The IPS-N Kidd is a license from No Room for a Wallflower available from LL1 to all players. It has one frame of the same name. It uses deployables to support its allies.
Description[]
The Kidd is a quadrupedal frame with digitigrade legs and shields protecting its hull.
Compendium Entry[]
A sidegraded cousin of IPS-N’s Lancaster support frame, the Kidd was produced under a joint development contract by IPS-N’s Titan–Enceladus Field Project and Northstar Branch Robotics. The original pattern for the frame was bought off a mining commune that had rigged their support drones in a slapdash but ingenious neural mesh that both hardened them against tech intrusion and increased their operational efficiency many times over. Urban legend was that the original builder of the rig had used his drone team to bury caches of black-market Volador tech in several wandering asteroids, and out of extreme paranoia made his systems almost impossible to crack. To this day Northstar Branch Robotics tries valiantly to squash down persistent rumors that clues to the location of the caches are hidden in the Kidd’s code base.
Designed to provide an aggressive, all-theater support solution to rugged field teams in hostile environments, the Kidd mounts a trio of powerful systems to ensure a broad operational envelope. The Jolly Roger semiautonomous personal orbital platform, bundled with every genuine-license Kidd platform establishes theater control in any open or near-surface environment. A squadron of bundled subalterns (along with an onboard maintenance suite) guarantees friendly support in any environment and provides a broad suite of tactical possibility. Finally, Titan–Enceladus’s SMOKESTACK heat sink pylon represents the cutting edge of IPS-N’s thermodynamic axiomatics, allowing users to offset surplus heat via the creation of a pinhole-window into an omega state of absolute zero.
The Kidd is a popular chassis in Evergreen where it is employed as a subaltern command platform for civilian and engineering purposes. Its familiar bulk can also regularly be seen accompanying traders on their way to do business with the Gray Towns.
Etymology[]
William Kidd was a privateer in the 17th century who rose to fame after his death. Legends told of his buried treasure for centuries to come.
Core System[]
THE JOLLY ROGER[]
Passive - JOLLY ROGER
At the start of every combat scene, your Kidd automatically connects to its paired Jolly Roger orbital satellite weapon. The efficacy of the Jolly Roger depends on maintaining a high level of calibration with the Kidd, which is tracked with a JOLLY ROGER DIE - 1d6, starting at 1.
The die ticks up by 1 whenever you:
- deploy a DRONE or DEPLOYABLE
- take a tech action that targets at least one allied character.
Each option can only increase the value of the of the JOLLY ROGER DIE once per round independently; however, the die also ticks up by 1 any time a hostile character takes a tech action against an allied character within your SENSORS, with no limit.
1/round, you can activate the Jolly Roger as a quick action, resetting the JOLLY ROGER DIE to 1. Choose one of the following effects, based on the value of the die:
3+ Plunder: SCAN every hostile character in a Blast 1 area and give them LOCK ON.
5+ Swindle: Every hostile character in a Blast 1 area must succeed on a SYSTEMS save or become IMPAIRED, JAMMED, and SLOWED until the end of their next turn.
6 Shiver Timbers: Fire a beam weapon, punching a narrow hole through walls and obstructions. One hostile character must succeed on an AGILITY save or take 3d6 AP Energy Damage. On a success, they take half damage
You do not require line of sight for any of these effects, they have the effective range of the battlefield, and they easily penetrate objects and terrain, although more potent barriers (e.g., energy shields that prevent effects from crossing them due to line of sight) block them normally.
Active - SKULL AND BONES
For the rest of the scene, Plunder and Swindle become Blast 2 and Shiver Timbers affects all characters in a Line 10 path.
Licenses[]
License I[]
Blackspot Targeting Laser[]
Main Rifle, 1 SP,[Range 15][1d3+1 Energy Damage], Unique
On hit: DRONE, SEEKING and NEXUS weapons and systems gain +1 Accuracy to attack the target until the end of their next turn.
On critical hit: The target also receives Lock On.
“Who tipped me the black spot the day we landed and began this dance?” – Treasure Island (1883)
PEBCAC[]
Tech, 2 SP, Unique, Quick Tech
Activate PEBCAC: An allied mech character with line of sight and SENSORS quickly flash reboots at the system level. This ends all effects caused by tech actions, stops NHP cascades, and gives the target Immunity to all tech actions - hostile and allied - other than this one until the end of their next turn. This cannot be used on Jammed characters.
Additionally, roll 1d6 to determine a side effect from the table below. These effects take place immediately and don't count as an action or reaction. Any movement they cause is involuntary.
- Your target becomes JAMMED until the end of their next turn.
- Your target moves up to its SPEED in a direction of the GM's choice.
- Your target immediately moves up to 3 spaces toward the nearest character (allied or hostile) and performs an IMPORVISED ATTACK against them. If no characters are in range, it only moves.
- Your target falls PRONE and takes 2 Kinetic Damage.
- Your target vents 1d6 Heat and deals the amount cooled as energy damage to all adjacent characters.
