BRP Mecha-Ideas?

[Charles Green]

I've always loved the idea of using mecha and other equipment from that particular brand of sci-fi, but have never really seen a rules system that handled them with the same level of intuitiveness and ease of use as BRP.

Simply treating them as vehicles with the appropriate stats doesn't feel right to me. It lacks a certain something.

Has anyone else given this any thought?

[tal]

I don't have BRP 0 and not a fan of mecha but could you build them using the super power rules? If not those included in brp 0 how about the rules from the superworld boxed set?

[Celhan]

Originally Posted by Charles Green

I've always loved the idea of using mecha and other equipment from that particular brand of sci-fi, but have never really seen a rules system that handled them with the same level of intuitiveness and ease of use as BRP.

Simply treating them as vehicles with the appropriate stats doesn't feel right to me. It lacks a certain something.

Has anyone else given this any thought?

Well, the team that produced Les MeCHas pour BaSIC (that's "Mecha for BRP", unsurprisingly) have the germ of a system going there-- it's available (in French) in the downloads section here at BRP Central.

Under these rules, Mecha are designed something like characters-- they have a STR-equivalent characteristic, a SIZ-equivalent, a DEX-equivalent, and a couple of mecha-specific traits. These are on a different and only vaguely-defined scale-- deliberately vague, in order to make the rules work for as broad a range of backgrounds as possible. For some Mecha with a "synchro"-style interface, you use the character's agility skills with a mecha-specific penalty. Other mecha have a specific mecha piloting skill.

I had most of an English translation of this thing done. The problem is that it's still in the design phase, and the design is being done (if it's still an active project) in French. So there are only vague guidelines on how to do things like allocate armor or run combats. There are no fully-designed mecha there. No fully statted weapons-- or fully statted anything. It's very much a work in progress, hard-hat-required area.

I think the idea of modeling Mecha as characters, but on a different (mecha-specific) scale works rather well in the other games that have gone this route. I'd probably stress the analogy more than was done in Les MeCHas, giving them equivalents for CON, and maybe POW, INT, and APP too. I wouldn't mind some kind of RQ-like table for figuring out the structure and armor points, something along the lines of the table Battletech used.

Gosh, now I want to go and design a system. See what you did?

[Simlasa]

I've always wondered about mecha RPGs... they seem like they'd be so equipment/combat oriented that I'd wonder what the storylines would be like... they seem more suited to wargames to me...

Though I do see the attraction of playing something like Appleseed or Bubblegum Crisis... so...

[Celhan]

Originally Posted by Simlasa

I've always wondered about mecha RPGs... they seem like they'd be so equipment/combat oriented that I'd wonder what the storylines would be like... they seem more suited to wargames to me...

Though I do see the attraction of playing something like Appleseed or Bubblegum Crisis... so...

This varies a lot by the game, really. Battletech is, as you say, very equipment and combat oriented. Most of the Mechwarrior campaigns I've taken part in are brief out-of-mech scenes spliced between episodes of the board wargame; this is because most people got into the RPG through the boardgame (and because of the sternly militaristic background they invented). Battletech is probably the least typical mecha game, though.

I've also played the Robotech RPG, which was a great deal more balanced between mecha combat and other stuff. In large part this was because the group I was playing with had seen the (Harmony Gold English dub) Robotech series, and were prepped for the sort of storylines we'd be seeing in the game. It was very Mospeada-like; rag-tag warriors fighting giant alien mechas (and dealing with their personal angst) in a post-apocalyptic setting.

I understand that the Mekton ruleset is geared toward creating a more authentically anime-esque mecha experience, more balanced between the character and giant robot sides of the equation. I've never managed to get a copy-- most of the people I game with aren't into the giant robot thing.

[Atgxtg]

THe question is do you want to do mecha on thier own scale and covert or just write them up at higher stat totals so they can inteergreate with PCs and tanks?

If you are going to scale them, I'd strongly suggest an 8-1 scale for most stats. That is the progrsssion that the STR+SIZ damage bonus follows.

In BRP 56 is a 2d6 damage bouns and each 16 points of STR+SIZ after than is another +1D6.

