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So my group has been thinking about mecha lately--giant robots fighting it out across city, country, and space. Unfortunately, most mecha games are very math-heavy and crunchier than I want to deal with. I've looked at some alternatives. "Big Eyes Small Mouth" has a pretty simple resolution mechanic, but the chargen rules are about as bad as Champions. "Bliss Stage" is nicely rules-lite, but the setting is too esoteric for my tastes (although I should have expected that). "Exosuit A-OK" from Deep7 was close to what I wanted, but some of the rules didn't sit well with me. "Mechaton" was cool with its little lego robots, but it didn't have any stats for pilots.
So, like I've had to do before, I decided I'd have to write my own game. Then I thought "Hey wait. Didn't Leighton run a super-anime mecha QAGS game at Diecon that one time?" So, I spent a few hours today at work, thinking up mecha rules for QAGS. I thought I'd share my initial findings.
First, let me discuss my design philosophy for this. I didn't want to use the rules for spaceships from Rocket Jocks. In RJ, I treated ships like characters. A rocketship is like another member of the party. I consider mecha just to be big tools. They don't have the "personality" that a ship like Serenity or Enterprise have. Therefore, mecha don't have many Words. For similar reasons, I didn't want to use any of the nebulous rules I had come up with for Robo Incognito.
To get a better idea about what I want in a giant fighin' robot game, let me list my likes and dislikes.
What I Don't Like:
Tons of numbers
Heat rules
Movement grids/hexes
Angsty, crybaby anime tropes
What I Do Like:
BIG ROBOTS!
Weapons and system degrade with damage
Choosing gear and slotting it on your mech
Salvaging stuff from defeated robots
So lets get to it...
The Pilot:
Make your robot pilot using the standard QAGS rules. It would be a good idea to make your Job something like "Mecha Pilot" or "Robot Jock."
The Giant Robot:
Mecha don't have Body, Brain or Nerve. They have one Word called "Frame." Frame measures a mecha's size and strength. It's Number usually ranges from 6 to 16.
A Mecha has a number of Hull Points (HP) equal to Frame x 5.
Mecha are on the same damage scale as standard QAGS characters.
Components
Weapons and other options to install on your mecha. Each component takes up a number of "slots" on your mecha. Your mecha has a number of "slots" equal to its Frame.
Some example components to be expanded later
Weapons: Slots = Damage Bonus / 5
(example: Plasma Flinger, DB: +35, Slots: 7; Energy Sword, DB: +20, Slots: 4)
Shield Generator: Slots = Armor Rating / 3
(example: Medium Defense Screen, AR: 15, Slots: 5)
Jump Jets (Slots: 1)
Cool Turbo Wheels (Slots: 2)
Atmospheric Flight (Slots: 3)
Space Flight (Slots: 4)
Underwater Adaptation
Life Support
Radar
ECM
EMP Pulse
Self Repair
Ejector Seat
Some Mechanics
Mecha attack each other using the pilot's Words and Numbers, most often Job.
Every time your mecha takes 10 damage, you hurt a component.
A component can be hurt a number of times equal to its slot cost before it breaks. (I'll track this on a character sheet with dots or bubbles)
On a critical hit, your pilot takes 1/10 of the damage inflicted on the mecha.
...that's all I have for now.
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