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/E2wi55AZEmbryo Machine Translation:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1r_cjOLuUp3HussVRhbQYU3G0zK6hwy1rLancehounds Homebrew:M3g4 folder/eMEBUbCL#kj2FRrlqTa-02U16XpnVRgPrevious Thread:>>97092391Question of the Thread:Should mecha have hands? Should the hands be humanlike? If they shouldn't have hands, what should they have? If no hands, why even have arms?Thread Theme:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBvViQnjRk4
morning >tqyes in some settings, I enjoy picking up things in battletech to swing around as clubs. picking up giant guns in mecha shows always gets me hard. humanlike, idk, probably depends on the scale
>>97226240Yes, hands are the most useful part of a mecha. Realistically a fighting vehicles would be more likely to have hands than feet
Are there any Heavy Gears converted to Mekton II/Zeta/Zeta+?
>>97226240They should have hands and be humanlike, but barring that, should take on an animal form so you can at least keep the cool factor without going all walking trashcan with it.
>>97226240>Should mecha have hands? Should the hands be humanlike?Why are you making a humanoid robot if you're not going to use one of the main advantages of the human body? Like what are you doing at that point man??
the unironic tank on legs is the dumbest mecha things possible.
MECTech checkIn a casual guy and I’m designing my weapons from a game-y mechanics perspective rather than any amount of realism.>for context, Mechs can move(usually)3 spaces + 2 if they ‘dash’>guns have a base range(example - 7) and a maximum range(2 or 3times the base range)>every multiple over your base range that you shoot, you gain stacking disadvantage to accuracy>long range rifle-type guns have a range of 8(24)>mid range full auto rifles/machine guns have a range of 6(12 or 18)>handguns have a range of 5(usually 10 or 15)>all melee weapons have a range of 1>all melee weapons get an automatic level of advantage to hit, making them more accurate>most melee weapons also have a secondary effect on hit like knock down or grappleNow the issue isn’t don’t know how to design shotguns to have their own niche. So far my ideas are…>range 2 or 3(4 or 6) to make them just slightly more ranged than melee, yet clearly shorter ranged than any other fun>a level of advantage to hit, like melee weapons>overall higher damage than melee weapons, in exchange for not having any secondary effects>very low part destruction potential, compared to melee weapons It would make the shotgun the choice for people who only care about raw damage in close range, rather than any amount of utility or the extra support from potentially having a shield. Any traits I should consider or reconsider? There’s no strict weapon categories in my system but I’m designing from the perspective of the main weapon types being: melee, handguns, shotguns, machine guns, and sniper rifles.
>>97228530no u
>>97231114I also unironically love your stuff because anthros + mechs is also my thing
>>97229990I find shotguns tricky as well. Logically, shells full of scattering shot are a much better weapon for attacking NOT armored targets... and mechs ain't that. The shell fires multiple smaller-than-the-shell projectiles, granting either an increased chance to hit or an increased number of hits from a single shot. The tradeoff is less damage and penetration per single projectile. OK.This kind of attack is extremely effective against unarmored being and structures (like wooden doors and apartment walls) while being pretty bad against armor. But- but- ...everyone loves mecha shotguns, naturally! So, what to do?Recommendations offered to me usually amount to "have them do high damage at close range but get wimpy fast as range increases." I feel like that's really reductive. I tend to think of shotshells as having poor penetrating power but being devastating if armor is penetrated.I thhhhhhink the thing to do is to reduce penetration (just by a little bit*) but give a pretty impressive bonus to internal damage or criticals or whatever. Something like that. *Because any reduced penetration at all is pretty unappealing.
>>97232619Good seeing you around Mekton.Glad that I’m on the right track by the sound of it. More confident just seeing that others have the same solution. That bit about damage to armor vs unarmored works naturally with my system just from how damage reduction works.>damage reduction applies to all damage dice that makes up the attack>rifles might deal 2d10 damage while shotguns might do something like 6d4>on a moderately armored target(2 damage reduction) the rifle would do an average of like, 7 damage vs 4>with no damage reduction the rifle deals 11 vs the shotgun’s 15
>>97232619Shotguns have their appeal for me in either just being unga bunga "close range big damage" because it's cool, or for using them as scatter blasters to pick off sensitive parts like optics and light vehicles. So you could give them a flak-like effect with a chance for inflicting damage to outer parts.https://www.sakugabooru.com/post/show/12342
>>97232721Other things you might consider:>If your melee and ranged attacks use different stats, then shotguns give ranged builds a close option>If ranged weapons normally take penalties against close targets shotguns could bypass that.
>>97232721>>97229990don't know how mekton works but, the way I built shotguns on my PF2E hack is that they can hit multiple targets due to a scatter property, and they can deal good damage but they don't gain stat bonuses on said damage, meaning a rifle has lower, but more "consistent" damage while the shotgun can deal between 3 to 18 damage in a shot. They also all have recoil so you can't run and gun with them. Some of them also have "Razing" which makes them deal more damage when hitting structures.From what I read and what you described, for mekton, you could probably add an area effect damage to them, give them a "critical range" where they deal a bit more damage or making them deal low amounts of damage to multiple parts (which add in total to high damage).
>>97232619>Logically, shells full of scattering shot are a much better weapon for attacking NOT armored targets... and mechs ain't that.Have them fire sabots/flechettes
does this look like a cool mech weapon
>>97234923Is that a fucking mosin?
