Fear and Hunger Takeaways

The dungeons of Fear & Hunger stand before you...

Fear & Hunger (F&H) and Fear & Hunger 2: Termina (Termina) are dungeon crawl RPGs with a lot of meat to pick from and use. The first game is set in a classical megadungeon called Fear & Hunger while the second is a city crawl through the afflicted town of Prehevil and its many minor dungeons. 

Many people describe these games as "games that hate you" due to their sheer difficulty. And yeah, these  are very challenging hellish crawls set to tear apart the unprepared. But if "Nethack and Silent Hill inspired survival horror dungeon explorer" tickles your neocortex or causes an ominous humming sound to emit from your cerebral cortex then check it out. Oh and take those warnings on the game page and in the game seriously, the world of Fear & Hunger is extremely dark.  

Spoilers ahead! The game is best experienced blind.

Alright with that out of the way, I want to highlight some things from my experiences playing the games so far:

Fear & Hunger

Zoinks!

Puzzle Monsters

Most of the combat encounters in both games are against one creature, you'll very rarely be fighting two or three at the same time. The reason for this is because it only really takes one foe to absolutely ruin an unprepared party. 

Combat in F&H has the party deciding which body part of the enemy to attack aside from a few abilities that vary their locations or hit everything. You can cut off a cleaver wielding arm to stop a devastating hacking attack, cripple the legs to stagger the enemy and expose their head, keep rolling the dice trying for a lucky headshot, or just concentrate on the torso to take the monster out directly. 

The first encounter with a new enemy is always tense. You have no idea what it does and need to be careful. After a few encounters you start to figure out the best ways to to cut down some of them and start getting into the groove of understanding the best approach, but bosses are always a terrifying encounter. Are they going to go for my limbs? Attack our sanity? Inflict conditions? 

Let's take one of the most common horrible encounters: the Guard. Spoilers ahead.

Standard guards wander around the early levels of the dungeon. They're generally slow and easy to avoid, but if you get locked into a fight with one then you need to have a plan. Almost every encounter with an enemy will have the players take their turns first (something something agility), so we take a look at this guy and consider:

1. There's a big cleaver in his left hand. That thing looks like it could inflict bleeding or even chop a limb. 

2. The "stinger" between its legs is bad vibes, I hate it, and I am afraid of what it will do.

3. There's the other arm, which is really big and looks maybe longer than the cleaver arm? That could be a problem. 

So what do we go for first? There's an optimal way to handle these guys with almost no chance of taking damage and I'm not going to spoil all of it, but this visual representation is something that could easily be explained at a table to represent a monster your players will encounter. Without any input from the player, the guard will do the following things:

1. The cleaver will slice at a party member and sever a limb and do damage.

2. The stinger might do a high damage piercing attack. 

3. The big right arm might initiate a Coin Flip attack. Coin Flips attacks are something like Save or Die attacks. Crucially, this one can be entirely avoided if all of the characters guard before the attack comes. Failure to dodge or guard it is going to probably kill one of your characters early on.

And this is just an example of one of the many monsters in the dungeon. Again, each of them have a variety of attacks, are made up of components that can be targeted to disrupt these attacks, and have standard attack patterns.

Running Away

Not encountering something (seeing it on the world map and running around it) or running from an already started battle are some of the best options for combat in F&H. Why risk resource expenditure when you could just not encounter the creature? Much like at the table, sometimes the best choices it to run away. Or to talk! Many creatures have unique interactions where you can try talking to them, distracting them, confusing them, trivializing or ending encounters early. Although for others, talking might just be a waste of your turn- it's up to the player to make the judgement call.

Actually I think this is why so many people find the game so challenging early on. Much like a 5e trained table, they see a monster and must go fight the monster. Running away or choosing to not encounter it isn't an option people think of with these sorts of games, and there's definitely a few thrown in early on that are intended to teach players that running away is not only viable, but sometimes the best choice.  

Fighting a monster doesn't always reward the player with much here either. Looting the body of a crazed cave gnome might turn up a shilling? But was it worth getting bleeding on two of your characters and an infection on one? There's no experience system here, F&H embraces the diegetic advancement system of finding equipment,

Resources

b0lyachka

Much like your tabletop dungeon crawling experience, there are resources to be spent and carefully used here!

