A General in a pristine uniform stands in front of a room filled with scientists and engineers, each listing intently in various stages of disbelief. "Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Project PROMETHEUS. I know this is sudden, I know this is surprising, but I know you all can handle it. Magic is real. Monsters are real. Both have been enemies of humanity for longer than history has been recorded. For centuries they have been content with hiding in our shadow, but something has changed. They are gathering together. They are raiding and kidnapping and preparing for something BIG. The governments of the world have banded together to fight this menace. But to fight darkness, we need light.
You are that light. There is no way in God's green Earth that the vampires, werewolves, undead, and whatever crawls out from under the bed can stand up to this light. You give us the guns, we put them to good use. I look forward to working with you all."
***
Project PROMETHEUS is an arms race game against an NPC opponent, who happens to be Supernatural in nature. Inspired by games such as X-Com, Hunter:The Vigil, and Kashyyk's "
World Task Force" you play normal human scientists equipping normal human soldiers to kill unnormal nonhuman things. You work as a group, voting on what action you should take during each Phase. There are four Phases, described in detail (along with the other mechanics) below. Feel free to ask any questions you have!
Phase One: Design. This is were you design the cool new weapons and other equipment. A basic description is all that is necessary in the design phase, though you can get more detailed if you want. Weapons generally have three stats: Effectiveness, Cost, and Complications. Each stat is rolled separately, and you may reroll a single stat instead of submitting a design during this phase. Effectiveness describes how good a design is, Cost describes how many resources it needs to make it during the Production Phase, and Complications describe any unintended effects of the design. Each stat is relative, a pistol with high Effectiveness will not be as powerful in combat as a Minigun with low effectiveness, while the pistol will be much cheaper no matter the Cost and will have less severe Complications whatever the roll. In addition the priorities you set will effect what the Effectiveness means and what Complications you get. A rifle meant to be accurate with the same Effectiveness as a rifle meant to be damaging will be more accurate and less damaging than the other rifle.
Phase Two: Production. This is were you make the weapons and equipment designed in Phase One. You have a limited amount of Resources (R) to build equipment with. Resource generally represents money, which can be used to buy mundane supplies making up any equipment. Conventional weapons typically only cost Resources, however most supernatural or advanced equipment may cost corpses or enemy material that our boys bring back in the Combat phase. You will receive more Resources each Battle phase based on your performance, the better you do the more you get paid (Base 100R). 100R is your starting resources. A standard strike squad will have seven men, which will vary over time with each mission.
Phase Three: Combat. This is were our Squads engage the enemy! For the time being, it mostly consists of you receiving a Battle Report detailing how the fight went down. The Battle Report is received by wireless body-cameras, meaning you receive a Battle Report even if the squad was completely wiped out. Survivors are able to give more details on things the Camera currently can't tell you about, such as mental attacks. The enemies fought in this phase are likely to show up again later, meaning equipping the Squad to enemy weaknesses is viable. The Supernatural forces will field more powerful creatures over time, while also developing their own troops to be more effective against your equipment. If a squad is wiped out or forced to retreat, you may loose equipment that the group had. If the game goes well, this phase might evolve into a separate minigame.
Phase Four: Dissection/Development. Here, you develop or discover new Technology to use during the next design phase. The Technology can be mundane, in which case it costs Resources to Develop. Otherwise, you can investigate the enemy corpses and materiel in Dissection. Dissection destroys the materiel in return for information on how it works. It only destroys what was dissected, leaving the rest of the object intact (if you Examine a Zombie's brain, you will still have a headless Zombie corpse to utilize). D/D has a chance of failing based on how difficult the research is, the simpler the goal the easier it will be. That is to say investigating an unconscious Vampire for weaknesses would be easier than trying to copy one of its powers. A price will be given for each idea.
And with that, lets get started. Happy hunting PROMETHEUS!