The Gaming Den

3POSSR&R: Third Party Old School Sourcebook Review

I could be looking for work online, working on my campaign I'm supposed to start running Tuesday, writing, or any of a million things, even promoting my kickstarter (see my sig!) with two days and $5000 to go.

So what sounds appealing to do? Reviewing a third party D&D book and maybe rewriting it.

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3POSSR: Horizon: Mechamorphosis


Understandable mistake, but no.


Er, no...


God no.


There we go. I'm not sure if there's an actual difference between the books. I have the red one, and that's what I'll be reviewing.

In 2004, Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 was a year old and the Open Gaming License was 4. Third Party companies were seeing D&D's popularity and riding the golden dildo of the OGL for all it was worth. The fitness of a system for what you're doing is not the primary concern when the other concern is how much fucking money you can make.

Horizon is an imprint of Fantasy Flight Games which published several mini campaign settings for D&D based on Grimm fairy tales, a hybrid of Gamma World and Mad Max, Tron, the weird west genre, and Transformers. Of course, they used non-IP Infringing names for these because whether they could get the license or not, I think it's unlikely anyone is trying to sell a license for a Mad Max or Tron RPG. Of course, if anyone were shopping those around, Fantasy Flight games owns licenses for Star Wars and Warhammer, so I wouldn't be surprised if FFG actually got them.

Of course, Hasbro owns Transformers. They also own Wizards of the Coast.

This is my second most compelling piece of evidence that Hasbro has no fucking clue how to run a game company. Sorry, third. The most compelling piece is of course the state of Dungeons and Dragons as a brand today. The next most compelling is that they have not told Wizards to make a Magic rpg, because regardless of how good it was, it would sell like ice cream in Hell. The fact that Hasbro is not telling WotC's D&D team to make games based on their most popular brands such as Transformers and My Little Pony can only be explained by gross underestimation of the popularity of these things, and perhaps very strange ideas about Market Segregation that start at "Girls don't play RPGs" and get worse from there. I cannot comprehend why the MLP card game went to an outside company, but it did.

Hasbro knows what to do with a game company less than a sexless alien robot race would know what to do with a dick.

Speaking of sexless alien-A Steven Universe RPG would sell amazingly er, robots, Mechamorphosis is a "Totally Not Transformers You Can't Prove They Are We're Not Using Any Trademarked Names-STEVE! DOUBLE CHECK THAT WE DON'T USE ANY CHARACTER NAMES!" Transforming Mecha RPG. For d20. Also for my sins.

The inside of the front cover is used to pimp Horizon Grimm. A few companies did this sort of thing, putting ads in their books, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I suppose it's fine when it's your own book you're advertising, as here and the back cover which pimps Horizon Redline, their Gamma Mad Max game. But they also have an add for Dragon magazine in the back. Thinking about the fact that that ad probably brought the MSRP down $5, I'm ok with it. It just is weird and makes the book feel less like a book and more like a magazine. WotC did this off and on, and it feels even cheaper there as their ads are always a complete departure from the layout of the rest of the book and feel crammed in. WotC advertising their own books is also unnecessary. If WotC sold adspace to third party OGL books, I could see where that would cause issues, but at least it would have a point. But I digress.

Mechamorphosis then has a credits page. Three people worked on the content, and eight people worked on how pretty the book is. It actually kind of shows. The lead developer is Rob Vaughn, the Managing Developer is Greg Benage, no, I'm not sure what the difference is there either, and Lysle Kapp joined Vaughn for writing duties. The editors are Vaughn and Benage. Typically you want someone with fresh eyes editing, we'll see how that works for them. However, the book is very pretty for a $15 mini-sourcebook. The pages are very standard d20 layout- two columns of plain font black on white with shaded outer edges that give the chapter titles so you can find the chapter you're looking for by just flipping through, and section headings and quotes are all set in a way that actually makes sense. Whether this was a template job or manual pixel pushing doesn't matter, because it's really simple. The only reason it's notable is because so many publishers, both large and small, apparently don't know how to do this. If I had to pick one gripe about the layout, the font of the edge labels makes them a bit difficult to read at a glance at their size, and they could have been larger.

The pictures by in large, look like designs you might actually see come out of Hasbro. The artists know how to draw a transformer, and given how much difficulty some people have with designing transformers-

-you have to recognize skill when you see it-


Then there's a table of contents that is, again, competently laid out, and a quick OGL blurb. The actual OGL is at the back, this is just a couple hundred words about the OGL and states, surprising the fuck out of me, that everything in this book other than quotes, character names, class descriptions and the setting info is open content. Oh, and the graphic elements are product identity. Oh well. But, that means that I could, theoretically, rip the core of the book out, fix it up, and sell my own product. Neat.


Chapter One: The World of Mechamorphosis
The actual book starts on page 3, with a blurb about the Horizon line, and an introduction that infodumps the idea that Mechamorphosis is an "World Outside Your Window" setting which is what I'm going to start calling games that take place in a world nominally identical to our own with added supernatural/paranormal shenanigans kept hidden. It name drops the Exiles and the Tyrants in a context where you get that they're the Autobot and Decepticon expies, and introduces nexus energy, the energon expy. It's a tight 100 word or so way to tell the reader the non-ip infringing code, and introduce people not familiar with transformers to the basic idea of the game.

Now, the core problem is that Mechamorphosis takes place in this world. If Mechamorphosis took place in a D&D world, or at the least an Iron Age or medieval setting, that'd be fine. Because d20 falls all over itself when it tries to do modern shootouts. It can even sort of handle high-tech combat, since laser pistols and lightsabers might as well be magic wands and swords. But the moment you get human soldiers rolling in with assault rifles, the game is going to, well, honestly, people won't notice. I mean, real people. Not us. We'll notice that the rules for firearms are shit, or even non-fucking existent, but the average player will be too busy playing out Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal either trading blows or trading blow jobs. D20 Modern existed when this book came out, but it has barely a reference to it. In fact it primarily references D&D material. This is perhaps the ideal situation, given how shit d20 Modern is, but it is still odd when your game takes place in the modern world. Again, if this game set Transformers in Greyhawk taking boats and wagons and monsters as alt forms, their tech could be handled as magic items and it would all work fine. Ish. I mean, I've played a transformer in a D&D game, using a warforged and the warlock class. It worked fine. The non-existence of firearms rules isn't a joke, either. Flipping ahead to see what it gives, there are no modern firearms. I would imagine that you're supposed to use the modern weapons from the Dungeon Master's Guide as the weapons in this are all Mechamorph tech. But we'll get to that.

The book itself sort of lampshades the other problem with the book:

"In Mechamorphosis, a player assumes the role of a mechamorph, a gigantic robot with the ability to assume other forms. Although mechamorphs predominantly wage their secret battles on an Earth not too different from our own, mechamorphs have special powers and abilities that dwarf those of human beings. Creating a 10-ton, 50-ft-high robot is a bit different from making most other d20 characters, however."

Yeah, there's a scale issue. To say the least. There's also the whole issue about alternate forms and being robots. Mechamorphosis character generation starts with assigning priorities to five things- Ability Scores, Alt Form, Form Feats, Special Powers and Tech Gear. There's a terminology issue here, because what you're doing is actually ranking these things. If you assign Ability scores priority 1, that's actually the lowest priority and gets you the least points, whereas if you give it fifth priority you get the most. But that's minor. The larger issue is that you're dealing with the typical "separate pools of points" problem. There is no crossover between these pools, and you might have to tweak things and go through multiple builds to get the thing you really want as you switch priorities. I mean, the priority assignment helps a bit with that, but not as much as if you were just given a pool of fucking points like in Mutants and Masterminds. I mean, you'd have to decide what everything is worth compared to everything else, which would be some work, sure, but it would result in a better game. What might work better is if you tied all of this except for ability scores to classes. They didn't do this, but you could have a spy that gets small, innocuous forms, a driver that gets maneuverable vehicles, and a controller that has big forms that work more like settings. OR the really big stuff is handled as gestalts, if you can work out a good way for combined character control to work. Email me if you get that, because I've never come up with something that even seems satisfying. This game could benefit by some scale liits. Just tell people that they can play stuff between a couple size categories and treat the gigantic transformers as plot devices and gods like the source material does. I don't think the non-ability to play a spaceship is going to upset too many people.

But again, we'll get to that. The first rules material the book presents is Mechamorph Traits. Weirdly, there's no indication of what creature type mechamorphs are, not even constructs. So if you do decide to put Mechamorphs into D&D.... good luck figuring out what spells affect them and how. It would not be unreasonable to say they're constructs, but unless you're using Tome, there are aspects of Constructs that aren't a good fit for cybertronians.

Mechamophs all have the extraordinary ability Morph, which is the ability to assume at least two forms, a generally humanoid Primary Form and an alternate form that can be an animal, a device, or a vehicle. When taking a device or vehicle mode, a mechamorph retains their ability scores, BAB, hp, skills and feats, and can sense their surroundings and activate their special powers normally. When taking an animal form, they get the physical scores, extraordinary abilities, "special attacks and special qualities" of that form. So for all intents and purposes, a mechamorph with a colossal scorpion alt form is a colossal scorpion with full 35 strength, and a DC 13+1/2 hit die 1d10 Con damage poison. The fact that their HD don't increase is a small saving grace since HD is not the sole component of a creature and a +28 grapple check is going to make a lot of level appropriate enemies very sad. Linked weapons are either hidden inside the mechamorph or mounted on it, and unlinked weapons are dropped when the mechamorph takes its alt form. Morphing is a move equivalent action, but if you have a +5 or higher BAB you can do it as part of a normal movement. Pretty typical shapechanging, I guess. They also have DR 10/Nexus Energy in primary and alt form and their attacks are considered nexus attacks, Resistance 10 to all energy forms (but take damage as creatures, not objects), regain hp and ability damage at 1 point per hour, some sort of Action Point economy (we'll get to that in a bit) and are "Living Machines." This means they are immune to gases and poisons, need not breath or eat, and are immune to death, nausea, paralysis, petrification, stunning and unconsciousness affects that are geared to organic creatures, while being susceptible to such affects if specifically geared towards living machines. They also suffer fatigue and exhaustion if they don't get enough fuel or stasis time. They are subject to mind affecting effects and critical hits, though the latter effect them differently (there's a chart of effects and you get a number of rolls equal to crit multiplier minus 1). They follow the normal hp rules.