>>97235022yeah
Merry Christmas, /mechm/Hope you all have a good one.
Merry Mecha Christmas, hope you guys had a good day.Could I get some feedback on some Lancer maps and design I made for a mission set? I'm doing tile-less so ignore the squares. The scenario is assaulting a port town, I tried to incorporate a good amount of hard and soft cover for both sides along with blocking terrain. NPC placements aren't final but obviously they'll come from various places in 2.1st scene is Demolition, players go in across a minefield to try to demo an enemy command structure, taking out 5 support pillars, naval artillery tries to target players hanging out in the back, bonus objective is to extract some sabotaged materials that will go bad in a few turns, will give extra building points for next scene.2nd scene is Nexus Defense with some NPC support, players make their defensive line from a premade bunch of buildings, enemies come in waves and try to destroy player's command building, players can rush out to grab stuff that higher threat enemies drop on kill to get reserves as a bonus objective, artillery still going at it but can't damage the Nexus itself. 3rd scene is Control, players go in and try to capture the naval artillery while its occupied with an NPC army off screen, they have to either fly or swim around to get to the ships off of the coast, there's an ultra or elite enemy in the water depending on how they do up to that point that grabs them and tries to drag them under and do damage with grapple stuff, bonus objective is to disarm a time bomb on some cargo that gives repair caps.4th scene is a straight brawl against rivals plus some story NPCs, wanted to make it sort of unbalanced at the start so they have to scramble for cover or make their own, bonus objective is to destroy/capture an enemy officer that's trying to run away during the fighting for narrative rewards.Apologies for the chromatic aberration, I only noticed it recently when making the collage
>>97242535what software is that?
>>97242557Talespire, it's pricey and it makes you pay for players, but it looks pretty, it was a holdover from a previous game that I just kept using because my friends already had it.
>>97242560that's interesting. I mostly use Foundry and build maps with DungeonDraft but that looks killer as a way to make games super immersive
>>97242566It is, it doesn't have any automation so you have to do everything out of the application, but it's fun to use, you throw dice around and by the end of a session you have a massive pile of dice around the board where people make their rolls.
>>97242535Nice work, anon. Do all your players have accounts, or will you be their window into the map? If the latter, then you may find that slows things down a bit as players ask you to adjust the camera or remind them which tokens are which.Map 1: I presume you have a time limit (standard 6 rounds?), but is there anything keeping the PCs from climbing or smashing through the buildings to either side of what I assume is the minefield?Map 2: Looks good, and I like the deployable structure idea. I take it the tan section around the command building is "safe" from the artillery, which can potentially strike anywhere else?Map 3: Will the PCs have time to refit between this and the previous encounter, in order to equip aquatic mobility kits? (Regardless of the answer, I'd like to congratulate you on the look of this map, very cool!)Map 4: Pretty neat all aroundWhat LL are the players at? I'm guessing 4 PCs at LL2 at least?
>>97243659Everyone's got the program, so they can move their guys around as they take their turns and see the map from different angles.For 1, standard 6 round time limit with some backup coming in every once in a while, one of my guys is spec'd into heavy duty stuff, so he'll most likely try to bust through the buildings if the other guys don't find where the mines are which is an intentional part of the map design (they'll take longer getting places and more backup can arrive).For 2, the tan section is where players can deploy buildings, see pic for stuff they can place, it seemed like a fun sitrep from a splatbook I found so I'll see how it goes, the buildings give players a lot of buffs plus a few NPCs for backup so I'm throwing a lot of fodder at them. Artillery can damage the buildings players place but is randomly offset when it fires, so it might go sideways but won't instagib the buildings if they do hit.For 3, they're already decently high LL so most of them have either have jump jets or flight, I give a brief overview of the mission set before it starts so hopefully no one gets rid of theirs as they know there will be water, I try not to let them change equipment mid-mission unless it's something they find in the field.Right now, they're 4 players at LL6 after completing a module (Wallflower) and I'm continuing the story on my own, just got their 2nd core bonus, so they're getting pretty high power level, I try to throw a good amount at them because one of my guys in particular has figured out the system very well, he's spec'd into Goblin and Tokugawa, so Heat Sink combined with a lot of uses of Fuel Rod Gun will let him get off a guaranteed 2 Hurl Into the Duats per turn with Overcharge, which is pretty nuts, he's been really good at controlling the battlefield. It balances out well enough because one of the other guys still doesn't understand his playstyle very well and fumbles a bit.
>>97245084For your next campaign, I’d heavily recommend the 3rd party supplement “Blood Money”. It basically turns the campaign and missions into mercenary work with job payouts and an operation clock. It’s also noticeably harder since you only get full repairs when the clock expires, and you can potentially have 9 combats before a full repair if the party wants to get obscene rewards.
>>97245153I'll look into it for sure, thanks. They're coming off of other systems and started the campaign as mercenaries so not having any money and mostly progressing by the default Lancer method has been a bit weird for them, especially when they try to play their characters as greedy and scummy types. I try to accommodate as necessary but players always throw curve balls at you every once in a while.
>>97238337gila my beloved
>>97245170Definitely check it out. It’s been one of the most dynamic campaigns I’ve run, and my players who are usually goodie-two shoes are constantly at odds with doing work for horrible people because the payout is sometimes that good, and there’s like 150+ things you can spend money on in that supplement.
How can I build pic related in Lancer? I also accept any of the others Crossbones out there.
