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Repostin from last thread since I posted right before you baked.

>>93409584
Recently got my pre-order of the Tankhead Mechanical Encyclopedia Artbook in. Not directly a Wargame/TTRPG, but I've been following the artist stuff for years now & really love the weird alt-history setting they've cooked up. Highly recommend for anyone who just likes weird alt-history mechs.

Had a conversation with the writer as well & they were intrigued when I said I found the setting very inspiring for TTRPGs with how much thought they'd put into it. They asked what kind of game/gameplay I imagined for it. So I thought I'd pose the query to you guys here as well. What types of mechanics, systems, crunch level, etc do you think best fits an alt-historical war setting with combined arms?

>>93409584
Love this guy's stuff too. Twitter is an interesting place when it comes to mecha art, minis and TTRPGs/wargames. Quite a few people making their own systems over there that you never hear about anywhere else. My personal favorite is Ferrous by that one thai guy... I say favorite but I just really like his art and dev posts, I've barely skimmed through what few rules he's published.

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Reposting for the second time for attention but won’t spam further.

In my system MECtech, there’s 2 damage types and multiple types of attacks. The goal is to give each individual type of attack major strengths and weaknesses. Does this accomplish it?

Physical damage
>resisted by armor. Each level of armor reduces damage from EVERY individual die by that number

Burst fire/rapid fire guns
>always deals damage with d4s or d6s
>a burst is assigned a specific number of individual shots which are then multiplied for ease(usually 3-5 shots)
>5burst d4 means roll 1d4, subtract the target’s armor, multiply what’s left by 5

>rapid fire guns operate in bursts and also has a maximum amount of “bursts” it can shoot in a single turn
>ie, 3shot burst, 5bursts possible in a single attack(15 shots total), with a magazine of 30.
>first burst comes out as a “quick attack” which means the target can’t do anything to defend against it
>all remaining bursts count as slow attacks, which means the target has a chance to roll to block or displace themselves(via combat dive or jet boosters) a space or 2 behind cover which would block all remaining burst

Single fire guns
>typically deals 1 or 2dX worth of damage in the larger die sizes(d8,10,12)
>pistol-type guns are weaker but can be used in counter attacks
>rifle-type guns have longer range and deal damage in d10s or d12s

Melee attacks
>any attack made with a melee attack has a flat +X damage bonus that isn’t reduced by anything

Explosives
>count as slow attacks which always give all affected targets a chance to react
>explosions deal large damage with a flat damage bonus(ie. 4d8+5)
>an explosion attack roll that “misses” the target still hits, and damage is instead reduced by 1die and the flat bonus
>using a reaction to displace yourself usually has a range of 1-3 spaces. Each space between you and the explosion decreases damage by 1die

>>93409681
Cont.

Energy damage
>reduced by equipped energy shields in the same vein as Master Chief’s power armor from Halo, minus the recharging
>energy shields have a battery life of typically 15-30, and a frequency of d4-d12
>energy shield battery life drains by 1 point per every energy-based damage die thrown at you, no matter the die size, and reduced damage by half
>energy shields of the same frequency as the energy attack damaging you(d6 for example) still have their battery life drained as usual, but negate damage instead

>>93409649
Yeah it can be pretty hard to find and keep track of on twitter. Haven't heard of Ferrous but I'll look into it.

For the Tankhead book I was pretty impressed with the art book. I very much expected a simple art collection but it has a world map, full timeline, information about the major nations, and ~200 pages of art each with technical/mechanical blurbs and fluff.

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>TQ

I put some thought into designing quadrupedal mechs but haven’t put the final coat of paint on them. The main differences would be

>less health points, more avoidability
>benefits from momentum which is normally reserved for flying units(move a large amount of spaces to gain more avoidability
>can’t hold guns, but can equip more weapons overall that need to benefit from lock on
>more dependent on specific parts to perform specific functions(ie, can’t reload weapons without a specific attachment

>>93409637
Tankhead kicks ass but I think it would be best as a miniatures skirmish game. The big problem as an RPG is that tankheads require a few people to man each

>>93409806
The writer said they approached it as a setting with Wargaming in mind. That said I think there's room for both if you shift the focus of the TTRPG side to more like spec-ops/specialist units or just have players as Tank Commanders with a NPC crews.

