Caliban

The Caliban chassis is a popular new order among anti piracy and stellar marine forces. Unlike many of IPS-N's modern frames, the Caliban was designed from the ground up to be a military machine.

The Caliban is IPS-N's solution to the "Yemanova " Problem, more properly known as the Impact-Override Problem. Capital ships, the problem posits, are incredibly expensive, demand a tremendous amount of time for corpros and Diasporan states to produce and maintain, and increasingly outmatched by anti-ship weaponry. In a conventional capital duel, a successful kill means the death of thousands of personnel and the loss of millions of units of manna; this makes many commanders gun-shy, encouraging them to rely on subline vessels and fighters to accomplish battle objectives rather than risk their big ships. This strategy tends to prove just as expensive: instead of one or a handful of large ships being destroyed, signifying the end of a battle, engagements can grind on for weeks as squadrons of smaller ships engage inside the unpredictability gap, inching towards victory.

IPS-N was the first to crack the Yemanova Problem. The corpro's designers identified the need for a rapidly deployable, sub-signature, directed weapon. It needed to be well-armed and well-armored, small enough to enter a ship and efficiently neutralize personnel in order to achieve victory. IPS-N created the Caliban to solve this need.

Cultural critics argue that mechanized chassis venerate the form of a particular humanity; it is an unconscious nod towards the anthrochauvinist roots of the machine among leading designers and fabricators. The Caliban is not that. It was never intended to be an image of man writ large, striding across the battlefield heroically to affect a greater purpose.

Unlike many IPS-N frames, the Caliban has no roots in early attempts at self-defense by freighter crews and asteroid miners. It was not born from ingenuity - there is no legacy of resilience, heroism, or the frontier spirit to paper over the purpose of its birth. It has no civilian applications in aid, disaster relief, construction, or farming; it does not build, defend, or inspire – it was designed to solve a numbers problem on a ledger.

It is a tool designed to kill human beings very, very quickly.

Wrecking Ball

The Caliban counts as Size 3 when inflicting knockback with any Ram, Ranged, or Melee Attack.

Pursue Prey

When the Caliban inflicts KNOCKBACK as part of any action, it can move an equal number of spaces towards the same target by the most direct route possible. This movement is part of the same action, ignores engagement and doesn’t provoke reactions.

Slam

1/round, when the Caliban knocks a character into a wall, mech, or other obstruction that would cause it to stop moving, it may force its target to pass a HULL save or take 1d6 Kinetic Damage and become IMPAIRED until the end of its next turn.

Weak Computer

The Caliban takes +1 Difficulty on all SYSTEMS saves and checks.

Core System: Flayer Shotgun

The “Flayer” – officially the Heavy Howitzer-Shotgun 075 – is a compact, formalized version of the popular “Daisy Cutter” howitzer-shotgun used by Trunk Security and other stellar marine forces. Chambered to accept shot, shell, or sabot, the Flayer sacrifices some of the DaisyCutter’s raw power in favor of control and a much-improved fire rate.

ACTIVE - Equip Autochoke

The Flayer shotgun comes pre-equipped with a muzzle-mounted auto-choke that allows its user to better define the spread of shot issuing from the weapon. The extreme heat from equipping the choke renders it unusable in short order and it must be discarded.

For the rest of this scene, the HHS-075 “Flayer” Shotgun gains the following profile:

Cone 3
Threat 3
Damage 1d6+2 Kinetic

Accurate

Knockback 5

Integrated Equipment: HHS-075 “Flayer” Shotgun//Main CQB

License Level 1:

Hammer U-RPL//Heavy Launcher

Range: 5
Damage: 2d6+3 Explosive

Inaccurate

Arcing

Knockback 2

Supermassive Mod//Weapon Mod

1 SP
- Melee
- CQB
- Cannon
- Auxiliary
- Main
- Heavy
- Superheavy

Choose one CQB, CANNON, or MELEE weapon: it gains OVERKILL and KNOCKBACK +1. During a FULL REPAIR, you may tune it to remove safety limiters, increasing this benefit to KNOCKBACK +2 instead; however, it also gains ORDNANCE (if it is ranged) or INACCURATE (if it is melee).

Unique

License Level 2:

Hardpoint Reinforcement//Shield

2 SP

As long as you are not Slowed or Immobilized, you gain Resistance to all damage during your turn.

Shield

Spike Charges//Deployable

2 SP

Spike Grenade

Throw a Spike Grenade at a target within Range 5. Your target must pass an Agility save or the grenade attaches to them and arms itself. It automatically attaches to objects. At the start or end of any turn, while a spike grenade is attached, you may detonate all armed spike grenades as a reaction. Characters to whom they are attached take 1d6+3 kinetic damage and are knocked back 3 spaces in a direction of your choice, while objects just take the damage. Characters can detach spike grenades from themselves by passing another Agility save as a quick action on their turn. All grenades detach at the end of the scene.

Spike Mine

Once activated, characters within a Burst 2 must pass an Agility save or a spike grenade attaches itself to them as described above.

Limited 2

Unique

Grenade

Mine

Heat 2(Self)

Caliban Frame

License Level 3:

HHS-155 Cannibal//Heavy CQB

Range: 3
Threat: 3
Damage: 2d6+4 Kinetic (3d6+4 Both Barrels)

You can fire this heavy shotgun twice before it needs to be reloaded. Alternatively, you may fire with both barrels at once, receiving +1 Difficulty, increasing its damage to 3d6+4 Kinetic and its KNOCKBACK to 4, but requiring it to be reloaded as usual. When this weapon is reloaded, you may choose to deal 5 Kinetic Damage to an adjacent character from the force of the ejecting shells.

Fire both barrels at once, causing the weapon to be fired with +1 Difficulty and requiring a reload as normal.

Knockback 2

Inaccurate

Rapid Maneuver Jets//System

4 SP

1/round, when you Boost, you fly, gain Overshield 3, and ignore engagement from and may freely pass through spaces occupied by larger characters (but not end your turn in their spaces). You must end this movement in a space on which you can stand, or else you fall.

Overshield

Unique

Heat 1(Self)

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse