Editing ZAFT GINN (section)

=='''DESCRIPTION'''==

ZAFT GINN (Pronounced "Jin" or "Jen")

As tensions increase between the Naturals of the Earth Alliance and the Coordinators of ZAFT, military development also continues. Whereas the Alliance concentrates on mobile armors like the TS-MA2 Moebius, ZAFT instead develops the first humanoid mobile suit, the ZGMF-1017 GINN. The GINN is vastly superior to the Moebius, as illustrated by the poor performance of the Moebius line in most conflicts following the GINN's introduction. The GINN's basic armament consists of a 76mm machine gun and a heavy sword, but it can also be equipped with a wide variety of weapons for specific battles. These optional weapons include leg-mounted missile launchers, handheld missile launchers and a heavy particle cannon. As a general purpose mass-produced suit, the GINN is deployed by ZAFT in space as well as on Earth. Because of the versatility of its design, ZAFT creates many variants based on the basic GINN design. The GINN (and its many variants) are so widely produced that many units are salvaged or otherwise acquired by mercenaries, the Junk Guild or private citizens.

The ZGMF-1017 GINN is the standard mobile suit of the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty (ZAFT) from November CE 69 to September CE 71. The GINN is designated a Zero Gravity Maneuver Fighter by ZAFT, thus the designation "ZGMF."

The GINN is a durable, basic mobile suit which is analogous to the MS-06 Zaku II in the original Mobile SUit Gundam anime series (Universal Century timeline). It has two large, thruster-filled "wings" on its back and carries basic, dependable weapons - a 76mm machine gun and a 10-meter-long sword form its primary armament. The GINN can also be equipped with a three-round missile launcher on each leg and "D-Class" assault weapons consisting of heavy arm-mounted missile launchers, a recoiless cannon and anti-ship beam guns. The versatile GINN has several variants, some of which (high-maneuver, desert, marine, tactical air reconnaissance and long-range space recon variants) are seen in the TV footage. The GINN is even used by nonaligned factions, especially mercenaries and pirates. The GINN was manufactured in such high quantities from 69-71 that units will be in common use for many years to come. The GINN's powerful thrusters can only keep it airborne for a short time under gravity, so it uses the Guul Subflight Lifter to fly in an atmosphere. Late in the Bloody Valentine War, GINN pilots found their heavier, sturdily armored mobile suits much clumsier than the lightweight GAT-01 Strike Daggers of the Earth Alliance and MBF-M1 M1 Astrays of the Orb Union, and highly vulnerable to beam weapons; fortunately for ZAFT, by this time the beam-equipped, faster ZGMF-600 GuAIZ was in full production.

GINN types remain in common use late into CE 73, including the new, more powerful GINN High Maneuver II, which seems to have been designed as an alternative to the ZGMF-600 GuAIZ. However, the expense of the HM2 limits its use to a few elite pilots and units.

