Thread 96727804

The more prominent mechs are to the game, the more important out-of-cockpit shenigans are.
Having the two sets of mechanics 'play nice' with each other is where most RPGs crash and burn.

>>96727804 (OP)
>The more prominent mechs are to the game, the more important out-of-cockpit shenigans are.
false

>>96727804 (OP)
>The more prominent mechs are to the game, the more important out-of-cockpit shenigans are.

wut

>Having the two sets of mechanics 'play nice' with each other is where most RPGs crash and burn.

BattleTech/MechWarrior mostly avoids this by just having two completely different sets of rules for the two different scales, which honestly is probably for the best.

On the other hand, one of the MW editions has rules for mecha-scale combat using RPG rules, and it works pretty well for the duels that those rules are intended for, giving reasonably smooth and "cinematic" combat.

IIRC the new rules-light "MechWarrior Destiny" does this too, but I haven't played so I don't know how well it works.

>>96727804 (OP)
I don't think you need them to play nice unless you're doing something like Titanfall.
Having the PCs do things out of their mechs is well and good, but all you really need for that is a basic skill system. If your pilots are getting into protracted infantry scale firefights that you routinely find yourself needing rules for them, you've got bigger problems.

>>96727999
At some point the PCs will be (on foot) fleeing from a mech that's trying to kill them.

>>96727804 (OP)
Normies don't actually like mecha, just the trappings of it

>>96727804 (OP)
>The more prominent mechs are to the game, the more important out-of-cockpit shenigans are.

Just like muh animays, pretty literally.

>>96727804 (OP)
>>96728099
>Just like muh animays, pretty literally.
True, the correct balance for an RPG would be
>spend 90% of a session out of cockpit doing social encountes, investigations, maybe get in a fightfight, chase scene, or shootout
>enemy mechs start doing their thing
>get into your mech(s) and deploy
>fight your ass off for a single encounter
>return to base and get out of the mech

Special "end of season" session where this ratio is reversed once or twice a year of weekly sessions.

>>96728114

Sounds good. Bliss Stage at least is 50-50.

>>96727804 (OP)
What kind of mechanics do you need in a mecha TTRPG to please old men for money like Gigi?

>>96728015
And you don't need more than a skill system for that. Roll whatever skills relate to running and hiding. If they fail the mech gets a shot at one of them, and if it hits they're either dead or grievously injured.

Again, this shouldn't be happening often enough that you need more detailed resolution mechanics for it. It's a glorified death trap, on par with a giant rolling boulder down a narrow hallway. You don't need mechanics to know that it'll kill you if you aren't fast enough.

>>96728280
Mixing scales like that is a folly anyways. There's no enjoyable way for a human size unit to interact with a mecha sized unit without tons of extra stuff like a squad of dudes or power armor being involved. (Or insane power levels like MGR)

>>96727804 (OP)
Depends on the type of mecha and "humans".
Mutants & Mastermind and HERO work perfectly fine.

>>96727965
Mechwarrior 2e is just the same system at a different scale, switching back and forth is pretty seamless, one can easily run a combat in an office building and a mech scale combat outside at the same time

>>96727804 (OP)
While the out of character mechanics of Lancer are kinda shit, I do like that they're a different game that just happens to use the same base dice roll.

>>96728114
Mecha by Chris Perin does this. Neat attempt at storygame mecha combat.

>>96727804 (OP)
I love mecha (and tanks, and hover tanks, and power armor, and... wel, you get it) but I've never seen a dedicated mecha system that worked well. However, there are a few scifi systems that take on mecha pretty well.
Traveller I think does it the best. CT didn't explicitly have mecha rules but it was easy enough to use vehicle rules and extrapolate. The elegant thing it did was that the larger the size difference was between to the easier it was to target the larger and the harder it was to target the smaller. Fan made mecha accessory books for traveller have been made for a long time. (I even heard from a source I believe that Battletech started out as a Traveller homebrew.)
The WEG Star Wars had walkers and even expanded them. Lets be honest, a paint job and some new plots and Star Wars could easily be a mecha anime. As it is, it's the most popular unsupported TTRPG and for good reason. A little work and you got yourself a banger space opera with mecha.
A new kid on the block but one I love is Black Star. It has a third party mecha book called Mecha Star that's been well loved at my table.I'm sure there's similar things with other scifi games but that's where I'd point you first.

name a mechasystem

>>96741524
Mechwarrior
Lancer
Robotech
Heavy Gear
Mecha Hack
Salvage union
Mechasys
Mekton
Battle Century

>>96727804 (OP)
Mekton has scale factor built into its rules and you can even port 2020 stuff.
It looks promising but I have to yet see human scale combat in action.

>>96734687
I once autistically went through all the MW systems to look for the one with the best mech and infantry combat interfacing and I think the winners were 2e and whatever the newest one was called.