- Your target immediately takes the STABILIZE action and can choose what to do.
License II[]
Omnibus Plate[]
Deployable, 1 SP, Limited 2, Unique, Quick Action
Expend a charge to deploy an omnibus plate to a space within Range 5.
Omnibus Plate:
Size 1, HP 10, Evasion 5
The plate cannot be moved, is flat, and does not block movement. It is large enough to hold a single SIZE 1 or smaller DRONE or DEPLOYABLE at a time. DRONES and DEPLOYABLES placed on the plate gain RESISTANCE to all damage and gain +1 to the size of any BURST or BLAST effects they generate. Additionally, any of their effects that require adjacency can now be activated from within Range 2.
Northstar Branch Robotics returned to their roots with the Omnibus Plate, creating a simple, deployable catalytic for frontline nexus users. Designed with adaptation in mind, Omnibus Plates can attach securely to any drone or deployable system, increasing that system’s efficacy in all aspects of employ.
Field-Approved, Brass Ignorant Modifications[]
Tech, 2 SP, Unique, Quick Tech
After activating this system, choose an allied mech character within line of sight and SENSORS. You power up their weapons. When they make a ranged or melee attack roll:
- the attack’s damage cannot be reduced in any way
- the kick from firing the weapon knocks them back 1 space in any direction after the attack
- On Hit: their target must succeed on a HULL save or be knocked PRONE.
This effect ends when your target successfully hits with a ranged or melee attack roll or at the end of the scene.
As implied by the name, FABI modifications are ad hoc battlefield modifications that, while technically falling well outside the approved envelope of functionality and safety, are nonetheless popular among veteran pilots. FABI mods tend to be temporary in nature: removal of joule governors with quick-patched code, fieldcooked “hot” kinetic rounds, and so on.
License III[]
FORGE-2 Subaltern Squad[]
Deployable, 4 SP, Limited 6, Unique, Quick Action
1/round, expend a charge to deploy a team of FORGE-2 subalterns to start work on one of the following projects in a free space within line of sight and Range 5.
The project is an immovable object that is finished at the start of your next turn, gaining +10 HP (maximum and current). It is cancelled if it’s destroyed.
The subalterns aren’t treated as separate entities and can’t be targeted. They return to you if the project is destroyed, cancelled, or finished, no matter where you are.
If you OVERCHARGE to use this system again, it may ignore the 1/round limit, but the second project must be placed adjacent to the first.
Projects:
Emplacement
Size 1, HP 5, Evasion 5
When finished, this elevated emplacement is SIZE 1 and 3 spaces high. The top third is a is a shielded platform that can fit characters up to a combined SIZE 1 (the rest is solid metal or plastic). Firing slits allow line of sight both into and out of the emplacement but give characters within hard cover from all directions. Characters can enter or exit the emplacement from any adjacent space as a quick action. Upon entering, they move into the shielded platform. Characters and DEPLOYABLES can stand on the flat roof of the structure, but don’t gain cover.
Snare Foam
Size 1, HP 5, Evasion 5
When finished, this project continually sprays foam around it, creating a Burst 2 area of difficult terrain. Destroying it removes the effect.
Damping Station
Size 1, HP 5, Evasion 5
When finished, this repair station generates a Burst 1 field within which allied characters gain IMMUNITY to burn and clear any burn currently affecting them.
Armor Pack
Size 1, HP 5, Evasion 5
When finished, this pack latches onto the next allied character that moves adjacent to it and fuses onto them. The project is destroyed, but they gain +1 ARMOR for the rest of the scene. This could temporarily put them over the armor maximum.
The FORGE line of subalterns represents IPS-N’s premier range of frontline autonomous robotic humanoids. Produced by its robotics division, Northstar Branch Robotics, FORGE-2 subalterns are IPS-N’s newest combat engineering models, built to user scale and function.
Smokestack Heat Sink[]
Deployable, 3 SP, Limited 2, Unique, Quick Action
Size 1/2, HP 5, Evasion 10, E-Defense 10
Expend a charge to deploy a pylon that absorbs heat in a Burst 2 area around itself. It absorbs any heat dealt to characters at least partially within the affected area from any source (before reductions, including RESISTANCE). Once the pylon has absorbed 6 Heat, it explodes. Characters within the affected area must succeed on an AGILITY save or take 1d6+3 AP Energy Damage. On a success, they take half damage. Objects and DEPLOYABLES are hit automatically. Any excess heat absorbed by the pylon as part of the same action or effect that caused it to explode disperses with no effect.
The IPS-N Kidd’s SMOKESTACK Heat Sink represents the latest in IPS-N’s heat dispersion systems for chassis and other CORE-powered vehicles and vessels. Utilizing proprietary axiomatics, the SMOKESTACK system establishes (via deployable pylon) a localized, minor, and stable pinhole into an omega state, allowing users to – for a certain value of thermodynamic exchange – cool excess heat debt by depositing it into that same state. Once the SMOKESTACK reaches capacity – a hard-coded feature – it detonates, making the system just as effective a weapon as it is a heat sink.