How are the mechas in your fantasy setting powered? Mine are through mining and alchemical refining of the cores of meteorites. Although, there has been theories proposed that the heart cores of Titans are capable of drawing even more vitality and power.
>>92528351Good ol' fashioned diesel fuel. Mechs in my setting are still primitive and clunky.
>>92528351Anything a mecha can do can be done with power armor.The only thing mecha has over power armor is the size, which only serves as small penis cope by its fans.
>>92528351Each mech is the living embodiment of a single aspect of human nature. To power them, the chosen pilot must practice the behaviors which embolden those aspects.For example, a pilot that seeks to operate Charity must regularly give up material wealth, or in extreme cases, literal pieces of themself.
>>92528351Since the original way they were powered is lost technology in most places everyone had to come up with their own ways to power them. Dwarves use a special ore they mine, Elves use mana loaded crystals, Goblins and their allies use whatever they can scavenge, Harpies use energy absorbent cloaks and coatings and are mostly sun powered (the sun is not normal), the Mer use organic cores (organs that produce energy), and the few remaining humans of course just use the original energy reactors and cells that their ancestors created.
>>92528351Ambient magic focused through a small device worn by the pilot, every mech has to be carefully tuned, and the device is keyed to the soul of the pilot, so stealing a mech is an exercise of several months to realign the machine to receive power from a different key.
>>92528351Basically space ACFirst mechs where for mining and maintenance in 0 G , a big revolt happened a while from space miners where they wrecked the subjugation army of their corporate mastersSince then alot of armies try to make work without the success they want, mech are rare but there here and a lot of different type too.In game it will be a very decent vehicle
>>92528351cumThey are powered by a female pilot that is hooked up to an orgasm machine
>>92528351Power granted by spirits. The major cities have their own ruling gods that grant arms to their devout, but out in the wilds there are always hungry devils willing to take a chance on some sufficiently ambitious ronin.
>>92528351Micro fusion reactors, they're left over from the age of technology.
>>92528351The big three Mecha makers each have different engine usesHumans have crystal powered magitek engines powering themDwarves use an engine that no one can investigate cause it blows up if the mech is destroyed and they aren't willing to shareElven "mechs" (see mechas made out of metal and plants) take in mana from casters or if there are no casters nearby suck in ambient mana from the surrounding environment
>>92528500Last I checked power armor can't pick up a cargo ship and use it as an impromptu weaponCheckmate
>>92531905Depends on the game.
>>92528500Not doing limb in limb means you can have freakier designs. You're dooming it to a much more humanoid frame otherwise.
>>92530862I read that doujinshi, it was kinda weird, the mecha was autonomous and the captured woman inside knew cumming meant that the mecha would be powered up and start destroying the city and kill her friends and allies, so she did her best to struggle against it but of course eventually failed.
>>92534200You don't have to scale it up to mecha size to avoid "limb in limb", you can just make it slightly bigger and make whatever "freakier designs" are "needed".
>>92534200>Not doing limb in limb means you can have freakier designs.Yes, for example you could make it be mounted on treads, and perhaps have a turret, and ditch the arms, and... just make a tank.They look way fucking cooler than mecha.
>>92534989It goes without saying that vehicles do a better job at being war machines than mecha. Lower center of gravity, dispersal of weight over a wider surface area, greater aerodynamics, etc.No, [insert mecha anime preference here]'s tendency to give its mecha and pilots plot armor and machines made of the miracle bullshitium material to make tanks and planes look stupid by comparison doesn't count.But power armor is cooler than both mecha and vehicles.Sorry mechafags.
>>92534288>he thinks there was only onelollmao
>>92534962Limb in limb is power armor. If you sit in a cockpit then it's a mech. You probably like a lot of mechs because you've misled yourself into thinking it's a height thing. Votoms are mecha.>>92534989Stick arms on it and you might have a soul.
>>92528351No "mechs"There's giants, big golems and even bigger ents, but any war machines are decidedly non humanoid
>>92535081It's not like they have to be humanoid.
>>92535940i miss 86
>>92528500The size places harder restrictions on when you can and can't use it.Players hate having their weapons and armour taken away from them - they want to be armed to the teeth even while sleeping or walking down the street or meeting with the king. But most players will understand that they can't attend a ball while piloting a mecha.Paradoxically, including unrealistic fantasy mecha can actually make the setting more grounded, by forcing PCs to pay more attention to things like logistics and social norms. I.e. a mecha being the size of an elephant means it gets to be the elephant in the living room.