>>97245764Flavor is free, so presumably you can get something like Sherman R2 for the Andromeda and just flavor it as a giant crossbow. If you mean it to be wide, you could get Genghis 3 for plasma thrower instead, cone 7 - it can also serve double duty and do a line 10 attack too for a more precise shot.
>>97245813Genghis 3 for the Plasma Thrower to represent the Peacock Smasher. Swallowtail 2 for the SSC Oracle LMG-I to mount on a Core Bonus GMS integrated mount to represent the head vulcans and chest machine guns, Blackbeard 2 or Black Witch 1 for the grapple cables and then a Charge Blade for the melee weapon? I don't think there's any other melee weapon that would fit and swing harder since the Plasma Thrower is Super Heavy.
Sad because I had to cancel tomorrow's session. Pic related is how my Christmas week has felt, with multiple calamities stacking up. Thankfully, my players were very understanding. I'll have to make it up to them next week.
>>97246623I rewatched war in the pocket over christmas, got sad at the end.Also it's one of things you don't realize until it happens, the amount of blood it has compared to the rest of gundam
>>97247437I almost re-watched 0080, but that would have been the last straw for my emotional state. Re-watched Unicorn instead, and coincidentally felt better by the time it wrapped.I really wish my players had watched either before we started this campaign, because they might have understood the plot hooks I was setting up for them
>>97245630Pretty sure that's just a Jager with a Hunter head. Maybe alluding to possible player customization of their Gear>>97245153God, that looks good. I wish HG had that kind of a supplement. From guys who have it, how much is it 'adaptable' to other systems that have mech combat?
>>97247437>>97246623We did kind of make it a project to avoid this end in Zeonquest, didn't we?
>>97246623Mmm... burgers...
Had a good HG session today. The gang managed to take down the bandits!Once you get over the initial hurdles, the system really is super cool.
Suggesting an additional TQ for next thread:"How do you do Ace Customs? Are there any? Do they have improved performance, or are the exact same as other mechs with a different finish?"
>>97250544>for next thread:We are a grand total of 43 posts in.
>>97250544Yeah, like the other anon said, we're not due for another thread for a while.I like how Lancer does it in that you can easily apply templates to NPCs to make them more threatening or weaker or more unique. Throw a Veteran or Elite on an enemy to make them stand out a bit more and give them a standout ability. Throw Ultra on something you want to turn into a boss with a game changing weapon or tech.
>>97250215Are you using RPG or just wargame rules?
>>97254565RPG. Specifically the recent 4e rules.For the wargame I just run TTS.
Took me a while to check back in...>>97232721>Good seeing you around Mekton.Cheers, /m/ate!>Glad that I’m on the right track by the sound of it. More confident just seeing that others have the same solution. That bit about damage to armor vs unarmored works naturally with my system just from how damage reduction works.Excellent! Happy my yammering was useful or encouraging in some way. >>97232866>Shotguns have their appeal for me in either just being unga bunga "close range big damage" because it's coolHell yeah mang!>or for using them as scatter blasters to pick off sensitive parts like optics and light vehicles. So you could give them a flak-like effect with a chance for inflicting damage to outer parts.Yeah, or "increased criticals" or something. Agreed, in most mecha anime it seems like the spray of smaller projectiles often tend to damage smaller, more sensitive bits of a bigger target. Like that Clay Bazooka vs Asshimar clip, a good example.>>97234680>Have them fire sabots/flechettesWelllllll just as slugs are just bullets, sabot rounds are functionally armor-piercing buckshot. A shotgun shell full of flechettes will indeed have a better penetration ability than a shell full of buckshot, but will do less damage after penetration (just like normal armor-piercing ammo does) than normal buckshot. In addition, flechettes wouldn't *be as good* at penetrating armor as a single A-P round (or sabot slug) would be. Not that I think this is exactly a problem, it's just reflective of the fact that scatter rounds are a tradeoff.I actually solved this problem for myself while chatting about this with you-all. Psyched to playtest it!
>>97250544>"How do you do Ace Customs? Are there any? Do they have improved performance, or are the exact same as other mechs with a different finish?"In Mekton Z, you can build anything (pretty much) so you could just design a version of whatever grunt unit that's little better. Faster, more maneuverable, better armor or weapons, whatever. There's also "Maneuver Pool," which is a metacurrency pilots developed when their Piloting skill gets above 5. There's a Mekton tech feature called A.C.E. (Actuator Control Electronics) which multiplies a pilot's Maneuver Pool. So an ace pilot with a Piloting of 7 in a grunt unit would have a 2 points in his Maneuver Pool, but in an ace custom unit with 2.5x A.C.E. would have 5 points in his Maneuver Pool.The Gundam RPG that was based on Mekton Z actually called the A.C.E. system "Ace Custom" and called the Manuever Pool "Ace Points." I thought was a great idea and I wish I'd thought of it.
>>97226240Anyone run this before? I just read the book and I’d like to give it a shot.
An odd question but do any of you guys know if there is, or how to make, a piece like the viewport the hussar has in front of it's head, but on a smaller scale?
>>97256794I don't understand the question. Are you talking about a drawing? A mini? A game rules design?
>>97256794Man, that's a tough one. Maybe a bit off an older tank or bunker miniature?
>>97256794On the smallest scales the easiest thing is usually to just sculpt it out of putty. The details are gonna be a bit blobby regardless of the method and it's easy. Otherwise get some tiny tank kits like flames of war. Those are shockingly good for kitbashing with mechs.
