THE MENAGERIE CHAMPIONSHIP
The People’s Proving Grounds
Whispered in dark booths and slipped in code
between colleagues, the Menagerie’s name is
an open secret in R&D circles across Union’s
many worlds. Televised and publicized on open
omninet channel it sees anonymous gladiators
compete in an annual spectacle of innovation.
The Menagerie Championship is a collaboration
of some of the most avant-garde entertainers
and cutting edge combat engineers of the
current generations, and its fame is only
growing. Its secretive organizers court and invite
only the most select candidates each year to
compete. Fighters are chosen from the best and
brightest of their fields, and the premise is
simple: design a novel chassis to compete in
that year’s challenge. Emerge victorious, and be
rewarded with all of the funding, research
support, and wide-reaching connections that
the Menagerie’s treasuries and alumni can offer.
In return, the Menagerie retains access to your
research, data, and any innovations for use by
its other victors, in perpetuity. There will stand
no walls between worlds.
To the audience, the Menagerie Championship
is one of the greatest mechanized sport events
ever conceived. Each year the challenges differ,
from one-on-one cagematch brawls, to
weeks-long wargame tournaments on
reservation worlds. The contestants are fresh,
stylish, and idiosyncratic, each unique in the
approach their chassis brings and the persona
that they take to the ring.
All walks of life meet in the stands and crowd
screens to join together in the thrill of the clash.
Although contestants are ultimately entered by
merit, there are no boundaries to access within
the community; all shows are free and recorded,
all decision making is made public record
(except when necessary to preserve anonymity),
and the tide of public opinion is the ebb and
flow of gladiator popularity and the bohemian
culture that flourishes in the fans.
Menagerie frames are daring, innovative,
unstable and the mechanical exemplars of their
designer’s ideals. All are made equal behind
masks; and reinvention of the self is a matter of
course. Tradition is staid and the state is stale.
Go out there, pilot, and bring us something new.
NEW TAGS:
EXPERIMENTAL:
When you activate a weapon or system with this
tag, after any other effects resolve roll 1d6. If the
result is greater than or equal to X, trigger the
Experimental effect. If a weapon or system has
multiple Experimental effects, roll a single die to
determine the outcome for all of them.
KICKSTART:
When you activate this weapon or system, if
you meet its Kickstart condition, it gains a burst
of energy that makes it easier to use. For
systems or weapons, they can be activated or
fired as a free action instead of their usual
action cost. This does not count as a skirmish
or barrage for weapons. If it is a reaction then it
can ignore any X/round use restrictions, but it
still consumes a reaction for the turn. If the
Kickstart condition was the effect of an action
you took (ex: ‘you knock a character Prone’),
the Kickstart system must be the very next
action you take after the triggering action
resolves without interruption or the benefit is
lost.
SUPERCHARGE:
When you activate a weapon or system with this
tag, you can Supercharge it to gain the listed
effect. If it has no listed effect, the entire
activation counts as Supercharging it. After
doing so, you cannot Supercharge it again until
the end of the mission.
MENAGERIE CORE
BONUSES
Menagerie core bonuses increase your
dynamism, volatility, and stage presence
You must have at least three license levels in
Menagerie licenses to take a bonus from this
list, and another three levels for each additional
bonus. For example, with six points in
Menagerie licenses, you can have up to two
bonuses.
AFTER-MARKET MODS
There are very few restrictions when it comes
to the Menagerie’s design policy, and their
network of contacts and gray-market
suppliers make almost any idea possible.
Whenever you roll for an Experimental effect,
if you do not trigger the effect, add +1 to the
next Experimental roll you make. This effect
can stack, and resets to 0 when you trigger
any Experimental effect.
CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE
Though the full Championship only occurs
once every standard year, many contestants
continue to chase success in spillover
contests and local leagues, bolstering their
skill and reputation for the next cycle.
You reduce all involuntary movement inflicted
on you by -1 while in a control or objective
zone, and increase any Knockback you inflict
against characters in the same zone by +1.
1/round when a hostile character starts their
turn adjacent to you or enters adjacency for
the first time on a turn you may Ram or
Grapple them as a reaction.
SULFUR AUGMENTATION
Using novel blackbox thermodynamic
predictions and exotic material science,
Menagerie-modified reactors contain a
regenerative coating that recaptures a
majority of normally wasted reaction heat.
This sustains otherwise unsustainably high
draw from pre-optimization prototype
systems.
When you activate a Supercharge you may
either cool all Heat or spend a Repair to
regain all HP as if you had Stabilized. During
a rest, you may spend a Repair to recharge a
single Supercharge system you have
activated during this mission.
UNDERDOG OVERHAUL
Sacrificial capacitors, breakaway plating, and
dummy hardpoints are common modifications
in Menagerie frames to pull bursts of speed
and surprising action from ordinarily crippling
damage. Victory is all the sweeter when
pulled from the jaws of defeat, and the most
successful pilots know how to ride that edge
of certainty as closely as possible.
Gain +1 Accuracy on all checks and saves
when at 2 or less Structure. When you lose
Structure, before resolving the Structure
check, you may immediately take any quick
action. This does not count as a reaction.
This action cannot prevent you from losing
the Structure or making the check; if it would
cause you to regain HP it is applied after
damage rolls over.
 MENAGERIE
CORNICELLO
Striker/Artillery
Although the exact founding date of the Menagerie is either unclear or
obscured, it is widely known that the Cornicello has been a staple of
its open-source library since its inception. The frame still bears a
passing foundational resemblance to the SP-01 Everest that it must have
once been a highly derived version of, but it has long since taken on a
life of its own. Although it is no longer a competing frame design for
the Championship itself, it is the skeletal basis provided to any
contestant for future modification. Its highly modular design supports a
broad range of experimental alterations, and facilitates rapid DBTL
cycling to give contestants a platform for optimization and iteration
before their inventions reach the battlefield. A homegrown culture of
DIY instructionals and schematic repositories has developed around the
Cornicello as a result, and more diehard fans consider sharing your
personal design to be an important first greeting, even if the vast
majority have never piloted a chassis.
CORE STATS CORE SYSTEM
Size: 1
Armor: 0
Save Target: 10
Sensors: 8
LUCA OMNI-MOUNTING
HULL SYSTEMS The Cornicello’s endoskeleton boasts
HP: 12 E-Defense: 6 universalized attachments and supports
Repair Cap: 5 Tech Attack: -1 for a constantly updated library of
AGILITY SP: 6 armaments and system upgrades that can
ENGINEERING easily be swapped in or replaced to meet
Evasion: 9
situational needs. In the Menagerie’s
Speed: 4 Heat Cap: 5
early days, contestants would frequently
make a show of allowing their equipment
TRAITS to be damaged beyond repair, only to
MODULAR DESIGN reveal hitherto unseen weapons in the
blink of an eye to deal the winning
When the Cornicello repairs a destroyed strike.
weapon or system during a rest, it may replace
it with any other weapon or system(s) it has STABLE PROTOTYPE
access to that occupy the same mount and Passive
cost an equivalent amount of SP.
At the start of each scene roll 3d6 and hold
each die. Whenever you roll a d6 for any
AUTOTOMIZE reason, you may substitute one of your held
dice for that die before it is rolled. Each die can
1/Round as a reaction when the Cornicello or
be used this way once, then is discarded.
an adjacent ally is hit by an attack and damage
When you Stabilize, roll and hold a new d6. If
is rolled, it may immediately destroy a single
you already have 3 dice, you must choose to
system or all weapons on one mount. All
either replace one of them, or discard the new
damage and effects of the attack are negated.
result.
At the end of any scene in which this trait is
used, it gains 1 Repair.
Fit Omni-Mount
Active (1 CP), Efficient, Protocol
MOUNTS
Choose a system that costs 2 SP or less, or a
Main or Auxiliary weapon that you have access
to, mounting it in the Cornicello’s Omni-Mount
for the rest of the scene. It functions as if
installed on your mech normally except that it
is not a valid target for destruction, and it gains
Limited 3 unless its base Limited value was
already lower. Additionally it gains
Experimental 6+: Refund the action spent
activating this system or weapon.

