Thread 95633571

My first time making this thread edition

Assorted Mecha Goodness:
https://pastebin.com/E2wi55AZ (embed)
Embryo Machine Translation:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1r_cjOLuUp3HussVRhbQYU3G0zK6hwy1r
Lancehounds Homebrew:
M3g4 folder/eMEBUbCL#kj2FRrlqTa-02U16XpnVRg

Previous Thread:
>>95430372

Question of the Day: How leggy do you like your mechs? Biped? Quad/Hex/Octo? Treads? Something else?

o fug I forgot some of the OP copypasta :DDD

Welcome to Mecha Monday! Here we dedicate ourselves to mecha RPGs, war games, and board games alike. Here we start games, tell campaign stories, share resources & assets, and seek advice for our games and homebrew.

Get damoclesed

>>95633613
>It has those deployable artillery bracing thingies like the Starcraft tank

>>95633571 (OP)
>TQ
Multi-legged. Tripods, quads.
Second favourite is wheels, followed by treads.
Extra cool points to whatever has multi-legs AND wheels for feet.

>>95633613
This guy is goofy as fuck but in a good way. I kinda like this being the missing link between the old school striders and gear-striders like the schimitar. The baby hands are weird but I suppose make more sense than the command mammoths giant one.

>>95621082
Honestly you could probably double your map size. I remember the little I played Lancer was on a 80x40 or so something Hex map and ran just fine.

Grandaddy Gundam unit card

>>95634476
thanks anon, I pushed things out a bit but not by too much, taking into account my party's movement they'll have to leap frog and take some boosts and overcharges to get the escorts there, should hopefully be engaging

>>95634476
It depends if it’s a timed mission or not

>>95633571 (OP)
>How leggy do you like your mechs? Biped? Quad/Hex/Octo? Treads? Something else?

All of the above! I like variety. A setting with lots of different kinds of mechs appeals to me. I do often struggle with how the different kinds of legs/treads/etc configurations might affect gameplay though.

If you could have any DP9 mecha (HG, JC, Gear Krieg, whatever) as a Bandai-grade plamo, which would you pick? I'm torn between the Retaliator and the Stormrider, but I think the Retaliator just edges out as the winner.

>>95638287
I think it's my Gundam 79 nostalgia but I'm a sucker for designs where everything has X legs but here's this very small handful of notable exceptions with too many/few legs by common in-universe sense, which always go hard.

>>95638711
Cobra, no question asked. The bunny ears, shoulder cannon + minigun combo is just too powerful.

>>95634713
>Timeline 2
>Beam Rifle: TL Cost 4

What do we think? Action points? CTB combat system?

>>95638711
In a way it already exists with the Kodiak Garage kit. But its not posable and you still have to paint it. More like a big mini (a Macroature?) Second choice is the Jager. Side note, I have a Max Factory Strikedog kit from Votoms, and so far its one of my favorite Plamo kits I've ever built

>>95638711
From Heavy Gear? Razorback would be pretty cool. Or King Cobra, since we've got a high-detail Kodiak kit.
From Jovian Chronicles? Brimstone would be cool, the Apollo would also be really cool.

I feel like thanks to fallout, I can’t say power armor or look up anything searchwise without a fallout thing…or AI of it lmao.
But it gave me a question to ask you guys:What’s the best term for an exoskeleton or whatever?
Personally I say Powersuit based on it sounds right, that and metroid

>>95644210
In general "Power Armor" or "Exosuit" are the best if we mean a general term like "Mech", I guess Fallout just has it synonymous with the term like Battletech does for "Mech" For specific names of suits I like Dead Spaces "RIG" as a named term.

>>95638711
Hunter easily, it's the iconic design

>>95644210
powered exoskeleton is probably the correct generic term, but no one is going to say that all tje time
exosuit is probably the name that would have been the most popular if powered armor wasnt made famous in our world

>>95638287
monoped
the autopogostick
it plants mines when it lands

>>95644210
Sometimes it's called a hardsuit.

The Maru's just a little egg fella.

>>95647188
Still shits me when a company switches to 3d printing but then still insists on printing them inhouse and shipping them in the worlds most expensive cardboard box. It's the worst of both worlds.

>>95647328
Also gogg-type suits are cute. I should have said that too.

How do I get the best out of the desert viper gear? It's cool looking but being so slow with no sms system feels like a big handicap

>>95647188
I do love how they're at 1:144 scale so you can balance them on a Gunpla's shoulder like a parrot and have it be entirely lore-accurate.

I found an artist on Pixiv, ZEN, who does a wide range of fun Gear-size (4-6m) mecha in a modest range of styles. Figured they'd fit here as inspiration for the field?

>>95647929
Those look a lot like Hexa Gear Bulkarms

>>95647599
Well, with the Climber upgrade it's pretty nice. Rain some hell on fools from above. It's also hardier than a Mamba.

does anyone have an link to the full Lancer rule book and npc data?

>>95649453
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/177_e3mpwCCx77PJbbf9slqj5llW-Zbqq?usp=drive_link
I'm using this for my players so modules aren't included

>>95649521
Thanks!

>>95647328
Yeah I don't get it myself. Especially since their main market of the US went full retard with tariffs. I guess it would be even more expensive to do pewter or resin sprues. At least they've been easing into STLs more. I have some Nightengales, Murdocks, and Camel Trucks.

Someday I wanna play a non-violent Rally Mech game where you've still got tons of customization options and maneuvers and pilot skills, but the focus isn't on just kabooming the enemy.

Instead you'd really emphasize acceleration, movement types for different obstacles, a changing racecourse, corporate sponsorships (for special equipment in return for additional stunt demands or loadout restrictions), things like that.

Might work better for a video game but I could see it being an RPG or small-scale "war"-game on the tabletop, too.

I found this, that is all

>>95652503
fuk yes

>>95652503
Kiff, inform the men.

StrikerASTRA does some nice mech styles

>>95633613
This looks really neat. What is it from? I'm always looking for neat models.

>>95651641
You should watch rideback.

>>95651641
The Heavy Gear Rally game was kinda like that. Shame it didn't do too well

>>95651641
My game will be able to handle that well.

Also, you might appreciate IGPX

>>95653706
>>95651641
make it so I can hack it to support podracing

>>95653205
It's from Heavy Gear. The model will be in 1/144 scale, or in wargaming terms infantry is 12mm tall compared to it. The Damocles is an artillery variant of the Mammoth strider.

>>95638711
This underrated champion

>>95638711
hmmm... maybe the Dragonstriker?

>>95658043
lol benis

Any anons knowledgeable in Mekton Z?
I have a problem with how moving works in combat. Basically melle fighters have no reason not to move behind their enemy every time they decide to attack. It takes like 3 MA to do it and it forces the enemy to rotate as well on their next turn. Whenever it happens in-game I just think of picrel. It feels wrong with how goofy it is, but I cannot find a single rule that would say it doesn't work this way. Am I missing something? Is there some way to make it less silly?

>TQ
I used to love quad/hexa legged units. Nowadays I am all for Gundam style humanoids.

How does this force look? I want to run it as humanist alliance even though I didn't really lean into any of their strengths, because I think they're neat
And speaking of, if a commoner wanted to could they go off and sign up for MILICIA or is only the protector class who's allowed to do the fighting
>>95656556
The diamondback is a cool dude

>>95658326
>Any anons knowledgeable in Mekton Z?
Yes siree

>I have a problem with how moving works in combat.
...?

>Basically melee fighters have no reason not to move behind their enemy every time they decide to attack. It takes like 3 MA to do it and it forces the enemy to rotate as well on their next turn.
...Interesting...

>Whenever it happens in-game I just think of picrel. It feels wrong with how goofy it is, but I cannot find a single rule that would say it doesn't work this way. Am I missing something? Is there some way to make it less silly?
Yeah, I think you've identified a loophole in the rules. (However, it's a problem I'd say exists in most games. Initiative systems are problematic.)