This is all given a Level Adjustment of +6. I don't necessarily think that's unrealistic, but it's really hard to put a hard number on the race when some shrink down to a cell phone and some are gargantuan alien fighter planes that can rain hell on the battle from 1000 feet above it. If we're focusing on just the Mechamorph traits, I could see considering them equal to a third level character as they are. The DR is notable, but it's a material DR, and generally a material DR can be bypassed by a third or lower level spell, and all mechamorphs bypass it anyway. If you give them 3 HD and rework alt forms, I could see these being a reasonable third level character. Maybe fifth with 5HD.

There is then a note about Mechamorph strength. Mechamorphs don't have any ability bonuses, but they're usually giant, and always robots, and if the standard D20 str scale were used, you'd be adding 30 and 40 to your attack rolls. Instead Mechamorphs get a x10 multiplier on their carry weights, and all DCs assume Mechamorph scale materials. If you chain one up with a battleship anchor chain, it uses the PHB chain's break DC of 26. Their fix for human scale things is to subtract 10 from human characters' Strength scores and divide DCs and such by 10 and rounding up, meaning they can tear through iron doors like reinforced cardboard (DC 3). The book assumes most human characters will be 1st or 2nd level and so doesn't bother dividing their hp, but gives you permission to do so if you for some reason want level 18 marine sharpshooters, in about that same dismissive tone.

The book puts scale and size info right up front, since there's a better than 0 chance that any given party might have a character that is colossal, or possibly Immense, a new size above Colossal (because every company has to introduce at least one new size category, it's in the OGL). The Size Chart is pretty obviously copy pasted from core, because it has asterisks in the headings that lead nowhere. It then goes into priorities and categories:

	Alt Form	Form	Ability	Special
Priority	Design	Feats	Scores	Power	Gear
1	Dirt Bike	2	20	1	2
2	Tank	4	24	2	4
3	Fighter Jet	6	28	3	8
4	Laptop	8	32	4	12
5	Spaceship	10	36	5	16

So the idea is that the higher you prioritize your form, the farther you can get from Medium size and perhaps the more it can do. Form feats are things like additional gear slots on your alt mode, take a hybrid form, turn into a better device, etc. To their credit, they resisted the temptation to make something like "Greater Animal Alt Form" that lets you choose magical beasts for alt forms, even though you could make that work in this case by making people pay for firebreath by buying a flamethrower with gear points or a blink effect by buying it as a special power. Ability Scores is the points for your point buy, you start at 8 each. Honestly, there's no reason they couldn't have started mechamorphs higher for ability score points. Make 36 the lowest and go up from there. They're giant alien robots, they should be stronger, tougher, smarter and more charismatic than humans, if not faster and wiser too. Special Powers are spell like abilities that represent tech, a Soundwave style cassette drone or the ability to merge with other mechamorphs, and Gear is your currency for weapons and tech stuff. You're assumed to have minor stuff like a sound system or a sunroof or whatever that has little to no mechanical impact and would come with your form.

Ability points use the standard table, and go up to 22 if you wanted to sink everything into a single score, like for a sniper, I guess.

Chapter Two: Alt Form Design
Mechamorphs alt forms don't just dictate how hardcore of a thing you roll into battle disguised as, they also dictate your primary form size. Of course size is important. If you're a stealth character, your size mod can be nearly the size of the entire RNG, and if you can get a weapon that doesn't do size-dependent damage (spoiler- you totally can) then your attack bonus can be almost half it. If you're a melee character, you can grapple pretty much anything.

This chapter starts with animal alt modes, I would guess for alphabetical reasons, but the chapter goes animal, vehicle, object, so there goes that. I would think it was a connection to Beast Wars, but that series ended in 1999, and the most notable thing about Beast Wars in America in 2004 was the release of the season 2 and 3 DVDs. Even Beast Machines concluded in 2000 and the Japanese Beast Wars series concluded in 1999. Given that Gen 1's popularity and exposure far outstrips Beast Wars, and that animal alt modes are actually pretty straightforward comparatively, I'd have put vehicles up front, then objects, and finally animals, which also happens to work chronologically and reverse alphabetically.

Anyway, animal alt modes actually allow you to select any animal or vermin from the monster manual. It doesn't mention MM2 or MM3 or anything else, but I doubt many DMs would object given that you're limited to animals and vermin. Of course you can still dumpster dive. A dire elephant gives you a gargantuan form and a 40 strength, a seismosaurus gives you a colossal form with 40 strength. If you look at vermin, things get a bit more crazy. The Great Old Master Neogi is a huge vermin with unimpressive physicals but the extraordinary ability to spit spawn. So, the minimum amount of dumpster diving gives you the ability to basically summon 2d4 creatures to harass your enemies and make them waste actions unless they want to suffer eight poisonous bites a round. You might even be able to convince the gm to consider this poison to be tailored to mechamorphs since you're creating the spawn, in which case it affects mechamorphs, but not anything organic. Leechwalkers are even more impressive with blood drain, wounding and all around vision. Megapede gives you a high strength than a dire elephant or seismosaur, along with a 27 con and a 2d6 Con and 1d4 Dex with a con based save. Animal alt forms start at Medium for priority 1, then go up from there to colossal animals at priority 5, but they also allow mass shifting. Priority 3 allows a medium mechamorph to turn into a Tiny animal, priority 4 lets a Large mechamorph to do the same, or a Medium mechamorph to take a dimunutive alt form, and priority 5 continues this with Huge/Tiny, Large/Diminutive and Medium/Fine. But there's an extra if you're using mass shifting- you can choose to not shrink when going into their alt form. So a mechamorph with a bat alt mode and a large primary mode gets the added bonus of a dire bat form.

Ok, it's possible, even likely, that a GM running a "World Outside Your Window" game will not allow you to pick a neogi or a leechwalker, but you're still looking at dire elephants and megapedes with grapple mods starting at +27 and +31, and flies that zip around with +22 stealth mods and 3d10 explosive missile attacks before you add base attack bonuses or skill points. The simplest fix for this would be to put a HD limit on Alt Forms or say that alt forms are cosmetic, and then not allow people to put cannons on their animal alt form backs. Granted, these are extreme cases that require looking for the highest strength and largest animal or vermin you can find or spending nearly all your form feats on Gear Slots in alt mode, but the failings of the system are there and the average person not actively looking for them is not a salve. But let's look at Vehicles and Objects.

Vehicles get a size, a base move at character scale measured in 10' squares, three Top Speeds at 50' squares, 500' squares and MPH, a maneuverability, Acceleration rate that dictates, apparently, how long it takes to go from base move to top speed, and then weapon and tech slots. The bigger the form, the more weapon and tech slots, and for the most part, larger things are faster, but character scale does favour smaller vehicles. And of course if you turn into a dirt bike with a machine gun, the combat might leave you behind if everyone else has flying modes. Overall, the higher your priority the bigger you are, dirt bikes are medium, and mecha starships are Immense. The clear best form is the Mecha Aircraft, which is a mechamorph fighter plane, like Megatron's alt mode in the first Bayformers. It's character scale speed is second only to the jet fighter at 400', and all other scales are better than even the jet fighter, it also has perfect maneuverability and a respectable 12 weapon slots and 10 tech slots. It's a damned good form for a vehicle if you're not worried about disguise. Given that you fly and could have a stealth mode, you probably aren't worried about disguise. If you want to go big, then you're looking at aircraft carriers, battleships and the mecha starship at Immense. You can do good things with these, mostly by focusing on strength and getting a really big weapon. Most forms also give you minor traits, like dirt bikes and dune buggies ignoring difficult terrain, 4-doors being doubly penalized by it, but nearly ubiquitous, and construction vehicles getting a free linked weapon and starships being space-worthy. Somewhat surprisingly, you don't get any resilience out of these. All mechamorph vehicles are assumed to be no more or less resilient than any other mechamorph unless they spend other resources on it. These don't have the problems of animal alt modes since they're not replacing your stats or giving you extraordinary abilities, but that just means you need better tactics. When you have 12 weapon slots and a flight speed of 400' (perfect) there's no reason to be anywhere near where people are aiming.

Object alt modes are further divided into three types- structures, weapons and devices. Structures get size, hardness, weapon and tech slots out of priority, at the cost of a non-mobile alt mode. But you can do worse battlefield control than walking up, turning into a fortress, and providing your comrades with cover while also popping out missile launchers. They also get to use aid another or their allies with attacks, and as free actions if the enemy and ally are inside them. They can also assist allies firing their guns by contributing their own BAB as a bonus on their allies' attack. It's sort of like being a bard, but even more boring.

Weapon alt modes get a table similar to animal alt modes, but priority dictates robot mode size and weapon category. If you want to turn into an "Advanced Firearm" like a missile launcher, you need a priority 4 or 5 alt form. There's of course an error here. The table talks about "Simple" and "Advanced" firearms but then the equipment chapter has simple and martial. This is why you don't edit your own book. Weapon alt form mechamorphs have the free ability to size for any wielder, and they deal damage accordingly. They can't move in alt form, and must be wielded. Their wielder can be lent one of their combat feats and be assisted in attacking much like a structure can aid gunners. It sounds even more boring than playing a structure mechamorph.

