Thread 96798588

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

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

Previous Thread:
>>96644721

Question of the Thread:
Can you come up with an imaginative new mecha weapon? Melee, ranged, whatever. Let's see what you've got!

Thread Theme:
https://youtu.be/T_kEs91V3b4

>>96798588 (OP)
>Can you come up with an imaginative new mecha weapon? Melee, ranged, whatever. Let's see what you've got!
Hmmmm. Um... Hmmmm... Uh....
Maybe a sword with a single missile inside it? Like, the blade splits in half, lengthwise, to serve as launch rails?

(also, first!)

>Thread Question
It's probably already been done, but in combat having precise, indirect-fire weapons support on other mecha seems highly useful; having artillery drones deployed offsite with smart rounds that use the mech's sensors for terminal guidance would allow a mecha to have on-demand indirect fires without having the carry the weapons systems themselves making it potentially harder for an enemy to notice incoming rounds and improving mobility of the spotter mecha.

Unrelatedly, I've been on and off planning a Mekton Zeta Plus dark-fantasy-with-magic-mecha campaign on and off for the past year or so now and finally actually got it started recently. Needed to do more than a little homebrew in for character creation and the system's more than a tad clunky but damn if MZ+ doesn't have the most versatile mech creation rules ever put to paper.

>>96798588 (OP)
Feet that extend cages for taking infantry prisoners

>>96798588 (OP)
Bladed nunchucks and spike cleats

>>96798588 (OP)
>Thread Question
A flowing cape made out of a nano-machine swarm produced by the mecha. The nano-machine swarm cape is utilized for attack and defense as well as rapid repair and unit and building production. For example, to clear a building of enemy combatants while on the move
>an array of spikes is formed from the cape with the wave of a hand, piercing into the building
>the parts of the spikes inside the building reform into autonomous drone soldiers that immediately engage the enemy and move to clear the building

An internal super-pressure generator. Same mecha, this is its main function without the nano-machine cape active. Essentially the entire mecha is one big engine/generator (which is otherwise used to produce the nano-machines) and has holes on its arms, that are capable of ejecting high internal pressure created by the generator for focused ranged attacks, boosted hand-to-hand attacks and extreme rapid movement. In addition the holes are arrayed in such a way, that if the mecha were to cross its arms, they would be overlaid, creating closed pressure circulation that gets stronger over time and is concluded by the mecha lifting one arm, pushing its hand forward and flattening everything in a wide area in front of it.

Doesn't matter, but the mecha's head has the design of a classic knight's closed helmet visor while the cape is inert, but once it activates the individual "bars" of the visor push up through the top, revealing the mecha's face and forming a crown.

>>96798588 (OP)
How’s the quality of the em4 plastic mechs?

>>96798913
Indirect weapons usually just suck ass in tabletop games because they get to ignore half the mechanics. An attack that potentially hits anywhere from offboard diminishes the value of movement and scouting and has little reasonable counterplay.
Forcing units on the board to carry mortar launchers is usually better even if it fudges the scale because then you can at least attack whoever is firing it.

>>96801139
Depends on the system and exact implementation - I was just answering the thread question from a pure cool-weapon-idea perspective without mechanical considerations.

Mechanically though, the fact that these are drones of the primary mech and depend on its firing commands means 'just attack whatever' s firing it' IS still an option, as the spotter mech is presumably an active combatant or at least has to be in the area to provide terminal guidance - you kill them, the drones stop being useful.

If this is a tabletop game and it's an ability on a PC mech but not the enemy, it's mostly just a way for them to bypass cover, and wouldn't work in interior settings like bases; if it's an enemy the party could be tipped off to their existence and might be able to take measures in advance to reduce its effectiveness (scouting for the artillery drones and taking them down before engaging the main unit for example).

If we're talking war gaming, yeah off board artillery does suck so you'd want to give the actual artillery drones shorter ranges and make them easily destroyed but scattered so you can make the decision whether trying to pick off the drones or just go straight for their controller is the better call.

In any case it should definitely be a 'if the primary mech dies the guns go silent' thing or else it's not a weapon system it's just... a completely seperate artillery piece?

>>96801139
You only play Battletech don’t you

I'm working on a mecha themed ttrpg. One of the main things I want to do is to encourage not sticking with the same mech all the time, and changing depending on the situation. How could I do it?

Mechs work in a point buy system (IE: your mech has 100 space, that flight unit costs 75 space, the integrated rocket launchers 30 and the light machinegun 25, you can only fit so much stuff). Lancer does with specific abilities for each mech, giving some wiggle room with systems from another mechs, but it's a bit rigid. One idea I had was that repairing mechs took time, so having one or two spares to use while your main(s) are being fixed is useful (so you don't have to sortie with a half broken machine), but I don't know how frustrating that could be.

>>96808769
Try to incorporate intel before deployment so that players could dial in their setup for the mission? Don't know where the balance would be to incentivise but not force the player to minmax.

>>96808769
Rather than swapping mechs entirely, you could go with a system where mechs are built in two parts: one is a largely unchanging frame with some set capabilities (a certain amount of armor, base mobility, sensors, and a signature integrated weapons system) and then modular slots of certain sizes (ie the frame has arms that can carry x tonnage/points cost, a backpack/auxilary slot that can carry y amount, etc). And then on a per-mission basis give some amount of intel and allow players to change the equipment of their modular slots based on what they think is appropriate? So for a base-raiding mission a player whose core mecha is especially suited for ranged combat might bring extra boosters and a shotgun to maximize speed and violence while clearing corridors in close range, while in a different mission on a wide-open battlefield bring a sniper rifle and improved external sensor system to aid in scouting and ranged support from an elevated position in the rear.

>>96805082
Feels like a pretty universal issue in games to me. Even if you require spotters it just turns back into being another ranged weapon attack.

