Mekton Zeta

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>>14020349
>I want to come up with justifications for mechas being there other than it's cool.
There's not one.

>>14020588
Ancient tradition

>>14020349
You won't find any justification that holds up to deep scrutiny. However, as you're doing a Mekton game, I'll leave you with my masterwork:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z0TDKdeFW26HxO3z3K4LKgMmvCZ9p4sjH9Xtvfgvjx4/edit?usp=sharing

This sheet automates everything that can be automated. Make a copy for yourself and use it as you see fit.

>>14020349
Never played it, because nobody else in the group will read the rulebook.

>>14020598
>make fantasy mecha game
>people pilot mechas because ancient tradition
Could work well.

>>14020349
if you need anything other than "because it's cool" kill yourself

>>14020901
But if you're doing fantasy then there's no reason to come up with an explanation. "Magic!" will cover it, and in a fantasy setting mecha might exist where tanks and cannons do not.

>>14020349
>but at the very least make up justified or excusable designs for mecha being used and the systems behind them and the setting

A revolutionary new control system that allows a 1-1 interface between pilot and machine. Unfortunately because it's hooked directly to the pilot's nervous system, best results can only be achieved if the machine is in a roughly humanoid shape. Boom, shitty handwave complete.

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>>14020349
One of the more interesting ideas I've seen posed was Iconic Field. Humans trying to colonize a new world find it too harsh for them to survive, so they set up an (ostensibly temporary) field around the planet that empowers things in humanoid form, including a human offshoot they created that have no hearts. Thousands of years later the field is still running, and our hero pilot (one of the heartless humans) slowly unravels the truth of their world.

>>14021068
Similar idea I used for a BCG campaign was that humanity had been an evil galactic empire at some point in past, finally got defeated and contained back to the solar system, watched over by the Yuusha. Robots feature prominently in their society, but they're actively told robots are impractical, not because it can't be done, but because that's a way to gently sap man's ambitions.

>>14020349
Post some Mecha RPGs or general sci-fi RPG with really good and interesting fluff

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OP here, thanks for the responses.

>>14020598
>>14020901
>>14020906
>>14021068

I love this idea. Let me just "borrow" it lol. I wrote up a setting and background from it. I'll post a write-up of it when I'm done (everyone says that). Not even fooling around here!

>>14020588
>>14020905
>>14020715

Thanks a lot for that spreadsheet. How were the games you played? My group plays DnD5e so they feel overwhelmed looking at the Mekton book.

While any justification I make up for the mechas won't hold up to deep scrutiny, I just want something to satisfy myself... and the group I've got.

Seriously, it was hard finding any one willing to even look inside the book. Same as >>14020741. So I want to give them some of what they're looking for.

>>14020741
>>14024523

But you guys, you guys...you're literally right now talking to people who will play with you. Why not just set up a Roll20 session?

>>14020349
>My brother gave me the PDFs and it looks fun.
link?

Mekton Zeta links
MK1003 Mekton Zeta http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1443841166
MK1211 Starblade Battalion http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1443841337
MK1402 Mekton Zeta Plus - Advanced Technical Manual http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1443841495
MK1701 Mekton Wars - Invasion Terra http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1443841643
MK1801 Mecha Manual 2 - Invasion Terra Files http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1443841824
MK1901 Tactical Display http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1443842035

>>14024523
It can look pretty overwhelming but most of the complexity is front-loaded. You probably shouldn't try to use all of the rules at start and stick to the basic combat rules and simple mechs to prevent players from getting overwhelmed and bored with things like missile travel time or acceleration. Beyond stuff like that it's just boils down to 1D10 + Stat + Skill vs target number.

My current campaign is using the Japanese version of the game called Gundam Senki. It has pre-built mobile suits and cuts out most of the unnecessary combat rules and runs fine. My players were quick to understand and I only use the advanced combat rules when I feel that they would add to the game and not just slow things down.

If you're interested I could post a link to my wip translation of the game.

>>14021639
Along these lines - if I was going to pitch an idea for an 80s 'real robot' styled mecha RPG in a space setting to a gaming group, which ruleset would work better - Mekton or Jovian Chronicles?

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>>14024774
>If you're interested I could post a link to my wip translation of the game.

That would be great. I thought Gundam Senki didn't get translated.

>>14024551
Truly want to run one with you guys. I want to learn the game in person with my group first, because I don't have as much free time for another game and also I'd like to give the best experience online. Also, I don't want to deal with blatant trolling and shitters.

Dunno lol. It's possible we can get a game going. I'd love to.

>>14024829
It never did get translated officially but I stumbled upon a copy and decided to have a go. The pdf is incomplete but here's what I have so far. Most of what's missing is stat blocks and the combat rules (which are the same as Mekton save a few nuances)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3GuThKv1m7BejVaYlRUNG40TGs/view?usp=sharing

>>14020588
One of the sourcebooks for an earlier edition of the game, Mekton Empire iirc, had one of those little flavor-comments that explained that the council made the mecha humanoid so that the enemy would know that it was MAN that had defeated them.

Also iirc in Battletech the first mecha were zero-gravity construction equipment. They had arms because manipulators were needed to build things, and they had legs because you needed to magnetically attach yourself to the side of the space station or ship you were working on and there's no real reason *not* to build those magnets into humanoid legs in 0g. Then when they decided to revolt they just bolted guns onto their already-vaguely-humanoid construction machines.