Device alt forms are more of the same. The chart tells you the difference between your primary and alt sizes, and you function like whatever your alt mode is but better. A spy cam mechamorph would be able to CSI "Enhance!" and an iphone mechamorph would support flash. If you have to make a skill check for whatever your function is, you get +10. The problem is that there is no mention of how tech gear functions for a device mechamorph, and that's kind of important. If my character's shtick is to turn into a laptop or a smartphone, I want to know if they can use their nexus sensor to know if they're being carried onto a normal bus or an enemy spy with a bus alt mode. Looking back at chapter 1 and the Mechamorph Traits, the answer is "well, how do you define sensors?" Because it doesn't say whether it means optics and audio, ie, you see and hear normally, or includes tech gear that is called [something] sensor. Given how little device alt modes can do, and how MTP the capabilities they do have are, this needs to be fleshed out. Some GMs will have to be convinced to allow my laptop mechamorph to surf asian porn while waiting for something to happen, and some will let me have my full array of tech like I'm R2D2 with no argument.

Here's the real problem- Alt Forms don't limit things enough. Things are limited by their size and your alt form ranking, but it's not enough. A starting character can have a rank 4 alt form to get the Mecha Aircraft. They then set their Gear priority to 5 and get 16 gear points for 3 turret mounted and one fixed 3d6 slug throwers on their alt form with 5 points left over but not enough weapon slots for another slug thrower. You spend your remaining 5 gear points on a Nexus Sensor and get Blindsight 100' (mechamorphs only), Detect Mechamorph and a constant Deathwatch effect on Mechamorphs. Form Feats have little to offer you, so you can put that at 1 and just pick a couple, I suggest either Armour Boost twice, or Mounted Weapons so your slug throwers are usable in primary form and Mini-Digits so that you can use human-scale objects as if you were a size smaller. You now have Special Power and Ability Scores to put at priority 1 and 3. I suggest that order, because while you could get Invisibility or Blur as your special power it'd be 1 min a day to start, and anyone can just take Nexus Sensors to negate them. But with priority 3 Ability Scores you get 28 points and can have a 20 Dex to help with those slug throwers. Though if you went the other way, you could pretend to be Soundwave with a linked familiar. Your standard feat is spent on Ready Gunner so you can reload as a free action. You get another feat from your class, and Multishooting would be a good buy. It looks like this exact sort of thing was considered because Two Weapon Fighting was renamed Two-Fisted Fighting and only applies to melee attacks, but Multi-shooting reduces your penalties for multiple guns by 2 on your main and 6 for one off hand gun. You have to take it again for each additional offhand gun. There is no clear ruling on how to use multiple alt mode attacks unless it's an animal, in which case you follow normal monster rules. What you do for multiple vehicle mode attacks is not clear, and this is another case where it goddamned needs to be. If I can use them all, then I can solve all problems by being 1000' above the conflict and dropping 12d6 points of damage that explodes in a 30' radius on it. If I take heavy penalties, well, fuck, I can still do it because they explode. But people need to know what they're rolling and the lack of real editing is again showing because no one thought to explicitly say what happens if you roll into combat with four slug throwers and don't intend to change out of vehicle mode.

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That's chapters 1 and 2 and the majority of the transforming robot stuff. Gear and Special Powers and Feats are later, but that's all pretty incidental. Classes are up next and they're d20 Modern style where instead of set abilities you have trees of abilities. I think they are at least somewhat better, but we'll see.

As for reworking this, it's pretty clear that the book really should have been designed with a more finite scope. Animal alt modes should probably be restricted to medium-huge size (allowing for Rattrap to Megatron) and Vehicles could reasonably run the same scale, from motorcycles to tractor trucks. We don't need rules for players playing buildings and battleships, and if they want to that's an entirely different scope. If people want Pacific Rim, I'm cool with that, but Transformers it ain't, and Transformers can relegate the robots bigger than 32' tall to plot devices, combiners and NPCs. Device alts get to be smaller than that, but that's because they aren't benefiting from their size in combat. You then restrict alt modes more and require players to pay for their capabilities from the same pool so that there are genuine trade offs. You should probably also play up the interaction with human society more. The dire elephant mechamorph suffers nothing if the game is entirely about fighting other giant robots, and if you give him very little to spend points on he can take Mini-digits three times and have human-sized fingers. It'll look ridiculous, but what the hell else is an animal alt mode mechamorph going to use form feats on? Swimming? Who cares? They don't breath and there's a decent chance they know a battleship they can call.

As for primary forms, honestly, you probably want them to top out at 16'. If you really want to play something that's bigger then you may have to make do with the Powerful Build trait. Huge characters are going to be difficult to include at lower levels. On the other hand, a Mechamorph is supposed to be equivalent to a 7th level D&D character, and even with LA being worthless, that tells us that they're supposed to be able to take on frost giant and consider it difficult rather than impossible. So maybe you could include huge characters as more powerful mechamorphs. I could get behind that, really. Put up Medium, Large and Huge Mechamorph stats that enter the game as like 5th, 7th and 10th level characters. You could easily handle a lot of animals at that point since they're topping out at CR 9 in the MM1 and then you just stick Mechamorph traits on that CR 9 triceratops. Huge vermin top out at CR 7 for a scorpion. If you're sticking transformers in greyhawk you're looking at siege towers and wagons primarily for vehicle alts, but there's some more exotic stuff and the presence of magical flying boats means that a lot more passes as, well, not alien at least. But if you put them in the modern world, I'm not thinking a sapient tank is going to be too much tougher than a triceratops, just a different kind of combat. I think for vehicle alts you want to actually stat some vehicles up as if they were self-motive creatures so that things are easier to balance with animals and you don't have different shapechanging rules for different mechamorphs.

Next up is classes.

if you can work out a good way for combined character control to work. Email me if you get that, because I've never come up with something that even seems satisfying.

Treat them as 2+ characters occupying the same space with either consensus or a specific player (such as the one that formed the legs) deciding movement.

The components can have powerful standard action buffing abilities so if Devastator wants to super punch someone the guy playing as the foot can use his action to "turbo aid another" the arm attack.

Or you can design more like the Macross and have everyone shoot missiles from every limb.

Prak wrote:

HEY! That's totally a mistransformed knock-off Bombshock Bombshell on the cover! I could probably buy one at Big Lots or Family Dollar.

Hey! It's a Real Gear Robot! I'm gonna call him "Dialtone 420".

Yeah, there's a scale issue.

It's an issue in Transformers, too.

OR the really big stuff is handled as gestalts, if you can work out a good way for combined character control to work. Email me if you get that, because I've never come up with something that even seems satisfying.

Well, it depends on the on character. Dudes like Devastator, Bruticus and Menasor are psychological wrecks because of the fact that the personalities of each individual are vying for control or because they're not getting along with each other. Hell, Menasor is literally insane because all of his components hate each other, and is really only good for smashing stuff. So these dudes would work pretty well at a gaming table, because having five players controlling one character's actions pretty accurately reflects how it works in fiction.

On the other hand, you also have guys like Pirhanacon and Predaking, who are not fucked up because each component's personalities and whatnot get along and fuse perfectly, and as such are ruthless and efficient. Someone like Predaking would probably be really hard to do because each player would have to agree 100% on what course of action to take, and I've never seen two people agree unanimously on something, let alone five.

This chapter starts with animal alt modes, I would guess for alphabetical reasons, but the chapter goes animal, vehicle, object, so there goes that. I would think it was a connection to Beast Wars, but that series ended in 1999, and the most notable thing about Beast Wars in America in 2004 was the release of the season 2 and 3 DVDs. Even Beast Machines concluded in 2000 and the Japanese Beast Wars series concluded in 1999.

It would make sense if this were a Japanese book. Beast Machines aired in Japan in 2004, so it'd be relevant there, I suppose.

The easiest way to do combiners is to just give every player a team.

Hyzmarca has the best solution. It's easier to deal with one player controlling five characters than vice versa. But that means your stable of characters is like 20 dudes. It's not a problem, per se, but I envision the team selection for any given adventure taking a minimum of 20 minutes as the players debate who to take along.

Shrapnel makes a good point, that the difficulty of getting five people to agree on controlling the character aptly represents the truth of the matter, but that just makes it bad for the game, and at best it might only be brought out when they all agreed that something need to die a horrible squishy death.

Prak wrote:Hyzmarca has the best solution. It's easier to deal with one player controlling five characters than vice versa. But that means your stable of characters is like 20 dudes. It's not a problem, per se, but I envision the team selection for any given adventure taking a minimum of 20 minutes as the players debate who to take along.

Well, you'd probably treat it as one character as default, with a class feature that lets him split into five weaker dudes.

Loving this review, in particular the "Hasbro makes a 3rd party product for something they already own" aspect.

Prak wrote:Hyzmarca has the best solution. It's easier to deal with one player controlling five characters than vice versa. But that means your stable of characters is like 20 dudes. It's not a problem, per se, but I envision the team selection for any given adventure taking a minimum of 20 minutes as the players debate who to take along.

That's easy, they take all of them.

Or you make all the combiner parts have the same stats, just different color schemes. Or one of the dudes is just better and the others are mooks only really useful for combining.

Ok, first, I was calling the weapons the wrong thing. The 3d6 explosive firearm is a shell launcher, not a slugthrower, the slugthrower is 2d6 and has different ammo options, none of which explode.

Chapter 3: Classes
The chapter starts with a blurb about how mechamorphs are more defined by their alt form than "what mindsets they apply." This would be a great reason to make alt forms class based and party roles more akin to d20 Modern occupations. It would take some work but something similar to the PHB2 Druid Shapeshift ACF could be made to work.

The book suggests that some of the core classes could be made to work, seemingly referring to D&D core classes, and as a fan of Beast Wars, and specifically the transmetal story arc, I think that could be cool. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say Optimus was a cleric of Primus, but the idea is cool. It suggests that the NPC classes from D&D, specifically expert, warrior and commoner, would be suitable for humans in the game, and I could see that. NPC classes need to be reworked in and of themselves, but it's not a terrible idea. I mean, the average person isn't going to have much more to them than enough hp to maybe survive a gunshot, and enough BAB to maybe hit someone with a gun. They're not going to have 1d8 slam attacks or the ability to diplomance animals, or whatever. I suppose if you wanted "modern" npc classes you could give them D20 Modern classes, they're certainly underwhelming enough.

