Fighting Suit Kang

For a thousand years the benevolent society of the Yeti prospered. Living in harmony with their planet Abbith, the Yeti built self-sustaining domed cities and acted as guardians of all natural life. For centuries Yeti Lama-Scientist worked to heal the planet from the ravages of the conflicts that destroyed the civilizations that preceded them.  They shepherded the remnants of humanity and other sentient species into protected reserves, and shielded the natural life of the planet from the influence of the vile Elder Gods.

The Yeti dedicated themselves to harmonizing their external and internal realities, valuing serenity and enlightenment.  Conflict between Yetis was unheard of, and the only threat to their peaceful existence were the Elder gods, a physical and psychic evil that was contained by the powerful technologic-thaumatugy and spiritual-scientific teachings of the Lamas.  

That utopia was destroyed one hundred years ago.

Unexpectedly, the skies were full of giant hostile cephalopods, the Prawn led by the alien Mi-Go from the planet Yuggoth on the outer rim of Abbiths solar system. Millions of Yeti died in the initial assault. Entire dome-cities were destroyed, and the continued existence of the species was doubtful.  The Yeti faced an external and internal crisis. Should they abandon the principles of non-violence and serenity in order to preserve themselves? A congress of reincarnated high Lamas known as Tulku was convened, and they meditated on the appropriate response to the Prawn invasion. During the meditation the Tulkus were themselves eaten by the Prawn. Upon their reincarnation they formed the Serene Council of Elders, reformed Yeti society into a militant communist state and instructed their species to make war.

Overnight the pacifistic, enlightened species became dedicated to violence. The considerable scientific and spiritual might of the Yeti was bent to singular purpose, drive out and destroy the Prawn and their Mi-Go masters. Citizens were organized into armies, factories reconfigured to produce military material and the species was indoctrinated into a philosophy of collectivism and violence. Yet, after a hundred years of struggle against the Prawn, the situation still looked bleak.

The Yeti created many ingenious war machines and proved to be skilled warriors but their efforts were ultimately doomed by biology. With long lives but a relatively short reproductive period, a Yeti family has few children. Yeti scientist soon realized losses in the war for survival would lead down an inevitable road to extinction.  Cloning proved to be impossible due to the reincarnation of the Yeti soul, the experimental clones produced were uncontrollable soulless monsters.  Yeti scientist and engineers turned to robots to address the statistical gap in losses versus birth rates.

The techno-clergy were never able to create a true artificial intelligence. The drones and robots that they built were not fully autonomous and required remote control, limiting their effectiveness by putting the precious Yeti operators at risk.  Priest-Engineer Dr. Manfred Mumbles who lost his two daughters in the 6th Guards Robot Army vowed to create a system that would protect the operators of the Yeti’s robotic forces.

Secretly experimenting with neural interfaces and a rare metal sought by the Mi-Go called tok’l, Dr. Mumbles created a dermal battle suit that would not only protect its wearer but augment their abilities and had the capability of combining with other suits to form a massive and nearly invincible war robot. He called the neural interface armor Fighting Suits and named the robot Kang after the mythical first Lama of the Yeti.

The Fighting Suit Kang program looked promising, but when specially selected Yeti soldiers donned the suits a problem arose. A peculiarity of the Yeti nervous system meant that adults who attempted to use the Fighting Suits did so only under immense physical and psychic pain. They proved the technology, but the operational limitations imposed by acute damage to their minds and bodies limited the usefulness of the program.  The Serene Circle of Elders shelved the project and a dejected Dr. Mumbles retired to seclusion with his only remaining daughter, the teenage Tashi.

One night the Prawn overcame the defensive perimeter near the Mumbles estate. In a panic to defend her home and elderly father, Tashi donned a Fighting Suit and single handedly defeated the squid incursion. Dr. Mumbles after overcoming his anger at Tashi for risking her life ran a series of experiments with the teen and the suit. He discovered that a pubescent but not yet fully formed Yeti brain could operate the suit without incurring trauma. He submitted his findings to the Serene Circle and they agreed to renew the project. The Elders imposed a condition however. Since the embrace of warfighting and violence by the Yeti, their culture had lost the serenity and selflessness that had kept them unified in contentment. The Serene Circle increasingly had to use the tactics of fear and propaganda to keep citizens in line though what appeared to be an unending war. The Circle feared the public’s reaction if they learned that precious Yeti children would now be used to prosecute the struggle against the Prawn. The Fighting Suit Kang program would be classified.

Establishing his secret lab at the largest School for War Orphans, Dr. Manfred Mumbles and his daughter Tashi posed as Teachers, and began to recruit a team of Yeti teens to wear the Fighting Suits, and work together as the giant robot Kang.

They would prove to be the Yeti’s last hope of survival.

Fighting Suit Kang will be a 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Game.

The players will be teenage members of the Yeti School for Orphans who are recruited by Dr. Mumbles to be part of the top secret Fighting Unit Codename Kang program.

Games motifs include:

Giant transforming robots

High school drama / teen angst

Tentacles and giant monsters

Double lives

A hopeless cause

Fallen communist utopia

Tibetan Buddhism and Yeti myths

The player characters will be 0 level Yeti Teenagers who are members of various cliques within the Yeti School, represented by the 5th edition backgrounds mechanic.

The characters earn inspiration dice based on acting in accordance with their clique.

Characters will be able to re-roll a failed roll or take advantage on a roll by establishing a scene of drama or angst.

When the characters wear the Fighting Suits the suit itself has a character class and earns XP. Players have a choice of what suit they want to wear before a mission.

When the players combine to form Kang, they share armor class and hit points but act individually with different classed Fighting Suits having different functions.  

The characters will only be able to wear the Fighting Suits unitl they become adults, as they grow nearer to adulthood they begin to take hit point damage from the suit itself.

Game sessions will typically follow the Monster of the Week formula combined with a hex map crawl that contains varying areas of difficulty and reward that are visible to the players.