==='''VARIANTS'''===

During the early months of the Bloody Valentine War it became increasingly obvious to ZAFT that the one-size-fits-all GINN would not be able to adequately perform all missions, so many variants optimized to specific environments and specific missions were procured, often resulting in wildly differing descendent units (like the officer-type ZGMF-515 CGUE, ground-type TMF/A-802 BuCUE, air-type AMF-101 DINN, and aquatic-type UMF-4A GOOhN). Nevertheless, all major GINN variants remained in use on the last day of the war, (September 26 CE 71). After the war, the expensive successor unit ZGMF-600 GuAIZ would be quickly phased out in favor of a more versatile and powerful suit, the ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior (and its commander-type variant, the ZGMF-1001 ZAKU Phantom).
*'''Natural Pilots''': If a ZAFT mobile suit is ever piloted by a Natural human, all Difficulty Levels for piloting will be increased by one Level.  If this roll is not made, the mobile suit will not move, and the pilot will recieve bonus dice from Maneuverability or Fire Control of Weapons.  If these difficulties are made, the mobile suit will move, but the pilot will still not recieve bonus dice from Maneuverability or Fire Control.  If a proper Operating System is installed for Natural pilots, THEN they will recieve these bonus dice to their skill rolls.  If the OS is not available, then one can be improvised with a Very Difficult Computer Programming roll (requiring several days, maybe even a week or longer), or a Heroic Difficulty if time is an issue.  If the programmer has about a month to creat the OS, then the Difficulty is Difficult.  The OS for Natural MS piloting was not officially created until late in the Bloody Valentine War.  The Orb Union's Erica Simmons created one for use with their M1 Astrays with help by Kira Yamato, while the Earth Alliance created one for their Strike Daggers at roughly the same time (a little later).
*'''Ultracompact Energy Battery''': In the Gundam SEED setting, nuclear power has been rendered near useless by use of Neutron Jammers (N-Jammers). ZAFT attempted to prevent the use of nuclear weapons after the "Bloody Valentine" incident, where Junius Seven of the PLANTs was destroyed by a nuclear attack by Naturals.  Using N-Jammers extensively with their ships, as well as deploying them all over the Earth deep underground, use of nuclear reactors is all but impossible until the development of the Neutron Jammer Cancelers.  Therefor, most technological devices use alternate means of power sources.  Most mobile suits and mobile armors use ultracompact energy batteries.  While their operation time may be limited, most of these vehicles still have plenty of time to complete their sortie missions before having to return to base.<br />To represent this, take a mobile suit/mobile armor/ship's Hull Dice and multiply the number by a hundred (100), adding 25 per pip (550 for the GuAIZ here).  This is the Battery's power.  Decrease by one point per round of combat while the mobile vehicle is active after launch.  Any energy weapons directly connected to the battery drain it by a number equal to the Damage Dice they inflict, per use (such as beam rifles, beam cannons or beam sabers, etc.).  Any special equipment that shield or help the mobile vehicle (such as energy shields, Phase Shift armor or Mirage Colloid) deplete the battery by a number equal to it's Hull Dice.  Any other variants will list any differences in their entries.
*'''UPDATE NOTES''': If GMs/players come across this write-up and see other variants of the GINN on the site, they may notice a difference in Dice for the HULL entry.  This write-up for the original GINN has been altered to reflect an ongoing attempt on my part for balance, while also experimenting with how the rules work, and how they can be changed for better quality.  Here, I have made rules for "mecha" more specified, giving the Hull Dice, then followed by Strength and Armor Dice, to show statistics similar to a character, since the GINN and other mobile suits and mecha are made to move like a human (or whatever race builds them).  In this case, the Strength Dice show the GINN's base superstructure before the armor plating is added on, which is also its strength to show how much power it can physically exert (for close combat and fine manipulation of other objects, like lifting things for utility purposes).  Then the Armor Dice are given, to show the need for protection on a character or combat vehicle.  Originally, the GINN write-up had 4D Strength and 1D Armor.  After some thought on the other variants, especially the DINN Atmospheric flight type, I thought less strength was needed, with a little more armors, so that lighter models could be reduced in armor for greater mobility, while keeping the GINN's base Strength as their own in combat.  Though using a 3D Strength against a 5D Hull may not seem very doable in combat, that's why weapons are given to overcome this, such as the GINN Sword (Strength+2D, 5D for GINNs, at least equals the Hull of other GINNs), along with other ranged weaponry such as guns and missiles.  Also, their is always the chance of ripping off the Armor plating to get a better crack at another mobile suit, or even called shots on critical systems and equipment to criple an enemy (such as the camer eye in the head, the maneuvering thrusters, the limbs themselves), all of which would use Strength to resist, not the full Hull Dice.  When in co mbat, though it works much like a starfighter from Star Wars D6 RPG, a mobile suit/mecha still moves and can fight like an actual person if used right.
*'''MISSILE VOLLEYS''': Star Wars D6 RPG has always used missiles, and this carries on in later versions of their RPG rules.  However, to my knowledge, they have never had rules for firing multiple missiles at once, in volleys.  Many write-ups I send in list the ability to fire volleys of missiles or other kinds of weapons.  But, though I have intended to send in rules for this for sometime, I have put it off.  Here are the rules.<br />When firing a missile volley, decide how many missiles you are launching in your attack (some weapons may have set numbers to how many missiles can be fired, how many individual launchers can fire together in volleys, and other such rules.  Decide your number of missiles based around this where applicable).  Then make your attack.  There are two ways to do the attack roll, and its up to the GM to decide which way they prefer.  Either there is no modifier to the attack and the player/GM rolls as normal with no modifiers; OR, the attacker adds a +1 pip per extra missile they have added to the attack.  This is to reflect the increased difficulty other characters will have in dodging so many missiles being fired at them all at once, not an impossible feat to do, but much more difficult than evading just a single missile.<br />Another option for this "optional" modifier to the attack with missile volleys is listing whether or not the weapon has the option to do so.  It may be a simple piece of extra equipment to attach, or some software added or updated to the weapons system, something extra that could cost a few credits more for the players.<br />Last, if the attack hits, there is the damage roll.  Volleys are much different than fire-linking or batteries.  They do not make the missiles hit all at once for extra damage to a single damage roll, or for extra dice for the attack (though this is possible in Star Wars D6's rules, and done often), but instead they allow multiple damage rolls as each individual missile hits the target on its own.  For the option of adding pips to hit per missile, every "1" that hits past the defenders dodge roll counts as a missile scoring a hit (but no more hits than were actually fired.  Come on now, that's just cheating).  Each single missile then rolls it's own damage dice.  So if 4 missiles hit from a volley against a target, then 4 separate damage rolls would be made to score damage against the target, and the target would then roll 4 separate Damage Resistance rolls against these (since the missiles would probably hit different portions of the target, not the exact same spot.  That's what called shots, fire-linking and batteries are for).<br />The idea behind this is that while one large pool of dice are great for a devastating attack, they could always roll a "1" on the Wild Die and completely foil your attack, whereas a missile volley gives you several opportunities to not only score damage against a target, but more than one chance of the same Wild Die exploding with 6's on one of its attacks as well.  Sure, its a little more to keep track of, but the advantages are worth it.

