Editing JAEVA: Giant Robot RPG system (section)

== The Basics ==
As just mentioned above, a standard test requires you to roll a number of D10s equal to the sum of an attribute and a relevant skill to get a result of successes and failures. A target number is the number on the die which you must meet or exceed on the facing side of any rolled dice to determine if a roll is indeed a success or failure.

*The way to determine the target number to meet or exceed is to compare 5 as the average. Finding the target number of an enemy is to subtract the enemy's level from the players level and add 5 to the result. (Example 1: Enemy level 5 – Player level 3 = 2 + 5 = 7 target number. Example 2: Enemy level 3 – Player level 5 = -2 + 5 = target number 3.)

*Rolling a 10 “explodes” and gives an extra die to the roll, allowing a chance for an extra success or more exploding successes. if they fail it still counts as a failure.

*Rolling a 1 removes the highest success from the roll, always taking 10s first

*The average test's difficulty is a target number of 5. Target numbers of 4, 3, and 2 are progressively easier, and 6, 7, 8, and 9 are progressively harder. Give a test that fits the difficulty. No test should be as easy as a 1, and no test should be as hard as a 10.

*Rolling 5 or more successes and having more successes than the target number results in the test being an Exceptional success. (Example: on a test with a difficulty of 7, you would need to have 7 dice with a number of 7 or higher on the facing side.) In combat, do what the Exceptional success description of your weapon says. Out of combat, GMs should give a bonus of some sort as the situation warrants, like an easier target number on your next test or a higher target number on an opposed check.  

Subtract any further modifiers from the successes. If they are over 0 you have succeeded and (if in combat) may now go to the Damage roll, this is covered in the Combat section, otherwise you have simply passed.

=== Personality ===
[[File:Prisim_sync3.png|200px|thumb|left|The Personality Table, from top, clockwise: Optimist, Passionate, Furious, Pessimist, Melancholic, and Apathetic]]
Personality of a character (or even robot!) can effect a lot both in role-play and game-play. The most basic way to describe a personality is using the color wheel to the left which uses an easy way to describe a character's personality in a single word by seeing which feeling they connect with most. These are: Optimist, Passionate, Furious, Pessimist, Melancholic, and Apathetic. You may note these personality map pretty well on to various mecha anime characters, indeed, Furious, Apathetic and Melancholic/Pessimist describe the leads of Evangelion. This is intentional.

When dealing with, piloting alongside, or trying to convince other characters, characters will take a +1 bonus for rolls dealing with characters who have personalities next to theirs on the chart, and +2 for dealing with those who have personalities identical to their own. alternatively, characters dealing with their exact opposite personality (the one across from theirs on the chart) get a penalty of -2 to rolls dealing with these characters, and take -1 penalties when dealing with characters that are next to their opposite on the chart 
For example: if a pessimistic character is trying to pilot a robot alongside an optimistic character, they would be at a -2 on all their rolls to work with that character due to how little they understand them. On the flipside, if the optimistic character was working with another optimistic character, they would be at a +2, and would be fighting better if the person understands them. 

This is the concept of synchronicity, and the idea of it is to bring a more psychological element to the game, where a two pilots can have a hard time getting along with each other and have it reflect in their performance. 

*[NOTE: At the moment Personality is a very simple mechanic. there is intent to eventually change this into a "mood shift" mechanic where a character has a defending mood, and will change depending on the situation they find themselves in. It is currently a very confusing idea that keeps us from simplifying it, so until we are able to find a simpler solution, personality it is.]

=== Triggers and Insanity ===
''What's that? Evangelion's involved? ''

That's right, you saw this coming if you know anything about NGE. 
There's no absolute cause of insanity. Perhaps something traumatic happened in the character's past they go insane remembering, or see something right in front of them that they can't believe. 
Whenever your character sees something like a tank of naked clones of their mother that look like their crush, gets psychologically triggered by one of their RABITs, or has some other pants-shittingly weird thing happen that gives them a total mindfuck, they get a point of insanity and roll a sanity test at +1 difficulty and needed success for every point of insanity they have (3 sanity points would give a difficulty of 3 and 3 successes needed to pass), against their Composure+Wits. Failing the roll results in rolling on the insanity table (below) which gives conditions or actions for them to follow through on, such as going bezerk, or having a breakdown and doing nothing. However, succeeding in the roll removes that point of insanity.

Insanity can spring up any time, but it's not suggested that GMs overuse it when running games, as it can render characters uncontrollable. Insanity points can be gotten rid of through therapy, which can be whatever makes sense for the character and whatever the GM sees fit.

==== Insanity Table ====
Roll a D10 and follow the result. Only roll on this table if your character has failed a Sanity test (above).  Effects without a specified duration are left to gm discretion, and will usually last the duration of a scene.

