Hey all! If you haven't already heard, my heartbreaker Kinetic Mecha Tactics TTRPG Mobile Engagement Chassis: Steel Hearts is now available on itch.io! It's been a long journey and I'm happy to finally have it out there. To my delight there's even quite a few GMs who want to run it, who I've had a blast fielding questions and feedback from! So why the post? Well there's quite a few secrets that Steel Hearts Zero keeps quiet about, secrets that'll be revealed in TRUTH (whenever I get around to that). But seeing as this Blog exists to help me pre-emptively answer questions, this post serves as a Super Spoiler for all of Steel Hearts' big juicy lore so you can get to running your own unique campaigns!
PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY BUT NOT GM STEEL HEARTS
While no truly good surprise can be spoiled and savvy readers may have already put together the pieces, part of the joy of a campaign is going in blind (and seeing how your GM remixes what I'm about to tell them). If you're a Player, I really don't think this will be worth your time. Also for GMs, understand this is going to be super sloppy and somewhat subject to change. I'm giving you my notes for how I run my campaign, and the secrets within (not the nitty gritty of who and when and how, that'll come later in TRUTH - So my apologies if this isn't perfectly cohesive or details are missing). If you're a GM read on...
Before we get started I'd just like to clarify that there are still quite a few secrets and surprises I'll be saving for TRUTH when it eventually releases, but I'm realizing I need a good long break from Steel Hearts, so here's something you can work with in the meantime:
THE NATURE OF BETYL
You may have already guessed by this point, by the narration at the end of Steel Hearts Zero (narrated by specifically by the Clear Betyl), but Betyl is alive. Buckle up because things get very pseudo science-y from here.
Specifically each Betyl Crystal is actually a dense unbreakable shell manufactured by a colony of millions upon millions of tiny quantum organisms constantly blipping in and out of our reality, able to shape the molecules around them. These organisms (with the exception of the "evolved" clear Betyl) aren't particularly intelligent as we would know intelligence. They're intelligent like blood cells acting on a protocol, or at their most empathetic, like a dog, feeling and reacting but not quite understanding. They can sometimes express in heat, or feelings, or even tones, but not words.
As these colonies exist across countless realities, they also begin to notice certain organisms, organisms who recur as pilots and companions. Upon this recognition, Betyl reacts with Resonance, literally heating up in excitement. Sometimes the Betyl is smart enough to not burn the pilot with this heat, other times not so much. Thus Resonance isn't hereditary in any capacity ((and similarly Players have the chance to play different spins on the same Pilot in different campaigns that take place in different timelines, all of which are canon to each other... more on that later)).
How does Betyl recognize them? It's literally the vibrations caused by our synapses firing. These small cosmic reverberations are caught by the Betyl which is able to Resonate (heh) with their frequency. Similarly Betyl can be manipulated by using specific frequencies to get specific effects ((whether that's inducing Frenzy, increasing the effects of REM time, or silencing all Betyl in the Solar System)).
More over, humans aren't the only lifeform Betyl can resonate with, and in fact different life forms produce different colors:
- Green - Terran life (Humans, dogs, pigs, birds, etc.)
- White - Flora (any kind of non-traditionally intelligent plant life - This includes fungi!)
- Purple - Wyrm life (this includes some highly intelligent Wyrm Flora like a Fenrir Colony)
- Blue - Anunnaki (their Resonance sometimes persists after departure... Not only that but human experiments to resurrect the Anunnaki often result in those Pilots having Blue Resonance... More on that in the full TRUTH book)
- Yellow - The Tau Virus (the microbial heralds of Ouroboros' resonance is unique, as the Betyl gets extra hot to attempt to burn away the fever. The Tau Virus meanwhile attempts to syphon this energy to rip a hole in space-time and bring forth their lord)
- Red - Whenever a Resonant is feeling strong violent emotions it Resonates within the Betyl as Red. This can also be feelings of intense guilt and self loathing over violence. It is for this reason that if a Pilot kills 10 or more fellow humans their Betyl will likely stay red forever. (But maybe there are ways to come to terms with such a thing)
- Pink - If a Pilot is feeling extreme love or compassion this Resonates as Pink (eg Red but a little lighter).