This core power is Efficient and refunds 1 CP

at the end of any scene in which it is used.
LICENSE I: ADAPTIVE SILO, AUTO-PURGE
Adaptive Silo
Main Launcher, Smart, Reliable 1,
Experimental
[10 Range] [1d6 Explosive Damage]
Experimental 3+: This weapon increases its
Reliable value by +2 (max 6), its Range by +5, or
gains the Accurate or AP tags until the end of the
scene. If it is already Accurate, it may gain
Seeking instead.
Experimental 5+: This weapon additionally gains
the Inaccurate, Ordnance, +2 Heat(self), or
Loading tags until the end of the scene. Other
than Heat(self), you cannot choose the same
option twice.
Adaptive silos contain a novel
mute-chorus that can dynamically alter
the internal ammunition printer in
addition to improving trajectories in
each launch, although the processor
acceleration necessary creates a higher
risk of dead-end evolutionary outcomes.
Auto-Purge
1 SP, Protocol, Unique, 1 Heat(self),
Experimental 5+
Experimental 5+: Clear one condition that was
not self inflicted and gain 3 Overshield.
By carefully partitioning individual
feedlines and subsystem daemons, faulty
systems can be blind-rebooted on an
individual-component basis without
necessitating a full system cleanse.
LICENSE II: CORNICELLO FRAME, SIDECAR
GUIDANCE MUTE, SURGE CELL
SIDECAR Guidance Mute
1 SP, Mod, Unique, Quick Action
Choose a Ranged weapon. You may activate this
mod as a quick action to ignore the Ordnance,
Inaccurate, and Experimental tags on that
weapon until the end of the current turn.
Rather than a traditional ballistic
oubliette, SIDECAR mutes retain a
hardlink to the core chassis OS. This
allows them to achieve much greater
predictive recalibration, at the expense
of transfer/response rates.
Surge Cell
2 SP, Unique, Quick Action, 1 Heat(self)
This system charges as a quick action, priming a
high power capacitor. It starts a scene uncharged.
It can only hold one charge at a time, but charges
last for the rest of the scene or until used.
If this system is charged at the start of your turn,
you may discharge it as a quick action on that
turn. It loses its charge, you cool 1d6 Heat, clear
Impaired, Slowed, Lock-On, and Shredded that
weren’t self-inflicted, and may Slide up to 2
spaces.
Auxiliary batteries are common in live
matches where reactor spiking is capped
for audience safety. Disposable variants
have long-since been phased out for
rechargeable cells that can be quickly
and safely discharged.
LICENSE III: GLASSMAKER JEZAIL, MERCURY ALCHEMICAL AUGMENTS
Glassmaker Jezail
Heavy Rifle, Experimental
[12 Range] [2d6 Kinetic Damage]
Experimental 5+: This weapon deals the
maximum possible damage instead of rolling.
After this attack resolves, this weapon deals -2
damage for the rest of the scene (min 0).
Popularized during the 4987u
Championship by a cadre of ex-BUC
gladiators, Glassmaker mag-cel jezails
have exceptionally high-performance rail
sculpting. These fine modifications have
an unfortunate tendency to degrade in
high-energy firing scenarios, which has
left them relegated to sport use rather
than any real military engagement.
MERCURY Alchemical Augments
3 SP, Unique
1/Turn when you roll any d6 you may increase or
decrease its value by 1. Additionally, gain the
Transmutation protocol:
‘Alchemical’ augments are a suite of
holistic whole-chassis overhauls that
incorporate physical and digital changes
at every level of construction. MERCURY
suites enable fine real-time remodeling
of most structural components; this
dynamic process means that an augmented
frame is constantly in flux, chasing the
optimized state for any given moment.
Transmutation
Protocol, Supercharge
Until the end of your turn you may activate
MERCURY Alchemical Augments as often as it is
triggered, breaking the 1/turn restriction.
Additionally, it can increase or decrease the value
of a die by up to 2 instead of 1. At the end of your
turn you become Stunned until the start of your
next turn.
 MENAGERIE
JIN-CHAN
Support
The Jin-Chan was an unexpected addition to the Menagerie’s lineup of
winning frames; poorly suited for direct combat, its shocking success
came from the team-based tournament structure of that year’s
competition. It and its pilot carried their team to victory with an
unprecedentedly powerful computational engine that formed the foundation
of a revolutionary quad-C platform. Even for the deliberately
run-of-the-mill digital architecture in its teammates’ chassis, the
WATERSHED system accelerated their capabilities and precision beyond
that of any of their opponents’ more heavily customized frames.

