Strike Legion

Strike Legion is a batshit insane sci-fi RPG that references nearly every sci-fi work of note, and some fantasy works, and puts everything together, turns everything up 11, creating combination that is utterly Awesome.

The game's basic plot is pretty cliched, likely on purpose. The evil Imperium is threatening the peaceful Star Republic and its allies. The Imperium is heavily outgunned and its troops poorly trained (by the settings standards, just to keep in mind), but as it controls three million solar systems and the Republic only has six thousand plants (not counting what it allies control), well, you can see the results. As a last resort, the Republic has created an elite group of super soldiers called the Strike Legion (the game's player characters), given the best of everything available (weapons, armor, ships, training, genetic enhancements) to them to go on otherwise suicidal missions to turn the tide against the Imperium.

Gamplay

Strike Legion's combat is largely done with rolls on D10s. It has standard things of tabletop RPG with attribute and skill tests, though measurement of length is made pretty simplistic by having everything determined by a set of range bands, which is what everything moves across and the number of bands a range weapon fires across is the term for its range. In addition to the usual RPG stats, everything in the game has an action stat that determines how many actions it can take per turn, such as spending an action to move or to attack.

A notable aspect is the combat covers more than just fighting on foot, it also includes vehicles, which starships fall under. Yes, you can actually take take part in ship battles, along with using giant robots, pretty clearly inspired by the Gundam franchise, in ship and ground combat. The GM is encouraged to be creative with missions, which is need because all vehicles have a rule called an X-Factor that you multiple their stats by to determine their actual values, and the damage done by their weapons. The result is that the same weapon can do different amounts of damage depending on the ship its fired from, with bigger vehicles typically have higher X-Factors. In a nutshell, this mean that vehicles are not only going to be faster than somebody on foot, but they are FAR more durable and inflict significantly more damage. Vehicles include power armor, which have an X-Factor of 10, giant robots called Frames, which usually have an X-Factor of 100, and ships, which usually have an X-Factor 1000. Nearly every vehicle has shields that act as extra armor, and for frames and ships, the shields regenerate at the end of at turn.

The firepower in this setting's Fluff is insane, there are hand grenades capable of destroying small planets, and many of the larger ships can tank hits from these things with their shields alone, and they, can, of course, destroy planets.

Mastery

This setting's equivalent of pyskic powers and The Force, and, it's basically lifted from Mage: Awakening. Like in Mage, the powers the user (referred to as a Master) gets are separated into different areas, which represent an aspect of reality a Master truly grasps, but the sheer knowledge of reality's true workings have the consequence that too much drives the Master insane. Exactly what can be done with the Acts of Mastery is heavily up to what the player and the GM agrees on, but, most of the restrictions on what a player can do in Mage aren't present here, aside from the whole insanity thing. Put simply, the player doesn't need to fear enforcers of reality or breaking the universe, they are the enforcers and their job is keep the universe from breaking.

Background

In a nutshell, various events with humanity exploring the galaxy, and various chaos around that led to the rise of the Empress, who brought humanity under her iron fist and demanded she be worshiped as a god. Massive amounts of science that could do anything, creation of various genetically modified humans called gens for various things, some humans formed the Star Republic that was independent from the Empress. Eventually, numerous aliens threats started to emerge and gens were enhanced to be able to think and fight in wars to repel them. While the gens repelled the aliens, they got sick of how badly the Empress treated them and decided to rebel. The Empress's response when she was losing? Get a bunch of Masters together and mess with reality so any ship that attempted FLT travel through Nullspace (the main form of FTL) would be destroyed instantly in an event called the Eternal Night, cutting every planet in the galaxy off from each other, and then go into hibernation an take over the galaxy again when she reawakened. Cutting planets off from each other had the consequence of cutting them off from each other meant much of the technology gained was lost, and of course it wiped out her old domain which was then referred to as the Old Empire. When the Eternal Night eventually ended, humans and gens began to spread and explore again, with the inhabitants of the Star Republic meeting with the gens and the various species forming an alliance and prospering form their various technologies and ideas. The Empress, however, began to rebuild her empire, and seeing the Republic and its gen population, she was determined to wipe it from the galaxy.