• Food: In the dungeons of Fear and Hunger, you get hungry quickly! Just entering the dungeon makes you get hungry faster. There's a pervasive, oppressive influence (with an in universe explanation) that constantly drains the party. Food items need to be scrounged, prepared into recipes, and used carefully to avoid starving in the bowels of the dungeon.
• Mind: Mind is a sanity mechanic that drains over time as well, and if a character reaches 0 mind it's game over for them. In F&H, it drains faster when you're not using a torch which ties torch management into this resource loop. In Termina, Mind can be slowly regenerated by hanging out in one of the two "safe" areas where you can relax and chat with party members. Mind is also used directly by spellcasting in both games and managing mind is critical for a spell heavy run.
• Health: Health is a big one. It's the discrete number of hit points you have but you're also going to be managing the variety of status effects that you can be afflicted with. An infection from an attack in an arm or leg will kill a character over time and has to be treated with a healing item- or the limb needs to be removed. Speaking of limbs: 
• LIMBS ARE A RESOURCE TOO: Lose both your arms and you're reduced to tackling. Lose your legs and you're slowed both in battle and on the world map. There are also ways to get your limbs back which you can only discover through searching the world and understanding its magic systems.
• Time: In F&H you have about thirty in game minutes before a character tied to several of the possible player characters' backstories dies. In Termina, the entire game takes place over three days with different events and character activities happening across the town. Termina in particular also ties time into its saving mechanic. There are several ways to save your game, but the easiest one is to rest in one of the usable beds throughout the city, advancing time and also gaining access to the game's advancement system. 
• Restoratives: These are the things that cure your conditions and heal your characters. Herbs are scattered around the maps, and if you find a recipe book you can make these herbs and other resources into a variety of healing items. 
• Battle Items: Termina has more of these, including one of the best additions which are glass shards you throw into enemies' eyes to blind them and make their attacks miss. But there's also things like explosives, saw blades, traps (usable on the overworld screen too), poisons, and more. Each of these add new ways to deal with encounters aside from just the tried and true hack and slash.
  

Books and Lore

People have been discussing usable lore lately, and F&H as well as Termina are great case studies of how to sprinkle lore in. Facts about the dungeon and its inhabitants mostly come from discussions with the few NPCs or from reading old books scrounged from libraries scattered throughout the dungeon. There's very little exposition in general and things need to be pieced together. Or not. Some of the lore is tied into usable books that teach recipes for food or consumables, some of it teaches lore about the gods of the setting while also teaching the character about what magics they can grant and how to earn their favor. 

What little "fluff" lore there is directly explains or adds context to things encountered in the world. An old film reel might give insight on some creatures encountered in Prehevil. A heretical text could contextualize some religious misgivings. A serial killer's diary helps with a puzzle in the world. In general, F&H is much more sparse on the texts it offers and I think this is something really easily translated into tabletop gameplay: 

• If your players examine a bookshelf they might just find it filled with nothing interesting. But if there is something there, keep it index card sized in length and tie it into something intractable in the world itself.

Closing Statements

 

Letharts

There are plenty of other aspects of the games I haven't touched on here, and I'm still playing them so there may be more to chat about later. For me, F&H and Termina are really interesting dungeon crawls with a bunch of neat bits to take and cannibalize. The content is something that is probably too much for some people, and that's okay. Not everything has to appeal to everyone. 

Much of the process of getting good at either game revolves around you the player failing forward, dying and learning the patterns of attacks or where traps are, embracing the roguelike inspirations of the game. If I was running something at a table, I'd be more explicit with broadcasting attacks than either of these games are to at least give a chance. There might be some room though for running a game in an extremely deadly world that rewards the players for learning things about the world with each run, that's something I'll chew on for awhile. There was a mechanic from the 5e Hardcore Rules supplement called Zymer's Candle which allowed characters to burn a candle in a room and then as long as one of them can run back and extinguish the candle within an hour of it being lit then time reset to when the candle was first lit, creating an in universe pseudo "save and reset" method.

There's a good deal of very powerful magic available throughout the games in limited supply, such as regrowing limbs at ritual circles or powerful spells that can be cast or the Empty Scrolls which can grant any item in the game. All of this can be strong very early but only if you the player understand the mechanics and how they work in the game world.

I quite like Termina for its diversity of cast and backgrounds as well as some of the choices it forces you to make. Its time mechanic though is a bit weak, as time only advances with sleeping in a bed it means a skilled/lucky player can do most of the game in one segment of time. F&H's time mechanic after that initial 30 minutes is really more of a timer for how long you can keep yourself fed and your sanity up.  

