What system would be best for running a game focusing on a squadron of mechs and the men and women who pilot them?

What system would be best for running a game focusing on a squadron of mechs and the men and women who pilot them?

Other urls found in this thread:

datafortress2020.com/InterlockUnlimited.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

What level of realism are you going for? There's actually quite a large spectrum of games out there.

Well, mechs are kinda inherently unrealistic, but I don't want something too silly.

GURPS, Savage Worlds, and ORE. All three have rules for mecha and range from near simulation (GURPS) to narrative (ORE).

Mekton Z can work if you build the mechas yourself and exerce restraint and wisdom (and time) in choosing which things exist or don't exist and what the building points limits are.

Or you can let go of all worry and run an insane game of giant robots creating time paradox, harvesting each others souls and firing a billion missiles at each others.

Into the Odd and, well, D&D (old-school) can do it, too.

You could also use legos and run Mekaton by Vincent Baker, it's super fun but doesn't provide any roleplaying rules, only a board game which you could want to build upon.

Or better : build your own, share it online. I'd love some mecha game.

Savage if you are going for cheesy stuff.
GURPS if you are going for cheesy stuff and maybe something serious
Twilight 2000 if you are going for super-serious stuff.

>2016
>REFLUFF D&D!

As someone who played in a pair of Mekton Zeta campaigns for the better part of two years, the mecha-building parts of the system were great in terms of the sheer amount of options you had and the amount of mathematical crunch to it (especially using the Plus supplement). But my god most of the rest of the system is complete garbage. The skill list especially makes absolutely zero sense and we had to houserule the shit out of it just to make it anywhere approaching workable.

>D&D (old-school) can do it, too.
seriously? Like, I remember reading about dragonmech, but that's more of a D&D setting with mechs than actually a mecha game. I mean, if you said 4e, sure.
4e is actually rather good for mecha games.

Strike! is in the same vein, but both are very gamey. Like, on the opposite side of GURPS with Savage worlds somewhere in the middle.

Literally my group's ongoing game.
Heavy Gear. Mix of 2e and 3r rules.

There are a number of Veeky Forums homebrews you can try. Some are more complete than others.

Use Mekton Zeta Plus for mecha construction and combat, use Interlock Unlimited for the personal scale stuff and combat.

datafortress2020.com/InterlockUnlimited.html

This is one I've been running for some friends at school. Fun, but requires some BSing to fill in the missing spaces.

This one popped up a couple days ago. They have an IRC, but I don't remember the channel's name.

Here's that CYOA that turned into an RPG.

I have to echo another user's recommendation for Mekton. Yeah, the interpersonal elements are a bit screwy, but there's just no other system I've played that makes mecha fighting feel more fun.

I've played Twilight 2000 before but never with mechs. Mite be cool.

>4e is actually rather good for mecha games
D&D is barely passable to uphold generic medieval fantasy and anything else than that fails miserably. It's a game created for very specific type of setting, yet playerbase is so brain-dead they consider it THE ultimate game to support everything.
The sole fact it's d20-based should ring you a bell it's a clusterfuck.

Hey be fair; Mutants and Masterminds is pretty great.
I mean, it does away with the classes, changes skills, removes all types of dice except the d20, changes feats and the creation system and as of 3e even changes the stats but....yeah okay, never mind.
M&M uses a d20 dice but it's not really a d20 game anymore, sorry.

I didn't even know I had this one. Skimmed it and it looks unfinished, but maybe you'll like it.

Which is why the one recommended for mecha games is the D&D that's farthest away from the other ones.

>It's d20 so it's shit.

Mutants and Masterminds uses a d20. That doesn't mean it's DND esque.

I have a question related to this actually

I am planning a mecha campaign taking place on a space carrier and I not the most military savvy guy
What ranks would pilots have on a space ship if it was structured like a real life carrier?

Don't bother, he shows up in every mech thread he can find to espouse the joys of 4e and Strike!

Naval rankings. Space navies seem to take after water navies in pretty much every setting.

Stop shilling Strike!

Why does Veeky Forums keep shilling Strike!?

It's just one guy, like the Dungeon World jackass.
It might even just be virt fucking around. He's not banned anymore, we know that for sure.

Yeah, exactly.
M&M uses A d20 but as of 3e it hasn't been a d20 System game for a good long time.

Battle Century G is a great mecha game. You can run just about any genre with it too.

Battletech is a pretty great wargame with an okay RPG that can be tacked onto it, picking and choosing your favourite RPG edition to play can be a bit tricky though.

Heavy Gear is probably what you'd be looking for if you were going for a more traditional RPG with Mechs

Naval Officers would be pilots

Ensign - Too low ranking, would still be in pilot school

Lieutenant JG - Very junior pilot. Rookie

Lieutenant - An average pilot

Lieutenant Commander - would be a saltier pilot, probably in the process of transitioning into some kind of smaller command role (think a smaller crewed vessel)

Commander - Would command a Smaller crewed vessel (space equivalent of a submarine or cutter maybe) or serve as an executive officer to a higher ranking commanding officer

Captain - in charge of big boats

1-4 star Admirals - in charge of progressively larger and larger groups of big boats

continuing fromFlight/Naval SUPPORT crew would likely be enlisted, answering to a lower ranking officer serving as a Officer In Charge (OIC) of their department.

Enlisted jobs could include

-ammo
-fuel
-mechanics/airframes/powerplants
-electronics/avionics
-intelligence/signals/EWAR
-emergency/rescue/fire
-boarding crews/marines
-any other basic logistics (construction, food, operations, supply, etc)

I would think around the rank of lieutenant. Commanders would be ace pilots. If you want to go the marine branch route, then a warrant officer or 2nd lieutenant would work just fine.

>if it was structured like a real life carrier
It wouldn't be, space belongs to the Air Force.

>muh realism in mech settings
Shut up. Most military sci fi uses the navy as the stand-in for a space-fairing military force.

If they're going to run a squadron, at least give them Teamwork Edition.

Which one would be the most similar to Gundam? I needz to get my weeb on

I wasn't aware there was a teamwork edition. Please post it.

cause it's a good solid system that can be reshelled for use in various genres

Which Gundam?

Not him, but which one would be similar in feel to 08th MS team?

>about the men and women who pilot them

Chris Perin's Mecha is actually pretty dope for that. Abstract combat map is neat too. You could also take a look at The Few, which is for ww2 battle for britan fighter pilots and their base lives, but would be easy to make for mechs.

Not him but it bloody works though. Just up the scale. Mechs with pc stats, infantry and shit are 1hp little shits, monster stats for otger kinds of mechs.. I can see this working without too much issue

Gurps

>Chris Perin's Mecha
eh I always found that system to be too abstract and rules light to be of any real use

>it bloody works