/mecha/ Thread

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Do you prefer mechas with swords or guns?

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I get the purpose of human or near human sized mechs (ranging from 6 foot tall power armor to 12 foot tall mechs), but is there really any point, whatsover, to using bipeds for larger platforms?

If you want to go super fucking big, is it better to use a really big tank or really big quadrapeds/hexapods/etc

Super big mechs are usually better suited for planetary defense.

Also they look kickass so shut up and kill yourself

Because fantasy.

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>Also they look kickass so shut up and kill yourself
That goes without saying, but if you need to build a mobile fortress that can bombard continents from a quarter way around the world and shoot down space ships, would you prefer a big fucking multi-legged abomination or a tank so big that its treads carve out valleys?

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Probably the abomination, so you don't destroy the surface of the earth by carving valleys and canyons with treads.

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Multi-legged abomination, definitely.

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I'm glad the realism fags are getting shut down with "rule of cool" instead of trying to argue with them, so many good threads got ruined by dumbasses bitching about realism and idiots fueling the argument.

Anyway, what kind of Mecha games have you ran/played in?

Right now I'm working on a FAE-based not!Gundam campaign using the Mecha vs Kaiju book (ran as Mecha vs Mecha, of course).

One thing that's been bugging me is the book equates 1 construction point to 1 refresh and all system abilities as stunts, implying you probably shouldn't build a Mecha with more than 5 CP to start with. Yet on their own website they've got Mecha from anime statted with 20 CP and just from dicking around with the system I haven't been able to make a satisfactory statblock of any Mecha from any anime with less than 15 CP.

Why not just make a giant tank with deployable arms?

You ever look at meketon zeta for anime mecha roleplaying?

I believe I read once that in gundam having a human form gives them a greater ability to maneuver in space. It had some acronym but I cant remember what it was.

Yes, even played it dozens of times, Mekton's actual play rules are awful even if the construction system gives me a crunch boner.

Now bear in mind I'm not saying this weird disconnect somehow makes the MvK rules difficult to use, it's just... A weird disconnect. In theory it shouldn't matter at all as long as everyone is on equal footing.

AMBAC. The idea was you could make some maneuvers using the inertia of swinging the limbs to change facing instead of wasting energy and reaction mass on firing thrusters.

It's still kind of a bullshit reason, as in theory you could achieve the same thing on a fighter with just a couple of gyroscopic wheels, but who cares.

Active Mass Balance Auto-Control, if anyone is wondering.

Thats the bunny.

tank.
BOLO > Giant Mecha

To convince alien species regular humans are just baby giant robots to hopefully scare them away.

Just worked on a mech/mecha add-on for the ORE system. Still need to play test it, however.

Macross probably had one of the best excuses in that they figured out the alien ship they got all their super tech from was owned by a race of giant aliens, so they built big robots to fight them on equal ground should said aliens come looking for it.

The thing is 3 meter and spindly 6 meter tall mechs would actually freaking work. Getting a more massive vehicle would require a tank. The real problem with gundam sized mecha is that they can't exist. At least not as walking machines under normal gravity.

For the thread in general, does anyone have pics of pre-combustion mechs? This is the only one I've got. I'm looking for muscle-powered mechs, but clockwork and/or windmill-esque mechs are always welcome.

Why would you spank the monkey when you could choke the chicken?

>windmill-esque mechs are always welcome.

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U wot, m8?

Is that from the Pizza Cats?
You win!

Nope, G Gundam.

My mistake, I'm old - thanks.

Running ChromeStrike for some guys up at school.
Which reminds me, I need to work on NPCs.
It's my first time GMing anything so I kind of suck at it and the story is basically:
>based no a true story
around the events of my Verdict Day team with some plot elements from Ace Combat Zero and Armored Core 4 mixed in

Overtechnology don't care 'bout your square cubed bullshit. We achieve stealth in space by shunting heat into extradimensional 2D space.

So, I've been working on a generic western mecha system with a friend from Veeky Forums. Current title is Walking Thunder. Features various tech levels, from Steampunk to Far Future. We need a list of Traits that mechs can have. So far we have Slim and Hulking, which represent build variance within a size category, and Technology Demonstrator, which adds a module from a tech level above current.

Anyone got any ideas for more mech traits? Stuff like two pilots and weapons are handled differently, but if there's something you absolutely want to see in a mecha RPG, bring it up anyway.

Why have one when you could have both?

Thicc

Combining.

