He spent the huge pile of trait points, it took some careful lifepath selection! There was one vote, but not on Iron-Trained. We all voted that Illegal Crucis = Corvus and Crucis for the purpose of the Iron-Trained requirement.
I do want to thank everyone for replying. This isn’t for all Kerrn Veps, but it certainly is a neat departure from a more traditional interpretation of the Fetishist trait.
Be aware that there’s some tweakiness with high-Forte Kerrn and Iron that doesn’t normally come up since Kerrn can’t wear Iron. But if they max out Forte, they can get a MW tolerance in armor that’s in the V range if I recall, which along with the Hardened and Shielded trait means it’ll take an S scale hit to kill them.
Basically, the rules do prohibit Kerrn from wearing Iron, and there are consequences to allowing it.
Well, it’d take a Superstructural scale hit to kill an uber-Kernn in Iron outright. But a few good hits with a jack laser will add up, I’d imagine.
Let me parse that out… assuming 10 Forte and Power, plus the six, yeah, MW of 16. The 4 AT would put that into V4 territory. Plus the hardened and shielded, and that’s a tough nut to crack.
That isn’t something I thought about. Thanks for the heads up. I mean, granted there are ways around this, like Sydney says enough Injuries or even superficial wounds would put him out of commission. But it does seem wonky that he needs to be hit with the equivalent of a cruise missile to kill him.
Maybe I’ll run a few combats with Chris and we’ll see how it shakes out.
Obviously, you can play this however you want, but Kerrn are specifically designed to be unable to take Iron. They can’t get both the Iron Trained and Corvus and Crucis traits – Illegal Crucis is not the equivalent. It’s your game, so do as you will, of course, but I wanted to be clear to the folks at home. As Devin pointed out, Kerrn and Iron combined are ludicrously tough.
But if you check out the Hardened and Shielded trait, you’ll note that there’s no mention of Superstructural scale damage. The trait only reduces Vehicular scale damage. Superstructural will take it out like it would take out any Vehicular-scale-rated vehicle.
-L
My understanding from the story and the game is that Iron is a sort of ancestral heirloom and not an assembly line item. I’m no canon Nazi but that at least provides some narrative for keeping it rare (if rare Iron is your goal).
p.
Yeah, the history of that piece of Iron is found here.
I really dug the concept Chris came up with, as did everyone else at the table. Though the vote to make Illegal Crucis = Corvus and Crucis could result in everyone walking around in Iron. That’s hardly ideal.
I might ask for a trait to make the Iron’s Crucis port only work for Vvrunt, to hammer home the idea that the Iron “chose” him. Whether it’s the specter of the Lord that once wore the Iron, or a malfunctioning Crucis port, I can leave up in the air. I think it’s a fair compromise, and I’ll bring it up with the player.
My understanding is that it is not that an Illegal Crucis can not run Iron, it is that the Trait does not allow you to buy Iron for the 1 or 2 Resources Points as per normal. After all Armor must be specifically designed for each person. I would assume that your Stentor would update your father’s or grandfather’s Iron when you came of age.
For your Kerrn to have Iron it would have to be specially made from scratch for him (costly). Or owned by the Kerrn people.
In the IE comics, isn’t Gopher wearing Iron specially designed for Kerrn? This indicates that it is possible in the setting, even if BE does not allow it.
To my understanding, Gopher’s wearing anvil armor. Come on, man! There’s NOTHING in the comics that the game doesn’t allow. And there’s tons more in the game that is allowed that isn’t even mentioned in the comics!
No shit?
Under the Iron Trained heading on page 262:
“Restrictions: Must have the Corvus and Crucis trait.”
The Illegal Crucis trait does not suffice, at least under canon. Gopher wears Anvil armor, not Iron.
Plus you need the “Iron Trained” trait, which would also have to be bought with points at full cost, since it’s not available on any Kerrn lifepaths.
Nevertheless I think the idea is so cool you should houserule it in for this character. But this can’t be just, “Oh yeah, my giant green frog wears powered armor, how many XP do I get from killing you?” The player’s already given you great material to work with: If he wants his equipment to have a soul and a past, then make it act like a character, not just a tool! It should be wonky, prone to “helping out” in mysterious ways at critical moments and “just happening to malfunction” when something goes against the Iron’s agenda, and the Kerrn character should have to spend significant time (at least some Color scenes!) working on his relationship with the spirits within.
Think about Elric’s sword Stormbringer, or Tolkein’s Rings of Power, and make this technology problematic for the character in a way that’s fun for the player.
I like this concept. Mechanically, it would be using the “gift of kindness” rules to add in some additional traits.
In retrospect, I probably would have avoided a lot of headache if I had gotten him to build a suit of armor on the technology burner, paying for whatever devices he wanted, and make the whole origin story a piece of interesting color. Lesson learned, I think.
Yeah, look at Gopher’s armor next to one of the other Grey Rats. His is a lot less bulky, with a defined waist, for instance. It’s anvil (it looks heavier than regular anvil, might have custom tech traits, but it sure ain’t Iron).
And if he wanted Iron or something like it, he’s not getting it from the tech burner. Iron costs like a million tech trait points, even on a high-index world I doubt you could make something similar for less than 4-5 RPs at character burning. If you want a Kerrn in Iron, I think cheating the Illegal Crucis in and having him buy Iron Trained with free trait points is indeed the best way to go. Sydney’s right, though, make it problematic in a cool way.
Devin gets the prize. Gopher’s in XXL Anvil armor.
-Chris