If any of this interests you and if you can handle the subject matter, I highly encourage giving these games a try. Both of them I bounced pretty hard off at first and only after coming back and sinking an hour or so into them was I hooked- so I encourage new players to not get discouraged at their many inevitable deaths.

Oxycontin

Miscellania:

• Using a heavy blunt weapon on a monster's limb to disrupt their attack
• Spells that affect vision are incredibly powerful
• Spirit Boards that can be used to lead to useful items or to deadly traps
• A book that transports you to an end game area temporarily
• Learning how to talk to cockroaches to turn a boss into a quest giver
• An overwhelmingly powerful wizard broadcasting an attack that will kill you for four turns unless you run away
• A sword that kills you just after you pick it up unless you teleport away (like with that book)
• Enemies that flee if you damage them enough
• Sequence breaks and multiple progression paths (there are several ways into Prehevil besides the main locked gate- or that can make that gate irrelevant)
• Doppelgangers of party members
• Maps that swap out in different runs allowing variable pathways
  
• PRHVL Bop, a cozy jazz bar in an awful city. It is the Whirling in Rags of Termina and like the Disco Elysium Whirling I love it dearly
  

• Multiple paths to different levels of the dungeons
• Hell plane alternate versions of areas with gates that you can use if you appeal to an old god
• Nemesis enemies that have a chance to spawn on any map and chase the characters
• Other adventuring parties getting absolutely wrecked by the dungeon
• A sword that possesses you if you go too crazy
• Enemies that don't kill the party but leave them afflicted
• Limited Wish scrolls available from the very first floor of the dungeon and usable if you learn the secrets of how they work
• Disguises that fool simple enemies
• The Irrational Obelisk
• Spectral enemies immune to normal weapons (sounds obvious but they're very frightening to the unprepared here) 
• A cryptid that trades you powerful items for children
• Multiple vendors within the dungeons
• Enemies that fight each other (usually seen on the overworld)
• A fucked up moon
  

Blog Signposts

The most important blog aspect is the blog roll! Each blog is an off-ramp on the information superhighway and a blog roll is a signpost to direct to other blogs. 

My introduction into the blogosphere is lost to time now, who can say which post it was that lured me in but it was probably a goblinpunch article some time in 2013-2014. At the time I hadn't yet run so much as a single game but was always thinking about it. Finding the blogosphere was an infernal fuel and seemingly bottomless well of creativity and diverse ideas across a huge sprawling beast. 

Sure to start with I think I was looking around the /r/rpg wiki, but the D&D associated subreddits didn't vibe with me and I ended up preferring the then OSR side of blogs. But first, how does one navigate the blogosphere? I have no idea how other people do it, I strongly suspect a mixture of discord and twitter are the primary means these days but for me the blog roll is still my preferred method. Alright so what is the blog roll? It's this thing:

The blog list, blog roll, whatever you want to call it (blogger calls it a blog list gadget) it's the constantly updating list of new posts from (presumably) blogs the blogger reads. So, cut back to 2014 and my fresh introduction to the blogosphere: I lived off of Arnold K's sidebar and spider crawled out through dozens of blogs reading old posts, finding new blogs, filing and tagging things away in the moon garden of the soul to sprout later. 

These things can go for miles! Miles and miles and miles! Go crawl a blog's sidebar and just see how far out you can get. Definitely a lot of circles and groups of mutual blogs on each other's blog lists (the need to diagram/map a blogosphere with a webcrawler is growing) but still- the sidebar was critical for my exposure to new blogs, ideas, posts, the word diegesis every time it sweeps through the discourse, etc. And so, for me, the sidebar holds a special place still as a way of checking on what blogs I like are up to and getting a direct IV feed of posts.

For a good year or two I swapped over to using Feedly to keep track of new posts, which was useful for a good while but lost the tactile feel of a blog's native page and the eternal call of the sidebar for other blogs. There are worlds to be discovered! Go crack open a blog and find someone's session reports and world building: eat well and hunger for more!

An Aside On Linkrot and Memory Holes

Of course the blog wall is only as stable as the blog itself. Sometimes blogs go down! Shuttering, wilful deletion, migration to a new page, the natural decay of the fragile internet: posts and blogs go missing sometimes. And I don't just mean a dead blog roll, who among us hasn't seen a blog roll with posts all from 2-3+ years ago? Instead I mean links going down, things happen. For me, this dovetails perfectly into my issue of remembering where posts I have read came from. 