>western mecha system

both

Other Walking Thunder writer here. doesn't want to tread too far into anime influences, since most generic systems in existence are decidedly animesque. I personally support combining from a limited perspective (more like 40k's Dreadknight where it's added on support systems), but not Voltron-level combining.

Thanks for the input, though.

>AdEva
>rules light
You're just memeing right? AdEva is an overcomplicated, rules heavy mess. You literally have to go through about 15 steps just to calculate a single attack roll, and that's one of the less offensive things about the system.

>based on the events of my Verdict Day team
That sounds pretty cool actually. Come to think of it I might be able to run a game based on my own team's shenanigans. Got any more details to share?

What do you think of Chromestrike anyway? My group has messed with it some and we broke the system within a single playtest. The combat rules are great, but the balancing is nonexistent and makes it kind of pointless unless you restrict certain parts. There's also the fact that most of the noncombat rules make no sense or simply don't even work as intended. I kind of wanted to run a game in it but I keep getting put off by it. Are you from /acg/ by the way? I think I know who you are.

>Anyway, what kind of Mecha games have you ran/played in?
I've played and run Battle Century G a couple times. Really great system, you can do just about any genre in it.

We may have chatted about it in months past. Things like
>melee sucks
and
>how do mortars even work
and that reminds me, I had an idea on who you were but I don't ever think I took the time to make my claim. Is that you, Strav?

Anyway, I don't think we've broken it too hard yet. Our guy who's obsessed with mobility is nigh impossible to hit but he has accuracy problems and enemies tend to ignore him because he rarely gets hit.
I also keep the shop they have access to sparsely equipped and constantly rotating so that they don't always have access to whatever their hearts desire. I think it's actually keeping things somewhat in check.

>Is that you, Strav?
Nah, I'm just a literally who lurker.

>melee sucks
Melee is alright as long as you have high strength and either a melee weapon or the melee arm upgrade. With enough strength you can get your AP so high that nothing can possibly resist it so long as you land the hit. One idea I came up with to buff melee is that you also add half your mech's strength to the attack roll, and maybe reduce the penalty from moving when you melee since momentum should make melee attacks better in theory.

>how do mortars even work
Jesus Christ, this. So for my playtest I had some players running all conventional forces and one guy bought a bunch of howitzers. Right from the start we realized the rules for using them make no sense and have contradictions all over the place. We came up with some basic fix for them to make them playable but it still hardly makes sense.

Limiting the parts is probably the best way to balance things. I might consider that and give it another try.

Use missiles against the super fast guy, they ignore movement bonuses.

Well dang, you posted a picture of one of Strav's ACs once and that's what led me to thinking that. What team were you even on, then?
>melee
See, I'm trying to think of ways to allow extra damage or maybe some type of bull rush effect. Right now, the melee guy is pretty outclassed by pretty much everyone due to range. Sure, he's got six dots of strength, but focused fire on an enemy from everyone else works before he can get to melee range. Or maybe I should throw more NRB stuff at them, make that huge AP count.
>missiles
I know. He knows too, which is why he's been going for anti-missile stuff. Between high speed, SLAT armor, and someone else having the C&C Node, missiles tend to fail too. My next thought is mines, but I'd really like some way for them to be able to sweep for mines that isn't the C&C Node.

>Mortars
>We came up with some basic fix for them to make them playable but it still hardly makes sense.
What'd you end up houseruling? Wondering how it fixes the things.

I'm literally no one, just a random lurking xbot. You were probably talking to someone else (or maybe it was Strav? Either way, not me).

Since you can technically attack with every weapon you have, you could also rule that a mech can make a melee attack for each limb it has (two punches, two kicks). Maybe another rule for attacks of opportunity when an enemy tries to move out of your melee range?

I can't really remember exactly. It was basically whoever is operating the howitzer makes a regular attack roll using their own intelligence VS the target's AR. If it hits it hits, if it misses then roll to see where it deviates off course to, etc. Honestly it didn't really fix anything and was way too overpowered. The base artillery rules are so nonfunctional that I'd say it's better to just ignore them entirely and try homebrewing a better system for it from scratch. Chromestrike is a cool system but it's annoying how all the non-mech (and non-combat) components of it don't work at all.

>Chromestrike is a cool system but it's annoying how all the non-mech (and non-combat) components of it don't work at all.
Yeah, those seem to be the most frequent complaints with it, and should definitely be fixed. Game-breaking builds are also pretty bad but are less blatantly obvious at first. I hope your group had fun at least.