>any mecha thread>umm um um um umm umm DO YOU KNOW that ACKSHUALLY mechas are umm umm um not realUstic?We know, but we also are not low-test cowardly faggots with no suspension of disbelief (what are you guys doing on a board entirely dedicated to playing pretend anyway?)
>>92536562It's just the last place they can still do the>guys, I just found out a dragon couldn't possibly fly with that wingspan, and breathing fire, heh, well that's just ridiculous!
>>92528351Massive steam engines with magic reinforcement.The few that existed prior to the industrial revolution were mostly inefficient show pieces powered entirely by magic that would show up on a battlefield, shoot an inaccurate mini-nuke and fuck off before the enemy realized doing that sapped all the energy from its magician pilot for a year, but the recent invention of engines allows for the same amount of magical energy to be focused more towards enhancing systems rather than powering them entirely.They still aren't that practical but a few countries have them, mostly for fighting giant monsters.
>>92528351Nationalism. The 'mechs' (reffered to in setting as Effigys) are basically mini-gods that embody a nation. The will of the people and their fervor directly empowers the champion that defends them. Not being true gods, they require a living will to direct them, meaning that they are summoned around a person who serves as its core and permanently fuses with the Effigy, an echo of them remaining a constant part of all future incarnations of the Effigy. A fight between two Effigys is almost literally a clash between the spirits of two nations.
>>92536441>The size places harder restrictions on when you can and can't use it.This manifests the same "I invested in it but it's only useful in one specific scenario" problem that mounts/piloting and hacking/stealth typically have.This is not a point of favor.>But most players will understand that they can't attend a ball while piloting a mecha.Players should be able to identify a scenario like attending a ball or meeting a king as not being relevant to gameplay anyway.>logisticsPlayers who care about logistics don't need to be handheld by narrative limiters to use the powers and tools they invested in with sufficient force, instead of overkilling everything.If anything, mechanical limiters like having to generate enough of a resource, reducing the presence or quality of loot, or alerting further encounters should be the cost of using excessive force.>social normsIrrelevant to gameplay.>elephant-sized mechaToo small to classify as a mecha.
>>92537820>This manifests the same "I invested in it but it's only useful in one specific scenario" problemThat's only a problem based on use cases. Obviously not all things should be good in all situations and it can be very positive to have encounters where the most common solution doesn't work, hence all the dnd monsters that are literally just there to be an encounter you can't use a sword/spell/whatever on.>Too small to classify as a mechaVotoms are mecha. You have autism and you're just wrong. That's a terrible combination to live with.
>>92536562I think the most realistic depiction of mechs I've ever seen was the game Chromehounds. They were pretty much just tanks with legs and the only reason they were considered viable weapons on the battlefield was because there were solar flares that made the use of combat aircraft impossible.
>>92539138>Obviously not all things should be good in all situationsYes, but obviously there shouldn't be situations where "oh shit there's ANOTHER narrow dungeon you can't bring your horse in here too bad so sad shouldn't have made your character a cavalier". And don't say this would never happen, because there's plenty of shitfag DMs here admitting to being intentionally petty to shut down rider builds.A game's options should be exceptional in one regard, applicable to most aspects, and below average in the rest; there should never be a situation where an option is outright useless, especially when you have a game about delving dungeons and your entire focus is invalidated by the fucking dungeons.Insert chode-cope mecha where applicable, since they suffer similar issues.Just look at something like baseball, the pitcher; he can score outs not just by outskilling the batter, but by also throwing to basemen. Batters score runs for the team, runners of course run, but they can steal if they want to risk it. Outfielders catch hit balls or quickly throw to basemen. Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something vital. There's nobody on or around that goddamn diamond going "gee whiz, I can't do anything because I don't have a bat or a mitt", unless they're fucking benched.>Votoms are mechaAll right, I'll concede on that. They're at least somewhat reasonable in terms of their size, but they're still not as cool as power armor.Power armor > war vehicles > votom-sized mecha > gundam-sized mecha
>>92540688I think trying to make mechs "realistic" is a fool's errand. Even "Real robot" subgenre runs heavily on romanticism and suspension of disbelief, being essentially war drama but with big lads punching/shooting each other instead of vehicles scurrying around. Like, >>92541006 does not get the entire point of mecha, or maybe just has only D&D as trpg point of reference (a horrible fate). You don't need to JUSTIFY the use of mecha and mecha vs vehicles vs power armor is just a question of personal taste. You use mecha because you like mecha and they are cool, anything other is secondary.The real question and the riddle for the ages is, where the fuck are RPGs about planes.