I am awful at remembering where I read something. Too many times have I manually crawled pages, crafted google searches ever more niche, and delved into the stacks to consult the scrolls in search of some minor piece of esoteric blogateria. It's actually somewhat of a zen experience. Still! To combat my own incessant devouring of posts and the frailty of URL memory, I opened up my Crabinet of Curiosities on my page where I keep links I revisit and want to come back to- or ones that I found especially entertaining or useful. I'm pretty decent about updating it. Now it stands as a monument to stuff I liked reading and maybe as a big signpost for someone else crawling the blogaspora late in the night.

>> Crabinet of Curiosities <<

Maybe one day I'll get to making my own tagging and categorization system. Or an index page for my own blog. Index pages are good and cool and useful especially on the more prolific posters' blogs.

Anyways, if you think you want to blog go do it! Blog! More blogs! The blogaspora is sort of like one of those ever-rotting ever-mutating webrings from the old net and new voices are great! And we need to get weirder. This place (gestures around my own blog) is getting way too normal... But don't just take it from me, listen to other people about why blogging is cool and good: 

• Just Do It (this one is the direct fuse that sparked my own blog)
• BLOG!: Good God! What Is It Good For?  
• Write It
• Probably others! Go crawl a blog and find them! 
   

One Clown Theory

Recently there was some clown discussion. Here's the thing about clowns:  

There's only one clown and there has only ever been one clown. 

These are all the same creature

One clown! It's all the same clown! No of course I don't mean it's some sort of clown hive mind or the same clown time travelling around and around- actually the second one isn't far from the bullseye. 

There's something that happens at the biological, psychological, pharmacological, ontological level to someone who starts walking down the clown path. At a point somewhere after they don the d-red nose for the first time and when they're chainsmoking with fourteen brethren in the back of a tiny car on their way to commit mischief, the neurological pathways in their brains form into just the right configurations of comedy meets tragedy, of necessity meets frivolity, and eventually there's a wet popping sound as the circle is completed, the ritual satisfied, and that person is gone and in their skin is the clown. 

same clown

And it's always the same clown. Always. Yes yes, who among us hasn't turned a corner and averted their gaze from a group of clowns dismembering and devouring one of their own- but that's just what this creature does! The madness locked in its big-tent striped brain is the insanity of eons! 

Blind and deaf inquisitors of the most holiest and secret of orders have thoroughly worked over many a subject and the results of their studies are thrice sealed and buried in the deepest vaults of hidden sacred monasteries- but one fact has made its way out of these sanctums: each clown is a different iteration of the same tormented soul- born anew atemporally into the host body. Can you imagine it? A thousand thousand thousand lifetimes in a thousand cities? A thousand worlds? We can only guess at the limits of it, but these concurrent lives lived out over the eons have driven the creature horribly, hilariously mad. 

this too, same clown

And this clown, the clown, it knows what is happening to it. After each death and renewal into a new host it remembers all of these previous lives- and so they tend to congregate into troupes amongst itself. Why else are the jokes so similar, the acts all the same, the colors the paints it's all the same clown! Experiencing itself in another maddening circle!

There's no coming back to one stricken by the disease, unfortunately. They become the clown irrevocably. Maybe the clown is feeling whimsical and will act the role of the dutiful son, daughter, husband, wife and wipe off their face paint- but never forget it's not who it once was. Late at night they will feel the inevitable pull to the trunk in the basement, beneath all the boxes of coats, and they will pull out their tiny trumpet and honk their red nose. It's best to just ignore it. Live blissfully ignorant and thank your lucky stars that the clown has decided to show you mercy.

honk

Maybe you can drag one along on an adventure- but be warned this timeless twisted creature has no experience of time as you or I do. Each life a new joke, a new shadow on the wall, and a new opportunity for comedy. Or maybe they'll spend this one weeping in the sewers, screaming against the gods that have cursed it so. Roving bands of ageless deathless clowns aren't unheard of- and some heresiarchs are whispered to have intentionally summoned this creature to extract boons and knowledge from it. 

For it has lived every time and place and knows the past, the future, the present, the great magics, the lesser magics, banana cream pie recipes, all locked under the harlequin mask of madness. Luckily the jocular cults of the clown tend to run their course and burn out quite quickly- most ultimately succumbing to their idol and becoming a new clown of their own.

always the same clown

But there are ways to commune with this creature, for those willing to risk the ire of an eternal horribly mad creature. 