Its true strength is not only in system optimization or brute-force

predictive calculation; via an esoteric modeling process, the Jin-Chan
can temporarily create an unstable pseudo-legion environment that it
shares via standard nerve-feed piloting implants. This direct link
allows connected pilots to coordinate within a theoretical digital space
that, while it cannot be fully consciously recollected or translated
upon collapse, allows reaction and strategic planning far beyond
baseline activity. The tactical impact of this system is not without
cost; the Jin-Chan’s bulk is necessitated by the sheer volume of not
only computing substrate necessary for its function but also the massive
volume of coolant and associated pump systems that keep them at optimal
conditions.
CORE STATS CORE SYSTEM
Size: 2
Armor: 0
Save Target: 10
Sensors: 8
WATERSHED
HULL SYSTEMS COMPUTATIONAL STACK
HP: 10 E-Defense: 10 The WATERSHED system uses a novel
Repair Cap: 5 Tech Attack: -1 polytemporal processing model developed
AGILITY SP: 8 by its pilot and refined by the
Evasion: 6 ENGINEERING Menagerie. It utilizes anoriginary
Speed: 4 Heat Cap: 10 bit-space by ‘borrowing’ open
computational space in non-concurrent
TRAITS temporal references, creating a
temporarily infinite period for
HARMONIC UPLINK
calculation. The matrix is rapidly
1/Round when the Jin Chan targets an allied obliterated to preserve informational
character with a Quick Tech action, it can conservation, but in that period it
repeat the same action targeting an allied achieves a pseudo-legion simulation for
character adjacent to itself or the original target any hard-linked user.
as a free action.
Precipitate
Passive, Quick Tech
RESERVOIR Choose an allied character. The next attack roll
they make triggers On Hit effects even on a
Adjacent allied characters may transfer any
miss, and On Crit effects on a normal hit.
amount of Heat from themselves to the Jin
Chan as a quick action.
Genesis Delta
Active (1 CP), Quick Action
MOUNTS This system gains 5 charges that last for the
rest of the scene. As a reaction to the start of
any character’s turn, you and your allies can
expend a charge as a reaction to immediately
take one quick action. Only one character can
take this reaction per turn, and each character
can only activate it 1/round.
LICENSE I: CHAMBERLAIN DAEMON,
TIGHT-BEAM DART
CHAMBERLAIN Daemon
2 SP, Quick Tech, Experimental
Choose an allied character. They gain 4
Overshield. If they lose this Overshield it creates
a Burst 1 cloud of soft cover that lasts until the
start of their next turn. Otherwise, if they have any
Overshield remaining at the start of their turn,
they cool Heat equal to their current Overshield,
then remove all Overshield.
Experimental 5+: You cannot activate this system
again until you Stabilize.
CHAMBERLAINs are short-lived autonomous
programs intended for moment-to–moment
subsystem management that does not
require pilot input before rapidly
decaying to cede central control.
Tight-Beam Dart
1 SP, Quick Action, Reaction, Kickstart
This system charges as a quick action, readying a
directed-beam communication laser. While it is
charged, you gain the Ping! reaction. It can only
hold one charge at a time, but charges last for the
rest of the scene or until used.
Kickstart: You start your turn in the danger zone.
Most chassis include basic comm-laser
recognition as part of optical sensors.
The limited bandwidth and filtered input
scrubbing of these channels prevents
sophisticated attack via them, but they
can still be temporarily overwhelmed by
intense high–noise signals.
Ping!
Reaction, 1/round, 1 Heat(self)
Trigger: An allied character starts their turn.
Effect: You shoot the comms-beam at a hostile
character in Range 10. They must either block it
as a reaction or take 1 Heat and become
Impaired and Slowed until the end of the current
turn. This system loses its charge.
LICENSE II: JIN CHAN FRAME,
FULLMOON_V0.18.SERV, HYDROCANNON
FULLMOON_v0.18.serv
2 SP, Quick Tech, 2 Heat(self)
Gain the following Quick Tech options:
Offload Server: Choose an allied character. They
lose 2 Heat. If this reduces them to 0 Heat, they
gain resistance to all Heat from hostile sources
until the start of their next turn.
Recursive Processor: Choose an allied character.
They gain 2 Heat and the next attack roll they
make ignores Invisibility and effects that would
force it to automatically miss, and gains On Hit:
the target loses Invisibility and cannot become
Invisible or Hidden until the end of their next turn.
“Dreaming is easy. The hard part is
remembering it all when you wake up.”
Hydrocannon
Main CQB, Knockback X, Loading
[Cone 5] [1d3+1 Kinetic Damage]
The base Knockback value of this weapon is
equal to 6 - its Range from your target (min 1).
Although technically accurate, it is
hotly debated whether the original
Jin-Chan truly won its championship
title ‘without ever firing a single
shot’. The debate breaks down further
into exactly the statement intended by a
post-ballistic design: is it an
indictment of violence? A lofty disdain
for ‘archaic’ design? Or an
acknowledgement that all forms can be
twisted to violent end, leaving intent
the only true weapon. The designer’s