Factions

Star Republic

Standard democratic future idealist society, composed of humans and Gens. Not all the gen nations as especially pleasant, but contact with the Republic starts to get them to defrost. It would probably be an idea place to live if not for the Imperium fighting exterminate due to all the Gens, and all the presence of all the other menaces in the galaxy. Has a huge technological edge over the Imperium due to how allows and encourages the spread of ideas from all its member species, but lacks the Imperium's sheer manpower.

Fleet

Yes, that's seriously what the Republic calls its military. The overall design is pretty clearly modeled after Starfleet, not exactly a good thing since it means they don't have a separate ground army like the Imperium does, even if they do have actual soldiers beyond their ships' security teams. The Fleet personal are much better trained and equipped than their counterparts in the Imperium, though they aren't as powerful as some of the Imperium's elite troops, though for that Fleet has its allies. Their ships are better armed then their Imperial counterparts, but carry far fewer frames, probably due to the space in their interior devoted to carrying missiles. Their frames are, however, vastly superior to their mass-produced counterparts in the Imperium. They also have options they can stick on their frames to serve various purpose, though these do usually so them down so they can be ejected after being used, and are recovered after a battle.

Also, members of fleet pursue academic careers of their choice in addition to their military pursuits, making Fleet apparently the only military organization that gives PHDs and military decorations.

Strike Legion

What you play as. Super soldiers that undergo augmentation that mean leaves a few survivors but benefit from a much greater performance, and given the best weapons available. But don't think of them as Space Marine knockoffs, since A, that kind of trope has been plenty of times outside of this game (rather famously in Halo), and be, the Space Marines are ants compared to them. Seriously, the game's stats list just having one point in the gun skill as being a better shot than anybody alive today, a point in fighting as being a better fighter than Bruce Lee, and a point in technology or science making someone a genius. And the Legion archtypes listed as samples for what a Legionnaire can do have the highest stats and skill of any soldiers in the game. This is without getting their equipment, which is actually stuff exclusive to them.

They have better weapons than everyone else, their Frames (which have enough power to take down smaller warships) and power armor (which are strong enough to take on lower end Frames) smoke most of the others in stats, and the few that do come close to matching them still aren't nearly as well armed are possess their neat special rules Like Fleet, they also have options they can stick on their frames, but also some for their armor. Their Strike Cruiser ship, oh boy, this thing has insane speed, and its well armed enough to destroy most ships in a single turn.

Aryans

Huge grey skinned gens created to use their super strength for mining work. Their society divided with females as the rulers and men composing the bulk of their army. They were highly isolationist before meeting the Republic, after which their fringe worlds started to become more open. Notable for having different stats if the player picks a male or female. Males have the highest starting strength bonus of any playable race (aside from an aged Fermorin), but trade off by losing an action per round. Females have a bonus in strength, speed, and actions per round. Both of them can re-roll strength related rolls, and can see in the dark.

They're ground troops consist mostly of males in slow but powerful suits of armor designed to fight in close quarters, led by females who use armor built for speed and provide longer range support. Their only ship is a huge battleship class vessel that in addition to its armament and shields, has a higher action stat than most other ships its size. There also probably the only action without a central theme in naming their stuff.

Chedan

Short blue humanoids that get a small bonus to strength, agility, and resolve, and immunity to cold. They prefer cold environments so they mostly live on icy planets. Their whole society is based around a bunch of loosely connected city size environmental domes that all recognize each others sovereignty. They have no ground troops of note, but their ships stand out for having much stronger shields than other ships of their size (fitting that they're classes are named after fotresses), apart from the Battle Heralds, though as a trade off they carry fewer weapons. None the less, their stronger shields make them enough a problem that the Imperium's standard strategy to deal with is to just ram them.

Draken

Dragon like creatures that live in very militarize society. They're basically your standard warrior culture, though departing from some of the usual cliches they determine leaders by who well they fight and the ability to lead, as opposed to fighting each other. They can't breath fire, but they do have wings so they can fly and have greater strength, a bonus action, and agility, plus their teeth and claws means all their hand attacks do lethal damage.