I'd definitely set up a houserule for that. Something like:

"When you enter into melee combat with another unit, both units become 'Involved' (or some other term like that) and can automatically adjust their facings to be facing each other -- but only relative to each other. When three or more units are engaged in melee combat with each other, all become Involved with each other; any and/or all of the units can automatically adjust their facings to be facing one of the others -- but, again, only relative to each other. Such free facing-changes during melee combat can happen whenever any Involved unit chooses, but can only be done once per Round."

I dunno, maybe that opens up other abuses. But I agree, I think you found a bug in the system.

>>95658043
>>95658068
Drop that full diaper!

>>95659868
I like that solution and definitely will introduce it next session. Thanks mektonbro, you are always very helpful!

Any uploads of Battle Century G? The link in the OP pastebin is dead, all the desuarchive links are dead, and there's a single upload of it on Scribd but the cancerous ad per page paired with needing to insert your payment details to download it makes me never want to touch that site again.

>>95664748
Here you go, happened to have Battle Century G + Z downloaded so here's a quick upload of the two I just did, hope it stays up long enough without it getting killed off mediafire.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/fzmo0tlx5pkgt/Battle_Century_G%2BZ

>>95665145
You're a godsend, anon, thank you. I'll spend the next week autistically eating both of these books up.

>>95655800
Wasn't the Mammoth already artillery? Dem missile pods...

>>95653706
>>95653215
I'd not known about IGPX or Rideback, I'll give them a look-see.

In the mean time, have more sporty mechs.

>>95660100
Happy to help!

>>95668953
The default mammoth is almost more of a brawler. Short range snub cannon and machine guns. Its longest range weapon is the anti tank missles which is more of a fire mission role. Now it could be outfitted with more long range options like 2x ATMs but nothings going to make the distance like an artillary gun that the damocles has.

>>95633571 (OP)
Quad with treads is great.
Transforming is great.
A fighter>>quadmech instead of biped would be very very yes.

>>95638711
Intruder (IM-6 iirc?) fighter.
It was just cute. Adorable little things. Wanna hug them all.

>>95656556
When/in what book did the diamondbck first appear?

>>95673055
Forged in Fire or Heavy Gear Arena.

>>95668953
Mammoth was close assault, like a siege gun

>>95678303
I wonder what kind of mechs, car companies would make. Anything Northco in Heavy Gear gives me Ford energy.

>>95679354
Lots of South designs feel like they come out of Renault, Citroën, and/or Lada. If there were a native Eastern Sun gear, it would be a Tata.

Insane demand for Gundam Assemble at Gencon.

Strong interest in Battletech, especially for the stuff aimed at beginners, the higher level events are more in the "doing decently well" bucket. Very few people were running any mecha RPGs, but those that did all sold out.

>>95681577
How did Lancer and Heavy Gear 4E do?

>>95681601
Only one dude was running Lancer, and nobody is running Heavy Gear that I can see.

Though, keep in mind they keep adding more events to the catalog in the run-up to release, so if people were just late in getting their shit submitted or approved they won't show up yet. But generally just no DMs turning out for those.

>>95681616
>>95681601
Oh, and there was one person running events dedicated to Gunpla customization, specifically, which people did in fact sign up for.

>>95633571 (OP)
what the fuck cute anthro mechs
more?

I'm playing a custom homebrew setting + game that's a pathfinder 2e hack that turns it into cracked out Armored Core with cool combos and mecha building. It's currently in my native language and it's still being built, but, does anyone have interest for a translation to english in the future? I'd do it myself but I'd just like to gauge interest. Its also fit to be played with my custom setting that's full of anime furries, unfortunately, but I could try to make it setting agnostic if wanted

>>95682700
Does Starfinder not have stuff for mechs and vehicles? It seems like that would be an easier system to create around than PF

>>95683143
My setting isn't sci-fi like Starfinder (it's more modern-day, closer to something like Patlabor); Also, I really like PF2E's action system because my game has a mechanic around fucking with it. I also haven't read starfinder.

>>95683729
Also my system doesn't use classes and instead has a more "build your character with skill trees" thing that grants you feats and stuff from classes. Same thing for the mechs, you gain feats and shit from parts instead of classes

Still, thanks for telling me because I'll take a look at Starfinder 2E's playtest

>>95683755
Sounds exactly like Lancer, you might want to look into the system for inspiration or just switch over to it if you want since it's specifically built for mech combat

>>95683881
I didn't want to completely discard the pilot either and I don't like how Lancer plays. The pilot is still a character the player gets to build and can fight with. A pilot is not going to fight toe-to-toe with a mech obviously but the setting allows pilots to be a bit cracked out too.

clothes on robots y/n

>>95684623
absofuckinglutely

>>95684623
This single shot has more aura than 90% of Evangelion as a whole

>>95682655
https://x.com/Yabarn_Jin is the artist, he mostly does WWI and II vehicles but occasionally does fantasy ones

>biblical allegory in my mecha
is it cliche? yes

does it get me every single time? also yes

>>95682700
It sounds interesting based on your descriptions of it in these posts, so I'd definitely ask that it gets translated at some point.
I'd say to probably try your best to make it setting agnostic; I think that's best practice for systems in general, it's helpful for GMs that want to tell their own stories. Not to mention it being easier to hack a system around when few to no mechanics are anchored to the written setting.
>>95684623
Yes

>>95679354
>I wonder what kind of mechs, car companies would make
toyota would probably make civilian mechs famous for the ruggedness and durability
which are then purchased by rebels, have armor and guns slapped to it, and then beat the crap out of actual combat mechs

>>95686187
I see, it's what I'd imagined. My setting is kinda weird as fuck and I'm sure most people wouldn't put up with it so I'd imagine most people would want something more setting agnostic

The gist is that it's PF2E but there are no classes and you build both a pilot and a mech sheet, which are based on character sheets. Pilots level up, gain feats and train skills. Mechs are built out of parts (Head/Arms/Chest/Legs) that define their speed, feats, stats, HP and so on, and they have weapons and equipment. Pilots can use two types of cockpits: One lets you use the feats and weapon trainings that the *pilot* has, while the other lets you use the one that the mech gains from parts. This lets you build either an "utility/roleplay" pilot or a martial combat pilot (which is useful as the pilot is also able to fight on its own, and the setting has magic bullshit that lets people become a bit more powerful than default). The game also uses a more manageable version of the MAP called recoil with different levels
The combat is mostly mechs vs monsters, and the game revolves around a "Boost" free action and a G-Force meter mechanic. Feats, special Actions and Boost all increase your G-Force, and, after a threshold, you need to roll flat or become G-LOC'd, which is a death sentence. You lose G-Force based on what you did last round, and using actions that increase your G-Force makes it go down slower. And, if you hit the G cap, you black out immediately
Boost is pretty simple: it's a free action you can use multiple times in your turn that gives you a good bit of G's, but, it lets you move, gives you an AC bonus, and gives you an extra strike. That's basically it.
It completely mindbreaks players I playtested with every single time because it's super fucking fun. It's like a fighting game combo extender. They really liked the bet of either playing it safe or risking Gs with a huge play

It's fun, I'll see on translating it, peeps might like it

>>95684623
Yes

>>95686371
>My setting
It's not really the setting putting me off or anything; as I said, I consider it good practice to try for a setting agnostic system. It just makes it easier for everyone. Even the creator, from my experience.
For example, I'm making sure that my own system doesn't require the setting that I'm writing for it. And by separating the system and the setting like that, it has allowed me to write optional story changes for people that are interested in different things; a GM could decide to use my included option to expand the story to a grander-scale space opera rather than the isolated story it'll ship with by default, or they could use some of my writing prompts that touch on cosmic horror stuff, or they could simply use anything of their own creation.
I still tend to use the settings that the games are shipped with, and I wouldn't necessarily be against using yours.

>>95685076
Sauce?

>>95688083
It's from Big O. Imagine if Bruce Wayne had a giant robot, lived with a snarky robot Barbara Gordon, in a Gotham struck with amnesia.

>>95688365
Not that anon but I should be ashamed of myself having not watched this series before.

