character subplot as explained in the Downtime rules.

Stress, Morale and Breaking

As described on page 25 of the Mekton Zeta Core Rulebook, each character has a Stability equal to 2.5 times their COOL rating, rounded down. This stability rating is now modified by Stress and Morale. Stress is gained as individual points by the character due to events and acts as a lasting penalty to the character's Stability until it is shed (see the Downtime rules for the primary way of shedding Stress), while Morale is the general fighting spirit of the whole party (PCs and NPCs). Morale is one of 4 states: High, Steady, Low, Depleted. Morale defaults to Steady. Stressful events during combat can also cause characters and NPCs to Break. A break check is 1d10 vs the character's Stability. When Morale is High, roll at advantage. If Morale is Depleted, roll at disadvantage. If a character breaks, they either Fight or Run. If they choose Fight, they charge the nearest enemy and fire every weapon at maximum output. If they Run, they flee the battlefield at top speed until they reach safety or a hiding space. Both allied and enemy forces are subject to Stress, Morale and Breaking. Troops that are green will face situational penalties.

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Event	Stress gained	Morale change?	Break check?
Each Round: Morale High Morale Steady Morale Low Morale Depleted	No No 1 1	No	No No No Yes
Positive events: Leadership roll A mission objective is accomplished A Major Enemy is destroyed or flees Character or Mecha is hit without effect	Shed 1	Raise 1	No
Minor negative events: Character is hit, minor injury Mecha loses a system Character finishes a sortie Character does a stressful downtime activity	1	No	If Depleted Morale
Major Negative Events: Character is hit, major injury A Major Ally breaks Mecha loses all weaponry Intimidation roll A mission objective is failed	2	Reduce 1, but not to Depleted	If ≤ Low Morale
Extreme negative events: A Major Ally is Killed A PC's relation is killed A PC's Mecha is disabled	5	Reduce 1	Yes
Catastrophic negative events: A PC is killed A PC's subplot ends in tragedy	Set total stress to Stability - 5	No	No