>>96810227
Most normal ranged attacks come directly from the triggering unit and can't ignore traditional cover, but also aren't defeated by top-cover and can't be disabled by hunting down presumably fragile drones during or potentially even before the onset of hostilities. Or disrupt the ability to call in attacks via jamming.

Please anon, have a smidgen of imagination. You can boil everything down to 'well it's just a ranged/melee attack' if you insist on being interminally boring.

>>96810999
Never seen a mech game with top cover.

I'll believe it when I see it, anyway.

>>96810999
And that isn't even accounting for impact delay or a spotter needing to correct off target fire. Indirect Fire tends to be more like a form of actively changing terrain trying to hunt you down rather than a direct attack.

>>96811110
More mech games need mech-sized megastructures, I'll definitely agree there. Plenty of mecha video games have bases with mech-sized hallways but it's a hassle in wargames since top cover would block minis so it sort of understandably gets skipped over.

I'm personally running a mech-based trpg so I have a lot more freedom to put the players underground or in bases.

>>96808769
I was going to suggest something like >>96809367 where you do maintain the core mech, but then there's a modular system on top of that.

So to put that in a points context, if a mech has 100 space, then they might get another 50 space on top of that for whatever extra weapons or plating they're slapping on. Although that could get fiddly and might still result in the players not wanting to swap things out if they're using that extra space to lean into their specialty.

I think what might work is if you treat them as pre-packaged bonuses, provided by whoever is sending them on the missions. So rather than being a more precise amount of customization where they can choose exactly which points go where, they'd pick out the Armor+Cannon pack or the Boosters+Blades pack.
And you could treat those as something that's more consumable, where if they take damage they could decide to sacrifice parts from the module instead as an extra layer of defense.

And then the reason why they can't just stick with the same one each time is due to supply issues. Maybe have it be that every module is made from the salvaged gear of whatever enemies they fought, and so there aren't the means to keep those supplied. Ran out of cannon shells, batteries on the laser swords burnt out, that sort of thing.
But it also means that they can constantly be getting new module options, and those options can evolve and improve based on what they've been fighting.

>>96811987
Or instead of supply issues, it could be corporate oversight if it's that kind of setting. "The company's strategic AI has determined the following roles are most efficient for this mission: one sniper, two electronic warfare units, two riflemen, and one close-combat specialist. The appropriate modules have been supplied; distribute them amongst your team as you feel appropriate" or "oh, and the client wants us to test and gather data on their next generation experimental rocket boosters. Their use is mandatory. Watch the heat guages closely."

>>96809367
>>96811987
I had something like that in mind. When creating a custom mech,you make the "frame" first, that gives you the base size, hp, some stats, movement, it's reactor for energy generation, space for systems and some special abilities like transforming, etc. Then you add systems like armor, weapons, stat increases and some abilities also aviable for the frames, but at an increased cost (if you want to make a land based mech into a space capable one, like the GP01 from stardust memory, it's gonna be more expensive than having one that can do that from the start.

The idea is that swapping systems take some time, as you have to dissasemble and assemble a giant war machine, unless you upgrade those systems to be "quick swappable" (self explanatory) or are in "modules", like that Strike Gundam's Packs, Core Gundam's Planet Systems or whatnot, that you can swap in an instant (but need their own maintenance).

As >>96809000 said, intel is a good idea, when aviable, ambushes can happen, you might not have it at the moment, or something unexpected may happen during the mission, etc. It could be a good idea having a spare or two for these situations. You expect some long range fight, but some enemies manage to get close and you change to a more meele focused unit, for example.

> I think what might work is if you treat them as pre-packaged bonuses, provided by whoever is sending them on the missions. So rather than being a more precise amount of customization where they can choose exactly which points go where, they'd pick out the Armor+Cannon pack or the Boosters+Blades pack.
I don't really like that, the idea is to build your own mech(s), having to chose a premade package goes against that, and it's additional work for the GM.

I reached character limit, I'll write another reply.

>>96812679
>>96811987
>>96812095
> And then the reason why they can't just stick with the same one each time is due to supply issues. Maybe have it be that every module is made from the salvaged gear of whatever enemies they fought, and so there aren't the means to keep those supplied. Ran out of cannon shells, batteries on the laser swords burnt out, that sort of thing.
> But it also means that they can constantly be getting new module options, and those options can evolve and improve based on what they've been fighting.
I had something like that in mind, at least for more long range missions or without support of a big organization (IE: behind enemy lines, working as your own merc company, etc), scavening downed units for repair material, ammo, weapons and whatnot. Running out of ammo of some weapons it's possible, yes, you have to have some logistic in minds.

> Or instead of supply issues, it could be corporate oversight if it's that kind of setting. "The company's strategic AI has determined the following roles are most efficient for this mission: one sniper, two electronic warfare units, two riflemen, and one close-combat specialist. The appropriate modules have been supplied; distribute them amongst your team as you feel appropriate" or "oh, and the client wants us to test and gather data on their next generation experimental rocket boosters. Their use is mandatory. Watch the heat guages closely."
For some specific missions or campaigns I see something like that as an interesting idea, but not for the baseline, I want it to be more "neutral", I've tried Lancer before, and imho the game wants you to play it on an specific way and no other, I want to avoid that, mech is a very broad genre after all.

>>96811110
I try to incorporate top cover into my campaigns, when it makes sense, but representing "this unit is above/below/inside the visible terrain" can be a pain. Only done it a few times.

>>96817838
Vas is das

>>96823785
OMS-90R2 Mars Gundam
+
modified F90N- Hull Fighter
=
Mars Gundam Next Verethragna

prove you're not a nogaems and post a tabletop screenshot/picture post session right fucking NOW

>>96826334
Unfortunately I've been nogames for awhile, so no recent game images. Have a Hunter.