>>95684623
Of course

Gorilla KV2

>>95684623
Backpack ammo supplies are another under utilized feature in mechs

>>95693002
i always thought that would leave the bullet belt too long and exposed compared to the drum being mounted on the gun itself like on the minigun
or at least closer to the gun like the shoulder

>>95684623
Indeed. They get cold too.

>>95693235
Now that you say it yeah, but I've always thought that if you're going through all the effort to build a mech, having its guns be magazine fed doesn't seem like the most effective way to do it

>>95697454
For integrated weaponry, yes. Having to change a mag out makes no sense. But for something you can pick up and put down? Makes perfect sense. Why build all the fiddly internal bits to take ammo inside the mech to outside it?

I got a Heavy Gear lore question that actually sprung up from this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akWzmseCs8Y
I saw from a youtube comment that actually name dropped Heavy Gear as a setting that addresses exoplanetary farming. I guess the colonies used enzymes to consume the native life on Terra Nova, etc. but I'm curious about the enzyme itself. Would colonist have a hard time trying to eat non-earth origin foods on other colony worlds? Also do you think it had an effect on the evolution of the colonists on each planet? Are Terranovas developing real physical differences from Earthers that isn't from artificial tampering?

>>95699533
>Would colonist have a hard time trying to eat non-earth origin foods on other colony worlds?
Digestion in general requires complementary cellular systems. If you eat something your body did not evolve alongside, your body will not be able to interface with or digest the chemicals that make it up. At best you'll get indigestion. At worst, that space wheat connects to the same receptors that cyanide would.

>>95699533
>>95699566
Colonists would probably develop processes of fermenting et al to turn local stuff edible.
Like smoking and then burying shark for a year, followed by intensive watering before consumption. I'd assume.

behold

>>95700724
Where the hell do I find the full scans. Someone must have them.

>>95700771
I have no idea where I got the zips from, been years and all that, but the series has been scanned.

>>95700771
Takes just a bit more effort, dude.

https://manga-zip.info/search/gundriver/

>>95690244
someone really needs to make a proper scan of Tankhead already

Going off that ammo debate, what would be the most effective way for a votoms/gear scale mech to handle ammo for a tank cannon? Assuming it's more or less a gun they pulled out of a wreck and put a frame on so the mech could hold it. I was thinking at first some kind of amx-13 style revolver autoloader but there any other designs that could or would work?

>>95703344
You mean, a handheld tank cannon, or equivalent? Cause the Vulture has one.
It basically has a big-ass clip feeding the shells in.

>>95703344
Depends on the size of tank cannon. A large-calibre one is probably going to be some form of single-load bolt action or similar.

Would the crisis responder crusader v use a northern style or southern style particle accelerator?

>>95707761
Without any knowledge of the lore of the crisis responder. My guess is north, based on location approximation.

>>95707761
I think the question should be the other way around, seeing as Paxton is the hi-tech supplier of both North and South.
That said, I'm gonna bet the South are using their own unique design, due to Humanist tech.

>Welcome to the dark and dangerous world of Eldritch Automata.
>Designed in the Year Zero Engine and inspired by the likes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Pacific Rim, and Escaflowne, Elridtch Automata takes place in a recent-apocalyptic world filled with horror, drama, and psychological torment. In Eldritch Automata, you play one of humanity’s last defenders, facing down eldritch abominations that want to eat you, controlled by visually perfect angelic beings that want to control you, while piloting a massive monstrosity of a mech, the titular Automata, that’s slowly killing you.

Anybody have thoughts on this system? Just found out about it. Sounds like they're putting the final touches on and trying to navigate tariffs before sending it to the printers.

>>95700665
Guys at IzhMash are playing silly buggers again, it looks like.

>>95633571 (OP)
I was always fond of stuff like in the OP pic — the "casual mecha" as I like to call it. A bit like steam or dieselpunk, where instead of steam/diesel/atomics/etc the technological development went with a heavy emphasis on the mecha instead of an automobile.
So much would revolve around mecha, big and small, mostly small, that take the place of everything from farm tractors, to quarry trucks, to walking tanks. In a way, it'd be mirroring what happened in nature, as silly as it may feel.
Would be nice to know what system would handle something like that — small mecha (i.e. pilot and maybe one or two gunners) with heavy customization and not focused on waging wars and combat 24/7.
>QotD
Yes. I like variety, and the various amount of legs strikes balance hue between complexity, maintenance, stability, and maximum load.
I do draw the line at wheels, treads, and anti-gravs, however. Mecha on wheels or treads looks silly to me, unless they're somehow a part of the legs.
Even a centaur-like one would look better, but that's just my, inherently inferior, opinion.

>>95709261
Just one of those or the concept of MY0 mechs would have been enough.

Check out this simple tabletop tactics game I made based on the SD Gundam G Generation series.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MGKHzx5cGkBT76wc226kmc13HKiGPzQvGY1P45HCWGo/edit?usp=sharing

Iguana gunner or black box?

>>95722375
It's all about use, innit? You want dodgetank attackers, take the former. You want ECM tomfoolery, the latter

We've got a second unit card for Assemble, Heero in the Wing Gundam.

Is there much a size difference in metal and plastic gear minis?

>>95725624
Nope, they're the same scale.
The South/North plastics are kinda ugly when compared to the metal ones, tho. But you do get a whole bunch of them for the price.

>>95724758
Interesting that Wing Zero's weapons have superior stats to the RX-78. The suit itself seems more of a glass cannon, while the OG is meant to grow over time like Amuro. Neat.

If I choose the SRA sublist can I combine well funded and pride of the south to give just any gear a vibro-rapier?

>>95682700
>>95683729
starfinder 2e has mechanics for mechs and is built to be wholly cross-compatible with PF2E

>>95726788
Yeah, more mobile and longer range, with 78 being a frontliner and buff factory. Hard to say for sure without knowing how timeline works though.

biomechs yes/no

>>95726822
Nah, since 'Pride' not an actual vet/commander 'upgrade'.

>>95728229
always yes!

>manage to get hold of a JC Dragonstriker mini
>the arms are missing
At least the arms themselves are separate from the shoulders. Time to go bitz-box diving and see what I can find.

Any recommendations for modelling the weird head of the red eye jager variant?

>>95730838
Maybe you could kitbash it using the hunter commando face with a jager head
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/hunter-commando-ew-upgrade-kit
But I wonder if duymon could also just wip one up for you.

>>95724758
So with Assemble are all the units meant to be on equal footing? Might be weird to have both the grandpa RX-78 be on a similar statline of the F-91 or Turn A despite being technologically years apart. I do see that timeline stat though so I wonder if different games could box units in with that. Similar to Battletech eras.

>>95731364
My best guess is that timeline ties into the action/activation system somehow, and that threat represents squadbuilding cost? But all we have is guessing, these unit cards are the only gameplay details released so far.

>>95731376
Yeah that could be the case as well. Can't really reverse engineer the rules out of these card stats but "timeline" being actions makes more sense than era categorization. Still curious as to how they'll approach the scaling. A Re-GZ and GM could be equal in power.

>>95731426
Not to mention battleships.

What sorts of technologies do you make up or focus on when it comes to mechs?

I was suddenly reminded of a once off detail from Destiny 2 about the Cabal where a lot of their technology is sustained through the use of "Cabal Oil" which can seemingly do things from fueling their ships, affect localized gravity, maintain atmospheric pressure inside of their armor, and act as a transmission media for electronic data.

>>95731713
>What sorts of technologies do you make up or focus on when it comes to mechs?
Obvious energy source/storage, cooling, repairing lubricant for the joints and any moving parts really, and a generous helping of handwavium alloys that make up the frame, the hull, and the armor plating.
Imo anything beyond that should tie into the setting.
I.e. hardlight structural elements or (melee) weapons if the setting has it. Or a nanofluid that performs cooling, energy supply, repair, and lubrication functions.
Or a gravity-manipulating particle, upon which relies the power source, and which allows the mech weighing a few tons to prance around like a ballerina.
Same goes for the forcefield projection and manipulation, and their use for shielding, propulsion, weapon systems, or climate control.

