Greetings, Dan here!

So I recently started playing Front Mission 3 again, which has reminded me how much inspiration it provided for Beneath Twisted Earth. One mechanic it has that can be found in BTE is a Weapon Skill Improvement system. While it works differently than how it is used in The Vibe System, the core concept was always something I wanted to include. For anyone not familiar, the idea is that over time a player will grow more skilled with a specific weapon, and thus more effective with it. This was a concept I was first exposed to in TTRPGs in an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2e game. The two games had different ways of handling the mechanic. In Front Mission as you use the weapon it gains weapon-specific experience points which levels it over time. In the AD&D game, you could spend skill points in approving your ability to hit with your weapon. In either event, the core concept remains the same, the more a character uses a weapon, the more skilled they get with it, and the more deadly it becomes.

In The Vibe System, and Beneath Twisted Earth by extension, these ideas inspired the Weapon Skill mechanic. Every weapon that a character uses comes with a weapon skill, because in order to use that weapon, a skill check must be made. Rather than basing the check for that off of one of the stats, it is based off of a weapon specific skill score. This score has a set starting value (25+1d10), or slightly higher for their starting primary weapon (30+1d10). That way whether a character makes a new weapon or picks one up, they have a basic starting proficiency. How this advances over time is closer to the AD&D game. In that case as you leveled you earned skill points which could be spent on basic or weapon skills to improve their chances of succeeding. In The Vibe System, as a player earns experience, they can spend that experience to level up existing stats and skills (or learn new skills). In this case exp would be spent to increase a chosen skill's score by 5. Since in this system players try to roll under their percentiles-based skill score, this increases their odds of success by five percent. 

Where The Vibe System differs, is that the total damage of a weapon increases over time as well based on its weapon skill. When a player hits with their weapon, they will roll the damage the weapon has listed, but then will also add their Weapon Skill bonus to the final damage. In The Vibe System a Stat/Skill bonus is the number in the 10's place of their stat. (Ex: a score of 35's bonus would be a 3.) This means the total damage a weapon deals can be increased by a factor of one with 1-2 exp upgrades depending on the starting score. The more a player invests time into a specific weapon, the deadlier they become with it. 

In Beneath Twisted Earth, this feeling of investment is increased as pilots also construct their weapons, choosing each of the aspects of the weapon during Weapon Construction . (The exception to this being if they pick up a weapon system from another mech.) Since players are encouraged to "skin" the mechanics of their mechs as they see fit, this does not necessarily mean the weapon system is specifically a sword/gun/etc, but can also apply to type of attack (ex: martial arts). This encourages players to focus on what they build over what they can pick up because even though they might see a nifty, powerful weapon on an enemy, even if they pick it upon, it's efficacy would drop to the starting value of a new weapon system. An additional consideration comes into the Heat Rate of the Weapon, as a mech is limited to a set amount of Heat Value it can support. So picking up a powerful new weapon would not only mean starting over, but also having to trade weapon systems out in order to equip it. Fortunately, as the mech's radiator is upgraded, new weapons can be added, or existing weapon systems can be "re-kit" with improvements while retaining their Weapon Skill.

This all culminates to players in The Vibe System are encouraged to focus their use of weapons into chosen equipment, rather than constantly swapping it out. In Beneath Twisted Earth specifically, this attachment only increases as the player builds and customizes their weapons.

I don't really have a point this was leading to. I just wanted to share how weapon skills work in Beneath Twisted Earth, and how this aspect of the Vibe System was inspired by a classic mech series, and like many thins AD&D. Thank you for your continued interest, and I look forward to seeing you all at the launch of the premium/print version of BTE!