- Orange - When Betyl serves an incredibly important purpose it is Orange. The Betyl whose lullaby sealed away Leviathan and Behemoth? Orange. The Betyl of the 6 Primordials of Mars? Orange. Use this at your discretion. As for what it could mean? Well... I do get to keep some secrets, don't I?
Betyl can do more than just warp reality. True to Stone Tape Theory, they can project echoes of the past, and echoes from other realities. They can give prophetic dreams and more... Let me give you a taste:
In the first Steel Hearts campaign I ran, our insomniac Dante began mastering how to control Betyl and shape it at will. Simultaneously he and other party members began having prophetic dreams of skewed realities. In an episode where they were headed to the El Dorado Quarantine Zone he dreamed of being flushed into a bio-mech and deployed Eva style against a cosmic foe (that they'd later fight). Upon meeting new compatriots he had a dream where he woke up in the desert, but his mech was actually some kind of liger? And every MEC seemed to be animal themed? You see where this is going.
In the finale Behemoth was awoken, and Dante (while duo piloting a MEC with his brother Virgil [the players themselves are also brothers]) saw the writing on the wall. Behemoth was a model I'd made that was bigger than my GM screen, and the Pilots' MECs barely filled up a 1x1" tile. After 6 rounds and multiple nukes, Behemoth had only been slowed down, only the slightest crack in its armor had opened. At the beginning of that session I'd given Dante a unique Stratagem. An ability simply called "Unleash" - The buy back simply said "No going back."
And so the beast was unleashed. He channeled his Betyl to expand and erupt from his MEC, encasing his cockpit in crystal. This 4 armed Betyl Titan let out a heinous scream before just barely ripping Behemoth clean in half. Just one problem, the Betyl wasn't stopping. It kept expanding into the cockpit, about to crush him and his brother alive.
But (as had been said) it is the nature of Betyl to grant wishes. And Dante wished not to die.
And so the wish stones granted.
I had my Players close their eyes, I cleared the board. Gave them each a series of cards, only to be flipped when I told them.
We all took a few deep breaths together.
"Are you ready?" I asked.
"The moment you've all been waiting for is finally here..."
I dropped a title card [ [ 0099 TOURNAMENT CENTURY ] ]
Among the roars of the crowds and the clicking of cameras the Pilots now found themselves in the heart of a tournament to decide who would be the next Country to rule. I'd given each of them little index cards to flip giving them little details about which country they were from (ex: Neo Germany, Neo New York, etx.). Their memories were scuttled mixed up, like two lives layered on top of each other. Wasn't there a monster? Or a Wyrm? Maybe in a dream?
No time for that. We've got a tournament to fight!
We spend a few rounds in a PvP fight seeing who will be the next ruler of all of earth, when suddenly...
The
Dark Steel Heart appeared: A heinous mess of wires and weapons. Self replicating. Self recovering. Self-Evolving. This machine displayed all the theoretical properties of the Dark Steel Heart (as pointed out by a player who had gotten that info on one of their cards).
At its heart: Virgil had been taken over by a malevolent AI. Dante knew what he had to do, since he'd gotten a new Stratagem from his card. After using
a familiar move, the victory was bitter sweet and I asked him if this was how he wished things to go. He said no...
He awakens in in a dandelion field. A cool breeze pushes a windmill in the distance. His MEC stands tall next to him. Only the parts look smaller, more knightly. Is that bronze platting? And steam power?
[ [ 0099 VALIANT CENTURY ] ]
I think you can see where this goes. We do an encounter with the Asgardian Empire's air-blimp attacking and then Dante tries to find answers.
After seeking out this timeline's version of Rasputin, the Party begins putting the pieces together that something's not right. What are all these memories of a tournament? And what happened to that Behemoth creature? The Puppet King of Crime gave a few hints that Betyl might be the cause, it does grant wishes after all.
Dante reasoned within himself that he may have displaced his consciousness, and may still be able to get everyone back to the original timeline (or one close to it) and live. The "and live" part is key there.