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>>93409806
So do the walkers in Gear Krieg and Dust. But you could always have the PCs being the vehicle commanders of a squadron and having the rest of the crew be NPCs.

so whats the line for where you stop considering something a mech?
Tread legs? walkers? more than two legs?
has to have arms?

what about materials? has to be mechanical? no biotech?
or any other line you personally have?

>>93410130
I know it when I sees it.

>>93410130
All mecha. Everything on that list is mecha.

>>93410130
For my taste it has to be mechanical, legged, and piloted (no exo anything). Otherwise you get "Ratatouille is mecha" shenanigans.

>>93410242
>Otherwise you get "Ratatouille is mecha" shenanigans.
wellllll......i meeeaaann......

>>93410242
Power armor is mecha whether you like it or not.

>>93410286
not him, but i certainly disagree.
i could see the argument for what i consider exo suits, but not power armor.

Power Armor is just form fitting armor, but mechanically enhanced. would always be infantry level only.

Exo Suits are a gray area, but typically have the human limbs going partially into the arms and legs of the 'suit', but with fully mechanical extensions on them. possibly fully mechanical head too, but either or there.

Mechs for me require a full pilot seat more akin to typical vehicles, though 'motion detection' seats like in that one gundam series works too.

>>93410286
Different thing, same genre. A slasher film and monster film are both gonna be horror, but jason isn't a monster and dog soldiers isn't a slasher.

>>93410338
adding i like all three and am fine with them all being in the same setting, so to me its also mildly irrelevant outside of silly autism categorization conversations.

>>93410338
I get that it's your opinion but I think you got the definition of power armor and exosuits reversed

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Want input on Heavy Gear Blitz, particularly Utopia. Already have a list that I'm more or less committed too, and want tips/input from anyone on how to approach actually playing

>CG1
>Duelist Support Armiger with a bunch of upgrades, CGL
>Grenadier APE 2iC with ECM upgrades
>EMT Commando Drone
>2x Mortar Drones

>CG2
>Node APE CGL and another Grenadier APE
>Pazu trooper drone 2iC and three more trooper drones, two with targeting designators and one with ECM/ECCM
>Another EMT drone in a secondary group

>CG3
>Two support APEs with SO upgrade, one as 2iC
>Two commando drones with rockets and VTOL, one Panzu as CGL and the other with ECM
>Two EMT drones

My general idea right now is that CG1 will be at mid-range and focused on fire support, CG2 will move in closer and try to paint with target designators for fire missions for CG1, and CG3 will be fast for harassing, response, or range. Feel like Utopia is pretty limited overall compared to most armies but I've tried to play into their strengths, particularly I'm hoping the EMT drones will give more longevity when used alongside the Look Out Sir rule. At the same time I'm worried I don't have enough ablative wounds in sacrificial drones.

>>93410382
not at all.
a good, or at least probably the most famous, example of power armor is Halo. its... a bit too space magic for my tastes, but the idea is still there. its just armor, but better and enhances the user, but doesn't REEEALLY add to their form. the hands are still their hands, just covered. same with feet, head, legs, etc.
this is typically what most things called power armor is.
Exo Suits like i said though are a gray are pop culture wise. people have called everything from power armor, to what i called exo suits, to your typical mech exo suits. there really isnt ANY cultural agreement on what is an exo suit, unlike the other two, while are always further to one of the two extremes being laid out here.

actually, i guess there is actually one weird thing i can think of; when an exo suit is more on the 'mech' side of things, it usually doesn't have a head competent, from what i can think of. least in western media. but thats about the dumbest reason imo to distinguished the two groups if ever there was one.

>>93410408
Seems solid enough of an army list. Wish I had more input but I've never played as or against Utopia. Best I can say is that you have a solid idea for each combat group and taking upgrades into account.

>>93410570
Any experience with Repair/Patch? Worried about the conceptual efficiency of spending 6 TV for a dedicated heal bot compared to putting field armor/shield on the duelist for more longevity. This might also be more about me worrying that most of the list is AR 5/6 and not actually that bulky, with the support armiger being the heaviest at only AR 8 (though 5H 1S is sweet).

>>93410338
I could care less about arbitrary lines in the sand personally. Stuff like Appleseed's Landmates are mecha enough for me. I'm more interested in where the focus lies than trying to lump stuff into groups. If the story puts emphasis on the mechanical armor & treats it with some amount of gravitas, then I can consider it mecha enough, but if the setting just treats it like "space platemail" without any thought then nah.