>>96826334
I'm not explaining anything

>>96798913
>damn if MZ+ doesn't have the most versatile mech creation rules ever put to paper.
This is true!

>>96799566
>Feet that extend cages for taking infantry prisoners
LOL omigod I love this

>>96799889
>Bladed nunchucks and spike cleats
I'd these have been done, with multiple iterations. Cleats as a main attack method would be pretty amusing though.

>>96800482
Sounds impressive and scary, but really really overpowered. I like your descriptions of its aesthetics... It'd make one hell of a final boss.

>>96808769
Mecha with swappable modules might be good. Gundam F90 has the "A to Z Project," with 26 different optional equipment sets that can be used. And taking it a step further, Gundam AGE had a super-duper 3D printer thing that could come up with new parts and weapons on the fly, and launch them to the MS for use in particular battle situations.

what background music do you use for your games? looking at gundam 00, ac6, and einhander but would like more suggestions.

>>96827136
>Mecha with swappable modules
Annnnnnnd, of course, how could I forget the Liger Zero and its Changing Armor System?

>>96808769
>Encourage to switching mech
>repair and mech management cause frustration
Have you heard of the phrase drive it like you stoled it? Youthful fun comes from knowing that you are not the sucker paying for or working on the mech because you can punk someone elses, and with that knowledge you can focus on abuse the living shit out of these mechanical foster children to make everyone else you come across miserable. The rule-following npcs use caution and reserve performance, thinking they are keeping it for themselves or has to answer for it. This means a weaker cracked mech can capture a larger mech by sacrificing parts or the entire mech to hit the reservation threashold of the stronger mech, leading to the next stage. Reactor is powerful, yeh? so it will melt and detonate strong, no? Corrosive coolants, slippery lubricants, sticking magnetic coils, burning and fuming propellents, high voltage power packs, explosives and compressed particles in weapons, thrusters heat and bazooka blast, even ethics and newtype psycho resonance are just fair game.
Each mission can start from stealing/trapping mechs using flying jetski or similar non-mech from the out skirts to work their way in and burglar the ultimate prize, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake which delays the chase. These diehard retardos learns to barely understand the manual and labels just to violate the rules and warnings on their own mech and their victims. Absolutely vile creatures of crime, war, human suffering, cognitive decline and societal collapse.

>>96826334
Was at work when I saw this or I'd have posted sooner. Doing a fantasy-with-mechs setting. Pic from end of last combat, which was the opener of the campaign.

>>96827441
Depending on your setting, you might look into synthwave stuff for that new-80s bladerunner-esque sound that AC6 borrows for parts of its soundtrack. The soundtrack from the bladerunner movies and tie-ins might have stuff you like; if you want something ultra-high intensity Carpenter Brut might be good for combat.

I'm a huge weeb and also running a weird dark fantasy campaign so I'm using stuff from the Arknights battle stages and all the Nier/Drakengard game soundtracks, but I doubt that'd work for a mech game in a more traditional setting. Well, the Arknights stuff might depending on what you use since there's just a massive variety of it but there's so much to sort through it's hard for me to honestly recommend.

>>96827441
(my campaign isn't very sci-fi ish so I tend to use more fantasy/modern leaning tracks but a lot of these could work for you)
13 Sentinels OST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghiUY2YJJEQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT7tND7TGz8
Project Moon games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hBx5asMQTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbrdcKXN7Fg
Other gundam series also have some good tracks
IBO is one of my favorites
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPC2thiIehk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObODNXpe4c4
Personal dogshit taste of mine that fits my game more but I like Electronica Artcore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHmyXLogfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iStKJguDOoI

>>96827441
Usually not too huge on music playlist videos, but this one has a pretty nice selection of ambient themes for mech related activities.
https://youtu.be/MItDj0IS0O0?si=J6WdtZbZoySIWh9q

Would also recommend most Halo 3/Reach music

>>96828419
Tell us more about your campaign. System?

HAIYA ALL does anyone have any Mekton conversions for Dougram i can use for a game on the fly

>>96829945
Mekton Zeta with a mild homebrew layer over it (mostly changing mecha combat to use all of your on-foot stats and skills and changing the psi powers to magic). Gist of the setting is that it's about 200 years after an apocalyptic tide of giant spiders swept across the land consuming knowledge and killing the learned so nearly all history has been lost and magic has had to be slowly and painstakingly rediscovered. The mecha, which are called Guardians in-setting, have to be magically summoned; and all magic in the setting is catalyzed by a sacrifice of salt or blood, so the Guardians usually only come out once shit has already hit the fan and bodies are hitting the floor.

For character creation I made 12 character concepts tied to some of the tarot Major Arcana (all with their own unique knowledge, secrets, and mech design requirements) and dealt them out to the players to choose the ones they liked best.

Campaign opened with the party being invited to investigate some ancient artifacts that had washed up - one contained one of the players, playing the obligatory mysterious-amnesiac-girl-in-a-box, the other was some kind of ancient scout drone that woke up, vaporized a noble, and started trying to send out some kind of transmission before the party destroyed it. So now they're trying to figure out what the hell it's deal was; eventually I plan on that unraveling into them discovering the true state of the world and how it became the one they know. Assuming I can keep the campaign alive that long, at least.

>>96798588 (OP)
Why would a late UC zeon suit have zimmerit on it?

>>96831678
It would if Kazuhisa Kondo had his way!

>>96830700
Hmm... No, but it's an interesting question. Now I need to go to MAHQ and look at Dougram specs.

>>96831847
This sparks joy.

>>96831854
Hmmmm, arright, so the Dougram is 9.63m tall, weighs 20.12t, can run at 55kph, and jump 15-20m. It's all-environment (desert, arctic, underwater, and X-Nebula radiation shielded), can be easily disassembled, and has special linear-weapon resistant armor.