Aty 8-1 scale, a STR+SIZ of 7 id a 2D6 damage bonus and each 2 points above that is worth an extra damage die.

So
8-9=+3d6
10-11= +4d6
13-14=+5d6

and so on, making it easy to covert back to personal scale when needed.

Also at this scale a +4d6 damage bonus would be worth about +1D3 in mecha scale.


Depending on how you did this Armor Points could be treated as a stat, and people could build mecha using a point build character creation method.

That would force PCs to choose between more speed, durability, strength, or armor.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by Celhan

Well, the team that produced Les MeCHas pour BaSIC (that's "Mecha for BRP", unsurprisingly) have the germ of a system going there-- it's available (in French) in the downloads section here at BRP Central.

Actually, it's not there anymore, as the we did not have the authors permission to host it, and he had a copyright notice on his site. If you happen to translate it, and add to/improve upon the design, then we'd very much would like to host it though.

SGL.

[dracopticon]

Originally Posted by Charles Green

I've always loved the idea of using mecha and other equipment from that particular brand of sci-fi, but have never really seen a rules system that handled them with the same level of intuitiveness and ease of use as BRP.

Simply treating them as vehicles with the appropriate stats doesn't feel right to me. It lacks a certain something.

Has anyone else given this any thought?

I own Fasa's Battletech RPG; Mechwarrior 2nd Ed. It's surprisingly good and has even game mechanics that you can adapt (with a little work) for BRP. Right now I can't give you an example, but I could look it up for you.
Try to find the rules and you'll have a lot of examples of Mech vehicles.

The setting is also very good. Five great houses that fight for the succession of Earth's old Imperial Throne. I recommend a read.

Erik Brickman.

[Atgxtg]

I've been working on some starship rules based on the ones we have on the wikii. And when I think about it, they would work okay for mecha. For the most part you selectect a SIZ and TEC (INT) rating and that gives you a certain amount of SPACE (SIZ+TEC)x5 to you can allocate towards the other attributes and things like weapons. Stats cost 1 SPACE a point, and Weapons cost 1 space per point of max damage. Weapons get a base range based on the damage, but can alter it with increased range costting more space, and reducing the range providing a discount. Some abilties are limited by the TEC rating of the craft.


The craft are handled with skill rolls for things like piloting and weapon use by the character operating the vehicle. I even got a Macross style movable shield option). A few terms get changed to make it sound more like machines than people, Hit Points are Hull points, Major Damage Level instead of Major Wound Level and so on. Ships can take System damage as well as Hull Point damage, and there are some guidelines for scaling them for character. A SIZ 13 on the ship scale is much larger than a SIZ 13 on the character scale.

Most of this would probably work for Mecha pretty easily too. For instance, if you designed a 1D10 damage weapon that would take 10 SPACE, and sold off the range down to 0 you could save 2 SPACE and end up with a 7 SPACE weapon that could be called a energy blade or battle axe or some such.


Most of the rules would port over as is, and I think I'd just need to add in something for ground MOV vs air MOV. Not tough, as it I can figure that out while typing, and something to handle variable geometry craft (a bit tougher, but certainly possible, mostly it would be some abilities that you can only use in certain modes and so get a break on the cost. Like a flying ability that can only be done in jet mode might give you 3 MOV for the price of 2 but wouldn't be usable in Battroid mode).

Do this sound like the right mix of vehicle and character to represent mecha?

[Conrad]

Originally Posted by Simlasa

I've always wondered about mecha RPGs... they seem like they'd be so equipment/combat oriented that I'd wonder what the storylines would be like... they seem more suited to wargames to me...

Though I do see the attraction of playing something like Appleseed or Bubblegum Crisis... so...

I'd be inclined to agree that mecha games are on the cusp between wargames and roleplaying. However if you keep your mecha small, more like powered armour I think that you could keep the scenarios to a more human level.
You might want to check out Cthulhu Tech to see the background. It appears suitable for mecha and human scale scenarios, but it doesn't use the BRP rules.Which I consider a cardinal sin!