>>97250544my setting has the players fight as civilian monster hunters (ala a civilian militia), and they're all incentivized to customize their mechs for branding to receive better recognition and contracts, so it greatly varies based on region and personal aesthetics. Some people use the parts as they come, while some come up with shit that makes them look like they're 12. It doesn't help there are widespread artisan-mechanic guilds that are paid to do this work with specialized tools and materials. The military itself uses basic muted colors for their mechs or camo, and leaders get a special mark to distinguish them.
>read about cool battletech game about giant robots fighting robots>try to find rulebooks for it>no thats for an rpg game set in battletech universe>no thats for mordheim set in battletech universe>no thats for simplified combined warfare wargame set in battletech universeWhat rulebook is about giant robots fighting giant robots?
>>97262144>no thats for mordheim set in battletech universeWhat which one is that? Sounds cool.Anyway the A Game of Armored Combat rulebook is a godo place to start, gets you the basics. Further up the chain are the battlemech manual, which goes over all things mech and total warfare which goes over which goes over all things mech and not mech
>>97226240People that know Lancer, I need to know if this works.Quick Action - SSC Javelin Rockets in a line behind targetOvercharge - Javelin #2 to fill in the empty spacesSkirmish - Walking Armory Thumper, Stormbringer 2 Lightning, Concussion Missiles.6 squares of knockback through 6 javelins for a grand total of 1d3+18 kinetic, before nuke cav or overpower caliber, assuming the hull save failure. 9 if they succeed.Yes?
>>97262762your GM might rule that you can't put the 2nd Javelins adjacent to the 1st, but that's up to him, otherwise it seems like a good damage dealer in exchange for an overcharge and a limited system use assuming you manage to hit everything and the enemy fails all their saves
>>97262788Also keep in mind that it wouldn't work against NPCs with Heavy Frame unless you were also a big boy yourself.
>>97262762Lancer is a PvE videogame.
>>97262788i mean, RAW it doesn't say you can't place them next to previously placed javelins. it just says you can't place the contents of a single salvo next to each other.>>97262896And it also jobs to armor, since it's all technically instances of 3 damage or less.But 21 damage is a hell of a single target nova, and 9 isn't bad for single target costless.
>>97262919we're using SWN for the narrative stuff and any time we're not in a mech combat.
>>97250544>Suggesting an additional TQ for next thread:
>>97250544>How do you do Ace Customs? Are there any? Do they have improved performance, or are the exact same as other mechs with a different finish?As I think we all know, Gundam has a very weird approach -- prototypes are superior, and the mass-produced versions of them are inferior. IRL, of course, you don't send prototypes into combat -- they're for testing! But Gundam's approach is fun.I'd say that the more "realistic" [cough cough] your game is, the more you should veer towards Ace Customs being either nonexistent or simple repaints. The farther you stray from "realism" [cough hack wheeze] the more elaborately customized your ace's machines can be. Right?When you're dealing with fantasy (or space opera I guess) you can get around some of this logic by having "knights" or the equivalent, who are granted special benefits, allowances, exceptions, perks, bonuses, etc... And that would include fancy-ass, extra-special giant robots.
>>97266686Advanced prototypes being kind of highly scary is so fundamental to the genre that if someone's going to specifically exclude them, then they're really just not playing with their heart in it. You're also robbing yourself out of cool bossfights, too.Like what, you invade the enemies hidden tech lab and there's a scary advanced prototype in there, and they gayest member of your crew starts pushing up his glasses and huffing that it should be an unarmed testbed with no real combat viability? It's sad.
>>97266686I mean, that's the impression it gives. But really it's not actually the case. Prototypes in Gundam might have higher potential specs than their mast produced counterparts, but they are fucking terrible to actually pilot.It's the anime protagonist pilots who are fucking terrifying. Both Kira and Amuro fucking wrote up an OS for using their Gundams on the fly, and I'm not even going to get into Camille Bidan somehow managing to design the fucking Zeta Gundam during not at all quiet week all by himself. TallGeese is another excellent example: Amazing high performance capabilities... so high in fact, it gave most pilots G-force induced heart attacks and killed them.Then there's the whole Wing-Zero thing... and I'm not writing out that whole essay again, although I'm still not entirely sure I buy that just giving wing a second gun counts as overkill when you consider what you wanted those five teenagers with attitude (well, four plus one nepo baby) to do by themselves.The prototypes are shitty and hard to control, the real superior part of the Gundam has ALWAYS been the insane sometimes-psychic teenagers inside.
>>972724562026 is the year of the horse? Schweet.
Happy new year's /mechm/, waiting expectantly on gundam assemble news this year>>97268554As polarising as the anime was, I like how gquacks is centred around the idea of "what if monster pilots that invalidated entire fighting tactics didn't exist".