only statement on the question to date
has been: “Why are you asking me? Don’t
you know already?”
LICENSE III: OPAL-PATTERN COGENT OPERANT, PIGGYBACK PACKET
OPAL-PATTERN Cogent Operant
3 SP, AI, Unique
Gain the AI property and the Seed Catabasis
Quick Tech actions. OPAL is not a full AI and
cannot cascade
True Cogent Minds are monumental in scale
and operate far beyond the necessary
level to direct chassis-scale
engagements. Still, they present an
incredibly rich field of unorthodox
options, and the Menagerie sought to
atomize and democratize this potential.
The result was the Cogent Operant, a
diminished but still potent machine mind
concept. They retain the Minds’ capacity
for non-intuitive approach and
perpendicular problem-solving at a
fraction of the scale by dynamically
seizing and inhabiting any available
computing substrate, repeating
exploratory algorithms until they find
their solutions. This transient
possession leaves them unable to develop
over time, which, while unfortunate from
a potency perspective, also consistently
returns them to a reliable and
predictable baseline and prevents
deleterious or unwanted growth.
Seed Catabasis
Quick Tech, Experimental, Supercharge
Gain the following Quick Tech options.
Gnosis Dream: Choose a character. They cannot
activate until after the end of your next turn, or
until there are no other options for characters to
activate.
Experimental 6+: Gain a Clarity charge. You can
only hold one charge at a time, but charges persist
between scenes until used.
Clarity: To take this action you must either expend
a Clarity charge or Supercharge. Choose an
allied character that has not activated this round;
your turn immediately ends, and they immediately
activate and start their turn without a hostile
activation in between.
Piggyback Packet
3 SP, Unique, Danger Zone
Your tech actions that target characters gain
Experimental 4+: take 2 Heat and choose one of
the following effects:
● They gain or lose 1 Heat.
● They are pushed 1 space in any direction.
● They clear the Impaired or Slowed condition, or
gain one of them until the end of their next turn.
“It won’t do, just being a hanger-on. We
can’t achieve anything waiting in the
shadows of what someone else might do,
riding their wake. And there are always
bigger fish, always someone looking down
over your shoulder not just to see what
you do, but to keep you there, to keep
each fish swimming in its own stream. And
they’re trapped too, of course, swimming
circles in the same tiny pond, trapped by
walls they built themselves. The only way
out is to leave it altogether. No more
ponds, no more walls, you have to build
that wide open ocean for yourself and
everyone else. It’s everywhere - I’ve
seen it, we all have. It’s right there!
I’m tired of waiting. Either we get there
together, or never at all.
 MENAGERIE
MILAGRO
Defender
While it was the Cornicello that gave the Menagerie its foundation, it
was the Milagro that gave it its fame. Footage of its headliner debut
match swept across the omninet overnight and transformed the
Championship from a nascent idea to a cultural sensation. It wasn’t just
the frame itself that propelled them into the future (although its
purpose-built integration of cosmopolitan wrestling styles with
electromagnetic enhancement did set a precedent of novelty for future
design submissions); it was the pilot themselves who’s panache and
charisma behind their mask swept crowds into frenzies and turned sport
into true spectacle. El Huracán remained the face, so to speak, of the
Menagerie for decades, touring at local shows across Union and
personally scouting new talent until they finally retired.

The Milagro is a powerhouse, a titan of a frame with an experimental

dynamo at its heart that spins raw electromagnetic force from seemingly
nothing. Much as the GMS-Everest created a standard baseline for all
chassis in Union space, the Milagro data-repository maintained by the
Menagerie has created a standard for civilian chassis wrestling,
although there are many now who are unaware of the source of this
change. It brought them fame, but fame has never been the point of the
Championship. The greatest reward it brought them, and through them,
humanity, was change.
CORE STATS CORE SYSTEM
Size: 2
Armor: 2
Save Target: 11
Sensors: 5
E-M DYNAMO SPOOL
HULL SYSTEMS Rumors abound of its origins - a
HP: 10 E-Defense: 8 pre-Fall artifact; a dyson sphere around
Repair Cap: 5 Tech Attack: -1 a miniaturized star; a stolen Armory
AGILITY SP: 5 blacksite project severed so cleanly
ENGINEERING they still don’t know it was taken. What
Evasion: 6
is clear is its promise: the promise of
Speed: 3 Heat Cap: 5
an endless climb upwards, new heights to
summit and infinite potential to
TRAITS achieve. The pilot can feel it beat in
TÉCNICO their chest louder than their own
heartbeat in an unceasing escalation
When the Milagro triggers a Kickstart, it may that drives them ever onward, to always
Slide 2 spaces before or after it resolves. Any ask for more from the world than it has
Knockback, Push, or Pull that action inflicts given and to transform it into something
increases by +1. even greater than before. Infinity
awaits.