>>93410408
and interesting thing i recently noticed, as someone getting into the game with Caprice, is Caprice, Black Talon, and Utopia rely basically exclusively on AP to fight heavier armor(10-12), with Utopia being the exception with a single raw damage option outside this on the gilgamesh.
(talking their raw lists here, obviously with allies they could possibly get some options).

sure, raw damage weapons aren't necessarily much better actually against heavier armor, but its certainly still nice to have them as an option.
with how the rolls work, without AP those factions can even get dicey with medium armor(8-9).
that said, AP is more than enough to get by with, any outside of maybe CEF you dont exactly expect to only run into heavier armor, but it still made me totally rethink how i was building my lists.

>>93410600
i get that. like i said >>93410378
its mostly just the enjoyment of the discussion itself for me.
its moreso i see what power armor and mechs are having much stronger agreeances in media generally, but exo suits being all over the place, so it seemed logical to me it was probably someplace in the middle of the two.

>>93410636
Yeah I feel like most people don't even really understand what an exo-suit is or what it is for. Especially if they haven't had much exposure to harder sci-fi as a genre.

>>93409729
The Thai guy making Ferrous is @Rattapoom_K aka Lewis RK. As the other anon said, Twitter's an interesting place with regards to this since he's mutuals with Sean Suchanya, Tim Popelier & others on the site with closely aligning interests.

>>93410622
I've seen people talk about simply ignoring armor entirely by spamming marginal hits (fire, haywire, ecm), but I feel like that's too cheesy so I've never wanted to try it myself

>>93410408
Damn it blows my mind when I see heavy gear minis painted this clean. The sculpts do not make it easy.
Also this pic makes me glad I bought a pack of commando drones to start my utopia army. The recon suits are definitely the faction's strongest design but the guns on those drones are too comically phallic to ever sit there for hours putting a good paint job on seriously wtf dick bots

>>93410598
>Any experience with Repair/Patch?
Sadly no. That would require me having an Engineering Gear or Baxter as a Norf lad. It might be fine for the Armor 8 Armiger since repair only works up to Armor 8 anyways but I might go for the field armor personally.

>>93410745
Unfortunately dick bots are the only source of target designator in your army unless you're springing for the big tank

>>93410707
well yeah, you can do that too, but thats not 'unique' to any faction, thats just a thing you can do. the lack of heavier weaponry on those three factions is going to FORCE you to go to AP and/or those methods, over them being an option.

im also not saying if its a good or bad thing, only something i noticed. with Caprice i just assume its a way to balance them having an easier time keeping mobile while also having or not losing dice pool advantages due to stable (and climber helps a bit too). not sure about the other two factions there though.

>>93409649
The ferrous stuff is abolutely bare bones for kids.
Also apart of OGRE and perhaps battletech, are there other hex and chits or wargames of that style for mecha fans? Seems the best sytem desu.

>>93409806
You could play Only War with the PCs as a tank crew inside a single vehicle, that shouldn't be a problem if you want to do it.

>>93410338
>>93410505
You can disagree all you want, but you’re objectively wrong. Power armor is mecha. Anime and manga featuring power armored heroes are classified as mecha. You don’t get to decide these things, that’s just what they are.

>>93411147
I think there's a language problem with the term mecha that's making things confusing. In terms of the origin of the term and as a genre classification you're right. But mecha as a layman's term these days always means "piloted, walking, most likely bipedal, giant vehicle" That's what it has come to mean so that people know you're not talking about power armor or drones or any other similar camp of machine and technology. That's why it's generally better to just say "mech" instead. Mecha is the genre, mech is the specific type of machine. You start calling Mjolnir armor "mecha" at work, your co-workers will give you a strange look, except the one guy that has a Ultraman button, He'll get you.

Mech roleplaying game that's not a tactical boardgame.

>>93410776
I guess I'll just have to lean into fielding a bunch of dick bots.
there's got to be an inside joke about it.
I dunno kinda ruins it for me.
I hope the next faction is just covered in vagina missile launchers.

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>>93411261
It probably wouldn't look so phalic if A. The legs were raised higher and B. if it were a grower rather than a shower. It's why the Naga can get away with a dick gun. Hell the flamer varient even has balls. But on a Naga it feels more like a chin gun.

>>93411257
Armor Astir if you can stomach PbtA.
Beam Saber if you want a shitty BitD hack where the mechs are an afterthought.
Mechasys if you’re willing to buy Genesys dice or don’t mind using a dice app or online roller.