I get it's about mechs, but you know what I want to se more of in heavy gear? Tanks. Polar armor pickings feel rather limited in comparison to that of gears and I think it's be cool to have more vehicles going around (even if tanks are kind of the cef's thing)

>>95731713
My setting's mechs use a magic-computer system that creates a humanoid telekinetic field, which is what the mechs use to move. This field lets them move with very good agility, dampens forces on parts and the pilot and even reduces their perceived weight on the ground.

Everything else is completely normal technology about our level tech wise. They use electric car batteries for power.

>>95736241
At least the Terranovans have quite the selection. Norf gets Klemms and Allers. Souf gets Huns, Caimans, and Visigoths. NuCoal has the Voltigeur. This isn't even bringing hovertanks into the mix. Usually whats lacking tanks are the colonies though for understandable reasons. Eden seems more dominantly naval based, Caprice is probably too small to have traditional tread tanks so hovers and mounts take its place. Utopia does have the Gilgamesh. I feel like New Jerusalem should have some traditional tanks in its arsenal. I could agree that it would be cool to have more of a selection that isn't taking the chassis of an existing tank like the Klemm and outfitting it a seperate varient and calling it a different name. A Tyburr or Stormhammer is still a Klemm. But whats really lacking imo is choppers / VTOLs.

Tell me about the jovian chronichles. I skimmed over the 1e book and it seems quite interesting. The ship designs are also gorgeous

>>95736891
JC is the Gundam (UC) to Heavy Gear's VOTOMS, except with an even more intense focus on space combat. I think there's a grand total of one ground-use exo-armour in the whole range.

>>95736241
I dunno, the Souf/Norf have a really good selection. Hittite is absolute love.

>>95739623
Like this anon >>95736404 said most tanks are variants of the same couple of chassis. It'd be cool to see some fresh ones. Like I know one of the old south books mentions the mongol mbt.

Riddle me this. Why can the Cobra MP be airdropped but not the regular Spit?

>>95736891
it's like normal mecha warfare but they're more convivial

>>95744434
The appearence might not reflect it but it probably incorporates some of the same tech that a Koala would that makes it an airdrop Bear. I'd imagine they strip some of the armor to make room for parashoots.

>>95745111
Ba-dum-tsh

A twofold question inspired by the HG tank talk earlier. Firstly, if one wanted to make an armor heavy force, what should you look for in bodyguard gears? I haven't played much with tanks so what kinds of weaknesses do they have and how best should you compensate? Like, should I have a boa trailing behind a visigoth to cover it or something smaller and faster like an iguana providing EWAR support?
And the other side of the same coin what makes for a good tank-busting gear?

>>95751156
>so what kinds of weaknesses do they have and how best should you compensate?
Well depends on the tank itself but I assume you mean the big bois of an Aller or Visigoth. The thing about those units is that they're somewhat sitting ducks. They'll never out agile a Cheetah or lighter vehicle. Another thing is that they're very weak to melee. Things like a gear have the ability to get the unit in lockup. Lastly is EW as a vulnerability. What I recommend is making sure the tank wont get ganged up on or counter-tank'd. Both EW support and body guards are not a bad idea. If you can, go for both but if your investments thin then you'll likely want EW for defensive options. Body guard units are good for deterring melee or anti-tank gears where as EW will prevent haywires and fire missions.
>And the other side of the same coin what makes for a good tank-busting gear?
High armor busting weapons like Snub Cannons, Anti Tank Missles, and Railguns are your friends. An Aller has something insane like 12 armor with field armor. Particle accelerators are also decent for immediate haywiring. A good melee weapon is the best case because on top of high AP and a 2D6 backshot you can also lockup the tank and prevent it from moving and it has no real means of breaking out without the unit holding it down being low armor. Good tank countering units are Helicopters, Hovertanks, and the one-two punch of a Fire Mission Gears and Target designators.

>>95652503
So Chalia Bull is Kif?

>>95751156
A decent melee fighter can really ruin a tank's day, especially if he gets in it's back arc. You'll want to have lightet Gears who can move ahead and keep enemies from getting in range. And naturally, taking down any AP users. Antitank missiles are naturally a tank's bane, so taking down any pesky TD spotters would help.

>>95752645
No, Dren is Kif

You're telling you can fit me ten people in this thing?

>>95758786
Could be worse, could be the Badger

>>95759164
>Its sturdy eight-wheeled design can transport up to twenty fully equipped troopers to battle through almost any terrain.
Does revisionism have an equivalent phrase to 'jesus christ'?

>>95758786
Is ancient Soviet seating technique.

>>95758786
>>95759484
No way are these diagrams the right scale. The minis look more viable.

>>95760142
Picrel

>>95760155
That's a nice paint job. What were the colours used?

>>95758786
The M113 doesn't appear to be much bigger, and you can cram 10+ dudes in it, not counting the crew

Get even more damocles’d

>>95761259
I love his stubby feet so much. Its not a naga tough.

>>95638711
Asp, Diamondback or the naga.
My prefered goofy mech, my prefered gear and prefered strider.

>>95761259
Imagine you walk over to that artillery tank expecting to take it out but instead it's just smashes your face in with a Gear-sized axe

>>95763692
It works the first time, but then they know

I have this 100 TV force, with two variants. This one and then another that drops the iggy gunner and swaps the jagers for long fang diamondbacks. Either way how does it look?

-- SK --
Command Hunting Sidewinder Mortar 13TV
>Combat Group Leader (CGL), Veteran, ECCM
Junglemower Cobra 23TV
>Duelist, Brawler 2, Field Armor, Improved Gunnery (A:1), Pride of the South, Smoke Launchers
Jager Gunner 7TV
Jager Gunner 7TV
Jager Defender 9TV
>Smoke Launchers, Well Funded, ECCM
Hun 16TV
>Well Funded, Improved Gunnery (A:1)
-- RCsec --
Black Box Iguana 12TV
>Second in Command (2iC)
Iguana Gunner 11TV
>Smoke Launchers
Recon Drone 2TV

>>95764575
Basic issue with this is that you oughta have 2 combat groups for 100tv, otherwise you'll miss out on some objectives.
But aside of that, it seems pretty good and balanced.

>>95764575
The Hun only has one action?

>>95758786
assuming the tank works like most troop carriers with two seats on the inside for each section of the tank. Then you have the gun and front windows which NEED at least one dude to use properly.

>>95770676
The 10 was just troop capacity. The book says it has 2 crew as well so actually this thing fits 12 people somehow

What are the best mecha anime that aren't Evangelion or Gundam?

>>95772591
Seeing as this general is like 50% Heavy Gear, Votoms is a definite recommend. Though its not going to be as thought provoking as the two you mentioned.

>>95772591
Full Metal Panic! is peak

>>95772591
"Best" is a silly term. But Dougram, Votoms, Dragonar, Escaflowne are all great times.
And there's many more.

>>95772591
Agree with the other replies. I'm also partial to Blue Gender.

>>95774006
Fuck yeah, Blue Gender! Gore, sex, mecha and giant bugs with vagina mouths.

I noticed that the dp9 site has mini landship minis. Is there some 'Heavy Gear Fleet Scale' book in the mega, I went looking but didn't see anything like that

>>95777568
That's because the Fleet rules are in DP9-919 Silhouette Core Heavy Gear Miniature Rules.

About a dozen sessions into Salvage Union, and this is definitely a lot closer to what I was looking for. Namely, it has an actual campaign structure that isn't just like a mission generator.
Plus having actual modules helps a lot.
Wouldn't call it a perfect system, there's a bit much in terms of book keeping that I could do without, but yeah overall a positive experience so far.

>>95778057
Oh? The beta version didn't get me excited for the finished product, but I haven't checked up on it since.

Tell me about your game so far.