My favorite was always the "this machine is driven directly by your motor cortex (whether via cybernetic linkage, MRI, psycommu, or whatever) so it's disorienting for your "body" to not be humanoid. This one also gives humanoid robots that extra edge of "you're just moving your body rather than manipulating a set of controls that maneuver your vehicle" to let it be faster/more agile than aircraft or tank control.

I've been playing for months, shit is pretty cash. My only complaints are the slow combat and less-than-clear rules, which is already putting aside the balancing issues it has. If you find the right group to play with and they don't flake out all the time like me then it's good fun.

>>14024879
THANK YOU for this!
Ever since I got into Gundam I've wanted to see the official stats for the MS in Mekton.

One of the biggest problems I had with Mekton was the extremely open design process. There's more than one way to go about building something and end up with the same stats because of things like space efficiency, weight efficiency, sacrificing spaces for more Kills, that kind of thing.
I drove myself crazy trying to figure out whether the Cyberpunk cyberlims were designed as 5K 1/10th scale with cybernetic linkage taking two spaces, or 2K 1/5 scale hollowed out for two extra spaces. It's been a long time, but the math worked both ways depending on your conversion rate from K to SP.

>>14025306
Yeah the book provides a good basis for MS, MA, and ships which was my main gripe when trying to run a Gundam game in plain Mekton. I intend to uses this to homebrew other UC era stuff up to Unicorn after I get the pdf finished so keep an eye out.

Probably the biggest improvement is that the game works on a broad single scale instead of breaking it up and worrying about conversion rules. This alone speeds up things like MS to ship combat dramatically.

I have a group that runs MZ, but it's on hiatus right about now.
Mekton has a lot of faults, but if your GM is good at balancing things and if the group is cooperative, you can have a hella good time.

>>14025384
My cardinal rule was "Role playing, not roll playing".
Ever since D&D I've always constantly played with my dice behind my DM screen so players wouldn't know when I was doing perception checks, random encounters, or whatever. Still did it in Mekton and Cyberpunk but for a different reason. If a player described an action well enough (storytelling, not just details) I wouldn't even consider the die roll and would just let them get away with stuff as long as they were playing in-character and being entertaining.

But then we would also have one-on-one gladiatorial combat with a tabletop hex-map where it was basically just arena mode with no roleplaying, just combat. That was more of a Battletech thing, but we did it with Mekton also. In those matches it was ALL about the die rolls because we were pitting mek designs against each other, not storytelling for entertainment.

Weren't we supposed to get a new Mekton from kickstarter? The fuck happened. I know it made its money and then just vanished.

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>>14025384
What's up?

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>>14025232
>Also iirc in Battletech the first mecha were zero-gravity construction equipment. They had arms because manipulators were needed to build things, and they had legs because you needed to magnetically attach yourself to the side of the space station or ship you were working on and there's no real reason *not* to build those magnets into humanoid legs in 0g. Then when they decided to revolt they just bolted guns onto their already-vaguely-humanoid construction machines.

That's Gundam bro.

Battletech just bolted guns to a mech because it turns out that they are fucking awesome at killing things.

>>14025778
Enjoying my time off, shitposting when I feel like it.
>>14024879
If anyone can find where this is from, I'd give you a big hearty 'thanks'.

>>14024829
>Gundam Senki

Have you looked at this http://www.gundamforums.com/showthread.php/45116-Gundam-Tabletop-Games it has a fair bit of the MS's and some other stuff translated.

>>14025893
Nice. Hiatus game is going well, except for how I've missed 40% of the games mostly of my own fault. We found a new player, dunno if they'll rejoin us in the main campaign. Late UC is fun to play around with, although I'm taking a character-oriented approach so I haven't really tested out crazy nanobot stuff. Anyway enjoy your time off.

What about this Battle Century G I've heard of? How does it fare?

>>14026046
Yeah that forum post is actually what made me want to pick up the book and translate it fully. His work saved a lot of trouble as some of the kanji can be pretty dense.

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No, but I'm thinking about trying the Mektoon setting and mechanics for Toon, as featured in the Tooniversal Tour Guide.

My players like mecha, but generally prefer light hearted and silly games.

I have an irl group with the gm wanting to start a fallout or battletech tabletop, even tho we already have a star wars game with 10 people including gmpc's. Every good star wars thing set in between 3 and 4 always ends up being about the rebellion so that was probably a mistake. can we just have this be a tabletop /m/ thread?

>>14026336

It already is a tabletop /m/ thread, you goon.

>>14026337
Disregard my spoiler I suck dick.

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Disregard the mechanics, how do you feel about Cthulhutech the setting?

Anyone got experience with Chris Perrin's Mecha RPG? It looks really tight and the book seems written by someone who knows his /m/ stuff, but I've yet to check it out in practice. Not enough time.

In the past whenever I played mecha I used Mutants and Masterminds 2nd ed, and it worked out just fine.

>>14026397
maximum edge/10

>>14026404
>>14026397
It's rape everywhere, not even kidding.

Cool mechs though. I like the Naz mechs.

>>14026397
as laid out in Core and Vade Mecum it's actually pretty good(even if there's some stupid bits like the Dreamlands getting eaten by some dumb OC Mythos Entity, or what happens to most real world religions), but later books ruin it with a bunch of incredibly dumb stuff, hopefully the new version will fix some of this stuff

>>14026401
personally I found Mecha RPG to be incredibly bland