MAGNETODYNE CORE TYPHOON LARIAT

Whenever an allied character in Range 2 of the
Milagro is targeted by a Ranged or Melee
attack, roll 1d6. If the number rolled is less than
or equal to the current round, the attack targets
it instead, even if it would not normally be able
to.
Active (1 CP), Quick Action, Efficient
This system gains 1 charge each time you
trigger a Kickstart or cause a character to
collide with an obstruction, to a maximum of 6
charges. Charges last until the end of the
scene or they are spent, and you must have at
least 1 charge to activate this system.

MOUNTS When you activate it, spend all charges and

Slide up to the number spent. This movement
must end adjacent to a hostile character. They
are then knocked back 2 spaces for each
charge spent and take 4 kinetic damage. If
you spent 4+ charges they become Impaired
until the end of their next turn, and Jammed
for the same duration if you spent 6 charges.

This core power is Efficient and refunds 1 CP

at the end of any scene in which it is used.
LICENSE I: MAGNETIC FIST, WHIPLASH AMP
Magnetic Fist
Main Melee, Knockback 2, Kickstart
[1 Threat] [1d3+2 Kinetic Damage]
On Attack: You may pull your target 1 space
directly towards you (or as close as possible).
Kickstart: You knock a character Prone.
Ring the bell.
Whiplash Amp
1 SP, Unique, Experimental
1/Turn when you inflict forced movement on a
character that causes them to hit an obstruction,
you may then push them 1 additional space in any
direction.
Experimental 5+: Push them 1 space in any
direction again.
When you fight in the Menagerie, just
technical efficiency isn’t enough to
truly win. Real victory is in making your
name known with novel style and clever
flair. Contestants attract fans and
sponsors like moths to a flame, and in
turn those crowds push them ever further
to innovate and stay relevant.
LICENSE II: MILAGRO FRAME, ‘CASTIGO’
DYNAMO, KILOTON ELECTROCEPS
’Castigo’ Dynamo
2 SP, Unique, Reaction
Gain the Magnet Lock reaction.
The Milagro’s array of EM force
enhancements give it a larger-than-life
presence in the ring. El Huracán’s work
still strains possibility, deriving
tremendous point force from visually
minimal coils and generator trains.
Magnet Lock
Reaction, 1/round, 1 Heat(self),
Experimental
Trigger: A character begins movement in Range 3
of you.
Effect: They must pass a Hull save or be knocked
Prone. On a success they are Slowed until the
end of the current turn instead.
Experimental 4+: You are pulled directly towards
them until you are adjacent, or as close as
possible.
Kiloton Electroceps
2 SP, Quick Action, Kickstart
Choose an adjacent character that is the same
size as you or smaller. Remove them from the
battlefield then place them back in any other free
space adjacent to you. Unwilling characters may
attempt a contested Hull check to avoid this
effect.
Kickstart: A character is adjacent to you at the
start of your turn. You must target them, and on a
failed save you may knock them back 1 space
directly away from you after moving them.
“As much as we advance, it all stays the
same. We travel the stars and learn the
secrets of fundamental forces, but at the
end it all comes down to this: two
figures on a field, meeting hand to hand
and fist to fist to find out who’s on
top. It’s a little backwards, but I can’t
deny the appeal of it all. It’s simple,
no matter how complicated the rest gets.
Romantic, in its way. If that’s what they
want, then I’ll make it the best damn
fight they’ve ever seen. That ring is my
canvas, and these hands? They are my
brushes.”
LICENSE III: GAUSS KNUCKLE, SALT ALCHEMICAL AUGMENTS
Gauss Knuckle
Heavy Melee, Inaccurate, Knockback 3,
Supercharge
[1 Threat] [2d6+2 Kinetic Damage]
Supercharge: The knockback from this weapon
occurs even on a miss. If it causes a character to
impact an obstruction they immediately take 4 AP
Kinetic damage and are knocked Prone.
For every action, an equal and opposite
reaction. Energy cannot be created or
destroyed. Statements that we have held
true for millenia, the foundational
basis of our science and society. But
when have we ever cared for convention
here? What if we can get just a little
more back out? This can be our new
paradigm - and who knows what we’ll find
next.
SALT Alchemical Augments
4 SP, Unique
Whenever you or an adjacent ally would take 2 or
less final damage after all other reductions, take 0
damage instead. Additionally, gain the Galvanize
action.
SALT augmentations are systemic
reinforcements, material replacements,
and flexible armatures designed to
capture and disperse incoming energy.
When exposed to a directed electric
field, certain exotic materials in this
plating structure aerosolize and then
harden into directed shielding that’s
nearly impervious to standard assault,
although the compounds involved are
ultimately unstable and decay into inert
products.
Galvanize
Quick Action, Kickstart, Supercharge
Choose yourself or an allied character in Range 3.
Until the end of their next turn, they are immune
to all damage, Heat, and conditions from hostile
characters.
Kickstart: Your target has 2 or fewer Structure
remaining, and/or 6 or less current HP. All of their
attacks gain +1 Knockback as long as the effect
lasts.
 MENAGERIE
NAZAR
Artillery/Controller
The Nazar is the newest addition to the Menagerie’s roster of official
chassis. As the Championship has grown, so has the scale of its events;
in the year that the Nazar debuted, the Championship encompassed an
entire island on a garden world, graciously provided by Menagerie
benefactors. The tourney was a free-for-all within these bounds as both
teams and individuals fought to remain the last ones standing while
skirmishing over scattered resources and ammunition depots in a
weeks-long wargame. With the battle spread across dozens of miles and
many contestants taking advantage of the setting to up-scale from arena
restrictions, few took note at first of the miniscule, seemingly unarmed
frame that hovered at the edges of decisive clashes. As footage was
replayed and examined for after-action scoring, anomalies began to
appear: high caliber damage with no matching weapon; chassis KOs with
impact angles outside any visible engagement; and a significantly high
rate of mutual destruction in every combat that the unassuming frame was
identified in. Rumors and theories flooded omniforums, many naming it a
harbinger of doom, a ghost-chassis that brought misfortune anywhere it
appeared.

