What are your thoughts on /m/ech(a)s?

What are your thoughts on /m/ech(a)s?

Have you been playing any game related to the subject recently?

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DMd a session that was Armored Core inspired.

I had to rush preparing for it, so it was just a barfight followed by a mission where they were betrayed by Patches (who they promptly kicked the shit out of).

What sort of mech did patches roll with?

He was using a medium weight biped with knock-off Karasawa and Moonlight and a ridiculously powerful overboost system. He was also supported by a number of low-end construction/security MTs. He also appeared after the players were supposedly exhausted, but he (I) apparently underestimated their combat prowess, and he promptly got focus fired down.

I did drop hints that this equipment is way above what his paygrade should be, but since it was a short session, players didn't have time to follow up on it. They looted the !Karasawa and let him live in exchange for the promise of selling them restricted equipment.

I've been running an Adeptus Evangelion game, prepping for a Mechwarrior (a.k.a Battletech RPG) campaign, and periodically planning a Jovian Chronicles campaign.

I think the Mechwarrior game is likely to fall through, though, since it is a really crunchy system and my players are bad at that sort of thing.

I really love mechs, and really love the idea of mecha roleplaying games, but I've yet to find a system that really suits.

They're either so light they don't really have any meaningful mechanics to speak of which makes the fights dull and the characters feel samey, or they're ridiculously crunchy to the point it's too much for me and my group to handle.

Hopefully one day I'll find a goldilocks mecha game, just the right balance between the extremes, or end up saying 'Fuck it' and making it myself, but we'll see.

Mecha board games though, there's some fucking awesome stuff on the cards that I can't wait to get my hands on.

What system did you use?

You thought I'd recommend a dedicated mech system, but it was I, Strikefag!

So yeah, modified Strike!. Made it hex based instead of square grid and added some options tinkering with mobility to representing leg/booster parts. It was quick which was really good because none of the players played before.

>tfw also running an AC inspired game
I ended up going with Battle Century G. It's not the best system for the concept since it can't do interchangeable parts very well, but ultimately every mech build comes out unique which is AC enough to make it work. I also made Frames a free upgrade which gives players some ability to switch stats around to simulate the AC feeling of swapping parts out. It's been going pretty well so far.

>looting the Karasawa right at mission 1
Your players really know their meta.

Ever look into BCG? I feel the same way as you about mecha systems, but this one strikes the perfect balance for what I'm looking for.

I've never actually tried Battle Century G, although I did play quite a bit of Giant Guardian Generation, which IIRC is its direct predecessor, and wasn't particularly impressed.

Opposite for me, I've played a lot of BCG but never tried GGG. From what I've heard the systems have a lot of differences though. I'd recommend at least giving it a read, the reference docs for it are available for free.

gimmicklabs.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html

Ran a game using Chromestrike. It was like Armored Core 4 and Ace Combat Zero smashed together.
I made too much plot and paced it too poorly and didn't account for the fact that my last semester would utterly kill me, so I had to give it an unsatisfactory ending at the end of last semester.
Also, my players thought it was totally original.

Did Chromestrike work for you as a system? I've heard mixed reviews of it in the previous mecha RPG threads.

It's pretty cool, but at the end of the day, it's an unfinished rules-light system.
I flat out refused to do any sort of out-of-vehicle combat. On the one hand, this makes things simpler because those rules suck. On the other, it kind of negates part of the character creation.
The longer you play, the more limited the parts list feels. You also have to be careful about what kind of challenges you throw at your player or they will salvage something nasty and then you'll have to try and design encounters around that.
There's a pretty severe balance problem for mech stats. Control and Speed are amazing and Strength is only good for melee, which isn't that impressive in the first place.
There are elements in the rules that are clearly unfinished. Like intimidation, which shows up on an upgrade and then literally nowhere else in the book.

Anyway, it's flawed, but it's pretty simple and it's fun.

Any RPGs with Mechas vs. Dinossaurs?
I was thinking about this the other when I found my old Robot Commando book.

Basically my thoughts on the system too. The basic mechanics are pretty fun, but the meat of the system is completely non functional or contradicts itself at every turn. It's really not worth the headache when you could just run a more complete system. It's a shame too because there's a lot of potential in it and I'd like to enjoy it, but it's not a good game.

About as I expected, thanks.

Balancing in-mech and out-of-mech is quite a headache (and I absolutely failed at it myself).

That's a substantially worse review.

I love mecha enough to design a line of my own. :D

Post em

Back in the day me and a friend but mostly me sperged out massively and rewrote the Personal Combat rules for Chromestrike. Never did get to use them, unfortunately.

For your consideration: docs.google.com/document/d/1RcxTC6S3bq94o3hl5c2-RXEKnbCzyL5g6w8idVPbA6o/edit?usp=sharing

Mech(a)s are fun and cool, but make no sense realistically.
Provide no attempt is made to make sense of them, I'm 100% fine with mechas and such.

Has anyone ever tried doing a Muv Luv game?

Between Towergirls and school I've somehow found time to dick around with more traditional PNP games. Is something like this more on the right track?