1. Acquire a simpleton or other such willing peasant
2. Train them in the arts of clownery. Once they don a red nose, or should one appear suddenly, ensure they are locked well and safe in a cell. 
3. When the mad cackling reaches a peak, you may now attempt a bargain

The only thing you can offer to an eternal being is novelty. Jokes, gags, bits, stand up, should you prove to impress it then there's a chance you will be granted your request. Illusions, jocular magics, stories of mirth and hilarious secrets of history are the best bet for boons.

Be warned, there can be no guarantees it has not seen such before, and clown magic is not to be trifled with. If the clown waivers or seems uncertain, do not hesitate to kill it, change your face, and seek another life as far away as you can. Be ever vigilant for floppy shoes- though that clown may be dead one of them- many of them- will remember. Whispers near carnivals tell of hidden cells of assassins, given lists by their own ready to act in the funniest way they can to extract vengeance. Dynasties aflame, cities collapsed, livestock inverted all at the cost of the wrong joke.

what makes a mad god laugh

Some say the original iteration, the first clown, Clown Prime, was born and cursed long long ago- the first man to tell a bad joke, to slip on a banana, to laugh at the gods. Others believe the first clown is yet to be born, a creation of the mad sciences of man and a warning of our boundaries. At the very least, we can think ourselves lucky the poor twisted soul has a sense of humor.

 

Constellation: Frame Construction

We're building giant robots. Continuing from all the Constellation setting stuff (and rambling).

A frame is a humanoid machine that stands usually about fifteen meters tall on average. The standard models of frame used by Starfall have minor variations, with their constituent nations having their own specialized frames and Constellation fielding their own highly specialized frames called Eidolons.

 

X'cale

Standard frames consist of two legs, two arms, a torso, and a head. 

• Legs contain specialized armored servos and small ground effect system thrusters to allow smooth movement on the ground.
  
• Torsos are a frame's core where everything attaches and where the frame's power plant is housed. 
• Heads are usually humanoid in appearance or similar to a turret or mounted camera array and carry the majority of sensors that feed into the cockpit as well as communications equipment. 
• Arms have armored servomotors typically with actuating hands to allow for universal weapons loadout and on the fly swap outs.

The cockpit is a human-sized egg shaped armored metallic sphere housed usually in the head of a frame, though some models allow for installation in the chest which enable more armor for the pilots but make emergency ejections a more time consuming process. Cockpits contain a seat, controls, and a bank of screens tied directly into the frame's computing systems and sensory feeds, with very little room for personalization.

Power plants are micro fusion reactors at the core of the frame and are linked to heat radiators across the frame. Guardian type frames used in city defense typically swap these reactors out for high-density batteries. 

Eddie Mendoza

 

Some frames are specialized with integrated systems and weaponry, but those tend to be reserved for elite units and R&D. Standard frames available to player pilots at the start of a game come 3d printed or nanofabbed and then have their kits installed based on the constraints of economy, mission necessity, and pilot whimsy. These Tabula Rasa or TR frames come in three varieties:

TR-1 Specialist: 2 weapons, 4 systems

TR-2 Balanced: 3 weapons, 3 systems

TR-3 Assault: 4 weapons, 2 systems

Below is a list of some weapons and systems that might be available for installation:

System	Description
Survival Kit	Contains flares, a life-raft, and enough food and medical supplies for one week.
Micromanipulators	Human sized and smaller tool-tipped arms that can extend from a hand. Used for doing precise work without leaving the cockpit.
Advanced Passive Sensors	Full suite of passive sensors providing light spectrum analysis (UV, IR, etc), thermal sensors, EM sensors (detecting electromagnetic radiation from electronics, weapons, shields, etc).
Tracing Package	Can trace communications transmissions, radar emissions, and other active sensors to their source.
Communications Jammer	Can jam all communications in a 5 mile radius.
Guidance Dazzler	Reverse-engineered from biological samples, the guidance dazzler allows near perfect protection from beyond visual range guided munitions.
Early Warning Radar	A phased array antenna that can detect significant movement within a ten mile radius.
Target Uplink	Advanced analytic subroutines provides tactical data for a pilot analyzing a target and highlighting weapons, compositions, and expressed systems.
Silent Running	Insulation and directed emissions allow a frame to move near silently as long as no other systems are used.
Frictionless Spray	Can coat a 20x20 meter area in a spray that reduces friction, causing slippage.
Goo Spray	A sticky spray that coats a 20x20 area and makes movement more challenging.
Turbocharger	Allows 10 seconds of enhanced performance for all weapons, propulsion, shields, etc. Hinders performance of all systems afterwards until repairs can be made.
Active Camouflage	Provides a limited cloaking system that works against the mark 1 human eyeball but not much else. Lasts until another system is used.
Albatross Drone	A remotely operated reconnaissance drone that can scout out areas as long as it's within line of sight of the operator.
Heat Shunt	Huge coils that can be deployed to rapidly vent heat while stationary.
Ground Effect System	Small propulsors and thrusters to allow hovering over terrain and dramatically increase speed.
Thrusters	Large thrusters that allow for subsonic flight.
"Woodpecker" Beacon	Can fire a small drone that attaches to a target, allowing finite tracking of the target's location as well as enhancing attacks against it.
Sunburst Flare	High powered flare drone that acts as a miniature, stationary sun for a time.
EMP Hardening	Hardens systems against EMP and electrical attacks.
Impact Plating	Additional staged armor plating to protect against kinetic attacks.
Directed Jammer	Jams sensory data for frames when aimed at them.
Smoke Chamber	Triggerable smoke that can obscure your position.
Escape Thruster	Limited use thrusters that allow a frame to boost quickly out of imminent danger.
Nuisance Drones	Six hummingbird drones designed to seek a painted target's sensors and harass them with directed light, sonic emissions, and suicide dives. Programmable and highly configurable.
Booster	Limited booster allows high speed movement in short bursts.
Grapple Locks	Deployable latches that help adhere the user to a target they're touching.
Belt Feeder	Motorized belt feeders rapidly replenish ammunition for projectile weapons.
Precision Controls	Enable last minute recovery from risky situations or sudden attacks for skilled pilots.
Bastion Emplacement	Series of deployable plates and ground anchors stick the frame in place and provide additional protection from incoming fire.
Patch Foam	Emergency deployable hardening foam that can patch damaged armor and protect vital components. Usable on self or other frames.
Spotter Radar	Provides targeting information for other weapons to enhance their attacks. Can be fed to allied frames.
Shock Absorbers	Rubberized kinetic absorbers diminish damage dealt by ramming, impacts with obstacles, or falling.
Point Defense Guns	Short range guns designed to counter missile swarms and nearby drones.

Weapon	Description
Harpoon	Gas powered harpoon that can be electrified or reeled in.
Cutter Axe	Rotating bladed metallic plates that can rip through tissue and deal heavy damage to metal.
Foam Gun	Sprays globs of fat solidifying metallic foam that can obstruct weapons, seal ports, jam thrusters, and restrict movement.
Demolisher Blade	Huge hunk of metal with a sharpened edge just as likely to smash as to slice. Slow.
Shock-Whip	Long barbed whip which can deliver an abrupt electric shock.
Chainsaw	Rotating chain blade for chewing through tissue and light metal objects.
Lance	Armor-Piercing lance, prone to breaking off in targets.
Anti-Material Rifle	Long range rifle designed to counter heavy armor. Slow.
Flamethrower	Close range weapon that can set targets on fire.
Shredder Gun	Close range shotgun that fires metallic flechettes that chew apart their targets.
Battle Rifle	Standard medium range and reliable projectile weapon.
Thermal Blade	Heavy blade that combusts targets and overheats systems. Hot.
Short Range Missiles	Short range missiles with line of sight targeting to track evasive targets.
Long Range Rockets	Blanketing long range rockets that can suppress and harass hardened targets. Slow.
Caustic Sprayer	Close range sprayer filled with caustic acid.
Rocket Launcher	Standard high powered two-handed rocket launcher for explosive medium range effects. Slow.
Directed Microwave Emitter	Heats liquids in biological material. Ineffective against metallic objects. Highly effective medium range anti-personnel weapon. Hot.
Electromagnetic Pulse Gun	Precision EMP gun effective at medium range that can disrupt electric systems. Hot.
Railgun	High power armor piercing projectile launcher. Hot. Slow.
Ablative Shield	Thick shield comprised of layers of ablative metal.
Pile Bunker	Melee weapon that fires a spike forward with a chemical charge for maximal armor-piercing. Slow.
Paintball Gun	Rifle that fires balls of ink that shatter on contact with a target. Commonly used in training, can also be used to blind sensors, eyes, and can be laced with biological or chemical agents.
Catapult Launcher	Simple scoop launcher designed to load anything that can fit in it and accelerate it at a target. Commonly used for junk, boulders, cobbled together explosives, etc.
Power Punch	Rockets embedded into fists provide for high impact power punches.
Rending Claws	High heat sharp claws designed to shred armor.
Chaingun	Rotating medium range projectile weapon highly effective at suppressing fire.
Beam Cannon	Precision energy weapon. Hot. Slow.
"Loiter" Drone Mortar	Fires an arcing drone high above the battlefield. The drone can loiters in the air for a time and can be propelled at a target at any time.
Concussion Rockets	Concussive rockets that can disrupt targets. Highly effective on unarmored targets.
"Swarmbat" Missiles	Drone launcher that fires a large missile drone that deploys its own micro-missile swarm after a target.