9.63m/1.5 = 6.42 Kills. Since it's the hero robot, I'd round up, so its torso has 7 Kills. That's Medium Striker, with 1 Kill traded for 2 extra Spaces. The maximum armor Medium Striker can support is Mediumweight, so that's 8SP of armor. I'd make it Beta or Gamma, as it's supposed to be super-resistant stuff. 55kph is a Movement Allowance of 3, and a 20m jump is less than 1 Hex.

For its weapons... Well, the back of the left hand has a dual-barrel 20mm chaingun for anti-personnel use, probably 1–2K there. The arm-mounted Linear Gun usually one-shots enemies. Given that the average height of a Combat Armor is around 10m, that's usually gonna be around a 6K Torso, with maximum armor usually being like 5SP... I'd say at least 7K for the arm Linear Gun, so that it will pretty much always penetrate armor. 7K minus 5SP leaves 2K of damage done to the torso, knocking it down to 4K... Using the G-Factor rule (which you definitely should, for mooks at least) that's a 60% chance of a one-shot kill most of the time. The missiles would do less damage, but not a lot less.

Heads should be really flimsy, with wimpy armor -- except for the Ironfoot Hasty and the Abitate Blockhead, which are third-generation CAs designed for anti-CA operations and thus have better protected heads.

>>96831678
>>96831847
Pretty sure Kondo's stuff has its own timeline with a longer not-so one year war, as well.

Can I get a QRD on the different Heavy Gear factions and how they play?

I've made a evasion 20 mech in Lancer.
Is this retarded or not?

>>96835903
Well, there are still weapons that target your tech defense or whatever it's called. So you still will get fucked. Question is - how much did you sacrifice to get 20 evasion?

>>96836000
Potential crits from accuracy bonuses and E-defense.

>>96835903
Do you have a buddy that pilots a Goblin, and will fuse with your mech when you run into hackers? If so, that lets you use their E-defense instead of your own. Or maybe someone with Black Witch's ICEOUT Drone? That won't protect against smart weapons, but it will prevent you from getting hacked while within its radius.
Otherwise, I guess you just need to stay hidden or kill any hackers before they get you. Good luck, pilot.

>>96835321
>>96835321
cont'd

>>96808769
Terrain penalties, also try and make combat balanced so stuff is literally situational, and give your players ability to scout out what they're fighting ahead. You'll also want a fluff reason for mechs to be plentiful and pilots to be scarce. Otherwise, just use switchable packs. FYI, you are basically asking your players to keep records for multiple different tactical kits, so keep in mind, paperwork, and waits cause of decision making are going to increase if they custom them.

>>96811987
This works really well, I think. Temporary bonuses is a great incentive for players to use consumables, for example.

>>96812697
Supply issues works, packs and weapons can have to recharge/rearm/be serviced after missions. But remember, depending on how hard you go with it, this can get tedious, so I'd make mechanics to tell the players how long to repair the equipment, and call it there. I think for what you are going for, module based mechs makes more sense than cycling between mechs.

>>96837272
> Terrain penalties, also try and make combat balanced so stuff is literally situational, and give your players ability to scout out what they're fighting ahead. You'll also want a fluff reason for mechs to be plentiful and pilots to be scarce. Otherwise, just use switchable packs. FYI, you are basically asking your players to keep records for multiple different tactical kits, so keep in mind, paperwork, and waits cause of decision making are going to increase if they custom them.
I thought of that. I'm basing the system on the SRW games (not a 1:1, just inspiration), and in those games both units and weapons have terrain rating (improved performance if you are in that terrain). My idea was that some weapons gain bonuses (or penalizers) if used on or against a certain terrain (IE: an ATG bomb gains a bonus if you are on the air and use it against someone on the ground). Same with your mechs, they can have optional disadvantages so that it only works on some terrains (ranging from just lower movement or some penalizer to outright being unusable, like using a Ball from gundam in the ground). Could this work? I don't want to put this for every thing and bog down each roll with a ton of modififers.

(cont.)

>>96837272
>>96839574
> Supply issues works, packs and weapons can have to recharge/rearm/be serviced after missions. But remember, depending on how hard you go with it, this can get tedious, so I'd make mechanics to tell the players how long to repair the equipment, and call it there. I think for what you are going for, module based mechs makes more sense than cycling between mechs.
Yes, I don't want to make it tedious. For that aspect my idea was to have a resource to repair ("Repair Material"), to repair a mech (both it's HP, systems and whatnot) it takes those + time (the more expensive or big, the more repair material and time it takes). It's also used for on the field repairs. For the ammo and stuff, it's just regular tracking, but with more generalized ammo (like how Dark Heresy does, no need to have 20 different types of ammo for different rifles), energy weapons automatically recharge if you have energy. Some weapons need propietary ammo, but they are rarer and better weapons. For changing parts of a mecha, just takes time (with an upgrade you can make a part faster to swap), but a module it's instantaneous, albeit they need their own maintenance.

>>96831391
Sounds badass. Out of curiosity, what do the zodiac build reqs look like? Is there a flying one?

>>96826334
Latest game

>>9683249
=')
>>96831391
Sounds like a really fun campaign setup, I hope it continues and your players get a chance to find out why the world is the way it is

>>96843366
Lol, I was watching big O the other day. He must be a beast on melee. SHOWTIME!

how tall are the mechs in your setting?
mine is an urban fantasy game so I made then around 6-8m to fit in most enviroments. I've even put them in underground dungeons (the setting also has a bit of fantasy in general)

>>96808769
The ideas you have are good. There's also having mechs designed for entirely different jobs, like ones designed for space vs land. You could also have "parade mechs" or parade armour and equipment that's more designed to look nice, like some small time planetary dictator wants 8 mechs he has on retainer marching in a parade with him and they have impractically ornate and decorated armour, with no expectation they'll have to fight that day so they also prioritize flashy looking melee weapons over practical ranged stuff. Then if there's some kind of surprise attack on that parade they have to fight at an awkward disadvantage.

