The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ic]sparkletwist
This should probably be a thread. It should probably have already been, actually.
Steerpike
I have no idea how the play in practice, sparkletwist :p. In general I would seek out a different system for mecha.

There is a Fate mecha game called Apotheosis Drive X - http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/117506/Apotheosis-Drive-X--FatePowered-Mecha-RPG--SD-MIX

I feel like mecha are specific enough that they might merit a ruleset designed around them. Some searching suggests that one called "Silhouette" is pretty good, and there are even some d20 conversion rules: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/983/Silhouette-CORE-RPG-Rules-Deluxe-Edition?it=1
Love of Awesome
Maybe I should just stick with FATE...

@Steerpike, After reading Fever in the Blood, I decided to do some digging. Fevre Dream by GRRM is on my To Read Eventually list now.
sparkletwist
I think those rules ignore the qualifier "decent" tongue
Steerpike
I would go with d20 future for the closest thing, which has mecha rules. http://dmreference.com/MRD/Future/Mecha.htm
Love of Awesome
Are there any decent mecha systems for Pathfinder or 3.5?[/ic]

So at the request of Sparkletwist, I'm just posting this here.

For context, I'm just bouncing around ideas in my head for a mecha setting. I just wanted a system that can give me what I want.

First off, I know about Battletech. It looks awesome. I'm not denying that. But I'm looking for something a bit more abstract and/or modular.

Some ideas that have been bouncing around my head.

A steampunk/fantasy about a dnd world overwhelmed by colossal aberrations (I know about Cthulhutech for the record, and it looks awesome).

Future Eberron where everyone is making giant constructs and monsters to fight each other in Last War 2.

A fan setting set in the Leviathan Trilogy universe where WW1 is fought with mechanical engineering advanced to the point of making mecha vs. the  Darwinists who figured out how to manipulate genetic material and can make giant war animals. This time it's set in the future with a WW2 scenario.

A straight up scifi setting where humans have colonized a planet named Hades. Technology and robotics are highly advanced, but they have a dieselpunk style to them, along with the artistic vibe of the world. There's no real "connection" to the 1900's or anything, it's just aesthetically similar. Sort of like how Trigun has similarities to the west aesthetically, but there's no real tie to the old west. I don't know how to explain it.

Quote from: Love of AwesomeA straight up scifi setting where humans have colonized a planet named Hades. Technology and robotics are highly advanced, but they have a dieselpunk style to them, along with the artistic vibe of the world. There's no real "connection" to the 1900's or anything, it's just aesthetically similar. Sort of like how Trigun has similarities to the west aesthetically, but there's no real tie to the old west. I don't know how to explain it.

I really like this one, so long as there are still "colossal aberrations" i.e. alien monsters.

I like the idea of rocketpunk/dieselpunk mecha a lot. Are you familiar with the paintings of Jakub Rozalski? If not you should be!

I'm not sure Hades is the best name for the planet. Why not one of the more unusual names for the underworld, i.e. Erebus, Avernus, Asphodel, Irkalla, etc?

What about the Iron Kingdoms rules? I'm sure they have good mecha rules...

Quote from: SteerpikeI'm not sure Hades is the best name for the planet. Why not one of the more unusual names for the underworld, i.e. Erebus, Avernus, Asphodel, Irkalla, etc?

Naraka

It's underutilized

edit: in response to your actual question, I know my first instinct is usually to go to FATE, but maybe that's not actually what you want here? Lately I've been doing a lot of reading on Apocalypse World (and, mostly, hacks of it) and it seems like the main upside to this is that you get a lot of flexible options in gameplay that can still feel like the crunch gets out of the way when it needs to, but the downside is that actually building an AW hack is an incredible amount of work and the results usually seem to rely a lot on niche protection and I'm not sure whether that's what you want in a mecha game or not.

If I were playing in a mecha system, personally what I would want would be:

(1) Detailed, granular statistics for things like weapons, armour, shields, and other abilities that let you really differentiate mech-types and make a host of tactical choices based around what type of mecha your character is piloting. Designing and customizing a mecha should be a central pleasure.

(2) Rules that still make the pilot and their particular abilities matter but which don't overwhelm the mecha's specificities. The mecha should be the "focus" even if the pilot can make a big difference.

(3) Concrete combat rules that model damage to specific mecha sections and systems.

Overall, I'd say a good mecha system should avoid impressionistic mechanics in favour of concrete, specific ones.

I'm not sure if these are LoA's priorities as a GM/designer, but they would be mine as a player.

Quote from: Steerpike

Quote from: Love of AwesomeA straight up scifi setting where humans have colonized a planet named Hades. Technology and robotics are highly advanced, but they have a dieselpunk style to them, along with the artistic vibe of the world. There's no real "connection" to the 1900's or anything, it's just aesthetically similar. Sort of like how Trigun has similarities to the west aesthetically, but there's no real tie to the old west. I don't know how to explain it.

I really like this one, so long as there are still "colossal aberrations" i.e. alien monsters.

I like the idea of rocketpunk/dieselpunk mecha a lot. Are you familiar with the paintings of Jakub Rozalski? If not you should be!

I'm not sure Hades is the best name for the planet. Why not one of the more unusual names for the underworld, i.e. Erebus, Avernus, Asphodel, Irkalla, etc?

What about the Iron Kingdoms rules? I'm sure they have good mecha rules...

Quote from: Lmns Crn

Quote from: SteerpikeI'm not sure Hades is the best name for the planet. Why not one of the more unusual names for the underworld, i.e. Erebus, Avernus, Asphodel, Irkalla, etc?

