Tfw there will never be a thorough mecha ttrpg with a dedicated parts list

Look man, do you want
>thorough mecha ttrpg with a dedicated parts list
or do you want
>Good Mecha System

One of the ideas is modularity, which is tricky when things are so different in size. And raises questions of how the different sizes would interact mechanically. In a gritty system with lumbering war machines it makes sense the heavy mechs would pound the smaller ones into dust. But that also means mechanically for players to be able to contribute you've got to force them into the same size scale, roughly

I just want to be a VERY fast Mecha fighting incredible hihg speed. I just want to be able to build a mecha from a list of parts, letting me decide whether I want to be fast as fuck, or an absolute brick wall when it comes to damage.

One day I suppose. Or at least until I get off my arse and finish my attempt at making it.

I find ttrpgs suck at representing high speed combat. I've worked out a rough system for it for a wuxia combat game I'm figuring out, but even then it needs a lot more ironing out.

I'd say Unknown Armies does fast pace pretty well. Roll the dice to hit, flip it around to get your damage. Means damage is deal rapidly.

I'm pretty sure he means "fast" in the "mach 3" sense, not in the "how many rolls it takes to hit" sense.

My mistake... Good point actually, I'm not sure how you'd do it, barring pretending each square/hex is a few hundred meters, or drawing a grid on your dining room floor and playing on there rather than a table top.

Yeah, I too was wondering why nobody mentioned Mekton Zeta. But then again, OP always is a faggot.

Because Mekton Zeta, turns out, isn't any good in actual play.

I'm always afraid I'm the only one who thinks this in mech threads when I see it recommended all over the place.

I'm pretty sure 90% of the people who recommend it have only built a couple mechs at the most and never actually PLAYED it.

Mekton is fucking garbage in actual play.

You're just bitching for the sake of bitching. The first two exist with tons of examples, the third is just you bitching for the sake of being a contrarian bitch.

5/10 because you got me to reply.

>Mekton Zeta before the Silhouette buyout.
That's not a thing that ever happened. The only relationship between MZ and Silhouette is the Jovian Chronicles book, and that wasn't a "buyout" as it was the same dudes publishing it in a different system.

bump

Anyone got the PDFs of mekton?

There use to be a CYOA for powerarmour, that dealt with sizes ranging from human to Mech. it also had a good amount of equipment and support systems.

the only problem was that the written crunch was vague and rarely implemented.
I believe I may have an old one.

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correction: the Stat crunch is really vague

Yeah, it's terrible, but it does what OP wants the way he wants it. And it's usually not suggested either.

Ticks all his bpxes it does.

Now here is a terrible idea. I have a generic system with a build in "rousource" mechanic that could easily be modified to describe a mechs and its parts.

However it's all contested rolls d6 only dice pool classless system.

Huh my phone doesn't like the word resource. Also when I say the system is generic I mean the core mechanics are. They're system agnostic and built to work with different settings/genres.

Hell I personally fucking love mecha and have been part of the genre for more than a decade. It really depends on whether people want hard or soft sci-fi mecha.

Well, I have a class based generic system that I like that I have actually used for a mecha one-shot.

I even made a printable power-cards PDF for it that was used as the parts list /char sheet for the players, plus two shitty docs that try to explain the conversion.

It's Strike!

Yeah that's an outdated version. PA:CYOA had dedicated crunch in a pastebin lost to the ages (Unless one of the still existing players is floating around.). It still sort of exists but they host rarely and mostly off-site iirc.

Gurps works pretty well with the right books

I had a later version but my hard drive died

I can find it if people want it. I think PA:CYOA touches some of the right places, but there is little reason to touch half the equipment, with customization feeling thrown into "How big, and what stock shape."

It would be really interesting to do something similar to that format (mech categories and equipment lists) where certain types are compatible with certain parts.

i just bought Macross II RPG book, and it seems pretty solid so far. Haven't played it yet though

>tfw there will never be competitive custom mecha battling tabletop games
Battletech

this is the true post

If you want autistic parts lists, spread sheets and competitive play there's always battletech.

Like most forms of vehicle combat, narrative based games handle it better tho. Chris Perrin's Mecha being a good example.

Would you guys be okay if the mechs had tank threads instead of legs?

I haven't played it, but I realized the mech combat section was stupid when I was building a character and realized that the only PC stat that mattered at mech-scale was Reflexes.

Wouldn't that be a tank?

Torso of giant robot
Tank threads for legs

So a tank with arms yes.

Worked on one with a friend for a while. Name was "Walking Thunder". Basic resolution mechanic was dice pool, where you roll 1 die for each point of the relevant stat the mech has, and you're trying to roll higher than or equal to your pilot's stat. For example, a shooting attack uses the mech's Stability and the pilot's accuracy.

It also had a varying size class system, ranging from 1(power armor) to 5(colossal) and a varying tech level, from 1(Steampunk) to 5(Distant future)

Was mostly rooted in western mecha, relatively little anime influence.

>>tfw all "Good Mecha System" threads all suggest the same systems
"Gee, I wonder why people always suggest these systems when I ask for a good system?"
- Some Dumbass

More like a centaur thing

>Also the key question: Lumbering war machines, or agile mecha ninjas?
I like a combo. Give them weight and momentum: once they get going, they don't stop easy. But smaller things, like targeting and weapons, those are just as agile as you would expect them to be.

like frontline mission?