>>96846686
Yeah, I should add stuff like that. Flashy stuff that is just for looks, like dnd 3.5 with the gold weapons (they are weaker and more expensive, it's just for show). Or for something like the DaiGuard, picrel. Some civilian models (to convert into improvised weapon platforms) would be a cool addition, yes.

Also I'm not gonna make meele useless because "ranged is more practical", meele based mechs are awesome. Vid related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bprxib1DW5w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHXa0HfXiRw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8duZX6mjYFU

>>96842705
I gave most players a guideline of 250 points to spend freely on their frame and other systems, plus 100 extra points to spend on systems specifically matching their theme. I also adjust the Luck stat for each tarot card, giving each a slightly altered functionality. Some examples:

The Hermit: avian beastfolk rogue, requirement to put 100 points toward stealth and/or mobility systems and was allowed to use the hybrid mecha type and consequently built an insanely fast flying melee mecha with some limited stealth abilities. Luck stat is Rogueishness which he can spend to instantly gain and use movement even off-turn. Player chose to have two linked 20-kill beam swords (keeping the price low by making them limited use and having to recharge) which is ludicrous overkill. Pic related - and yeah, I know, AI slop, but fantasy mecha images matching the aesthetic I'm after are thin on the ground.

Strength: lizardfolk whose city being destroyed by unknown entities is one of the inciting incidents; they dumped their special stat at character creation to focus on their main stats. Instead of a 100 point addition to their mech, they have an animal companion (they chose an Akhlut) with its own seperate 150-point mecha. Main mech is stealthy with throwable bombs while animal companion is a melee brawler.

The Hanged Man: human scholar, kicked out of the academy and subsequently stole church secrets before joining the royal guard. Has a unique meta ability where once he learns the secrets or solves the mysteries surrounding other characters he'll gain the ability to 'install' their card's abilities, gaining their unique power and his mech gaining a copy of their mech's gimmick. Started out being able to switch between The Hierophant (takes penalties on rolls to regain points and can spend those to ask the GM questions - has a bunch of Energy Pool weapons) and The Tower (spends points to defend others until pool depleted, then enters a temporary rage)

>comment too long

>>96852338
>cont
Not gonna go into as much detain with the rest of the party, but the other party members are:

>The Fool
Prince of the kingdom, mute, occasionally vomits blood to access forbidden knowledge. Mech is a wolf that awoos to fire artillery with like 7km range from its mouth. Pic related.

>Justice
Musterious-girl-inna-box the party found session 1. Has a mysterious urge to pass judgement on criminals. Has a revolver and her mech has a limited-ammo megabeam, both of which only restore ammo after engaging a culprit of something she's declared a crime in combat, or after closing a case. Speaks Angelic.

>The Moon
A illusionist elf with a three-headed mech that can boost her powers of illusion to work at the mech scale.

>>96835903
Tech attacks will still fuck you unless you have a very good heatcap, plus a defensive system like Scorpion from Gorgon or Black Ice from Black Witch. Remember that every NPC is able to use the basic Invade action.

You also need to worry about reliable damage

>>96844636
Hell yeah
Battle Theme music: https://youtu.be/x-u-ISaOfS4?si=dzwxutHtGmV7h3_W

>>96798588 (OP)
>Can you come up with an imaginative new mecha weapon? Melee, ranged, whatever. Let's see what you've got!
one of those big industrial shredders they use for crushing up large items, except integrated into the torso of a mech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlT2pTSD76s

>>96855588
This would be pretty rad if it also powered the mech or something. Maybe it packs any metallic shreds into an ammo box for a shrapnel rail-shotgun so it'll never run out of ammo so long as it has something metal to shred?

Man I'm really liking the WARES stuff, but I can't even find the novels RAW much less translated stuff, anyone would have them? I Would use a translator to read them if I have, but lord I want to read thise setting has so much stuff I like.

>>96857033
There appears to be paid versions online as pdfs at the very least, so it's at least scanned and readable. Dunno if any have been uploaded anywhere.
https://wares.co.jp/collections/waresshop

>>96855588
>>96855692
I like the idea conceptually but it seems like it'd be a massive vunerability for a mech to have

>>96857122
It's not a vulnerability--I like to think of it as more of a character flaw.

>>96798913
From my experience remotes in MZ+ (for yhose unfamiliar, remotes are basically drones in MZ+) can be very strong. They really turn the action economy in favor of the user. My favourite mech that I built so far is a quick mech with double EMWs and 2 deployable remotes with ECMs that pursue targets and hinder them, while the main unit goes in for a close range kill. They have been a menace to my players.

>>96857033
Same as you, I've been looking around, and this is what I've found.

There's this one they giving away for free, https://wares.co.jp/blogs/news/20250613, and there's https://waresproject.com/ which has some stories there, https://waresproject.com/seikoku, and also the link to the latest Wares Blade web novel, https://www.neopage.com/book/33279851816593200
Finally here's a wiki for it too, https://w.atwiki.jp/obbligato207/.

>>96857395
Blees you anon, you have made my voyas a hundred times easier because I couldn't find anything via google o yandex. I seen dragonar a lot but never what I was searching, google is completely useless.

>>96857437
>The free novel is an image and I can't translate it.
FUCKING MOONRUNES

>>96852338
>>96852444
Very cool ideas anon. My party is currently at 208CP limit, so i can only imagine how wacky the game gets at 350. I really like your idea of luck working as special abilities. Did you come up with it yourself or adapted the rules from somewhere else? I wish i implemented something like that in my game - it sounds very cool.
Best luck in your campaign anon! May it last long and end in a satisfying way!