==='''WRITE-UP NOTES'''===

The ZAFT GINN is starfighter scale, like most mecha, because it is space and flight capable.  I have chosen most of the dice codes for it based on its size (which is similar to a space transport in Star Wars D6, and lack energy shields), and the fact that it is an early model (other more improved models follow later with improved statistics, which is why the GINN may still seem comparatively weak in may ways).  The Ginn and most standard mobile suits do not actually "fly" in an atmosphere, but can jump with their equipped thrusters.  Their space speed may seem slow when compared to other starfighters from Star Wars D6, but these are earlier models (later designs are much faster), and what amounted to "starfighters" (mobile armors) in the Gundam Seed setting were not so fast anyways.

==='''OTHER SPECS'''===

*'''Model number''': ZGMF-1017
*'''Code Name''': GINN
*'''Unit type''': mass production general purpose mobile suit.
*'''Manufacturer''': Asimov Design Bureau.
*'''Operators''': ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty); civilians.
*'''First Deployment''': 3 November C.E. 69.
*'''Accommodation''': pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso.
*'''Armor Materials''': unknown.
*'''Powerplant''': Ultracompact energy battery, power output rating unknown.
*'''Equipment/Design Features''': sensors (range unknown).
*'''Fixed Armaments''': MA-M3 heavy sword (stored on waist, hand-held in use); MMI-M8A3 76mm heavy assault machine gun (stored on rear waist, hand-held in use).
*'''OPTIONAL Fixed Armaments''': 2 M68 "Pardus" 3-barreled missile launchers (mounted one per leg).
*'''OPTIONAL Hand-Held Armaments''': 2 M66 "Canus" short range guided missile launcher (4 missiles per launcher; 2 starfighter scale, 2 capital scale, usually used in pairs); M69 "Barrus" Heavy Ion Cannon; OR 1 M68 "Cattus" 500mm Recoiless Rifle.
*'''Appearances''': Mobile Suit Gundam SEED; Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (manga); Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ASTRAY; Mobile Suit Gundam SEED X ASTRAY; Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ASTRAY B; Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ASTRAY (OVA); Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY; Mobile SUit Gundam SEED DESTINY ASTRAY; Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ASTRAY R; Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E. 73 STARGAZER; Battle Assault 3 featuring Gundam SEED; Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Never-Ending Tomorrow; Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY ASTRAY (photonovel).

'''Source''': http://www.rpggamer.org