They're military focuses mostly on combat with frames, in fact their ships (all of which have dragon themed names) are designed mostly to bring frames to the battle and support them rather than do damage on their own. Their frames consist of one quick one, and one is one of the few frames with 1000 x-factor, meaning it can easily rip through warships, and its just as fast as the smaller frame.

Elden

Small super intelligent mice that rapidly reproduce to they developed a hive mentality, wait... But yeah, they're super intelligent and start with a higher intelligence stat, but being puny mice, they have max to how high they're strength can get. Backstory, they were created to super intelligent to use on planets where radiation would wreck computers (they're supposed to be resistant to radiation, but that isn't represented in game). They managed to solve their population growth by building massive cities big enough to contain their population and nanomachines that break down and recycle anything they don't need.

Being mice and not men, they don't fight themselves. They send out AI controlled frames that are fast, strong, and can fix themselves. Also contains a factor 1000 frame as they don't rely on warships, and don't even have transport for them listed.

Federation of Terra

A human faction within the republic that was formed by the descendants of the Old Empire. Humans in this game start off with no bonuses to stats in exchange for the extra points to spend on skills, but players picking humans can also choose Meta humans that all have bonuses in different areas instead. Before the Eternal Night, the Federation pursuit of purse science, specifically genetic engineering, gave its populace virtual immortality, but lost it after the Eternal Night. Their descendants spread over so over so many planets that they set rules on breading to keep them from over populating. Anybody who doesn't like that can leave.

While they lost a lot their old science, they still have enough mastery of biotechnology that they can create living warships. They only have on class, which has a fairly standard armament for its size. What stands out is that an ability that negates most everything fired at it and it can heal itself.

Fermorin

Super intelligent pacifist orks that purse art and science. You read that right. They were originally created as weapons that the Old Empire drop an enemy planets, where their ability to rapidly reproduce wherever there was enough nutrients would allow them to overwhelm the world's defenders. After rebelling, they figured out how to reprogram their own genes to make themselves do things besides fight, but some of them still give into their violent instincts and pursue war. They start out with bonuses to strength and agility, as well as extra points to spend on skills (though not as much humans). Players using them also have the option of adding an extra point of strength to them for every hundreds years of life on them (like Orks, they grow bigger as they get older), but doing that loses them a point of agility for every point they gain in strength.

Fermorins main ground troops are violent berserkers called Dark Warriors, which are among the most dangerous soldiers in the game who excel at combat, and unlike orks, are actually VERY good shots. All their vehicles for some reason have a snake theme to their names, not very orky, even though their armor and frames are in terms of function, getting up close to Rip And Tear, but also have long range guns to kill the enemy before they get close enough to. Both of them are pretty solid, but their only ship a lightly armed carrier, and its crewed by normal Fermorins that look like they need to be sent back the Fleet academy because they're not very good.

Free Trade Alliance

A heavy capitalist human society mostly focuses on profit, and, get this, are not an over top caricature for capitalism and their trade actions are actually presented as having positive effect. Also, since they like money, they don't care about race, just how can do their job best.

Their ships seem mostly designed for fighting off pirates, as their armaments, along with their frames, are unimpressive, which are mostly sent out to spot dangers and alert the ship, plus their all AI controlled so destroying the ship disables them.

Grank

Dwarfs, you know the drill with them. They get bonuses in strength, durability, but are slower. They were designed for mining, and since gaining their freedom they built most of their cities underground and are completely self-sufficient. They were engineered so their personalities would make them hate change, so bring about change, they have a forced seeing other worlds to keep their society from becoming too stagnant.

Grank armor and frames are actually re-purposed mining machines. As they're not designed for combat, they're slow, but are very deadly up close with their drills. Their ships, sadly, contain no Gurren Laggan references, instead, they focus on moving in quickly and firing off all their weapons at close range where they can do the most damage. Fitting this, they're faster than most other ships of similar sizes and are more durable.