# Mood Shift: The character's personality shifts by one step on the personality wheel (direction should be decided based on the cause of the insanity test). 
# Shell Shock: The player loses their next X actions, where X is equal to their current insanity points. 
# RABIT Event: Traumatic RABITs begin flowing in both directions on the Drift, potentially revealing secrets, adding penalties to actions, or forcing the player to make an additional insanity test. 
# Blind rage: The character goes into a berserk rage, and can only take aggressive actions against nearest ally/enemy. Allies no longer exist. 
# Personality break: see below (specialized to individual personalities) [under construction]
## Optimistic: Hysterics. the character begins laughing maniacally, everything always ends up ok in the end... right? 
## Apathetic:  ((Recommend: Sloth. Who cares? Cannot take actions for two turns. If they do, take another point of insanity.))
## Melancholic: ((Recommend: Depression. Sorrow and pity for all the world. Cannot take aggressive action.))
## Pessimistic: ((Recommend: Dying of the light. The worst possible outcome is the only possible outcome. All interactions this character makes or that are made with this character suffer a -2 penalty, regardless of personality.)) 
## Furious: ((Recommend: Bloodlust. I MUST TASTE COMBAT! The character must deal damage in close combat within 2 turns, or else they gain another insanity point (the effect persists until they have dealt damage), Damage can be against any living being, ally or enemy.))
## Passionate: ((Recommend: Perfectionist. The next check that the character attempts must be done very well (for instance, not just repairing a bit of wiring but improving it or making it "like new." Mechanically, this means getting a roll above the DC of the check). If this doesn't happen on the next check, gain an insanity point.))
# Mad World: The character begins experiencing hallucinations, and is unable to tell them apart from reality. 
# Shattered Mind: (under construction)
# Catatonic State: The character falls unconscious.
# Mental Relapse: Repeat the effects of a previous failed insanity test, and roll again. Both effects take place simultaneously.
# Madness: Roll again. This effect is now permanent (psychological help can reduce and eventually remove this.

=== Character Advancement ===
Unlike a certain other RPG franchise, where EXP needs to be in the thousands to get anywhere, JAEVA sits more in the area of [[Numenera]], where you only need a few EXP to advance. How does it work? Well, you start at 0 EXP at level 1, then 5 EXP later you're at level 2 with a couple more dots in your character sheet and some requisition points in your pocket, and now you are 5 EXP away from level 3. Here's how to earn EXP: 

*Show up to a session and participate: 1 EXP 
*Win a combat outside of the giant robot: 1-3 EXP
*Win a combat with a kaiju (or other bot): EXP equal to twice the kaiju's level 
*Uncover a conspiracy, or discover something about the Kaiju or their origins: 1-3 EXP
*Complete one of your character's goals: 1-5 EXP
*Complete a GM intrusion: 1-3 EXP

Levels advance at double the EXP whatever the last one was. starting at 5 EXP for level 2, third level is 10, fourth level is 20, fifth level is 40, and so on. 
With every level a character gains they get 30 character points to invest in their stats, and 30 requisition points to invest in their bot. 

Characters may also be awarded an extra character point from the GM every time they do things the GM finds interesting, impressive, or creative in the game. extra requisition points may be earned for completing missions and killing kaiju by collecting the price on their head.

=== Jaeger/Eva advancement ===
Robots don't advance like people do: they require immense funding to repair their massive and rare parts, and upgrades to increase their effectiveness. A battleworn machine in JAEVA will have many unique weapons and pieces of gear that turn it from something fairly normal into something wildly different by the end of a campaign. This is done through Requisition points, which are an easy way to account for, and pay for, the massive funding these programs need to sustain themselves, usually paid for through taxes, imaginary created money sending future generations into a swirling vortex of debt (but hey, it's all for them, right?), and the United Nations. Each requisition point is worth quite a bit of money, though the amount is vague to keep the paperwork down

so how do you get them? Here's how: 
*Kill Kaiju: you saw this coming. What use are giant robots if they don't defend the cities from massive beasts? Every Kaiju you fight will have a price on his head of around 10 Requisition points per level. kill it, and you get some points, however....

*Don't cause collateral damage: that's what the kaiju are here to do. causing collateral damage gets points docked from your pay. Don't sweat the small stuff though; crushed cars, massive footprints in the streets, and broken windows/lamp posts are covered by the UN, no questions asked. but the golden gate bridge? tokyo tower? empire state building? the forbidden city? that comes out of your pay. flattening an entire city block isn't what they hired you for, so don't fuck up. GMs will subtract fitting amounts of requisition from your bounty if you cause wanton destruction. 

*Keep it intact: Guess what? Hannibal Chau and his compatriots want those kaiju corpses for sellin' purposes, and he has more actual money than most countries at this point. The more intact a dead kaiju is, the more they are likely to pay (and thus more of a bonus you and your team are likely to get). keep that in mind as you weigh the risks of blowing the head off one. They also come in handy for research purposes too, I guess, but scientists are cheap-asses. 

With Requisition you will buy repairs, custom weapons, and equipment for your bot that will make them your own. Weapons work on a point-buy system: simply buy the basic weapon type (cannon, launcher, blade, fist, club, spear, shield) which as a very basic set of stats, and then buy descriptors which give the weapon a number of options, but not all descriptors are available to every type of weapon (you won't have an automatic blade, or a piston cannon. What  the hell would those even look like?). Weapons are limited to 3 descriptors each. Gear and equipment add to your bot in a similar way to how descriptors add to your weapon; each gives new abilities or enhances old ones. Equipment like the Rear Jets would allow a bot to move from medium range to long range in a single action, while equipment like a targeting system would increase the accuracy of the user, a full and ever-expanding list will be ready at the bottom of this page that will have all weapon/equipment types, their requisition price, and their effects. 

Creation of Characters, Evas, and Jaegers will all be covered in a later section.