>>93411261
Traveller and Only War have mechs in them
Mechwarrior can be played without Battletech, but it is usually preferable to use Battletech for the mech scenarios

Tips on blending mecha with tacticool infantry action?
I'm taking ideas from Titanfall but I'd appreciate other sources.

>>93411813
You have to make the infantry super-human to keep up. Exoskeletons at least. Otherwise their only real move is "get inside a building and hope it doesn't blow up the building". Most mixed arms uses bases of infantry to make up for it which isn't very tacticool.

>>93411813
Have objectives only infantry can complete (Storming and holding a building), give them weapons that can threaten mecha (ATGMs, anti materiel rifles), give them ways to keep up with mecha (Motorized/mechanized transports) and give them ways to hide and set up ambushes. In essence, just treat mechs like tanks in real life warfare and infantry like, well, infantry.

>>93410408
>>93411261
Utopia does currently lack big guns but that’s not really an intentional feature, they just haven’t got their standard tanks yet. That should be solved in the future.

And you don’t need dickbots for TD, you can just buy some recon infantry.

>>93411147
er, think you got the wrong guy, and/or completely lost track of that convo while reading.
i was not the OG guy arguing if power armor was mecha or not, nor was i even making or NOT making that argument specifically with either of those posts.

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We're working on MechaStellar VER10 and aim to release it around November with the initial open playtests starting in about a week.

The goal for this Version update is to unify the core attack mechanic so Shooting and Melee will follow the same format.

Both will use die pools, where you compare the Shooters dice pool vs the target's Evade dice pool, likewise for Melee ATK and Melee DEF dice pools. Every 5+ is a Hit and every 10 is a Crit. All the combat modifiers from a unit Frame, Performance and Combat Role will translate into bonus Hits or bonus DEF on these rolls.

We're also adding in Counter-attacks as a default option for any Skilled / Ace pilots for Shooting or Melee.

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Tankhead’s okay but where’s my boi

>>93414154
As it's a late WW2 tank, probably not built in the setting yet.

>>93414300
They have the King Tiger

>>93412521
>We're also adding in Counter-attacks as a default option for any Skilled / Ace pilots for Shooting or Melee.
Sounds like a fun mechanic. What's to stop having a force of all Newtypes though? Even if it's just cost.

>>93409623
Relating to OP's question but I want to know if there are systems that have wacky shit like GiTS spider tanks or Metal Gears. I know Heavy Gears has bigger, more unconventional Gears so I guess I'll start looking there.

>>93416840
Infinity

>>93416847
A quick Google search showed me mostly humanoid mechs but I did see some cool walker minis. I'll give it a look too.

>>93416837
Great question! The Counter option has reduced Hits, and we've been fine tuning balance the last month to make it so Attack and Defense generally result in 0-2 Hits getting through, so the Counter option is hard to dangerous unless you specifically build a pilot around it.
Still, even if you do, the enemy is likely to get in good chip damage since you are not prioritizing defense at that point.

>>93416847
NTA but I don't know shit about Infinity other than what I saw on that thread about the new show, here I thought it was a discount Halo RPG.

>>93411813
>>93412041
What this anon said
Give them cool rides, APCs, Hovercraft, Helicopters, Heck even Jeeps and Motorcycles, or awesome (and fast) powered armor suits
And give them things to do, objectives to capture and retreat with under the covering fire of the big darn heroes in their mecha, buildings to hold, vehicles and static weapons to commandeer
Heavy Gear does combined armed warfare pretty darn decently, Battletech too
One could also make it work with Traveller, but it's not ideal, will probably need some houserules or system mashups

>>93416840
Battletech has quad mechs and mildly transforming tank-treaded quad mechs, and transforming fighter-plane mechs pretty directly ripped from Macross
Also pretty beefy mini mecha and heavy powered armors
It also has giant Ekranoplan-like WIGE planes, massive fixed wing planes that can be turned into giant gunship helicopters with the V/STOL option,
Armored and armed trains
Tanks that haul trailers with massive artillery pieces
huge spaceplanes that can demolish in a CAS role, large spheroid and office tower sized dropships that can serve as fortresses when landed
Colossal wet-water warships and submarines
Massive crawler landships
Laser-Guided missile artillery piece that can fire mini nukes and be pushed around on a wheeled gun mount by an infantry platoon, or mounted on a mech or tank

Heavy gear also has quad legged mecha, some of which have tank treads too, and most of the Gears have a secondary movement wheeled drive system so they can roller skate around
Also has giant landships, but theirs hover over the ground

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>>93416840
Yeah, the Caprice faction is all about quads. Their four legged mechs can easily climb walls.