Guardian

Cat-like creatures that were created as pets designed to be cute, but somewhere along the line somebody decided to use them in experiments with Mastery (giving house pets the power bend reality, and people say the Adpetus Mechanicus is insane). One of them in their ranks named Ordin taught them how to use their powers and led them in rebellion against the Old Empire. Currently they don't use much technology as they power with Mastery gives them most anything they want. They are mostly peaceful inside their pocket dimensions where they hide their planets, but some of them will venture out to destroy evil, especially insane Masters since Ordin eventually lost it and nearly wiped them out. Since their planets are located in universes where the laws of physics are essentially their playthings, the Imperium decided to avoid them since any fleets they send in don't come out.

The Guardian soldiers in game don't carry any weapons and instead rely on Mastery, and they have a high level in it. Playing as them gives the player a bonus to their Mastery stat. Also notable for having the shortest live span of the usable races.

Imperium

The main enemy. Basically the Imperium of Man except they're the main villain, though the Empress is, from what is revealed about her, FAR worse than the Emperor considering she seems more motivated about herself than protecting against Chaos. Life is Grimdark with worlds being greatly overpopulated, free though discouraged (by ANYBODY), it's tiny populace of nobles picked by the Empress eats up a fourth of its resources (which is pretty insane given the Imperium's size) while another half goes to its military, which it decides to spend on fighting the Republic because the Empress doesn't like gens. Any hint of rebellion is typically answered by killing everyone on the planet than replacing the people with populace from other worlds. Not as Grimdark as the Imperium, but that more so seems to stem not having the entire galaxy trying to kill it.

Imperial Armada

The Empresses' main way of enforcing her will. Crunch wise, while their ships aren't the trash heaps the Fluff makes them out to be, they are typically not as well armed as their enemies, though they are often as durable as Fleet's ships. They have by far the greatest Frame carrying capacity, but as a tradeoff, their mass-produced Frames are outside of the Free Trade Alliance's, probably the worst in the game. Since killing junk Frames would be boring, they do posses some elite designed Frames, some of which are among the best in the game. As their separate from the ground army, their personnel are pretty easy to kill.

Imperial Defense Corps

Ground troops, basically the Imperial Guard, though their weapons and armor seem closer in capability to the Space Marines. Follows the tradition of higher ranking officers being better fighters.

Imperial Marines

The Empresses version of the Space Marines, whose appearances make them sound like they dress more like Chaos Space Marines considering they put spikes on their armor. When they are sent to put down a rebellion, they go and bombard the planet from orbit before picking off the survivors. While better equipped than the Defense Corps, a lot of their stuff is junk compared to factions in the Republic, though they are better fighters than their counterparts in Fleet (for all the good it does them). Note that while their power armor is among the worst in the game, it still has personal regenerating energy shields, built in weapons, and flight capabilities.

Also, Marine leaders are tactical geniuses.

Imperial Intelligence

Spies and secret agents, doesn't get mentioned as much as other groups.

Imperial Justice

More Judge Dredd inspired cops like the Adeptus Arbites, which still managed to get in a Warhammer reference with its highest ranking officers being called Inquisitors.

Assassins Guild

The Empress's assassins that kill anybody perceived as a deviant, which can include anybody from a commoner to a high ranking military officer. She also sicks them on lovers that have displeased or angered her. Seriously.

Other Threats

While the Imperium is the main villain, the lore and the settings mentions other threats, which often menace the Republic and the Imperium.

Ancient Ones

Cthulu Mythos in space! Sorta. These things have no described origin and nobody knows what they're trying to do, they just do wreck destruction. They don't actually have a physical presence, if one appears, it controls a trio of unique frames as the closest thing to one. They fight using high level acts of Mastery, and in turn can only be damaged by Mastery.

Battle Heralds

Mechanical planet eating machines that destroy planets and use their resources to build more ships. They equip shields that make anything the Republic and the Imperium's biggest ships look like paper, and the ability for their bigger ships to construct their smaller ones during a battle. Their biggest ship also is second only the Imperium's largest fortresses in terms of durability, and has more guns than anything else in the game.

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