D20 + Mekton Zeta Plus

[Jack of Shadows]

Hello,

Has anyone tried mating D20 Future with Mekton Zeta Plus? I used to use MZ+ to do all my homebrew SF stuff and I think it's a much better system for building future technology (especially starships) then what has been done so far with D20. Just curious to know if anyone has tried mashing the two together.

Jack

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

I tried several years back to do just that, but got stymied on the project due to real-life concerns.

I'd defintely be interested in seeing a d20 conversion of MZ+, as giant mecha is a favorite anime genre of mine, and is something I've yet to see done anywheres near as well in d20 as it was done in MZ+.

 

[Morgan Keyes]

Always enjoyed MZ m'self back in the day. Think I'll try exploring the possibility of working Mekton Zeta concepts in with the system presented in Pulver's D20 Mecha.

 

[Zoatebix]

I'm a big fan of David Pulver's GURPS Vehicles (despite the time it takes to design, say, a wheelbarrow), GRUPS Mecha, and d20 Mecha, but, though I've heard of it and thumbed through a book or two, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to MZ+. Could someone summarize its approach and what makes it unique?

 

[Morgan Keyes]

I'm a big fan of David Pulver's GURPS Vehicles (despite the time it takes to design, say, a wheelbarrow), GRUPS Mecha, and d20 Mecha, but, though I've heard of it and thumbed through a book or two, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to MZ+. Could someone summarize its approach and what makes it unique?

Mekton was probably one of the first vehicle/device design systems that was "effects-based" while still presenting a good level of "crunch". IOW, while it had a quantifiable design sequence it wasn't so lost in "accuracy" as to overbunden the designer in math. The nearest equivilents I can think of would be the Silhouette design system (seen in Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, and Gear Krieg) and D20 Mecha. At the "less crunch, more effects" -based end you would have BESM and D20 Future (mecha and ship design) while at the other "ultra-crunch" end you would have GURPS Vehicles and CORPS Vehicle Design System (same folks that did Guns, Guns, Guns, aka 3G).

One start point for info is at MektonZeta.Com.

 

[Aeric]

I can't say I've ever considered converting MKZ stuff to d20...I find the MKZ system to be superior to the d20 system for building mecha, and for characters I am happy to use Fuzion. If anything, I would use the d20 Mecha Compendium to convert Heavy Gear mecha from the Shilouette system to the MKZ system.

 

[Morgan Keyes]

The way I was looking at it was taking concepts you find in MZ+ and how they could be applied by expanding upon D20 Mecha. Certainly I think the framework is there to support expansion. And Mekton's construction system itself saw development and growth over it's time to what we know as MZ+ now and back in it's early days was about at the same level of detail one found in D20 Mecha today.

I would like to think that if GOO had survived and it's foray into D20 had continued that David Pulver would have continued to refine and develop D20 Mecha, and we can see examples of that potential in D20 Military Vehicles (this is the guy that also created GURPS Vehicles after all).

 

[Jack of Shadows]

The biggest factor in my love of MZ+ is the scaling rules. It allows you to build everything from a handgun to the Deathstar and all function on the same rules system. D20 Future is a hodgepodge of seperate construction rules for everything. I think the Gadget system is very inovative but they just didn't carry it far enough.

Maybe I will just use Fuzion instead. Might be simpler, even though I'll need to teach a new rules set.

Jack

 

[Arnwyn]

I can't say I've ever considered converting MKZ stuff to d20...I find the MKZ system to be superior to the d20 system for building mecha, and for characters I am happy to use Fuzion.

Word. 100%.

Maybe I will just use Fuzion instead. Might be simpler, even though I'll need to teach a new rules set.

That's what we do.

Our group uses d20 for the medieval/fantasy genre, and Fuzion/MZ+ for the futuristic/sci-fi genre. My players actually prefer it that way (they don't want to use d20 for any futuristic game).

 

[Salcor]

A good Mekton Z Plus setting to convert is the Starblade Battalion. Great book, and probably pretty easy to convert.


Salcor