>>93419308
kek, never noticed that mine in that pic.

their new stuff added back in mechs to the faction, though most of it still has climber. shame not stable trait on em, makes them mesh weirdly with the rest of their forces imo.

I'm thinking of reworking my lock mechanic

>2d10; roll >20 to achieve a lock

I'm weighing a few effects

>double d6 pool with lock ie 2d6 becomes 4d6, or halve without ie 4d6 becomes 2d6
>lower TN on dice pool to convert to damage - ie 4d6 hitting on 5s hits on 4s with a lock
>add 1 die to pool by however much you exceed 20 up to [limit]

The TN's scale the best, but I'm not sure they're a big enough bonus, and you're limited by the granularity to 2+ as the best you can do

Should I consider abandoning either d6 dice pools for damage, or abandoning this idea of locks entirely?

>>93416840
Metalhead has Insectors, which are the four- and six-legged walkers.

>>93412245
the good uncle heavy gear really did utopia a huge favor with those new infantry sculpts. really put the theme back in focus. when the plastics first came out I couldn't tell what the hell I was looking at from the box art.

>>93419367
I kinda like it. The Stable is unique to the mounts that have built-in weapon hardpoints, opposed to weapons held in manipulator hands.

>>93420558
nah i think they just think its something inherent to having 4 legs, considering the one mech variant with 4 legs also has stable.
which to be fair, it probably would help, im just saying i think you could find ways to make it work with 2 legs too.

>>93419671
It seems unlikely at present to get a lock
2d10 will never give a result more than 20
If the sensor operator gets a +1, they still only have a 1/100 chance
also it uses different dice than the shooting phase
I'd recommend having combat support tasks be easier than direct combat tasks, and have their successes make combat tasks easier.
In addition: if your game is still in early development, I would generally recommend reversing that TN mechanic, example: TN2 to hit, roll under TN. The advantage being that one can more quickly add die faces to determine successes, 1s giving margin of success 1, 2s giving margin of success 2 etc

>>93421003
>they still only have a 1/100 chance
Would that not be a 3/100 with the +1? Still low but hey, not 1%.

>>93421003
A typical bonus would be in the realm of +9/10 between skill and equipment, for a 60-66% ish chance on my current design doc. I wanted more granularity than Battletech's 2d6 to differentiate pilots and equipment.

>>93420349
That was a weird case because the blobdrones were supposed to be their infantry-scale robots and the gear-scale ones were more like spiders. But somebody fucked up and they got upscaled to gear size

Two or three big factions, or several smaller ones?

>>93424005
Does scale dictate detail in this case? If so, it's better to have a few factions of higher detail and quality as opposed to several of low detail.
That being said, if you're not going to detail things too much anyways and you're just going by themes, then giving GMs several smaller factions to work with is a good idea.

>>93424005
They should be at least as different as Gaslands factions. Start with three imo.

>>93424005
two is fine starting out, but long term in my opinion limited.
it can also make the world feel bland, unless you've broken those factions down enough to the point they may aswell not be one faction anyhow to some degree.

>>93424005
I personally like having two or three big factions and then having a few smaller factions
Makes the world more lively imo

>>93417370

It's more like Dune but with more cyberpunk and the weeaboo turned up to eleven Vs the Covenent from Halo.

Is there a Tankhead PDF anyway

>>93421003
>also it uses different dice than the shooting phase
This was deliberate. I know it's not in vogue compared to using the same dice mechanic for everything; however, I wanted a kinesthetic separation - you know you're making a Pilot Skill check because you're rolling 2d10. You know you're resolving attack because you're using something else.

>>93417370
It's more like Ghost in the Shell meets the A-Team.

>>93411813
In addition to what's already been mentioned, you may want to consider Ring of Red where mech's have an attached squad that can do different things like anti-mech actions, or infantry that are good at killing infantry so they can't get off RPG shots.

>>93428574
Dead tree only as of now. There's been digital versions showing up for sale in various places, but they're all just scams.