>>95777568
They’re in the Core Miniature Rules

>>95777899
>>95778480
Neat. Thanks

>>95775469
>>95774006
>>95774001
>>95772663
Thanks anons, dling Armored Trooper Votoms, Heavy Gear, and Blue Gender.

>>95778209
I've been running Rainmaker and that has been pretty good. I admit I like my rules on the lighter side, and the single roll engine is pretty much at the limit of that threshold.

But yeah, the players started out just free scrapping, got caught up in a farmers revolution, went to a frozen wasteland and were terrified of the automechs there... and now are in a spooky forest with creatures that don't hit for much damage but can break or damage mech parts with every attack.

Also, I have been using the foundry module and while its a little wonky in places... I have had to do maybe 2-3 hours of prep for the 9 to 10 sessions thus far. Like this game is super, super easy to run with a module.

>>95778738
Watch TTGL too, obviously.

Also, I want to play lancer but the only group I can find is intolerably gay and "YOU HAVE TO ROLL TO CONTROL THE GRAPPLE EVEN IF YOU WANT TO BE GRAPPLED" tier autistic. Any of you running games?

>>95780225
What does TTGL stand for?

>>95780297
Tabletop Girls' Love. RPGs about cute girls flirting with each other.

>>95780297
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Gainax made it about getting out of the same depression evangelion was about with raw manly energy and stupid.
It's like mecha Dragonball with high quality character writing, and I'm overdue for my rewatch.

>>95780325
If you like Gurren Lagann, you can give Promare a watch. It's not at all as good, but it scratches a lot of the same itches.

>>95778738
Also watch Mellowlink, it's badass

>>95780455
Bountydog my beloved

>>95690244
Unironically, it was this single image that made me want to do a dieselpunk "I can't believe it's not Zoids!" story.

As an aside, would Silhouette be any good for brewing up Zoid-esque mechs?

>>95781887
Yes, it should. The D20 Mecha book had some not-zoids, and BanzaiDine did conversions of a lot of the designs in the book (can't remember if the not-Zoids were part of that list).

>>95780225
I'm running Lancer, but I'm afraid my group for this one is pretty exclusive and we don't want to add a new person this far into the story. After this campaign is finished I might run some short games for /mechm/ anons, though. Hopefully by year's end.

Why do these jagers in one of the 3e books look so portly?

>>95783611
Because the Tactical era sculpts were done by Alain Gadbois, and were more faithful to the blueprints. The Blitz era sculpts started with Phil Leclerc's more dynamic poses, and he also beefed up the weapons, basing it more on the artwork.

>>95782786
>After this campaign I might run some oneshots
Oof, exactly what I don't want in a ttrpg. Thank you, though.

>>95783611
Because they're based on the blueprints rather than the art

>>95780325
>>95780375
Gotcha, I'll look into it!

Armored Trooper Votoms rules and is very comfy to watch, also really liking Blue Gender so far.

However, I downloaded just regular old Heavy Gear expecting anything but whatever this is. What the actual fuck happened bros why would humans make anything like this, why was it greenlit, what possible reason could excuse the existence of picrel (I know no one told me to check that out but I just figured oh Heavy Gear, that looked cool in the thread, surely this will be serviceable and not an unfiltered glimpse into CYBERHELL)

>>95786071
The Heavy Gear cartoon has as much to do with the setting as the Battletech cartoon does. Unless you're in the mood for "YOU DARE TO REFUSE MY BATCHALL" cheese, its better to just watch the root inspiration of Votoms and Dougram. That or read some lore material. Only other reason to check it out is if you're a fan of Mainframe animation and like Reboot or Beast Wars.

>>95786295
Yeah definitely sticking with Votoms then watching Dougram, something deeply nauseating about that style of animation when applied to anything living. I kinda want it off my HD but the ability to just pick a random timestamp on a random episode and see something disgusting is kind of incredible

My kingdom for an online 4th ed Heavy Gear game.

>>95786071
It actually has a very interesting story behind it. Recommend you read.
https://timeldred.com/heavygear/

tl;dr: suits

But yeah, the show is cheeseville and considered to be silly pro wrestling in-universe.

Anyone have the lcp file for Operation Winter Scar for Lancer? I'm trying to run a mini campaign for my friends and I don't wanna pay 18 dollars for it (sue me)

>>95786888
It's never ethical to pirate communist games because then you still own a communist game anyway.

>>95786922
communist game? what are you talking about?

>>95786888
Da Curated Archive has everything you’re looking for. I trust you know how to get there

>>95786977
I didn't know about this until just now. I'm looking into it and it seems pretty intuitive, thank you kindly

>>95778738
Check out Gasaraki as well if you get the chance.

>>95786071
Exosquad is probably also a good option to watch. Surprisingly good story.

>>95786928
It's a game made by communists about spreading unions ideals, like ubi and gay marriage, to the periphery planets. It's not even really disguised, it's plainly a communist utopia building game if you ever stop to ask "so what does this utopia the game keeps saying you're fighting for look like?". It's gay communism.

>>95787457
It’s astounding how much red you’re seeing from a badly written Star Trek ripoff, are you sure you’re not a communist as well? Or, better yet, did you actually read any of union’s mission? The entire thing is an excuse to justify their rampant expansionism to prop up the luxurious lifestyles of the “post scarcity” coreworlds, all the communist talk is nothing more than buzzword nonsense they use (badly) to make you think you’re the objective good and therefore can do no harm of any kind to anyone. Maybe if you stopped putting buzzwords into everything you’d see just how fucked everything is, and how much of a ticking time bomb Union is rn

>>95787457
Iconic 4chan moment, low IQ posters confuses backdrop setting of game rule with obligation to run the setting.

Does anyone here have the art book for Hardcore Mecha? Been looking for it everywhere and can't find it anywhere.

>>95780225
I run lancer but I literally run like 3 games which is already one over my limit.

>>95789311
You'd have a point if the creators weren't communists and had said the game is about "building a hopeful positive utopia". You don't need to work it out yourself, they've said it outright. Your interpretation is incorrect.
>>95790533
"Eat around the poop", it's poop soup.

>>95792364
It's more like buying a frozen pizza. And the packaging suggests serving it with poop sauce but you can also, just, not do that.

>>95771824
>12
Yeah that's not happening

>>95794317
Some people don't seem too have caught onto this yet but lancer is also just a sucky game. It's plainly just popular in the same way every dollar store DnD hack wishes it was.

Maybe it is frozen pizza. You're still eating frozen pizza.

>>95794317
You’re buying a shit pizza with poop sauce then trying to convince everyone the feces is just optional while desperately trying to scrape the poop off.

Just buy the pizzas without shit, bro. They’re literally on the next shelf over.

I see it's still the same old, same old.

>>95801444
Lancer discussion kills threads

>>95801444
Wanna convert Heavy Gear to BT to kick the Protomechs while they are down?

Both settings are pretty close tech wise and even Tannhauser Gates work as just a variation of HPG.

>>95802664
This might actually not work out well for the gears, autocannons and internal combustion engines both suck ass in Battletech

>>95804721
Actually the biggest problem is Inferno SRM - they force crits against ICE vehicles on each hit.

HG autocannons and kinetics in general are a very different beast to BT ones. Mostly because Gears itself do not use autoloaders - Star League autoloaders are fucking black magic that can pull ammo from a leg to the cannon in the arm on the other side of the mech but they pay for it. Though Gears have a problem that heavier weapons come with limited ammo supply.

In general HG side has better (per pound) weapons, sensors and EW but is way more fragile since all of their military units lack the same robustness of structure as BT mechs.

As for Gears in BT rules that would heavily depend on how you would build them - as BT native tech or straight from Terra Nova.
As BT native a 5 ton Gear would have something like - 0.5 ton structure, 0.5 ton engine (ICE 15-16), 0.5 ton cockpit and 0.25 wheels - which gives you a 3/5 on foot and 7/11 on wheels machine but on wheels it must stay on the road. As long as it doesn't need to pay for all the bullshit Protomech pays it would be a very reasonable platform if you give it BA weapons - but limited amount since you can have at best 1 per hand and one or two on the shoulders, with everything else you would need to drop one of your hand weapons to grab a spare.