The mechamorph classes are all made in the d20 modern style, where you get a selectable class ability at odd numbered levels and bonus feats off a list at first and even number levels, along with a scaling Defense bonus. There are no multiclassing penalties, but the defense bonus from level one of your multiclass is lowered by 2, sort of like Tome does for saves, so at least someone was paying some attention.

The game gives you Controller, Scientist, Scout and Soldier. We'll take them in turn-

Controllers have a d8 HD, poor BAB, Good Will, a dodge AC bonus that starts at +2 increasing every third level, 2 skill points and are Soundwave, they get a "Mechamorph Companion" that isn't on the table, but is in the description. You have to be at least large size, which should maybe be put up front, not hidden in the description of a class feature. Your companion is one size smaller than you with an animal or humanoid primary form and has an immobile device alt form two sizes smaller. If you have massmorph so does your companion. Controller class features on improving companions, getting more, improving their stats, give them weapon alt forms, or be able to provide better aid to allies. Animal form companions get stats as an animal with Mechamorph Traits and you choose from badger, cat, dire rat, dog, riding dog, eagle, hawk, owl, or medium viper, humanoid companions have a d6 HD and +0 BAB. So a top of my head optimization for Controller is to take a Riding Dog animal companion, then use your first class ability to take Improved Form 1, giving your companion a Priority 1 alt mode so you in effect have a +1 short sword. As you level, you can improve the priority or you can improve the base stats and thus the effective enhancement you get from wielding your weapon alt mode companion. Alternatively, you make your companion humanoid, give it a level of Soldier with Improved Humanoid, and take a weapon alt mode yourself. The Controller has poor BAB so that isn't much of a help, but controllers get to lend a feat to a companion with no limit and weapon alt mode lets you lend another from a list. You could build a controller who turns into a pair of slugthrowers that are then wielded by it's companion. Comparing this to d20 Modern classes, it's better than any of them if just for the action economy and controlled ally. Compared to D&D classes, a druid is obviously better, but that's a Druid.

Scientists have a d6 HD, Fair (Cleric) BAB, all Good saves and a deflection AC bonus that starts at 3, goes to 4 at 2nd, and then increases every fifth level and 6 skill points. You're the team techie and medic. Their class abilities include a Bardic Knowledge type of ability, using repair tools as if they were a step better, adding their class level as a bonus to a chosen class skill, the ability to actually use the Build/Repair skill as a mechamorph medic (the tree references the skill and the skill is actually gated. It's like if Bardic Music said "you can use this ability of Perform" and then the actual rules for Inspire Courage or whatever were under Perform) or to make Gear, and a tree that lets you do fast battlefield repair, then take 10 on Build/Repair, then take 20. It's a support class, and I highly recommend either convincing your GM to let you have an NPC scientist, or let someone play two characters, one of which is a Scientists and stays back, because Medic is not a valid party role unless they're also throwing out combat time buffs.

Scouts are the rogue class. They have d8 HD, medium BAB, Good Reflex, the same AC bonus advancement as Scientist, but it's an insight bonus and 8 skill points. Their class abilities allow them to better use their alt mode for stealth (rolling Stealth instead of Disguise, Morphing to alt and rerolling Stealth when spotted in Primary, and a special alt>primary>alt snipe action that lets them sit on a counter as a cellphone, turn into their giant robot form, shoot someone, and then turn back into a cellphone in one round with no Stealth penalty for sniping), increased Defensive Fighting bonuses, Evasion, morphing as a free action as part of another action, increased sensor range, sneak attack dice, increased stealth abilities that let them move faster, and cloak to hide while observed, tracking, trapfinding and uncanny dodge. I don't know what it is about rogue characters, but much like the Fast Hero of d20 Modern, this is probably the best class. The Deceptive tree alone is reason to take this class as you're doing morph snipes by fifth level. On the other hand, if you used a fly alt mode and advanced firearms to be the mighty pea shooter, you an do very good things by just taking 20 levels of sneak attack. I mean, you have to use a shell launcher because Scouts don't get Advanced Martial Firearms Proficiency, but it's still a 3d6 explosion.

Soldiers have a d12 HD, Medium BAB, Good Fort, a natural armour bonus to AC that starts at 4 increasing every even level and 2 skill points. Yes, not even the dedicated fighting class has a full BAB. I don't know why. Their class abilities include a thing where you can set your AC to the last attack made by an opponent, rage once a day if you have an animal alt mode, be effectively one size larger than you really are for grappling opponents who are actually larger than you (preventing people from just being immense and always winning grapples as they increase their virtual size), DR 1/- as the first ability of a tree that increases it two steps every other ability with the intervening abilities raising your chance to stabilize and increasing your dying hp range, the ability to shield smaller allies, a Marksmech tree that lets you make a single shot as a full round attack that deals an extra 1d8 and is pointless even when it's increased to 2d8 at Marksmech 3 or when you can do it as a standard action for 3d8 at Marksmech 5, and might almost be worth it when you're doing it with one normal attack action per round for 4d8 at Marksmech 7 if you hadn't just spent the last 11 levels sucking. The other steps of Marksmech let you make ranged attacks without provoking AoOs, do ranged whirlwind attacks with 60' radii, and declare a single ranged attack to be a crit once a day. The last class ability is On the Move which reduces penalties for firing while traveling by 2 each time you take it.

I had some hope for these classes, but like in d20 Modern, the rogue class is the best, and the other either suck, are best on an npc you keep in your pocket, or require some system mastery to make usable.

Chapter Four: Skills and Feats
So, like a lot of non-D&D d20 stuff, Mechamorphosis combines skills. You have the usual Acrobatics, Athletics, Senses and Stealth. Social skills get combined into Interaction. Mechamorphosis also introduces Build/Repair in place of Craft, and Fine Manipulation for manipulating human-scale objects, and uses Computer Use and Pilot. It also has some special knowledges. There isn't a lot new here, except for Build/Repair. It's actually two skills, Build/Repair (Complex) and Build/Repair (Simple). Complex is the core skill of the Scientist, and requires it's class skills to even use. There's another typo, where it says you need Medic 1 to accelerate Mechamorph healing, but then Scientist says Medic 2 allows it. I would say that the class description is correct, since Simple does not then say you can use Battlefield Repair with Medic 2. Complex lets you accelerate healing, repair hp and ability damage, rebuild destroyed mechamorphs and make gear.You can also jury rig stuff for a higher DC. Simple lets you stablize mechamorphs, do battlefield repairs if you have Medic 1, and is the skill for earthlings to repair alt modes they're familiar with (like vehicles and objects), or perform sabotage on them. There's also a Programming skill that actually takes the place of Craft and Profession for representing character trades.

Replacing healing magic with skill use is cool. But if it's going to require class abilities, just make it a class ability. But honestly, when the characters are machines, just make it a normal skill, not Bardic Repair. The game's not going to fall apart just because anyone can have ranks in HP Replenishment.

Mechamorphs get the normal allotment of feats, plus a feat every even level, plus their form feats. A level 20 Mechamorph could easily have 24 feats. But there's comparatively little for them to actually do with them. There are 60 general feats which are mostly pulled from the PHB, though some have been renamed or tweaked, like Two Fisted Fighting. There are also some new like Lumbering Gait which just says that creatures have to be four sizes smaller than you to move through your space instead of three and the aforementioned Multishooting, which is a half assed nerfed version of Multiattack for guns. The real feature of this chapter are the form feats which let you buff your transforming abilities. Some are cool, like Alt Form Strike which lets you pop an unarmed strike out of your alt form. I mean, it's not a big deal, really, but it's interesting, at least, and is the prereq for the much more interesting Hybrid, which basically lets you use all of your abilities from both modes at once. Weapon Alt modes can increase their threat range and multiplier, both weapons and devices can be made masterwork, and so on. The problem is that these are vaguely written, poorly edited, and range from boring, like Adaptable (swim like a human rather than sinking like a car) to abusable, like Gear Slot, which if taken 4 times lets you mount a shell launchr on a fucking fly. With so little for you to actually spend form feats on, especially for animal alt modes, there's little reason to not do that. Of course you can also just take Concealed Weapon and do the same thing, only the shell launcher isn't hanging out of your fly's ass all the time.

Oh, and there are problems with the table and text. Adaptable is on the Form table, but lacks the tag in text. There's a Form feat on the table called Weapon Network, but then when you go to the text, it doesn't exist. I double checked, since there are feats out of order too.

This is why you have outside eyes edit, people.

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I'm going to take a break. Next up is Special Powers and then Gear.

maglag wrote:Loving this review, in particular the "Hasbro makes a 3rd party product for something they already own" aspect.

Hasbro didn't have anything to do with this. I'm not sure it'd be better if they had, though it might actually be Transformer licensed if they had.

Prak wrote:Hyzmarca has the best solution. It's easier to deal with one player controlling five characters than vice versa. But that means your stable of characters is like 20 dudes. It's not a problem, per se, but I envision the team selection for any given adventure taking a minimum of 20 minutes as the players debate who to take along.

That's easy, they take all of them.

Or you make all the combiner parts have the same stats, just different color schemes. Or one of the dudes is just better and the others are mooks only really useful for combining.

I think the last case is something you can do with the Controller class. It has Share Special Power, which allows it to use a special power it activates affect it's companion too. There's a power called Mechamerge, which lets you combine characters, but it requires all components to have the power. I'll look more closely when I get to the chapter, but it would seem that a controller could share the power with it's companions and be a one-player mechamerge.

Chapter Five: Special Powers
So Special Powers are supposed to represent advanced tech and there are two kinds- Spell-Like Special Powers and original Special Powers. Spell-like special powers mimic a handful of 0th-4th level spells. Basically, any spell of 4th or lower can be a spell-like special power of rank (spell level+1), but the book presents 27 specific spells, mostly renamed to represent tech, so you have Audiogram (ghost sound), Force Shield (shield), Nexus Empowerment (divine power) and so on. Your caster level equals your character level and you basically get one use of it per day, but if it has an actual duration, rather than being instantaneous, you can split that duration up throughout the day.