Wait, so this is the first time we're discussing ChromeStrike with each other? Well then, maybe it really was Strav.
Mysterious.
Despite playing lots of V and VD, I'm not so fond on the kicking idea. At least not for bipeds, I once had a quad they were fighting make a kick.
Not him, but I also houseruled mortars. It's a little clunky, though.

So the attacker chooses a square within 60 range. From range 20-60, the attacker rolls 2d6+2+CNTRL. Below that it's 1d6+2+CNTRL. The number to beat here is 7. If the check succeeds, then the shell lands in the square. If not, then misdirection as mentioned in the PDF. If the square is occupied, the attacker then rolls a shoulder attack roll as normal. The shell is considered an AP2 attack. Regardless of the outcome of that attack, the 3x3 AP0 explosion happens centered on where the shell lands.

There's a reason why G Gundam is my favourite Gundam series. Well, that and the Shining Finger Sword music.

Bipedal robots are bound by Anime Physics. Tanks are bound by Normal Physics.

It's much easier to engineer with Anime Physics, so most weapons engineers choose bipedal robots.

There's no significant difference between "western mecha" and "anime mecha," and if you think there is it just shows your limited knowledge of the mecha genre.

>model kit never :(

Because the people in those settings have a more advanced understanding of physics than we do, that makes bipedal robots supreme and tanks obsolete.

What's wrong with them ?
I have nothing to compare the game to mecha wise, but in terms of TRPGs in general it has had my favorite combat system.

In the Heavy Gear universe tanks wreck Gears, the mecha are mainly a product of circumstance.

Issue 1: Combat for mechs runs off of 1 stat for the pilot.
Issue 2: The DP system is fucking awful and has a serious feedback loop issue. You earn DP for succeeding on a skill check (critting gives you extra DP towards the skill. Critting isn't completely luck based but instead based on beating the opposition by 10). A person who succeeds will grow faster than someone who doesn't.
Issue 3: 9-10 stats (depending on if you consider Education one) with 50% of all skills under one stat (including all combat skills and all mech piloting skills), 25% under a second stat (with most other skills you'd use under and most with 2-4 skills
Issue 4: Of those 9-10 stats, all but 2-3 are useless when piloting your mech. One is even explicitly stated it can't be used in a mech (luck) despite it being one of the few stats that would make sense to work with a mech
Issue 5: In character creation skills a 1 skill point for skill levels 1-5, and 2 skill points for 6-10. At the table though, levels 1 and 2 both cost 10 DP each, and then each level after costs 10 more than the last (3 costs 20 DP, 4 30 DP, and so on). Thankfully some skills are listed that you can't buy levels 6+ during character creation.
Issue 6: Attributes by RAW cannot be improved. Fuck up and put a 4 in Reflexes (which is that stat that has almost 50% of all skills and affects almost anything you do as a pilot)? Well, you'll never catch up at all.

And that's the stat and skill system alone.

Why would you make an IFV that has trouble crossing rivers?

Bradley's are cute though.

All these mechas and no one posting the Veeky Forums random Mech generator

Stomping enemies and tanks is my hobby.

Because it's stupid.

missed the mechs in C&C3

You're pretty based, I intend on doing a full Fate Core One Year War campaign using the same mecha system.
I have no idea what I'm doing, any suggestions for building grunt suits like Zakus and GMs?

I really want to get this shit right, I've wanted to run a game like this since I first read Zeonquest

What I've done of the Zaku so far.

MS-06 Zaku II

Design Philosophy: Universal Multirole Unit
Glitch: Left Behind in the Arms Race

Weapons: 120mm Machine Gun - Autofire, Burst
280mm Bazooka - Ammo, Indirect Fire
Heat Hawk

Armour Systems: Shoulder Shield (Armor:1, can be sacrificed instead of taking a mild consequence)

Other Systems: Jump Jets (invoke to ignore environmental aspects hindering your movement)

And also:

RGM-79 GM

Design Philosophy: Streamlined Mass-Production Unit
Glitch: Quantity over Quality

Weapons: 100mm Machine Gun - Autofire, Burst
Beam Sabre - Weapon:2, Penetrating

Armour Systems: Shield (Armor:1, can be sacrificed instead of taking a mild consequence)
Titanium Alloy - Armor:1

Other Systems: Jump Jets (invoke to ignore environmental aspects hindering your movement)

I'm leaving Weapons and Armour ratings low because I intend on using the red and blue dice method from the Fate System Toolkit, and by its very nature that only really goes up to four.