Maybe it'll eventually turn up on sadpanda

Any inputs on what a good UMF Norf + Peace River collab paint scheme might be? I'm struggling for ideas.

>>93428574
I don't have the kind of scanner to make one. Not that I'd wreck my copy to do it anyways.

>>93430259
Dollar sign camo?

>>93430259
Happy merchant camo

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Running a lancer game, going to be ~3 sessions. Starting at LL3
Saturday night 7-11 pm EST
reply with your discord

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>>93432863
Lol what would that look like? Like pic?
>>93433322
I assume that would mainly be black, white, and gold. Which actually might work. It would basically be how the Pitbull in the 3.1 rulebook was painted.

>>93437152
That's a good one, but I meant all the patches over the base colour are dollar signs - $$$.

>>93430259
How about a WFP + NuCoal collab paint scheme?

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>modules /sessions are split into 2 distinct parts

Out-of-mech half
>players play as their pilots, in a much more rules-lite environment
>players have 12 “fate points”
>successfully doing a challenging task costs 1 fate point
>failing a task mostly continues the story
>doing enough tasks gets you closer to finding out information for the upcoming mech battle like enemy weapon types, formation etc
>dropping to 0 fate points means your pilot got incapacitated in some way and can’t pilot his mech, forcing the player to use a shittier npc to participate
>after the out-of-mech portion is complete, players have the opportunity and time in/out of character to make any available modifications to their mech based on what they found out

In-mech combat
>head, left arm, right arm, legs, back accessory, and main weapon are all assigned a specific number on a d6
>every mech part has a “critical threshold”
>dealing damage equal in an attack to or greater than a part’s threshold triggers a critical hit
>critical hits can damage or destroy a part
>rolling a critical hit against a part that doesn’t exist instead does damage to a player’s fate points
>losing all fate points in mech combat makes your mech explode and instantly kills the pilot

How’s it sounding? I like the idea of sudden, surprise danger

>>93438581
depends on what you're going for setting wise.
first impressions from all that is its supposed to be some sorta gladiator/curated/planned fights type of thing.
if thats what you want, then sure its giving off the right impression. if not, then guess theres your answer too.

>>93438745
>Gladiator/curated/planned fights
How do you mean? Aren’t all ttrpgs curated/planned? The goal was to make an example of how gameplay flows between in and out of mech activities. I believe there’s enough freedom for any dm to customize their own enemies, or use default enemies in their own way.

>>93438777
plenty of games, least from the PLAYER perspective, have battles that come from nowhere or are unexpected.
having a limited fate points in general makes it feel like a countdown timer towards the upcoming battle, also making it feel much more like a planned thing in universe too.
plus one of your examples is straight up collecting data on what gear the enemy may have. 90% of situations where that would really be wholly viable, and moreso without finding out having major risk of just becoming the fight itself if something goes wrong, would be if you are in a position where you know they cant really fight you til a specific time. in war, you often simply dont have the luxury spending time getting too much detailed info, and scouting to find out that info carries major risks of getting caught and being forced into a skirmish anyhow.

simply put, in a vacuum, yes, that gameflow feels extremely curated and controlled, leading me to feel like it was made for/would work best in a sorta gladiator-arena fighting type game.

>>93438847
I understand what you mean. Surprise battles aren’t really something unexpected even encourage. If anyone is surprised, how long would it take to get into a mech after all? And even though it’s fantasy and anything could happen, I never really saw mechs as something that people just casually travel around in. Always in combat, or waiting for combat. So yea, I suppose it IS a gladiator arena in a way.

>>93438885
well, how do things go for tank crews and other vehicles in the real world?
mechs would be no different than that.

cant say i know exactly how it goes mind you, but my guess is theres two options;
>Tanks/vehicle crews simply never leave the tank without at least enough to man the gun, and/or gun and driver if small enough crew, unless they are in a backline base they trust wont be attacked.
>Basically, Tank/vehicle crews arent the ones going out scouting, unless specifically using their vehicle to do it.
or
>they just accept/end up getting their position hit while out of position to use their vehicles sometimes, and have to wait for an opening in the fight to safely get into them

technically not mutually exclusive, but you get my point.

also
>I never really saw mechs as something that people just casually travel around in.
not sure what you mean by this exactly. gotta get the mech around somehow.
again, probably best to look up how actual military combat vehicles are treated to see how it would play out.

