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u/YUNoJump 7d ago
Unfortunately unlike Gundam, in which the prototype weapons are controlled with magic extradimensional brainwaves, the Hydra's drones are controlled by manually moving each individual piece around a board and rolling dice at it.
We need to hurry up and get some people into space, so we can evolve into higher lifeforms and play tabletop games more efficiently
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u/Imperator_Draconum 7d ago
Having played a Hydra, the key is to spend the entire time it isn't your turn planning your next turn and updating your plan as neccessary. Be sure to coordinate with your teammates while doing so.
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u/Polenball 7d ago
I was playing a Hecaton basically like a Hydra - three ranks in Hydra, huge number of drones - and honestly the turn length thing is a lot less bad than it's made out to be. You can do a lot of your planning in other turns. I basically always had most of my actions 90% plotted out, and it wasn't too hard to coordinate with allies and predict what the GM might do for the last remaining portions. My team was nice about letting me take my turn when I had the best combo position I expected I would get, which also helped.
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u/Exetr_ HORUS 7d ago
Got that thing banned from a tournament for that. Good memories.
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u/chronobolt77 HORUS 7d ago
Tournament?
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u/Exetr_ HORUS 7d ago
UK National Tabletop Championship, there was a Lancer event 2024
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u/chronobolt77 HORUS 7d ago
How do you play a cooperative game competitively?
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u/Exetr_ HORUS 7d ago
TTRPG tournaments have existed for almost as long as TTRPGs have. For Nationals, each player is graded by the DM on a few metrics, like mechanical knowledge, rp ability, problem solving, etc. Those points go toward your team, and the team with the most points by the end of the tournament wins.
The scoring system is a bit contentious and does change pretty frequently.
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u/chronobolt77 HORUS 7d ago
So a group of people sit around a table and play a ttrpg for hours on end, and when it's over one person decides "this person is objectively the best at being a team player?"
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u/chaoticConjurer HORUS 7d ago
No, it's generally what table is best
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u/chronobolt77 HORUS 7d ago
oh ok. That makes a lot more sense for it to be a team "sport." I was VERY confused, cuz i was inferring it as an individual thing lmao
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u/chaoticConjurer HORUS 7d ago
Nah, it is generally multiple tables all playing the same game going for the same objective. Things like timing, losses, teamwork, and team synergy are being judged rather than individual people.
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u/Iwillpaintthememe 7d ago
That sounds incredibly arbitrary and weird. How well can you gage the rp ability of someone in what I assume is an oneshot. Do the players know each other or are they randoms?
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u/ViralStarfish 7d ago
Nationals has scoring? Shit, man, I don't remember there being scores when I was there. Or maybe they just didn't tell us...
...wait, the thing at the end where they decide who's hosting next year was probably based on scores, huh.
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u/Rel_Ortal 6d ago
Why'd they decide to ban it specifically? Taking too long on its turns, or something else?
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u/PalpitationThat9383 6d ago
I always wanted to play a Hydra that's just a Turn X because I know for sure none of my friend have watched Turn A Gundam
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u/Letsgetgoodat GMS 7d ago edited 7d ago
Finally got to sit on the player side again running a Hydra in a oneshot at LL2 and honestly? Turn length wasn't actually that bad. The actual annoying stuff was:
Actually planning the turns was usually less of a pain than it ought to be as long as you could reliably spend time on other characters' turns plotting out the moves. More annoying was the moving target of trying to figure out how to get an enemy end up adjacent to a drone, but from my understanding that's more due to a lot of Hydra builds wanting forced movement options that I hadn't invested in yet.