In each reality Dante only half remembers where he came from, like trying to remember where you were before you started dreaming. Each reality floods him with new memories and feelings. Each one makes it a bit tougher for him to remember who he is and what had happened. We do a bit more reality hopping, giving everyone a time to shine with randomly assigned fabled Stratagems that each Pilot got to deploy. One last hurrah for all our MECs as we explore various ways our campaign's story could've played out in alternate settings based off beloved Mecha.
The 13th Wyrm has arrived. In a desperate attempt to beat back Behemoth the party is dispatched into their MECs prepped with multiple nukes to fell the beast. I pull out a creature as big as my GM screen. This will not be an easy fight.
While the rest of the party is at this point fully hamming it up throwing "bakas" at each other in an attempts to suss out who's the Asuka in this timeline, laying down all their most impressive combos, Dante (fittingly) is nowhere to be found.
Exhausted, drained, detached, all these realities and lifetimes lived, all their memories layering on top of each other. He follows the fate of every mecha protagonist before him,
he runs...
From his duty to fight, from his horrifying MEC, from these scattered memories, from the friends he'd dragged in with him, from death...
He comes to a field of watermelons overlooking the battle, unable to keep his legs moving he collapses. Daniel (a white haired, deep blue eyed young man who'd recurred in a number of characters' dreams) is there to comfort or maybe confront him. He isn't there to give Dante solutions. He's there to give Dante hospice. And Dante knows it. The two reflect on all the events of the campaign that led here, and Dante realizes he only has one regret if he has to die; that his brother will die with him if he goes back. Daniel gives him some final instruction and a promise that if he goes back he can at least save one of the two of them. Dante's choice is clear...
[ [ 0099 NEW CENTURY ] ]
In a tearful goodbye Dante manages to get his brother out of the Betyl demon before it encases him totally. The rest of the party members desperately throw everything they have trying to destroy this solidifying statue, as the world slowly fades away for Dante, content with the choices he'd made. With tears, deep hugs and a bitter victory earned, our first campaign ended. [[*1]]
SO
Ironically when I'd started working on Steel Hearts I hadn't even seen Gurren Lagan, much less Getter or any Gundams past 0079. My mecha exposure had mostly been Zone of the Enders (just the first one), Titanfall, Gundam 0079, Godzilla: Planet of Monsters, Pacific Rim and Eva + the first 3 Rebuilds. From there I wrote the first draft of what is now TRUTH, and as I began catching up on Mecha it was surreal to see this stone pop up everywhere.
The next time you're watching a Mecha anime or even playing a mecha game try playing "Spot the Betyl" - It's there more often then not... Just another reality that's interlaced.
THE ANNUNAKI
But why is Betyl in our Solar System in the first place? Well that'd be the empire that burned half the galaxy before up and disappearing. And I do mean galaxy. Our Solar System is pretty much some backwater empty island to this empire. A black site at best, but really more like a storage shed.
One of my favorite time abysses to run is when Pilots first encounter an Anunnaki Library (Long buried vaults of tech and information). To enter the library there's a simple puzzle:
A Pillar (about 5 ft high) stands before a sealed door. Trying to jam open the door will often prove fruitless or worse yet trigger security systems. Approaching the Pillar however lights up the floor. A fine blue mists spurts from the Pillar, a circular ring indents on the Pillar's top. Any time a Pilot says something this ring will begin to fill with light.
Any Pilots who are exposed to the mist or don't have proper ventilation (roll some checks) feel the unbreakable urge to speak. After enough words have been said and panic had the Pillar will announce "Vocal Index at 50% - Please supply supplementary text." At which point Pilots can choose what book they'd like to share with the AI learning their language. At 100% the AI speaks more directly:
"Welcome Inheritor Race! Scanning for DNA match to Ascendant Database... Scanning... Scanning... Closest match: Thermophilic Microbe #00854791 - Welcome! I have noticed your Species has undergone some shifts in its DNA. Would you like to update this Library's Database?"