>>97250544>"How do you do Ace Customs? Are there any? Do they have improved performance, or are the exact same as other mechs with a different finish?"It's actually pretty simple to do if you want - mech provides and upper limit on how many actions, speed, dodge and so on you can pull out. Pilot provides the skills. And the result of pilot getting into the mech is worst of the two stats. Let's say we have mech:4 arms with weapons5 speedPilot:Weapons 1Piloting 2As a result you get a mech with 4 weapons only one of which could be used per turn and mech can move up to 5 but turn only 2 times during the turn due to pilot's limited skills not being able to keep up with mech speed.Add that Weapons(plus weapon special rules) and Piloting(or speed if lower) determine chances to hit and dodge.This rookie pilot will have +1 to attacks and +2 dodge, or something similar depending on the system used. >How to make Ace pilots be better even on worse machines?For weapons it's pretty easy if you have automatic ones - ace pilot can split attacks between multiple targets. For example if a gun does 5 shots rookie pilot can lay them only on one target, while Ace pilot with high skill can split them against multiple ones.For speed it's a little harder, but you can allow minor some minor dodge bonuses if their skill is way higher than machine speed.
>>97275740I also liked how GQuuux made all the borderline X-Men newtype nonsense we got up to in Zeonquest seem reasonable and understated.
>>97226443Don't think so, but you might be able to just build Roadstrikers from scratch. Or maybe use the ATs from the Votoms Fuzion book. I think Old SilCore is similar enough to Mektons Interlock that you could just consider using HG 2e.
>>97250215Looks fun. Curious to know how 4e runs. I get the feeling it's easier to play than it is to read. Also I'm itching for that St. Vincent material for HG 4e. Might be my favorite TN era conceptually but there's not too much on it.
>>97279232>I get the feeling it's easier to play than it is to read.This is very much true. The rulebook itself is needlessly bloated and written in a cumbersome manner, but the core system itself really is simple when it comes down to it.The real tricky part is keeping track of various 'side' rules that are hidden away in various paragraphs. Though I played it with some simplification to the damage system as well, since the default one is pants-on-head retarded.> Also I'm itching for that St. Vincent material for HG 4eSame. The new stuff they've added like the Oasis Depths module sounds awesome.
>>97279155>Don't think so, but you might be able to just build Roadstrikers from scratch. Easily!>Or maybe use the ATs from the Votoms Fuzion book. ATs, Gears... whazzadiffrence?>I think Old SilCore is similar enough to Mektons Interlock that you could just consider using HG 2e.Now that's an idea I've never heard before!
ヘビーギア
>>97234923It does, but admittedly just taking infantry weapons and making them big does look slightly silly. But then again if you have a giant metal man, why purposefully reinvent the wheel in terms of the weapons? Ultimately I think aesthetics edge it out for me in this regard. The giant SPAS-12 in AC6 looks weird to me.
>>97228530I have a soft spot for it. Stuff like MechWarrior and Earthsiege were my first taste of mecha. Even if 'mechs are more mobile than they are depicted in MechWarrior. I still have the itch to put weapon arms on reverse joint, quad, and tank leg ACs sometimes. (I.E. when I'm not getting my ass kicked by other ravens)
>>97262919half of all mecha content is pve video games, whats your point?
>>97283697Most of all mecha content is a boy and his robot type anime from the 70's-80's. Videogames would barely cover 10% of it, pve or otherwise, and they mostly stopped making them entirely about 10 years ago.
>>97283884lol yeah sure okay buddy, im sure when people come in here to the mecha monday general they're thinking all about astroboy and gigantor and shit and definitely not mech warrior and armored core type shityou got me, i concede
>>97285858Which should have really have nothing to do with lancer. Neither of those games are primarily about dismantling yucky chudstates with your epic antifa builds anyway.
>>97283884no it's not what the fuck are you on about
>>97287484If they did that thing where they made the average face of a population for mecha it would have a distinct human face and a big headdress. It probably uses a big metal sword and it raises its arms in a pose to do its ultimate attack. It's called metal friend of children gaidfjsajfezer. It has never seen anything that isn't a bright primary color.
Saw this thread, thought it was interesting.https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/lets-create-urban-fantasy-mecha-anima-with-kaiju.932987/
>>97286675ah you're one of those, got it
>>97291235so its like ZZZ but with robots
>>97291235I tried building my setting somewhat very close to our world in tech level with the mechs and magical elements being as ingrained as possible without feeling thoughtless
Thoughts on non-humanoid and non-animal mechs?Honestly just wanted an excuse to post the prototype john deere walking logger
>>97292697They're cool. I was interested in Salvage Union for the exact reason that it has "spider" mechs
>>97292697In another timeline disney actually finished the Big Dino project and it probably fell and killed 30 people, but if it didn't, man would it be nice to have some of those running around.
>>97234673why would you do this
>>97293957it's fun. It's like PF2E but I take off all the things that are annoying and put Armored Core mecha building fun over it. Weapons fill different niches and lead to interesting different playstyles. I wanted to GM a mecha campaign for my friends but most of my friends aren't mecha fans and I wasn't a fan of most mecha systems as I would have to do a lot of work to fit them in my setting, so I took a system they were familiar with but gave it a huge spin that turns it into something somewhat unique that is both familiar but interesting. It requires a ton of work for me but when it works it's extremely fun
>>97232619>>97232866>>97234680Just make mech scale shotguns act like melta weapons from Warhammer 40k. Not visually like it, but "performance," once.Mecha shotguns incorporate some advanced energy acceleration coil thing that infuses the ammunition with some whatever kind of energy.The point is, the weapon has an absolutely devastating effect in a narrow cone-shaped area, but only within point-blank range. Maybe it fires a bunch of metal spherical projectiles with each shot, just like real shotguns, but at a way larger scale, and each projectile is full of waaaay more kinetic energy than it should have, enough to burrow deep into a target and knock them back with each impact.