Some exotic systems and weaponry may be available from benefactors, discovered in abandoned laboratories, or recovered from wrecked adversaries. Here are some examples:

System	Description
Active Cloaking	Advanced active cloaking that protects from most average sensors, passive and active- though reconnaissance specialized sensors might still pick you up. Lasts until another system is used.
Gravity Lens	Advanced sensor that can convert gravitational waves into sensory data, allowing trained users to see around obstacles within visual range.
"Wallhack" Radar	Provides a limited view of objects through solid walls. With the right tuning, this can allow a user to see frames or other large metallic objects through solid matter by emitting an extremely high frequency pulse.
Panoply Field	Disperses a field of nanobots that provide sensory data, allowing a scan of everything exposed to airflow within 1 mile given time.
SIMS Sniffer	Measures paracausal perturbations to detect SIMS use and manifestations, provides a heads up if they're targeted at the pilot.
Refractor Shields	Generates a shaped EM field that can refract light, hinders beam weapon attacks from anything beyond close range.
Hard Light Shields	Exotic technology that produces a heavy shield around the frame, reducing projectile impact, refracting light, and dampening explosions.
Shadow Imager	A combination of holo-projectors and directional jamming produces the illusion of multiple copies of the frame. Most effective on light frames.
Synchronizer	Device that enables SIMS users to operate their frames as though through a brain-machine-interface and dramatically enhances their SIMS abilities. Requires significant training to use effectively.
Kinetic Dynamo	Absorbent plates and materials allow the frame to absorb kinetic attacks and translate them directly into increased power.
Oracle System	Battle AI that monitors a target. With enough combat data, can provide limited projections of what a target would do given the pilot's actions.
Thalia Attractor	Abnormal instrument that can turn certain death into a slight comedic mishap. Not guaranteed to work past the first time. Highly experimental.
Immortan System	Swarms of nanomachines can be deployed to repair damage and even replace limbs.
Weapon	Description
Destroyer's Palm	Coats the frame's hand in gleaming nanomachines that dissolve whatever the hand touches. Heat.
Beam Saber	Prototype melee energy weapon that can melt armor.
Vacuum Projector	Micro-annihilator that can create temporary spheres of vacuum space, interfering with projectiles and disrupting emplacements and movement.
Chest Cannon	Extremely high power energy weapon fed directly from the frame's core. Heat. Exposes core.
Rust Missile	Missile with a payload of metal-dissolving nanomachines. Limited life, but shreds through metal quickly.
Thermite Slime	Medium range slime-launcher. The slime is a sticky mixture of chemicals and nanobots that slowly gum up their target and then heat up a thermite reaction. Highly effective against armor unless scraped off.
Interference Beam	Extremely high power directed beam weapon that deals no direct damage but interferes with a frame's power plant, forcing a full restart. Slow. Heat.
Lightning Cannon	Ball lightning projector. Medium range. Heat.
Heat Dump	Melee weapon that drives a spike into a target and dumps all heat from the user into the target. Slow.
Calliope's Mirror	Advanced sonic weapon that cancels sound waves by listening to their input and outputting directed sonic energy back at the emitter.
Balloon Spear	Experimental spear gun with questionable application. The Balloon Spear fires spears designed to grapple onto/into targets and then explosively inflates a helium balloon at their end.
Rail Cannon	The big brother of a railgun, the rail cannon is a spinal mounted magnetic accelerator that fires a 3 meter rod across great distances. Can pierce meter thick armored plates. Heat. Slow. Set up.
Drill Crab	Rocket propelled drone that attaches to a target and begins drilling into its core. Programmable and configurable.
AE Rifle	Constellation designed Anti-Eidolon rifle with limited ammunition. Projectiles designed to counter manifested materials.
AE Spear	Constellation designed Anti-Eidolon spear designed to easily pierce manifested materials.
Cryospiker	Spike thrower that freezes an area on impact.
Nuclear Bazooka	Tactical nuclear warhead delivery system.