So yeah - Last time the Anunnaki were around, there was next to no life on Earth except for deep sea single cell organisms. So don't worry Anunnaki tech didn't shape life on Earth or humanity's history (not in the NC Timeline at least).
At 8-10 ft. tall, with 4 arms and no eyesight (thus all their tech is actually fully accessible if not intuitive to a blind character... though a little tough to handle for a deaf character, though you can get by with touch) these titans once ruled the galaxy with an iron fist. Their society was highly militarized and weaponized Betyl (an organism that also evolved in their solar system) to its fullest potential. Whole cultures and species have been wiped away by their ambition, and those that weren't suffered the fate of being experiments, or being stored away for later to potentially be used as bio weapons (see; the Wyrms). Here's some sketches I made of them!
So where did they go? They performed a Galaxy-Wide (possibly Reality Wide) ritual called the Ascension in an attempts to become a higher life form. This ostensibly killed every Anunnaki in the NC Timeline, and maybe yours too. Were they successful? You'd have to ask them yourselves. But in the NC they sure as heck aren't making themselves known if they're still around in any capacity.
What matters is the technology and Betyl they left behind. Technology like The Clear Betyl Grimmoire (the Betyl became clear long after the Anunnakis' passing) which contains coded frequencies that can shatter Betyl, cause Frenzy (yes Frenzy is a tonal thing the Anunnaki discovered to make lifeforms go ape-shit) or even silence all Resonance in this Timeline's Solar System.
They even had their own MECs, behemoths of jagged geometry with 4 arms and horrific weapons that can wipe a soul from reality itself. ((Most of the ones in our Solar System are stored on Phobos)).
THE OLYMPIAN INITIATIVE
You didn't think Pantheon was innocent did you? With all that government funding and little oversight, the private corporation had bigger plans than simply saving humanity from the climate apocalypse, they wanted total control of a world that would be dependent on them for safety. Upon discovering Betyl and Wyrms an idea emerged: Release Wyrms from the Moon, use the Anunnaki tech on the Moon to Frenzy these Wyrms into causing mass destruction, have Bastions ready to lead humanity to a brighter future (re: new world order) all of which would answer to the 10th Bastion Olympus (thus the lower Bastions were mostly kept out of the loop). Let Wyrms terraform / fix the planet then kill them all. That was the plan anyways.
Many in the Initiative also sought immortality, either by pursuing the Ascension, researching the Anunnaki ((by creating artificial hybrid Human/Anunnaki who often have deep blue eyes, yes, Daniel is one of such experiments)), or in many cases uploading their consciousnesses using a Coffin (Olympian tech for engraming your brain). In fact it's this Coffin tech that Rasputin stole from a colony ship after the Awakening to put his brain in a server, thus making him "unkillable" as all his physical appearances are just bodies he's ostensibly bluetoothing to.
So what went wrong? During the Awakening one Olympian (one of the Colony ships' captains) got an idea of what was happening and sent out a virus through the Olympian Systems - "THE RED DEATH". This wiped away huge swaths of Olympian protocols and data, as well as directly attacking many of those uploaded consciousnesses and deleting them. Later a fragment of this virus would be isolated and partition itself into a service robot to escape. That's RED, the little chibi robot you see on the cover. Great NPC to run, and I'm excited to tell you more about him eventually.