Revelation came piece by piece as fans watched with bated breath on 24/7
channels. The frame was a late entry, with no team or appearances in any
other known events. Painstaking scrubbing of high-speed drone footage
revealed the secret to the bad luck it brought: in the flashes between
frames there were blips of the characteristic blindness of recorded
blinkspace apertures. The Nazar seemed unarmed only because they had
been looking in the wrong places. It carried a high-grade ballistic
arsenal that outweighed most of the other contestants and some small
fightercraft in a local metafold. The frame itself lacked the capacity
to physically aim and counterbalance this ordinance - and it did not
have to. At the moment of firing, it tore open pinprick blink apertures
to redirect bullets dozens of meters across the battlefield and punch
far above its apparent weight.

After its hard-fought victory, the Nazar has still presented certain
challenges to the Menagerie. Its blink manipulation manifold continues
to function in copycat frames that they have produced, but the
underlying specifics have consistently failed reproduction in other
formats without exponential loss in accuracy and distance, and increased
power draw, if it functions at all. Across multiple experiments, no
technical or equipment issues can be successfully identified - to all
appearances, it seems that the manifold shouldn’t work, even within the
Nazar.
[BAD//LUCK.//.TRY//AGAIN?]
CORE STATS CORE SYSTEM
Size: ½
Armor: 0
Save Target: 10
Sensors: 15
ARSENAL MANIFOLD
HULL SYSTEMS The Arsenal Manifold combines a metafold
HP: 8 E-Defense: 10 pocket with a rapid-firing topological
Repair Cap: 3 Tech Attack: +1 needle, poking holes in the skin of
AGILITY SP: 5 reality with each trigger pull. Lacking
ENGINEERING a realspace anchor to target, its range
Evasion: 10
is limited to a probabilistic radius
Speed: 5 Heat Cap: 6
within which an onboard daemon can
perform the necessary trajectory
TRAITS calculations. Aperture size, recharge
EVIL EYE period, and calculation complexity all
proportionally increase power draw. Its
The Nazar’s Ranged weapons all have potential ranges from redirecting brief
Experimental 4+: Create a Blink Echo in a free small arms fire to consistent ballistic
space adjacent to your target. When a hostile bombardment consistent with the capacity
character starts any non-standard movement in of a small sublime ship, localized to an
Range 2 of an Echo the Nazar can destroy it as omnidirectional sphere.
a reaction to force them to make an Agility
save. On a failed save, they must choose Open The Vault
between taking 4 Kinetic damage or becoming Active (1 CP), Protocol
Slowed until the end of their next turn and You open a swarm of rapid-cycling pinpoint
gaining Lock-On. On a success they take 1 blink apertures linked to stocked ordnance,
Kinetic damage. unleashing a hail of bullets. Until the end of the
scene, every hostile character takes 4 Kinetic
damage at the end of each of their turns. This
DESPERADO
is reduced by 1 for each space they move on
1/Round, when the Nazar makes a ranged that turn. Additionally, gain the Crossfire
attack against a hostile character, it may reaction.
attack that character with any Auxiliary
ranged weapon it has equipped as a free
action, ignoring range, cover, and line of sight. Crossfire
Reaction, 1/round, Kickstart
MOUNTS Trigger: A hostile character moves into a space
in your line of sight that does not have cover
from your position.
Kickstart: They are in Range 2 of a Blink Echo;
this consumes the Echo.
Effect: They take 1d6 Kinetic damage and
must choose between becoming Slowed until
the end of their next turn or taking +1d6 Kinetic
damage.
LICENSE I: SHIRAZ OPTICS, VAGABOND
CLOAK
SHIRAZ Optics
2 SP, 1 Heat(self), Unique
When you consume Lock-On with a weapon you
may activate this system to choose one of the
following effects:
Blue-Shift: Your weapon attacks against the
target this turn gain Arcing and +5 Range (or +2
Threat if melee). This includes the triggering
attack.
Red-Shift: All other attacks you make against the
target this turn gain +1 Accuracy.
The lenses of this optical array use a
focal metafold to determine distance and
relative motion with pinpoint accuracy,
and can be directly incorporated into
mounted scopes or existing camera
blisters.
Vagabond Cloak
2 SP, Quick Action, Kickstart
Slide 2 and gain Soft Cover until the start of your
next turn.
Kickstart: Gain 4+ Heat in a single turn.
This heavy drape of holo-optic mesh
breaks up a chassis’ silhouette and
disguises its true position and
movement.
[BETTER//LUCK//NEXT//TIME]