Kagami Moto

Specialized Frames

While TRs are the most easily accessed frames, there are many many variants employed by different factions across the planet. Doing favors or missions for them (or capturing them in battle) can give access to some of these specialized frames.

Starfall:

TR frames are the bread and butter for Starfall forces, with some elite units using altered frames.

SE-1 Hektor: 3 weapons and 3 systems with a built in shoulder mounted spear.

SE-2 Cybele: 2 weapons and 4 systems. Specialized drone printer allows rapid reproduction of lost drones.

SE-3 Thisbe:  4 weapons and 2 systems with a built in active camouflage system.

TR-4 Proteus: Extremely variable, 6 universal mounts with a basic weapons-lathe allowing printing of weapons on the fly.

Germania:

Germania's elite frames specialize in kinetic feeds, emphasizing bulk application of projectile weapons. 

GA-06 Messenger: 3 weapons and 3 systems with a built in belt feeder.

GA-99 Herald: 2 weapons and 4 systems with a built in rocket-hammer.

GA-57 Judgement: 3 weapons and 3 systems with a built in rail cannon.

ALR:

Thanks to the environment they are usually fielded in,  the ALR uses high heat weaponry and systems with a specialization in beam weaponry.

Hellion: 3 weapons and 3 systems with a built in advanced turbocharger with 2 uses before needing repair.

Snowbird: 4 weapons and 2 systems with built in thrusters and GES.

Classique:  4 weapons and 2 systems with a built in charge bank enabling rapid fire of energy weapons.

Bharin Empire:

The Bharin frames tend to specialize in melee combat thanks to their use mostly as city-defense frames and police action units. 

Wu Wei: 3 weapons and 3 systems, equipped with a built-in panoply field and precision controls.

Tigerstripe: 2 weapons and 4 systems, built-in rending claws.

Elephant Shark: 4 weapons and 2 systems, built-in bastion-emplacement.

New Alexandria:

NA mostly uses the Starfall frames, but has two elites of their own. 

NA-04 Apollo: 3 weapons and 3 systems, Apollo has modified Sunburst Flare drone designed to attach to a target and overheat them.

NA-14 Artemis: 3 weapons and 3 systems, the Artemis is equipped with a resolution amplifier that allows increased range for most weapons.

UADP:

UADP frames all come with additional reinforcement or armor of some kind as a way of surviving their highly dangerous wilds. 

Grizzly: 4 weapons 2 systems with built in impact plating.

Jaguar: 3 weapons and 3 systems with built in shock absorbers and escape thruster.

Bison: 4 weapons and 2 systems with a built in early warning radar.

Nomad:

Nomads field just about anything that works and can be highly experimental. With plenty of TRs of their own taken from compromised printers, expect to see cobbled together machines when fighting with or against the nomads.

Dozer: 3 weapons and 3 systems, the Dozer has in-built boosters and shock absorbers and tends to rely on ramming.

Cobra: 2 weapons and 3 systems, has a built-in shock whip.

Midnight Sun:

Midnight Sun tends to field unique frames for all of their missions as well as hijacking target frames for surprise.

Joker: 2 weapons and 3 systems, kitted with built in advanced spoofing equipment to imitate friendly frames.

Gunhazard: 4 weapons and 2 systems, equipped with a built in holoprojector for setting up ambushes.

Volkharev Initiative:

The VI doesn't usually field traditional frames, instead fielding modified demons or frames with demonic components.

Alkahest:

Most Alkahest frames are unique to the user in every way- many of them being TR frames with salvaged Constellation synchronizers and manifested equipment and weaponry- making their function and form unpredictable.

Constellation:

Eidolons are a divergent branch of mechanized armor evolution. Being more humanoid in shape but with longer arms and agile movements. Their cockpits are armored synchronizers and most Eidolons use a combination of manifested attacks and equipment to augment their loadout with more training and efficiency than the paramilitary Alkahest frames. With a trained operator these are extremely lethal to unprepared pilots.

Mk 1 Eidolon: 3 weapons and 3 systems with an in-built synchronizer. 

Frame Improvement

Gavin Manners

With enough resources and time, a pilot can work with a frame they're familiar with to make modifications to it. This could be building in equipment, improving performance, or just specializing the paint job.

These alterations though are tied to that specific frame and have to be maintained. If that frame gets fragged during combat then all of the alterations made to it are lost too and the pilot has to begin with a fresh frame.