ROGUE GALLERY
That's the really big stuff, obviously there's more, but that should be enough for you to start running your campaign ((which in all likelihood is now canon to my campaigns)). Here's some scattered details about other characters mentioned in the book:
- The Tau Virus is pure eldritch horror. In Wyrms it infects the host and turns them inside out into horrifying flesh monsters. If Players find the one researcher stuck in the Quarantine zone who has figured out a safe immunity test, he mournfully tell Players there is no cure, no vaccine, the Virus is simply too smart. Players can roll a d10 to see if they have Immunity. On a 1-4 the Virus would kill them within a week. 5 their life can be extended, but they can't last more than a few years and need intensive care. 6 they'll survive but remain infectious, their flesh boiling, their dreams plagued by visions of Ouroboros calling to them. On a 7 they are chosen by Ouroboros and they'll become stronger from the virus. 8-10 they are simply immune, their body's immune system is for whatever reason tuned to run the through the Virus in just a few days. The Tau Virus tries to syphon energy from Betyl to summon Ouroboros, the cosmic dragon, the eater of worlds, to consume Earth itself and all its synaptic energies. They're aided by the King in Yellow, Hernan Nostradamus, a fanatical "chosen" who will attempt to enlist the Players' aid. He's the one who keeps the lights on in the Bastion though he lacks the keys to fully control the CSSN (something he'd use to aid the players, and moreover call in Ouroboros, who will take another 50 years to get here anyways... probably... When we ran it Hernan managed to channel a fraction of the world eater's power, summoning three of its gold heads - Its energy so massive gravity itself began to flip - Of course the PCs bonked it good and saved the day - By defeating this aspect, the shockwave kills all the Tau Virus on the planet).
- As you've probably figured, Wyrms aren't as bad as they seem. EDA propaganda paints them as a menace, but in truth they're mostly just wild animals getting occasionally frenzied by the beacon on the moon. While this beacon is quieter it can still cause great distress, especially on a full moon. Anansi will try to recruit Pilots to aid him in quelling the EDA's fury and silencing the beacon on the moon. In return he can offer them powers and summons from Wyrms ((and hecking wow I am so excited to add these eventually)).
- Asgard leaves the EDA (to the surprise of no one) and attempts a coup to take over and reorganize the EDA. This is the primary plot of my first campaign, and I usually try to introduce Asgard initially as an ally against a festering EDA, a group who's really going to shake things up, one who sees immediate value in the party. For all his charisma Sigurd (the 2nd eldest of the Rangnar sons) will probably set off some fascy alarms to savvy players, and is later obviously gunning for total control of the EDA. He's a sly and careful predator though and will wait for the right time to tip his hand ((and try to keep in the Players' good graces for as long as they seem a malleable asset)). I've also run some combined arms war stuff in regards to this, and would love to release that eventually too.
- Crowley is an interesting specimen. He's served as a secondary antagonist across all my campaigns. He's quiet, calculating, purposeful. He knows the TRUTH. He's often in tune with other realities' versions of himself. In some realities he seeks to merge all consciousnesses of all humans into an ideal timeline, regardless of the death and erasure it'll cause. In others he seeks to replicate the Ascension for mankind. Whatever that may mean. To him, the greatest goal is the happiness and peace of all mankind, whether they agree with his methods or not. He's also a resilient bastard. Despite being killed twice in my online campaign's timeline, I've let himself rip through the sheer of reality (thanks to a player's unknowing action) and thus my IRL campaigns' timeline has two Crowleys on the field. ((Though the other one is less of a threat - They brought the IRL timeline Crowley into the El Dorado Quarantine Zone, and after seeing the horrible cosmic majesty of Ouroboros and reading its thoughts, he's been a little... hmmm... quiet about causing any waves big enough for a predator like that to sense.)
Hopefully this helps any prospective GMs who need ideas or are just curious about how I did it!! I have no idea when I'll get around to releasing TRUTH, but until then feel free to comment with any questions you might have!
[[*1 : Or did it? You see my first campaign had a hiatus due to covid, where-in I had run a full online campaign. In that campaign V (Virgil's Player's new spin on the original character that I baited them into playing) had a whole romance arc with Daniel, the enigmatic space boy. At that campaign's finale on the moon, Daniel simply asked that V upload some data to the net, and that they may never see each other again. V complied and uploaded said data. ((The data, if V had checked, regarded tones for shattering Betyl)) - Jump to months later at the end of the S1 IRL campaign.
After about 5 minutes of credits music and everyone decompressing, I let the Pilots know something was entering the atmosphere:
[ ANOMOLY DETECTED : OLYMPIAN CLASS MEC : ID TAG : MORNING STAR ]
A titanic mace ripped through the atmosphere and clinked against Betyl statue, shattering it open and releasing Dante just in time. (Thanks to V's actions)
"I bring word from Olympus..." Daniel announced
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