>>97295721>that webmDamn, I feel sorry for those Ruskies. Reminds me of playing Jedi Knight 2 against my buddy, when I had mastered mouse-look and he was still using pure keyboardHmm...It also reminds me that I should come up with some suitably bullshit mechanics for one of the enemy NPCs. A ninja master with a suitably evasive mech. Smoke bombs, hologram decoys, cloaking fields. Small seeking shuriken or a big shuriken drone? Should I let him deflect automatic fire with his sword, or should be instead have a "teleports behind you" move?
>>97300557>Damn, I feel sorry for those Ruskies. Reminds me of playing Jedi Knight 2 against my buddy, when I had mastered mouse-look and he was still using pure keyboardOh god, you reminded me of Jedi Academy multiplayer. The most brutal and soul crushing experience to ever grace our world. Nothing like sitting on a duel server where like 3 guys only capable of taking the top spot and switching among each other for like an hour with everyone else trying to just nick them with the blade at least once. And then some random guy who didn't play for years comes in and makes them look like fucking children who have seen lightsaber today for the first time, racks something like 50-60 kills and logs out.
>>97300557Ninjas are stealthy. A Stealth Mech sounds really stupid but you have no idea how often there are moments where people don't notice something that should be glaring at themsome enemies in my campaign use stealth and they make liberal use of smokes, visual confusion screens, cover and sneak attacks. One of the simplest ways enemies tend to fuck players up is by just hitting concrete hard enough to make a huge smoke screenA cool thing people often overlook Ninja use are grappling hooks and the kusarigama. They're really cool
>>97301882heck, one of my players uses stealth constantly. He has modified boosters with lower performance but lower sound and he uses silencers on his firearms (on top of mechs using subsonic ammo by default in my setting), and he mostly attacks with throwing knifes or palm attacks. He does it by having smoke launchers and several grenade launchers that create heavy poisonous gas clouds (they fight monsters that are somewhat organic, and the gas is built to attack them).He usually smokes/poisons the enemies and then hides behind cover to get them through sneak attacks while debilitating stronger enemies. It works surprisingly well despite the fact he's piloting a 25ft tall mech.
page 10...just loredump your dogshit setting already.
>>97307450Well I was working on Dragonmech offshoot. Only instead of dragons it was demons who invaded. There was once a demon too clever for his own good. He was not some prince or lord, but he really, really wanted to be. Yet he didn't have enough power and would have needed hundreds of years to get even close to guys like Juiblex or Demogorgon. And so he schemed, and betrayed, and murdered, as all demons do, but it still wasn't enough. And then he had an idea - why not build something powerful enough to close the gap in power? He took some more trustworthy, as much as it is possible for a demon, and useful subordinates of his own and fucked off outside the sphere of influence of the big players, harvesting newborn demons for flesh and power. It took him decades to build the first Demon Titan and yet it was still centuries faster than he could have reached this level of power on his own. And then he built another, and another, and bigger ones. Problem was it still wasn't yet enough to challenge any of the princes, and the big demon princes were starting to sniff around his base, sending agents, saboteurs, bribing his followers and doing other underhanded shit. And so the demon decided to create a base that would be easier to defend outside the Abyss in one of the Crystal Spheres. He choose the world carefully, planted cultists, made preparations and when everything was ready the portal opened and his one and a half kilometer tall City Scale Demon Titan marched through it into the new world, leading an army of demons and Titans. And everything got fucked.
>>97307638Cont.Normal fantasy world, with way lower concentration of powerful heroes than Faerun was absolutely not ready for this shit. They got so fucked it wasn't even funny. Everything that got in the way of the demon's army got flattened, harvested and put to use or into the pot. But even clever demon underestimated the sheer logistics needed to take over the world. For all his demons and Titans he simply didn't have the numbers to take over the world in any reasonable time frame. He could crush each and every of his opponents, but he couldn't crush all of them at once. Demons managed to take over most of one of the continents when they run into the problem of just not having enough soldiers and Titans to expand further. They could raid, they could kill, they could raze anything to the ground and yet they still played whack-a-mole with the native inhabitants of the world. So the clever demon slowed down his attempt at expansion and started recruiting more demons, building more Titans and laying down the supply chains. Yet it gave natives the time to prepare.Dwarves were the first who was able to create a Mech made out of wood and metal capable of fighting smaller of the Demon Titans. The second were Drow who stole designs for joints and steam engine from the Dwarves. Troll shamans managed to create first Beast Titans with troll regeneration, by lobotomizing trolls and then using magic to boost their growth. Elves created Plant Titans with the most elite covered in Mithral armor. Necromancer joined the party with their undead. Fifteen years since invasion started native inhabitants of the world led by Three Heroes struck back just as clever demon was finishing two new City Scale Demon Titans on Abyss side of his holdings.
