Version 1.0.8

Hellooooo! It's been nearly four months since our last update and the Rao Co team has been hard at work in the meantime! We recently completed a long-form campaign that included our content as player-side options and got LOADS of playtest data, so this update's a chunky one! 

As usual, I've uploaded the changelog as a downloadable PDF, but I'll post it below as well.

Version 1.0.8 (2/04/2025)

Our content was tested in a long-form campaign! Yippie :D!

• IPS-N FIR DÉ REINFORCEMENT changes:
  • Changed the text to “If you would become Immobilized or Stunned by something other than one of your own systems, talents, or traits, you can choose to instead suffer 4 Explosive damage and 2 Heat. This damage and heat cannot be reduced in any way, including by other effects and systems.”
    • This core bonus was almost never being used, so I changed the effect to something I expect will be more popular. I took inspiration for this core bonus from Field Guide to Liminal Space by Jacob Karpel, Jade Ripley, Joseph Scanlon.
• IPS-N Winter changes:
  • Integrated Muscle Netting changed to “When grappling up to two characters, the Winter counts as Size 3 when determining who controls a grapple.”
  • Latch Carabiners changed to “Characters grappled by the Winter become immune to all involuntary movement not caused by the Winter.”
  • “Skinner” Bulkhead Cutter’s On Hit effect changed to “Target gains a scratch token. An ally may consume the token on a successful weapon attack to deal +1d6 bonus damage on the target. This token can be cleared by stabilizing as a full action. Objects and Terrain automatically take 30 AP kinetic damage.”
• IPS-N Eldridge changes:
  • Core Active 47 Seconds changed to “You and every character of your choice within Range 3 become Intangible until the end of your next turn.”
    • No save, no nothing. Just you and a bunch of losers become intangible. Quick, easy, simple.
• IPS-N Sulfur changes:
  • Moved the alt frame from the Drake license to the Tortuga license.
    • This was a change that came to me the other day: most of the Drake’s license isn’t synergistic with the Sulfur, so why keep it there? Much more of Tortuga’s licensure plays nice with the Sulfur.
• SSC PSEUDOPRESCIENT NEURAL MESH replaced with ARTISINAL FABRICATION
  • Another core bonus that rarely saw use. I decided to replace it with a reverse Fomorian Frame until I can make PNM more lucrative.
• SSC Karamono changes:
  • Repcap reduced to 2 from 3.
  • Final Descent changed to “If the Karamono starts its turn not adjacent to any other character, it becomes Invisible until the end of its next turn, it makes an attack, or it forces another character to make a save.”
  • The following text has been added to Revenant: “You may not simultaneously benefit from both Invisible and Intangible.”
    • Kind of a weird necessity due to how the Karamono works. This may be changed in the future.
• SSC Grayling changes:
  • Poisoned Blade changed to “1/round, when the Grayling strikes a critical hit against a character it may choose to poison that character, inflicting no damage. Instead, at the ending of the current round, the target becomes Shredded and Exposed until the end of your next turn.”
    • Playtesting showed that the Bane die ticked down too slowly and without enough payoff to feel worthwhile.
  • In Bloom changed to “For the rest of the scene, the Grayling counts all free spaces adjacent to any Shredded or Exposed characters as valid destinations for movement. Moving this way counts as teleportation. Additionally, whenever the Grayling chooses to poison a character, it may still inflict damage.”
• SSC Painted Lady changes:
  • HP reduced to 8 from 12.
  • Evasion reduced to 8 from 10.
  • Sensors reduced to 5 from 8.
  • Solipsist Drive has been completely reworked from the ground up.
  • Potentia Absorber has been completely reworked and renamed to Potentia Drain.
  • Self-Mending Internals changed to “Whenever the Painted Lady rolls a Structure check, it may roll it again and choose between the two results.”
    • This frame’s been suspect for a while. After the campaign, we realized that having a damage trait on a chassis with a heavy mount and all of the other bonuses the Lady had was just kind of untenable.
• HORUS LESSON OF ANNIHILATION changed to “1/round, when you successfully Invade a character with a Quick or Full Tech action on your turn, you may apply Lock On or an additional invasion option to the target.”
  • This is intended to prevent abuse of tools like the Intrusion Spike and the Poltergeist’s Malevolence.
• HORUS Dryad changes:
  • Evasion increased to 10 from 9.
  • E-Defense reduced to 10 from 11.
  • For The Trees no longer applies Impaired on hit.
  • H4G_C0D3’s Empty Quiver invasion option now applies Impaired instead of Slowed.
  • Kiinushii Algorithm’s SNARE invasion option now applies Jammed on failure instead of Impaired.
  • Kiinushii Algorithm’s KNIVES_OUT invasion option changed to “You flood your target’s IFF receiver with noise, surrounding them with hostile targets. As a Reaction, your target immediately makes a weapon or tech attack against a character of your choice, believing them to be hostile.”
  • Intrusion Spike’s on hit effect changed to “1/round, expend a charge and choose one of your invasion options to apply to the target.”
    • This rules writing is intended to prevent the use of something like the Hacker talent or Lesson of Thinking Tomorrow’s Thought or Annihilation.
• HORUS Kraken changes:
  • Role changed to Striker/Controller from Striker/Defender.
  • Armor increased to 1 from 0.
  • Evasion reduced to 8 from 9.
  • The following text has been added to Mother Can’t Reach You Here: “As long as a character Grappled by you remains within Range 3 of you, they are pulled back to you after any involuntary movement.”
    • Some questions came up as a result of playtesting, namely “what happens if you ram a grappled target while they’re still in grapple range? Do they stay grappled?” and the answer is “yep!”
• HORUS Poltergeist changes:
  • Malevolence changed to “1/round, whenever a hostile character moves adjacent to the Poltergeist or an adjacent allied character, it may, as a Reaction, target that character with a Quick Tech action.”
  • //P0SS3SS10N changed to “As a Quick Action, your mech becomes partially unreal, losing its ability to ambulate or move without the assistance of an anchoring chassis. Your anchor must be an allied and willing mech adjacent to you. While anchored, you partially occupy their space and move with them, but you can still be targeted and attacked separately. You remain anchored to your target until the end of the scene, you detach as a Protocol, or if you become Immobilized or take Knockback.”
  • A Home Is An Empty Grave changed to a Quick Action from a Full Action and changed to “Until the end of the scene, every ally within Range 3 of you benefits from any of the Poltergeist's traits, talents, and systems requiring adjacency, and Malevolence becomes 2/round.”
• HA Zenobia changes:
  • Contact-Impulse Neurohaptics reduced to 2 SP from 3.
• HA Knox changes:
  • Devastator Array’s effect changed to “Objects and Terrain in the area are destroyed and characters in the area take this weapon's Reliable damage. If this damage reduces the target to 7 HP or lower, they take 1 Structure damage: otherwise, they are Shredded until the end of their next turn.”