>>92541166It isn't about realism.It isn't about what non-game media does with this or that thing.It isn't about personal taste.It's about game design and keeping useless options out. It's about having something reasonably sized which can operate with a significant portion the game's challenges that serves the same purpose as opposed to something obnoxiously huge but is only situational in "le kewl animaymay gundam space n open field battlez" because you want a narrative system instead of a game.There are enough posts in the chain, and ones that mysteriously no responses, that explain why.If you can't read, I'm not spending any more effort on you. Stay mad about your tiny penis.
>>92541464Not the guy you were talking with, just skimmed through your posts, saw abyss of autism and dismissed most of em.Ideally a mecha RPG would have a healthy balance of operating on foot and operating in mecha, as not every scenario would be big mecha brawlfest. You don't make a party of Orc fighter, Elf wizard and Human Mecha Pilot (RIFTS tried and it was awful), you make a party of mecha pilots who can do other things but can also sit in big fuckoff stompy machines and level a city or two.For the record, I prefer "power armor" to VOTOMS-sized mecha, so theoretically I should be agreeing with you, but you're making such a dumbass points, I can't.
>>92541464You keep insisting that mecha are too big and strong when they absolutely don't have to be. No one is even saying you can't, you're saying others can't and then crying about problems that aren't happening to anyone. I'm a power armor supremacist and you're a total deficit, you're actually making arguments so bad that you're scoring own goals.
Either thru pure World Tear crystals, which have a lot of power but absolutely cannot be cracked or otherwise damaged lest you invite a small Code Geass style warhead explosion at your power source, or world tear crystals grinded up into diesel. Also tangential question, I need mechs or mech sized weapons that a vampire arcane engineer would develop. Setting is basically just fantasy Iron Harvest in terms of tech and aesthetics.
>>92534989
>>92534989Leopards and Abrams in woodland style camouflage are so FUCKING sexual.
>>92528351For my shitpost setting I came up with in a few hours for a short campaign, mechs are powered by alcohol combustion- you can put any spirit into the tank without it gumming up, but the more pure the spirit, the higher performance. The most prized fuel is wine made from the gapes that grow on the All-Road, which seems to supply power to ancient technology that is near it. When they get near dragons, the mechs seem to enter a higher performance mode that people aren't sure how to activate manually, but it only really works if the current fuel is said Blood of the Gods wine.
>>92528351Basically the same as yours, actually. A special, extremely rare mineral found in meteorites that has a near perfect (99.999%) conductivity of magic that allows the activation of extremely complex efects thorugh a larger scale.
>>92528351Depends on the system
>>92536441>Players hate having their weapons and armour taken away from them - they want to be armed to the teeth even while sleeping or walking down the street or meeting with the king.Probably because the moment we disarm you faggot DMs throw the army of stealth ogres at us.>that they can't attend a ball while piloting a mechaNot with that attitude.
>>92528351Power Cells made from the crystal element used to keep airships aloft.OrLiteral Hellfire Engines
>>92528351Depends on the type.Golem guardians are powered by the divine energy of the spirits or gods whose true names are inscribed upon them via the faith/influence of their worshippers.Hell knights are powered by an internal infernal furnace burning churning souls.Mobile shells are living creatures purpose-bred by the octominds and can be fueled by any available biomatter.The curse of undeath won't LET necronaughts rest.Fairy/goblin phantasmaforms exist and move via an arcanely complex web of vows and lies.Etc.
>>92551119>>92536997>>92531881Dragonmech, anyone?Also, totally stealing this for my magitek monster slayer campaign.>>92534288Probably shouldn't ask here, but what's it called?
>>92551178You tell me, bumpfag
>>92551178"Dragons" are larger than knight, beast, or even monster class extra-humanoid type mechs.Behemoth-type land golems, leviathan-type living subs, miasma-ballon/cloud-type necroppelins, goblin-carnival-type large scale landscape distortions, hades-pit-type dimensional tunnelers.
>>92541006>>92541464If everyone in the party is assumed to be reliant on mechs for maximum efficiency though, then the game probably isn't going to be revolving around dungeon crawls for its primary combat scenarios. Situations where the entire party is expected to dismount are, by definition, going to be the exception. The significant portion of the games challenges are the ones where the mechs apply. The false assumption that keeps tripping you up is that the only way to do a fantasy game is to have all combat take place in narrow corridors.
>>92534989>>92535026Tank fags always shitting up good Mecha threads.
>>92537333This is by far the most badass post on the entire board right now
>>92559692Don't you have underage camgirl porn to be leaving at Medieval Times again, Randy?