So let's take a 5 ton gear - 1.75 ton base 3/5 to 7/11(wheels)
Weapons SRM 6(OS) (can be loaded with deadfires for more damage in exchange for range) 0.2 ton, 2 MGS with ammo 0.3, Heavy Mortar with ammo 0.5(spare weapon)
6 armor locations - 2 arms, 2 legs, front and back torso, since gears don't have a head. 1.5-2 tons of armor.
4.25-4.75 Tons
You can slap Recon Camera, Tag, ECM or additional fuel into free space.

A Terra Nova Gear would be rocking effectively an F class engine by BT classification that is only 0.25 ton for the same 15-16 rating and way, way better weapons. We are talking here the kind of ballistics that would make Clans green with envy.

>>95804721
Autocannons are supposed to be decent, they're just awful for no reason. Any attempt at doing nearly anything with battletech can be started with fixing autocannons first for better results. Machineguns too.

>>95806291
Well, if we replace BT MG with one from Heavy Gear we get something with long range of around 18-24. Or you could cut it to 15 so that heavier weapons have a little more space for differentiation.

>>95633571 (OP)
we got an update on Wares Blade, Kickstarter will be launching in August

>>95806291
Yeah but pretty much every aspect of them needs to be reworked

>>95802664
>>95804721
>>95805428
We should do this on fair and equal grounds; stat them both in Metallurgent

>>95809532
The optional rule for letting them fire multiple times with an increasing jam chance seems pretty popular. If you can't make a gun good, you can make it gun more.

>>95787374
I wold say that few anime, and certainly no western cartoons, have ever tackled the same themes and subject matter as ExoSquad. It's really something else.

>>95809532
>>95814180
>>95806291
Give standards the ability to split their single ton bins between two ammo types.
Make all ammo types TW level.
Give them the ability to shoot rapidly.
Increase their versatility by letting them have special ammo to slap down missile flights, using some modification of the old AMS ammo depletion rules.
Now AC2s and their deep bins have a role in keeping LRM boats honest and using special ammo out of AC5s becomes more practical.

>>95664372
It's like a Steel Battalion veet

>>95819415
It's actually part of some Gear Krieg fan-creations done by a club in Singapore back in the early 2000s. Since they didn't have access to the miniatures, and the rules were actually flexible about the scale, they scratchbuilt their walkers out of 1/72 plastic kits.

>>95633571 (OP)
>How leggy do you like your mechs?
Wheeled. you can't see them from this angle, but they're there

I wanted to do some minis based off of this image and I've got kind of a weird question. Any recommendations for kits or places to find all the little pouches and webgear bits that would be in scale with HG minis?

>>95822991
First search for 'pouch' on Thingiverse.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4652952
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4540660

(Post it if you end up making the minis, I'd love to see the result)

Do a further search on Thingiverse/Cults3D, oughta be helpful

>>95772591
I like Patlabor

>>95772591
Here's a chart.

I wish the pride killer cobra had a couple more guns on it. A snub cannon is great but you're paying for a heavy fire support gear without the fire support

>>95827545
For those who aren't in on the subtle jokes, this is a joke chart.

>>95827632
There are no jokes, it's a legit rec chart.

>>95826777
>I like Patlabor
as do I. You might be interested to know that Popy did a promotional bottlecap set in roughly Battletech/Robotech Tactics sizes back when the 1:1 statue went up. I've scored a Tyrant, an Asuka, and an Ingraham, but they also did Helldivers and Gryphons as well as a couple more Ingraham variants. They're about 1:200-1:250 depending on the model, and too small for Heavy Gear, but work well with other 6-10mm stuff.

Anyone got campaings and other stuff for lancer? I wanna run some stuff but I'm broke as shit after buying foundry

>>95780225
I played a Lancer game with a pick-up group because my actual group thought it was too gay and lame.
Got into a game on the unofficial Discord server. Christ, what a fucking nightmare. The whole place was like a stereotype: Pozzed out the wazzoo.
You have to see it to believe it. I think everyone should go to the unofficial discord and just check it out. It's like going to the zoo, but instead of animals you go there to look at weird queers.
Anyway, game sucked, and it's impossible to get a group together outside of playing with the hyper-autistic gays that haunt that server.
It just is: What is is.
I'd like to play a good game of Lancer too, but it's impossible to get a good group. Trust me, it's not happening.

>>95827632
>>95828026
Missing Galaxy Cyclone Braiger and a few too many Hirai shows but yup, it's a pretty solid list.
Pocketful of Rainbows is the only real troll.

>>95828330
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Rh2lMD0rkLQ6dVs6DsegKbcUllBSG74s?usp=sharing

>>95828965
the official unofficial discord is a shitshow, but that should honestly be expected given the material and the lore as written, it's literally begging to be full of fags and commies

Anyway, the only way to play Lancer is with a well established friend group and homebrew the setting to be something else almost entirely, in the game I'm running is basically Starship Troopers

>>95833016
Pic related was vastly too on the nose.
Uno-reversing the setting so that the communists are bad is one thing, but going so far as making the nazi analogues secretly the good guys is just getting goofy. If you replace faggy left-wing nonsense with faggy right-wing nonsense, you still have nonsense.
I was in that thread and I remember commenting near the same back then too.
I think called this setting Ben Shapiro fanfic garbage.

>>95833016
I'd rather encourage people to not play bad games with crap settings but fanpatched out of spite. There's other mech games.

>>95828330
Scroll back to the top of the page, and check the pastebin. If you can't find what you need there, check the Share Thread, in case there is a more recent Lancer trove.

That said, you can't go wrong with the classic "You're a team of mercs hired to hunt down a pirate king" and throw your own little story together. Or if you want something more involved from the get-go, you can take inspiration from my favorite campaign.
https://imgur.com/a/lancer-rpg-arrowhead-squadron-1-12-ns95caf
https://imgur.com/a/lancer-rpg-arrowhead-squadron-13-23-MPCI7Rz
https://imgur.com/a/lancer-rpg-arrowhead-squadron-24-32-4iq2GAt

>>95833770
I think this is why I gravitate towards more neutral "all sides bad" settings. Frankly it's the most fun if I can simultaniously shit on my opponents and play up the villainous aspects of a faction, regardless of personal beliefs. But I can also see it being fun to uno-reverse a "good guy" faction into the enemy. I.E. The Titans to the Earth Federation in Gundam. (Though the feddies aren't 100% the good guys, again part of what makes UC Gundam enjoyable)

>>95828965
every official/unofficial discord server, community, etc. for every TTRPG nowadays is infested with trannies, commies, etc.
This is not something solely affecting lancer
Run your game how you want it
>>95833016
Starship troopers or helldivers style "kill all bugs" game sounds fun but the unfortunate side effect is if every enemy is biological you effectively make a huge chunk of the game's frames and systems useless because both hacks don't work on biologicals and defense against hacks are useless against biologicals that cannot hack you. also makes it too easy to just dump engineering etc. because if there is no threat of taking heat from hacks there is no reason to really invest in those defensives

>>95835126
Legionnaire homebrew book for lancer (which is so good it might as well be first party, primarily because it is WRITTEN by a massif dev) has a talent tree that adds a "Data-dart" integrated weapon that lets you effectively shoot it at biologicals so they can suffer the effects of invades

>>95835126
The game I'm running is a modified version of Wallflower, so there's plenty of mechs as well as biological enemies

What's the official stance on proxies in blitz? I ask because in my RPG group I made a custom python that essentially has the same loadout as the bushmaster cobra with a howitzer on its back and I wanted to make a model of it that would count as said cobra.