You can choose a power lower than your priority, and you either get to use it 100% more (an additional time per day, an additional use's duration) for each rank lower than your rating it is, or you can choose powers that add up to your priority. If you have Special Power 5 you can use Divine Power a number of rounds equal to your level each day, Fly for a number of minutes per day equal to twice your level, or five cantrips (though only three are listed, so get some more approved).

There are some definite winners. Hell, at third level Electron Blast (Lightning Bolt) is a shell launcher you don't have to reload and can use in any form without Weapon Slots, albeit one you can use, at best, twice a day and which has a Line area rather than Blast. You can't get as good of use out of it if you're playing the Mighty Peashooter, but it's a defensible choice if you're sandbagging.

Of course, there's some balance problems. There is no world in which Ghost Sound or Cure Minor Wounds 5/day is equal to Divine Power 1/day or Lightning Bolt 2/day. What might be better is to let people choose powers whose ranks equal their gear priority and make the individual powers usable a number of times equal to 6-rank, so that a person can have Lightning Bolt 2/day and Ghost Sound 5/day. There's still definite balance issues, but at least you're not "I got a rock Ghost Sound" guy in the party with the guy who can throw down Lightning Bolt or cloak themselves with Invisibility. Or hell, spheres, and your Priority dictates your access level? I don't know.

Anyway, there are also non-spell like special powers: Link, which basically gives you a small familiar in one of your forms (and nice bonuses if it's free in your alt form and becomes part of your primary form), which is rank 3, Mechamerge, which makes you a combiner, but you need three or four other mechamorphs to merge with, also rank 3, and additional alt form of the same priority as your first (rank 5), Energy Drain (CharLv)/day (5) or a smite effect usable 1+(1/5CharLv)/day (rank 3).

Mechamerging is probably only worth it if you're a controller with four companions. It makes you two size categories larger than the largest component bot and gives you the best of each ability score from the components, +10 Str and Con, -4 Dex. It doesn't say anything about size increase rules, just that you get the appropriate modifiers. So, as usual, it's up in the air as to what actually happens. If your DM says you get the usual size bonuses then this is awesome. If not, well, it's still good numbers, just not as good. You can merge with four components instead of five, but you get lesser benefits. The merged form has all the feats, special abilities, skills, etc. It can't use the gear of it's components, so... I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with that. The way Mechamorphosis says to run mechamerges is to give the component characters' players a reasonable amount of time to reach a consensus each round and rotate who rolls for resolution. There's a mechanic for one player seizing control, where they start the round by stating their intent, and if no one objects, they get to do what they want, and if people do object, then the one seizing control rolls Concentration against a DC based on the will saves of all objectors. If the seizer fails by more than five, the mechamerge is dazed for the round. So, yeah, it's best for mid level controllers with four companions as a way to get two size categories and some nice bonuses.

Unfortunately, there's no way to gain more special powers after character creation. If you get to enter a game at 10th level, go for it, but if not, I wouldn't recommend being a mechamerge. There are better things to do with your powers. The winning special power is probably the energy drain. Combined with how easy it is to make a grappler, the fact that you can always drain a number of levels equal to your own means you can always take down an equal level challenge with little trouble, though it might take a good while. On the other hand, this is another case of a good power for a very small animal mode. It would have to be diminutive, since you couldn't have a Rank 5 form and Energy Drain, but still.

Special Powers range from worthless (Ghost Sound 5/day) to an occasionally useful, but easily defeated trick (invisibility or stoneskin). Honestly, you're probably going to forget about them unless your build revolves around them like Mechamerge.

Chapter Six: Gear
Much like special powers, there's no real way for you to get gear you don't start with. It's possible, but requires your resident Scientist to take Techie powers, and, well, for you to have a resident scientist. Given that you're secret alien combatants far from home, you're not going to be finding too many weapon shops. It's suggested that characters might find tech left over from the Beast WarsAnimechs' last stand on prehistoric Earth. ...welcome to time travel bullshit. There are three categories of Gear- Utility, Tech and Weapons. Utility is stuff that honestly you shouldn't have to pay for if it's reasonable for your vehicle form- cables, autojacks, reinforced bumpers, etc. Snow tires are 3 points and VTOL is 5, but otherwise Utility gear is 1 or 2 points each. You still should just get it free for the appropriate vehicle form and only have to pay maybe a point or two to get this stuff on an unusual form.

Tech Gear covers sensors, lab tools, repair bays, etc. A Nexus Sensor may be the best buy, giving you Detect Mechamorph, 100' Blindsight for Mechamorphs, and Deathwatch on Mechamorphs. It's 5 points. That said, you need the right tools for science and repair/build and all that, so if you're built around doing techie stuff, you have to prioritize Gear and take the appropriate tech. It's a tax, really. The game needs HQ rules so that you don't have to spend character build points on being able to actually use your fucking skills. Like most of the game, it could benefit from using Mutants and Masterminds as a base, since it already has HQ rules, Utility gear can be handled with the Benefit feat, and Tech Gear that isn't skill tools can be replicated with powers.

Weapons are self explanatory. It uses "Archaic" to refer to D&D weapons. All classes are proficient in simple archaics, scouts and soldiers get martial archaic proficiency, and everyone can take weapon proficiency feats. In addition to simple archaic proficiency, all mechamorphs can use improvised weapons without penalty, and they treat them as the nearest archaic equivalent. DecepticonsTyrants apparently "have a brutal tradition of gladiatorial combat" from which exotic archaics come. They make mention of energonnexus energy blades, but say they don't exist on Earth. Then there are Simple and Martial Adavanced Martial Firearms. Firearms rely on being high tech for their damage, so a slugthrower deals the same damage whether it's for fine, medium, or immense mechas, but every five HD will increase the damage one step. Shell Launchers are simple, so everyone can walk around with a 3d6 explosive weapon. You can do better with Martial, with the Missile and Torpedo Launchers, which both deal 3d10, and the 4d8 Recoilless Shell Launcher. The Recoilless costs three times as much as the regular shell launcher, which might be worth it since you can take a move action to adjust the explosion radius. However... if you're setting up to take out threats on your first go, from 1000' away (the extreme end of the shell launcher's range), that doesn't matter much. The Missile and Torpedo Launchers require you to take one full-round to lock on to targets (which does mean you use an attack roll rather than letting your target make a save), and another full-round to reload. There's a salvo launcher, which allows you to hit a full attacks-worth of targets, but all it's four times the cost of the shell launcher, for about the same stats.

And that's Special Powers and Gear. Utility is overcosted, Tech is a tax or a killer app, and Weapons struggle to be equally relevant. There's really nothing surprising.

Last two chapters, and this is going to be the meat of things. There's some rules material and some setting material.

Chapter Seven: Playing a Mechamorph
The first piece of advice they give is to not worry about relative speeds of vehicles because you're there to play. This is actually good advice, because these kinds of logistics can grind a game to a halt. They of course give speeds at three map scales and mph in the second chapter, and I think what they mean is "just use the given numbers and find closeness, it's not worth spending time googling." I mean, it took me about a minute to find that an F 14 Tomcat can reach speeds of about 1600 mph, and that can easily be translated into map scales with another few minutes of work, but then it would take a good bit more work to turn it into character scale speeds that work. So why not just use the numbers presented in chapter 2? I mean, unless you're trying to plan a high end crime that involves multiple types of vehicles. But then, I can think of better tools for that kind of thing...

Look, I'm not saying it's exactly realistic but it's better prep than an rpg, especially d20.

The game involves three scales, character, surface and air scale. Character scale is like normal d20, but may throw people off because it uses 10' squares. This makes sense if you understand that most characters are probably large, but it does get screwy with the fact that you can certainly, and probably will have medium and small characters, to say nothing of the possibility of having fine sized murderous fly-bots. I have to admit that I've never used fine size creatures in D&D, so I don't know if this is a distinction without a difference. Looking at D20 for the first time the way I'm looking at this, I'd probably voice the same concern, though there is a difference in that normal D&D is less likely to have diminutive and fine characters, and familiars tend to be forgotten in combat.

Surface scale gives you 50' squares for car chases and Air scale gives 500' squares for dogfights. They want it to be possible, and say it is, to transition from one scale to another in a single encounter, a crash at surface scale turning into a character scale firefight.

There are two problems with these scales. There is not an abundance of vehicle models at the local game store, and those that are there are for future-set games like WH40K and Mechwarrior and not well suited for a game where you want modern cars. The thing people will obviously want to do is go to the toy store and pick up some hot wheels and matchbox cars. The average car is about large size, and this holds true for the largest civilian trucks that push 16'. The Cadillac Fleetwood is nearly 19' long, which would put it into the Huge category with a lot of military vehicles. Most matchbox and hot wheels cars are a couple to three inches long, which means that they work well with the usual 1:60 scale of D&D (even if they're not actually 1:60 scale themselves). If you use Mechamorphosis' character scale, you now need to find cars that are something like 1:120 scale.

1:60 is a model scale nearly unique to D&D. However, there are some Japanese companies that sell mecha and aircraft at this scale, and it's a rare rail model scale in Germany. With the internet it's possible to get minis for your game from these sources, but the point is that it's absurdly rare. On the other hand, 1:120 is relatively common scale, but you're going to need to find a train hobby store, and you're probably going to be limited in what forms you can get, and you're sure as hell not finding giant robots there. Though apparently miniature wargaming is fond of 1:121.192 scale. So I must admit that it's totally possible to get some good models for your game in character scale. But it's going to be expensive. Most people I know have their niche, and will just make do outside of it. My friend has a box full of Star Wars minis, including at least one AT AT. I have.... a handful of fantasy minis, but a good number of monsters* and super heroes*. Neither of us have jobs, though he gets financial aid which gives him a bit of disposable income. Neither of us is likely to go out and get minis specifically for this weird (comparatively) scale. To say fuck all about 50' and 500' squares that translate to 1:600 and 1:6000 scale, the former used for some nautical and air liner models that I can only imagine are expensive as hell for a hobbyist gamer, and the latter nonexistent, the nearest being 1:4800 scale used for sci fi spacecraft in some board game called Star Cruiser.