LICENSE II: NAZAR FRAME, PINHOLE
REVOLVER, ‘THREE WISHES’ RAIL REPEATER
Pinhole Revolver
Auxiliary Rifle, 1 SP, Arcing
[15 Range] [2 Kinetic Damage]
On Hit: Your next ranged attack against the same
target this turn gains Arcing and Reliable 2.
When you just think in three dimensions,
it seems like we’re all so far apart -
trillions of souls scattered across the
stars. Then four? We’re further from the
past and the future than we’ve ever been
from each other. But there’s more beyond
that, we all know this. We learn new
ways to reach out and connect every day.
Humanity is further apart than we’ve
ever been. We get closer every day. Keep
reaching out. We’ll find you.
‘Three Wishes’ Rail Repeater
Main Rifle, 1 Heat(self), Kickstart
[15 Range] [3 Kinetic Damage]
Kickstart: You critically hit with any weapon.
Automatic mag-rail weapons are a
markedly unstable branch of weapons
development, plagued by numerous hurdles
and physical limitations including a
broad tendency for EM flux lines to
self-interfere between each firing or
with overlapping armaments. Many
ballistic engineers have taken this as a
challenge rather than a cautionary body
of evidence, and so the Menagerie’s
archives fill with new concepts every
year, each a unique and excitingly
charted dead end.
LICENSE III: BEAM RAIL, NEMESIS HYPERDIMENSIONAL HARDPOINT
Beam Rail
Heavy Cannon, AP, Accurate, Ordnance, 2
Heat(self), Experimental
[20 Range] [6 Energy Damage]
Experimental X+: If your target has 1 Structure
and X or less HP remaining, they are immediately
destroyed.
Linear beam rails are directed energy
weapons that utilize a coherent lance of
exotic particles rather than standard
photon or plasma excitation. The exotic
medium is transmuted from ambient
baryonic substrate, a process that
propagates on impact to disintegrate
most physical materials.
NEMESIS Hyperdimensional Hardpoint
3 SP, Quick Action, Unique, Supercharge
When you hit a character with a Ranged attack
you may activate this system to tear open a hole
in space in a free space adjacent to them. At the
start of your next turn, the nearest hostile
character with line of sight to the hole takes 4
Kinetic damage, or 2 if they have cover from its
position, then the tear is removed.
Supercharge: At the start of your next turn, ALL
hostile characters with line of sight to the tear take
damage as above.
+++USB/INTERNAL::SOLEMN VIGIL
+++DECRYPTION HASH-POSITIVE
+++CASE J82XC-OSPREY STATUS::ARCHIVED
+++PERSON-OF-INTEREST:: ??? (KNOWN
PSEUDONYM: BLINDSPOT)
+++TRANSCRIPT AS FOLLOWS:
+++I’m pulling the plug on this one;
three years and no leads since the
original filing. Between their
obfuscation and our noted internal
conflicts of interest, I doubt we’ll hear
any more about him unless he wants to be
found. I don’t intend to overstay our
welcome. We’ll maintain our contacts
within the organization and we’ve
petitioned access to the NEMESIS
schematics for threat scoping.
Cooperation is the name of the game, and
as long as we keep these channels open
we’ll have an early warning before it
hits full RED-SKY.
+++ Unofficially: we did our due
diligence here. Someone needs to ask
Transportation if they’re missing an
engineer. Loose lips, people.
+++END TRANSCRIPT
 MENAGERIE
CLOVER
Defender
Alternate HORUS Hydra
Although it is not officially a Menagerie Championship title frame, the
Clover indisputably originated within the Menagerie’s attendant cliques.
The Championship’s orbit draws in artists, statement-makers, eccentric
philosophy and science nouveau, creating a churning milieu of activity
in its dark periphery that continually spins off exhibits, performances,
parties, ideologies, and the types of ingenuity that is meant for more
than just its combat arenas. The Clover is one such upwelling; it was an
experiment in simulated neo-biogenesis that bore strange and wondrous
fruit.

At a basic level, its design process wed elements of OROCHI-derived

swarming doctrine and biomimetic nano-assembly incentives with
stabilized production cells. From a scaffold organ of central hives
spills a flood of cooperative nanites; specialized, communicative,
predator, prey, and producer all working in symbiotic harmony to build
complex patterns of interactions and novel emergent behaviors. Secondary
support nodes afford the resulting biomorphs a degree of independence
and longevity unlike standard greywash deployments. This in turn grants
them a greater period to self-modify, adapt and diverge from their basal
templates before they eventually collapse and are reabsorbed. It is the
organism, the food-chain, the entire ecosystem itself remade and
reimagined.