>>95835126
>Starship troopers or helldivers style "kill all bugs" game sounds fun but the unfortunate side effect is if every enemy is biological you effectively make a huge chunk of the game's frames and systems useless because both hacks don't work on biologicals and defense against hacks are useless against biologicals that cannot hack you. also makes it too easy to just dump engineering etc. because if there is no threat of taking heat from hacks there is no reason to really invest in those defensives
obvious solution is to have the Bugs have a hivemind that is equivalent to the electronics your side uses* and thus both sides can hack the other

*in fact have your side's more advanced electronics be derived from the bugs neurological networks to further justify this

>>95835224
Generally Blitz operates as a "What you see is what you get" So the default would to just get a Cobra model with that loadout. The exception however is the 3.1 companion rules for custom loadouts of units. But generally this is for light "accident" units. I.E. the "oops I put a medium autocannon on a Cheetah" and even with that it would still be the Pythons general stats with traits, GU PI and EW stats, movement, etc. Now ultimately its up to your friends and you to decide how much you adhere to the WYSIWYG philosopy. In my group we have made light exceptions for subsidizing units, mainly for units to be commander units or not. I have a Hunter Zerstorer that came with the Headhunter head that I sometimes treat as just a default unit. Maybe your group would be even more lenient and let you use the Python in place of a Cobra.

>>95682655
God thats a good pic. I can contribute a little bit.

>>95835337
Huh, really thought I had more. Guess this thing'll have to do as compromise, sorry.

>>95835224
It varies from group to group, DP9 won't bust in your house with mounties and shoot you for using proxies.

For me, I like to at least stick to 'model may represent any variant of said model' IE I don't adher to stuff like weapons. I do make sure everybody knows what is ehat tho.

>>95783684
>>95785977
Is that why the current jager mini is lacking the little ear antenna?

I never played any mecha systems and I'm considering running one to spice up things for my group, can you guys please spoonfeed me the options? I'd like:
>good combat as that's what we enjoy the most
>support for handling pilot characters outside of mechs, mostly for non-combat investigation stuff etc.
>less rules heavy is better unless the heavy rules are amazing
Everything points to Lancer so far, but before I dig into it are there any better alternatives?
And a secondary question: what's your favorite setting for mecha games? Specifically asking for things beyond just how the robots look and fight; like the politics, factions, frequent plot hooks etc.

>>95839043
Your options are
- Lancer, a superhero skirmish game (no OOC rules)
- Heavy Gear, which is VOTMS , but the only thing combustible is the fuel powering your engine (had and RPG once, probably didn't get updated to include all the new toys since then)
- Battletech, a land battleship accident simulator (Full OOC rules and slimmed down mech combat rules for role players)
- Mekaton, a giant robot builder engine (with attached 90s RPG rules)
- GURPS, where you basically stat your mech as a big guy buddy for your small guy character. Highly autistic about everything, but also highly reactive to your autism or lack thereof.
- buncha recent japanese systems, with more coming I never looked into.

>>95839352
>>95839043
Lancer has out of combat rules but they are relatively simple/barebones (makes sense because it's a combat game)

>>95839352
HG did get a new RPG a little while ago, with rules based off the wargame. Includes stats for every single unit (it's actually insane for how many different thing they made sure to have a stat block for).
It has all the stuff >>95839043 is asking for, but is unfortunately also packing a pants-on-head retarded damage system and is a bit of a bloated mess in general. A definite try-before-you-buy scenario (It's up on the mega drive).

There's also HGD6 if you're interested, which is free.
https://banzaidyne.wordpress.com/heavy-gear-d6-bravo/

>>95838725
Yep. I'm gonna bet it's gonna get fixed with the eventual Resin model release, seeing as the upcoming Dark Mamba got it.

>>95839749
What's the damage system like? I've read the older editions but I'm not familiar with how 4th does it

>>95839749
Why's the damage system pants-on-head rarted? Not disputing you, I'm just genuinely interested in what makes you say it, I want to hear your explanation.

>>95839848
In a standard damage system, you'd probably imagine something like "take damage until you reach critical threshold, at which point you get a certain stat debuff".

In 4e, EVERY point of damage you take inflicts that kind of a debuff.
And there's 30 different *types* of these debuffs.
To decide which one applies, the DM needs to either roll for it, or decide on it himself.
And also decide how much damage applies for the vehicle/pilot.
And also decide if the damage is physical/mental.

Just looking it makes me scream out "What the fuck were they thinking". I actually made a simplified damage system to cover for it. When such a basic mechanic gives me that sort of a reaction, you know something's off.

>>95840033
>>95840026

Basically imagine if in Battletech, you needed to roll on 2 separate Crit Tables for EVERY hit you take, whether it's on the Armor or Internal Structure.
That's about the gist of it.

>>95840033
I like this little poindexter jager

>>95833016
This is some stupid edgelord fanfiction bullshit. If you want to do lancer but edgy you don’t need to change the setting, just get into the contradiction with union the books normally try to paper over (including two different types of slaves!). You don’t need to make up secret uranium mines (why would they even lie about that?) that the Strong Tough Conservative Men maintain unless you’re really insecure and want to score points against an adversary that only exists in your head.

>>95839043
You want BCG probably. Lancer doesn’t support pilots on foot very well.

>>95835224
Proxies are fine as long as they obviously represent a specific loadout

>>95839848
Basically each time you get hit, you get a specific damage result that inflicts a penalty on you in some way. When you take enough hits, you die.

>>95839749
>>95840033
>>95840074
You might be having a bit of a memory issue, because each hit inflicting a specific damage result is literally always how combat in silhouette worked. 4e is actually more direct than previous editions because the health system is based directly on the damage penalties instead of being a separate system where you need to calculate armor ablation with every hit.

If you want a system where you just subtract numbers from a health value until it hits zero and you die, I’m sure there’s a 5E hack out there for you somewhere.

>>95841280
>You might be having a bit of a memory issue, because each hit inflicting a specific damage result is literally always how combat in silhouette worked

So what? 4e already changes a lot of things compared to classic silhouette. Having this chunky method stay is retarded.

And all that without mentioning that even back then, it was more elegant.
In 4e, it's spread around 8 pages.
8 fucking pages of different damage types!

>>95843978
And all that without mentioning that in classic Sillhouette, on-foot characters didn't have damage types, just flesh/deep wounds. In 4e for some insane reason they spread it to a whole section of damage types, and then added *another* section of damage types for mental damage. Bizzare.

>>95839043
Ignore every other reply, you want Battle Century G. Every other suggestion you’ve gotten so far pails in comparison.

>>95844086
>this book presents an environmentalist, inclusive and transhumanist society
>An anarchist, environmentalist, transhumanist society
You sure this isn't just lancer 2?

>>95844130
Yes, because unlike lancer, the setting isn’t actually baked in.

>>95844082
>>95843978
And even further, on classic Silhouette you got the mechanic effects straight on the table. IE -1 ARMOR, -1 Fire Control, etc.
In 4e, it's not the case. Once you found your damage result on the table you need to actually look up what it means mechanically, in one of the aforementioned 8 pages. That, or memorize all the different damage types. Beyond clunky.
Saying 'haha you just want 5e dnd' is cope. There are ways to do complex damage systems, and this ain't it.

>>95641511
I think it's probably action points.

>>95843978
I actually have a question about this because I'm trying to make a campaign for a mecha thing and I really like Heavy Gear 2e.

Can someone give me like a breakdown on what changed and what the different iterations of the system are good for? I have yet to find anything in 2e that was actually bad to the point that Heavy Gear needed a new edition, if anything it just needed more filling out of the old edition--I.E., in Heavy Gear 2e there are a few weapons listed which just don't have stat-lines, like bombs.

I'm currently homebrewing a system for 2e that will allow you to basically scratch-build everything, with the intent of doing a post-apocalyptic game with it where money just isn't a thing. Ammunition, weapons, and vehicles would all be produced by the players or traded for, modifying or building new vehicles is an assumed part of the game (we have to do X, let's build a quadrotor drone out of some junk we have laying around) and I want to make sure I'm not using a suboptimal system for it.

>>95851275
Basically 4e has simplified stats, more in-depth damage, different weapon characteristics, and some tweaks to the basic dice system. There’s more than that to it but those are the relevant ones, preference generally comes down to how long you want fights to take and how okay are you with multiplication.