>>96857765
Yeah, the players started with a few 20-kill weapons already. Thankfully multiplier systems actually help keep things under control somewhat since having one makes everything else more points inefficient, so by picking up the really fancy toys they're also limiting their other weapons and defenses somewhat. It's a bit wacky and basically every mech can do something weird and scary but I'm fine with things being a bit of a power fantasy at the start before the weirder more powerful enemies start showing up.

The changes to the luck stat were my idea generally, though I solicited the players while I was planning for ideas. Ultimately the player who picked up The Hanged Man was the catalyst for most of the system - he said he kinda wanted the ability to change between different modes of interaction, which after some thinking lead to realizing giving each player unique abilities and mech specialties would be a cool idea on its own that I could give a card a meta-interaction with. For developing the luck stat abilities themselves, I mostly just thought about the meaning of the tarot card I was putting it on and the themes I wanted to introduce - originally I was going to make one character concept for every major arcana until I realized I was burning myself out on making them all when most would never be used so I only made 12.

Cool that I'm not the only one running MZ though, what's your campaign about?

>>96859116
>Yeah, the players started with a few 20-kill weapons already
Wowzers! That's some serious firepower

>>96857195
Very true. They're a bit of a bitch to design and use in-game though. Great for enemy bosses! Which was, originally, the idea. But over the decades drone weapons have become ever more prevalent, both in mecha anime and in real life. Tsk!

>>96857122
>I like the idea conceptually but it seems like it'd be a massive vunerability for a mech to have
personally I'm picturing a mech using such a system to be a repurposed industrial design rather than one purpose built for combat, so maybe not the most practical design for warfare but it makes a great spectacle for either arena combat or as a terror weapon

>>96863203
God I wish Age was better. Flit was so good, but the 2nd half of that show just shit the bed so hard.

>>96859116
My campaign is sci-fi. The plot goes like this: Humanity finally reached for the stars. The solar system is being colonised with advanced terraforming tech making Mars habitable. Soon other space colonies pop out, Moon gets colonised and even beneath the surface of Venus grow underground cities. Civilisation is prospering and soon enough Warp tech is discovered. It is limited and poorly understood, but the potential is obvious. Spirits are high and a great project is started to build 3 giant Ark ships which will warp to a newly discovered Earth-like planet. Humanity's ambitions turn out too reckless and project fails catastrofically. Billions of people on the 3 Arks are lost in a foreign star system lightyears away. Humans decide to stay in their solar system. Time passes and a war starts with Mars aiming to become its own sovereign power against Earth's kingdoms. The rest of humanity becomes divided. Ultimately Mars wins the war thanks to its new invention - mecha, known in the gameworld as ARES. Years pass in relative peace, until rumors of Earth going for a rematch start appearing.

And here the campaign starts. PCs are pilots (glorified border patrol) of a minor faction. On one patrol they stumble upon an unidentified transport, containg mysterious prototype ESPER units. The transport crew attacks and after PCs manage to subdue them the crew tries to destroy the transport and kills themselves. This event entagles PCs in an elaborate plot from an unknown shadow power in the Solar system. They follow the trails of a great conspiracy until it is revealed the new power manage a hostile takeover of the PCs faction. They are now stranded deep in enemy territory, most likely as the last loyal people of their own faction.
This is where we are right now.
In the upcoming last 2 arcs of the campaign, it will be revealed that the shadow faction are survivors of the Ark project. They survived the catastrophe and in the proccess awakened their psionic powers.

>>96864471
Cont

And here the campaign starts. PCs are pilots (glorified border patrol) of a minor faction. On one patrol they stumble upon an unidentified transport, containg mysterious prototype ESPER units. The transport crew attacks and after PCs manage to subdue them the crew tries to destroy the transport and kills themselves. This event entagles PCs in an elaborate plot from an unknown shadow power in the Solar system. They follow the trails of a great conspiracy until it is revealed the new power manage a hostile takeover of the PCs faction. They are now stranded deep in enemy territory, most likely as the last loyal people of their own faction.
This is where we are right now.
In the upcoming last 2 arcs of the campaign, it will be revealed that the shadow faction are survivors of the Ark project. They survived the catastrophe and in the proccess awakened their psionic powers.

With the psi powers, they managed to warp back to Solar system and now want to take control along revealing the truth about the failure of Ark project. However that cannot be done without spilling some blood. Using miraculous tactics utilizing the power of Psi, they are planning to start a war, and end it in one decisive strike thanks to 2 generations of Psi sleeper agents deployed throughout the Solar system. And once they seize power they can start working on their ultimate goal - preparing humanity for the inevitable war with an alien threat responsible for the catastrophe of the Ark project. (But that is material for another campaign)

>>96864473
Cont (3/3)

The role of PCs in all this is that they are putting the puzzle pieces together as the only people somewhat aware of the great scheme. They will most likely want to stop the incoming war and help their faction reestablish itself. If they want to join the shadow faction after they learn the truth, I will have to change some plans, but i leave it up to them. It wouldn't be the first time they derailed my campaigns.

>>96864471
>Mars wins the war thanks to its new invention - mecha, known in the gameworld as ARES
Gonna need to know what ARES stands for!
Armored
Robotic
Exo-
Skeleton
?
>>96864471
>And here the campaign starts. PCs are pilots (glorified border patrol) of a minor faction. On one patrol they stumble upon an unidentified transport
OK, finally. All that background in the previous paragraph was unnecessary. Hostilities are brewing between Earth and the now-independant world of Mars, that's all the background players need to know or will care about. I know you spelled it out for the understanding of us readers, but be sure to make your players yawn from a big info-dump.

Anyway, your setting sounds neato! But it sorta seems like the players will be totally outmatched by telepathic sleeper agents -- not much giant robots can do against that!