The Menagerie and its devotees were quick to recognize the gem in their
midst. A chassis concept was only the first step: human guidance and
all-terrain mobility for field testing made sense. What will come next,
when it no longer needs a pilot?
CORE STATS CORE SYSTEM
Size: 2
Armor: 0
Save Target: 11
Sensors: 12
BLACKTHORN ECO-HIVE
HULL SYSTEMS [Personal log - Dr. Cenazar speaking. I
HP: 14 E-Defense: 10 watched the imago take its first steps
Repair Cap: 4 Tech Attack: +0 today. Trembling, clumsy, on thin limbs
AGILITY SP: 7 like a newborn fawn. I knew that I was
ENGINEERING watching something beautiful. I may be
Evasion: 6
the first person alive to watch a new
Speed: 3 Heat Cap: 4
type of life be born. There’s so much
more to do still, it’s not ready yet -
TRAITS but it will be. We’ll find somewhere
SYNTHESIS safe they can grow and learn, free from
our influence. Where they can be
Whenever one of its drones is destroyed by a something truly different. And when
hostile character the Clover may regain 5 HP. they’re ready, maybe we’ll meet again.]
As a quick action it may destroy any drone it
controls in Sensors to deal 3 Kinetic damage Blackthorn Harvest
to a character in Range 3 of the drone. Passive
Whenever the Clover deals damage to a
CRYPTOBIOSIS character with a Nexus weapon or a drone
system it may create a Blackthorn Polyp (size
When the Clover is destroyed its wreck is ½, 1 HP, Eva/E-def 10) in a free space in Range
replaced by a Blackthorn Cocoon. This 2 of them. It can have a maximum of 4 Polyps
functions as both a normal wreck and a active at once; if it would create another, an
Blackthorn Polyp, though it does not have the existing Polyp dissolves and is removed from
Drone tag. While the cocoon exists its Drone the battlefield. Spaces adjacent to a Polyp are
systems continue to function as normal, and it difficult terrain. When a hostile character
may take reactions as if it were not destroyed, starts their turn adjacent to one or moves
but only those granted by Drone systems. adjacent to them for the first time in a round
they take 1 AP Kinetic damage.
ECDYSIS
When you rest, the Clover regains full HP Dark Forest
automatically. If it is a Blackthorn Cocoon it is Active (1 CP), Full Action
also restored to 1 Structure and Stress, even Create 4 Blackthorn Groves in free spaces in
if it had more before being destroyed. Sensors and line of sight. These are special
Blackthorn Polyps that do not count against
the number of Polyps you can have active at
MOUNTS once. For the rest of the scene, if you would
create a new Polyp in Range 3 of a Grove, you
may instead increase the size of that Grove by
+1, to a maximum of size 2.
 MENAGERIE
MANEKI-NEKO
Defender
Alternate HORUS Kobold
Like the Clover, the Maneki-Neko is a creation of the Menagerie’s many
inventive enthusiasts. Its inception was the stories of the liturgicode
driven transmutation of civilian mining frames into the KOBOLD-pg seen
on Free Sanjak – a shocking metamorphosis that piqued the interest of
the Menagerie’s transformative artists. Without access to the original
code that drove the process, they instead attempted to recreate the
process from first principles. After months of competition, simulation,
and failed test runs, the alchemical liturgicode they created was
implanted into a Cornicello chassis to rapt attention from all
onlookers.

Their results bore mixed results: to some, the increased stability of

the reforging process was a marked improvement. For others, the
increased power draw and need for raw materials was a disappointing
failure, as was the decreased variation in outcomes. For all, the
spectacle was more than enough to call it a success. The Maneki-Neko
roared to life, the coldcore reactor in its heart turned into a nuclear
forge that transformed it again and again in protean splendor. It
devoured the other test chassis with arms dripping slag; their reactors
welded to its own and their mass building layer after layer until it
towered over its old body. Even when the metamorphosis finally cooled
and the frame stabilized, the new forge-engine in its heart never ceased
burning. Built from the bones of the coldcores it had consumed allowed
the resultant Maneki-Neko to continually process and reforge raw
materials into novel form. Although some rushed to see how it fared in
the arena, the Maneki-Neko has now taken its place as an artisans frame,
allowing the Championship’s sculptors and builders to apply personal
touches at massive scale that a printer could never achieve.
CORE STATS CORE SYSTEM
Size: 2
Armor: 1
Save Target: 10
Sensors: 8
LITURGICODE
HULL SYSTEMS TRANSMUTATION
HP: 10 E-Defense: 10 The birth of the first Maneki-Neko was a
Repair Cap: 4 Tech Attack: +1 violent, awesome affair. The unique
AGILITY SP: 8 alchemical forge that the Championship’s
Evasion: 6 ENGINEERING code created can now be recreated with
Speed: 3 Heat Cap: 6 more standard manufacture instead of
relying on the liturgicode process each
TRAITS time – but the codebase still exists.
Unlike the KOBOLD-pg, its transformative
CHRYSOPOEIA
power is still potent and active in the
1/Round each when the Maneki-Neko creates finished frame, merely dormant. When
or destroys an object or terrain it can give a awakened it begins the process anew,
Coin to itself or an ally in Range 3. Characters sculpting, changing, innovating and
can carry a maximum of 3 Coins, and gain +1 mutating any suitable system it comes
Armor for each Coin they are carrying. When a into contact with into something new.
character with a Coin would be reduced to 0
Lead To Gold
HP, they lose all Coins and are reduced to 1 HP
Active (1 CP), Quick Action
instead, negating any remaining damage.
Create an Alchemical Forge (size 2, 40 HP,
Tags: Deployable) in a free adjacent space. It
SLAG FORGE grants hard cover, and allied characters that
If the Maneki-Neko does not move on its turn, end their turn adjacent to it gain 1 Coin. When
it can take 1 Heat at the end of its turn to an adjacent character would lose Coins, roll
create a Slag Wall. It is a Line 2 object 2 1d6. On a 5+, they keep 1 Coin.
spaces tall with 10 HP, with at least one space
adjacent to the Maneki-Neko. If it is adjacent to
a Slag Wall, it may instead extend that wall by
1 space on either side, granting it +5 HP.

GUARDIAN
Adjacent allied characters can use the
Maneki-Neko as hard cover.

MOUNTS