Adeptus Titanicus sounds to be like the game you're looking for. Titans will have parts and you'll be able to overwork certain sections at a certain cost.

Why not both? Big, stronk war machines for doing the heavy lifting (deciding big battles, lots o' dakka) and smaller, less armored & armed mechs for things like infiltration, decoy, and scouting?

The big problem is players will break down the parts to find the onjective best combination and then do just that.

Unlike in mecha games where asthetic also plays a huge role, theatre of the mind doesn't have that.

Maybe incur bonuses to complete sets of identical equipment?

I would say to have a land mode where they're lumbering war machines, and a space mode where they're agile.

Not every mech would need to have both capabilities, and people who wanted mecha ninjas on the ground can just use the space rules there and have everyone flying all over really fast.

Set bonuses might also help, but another factor might simply be to make sure each weapon or part has at least some situational benefit, so that there isn't a single objective best build for every situation.

>THERE ISNT A SYSTEM THAT DOES WHAT I WANT!
>NO! ALL THOSE SYSTEMS THAT DO EXACTLY WHAT I WANT DONT COUNT!

This?

No, that's a separate game derived from the same source material. There is an updated (still played) version of the above game.

>OP IS WRONG
>I WON'T CITE EXAMPLES, BUT HE'S WRONG BECAUSE THEY EXIST AND I KNOW THEY DO

Battletech says hi, if you're not too much of a bitch to handle actually being able to create your own mech.

>thread full of suggestions
>YOU DIDNT SUGGEST ANYTHING

I feel like I see this thread every other week and everytime there's like 3 new systems being brought to our attention.

>I'm not a robot
:(

Because there just aren't that many Mecha games, let alone ones that are any good.

Yeah, BattleTech has lots of detail that can derail things, but it's pretty fun, doubly so if you know what you're doing.

That said, it's a wargame, so not really applicable to mech(a) RPGs. Unless we're talking about MechWarrior, the editions of which range from "mediocre but fun" to "dear God, I want to blow my head off".

Just make sure you stay with the lower tech and no more than 4 mechs aside, at least if you're a casual/beginner.

Personally, I'd rather have Lumbering war machines for Planetside combat while having your NEXT's/Gundams/whathaveyou in space. How on earth would you make those two feel different and not suck is beyond me though, that's why I don't design games

Hmm...perhaps the difference could be rather simple. Say you have the planetside combat function using a grid, where buildings and other terrain can get in the way or be used tactically. While movement is slower, positioning matters more.

Then, for space, you have something more freeform, where the combat space is simply defined as whether you're at short range, medium range, or long range, and the assumption is that everyone is flying around super fast at all times. Getting behind someone or hiding in asteroids wouldn't be specific things you'd need to move to, and instead the focus is on moving to your optimal range depending on your weapons.

I like the idea of having an old-school feel to space combat (rulings, not rules), and want to reinforce that with a little more freeform. Didn't re-align your launcher to short-range? Whoops, you took out a neighboring weather sattelite. Overshot your target? Hey, you actually hit the guy floating behind him. Or maybe not & you're drifting in space now.

The mech battle rules of the Mechwarrior RPG is literally "use battletech."

Yeah, that's the sort of thing you'd be looking at with space combat. It'd all be a matter of theater of the mind with maneuvering, and generally be more high-flying and fast paced, while ground combat for contrast would be more rigid and tactical.

It wouldn't even really require vastly different rulesets or mechanics for each.

Who doesn't want to make their own exia?

Also we'd need to come up with a reason in this hypothetical's fluff WHY there would be space mechs. Would there be different models? I'd assume we'd just gundam that shit and have your standard jobber model and cooler shit for players. Or would it be entirely gear dependant? fuck me, where would you even get space robot gear from anyway? an average joe wouldn't have one, you'd have to be tied to some kind of military. Goddamnit I'm thinking way too hard on this

Easiest answer IMO is just to use weight classes.

Diaspora has a pretty good way of tracking space combat, it only uses a single number on a line that tracks relative positioning, heading, and velocity all at once.

Lumbering war machines. That's something I love about Battletech, it makes clunky TFTish combat rules feel super legit and roboty.

You could play it by AC rules, mechs being the playthings of megacorps and their retainers.

>still played
The "source material" of the two games is completely unrelated from each other.

You're speaking into my soul, my dude. I NEED it.

We all want to build our favourite mecha son, we all need it. Its why we're all here after all. I mean I want to build nineball, is that too much to ask?

its called Mobile Frame Zero it totally has RPG rules and meckaton is the alternative if you want to go deeper. nuthings better mecha on the tabletop than a lego CHUB

>Bandai/Sunrise will never capitalize on their expansive 1/144 scale easy to build mobile suit models and design a game in the vein of gunpla build fighters that lets fans pit mobile suit squads against one another.

I need a system that lets me play with zoids. Gundams are okay but I need my robot dinosaurs and lions

it's a real shame too since it'd let you build and customize your army like 40k but with the additional benefit of letting you pose your army for shelf display between games.

>tfw there will never be competitive custom mecha battling tabletop games
Isn't this explicitly what battle tech is?

Only crusty grognards play battletech.

Is this some kind of stealth Mechwarrior fanboy thread?

You just awoke a love of rocket pods in me, that and rocket salvos.

Just going to dump art, seeing as not much else is going on

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Weta Workshop is building a mecha boardgame called GKR, though it does lack a number of the options you described, at least from what I know of it.

It certainly looks cool, though.

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