>>96841819
>>96836271
This game is still trapped in 2003 on youtube
>video opens with shitty generic guitar riff
>audio balance sounds like guy is recording from the next room
>video content is just rambling about whatever for ten minutes with zero focus
>guitar riff exit screen

>>96798588 (OP)
I'm working on a setting with Dune-style shields which halt things that move over a certain velocity. One solution is weapons which shoot pellets of high explosive that move relatively slowly, but upon hitting the target stick to it and form themselves into spalling charges on the armor. The downside is that they won't do anything to armor unless they actually hit and stick to it, and they're slow-moving, so you have to spray hundreds of them to have a chance of damaging a mech. I think it'd be a cool visual though, hundreds of tiny explosions going off killing infantry all over the place while a giant robot speeds out of the way of the hail.

>>96869859
HG has a curious tone that makes it very hard to produce content for, I've noticed. Even without getting into the setting the Gears are cool enough that you should be able to do a hundred videos just on them and their sorded design histories.

>>96868830
>Armored Robotic Exo-Skeleton.
Armed Response ExoSuit. There is also other models following this naming scheme like Heavy Duty ExoSuit HDES "Hades", High Altitude Rapid Maneuver ExoSuit HARMES "Hermes". It is cheesy but i enjoy it.

>all that background was unnecessary.
Yeah i know, i just wanted to share the plot with someone. I can't really talk avout it with my players as it would ruin the fun of putting the puzzle pieces together and I know they really enjoy that part of my campaigns.
Funny enough one player predicted the whole plot once when we were joking around after session.

>players will be totally unmatched by the telepathic sleeper agents
When we rolled characters I made all players roll for Psi as well, but called it X instead as they were not supposed to know there are psionics in the gameworld back then. 2 PCs actually have latent psychic powers (one rolled energy manipulation, the other one passively generates a psychic deadzone - a power i added myself). They still haven't realised what is up, but they have managed very well against the enemy so far.

>>96839582
I'm gonna comment other stuff about the game, if it's not a problem.

Attack and damage calculation works like this: every unit has two attack stats (ranged and meele), alongside an "evasion" and "thoughnes" stats. When you attack someone, you roll d100+the attack stat of the weapon, then the target rolls d100+evade. If the evade roll is higher, it dodges the attack, if it's lower, the attack hits and you move to damage calculation.

You substract the dodge roll from the attack roll, and do the same with the thoughness stat. The ending number is the combat result, depending on how high or low it is, several effects happen, at the lowest the damage is reduced, but with higher results it has positive effects, depending on your weapon and/or character's skills (for example, a rifle could have an evade reduction (supressive fire) for the next attack, or you could have an skill that allows you to make a ricochet and attack another unit in range if you have a projectile weapon).

Finally, you calculate damage to the target using the final damage and the target's armor (if damage is low enough and/or armor is high enough, it can just nullify it).

Another important thing is unit size, if you attack something smaller, it gains a bonus to dodge, but you do more damage and reduce it's toughness, and viceversa, if you attack something larger, it's easier to hit but your attacks will be less efective. Some weapons and character skills can reduce this effects.

I still have to think on the concrete numbers, but at least this is the structure of it.

How's it looking?

>>96835903
Post build.

Anyone got the newest version of this thing?
I only have the old 1.0 release and it crashes if I even so look on is general direction
https://interpoint-station.itch.io/lancer-map-creation-tool

>>96871846
>Another important thing is unit size
Nice, I love that.
Why is it so many mecha games don't bother dealing with this?

>>96876518
A lot of games of all types have trouble with the concept of their character/units/etc existing as physical objects in a world.

>>96876463
Here you go.
https://filebin.net/3kaxlnoi7al3mpd4

Buy it if it's useful for ya

>>96876518
>>96876779
If I were to guess, I think it's because balance (how do you balance lets say, an scopedog vs gunbuster just in terms of size?) and practical reasons (you can't make a dungeon that fits everyone, same with battlefields), keeping everyone on the same size with minimal differences is much easier to design arround, like it or not.

But I don't agree so I'll put it, one way or another. Mech as a genre is too broad to limit it to a narrow size range. Currently, I think that 200 meters (roughly gunbuster's size) is the maximum size before it becomes too impractical, luckily, there isn't that much stuff bigger than it, not counting ships.

happy halloween mechamonday

>>96881043
Happy Halloween to us all!

>>96876518
Most mecha settings have units roughly the same size as each other anyway. Maybe some are a head taller or smaller, and then you might have rules for mobile armors/vessels or whatever else that might break the standard.

>>96869859
Actually it’s trapped in 1995 on usenet

>>96846573
Anyone?

>>96846573
>>96887118
ALL sizes

What's a good resource for maps? I'd like to play a mecha game, but I'm having trouble finding good outdoor maps at the scale I'd like (Where mechs are about the size of a large tank. Maybe two stories tall at most.)

>>96888422
The Lancer map maker tool is handy. >>96877525
I also heard some people using Megamek.

Any new news on Gundam Artifact? I've been out of the loop when it comes to /tg/ mecha stuff.

>>96892603
You mean the wargame? That's Gundam Assemble, Artifact is a line of small model kits.
If you mean assemble, not much, they showed minis for Gquuux and IBO mechs and that's it.

>>96846573
Who or what is the one directly under Rex? That, to me, feels like the ideal size

>>96893891
artist's OC

>>96893901
Neat. I naturally default to Patlabor (and still do) when it comes to my overall aesthetic although for combat purposes I think smaller mechs are better while bigger ones are better for construction.

>>96893901
cute anthro
why is every mecha thing just humans?!

>>96893901
Hey, that's not bad!
>>96846573
Hm. Looks to be the same size as a Blast Runner (5m) from Border Break.