My point is that if you're going to make some new scale for your transformers giant robot game, use a standard scale that's just foreign to RPGs and not going to break the bank if people want minis. I might consider getting a tau or space marine mini for my character's primary form if I could get one for a few bucks that I don't have to put together, and if it was being run by someone I trusted to be in for the long haul, and I happened to have ten dollars or so that I could spend, I might even be willing to go make one. Character scale should stay standard D&D scale with maybe a list in the back of the book of specific Hot Wheels and Matchbox Cars that are good representations for the various vehicles on the list in chapter 2, maybe with some companies that make the stuff that isn't cars. Hell, Fantasy Flight Games does board games, so they could have some cheap plastic models for smaller craft too. Of course an Immense starship (25" at 1:60 scale) is always going to run at least $15. Though there are some transformers toys that might be large enough for that. Surface scale is entirely fucked because your figure is going to have to be .2 inches. Air scale is even more fucked and should be ditched for zones rather than using precise positioning.

Of course the natural inclination for Transformers fans is to just use the toys they already have, but...

that doesn't work. Like, at all. Unless maybe you're doing a G1 sendup.

Mechamorphs with vehicle alt forms are essentially vehicle and pilot in one, and highlight some of the issues with vehicles in d20. Honestly, I really think it would be best to represent vehicles as creatures with the special quality Inanimate which says they auto-fail saves and cannot act on their own, then just rework mounted rules to, well, work. Then the only difference between a vehicle and a creature is that one requires a pilot, and some creatures like robots that look like cars or even just centaurs get to use the mounted rules even though they're not vehicles. But basically mechamorphs can manipulate their car parts like a person manipulates their fingers and arms and can carry passengers and such. It has a note about interaction of mechamorphs and ordinary vehicles and it just refers to the usual stuff like inanimate objects failing saves. Personally, I think that self-aware vehicles should get a maneuverability bonus compared to their inanimate counterparts since they don't have to think about what they're doing or filter their needs through an interface like a pilot does, they just do. Like the difference between piloting a humanoid robot through controls and moving yourself.

Surface and Air scale give you bonuses and penalties for your speed, but they're fortunately relative. If you're moving 10 squares a turn at surface speed, you have a +2 bonus to AC against stationary targets, but no bonus against targets moving the same speed, for example. This is actually pretty good, and I'd probably steal it for the d20 chase minigame I wrote up for the Mad Max thread. They also have rules for changing speed- you can do it once a round as a free action, but it may require a check. It doesn't outright say what happens if you fail your check, but it's reasonable to assume you do not accelerate to the point you wanted, and a couple pages on there's a section about losing control that is implied to happen any time you fail a Pilot check. I'm glossing through these, but it's good to have some solid rules for vehicles and they seem to be more comprehensive, at least from a practical standpoint, than d20 Modern's. They could benefit from some clarity and editing, but it gives you something to work with. They put in enough thought to actually tell people that only aircraft and submersibles can pull immelmanns, for example, which is good. There are rules lawyers out there who'd try to argue despite reason that their sports car mecha could pull an immelmann just because the rules didn't say they couldn't.

The large squares of surface scale do have the benefit of making some maneuvers a bit easier. It's easier to occupy the same square as your target to slam or ram them if the squares are 2-5 times bigger than either of you, for example.

The vehicle rules are the real good part of this book. If a chase ever comes up in a d20 game, I'll reach for this unless I find something better. The one thing they lack is rules for AoOs in surface scale, which, when you have characters that could fill a 50' square on their own, you're going to want. I mean, it may be a bit ridiculous to expect an office building alt form to meaningfully interact with a chase, but there's a feat that lets that office building to pop a fist out, so it would be a perfectly reasonable tactic for characters to herd their quarry into a street going by said office building and that building to get an AoO to smash the car as it went by. To say nothing of the polecats from Fury Road. In fact, AoOs really need to be more comprehensive. Is there really any reason that a sniper can't take advantage of openings like an adjacent meleer?

We next get special rules for transformers mechamorphs. There are two key parts- energon Nexus Energy and Critical Hits. This also drops a very interesting bit of story- the reason that the Decepticons Tyrants are hunting Maximals Animechs and Autobots Exiles is because there are two known sources of stable energon nexus energy- the Great Generator back on Cybertron Mecha Terra and the small personal nexus energy generators inside a mechamorph's chest. The former failed, and so Tyrants are ripping them from Animechs and Exiles. I don't know if this is taken from Transformers, but I certainly don't remember a lot of heart ripping in the various series, aside from pulling out Sparks for the purposes of rehoming (and very occasional destruction).

Mechamorphs don't need sleep, per se, but they do need four hours of stasis to let their generator recharge. Well, that's what the book says. They have internal generators, but really they're more like converters, and they need four hours to convert NE into a stable form and refill their reserves. But that's just a termiology thing. If they don't get this four hours, it's treated exactly like a person not getting enough sleep with the fatigued condition, which is maybe not the best way to handle things, since if I give my car only five gallons of gas, it's going to perform exactly as well as if I filled the tank, just for a shorter period. But for simplicity, I can see it. In addition to the energy to run for 24 hours, mechamorph's can hold a reserve which basically acts like action points, which is a pretty cool way to fluff action points, really. They get a number of points equal to character level, and it does the usual 1:1 bonus to an attack, save, AC, and allows you to absorb damage on a 1:1 basis too. They do have a bit about avoiding the effects of not getting stasis time, but it's all or nothing- you spend half your character level in points and you erase the fatigue, rather than "spend X points get Y hours of activity."
It works, but it's not what I'd have done for a fuel system. However, I do like the idea that they can also take Con damage as a sort of psuedo-Nexus Energy source, at the cost of having to undergo four hours of stasis for the sole purpose of repairing the system damage. I'd have done something more like vampire blood points, but with a "ritual" schedule with an option for "feeding," where your ritual of stasis gives you, say, two points per character level, and a quarter of those are taken to pay for 24 hours worth of activity, and the rest act like action points. You could undergo a shorter stasis, and get the commensurate number of points (3 hours=1.5xChLv, 2 hours=ChLv, 1 hour=1/2ChLv), and then give the option of paying for less than 24 hours of activity. Hell, I could see allowing characters to use points that were technically already "spent" for an day's activity at the cost of then immediately entering stasis. It's happened in some of the more dramatic fights in the series, though you could also say that's what the Con damage is for.

The rules also give Nexus Energy Cells, which can be created by a mechamorph's internal generator, but it's lossy. It takes 2 points to make a cell, and if a mechamorph absorbs that cell, it gives them 1 temporary NE point which then is lost after 24 hours. It doesn't say what these cells look like, but...

we all know.

It also talks about converting terrestrial energy sources, like power plants and oil fields, into NE and NE into energy for other things. There's more terminology issues, as it basically says you can convert NE into oil rather than a universal energy source, but whatever. Basically it's sort of like alchemy, the cruder the energy the longer it takes and the less you get, and NE is purer than everything, with a single cell being sufficient to power a city for a month. But it gives no solid rules for the conversions.

Criticals do not multiply damage against Mechamorphs. Instead, they deal normal damage and then you roll to see what system you knock out. Each multiplier step gives you more rolls, so critting with a sword knocks out one system, while critting with a scythe alt mode mechamorph with the Honed form feat gives you four rolls. This can knock out anything from a sensor to their "motion regulator" (cuts speed by half) to their Nexus Generator which slows them on the first hit and explodes on the second dealing 1d10 damage with a 10 ft radius and makes me want to play a Tyrant who harvests enemy generators to use as gun-triggered grenades.

*Horrorclix and Hero Clix figures that piss me off by not being 1:60, but so damned near it.

I'll finish up the review next post.

Chapter Eight: State of the Galaxy

Ok, here we go. Last post of the review. I might start workshopping the game after this, but that requires reworking the character creation rules and just thinking about that makes me want to do.... anything else.


....maybe.

the first notable thing here is that there's a tension between origin stories for the giant robots. Either they sprang fully formed from the Great Generator, or they were created by some other race that long since disappeared. This isn't notable so much for the fact that one isn't given as the actual origin, but for the fact that the Great Generator is the one that is taken as truth by Mechamorphs and the creator race one is treated as heresy and punishable. So, basically, Mechamorph society is akin to living in the Middle East where you can be punished in a court of law for badmouthing the Quran.

Given that the Great Generator is an actual machine on Mecha Terra, I can see why the former would be the accepted origin, but I could also see how some would take a Watchmaker teleological approach say "look, complex energy generators that can construct robotic lifeforms don't just happen," and suggest there was a creator race, Great Generator or no. But more notable than even Alien Robot Sharia Law is the origin of the core conflict. The Great Generator was an apparently unlimited free energy source and the mechamorphs treated it as such, using that energy to industrialize their planet and their moons, even covering the former with The Grand Throughway, a planet covering network of roads. Then it shut off. So a newer guild stepped up amid all the chaos and said "Hey, we've got the solution, just trust us! We can make more nexus energy! All we need is you complete obedience and the authority to issue laws!" Which totally makes sense, even the mechamorphs agreeing to give them that power in such a crisis. When our gas reserves run dry, and we have nothing left, Elon Musk could show up with a codpiece made of a child's skull and say "Give me your complete obedience and I shall save your worthless, peon lives" and people would go with it.

No, the thing that's notable, and strains credulity is that the guild was literally called The Tyrants. This wasn't an antagonist given appellation, this wasn't the name of a "Fuck you, I know I'm a villain" organization, this was the name of a guild that was playing "No, really, trust us, we'll help!"