WHEN DID THIS BECOME A THING?

Months and months ago. Shared it with pals in the past, but figured I could run it past this thread real quick.

Pardon me for asking, but how would the stats of a Mecha look in Strike?

Something simple, just a giant bipedal robot with a rifle and shield.

>armored core and ace combat together
holy shit I can only get so erect, don't mind me, just stealing this idea

Battletech a best mechs

Been running a game that's stealing heavily from EVA, Deadly Tide, Pacific Rim, and bits of Gundam here and there using Mekton Zeta. Good times. My players are the best group I've ever had and everyone is fully committed to sparkle motion.

We even have opening and ending music.

It's awesome.

>In the bottom left. The one on the right.
Looks like Star Saber.

I want to run a SRW OG-inspired campaign (in terms of story, don't really care for a faithful reproduction of the mechanics) but the only mech system I'm familiar with is Mekton Z because my players are already familiar with the base, having played some campaigns of Cyberpunk 2020. How well can I reproduce some of the mechs in the setting? Is it worthwile to learn a new system for this?

Battle Century G might suit, IIRC it's kinda SRWish. I've seen people post the docs/links on Veeky Forums before.

>tfw no big stompy western style animated mecha shows to watch

here
if it exists, you can build it in Mekton Zeta.

In the Tabletop thread on /m/ I was poking around with the idea of using the FFG Star Wars RPGs for mecha games. If you dig it up in the /m/ archives you can find my stats for the GM and Zaku II from Gundam. (I'm phoneposting right now so copy-pasting is too much of a bother)

I'm still toying with the idea, and I might throw together a guide sometime soonish, just don't expect some kind of hardcore fan supplement with fancy layout work and formatting out of it.

>Mech(a)s are fun and cool, but make no sense realistically.
Neither does literally anything else anyone takes for granted in sci-fi and fantasy settings.

Why are mecha always the exception to people's suspension of disbelief?

Depends if it's a player or an enemy. Strike! doesn't really do stats (you have HP, movement, and that's about the limit of your "usual" stats), and instead differentiates using abilities, so a shield and gun mech could be basically any of the generalist example enemies depending on exactly what kind of gun/shield/mech the guy has... or if you want to be lazy, it could be an ability-less enemy, but that's a meh thing you aren't supposed to do.

As a player, the most vanilla you can go is being a Plain class with Striker role. If you want to put emphasis on the shield or the gun, your class could instead be Shieldbrearer or Archer with basically any role.

does power armor with a beam saber count?

It should Gundam was gonna be about power armor before execs demanded it be a mecha show.

Yes, mecha/mech can range from drones, power armors to intergalactic size superbots. As long as its robotics stuff. Yes, Bolos are included.

Don't listen to "hurrr piroted giant robits onry", its a meme.

Post art.

I bought five books for this and can't find a single soul who'd like to play this.

brasillian weeb system.

I'm playing a powered armored knight in a game where we're a bunch of Mercs if anyone is interested.

...

Bumping because mechs deserve a thread.

Bumping again, what sort of system would people recommend for running a setting with more industrial style mechs without the crunch of battletech?

Rifts, but Palladium is a shit system.

Savage Rifts exists, it puts rules for a bunch of old Palladium things into Savage Worlds, which is a much lighter system. Probably a good place to look for a better way to run Rifts.

can't. hoping to publish a book with them in it.

I will say, they are inspired by several lines of Real Robots from the SRT game series though.

I keep a setting in my back pocket for Mekton games, but I haven't had the opportunity to use it in a while

In my setting material science and physics basically discovered shit that make Mechs possible and feasible and the reasons they are humanoid is because they are controlled via a cybernetic interface that effectively merges man and machine and a humanoid form is easier on the Pilots psyche
In the early 2050s humanity basically discovered it knows a lot less then it thinks about the universe due to the discovery of a new element known as Element 115 that is used in Warp Drive engines among other things. This discovery kicked off a revolution in science leading to new capital E exotic materials that are used in the construction of space habitats, vehicles and military equipment including MECHS which were originally used for construction, exploration and EVA when in space

MECHS or Multi-Environment-Combat-Hard-Suits run the gamut from slightly large Power Armor around 9-15ft to Large Scale Mobile Weapons Platforms that shit drones and missiles at everything they can't hit with a railgun

It wasn't for close to 100 years until MECHS became truly militarized when humans discover an alien Zerg/Nid/Bug species with the ability to naturally manipulate Element 115
As the timeline progresses it moves from Real Robot to Super Robot in tone
Early in the time line MECHS are either none existent or incredibly rare with power armor being the most fielded, later after the discovery of the Hive species larger Gundam style MECHS come about, a little further down the line the Hive are beaten back and you begin to have conflict with Colonies seeking independence, and then later still you have the Hive coming back with semi-intelligent to actually intelligent Kaiju

The time line pretty much goes from Starship Troopers/Appleseed Landmates/Votoms style mechs early on that then progress to Gundam syle real robots then the crazier Gundam shit like Turn A's Moonlight Butterfly and at the far future it turns into Super Robots like Mazinger and Getter