>>96894624
Although... Now that I look at >>96846573 again, I think the scales are all over the place. Knightmare Frames are usually 4–5m tall, with the tallest white Lancelot being 5.15m. A Scopedog is 3.8m tall. Three Knightmare Frames could stand on each others' heads and still not being as tall as the 18m Gundam. That Ingram should be 8m but I don't think that one in the picture reflects that... Hurm.

>>96893883
Yeah I meant Assemble lol. I actually have had some Artifact models, they could probably make decent minis.

>>96846573
I'm a sucker for that 3-6m range: big enough that the pilot and cockpit makes up a measurable fraction of the torso space, but not quite so large that you're usually putting the pilot's limbs outside the frame.

I also like this as it leaves room for tanks and other conventional vehicles to still be quite potent, which they tend to not do once mecha get too big.

And in a pinch it means the bad guys can roll out a terrifying new superweapon that *is* 10m+ tall for a big scary monster that takes the entire player party to fight.

>>96895123
I think the two smaller ones are an Armored Power Exoskeleton from the Starship Troopers anime adaptation and one of the minimechs from Gasaraki. I want to say the blue one is from Full Metal Panic, but it looks a bit blockier than an Arm Slave. Or it might be a Wanzer from Front Mission. It kinda looks like a Zenith from the manga version, but I think the face is different.

>>96895882
No, wait, it can't be a Zenith. It doesn't have those weird emu toes.

>>96846573
Around 18m. I love the scale and physical presence of mechs at this scale. I worked backwards to justify in my setting why this scale works.

The special unique minovsky particle bullshit that makes mechs viable prefers being in an 18m meter tall humanoid frame with a humanoid, biological pilot inside. Smaller mechs are possible but not as efficient for power generation, and incapable of creating an energy barrier. Human resistance fighters are forever churning out bulky, fat "roach" mechs that can be made from 20th century materials and both thin tendril-like wiring and a tiny core engine of the precious psi-reactive material that makes mechs possible.

This weird size dynamic makes larger mechs really inefficient white elephants... until around the 180m height range, then plummet again in efficiency. These colossal, "siege mechs," are clumsy and incredibly expensive, but capable of effectively dueling with orbital warships and acting as the mother of all siege rams.

Its speculated by earth scientists that these size-energy equations would also even out at further magnitude ten intervals of 1800m and even 18,000m and beyond, but the mathematics required are astronomically difficult, far beyond what even pre-second-earth-war nations were capable of at their heights.

Its rumored that the aliens shipped in a single one of these 1800m titans during the final, terrible months of the Battle of Cheyene Mountain, but if it did really happen, it didn't work. Its fallen, metal carcass may still be out there in the heart of the rad-wastes.

>>96895882
The smallest one is a Mobile Infantry Powered Suit from Starship Troopers (picrel). The aqua & white one is an original design, seen here >>96893901. And if the tiny, sand-colored one between the Starship Troopers 'suit and the Scopedog is from Gasaraki, it's much too small. Tactical Armors are slightly taller than Armored Troopers like the Scopedog.

>>96896226
>Gasaraki
I thought it was the ones from obsolete. It's got the little knee circles.

>>96896261
You nailed it! It's an Exoframe from Obsolete.

>>96893901
Turns out that this artwork is by one Atsushi Murayama, a graduate of Kyoto Seika University's Department of Manga Character Design Course. I found him on Pixiv (yay) and X (yuck) but it doesn't look like he's named the machine. Surprising!

Only $9.99 to
BUMP
(ultra soft)

>>96798588 (OP)
>Can you come up with an imaginative new mecha weapon? Melee, ranged, whatever. Let's see what you've got!

Has there ever been a transforming mace or flail or ball-and-chain type thing? I can't think of any off the top of my head. I'm envisioning some kind of big metal ball on a long chain, but the ball can unfold into a claw or something... Not sure exactly where I'm going with this idea yet.

>>96798588 (OP)
>Can you come up with an imaginative new mecha weapon?
Eh, less imaginative and more iterative...
Everyone knows that the rocket punch is one of the classic and iconic mecha weapons, up there with the blazing sword. But I propose the use of miniaturized portal technology to enhance the range of your mecha fisticuffs, instead of rockets. No longer will combat teleportation be used merely to flash-step behind your opponent or warp to safety after a humiliating defeat by the heroes. No. Now you can open mecha-fist-sized holes in the fabric of spacetime, and deliver a flurry of manly punches at range. Just like your genius scientist father would have wanted.

>>96888422
Here's an old Lancer Community Map listing, which might have useful things for your game. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HEcgdjk2klCRLdrJU4wdXFnuscDnXuH43J9OcTKkKE8/edit?usp=drive_link
Also, if you pay attention to the "notes" column, you'll see a number of options for making your own. Aerial or drone photos of real-world locations, various mapmaking programs like Inkarnate, etc.
Also check out Spriter's Resource. You can often repurpose maps from some of the more recent Super Robot Wars or SD Gundam games. All the mecha GMs I've played with have all gotten good use from those maps.

>>96898769
I like the cute furry girl

Fucked up that I'm still waiting for gundam assemble. Hope it blows up and I can make a billion tiny little kondo customs.

Thoughts/Experiences with Beam Saber, please.
I don't need a super crunchy mecha system, I can use a skirmish game for that, but I do want one that's pretty pilot focused.

>>96903922
I'm pretty sure they had one in that SD Gundam game on the Wii or WiiU. It was all about using the motion controller to swing various incarnations of the Gundam Hammer.

>>96798588 (OP)
>Can you come up with an imaginative new mecha weapon? Melee, ranged, whatever. Let's see what you've got!
I always thought that making the mech itself the weapon was the way to go. My ideal mech would be like a giant crab and that it's pincers would be versatile weapons. There could even be a mecha crab martial art, a crab-fu.

>>96846573
I'm mostly a power suit guy for my setting. About 5 meters for the largest power armor/mech