Other than that (and really, it's no more of a wallbanger than "Decepticons"), it's a very competent origin. The Tyrants enacted rationing and limits and provided nexus energy from some unknown source and ordered construction of an exploration fleet to find new sources. Some ships were destroyed in space, and the Tyrants built more. Then an Animech, the guild that oversaw building new mechamorphs and rebuilding injured ones, discovered parts that he'd recently installed on a mechamorph who was believed to have been lost to space, did some looking around and asked other Animechs, and found that it wasn't a fluke. The High Tyrant, Obelisk, of course gloated about, rather than denying, his plan when confronted. He gave the animechs who'd found him out the choice of sacrificing themselve to be drained of NE or voluntary exile. And of course the Animechs being good guys, they didn't guess that they would then be pursued to have their energy drained anyway. This handily sets up their Beast Wars expy, as the Animechs pilot towards a "White Hole" hoping that it will play enough havoc with Tyrant sensors that they can't pursue, but not so much havoc with Animech sensors that they can't escape. The Tyrant fleet doesn't pursue, except for Obelisk's flagship, which was powerful enough to continue pursuit, so the Animechs pilot into the hole, and Obelisk continues to pursue, and they come out over prehistoric Earth. The rest plays out almost verbatim the Beast Wars story, at least in the broadstrokes. Animechs are mechanical, not technorganic, there's no transmetal, etc, but the basics are the same minus the Beast Machines return to Cybertron.

The Tyrants on Mecha Terra got on with things minus Megatron Obelisk. But of course, the underlings of the conqueror are never as competent or restrained as the conqueror himself. So things get more and more draconian and restricted and they realize it's easier to conquer planets with life forms that have already learned to refine Nexus Energy. "Tens of Thousands of years" of this and finally some mechamorphs decided to try to escape. There's some contrivance here to justify the mechamorphs believing that a White Hole is a rip in space and thus usable to travel great distances, without them having any idea what happened to the Animechs and off they go. An uppity Tyrant named Vorpal spots them and decides to follow after scanning their info banks. Vorpal's force gets spit out somewhere in Mexico, while the Exiles came down off the coast of California. A human general went rogue and sought out the crashed Exile ship his superiors had dismissed as a glitch, found it, went full on J Jonah Jameson and decided the nearly dead giant robots were a menace, and engaged. On his own. Like a dumbass. Fortunately for him, he engaged peaceful AutobotsExiles and not war-mongering DecepticonsTyrants, so he lived and was forced into retirement when he got back from dereliction of duty, disobediance, and loss of equipment with nothing to show for it.

The Exiles find that the Animechs survived on Earth in secret through the millenia, and get some spare generators pulled from destroyed mechs beyond repair, and the chapter sets up an MIB-like organization called AUTO (Armed Unidentified Threat Operations), canon new mechamorphs made with the generators gifted by the Animechs which are presumably supposed to be the player characters, and suggest that there might be non-mechamorph, non-human threats as the Tyrants have earned their race a reputation for cruelty which other races, unfamiliar with the ideological schism on Mecha Terra, might want revenge for.

Final Thoughts
As a d20 game, Mechamorphosis actually isn't bad. The rules for vehicle combat alone make me glad I bought the book. Individual parts of it need major overhauls. Character creation isn't even remotely balanced, and the new feats are lackluster. Watching Transformers Prime for the first time as I finish this review makes me want to get a game of this just to use Dark Energon Animate Dead. Or Hell- tweak it to turn it into a power for animating objects as mechamorphs even if mindless ones.

Character creation is hugely unbalanced but to be fair, it's little worse than starting a D&D game at seventh level. The wizard gets a handful of limited use abilities that individually contribute better than the fighter and can easily afford to build a use activated fireball "shell launcher," while nothing prevents someone from making a 7th level fighter who can make little real contribution to a fight, or a 7th level artificer who might as well stay at HQ and send a minion in his place. In fact, I'll damn Mechamorphosis with faint praise and say that it's character creation is better than making seventh level D&D characters because even the guy who makes a Soldier can still choose a form, gear or special powers that make that viable. Both just fall down when someone intentionally tries to break the game. Priorities in fact makes it difficult to make an entirely useless character (though not impossible- a structure alt form scientist with top priority ability scores and bottom priority special powers with randomly or very poorly chosen gear is going to force the GM to be very resourceful with screen time).

So while character creation is very swingy, at least it's so swingy that you actually have to intentionally thwart the swinginess to make an entirely shitty character. But it could definitely use an overhaul. Honestly, just because it prevents players from being completely useless doesn't mean that it can't accidentally give a player a character that smashes everything else. Or the aforementioned intentionally broken character. Four 3d6 damage 30-foot radius explosions per turn will cramp most characters' style, and giving a CR 6 monster that kind of offense would get you laughed out of any half-way competent material writing group, professional or no, especially if they're fine sized. The book very subtly suggests using monsters from D&D in it's bit about alien races (well, it's the best source for them, anyway), but good luck pegging a CR for a group of mechamorphs.

I keep harping on character creation, but that's because there isn't a lot else. Classes are ok, but nothing especially great and only expectedly bad. Feats are a mix of acceptable new content and carried ofer stuff, with form feats being very specialized and not meaningfully affecting character ability. Special Powers provide an shiny bit, but veer between useless cantrips you'll forget about and "take out one level-appropriate enemy per day, touch attack, no save."

Note about Nexus Drain: I didn't realize it before, but because it makes a function call to the Energy Drain ability, if you actually slay an enemy with it, you get a mechamorph wight.

Neat

Now you just need something that says you can control said wights. If you raise the matter to a GM, you're more likely to get a ruling that you don't make wights than a ruling that says you can control wights you make. Oh well, they'd probably rule that the first time you used it to kill an enemy anyway.

I'm not sold that d20 is a bad way to run a Transformers game. The problem is that it's bad for firefights. If you ran it in Greyhawk it could work fine with proper rules for the actual mechamorphs, and be a lot of fun. If you used Mutants and Masterminds the rewriting necessary is minimal, and I'll bet you can find stats for canon characters in M&M with little effort. But as is, Mechamorphosis is broken. It's fine if you're ok with broken games and gentlemens' agreements, but most Denners want solid games and aren't afraid to put in the work necessary for them, so it's a decent book for setting stuff and vehicle combat, but I can't really recommend it for just that, since you can get the setting stuff by watching a bunch of Transformers episodes and binging tfwiki, and the failures of D20 for any genre involving vehicle combat are well known so not many people will use it.

Rewriting
The first thing to do to salvage this idea is to actually write a Cybertronian race. Scale in transformers is completely fucked, so I'm just going to declare that the default Cybertronian is large size and make variations from there.

Cybertronian (Minimum Character Level 4)
Cybertronians are sentient, living robots from a distant planet/plane with the ability to change their form. All cybertronians have a more or less humanoid form they consider their primary form, and an alternate form usually used for disguise, and often with a side benefit of speed and movement capability. They are almost all at least 15 feet tall, with any smaller being an notable rarity compared to those at and above 15 feet. The average Cybertronian is therefore Large.
The most commonly believed origin of this strange race is that they were created by a mechanical god of light, Primus, to further his fight against the mechanical god of darkness Unicron. Some have suggested they were created by a biological race as tools, "evolved" from a biological race that improved itself through technology, or are the result of a mystical device known as the AllSpark, but these possible origins are variously attributed to foreign meddling, pure speculation, or simply the tool through which Primus made them. There is some nearly heretical thought that they evolved from "naturally occurring" simple machines on the world of Cybertron, which is typically laughed off, but it's worth acknowledging that biological gears, levers and certainly wedges and pulleys (after a fashion) do exist and so it is not entirely implausible that a machine race could evolve if it was based on silicone instead of carbon. If the cybertronian race evolved naturally, it would be a miracle of evolution on par with the babel fish.
Cybertronian Racial Traits

• Large Size
• 40' Movement
• Construct Type (Artificial Minded)
• +10 Strength, +6 Constitution, -2 Dex
• +5 Natural Armor
• Proficient in Improvised and Martial Weapons
• 2 Slam Attacks (2d6)
• Technomancy: A Cybertronian can operate any Spell Completion or Spell Trigger device made with the Craft Cybertronian Device feat.
• Alternate Form: Cybertronians contain nanomechs, invisibly small devices that allow them to repair themselves, generate ammunition for their weapons, and change their form. In effect, all Cybertronians have Lycanthropy limited to Medium and Large forms, except that instead of animals and magical beasts, they take the form of a single creature with the Inanimate trait. They may change their form by scanning a specimen of their desired new form as a full round action. After scanning the specimen, their nanomechs reconfigure them over 1d6 rounds so that they may take their new form. A DC 20 Knowledge Engineering check reveals the alternate form of a Cybertronian, while a DC 15 Kn Engineering will reveal their general form (car, plane, wagon, etc) and a DC 10 Kn Nobility check will reveal their likely forms (Decepticons are typically aircraft, Autobots are typically automobiles and other surface vehicles)
  Cybertronians may elect to have animal forms, but these are very rare and do not benefit from the +10 bonus to Disguise checks to appear to be a real member of their form. A Cybertronian is a massive mechanical being of steel and chrome and even in the shape of a lion is very obviously a massive mechanical being of steel and chrome.
  A Cybertronian may change their physical dimensions by about 20% when taking an alternate form
• Favored Classes: Soldier and Rogue
• Automatic Languages: Cybertronian.
• Bonus Languages: Any. A Cybertronian with access to a large database of another language may learn it with a DC 10 Intelligence check. The time this requires depends on the nature of the database- a technological or magical information store, such as a CD or magical crystal (with the proper interface) allows a Cybertronian to learn the language(s) contained in a matter of minutes (1d6-Int Mod), while a library requires the Cybertronian to sit and read, and while they can read very fast, they still must do it, and it will take a number of hours equal to 3d12-Int Mod. A Cybertronian can learn a language through immersion, sitting and listening to speakers and discerning context, but this is very arduous and takes 8d4-Int Mod days. Most Cybertronians use their technology to learn a language before visiting a new race.
• 4 Starting Hit Dice (4d10; 4+Int Bonus x 7 skill points; +4 Fort, +1 Reflex, +1 Will, +4 BAB)

Greater Cybertronian
Some Cybertronians are bigger than others. It is possible to create a Cybertronian larger than Large, but it comes with an increasing minimum level:

• Huge: Minimum level 8, 8d10 HD, Large and Huge forms (as Monstrous Form)
• Gargantuan: Minimum level 12, 12d10 HD, Huge and Gargantuan forms
• Colossal: Minimum level level 16, 16d10 HD, Gargantuan and Colossal forms

Cybertronians of these larger sizes have the same stats as standard Cybertronians, modified as appropriate for increasing size as normal.