For your specific purposes the answer is definitely 2e though because it has the Technical Manual that actually has the rules for player-designed vehicles, and 4e doesn’t yet.

>>95852611
Oh. Well those do sound like good ideas, when they get around to doing a technical manual I'll check it out, I'm not really an edition purist guy.

>>95852611
>>95844381 here. Even tho 4e has it's faults, it has some good bits. I like the more structured team creation and advancement system.
In 2e, it never goes into *how* exactly you and your team get their hands on all this hi tech military equipment, or how to improve it, or get new ones. 4e handles this issue well.
That said, you can always take it and staple it to 2e, as it's relatively 'standalone'.

>>95851275
>I have yet to find anything in 2e that was actually bad to the point that Heavy Gear needed a new edition
The next edition was made to standardize all the game lines on Silhouette Core, and then two goes at 4e because 3e wasn't very successful.

>>95852896
4e also uses Blitz base mechanics, which are actually really fun and quick. It just piles a whole bunch of clutter on top.

>>95840990
He likes you right back.

Hey, has anyone here ever made vehicles for HG 2e before? I'm trying to assemble some cool squadrons for mercenary units the players will get to fight and I'd like to see what other people have made.

>>95860317
This Spanish guy made a bunch of striders and vehicles:
https://www.toposolitario.com/heavygear/index.html

>>95860875
Nice. My method is to do it iteratively and pretend that I'm part of a military procurement process like Pentagon Wars, and then have the AI spit out stupid criticisms of my designs that I have to incorporate answers to.

I always have three board members:
-General Hernandez (Marine Corps, competent, but old fashioned)
-Secretary LeBlanc (NATO rep, obsessed with buzzwords and multirole shit)
-Senator Blutfest (Republican from Iowa)

The feedback is great and it invariably results in overcomplicated machines with redundant features that feel more realistic.

If I already have a gear with MATMs, is it worth throwing in a couple with LATMs?

>>95861193
More is better, if you want to really cover the 'anti-armor' side of your force.

>>95861011
You use an AI for this kind of stuff? How's that work? It sounds fun and I kind of want to integrate that into my own Mekton campaign.

>>95863014
I've done it a few times, usually I just explain what I need, then pitch the vehicle. I don't tell it that I'm doing it specifically in Heavy Gear because the AI is not good at understanding complex rulesets, so I build the vehicle in HG and then just describe it. Then the machine gives me some funny feedback, asking for water heaters in the crew compartments and arctic/jungle variants so that they can sell them to NATO allies or African warlords, Senator Blutfest just keeps trying to put a 120mm cannon on everything and wants it to be made in his district.

In this way I've started out with really clean, sleek and cheap vehicles and then had them froth over into ridiculous porkbarrel projects that serve no purpose except to waste taxpayer money. Then I put them in campaigns, and the players get to go "why the fuck is this thing so overbuilt it's got like 20 lemon dice," and I can grin inwardly and imagine this old fuck from Iowa cackling in Hell.

>>95841280
>two different types of slaves
Two? I understand NHPs being one, but what's the other?

>>95863014
NTA, but I found AIs really well for creating quest outlines.

>>95864414
It’s three, actually. One is NHPs like you said, the second are the literal slaves found in the Trade Baronies (also responsible for upholding about a third of Unions economy, so no civilizing them yet), and the third is the basically indentured (and also probably corpo) labor found on the non corewolrds that give everything they can to Union’s decadent lifestyle

>>95864120
I don't know anything about American military industry but I always assumed that for them everything was like a black box skunkworks thing that spits out ludicrous airframes, do they actually just have retarded parliament critters designing this stuff on the floor in real time?

>>95864591
This is actually a political issue right now irl, congress members have been using military procurement as a way to funnel government money into their districts for a while and it's actually become a liability. Current admin is talking about limiting it to keep costs down.

If you go to washington DC and take the subway near the pentagon, they've got advertisements for jet engines and missile targeting systems on the billboards to try and influence what gets adopted by the military. That said, this is often blown out of proportion because in practice most of the US's military hardware for the last 40 years really has been excellent, but there was le funny movie called Pentagon Wars that basically slandered the M2 Bradley in an admittedly very funny scene about bureaucrats arbitrarily demanding more and more stupid shit be stapled onto the vehicle. In reality the M2 is an amazing vehicle, and in battle individual M2s could dust Soviet tanks easily, as we saw in Iraq and more recently in the Ukraine, but the Pentagon Wars bit is still a funny commentary on the ridiculous antics that US military procurement get up to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA

>>95864120
>Have you considered just painting it blue?

>>95864120
What's the starting prompt for an AI like this? I kinda wanna try it out myself.

>>95866045
What I did the first time was:

"I need you to help me with a project I'm doing for fun. I'm going to be designing some vehicles for a Heavy Gear campaign, and I need you to pretend to be three different characters (tag who you're speaking as) who are to provide feedback for the vehicles at each step in the design.

The joke here is that it's supposed to be sort of Pentagon Wars-esque, with the three characters making the designer's job increasingly difficult as they demand things which are individually reasonable but put more and more tax on the designer. The characters are:

-General Hernandez, an experienced and battle-hardened Brigadier General in the USMC, Hernandez actually knows what he's doing, but is under constant pressure to cut costs because the Marine Corps is on a tight budget and they're the ones who are getting the vehicle for testing first, before it gets sent to the rest of the armed forces and American allies.

-Secretary Celia LeBlanc, a bureaucrat for NATO command who is determined to make sure that the designs are multirole, so that they can fill as many roles as possible and cut back on expenses, even if that means the individual vehicles are overbuilt and more expensive per unit.

-Senator Helmut Blutfest, a Republican from Iowa, the vehicle is being produced in his district so he wants to produce more of them, and for them to be more expensive per-unit while also maintaining "American Values" which really means he wants to be able to sell the project on patriotism and nationalist bluster."

It's important not to just try to tell the machine statlines, instead translate the stats into things the machine understands. Do armor in mms of rolled homgenous steel, speed in cruising and maximum speeds in KPH (Blutfest will whine that he doesn't know what a kilometer is because he's an American, this means it's working) and provide firepower in terms of what the weapons would actually be instead of their in-game designations.

>>95866729
This is the most autistic thing I've ever seen.

>>95866729
I also had it draw the three bureaucrats. The anime verison is a lot funnier because it makes Blutfest look like a Tekken boss.

>>95866861
The building is on fire because Blutfest's PATRIOTIC SPIRIT PRESSURE is just too high. Everything within 50 yards of him erupts into flames unless persoanlly sanctified under the American flag.

>>95866729
>>95866861
>>95866883
You gotta show me what they were critiquing, maybe a before/after for vehicles? I'll try it myself if it yields good results.

>>95866998
The Chavez was intended to be an armored car/ifv, it is now a light tank that can carry troops.

I strongly encourage this method, it makes vehicles feel a lot more realistic and it's fun to play the poor engineer who has to develop these things. You can also ask the AI to design the vehicle for you, and then translate that into HG terms, which will result in hilarity. As it stands the Mk II costs literally 10x as much as the Mk I, and is not actually better at doing what it is supposed to do as a vehicle. This is acceptable because LeBlanc and Blutfest actively want the vehicle to cost more per-unit so they can justify spending expansions.

>>95864120
>>95866729
This is probably one of the best usages for ai I've seen.

>>95867048
>Armor 15
>Light Field Gun
Americans have to be fucking stopped there is no point to this, you could take it down with infantry weapons. What vehicles like this need are anti-infantry weapons not bigger cannons. You'd be better off putting a flamethrower or an auto-grenade launcher on there. Or just a second machinegun.

>>95866729
Tried it, going to just stop including LeBlanc because her input is not helpful. "We should add AI and drones" is not useful, that just requires that you make more vehicles.

Before the thread dies What HG book(s) have the info on operation longnight and the annexation of the humanist alliance?

>>95870593
In the next thread I will find it for you, when did the fedoras get annexed?