Naraka

It's underutilized

edit: in response to your actual question, I know my first instinct is usually to go to FATE, but maybe that's not actually what you want here? Lately I've been doing a lot of reading on Apocalypse World (and, mostly, hacks of it) and it seems like the main upside to this is that you get a lot of flexible options in gameplay that can still feel like the crunch gets out of the way when it needs to, but the downside is that actually building an AW hack is an incredible amount of work and the results usually seem to rely a lot on niche protection and I'm not sure whether that's what you want in a mecha game or not.

Okay first thing you need to understand about me is that I love Zoids. If no one is familiar with that, its a japanese toy anime promoting a line of put-together mecha models. What makes these mecha unique was that there designs were based more on animals, dinosaurs and insects. Anyone familiar with the anime well tell you it's absolutely stupid plot-wise. I agree. However the mech designs ARE FRIGGIN AWESOME!!!!! Also Shadow Fox for the victory.

Okay that embarrasing swamp of shameful nostalgic nerdiness aside, Steerpike, I love those paintings, and will definitely keep those in my bookmark tab. However two pictures already exist that more or less capture what I'm looking for in my mecha. This picture by Kieth Thompson, and this picture by Mathew Harris, more or less capture the feel i'm going for. As awesome as the one by Keith Thompson is I think the Rhinos more or less capture the "High Tech with Dieselpunk Feel" I'm going for.

Which is why I need a system that gives me flexibility when it comes to mecha design. Almost every Mecha setting i've looked at plays to the bipedal robot idea exclusively. I understand that, but I'd like a little more options than Gundam Wing, and Battletech.

Oh while I'm at it, these images by Robert Chew are close to what I'm looking for, except their too "Hard Scifi/cyberpunk" for what I'm looking for. Plus there too tiny to be mecha, but you get what I mean.

King Sniper.. Heh heh.....

Quote from: Steerpike
If I were playing in a mecha system, personally what I would want would be:

(1) Detailed, granular statistics for things like weapons, armour, shields, and other abilities that let you really differentiate mech-types and make a host of tactical choices based around what type of mecha your character is piloting. Designing and customizing a mecha should be a central pleasure.

(2) Rules that still make the pilot and their particular abilities matter but which don't overwhelm the mecha's specificities. The mecha should be the "focus" even if the pilot can make a big difference.

(3) Concrete combat rules that model damage to specific mecha sections and systems.

Overall, I'd say a good mecha system should avoid impressionistic mechanics in favour of concrete, specific ones.

I'm not sure if these are LoA's priorities as a GM/designer, but they would be mine as a player.

And I'm fine with crunch, it's just that most systems don't take into account for quadrupedic mechs. I've seen a couple that acknowledge that, but there.... not what I'm looking for.

Which always kind of bugged me. I'm watching Pacific Rim, and I love that movie (It's stupid, but it's MY kind of stupid, dang it), but i'm still setting there wondering how these things stand up on two legs. It would be a lot easier to design something based off a quadruped.

But now I'm going off on tangents.

The quadruped thing is interesting - I wasn't aware of like a "bipedal bias" in mecha rules-sets, but I could totally imagine that being a thing.

I also wasn't aware/could believe that there was a bipedal mecha bias in rulesets, but, given my limited knowledge of most mecha-based systems (not that I know of any), I'd be curious as to what you'd specifically want rules for in a quadrupedal mecha vs. a bipedal mecha that couldn't just be changed with some simple houserules. Maybe I'm underestimating the granularity of such mecha systems, but if, for instance, I was running something like this in Pathfinder, I'd just add +10 to the base movement speed, give it a +4 vs trip attempts, etc. What sort of rules limitations do said systems give for bipedal mechas that don't translate well to quadrupedal mechas, or what sort of difficulties do you presume there to be?

Quote from: Love of AwesomeA straight up scifi setting where humans have colonized a planet named Hades. Technology and robotics are highly advanced, but they have a dieselpunk style to them, along with the artistic vibe of the world. There's no real "connection" to the 1900's or anything, it's just aesthetically similar. Sort of like how Trigun has similarities to the west aesthetically, but there's no real tie to the old west. I don't know how to explain it.

This seems the coolest to me. It reminds me of a neat mash-up between dieselpunk and planetary romance/space opera.

Quote from: Weave
I also wasn't aware/could believe that there was a bipedal mecha bias in rulesets, but, given my limited knowledge of most mecha-based systems (not that I know of any), I'd be curious as to what you'd specifically want rules for in a quadrupedal mecha vs. a bipedal mecha that couldn't just be changed with some simple houserules. Maybe I'm underestimating the granularity of such mecha systems, but if, for instance, I was running something like this in Pathfinder, I'd just add +10 to the base movement speed, give it a +4 vs trip attempts, etc. What sort of rules limitations do said systems give for bipedal mechas that don't translate well to quadrupedal mechas, or what sort of difficulties do you presume there to be?

Well, I'm a fool. I was just relooking over Battletech, and there are Quad Mechs. The problem is, they suck in game, and are highly not recommended at all for play. Battletech assumes an ability for bipedal mechs to be able to swivel on an axis. Quad Mechs can't do that.

Ever come up with something closer to what you were looking fo? 

Quote from: Ninja D!
Ever come up with something closer to what you were looking fo? 

Not really. I just decided to stick with FATE

I guess that works.

I could have sworn the D20 Modern/Future system had something I liked for quadrupeds, but I haven't looked at it in years and don't remember the details.

I know i'm probably commiting thread necromancy, but does this system look solid?

http://www.together.net/~tjoneslo/MechaD20%20SRD.pdf