Favourite mecha RPGs

[orangefruitbat]

The only successful mecha game that I've been involved in was run through the Marvel FASERIP system. We all had suits of power armour and it was a futurist sci-fi world with a bit of a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe (note - it was a unique game world, and didn't include any Marvel characters). The FASERIP system did a pretty good job of modelling armour abilities and enhancements without making people overly useless/fragile when outside of their armour (looking at you Rifts mega-damage...).

 

[jian]

Worth noting that Aether Nexus is a cousin of Mecha Hack more than a sibling. There are major changes (almost universally improvements IMO) to the original hack of Black Hack in AN that alter gameplay quite a bit, and even with the Mission Manual for MH (which is nearly mandatory, it adds so much) there's just loads more customization options for AN. Not only are there more choices, there are more things to tweak and the straightjacket of level-based progression is gone, replaced by a fairly freeform point-buy system that means two pilot/frame combos that started out 100% identical are almost guaranteed to grow very differently over time.

They're both good but in different ways, and if AN ever gets its own Mission Manual equivalent it's probably going to be amazing, with build versatility akin to Lancer while running on a lighter, faster engine.

The main thing I don’t like about AN is its different names for everything (the stats, critical success/failure, Advantage/Disadvantage, etc) which just seems inefficient. But there’s a lot of great stuff there. I’m thinking of reworking it a little bit for a setting based on Iron Widow & Heavenly Tyrant, two recent books by Xiran Jay Zhao.

 

[jian]

The only successful mecha game that I've been involved in was run through the Marvel FASERIP system. We all had suits of power armour and it was a futurist sci-fi world with a bit of a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe (note - it was a unique game world, and didn't include any Marvel characters). The FASERIP system did a pretty good job of modelling armour abilities and enhancements without making people overly useless/fragile when outside of their armour (looking at you Rifts mega-damage...).

I can see that would totally work.

 

[MGibster]

The only mecha RPG I've ever played was Palladium's Robotech way back in the 1980s. Rifts had some mecha in it, but it wasn't the main focus of the game. The problem I have with vehicles in most RPGs is that it's not a whole lot of fun to be in the vehicles. The rules are either too abstract and offer little tactical variety or they're too complex for most RPG players. Most lean into the too abstract category.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The old Hero System Robot Warriors stand-alone game deserves mention as well. The original 3rd edition is available from Hero Games, and there's a (professional grade) fan update for converting to 4th, 5th and 6th on DTRPG over here. As you'd expect, it's supremely versatile even compared to GURPS and Mekton, quite well balanced - but it's also Hero system, which is great if you like it but many folks don't.

That’s a find! Thanks for putting that on my radar.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another approach you could take is divorcing the mecha side from the roleplaying side. Chose an TTRPG you like and use it for the roleplaying; do similarly with a mecha boardgame/wargame.

To unify the experience, grant combat bonuses in the wargame based on character build choices in the RPG.

 

[Theory of Games]

I've run games of M&M3e where players had PCs with mechs. The M&M Gadget Guides has simple rules for building mech-suits of all sized and descriptors (tech, magic, bio-tech).

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

The main thing I don’t like about AN is its different names for everything (the stats, critical success/failure, Advantage/Disadvantage, etc) which just seems inefficient.

I prefer when companies avoid that sort of thing myself, but it's such a minor nitpick it doesn't seem like it's worth making an issue out of. Had my internal translator running fine by the time I'd finished my first read-through and made a couple of characters, and I found some things (eg naming the stats to elements of the world) actually helped with immersion into the setting.

Of course, if you're not using the setting that's not going to be a positive for you. The mechanical changes from MH are, I think, good enough to merit putting the effort into porting the engine to other worlds, even though AN is much more setting-specific than MH is even after Mission Manual expanded its default setting so much. Definitely went from "pretty generic" to "look at this very specific, exotic settin" between writing teh two games.

Another approach you could take is divorcing the mecha side from the roleplaying side. Chose an TTRPG you like and use it for the roleplaying; do similarly with a mecha boardgame/wargame.

Doesn't even need to be a board/war/minis game, you could just append the character side of a more character-focused RPG to the mech/tactical combat side of a mech-focused RPG. People do that with Lancer pretty regularly IME, and I remember experimenting with similar using the original Mekton (which had about as much RP as Car Wars initially) and modded LBB Traveller of all things.

That’s a find! Thanks for putting that on my radar.

I can't speak for the later edition fan versions, but I had a good time for six-eight months messing around with the original 3rd ed Robot Warriors back in the day. We mostly did super-robot tropes with it, but I'm sure it could manage more realistic (eg Patlabor) or exotic (eg Dunbine) stuff just as well.

 

[jian]

Another approach you could take is divorcing the mecha side from the roleplaying side. Chose an TTRPG you like and use it for the roleplaying; do similarly with a mecha boardgame/wargame.

To unify the experience, grant combat bonuses in the wargame based on character build choices in the RPG.

This is basically what Lancer (and especially ICON, the fantasy version) do - the rules for combat are completely different from the ones for not being in combat.

 

[BrokenTwin]

Feels like a good time to point out that the same folks who did Apocalypse Frame are currently kickstarting a print run of their other mech game Celestial Bodies. I have no affiliation, but I really want it to succeed so I can get a physical book, haha. Haven't really looked into AF yet (recently got the PDF), but I'm really enjoying how CB handles the mech building aspects. It uses almost a tetris grid as both the framework to add parts and as a damage/hit chart. So larger mechs can carry more, but are also easier to hit in a really intuitive way.

Besides that, my primary mech RPG is Lancer at the moment, though there's a fairly large number of others on my "try at some point" list.