>>97307643Cont.Natives knew that they didn't stand a chance in a protracted war, especially with portal open, but demon forces were spread over a good chunk of the continent and native forces were concentrated and ready. They directed their march at the portal crushing everything in their path. Yet at the end the original City Scale Demon Titan waited for them. It crushed them with tentacles, drowned them in acid, trampled them and burned them. While the battle raged with local mechs and titans throwing everything at the Demon Titan a smaller group led by Three Heroes breached the demon lines and moved through the portal where they were met with two more City Scale Demon Titans that needed just some minor touches to be finished - one of them lacked a control chamber and the other one most of the weapons. Problem was not only there were not only two big boys but also more smaller demonic titans getting pulled to the portal in preparation to crush mortal resistance. Not seeing a way out of it Three Heroes decided to deploy a weapon of last resort that would close the portal, yet also break the Conjuration magic for the whole world. At minimum. In a climactic battle at the portal clever demon was killed while trying to push the Three Heroes and their forces back and the weapon successfully deployed, but the price was high.Not only Conjuration magic no longer worked properly, meaning no summons, no healing, no conjured objects, but the world also wracked by planar storms and cataclysms. Portal didn't break cleanly, creating thousands of connections to elemental planes that resulted in roving firestorms, sudden earthquakes, blizzards, floods and so on, and so on. Living in static settlements became more or less impossible, unless you could reinforce everything with some ridiculous levels of magic. Thus population started moving into mechs and titans designed for habitation so that they could dodge roving cataclysms.
>>97307675Cont.In current day almost everyone lives a nomadic lifestyle dodging firestorms, following the herds mutated by the energies from Inner Planes or Abyss and fighting occasional Kaijus, or each other. What was left of demonic forces finally ended their internal struggles splitting into three factions. Oh, and some Necromancers seem to be hellbent on at least continental domination.
>>97307450>Provisional Unit 05I should really try to finish those greentexts. At least summarize the back half of the campaign
>>97285858Loader and Nightfall have Bionicle feet. Debate me.
>>97307638>>97307643>>97307643>>97307675>>97307682Sounds like a really fun idea for a fantasy mecha campaign. But do people still use mechs in the current day? You make it sound like it's way too difficult to have mechs since shit is too fucked and everyone is nomadic
>>97226240Hands are good for general-purpose mechs designed to do human-like work at industrial scales. Unless you can make the entire process handled by machines there's going to be human-style interfaces, and it's easier to change a mech than change how people conceptualize tasks.
>>97316706Yes. Planar breaches, cataclysms and storms mean that there is a lot of resources dropping everywhere. D&D has planes("dimensions") of Earth and Minerals that during breaches gonna drop metals, gems, crystals and so on everywhere. Of course you don't want to be there while all of that stuff is falling down or fountaining from the ground. Not good for your health. So everyone uses mechs or titans (basically living or undead mechs) to move their bases around. Typical troll tribe would have a big four or six limbed titan capable of housing all the people and their stuff, so something like 100-300 feet in length depending on tribe size, a bunch of way smaller humanoid or centauroid titans like 20 feet tall and a couple 50 feet tall elite titans for the tribe chief and possibly shaman. Elves have similar setups only with plant titans and enchanted mithral mechs/golems. Dwarves and humans have actual city sized mechs that are exactly that - moving cities.Drow are way closer to proper nomands since they mostly stick to mechs and titans no larger than 50 feet. Necromancers are on the rise after carving a place for themselves and getting proper time to use their labor advantage, though in exchange most of their undead titans are shit quality wise due to using mindless zombies and skeletons to build them.Typically people have a couple diviners or other specialists whose job it is to predict where the planar weather will strike around them and ideally of what type it will be. Then they either move the fuck away or try to find a close enough parking spot if they expect the cataclysm to drop useful stuff.
>>97321144Cont.Building smaller mechs, under 50 feet, is pretty easy since it can be done fast enough you should be able to finish a skeleton for one between cataclysms, most of the time. You also can easily carry unfinished ones on your cargo/housing mech. Plus if you have some larger species among your workers it makes it even easier. Problems start when you need to build something really big - like the main settlement mech or a proper castle sized combat mech, or something else just as crazy. Trolls and elves get around it by growing their titans. So they can start with a couple smaller ones and then graft them together into a single one, though going above 300 feet is still super hard.Undead are tireless, even if not that strong, so they could drag a lot of stuff around, but again quality problems. Humans and dwarves are kinda stuck with what they managed to build before portal got closed and planar weather bullshit started - they managed to add some castle sized mechs to their lineups and both are trying to build new city mechs by building parts for them on castle sized factory/cargo mechs, though they didn't yet succeed since it makes it take way more time and effort.
>>97301969>heck, one of my players uses stealth constantly. He has modified boosters with lower performance but lower sound and he uses silencers on his firearms (on top of mechs using subsonic ammo by default in my setting)Why is mech ammo subsonic by default?>and he mostly attacks with throwing knifes or palm attacks. He does it by having smoke launchers and several grenade launchers that create heavy poisonous gas clouds (they fight monsters that are somewhat organic, and the gas is built to attack them).Neat! Robo-ninja FTW.>He usually smokes/poisons the enemies and then hides behind cover to get them through sneak attacks while debilitating stronger enemies. It works surprisingly well despite the fact he's piloting a 25ft tall mech.This sounds really fun. How does he keep his mech's footfalls quiet?
>>97321105Ahhhh yes, I like this answer. Makes sense.