Infiltrator Cybertronian
Very rarely, a cybertronian is closer in size to a human. Typically these cybertronians were designed for and perform infiltration and espionage tasks, hence their name. An Infiltrator Cybertronian is Medium size and takes a medium alternate form. Their minimum character level is 3 and they have three HD. Instead of the normal ability bonuses of a Cybertronian, Infiltrator Cybertronians have +2 Str and +2 Con.

The Great Upgrade
Later generations of Cybertronian developed synthetic skin technology and began to favour smaller forms. While this brought a measure of fuel efficiency, it also meant that some non-essential systems had to be removed to external devices. Cybertronians who have gone through the Great Upgrade are very commonly medium and large, never more than Huge, and may only chose animal alternate forms which are the same size as them- the streamlined forms of Upgraded Cybertronians have little room for the compression and telescoping that allow standard Cybertronians to take a form smaller than that of their primary form. However, the fusion of technology and (synthetic) biology allows Upgraded Cybertronians to recharge through eating and sleeping as a normal living creature in place of energon. Upgraded Cybertronians lose the ability to scan new forms. They require an external DNA scanner and stasis chamber to choose a new form and the extreme energy demands of this mean that it is done rarely. Only explorers and military post-Upgrade Cybertronians commonly take alternate forms for this reason, as the alternate form protects them from unstable energon deposits on alien planets, and without these forms they cannot make use of food as an alternate fuel source.
An Upgraded Cybertronian may take the form of an animal that is usually smaller than them, such as a rat, but they cannot shrink to the appropriate size. An Upgraded Cybertronian with a wasp alternate form changes from a 7 foot tall robot to a roughly 7 foot long wasp, and a 6 foot tall Upgraded Cybertronian with a rat alternate form can, at best, take the form of a 4 foot long rat.
Upgraded Cybertronians benefit from the Lycanthropy spell limited to forms which are the same size as their primary form. An Upgraded Cybertronian of at least 8 HD may benefit from Monstrous Form instead.

Cybertronian Feats
Cybertronians display a variety of forms, often with specialized weapons and attacks. One of the best ways to represent these are with Fiend, and occasionally Elemental, Feats. The following Feats are appropriate for Cybertronians and may be taken without being a fiend.

• Adept Flyer
• Breath Weapon
• Constricting Fiend
• Extra Arms
• Fiendish Invisibility
• Huge Size
• Large Size
• Pincers
• Poison Sacs (requires an alternate form with poison, poison affects constructs instead of non-construct creatures unless Cybertronian is Upgraded, in which case it affects constructs and living creatures)
• Spines of Fury
• Sting of the Scorpion
• Uncanny Flexibility
• Wings of Evil/Good

Cybertronian Items
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology"
Cybertronians are a highly advanced race with amazing weaponry and items which to any other race appear to be magic. More to the point, these items actually respond to non-Cybertronian use much like a magic item does. A human with Use Magic Device can... not exactly trick the item, but essentially twist reality in such a way that they know how to use it. This works exactly like a UMD check to emulate a race in addition to any other requirement for the item, such as having a spell on their list.

Cybertronian Items take somewhat unique forms compared to their equivalent magic items. A Cybertronian sword is obviously a sword, albeit one with energy emitters in place of gems and little to no script etched into it, but their single use, use activated items look nothing like potions and their use activated "spell trigger" items look like scrolls in only the broadest sense. Just recognizing most Cybertronian Items requires a Kn Engineering check (DC dependent on device). Cybertronian Device and Magic Item Equivalents

Magic Item	Cybertronian Item	DC to Identify(plus caster level)
Scroll	Cell	15
Potion	Emitter	15
Wondrous Item	Device	25
Magic Arms and Armor	Armament	10
Wand	Caster	20
Rod	Matrix	25
Staff	Great Caster	20
Ring	Chip	25

[/center]
The diverse forms of Devices make them difficult to identify. Just as Wondrous Item is a catchall for things that aren't scrolls, potions, wands, staves, rings, weapons, armor or rods, either in form or limitations, Devices are a catchall category for Cybertronian Devices. In a way, it's easier to identify them through process of elimination. Armament is almost solely used to refer to melee weapons. Cybertronians very rarely make armor, as they are already made of metal and very hard to hurt. On the occasion that they do make armor, it usually does more than just sit as a barrier between them and attacks. Cybertronians use many ranged weapons, but they are usually better represented through spell effects in a Caster, Great Caster or Device.
Charged Items actually have space for energy packs, rather than being disposable themselves, and these energy packs act somewhat akin to spell-storing devices. To refill a charged Cybertronian Item, multiply the spell level of the item's effect by the number of charges. You may then expend magical energy in the form of spell slots or uses per day of spell like abilities with (spell level x caster level) equal to that number. For example, a Shocking Grasp Caster requires 50 total spell levels to fully recharge, which may be accomplished by expending 50 CL 1 first level slots into it, 8 CL 3 second level and 1 CL 2 first level slots, 3 CL 5 third level and 1 CL 5 first level s slots, and so on. Charged Items may also be refueled by Energon.

Integrated Items
Many Cybertronians have items integrated into their very bodies. Essentially any cybertronian item can be integrated, but it requires installation by someone with a number of ranks of Kn. Engineering equal to the caster level of the item, and a number of hours of work equal to that same number. Integration of an item costs 600 gold over and above the cost of the item. Single Use items cannot be integrated, but charged items, which take energy packs, can be.

Craft Cybertronian [Item] (Item Creation)
You know how to make Cybertronian tech.
Prerequisite: Cybertronian, Character Level (X); or Kn. Engineering (Y) ranks
Benefit: Choose a magic item creation feat. You may make the Cybertronian technological equivalent of that sort of item.
If you are a Cybertronian, you need a character level equal to the caster level the Item Creation feat requires, while non-Cybertronians require a number of ranks in Kn. Engineering equal to that number plus 3.
Special: Anytime a Cybertronian would gain an Item Creation feat, they may take the equivalent Craft Cybertronian [Device] feat instead.

---

Well, that should be enough for Shrapnel to make a mess over for now. I'll add some more stuff later.

I'm liking it. The attention to detail is nice.

How would binary-bonded Transformers work? Things like Headmasters, Targetmasters, Powermasters/Godmasters, Brainmasters and the Breastforce (no, really).

Huh, Breastforce is the least stupid of those. Surprising.

I'd basically just make them a Leadership feat, except the Godmasters, which would be people with a powerful magic item, if I'm understanding them correctly.

Edit- actually, I'd make Godmaster a three level class that turns a person into a psuedo-Cybertronian.

Feat: Linked-Con (Leadership)
You have a small cybernetic or cybertronian servitor which, in addition to having a robotic primary form, can take one of several alternate forms.
Prerequisite: Cybertronian, Character Level 5
Benefit: You gain a Infiltrator Cybertronian cohort. Instead of the normal alternate form of a Cybertronian, this cohort chooses one of the following abilities:
Headmaster: Your linked cohort is a cybernetic humanoid which also acts as your own head when you are in your primary form. This gives you the benefit of Superior Two Weapon Fighting (no penalties for wielding two weapons) and negates bonuses enemies would gain by flanking you, but also means that, if for whatever reason it cannot take this role, you are blind and deaf. When in robot mode with your headmaster attached, you may communicate with them telepathically as a free action.
Targetmaster: Your linked cohort is a cybernetic humanoid which turns into a Cybertronian Item which you may wield in your robot mode, typically an Armament or Caster. If it becomes a Caster, it does not require energy cells, but rather can recharge itself through entering stasis. When in primary mode, a Targetmaster benefits from an appropriately sized item of the same sort they turn into.
Powermaster: Your linked cohort is a cybernetic humanoid which also turns into an auxiliary power source, serving as a pool of bonus Energon points equal to your character level-2. In addition, when your cohort is attached to you, you may spend 4 Energon points to give your Strength or your speed in all modes an enhancement bonus as if the cohort were a magic item for a number of rounds equal to your character level. A powermaster must eat to refill the pool of bonus points it gives it's owner access to, and requires food as a large creature.
Breastforce: Instead of a cybernetic humanoid, your linked cohort's primary form is that of a medium sized mechanical animal or vermin. Choose a suitable creature of CR equal to your character level minus 3, and change it's type to Construct. If desired, smaller animals may be increased to medium size so long as this does not increase the creature's CR above (your character level-3) before adding the Construct type. For an alternate form, your cohort may take the form of a Caster of Armament. Most are Cybertronian sized breastplates, hence their name, but some do turn into Cybertronian weapons or other armors. In their primary form, the Breastforce cohort gains the use of an equivalent Item, sized appropriately for and integrated to the cohort.

Feat: Brainmaster
You are actually a much smaller character who is in control of a specialized Cybertronian shell.
Prerequisite: Cybertronian, Large or Larger
Benefit: Your true primary form is a medium size Infiltrator Cybertronian. The larger robot mode that would be considered your primary form is essentially power armor and known as a Transtector shell. You must join with your armor to take your alternate form, and do so by transforming into a faced cube which enters through the chest of your shell and then rises to the head of it. In your shell, you have a 25% chance to ignore criticals as your true body is in the head of your form, though criticals to other areas do risk system shock.

On Recordicons- Just take Clockwork Centurion, each is an Infiltrator Cybertronian with an animal-based alt form, often changed in size to be appropriate. If you want to store them like G1 Soundwave, then get an integrated bag of holding. This puts Soundwave at about level 10 or so. If you want to play Aligned Continuity Soundwave, that version of Laserbeak is essentially a Breastforce Linked Cohort. Bayformer Laserbeak is essentially a character in his own right, with Soundwave as a patron NPC.