>>93438935
I meant, even with real life tanks(I’m no historical expert so correct me if I’m wrong) you’d never casually travel in them. Either you’re driving the tank directly to combat, to some sort of base relating to combat, or it’s being transported by some other vehicle right? No one just hangs out in tanks if a battle isn’t imminent or drives a tank to pick up groceries.

My main point here being
>it takes too long to climb into a mech and get it running if you’re surprised by another mech suddenly
>people wouldn’t just hang out in mechs for no reason so surprise battles just wouldn’t work

Not to say that there couldn’t be surprises DURING battles

>>93439090
well yeah, more or less, but that also just means you might end up in some combats without your mech.
if you're trying to make the flow feel natural and not too gamey or curated, its going to end up in situations outside the mech, even with combat.

i guess my point moreso is saying, totally split combat/non combat sections is hard to make feel natural if its a war scenario, and my argument is i do not feel your system seems like it gets off that natural feel.
maybe a longer or more in depth explanation or something on how you fully want the fate point non combat system to work would help, assuming you have it hashed out enough for that yet.

>>93439281
No new thread?

>>93439281
A divide between combat and non-combat has always been the main weakness of a lot of mecha TTRPGs in general. Lancer I think is a very good example of this, where they practically have mech and non-mech be two entirely different games with zero overlap.

>>93443541
When you try to mix them, character creation tends to overly centralize on the god stat and god skill that makes you the best pilot, and if you aren't, you're kinda a drag on the ensemble.

That's why mecha systems tend to segregate these things. You'd find the same problem if you tried to turn Ace Combat into an RPG - if your pilot stat+skills aren't juiced, you kinda suck.

>>93443741
Entirely correct, though I still consider it an imperfect solution from a game design perspective. Ideally, instead of having a certain subset of skills that are the "pilot skills" and then ones that are "non-pilot skills", you should have all stats or attributes in some way be relevant both inside the giant robot as well as outside the giant robot.

My solution was to focus less on "how good is your pilot number", and instead made it a matter of "what kind of piloting are you the best at", and then how does that kind of piloting translate into out of cockpit. The guy who likes redlining his engine is a cocky daredevil, the guy who focuses on precise hits is consummate and professional, the guy who makes his robot dance is showy and confident, the guy who gives in-combat orders is focused and adaptable.

>>93443741
well, thats because the games often are focused on BEING a mech rpg, not an rpg in a world that has mechs.
and, maybe not all the time, but often, thats what the players want. to be a mech pilot, but their own unique one with a face.

really, i think thats the problem in general, not just with the current system the one anon put forward;
are you trying to make a mech rpg, or an rpg in a mech setting?

if the first, lets be honest- no one REALLY care about the non mech parts being too in depth. sure, they may like and want it, but its probably not what anyone is really there for, so this section probably shouldn't be its own section or anything your character evne CAN build themselves for. instead, it should just be an excuse for downtime and to give a story reason for the next battle, which can usually be done fluidly, instead of mechanically.

if the second, then things should still be fluid, but for a different reason- why should it even be guaranteed everyone has mechs? or is even a fighter in general? this is of course, a complicated question with a myriad of details needed to hash out, and to come to an answer for, but the point is still if its just supposed to be a focus on fleshing out the setting past the mechs, then you do that by building up more than just the mechs.

>>93443791
Yeah, that's why I went with separate Piloting, Gun, Melee, Missile so there are more ways to differentiate pilots. Battletech's two stats are kinda limiting in your ability to differentiate pilots. Obviously, the machines are more of a focus in that game, which is fine, but the point stands.

>>93409623
Anybody ever played Mobile Frame Zero with miniatures instead of Legos?
What minis from what manufacturer did you use? And is it fun?

I also want to get into enjoying Mecha animes mostly for frame of reference to also get into the "zone" for Mobile Frame Zero assuming MFZ is good.
So far I've got Gurren Lagann, Evangelion, Patlabor and Gundam S(n)eed on my list of animes to watch.
Is Gundam Seed one of the best Gundam animes or is it the best or is there a better one?

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>>93443880
Seed is good, but you should also watch the original from '79. It aged damn well.
I'd also add some Votoms or Dougram for Takahashi goodness. The former inspired Heavy Gear, and the latter influenced Battletech.

>>93443880
Ignore Seed entirely. Watch the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and then Zeta.

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>>93443880
i personally think Gundam; Iron Blooded Orphans was honestly the best Gundam, and even some of the best mecha, i've ever seen.