>>97325816>Why is mech ammo subsonic by default?Post War regulations which were defined by a crisis management organization. They fight monsters and non-heavily armoured enemies, so it's not that big of a deal. They're also not military. The military has real bullets but they don't really do anything so the game isn't about them. Subsonic ammo is quieter and penetrates less armor - it lets mech pilots fight to defend civilians without giving them all hearing loss but also it makes them difficult to fight a military tank or helicopter.>How does he keep his mech's footfalls quiet?the token image cut it off but I believe pic related is self explanatory.also the mechs have a bit of bullshit which leads to their mass being reduced by half (most of time, sometimes it reduces less). And Parts meant for stealth will usually have good dampening. Mechs aren't really loud and don't have loud engines/reactors, they run on normal batteries, so the only noise they make would be stepping on loud floors, fighting and using boosters/thrusters
>>97226240>Should mecha have hands? Should the hands be humanlike? If they shouldn't have hands, what should they have? If no hands, why even have arms?We have thousands of years of human weapons with hundreds of cool fighting styles associated with them, including firearms. Humans know how those weapons work and can train with them and understand their effectiveness with their own hands. If you're making a humanoid robot and you're already ignoring the parts of physics that make them impossible, why not go just a little tiny bit further and make them agile and maneuverable enough to use human weapons in cool ways that improved by their tech? Like what are you doing that would make it different than a tank or a helicopter beyond the fact its a huge walking target? If all you're making is a box with legs then yeah man I'm sorry but the tankfags got a good argument on why it's fucking useless
>>97326045Your mention of subsonic ammo reminds me of something that I want to implement in a future campaign. Specialized ammunition and weapon mods for use inside space stations and other sensitive areas. Stuff that reduces the severity or likelihood of collateral damage at the cost of weapon performance.I was rewatching some Gundam series recently, and reminded about how inconsistent they are, series to series, regarding the use of weapons inside the space colonies. Meanwhile, in my various RPG campaigns, the players go to great lengths to limit risks to civilians.
>>97326792Yeah the players in my games are civilians from very common backgrounds and all of them are generally good or well meaning folk so they have no reason to not abide by the regulations as their weapons are still powerful enough to fight monsters toe-to-toe. And most of them avoid fighting near civilians if needed
>>97226240I've heard rumours about a new edition of Heavy Gear Blitz coming, does anyone in /mechm/ know anything about it?
>>97328148There was a 3.1 update in 2024 with some clarifications and changes. Errata basically. It should be free as PDF on drivethru. Maybe they have something else in the works, but I don't see it.
>>97328148Yeah, it's currently in closed beta. It has some really good improvements over 3.1, but right now needs some general focus and polish to make it really work. It'll go into open beta soon-ish. Highlights:>No more rerolls. Anything that used to give a reroll gives flex dice instead (add one die, remove lowest)>Top speed stays until next round again>Pull/Save actions from other rounds - gives a real jolt to the action economy>Vastly extended upgrade system
>>97328283Great news. Do you know if they're doing any new sculpts for it? I mainly wish they would invest in producing plastics, the 3D printed stuff is so flimsy.
bumping this shizz
>>97335223Not that I know of- they only seem to be working with 3D prints. But I did hear their newer printed material is far sturdier.
>>97226240I'm kind of out of the loop because I'm not usually a /tg/ guy, would anyone be so kind as to give me a QRD on what's going on with Gundam Assemble? I saw the announcement ages ago and was kind of interested because I'd like to get into wargaming type stuff but up until now haven't seen any wargames that I like (not interested in GW stuff or historicals). I checked up on it today and it seems maybe I was totally off the mark and it was actually some kind of TCG related thing and not actually a wargame...
>>97340928The models were released in a promo pack with the card game as a teaser. It's still an exclusive game to be played with minis, it just isn't out yet. They just announced it way before release for some reason.
>>97335394>>97335223The CEF plastic Frame sculpts are so bad I'm actually considering learning 3D modelling just so I can make better ones for myself.
>>97345047unfortunately DP9 suffers from a terminal lack of ambition, but maybe that's how they've survived for so long on the periphery of scifi miniature wargaming when GW raped everyone else
>>97345179It's better to stay niche. Avoid all the shit that's going on outside comfy mecha game. I'll settle with the third Heavy Gear game doing well and the minis getting updooted.
>>97345047Heavy gear has a big problem with the metals being good but insanely expensive, the plastics being cheap and shitty, and the 3D prints being sold as regular shipped products at almost regular price.And in all cases the shipping is fucking insane. I really hope they pull out some kind of better system than this. Or someone just makes another votomsclone. I'd happily buy a different game with the same scale and wheel legs.
Which mech RPG would you suggest for someone making their own setting?I plan on doing something on a near-future earth, so you know, most established settings won't work.
>>97347457Battle Century and Mekton are the most "toolkit" systems, meant to be customized. If those don't fit your needs, you may be able to refluff and modify another game that has mechanics closer to what you need.What about your setting makes it different? For example, are the mechs more primitive because the tech level is closer to the real world? And what kind of things do you want to have in the game, what level of crunch do you want?
>>97346485>3D prints being sold as regular shipped products at almost regular price.As far as I can tell they've replaced their entire lineup with 3D prints, which is not great
>>97287820I recognize all of those except the red and blue one next to Grendizer.
Thinking of running a UC 079 game where players are a group of GM pilots operating somewhere on earth then switching to space operations and then colonies. Is there any fanmade resource for Gundam rules for Lancer? I don't want to run the default mechs sinfce they are too advanced magitech for UC Gundam but i still like the rules. Any suggestions?
>>97347457I retooled PF2E for my game set in a modern day setting and it was a LOT of work. I'd imagine something near-future fits better with a lot of mech RPGs so you don't need to do something as stupid like me. Just remove space combat from the games that have it
>>97347457Honestly, I would probably go with Heavy Gear
my players gonna kill me bro I'm making some straight up BULLSHIT
>>97351259At the very least, I'd appreciate the effort