>>93443880
Patlabor is excellent inspiration for more grounded mecha. As others mentioned, classic Gundam is amazing, but if you want something shorter check out Gundam Thunderbolt or one of the other AUs. Seed is a worse rehash of UC.

I also recommend Full Metal Panic, Eighty Six, Appleseed, Sakura Wars, & Heavy Object. Escaflowne and Break Blade too for a bit of Fantasy mecha.

>>93443913
>and the latter contained mech designs that FASA licensed.
Fixed. That series was only subbed during the 2010s.

>>93443741
This is something imminently solvable for a game you are writing, because you can diversify stats at your discretion

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>>93444096
>multiple mecha design isn't influence

>>93444096
>In the mid-1980s, American gaming company FASA Corporation used the vehicle designs of the show for its Battletech miniature wargame and role-playing game. The first edition, then named BattleDroids, actually included two Japanese 1/144 model kits from Dougram. FASA was later sued by Playmates Toys and Harmony Gold USA for using designs from Macross (for example, Valkyrie fighters renamed Stinger, Wasp and Phoenix Hawk).[1] The lawsuit was settled and as a result, post-lawsuit Battletech products no longer feature the designs taken from Macross. However, in the years since, the designs from Macross, Dougram, and Crusher Joe have since been re-introduced, albeit with completely original artwork.

>>93439281
My fault for not giving you all the details but combat isn’t necessarily separated by in and out of mech play. The logic is more like

In-mech play
>main focus of the system
>moderate crunch with focus on rules and mechanics

Out-of-mech play
>the appetizer with all of the exploration
>extremely rules-lite because the focus is the mechs
>out-of-mech play revolves around using fate points as a vague source of ‘stamina’
>difficult tasks(talking to someone important, digging holes, brawling with someone etc) subtract 1 fate point on success and an appropriate die size of fate points on failure
>what actually happens is almost entirely fluff
failing a task of “escape the gunman” doesn’t necessarily mean you got shot. The bullets may have whizzed close to the character’s head and he just has a vague sense of his luck running out or feels extra tired from stress. Or maybe the bullet was just a scratch. Or maybe it was a direct hit and the character was patched up. The goal is to accommodate a feeling of the group being able to casually tell the out-of-mech story with a single die for rolls

It’s less a divide between combat and non-combat and more a divide between in and out of mech.

>>93443541
Have no overlap between the “in-mech play” and “out of mech play” is something I’ve been thinking on. The connective tissue is the following
>out of mech play always precedes in mech play
>the goal of OOM play is to perform enough difficult tasks to gain advantages in the imminent IM play(enemy info, preemptive damage, less or weaker enemies etc)
>performing tasks rely on fate points
>running out of fate points OOM means you have a shittier crewmate piloting your mech
>critical hits also have a chance of damaging your fate points, which lead to an instant death if you run out of fate points IM, no matter what your health is.

>>93443741
This is why I have a handful of different player classes which determines what sort of actions in-mech they’re best at, but out of mech, every character and class is simplified to their flavor and the number of their fate points

>>93443880
Seed is awesome, ignore IBO as that sucked ass so hard it earned the nickname Felcher Gundam.

>>93446519
Go back to /m/ felcher fag. You're not welcome here.

HGB noob questions. did the CEF MHTs ever sell as metal models? the prices on the website for the 'new' ones are extremely expensive for 3d printed resin.

>>93448225
Not metals, but it looks like they sold them as resin previously. Not sure why they got taken off the dp9 site. That said, the previous non-3d printed resin is also $43

https://www.fortressminiaturesandgames.com/collections/heavy-gear-colonial-expeditionary-force-port-arthur-korps-c-e-f/products/earth-pak-ht-72-hovertank
https://www.fortressminiaturesandgames.com/collections/heavy-gear-colonial-expeditionary-force-port-arthur-korps-c-e-f/products/earth-pak-ht-68-hovertank

>>93446587
After all these years, that troll still can't help but use a term with which he's intimately familiar with.

>>93448225
The MHT prices are ridiculously dumb. I'd just buy the cheaper plastic MHT-95. They sell individual sprues for them and they're pretty cheap.
As for the other MHT models, find some kind of a 3D printing service or buddy and use these:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2953680
They're a great proxy for MHT-72s.

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>>93416882
I mean

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>>93449913