Mech Manual

[JoeGKushner]

Mechs for Enemies and Allies

Survival in DragonMech requires a hard metal shell powered by a loud engine. But it's not enough to beat the other mechs: you also have to survive wizards throwing fireballs! This is the definitive guide to the smoke-belching steampunk mechs, nimble clockwork lancers, slave-driven galley-riders, magical elven tree-walkers, and grotesque necromechs that every mech jockey has to be prepared to pilot - or fight.

A New Kind of Fantasy Warrior

This "monster manual of mechs" provides players with new options and DMs with new enemies. There are 59 new mechs from every major faction, plus new mech gear and construction options. In non-DragonMech fantasy worlds, the mechs can be used as deadly constructs or animated golems.

Designed for use with DragonMech, The Mech Manual includes:

59 new mechs from the Stenian Confederacy, Legion, Irontooth Clans, and elven nations, as well as orc tribes, unaffiliated undead mechs, and other factions
New mechs from the mysterious underdeep races: drow mechs, derro mechs, even an aboleth mech
12 new monsters for mech-related campaigns
Intelligent mechs, haunted mechs, and other unique mechs that showcase the range of adventures mechs can provide
New feats, new spells, and new mech weapons for use in your DragonMech game.

Preview: Click here for a 10-page preview of the Mech Manual, showcasing several unique mechs including the aboleth brine worm! (864K PDF)


For more on the overall DragonMech product line, see the DragonMech page. This page covers only the Mech Manual sourcebook.


Writers: F. Wesley Schneider and Matt Sprengeler
Developer: Joseph Goodman
Art Director: Andy Hopp
Cover Artist: Jeff Carlisle
Interior Artists: Jeff Carlisle, Brad McDevitt, Liz Harper, Noel Murphy, Eric Roman, Grey Thornberry
Editor: Ken Hart
Produced in cooperation with Sword & Sorcery Studios, a division of White Wolf


WW17602, 128 pages, $21.99




Preview of Table of Contents and Interior Art

Chapter One: New Mechs
Stenian Confederacy Mechs
Borukdatar
Remna Aeriestone, Wandering Warsmith
Crag Strider
Earth Breaker
Fell Hammer
Iron Choir
Mechs of the Gods
Judge
Steam Blade
Captain Gabriel Rosas, Rogue Steam Blade Captain
Tunnel Warden
War Smith
Nicolas Tessler, Selling the Future
Legion Mechs
Chimera
Defender (a.k.a. Tindertwig)
Falcon (unique)
Fist of Valor
Humanity's Vengrance
Just Retribution
Paladin
Vortex
Irontooth Clan Mechs
Ashigaru
Duels of Honor
Ch'i'rin
Kabuto
The Striding Crab, an Exemplary Kabuto
Kappa
Kusari
Oni
Storm Ystarn, Captain the Most Feared Mech in Highpoint
Sensei
Shurikien
Wazikashi
Elven Mechs
Aeron's Ally
Dark Dryad
Groveshadow (unique +2 mech)
Enchanted Mechs
Icicle
Jeweltree
Memory
Orc Mechs
Crash Axe
The Seared Palm Clan
Dire Armor
Fire Blood
Gnasher
Gore Dog
Ol' Chief One Eye
Orc Religion and the Lunar Rain
Org XIII
Ravel Cracked Skull, Half-Orc Genius
Terror Tower
A Terror Tower Village
Warchief's Armor
Undead Mechs
Charnel
Dreadwand
Turning Undead Mechs
Haunted Jurgen (unique)
Sharlorn, the Necropolis (unique city-mech)
Appearance
Existence Aboard Sharlorn
Noteworthy Residents
Unique and Unusual Mechs
Avenging Blade (unique)
Brine Worm (aboleth)
Cathedral (unique)
Deep Spider (drow)
Earthblood the Mighty (unique)
Home, formerly Hornet (unique)
Lactrodectus (drow)
Razid (derro)
Derro, Allies of the Lunar Invasion
Sand Strider
Wanderers of the Wet Desert
Shrine of Oon (unique)
The Monks of Oon
Steel Warlord
Sylvan Revenger (unique)
Bryn Crazed Oak, Last of the High Druids
Thundercloud
Underbreather
Lunar Islands
Chapter Two: New Equipment
Chapter Three: New Monsters
Cogling Crawler
Cogling Crawler Swarm
Demon, Hellborg
Devil, Goiem (Grime Devil)
Devil, Hairesthai (Heretic Devil)
Ferrous Cube
Giant, Lunar
Oil Nymph
Scalded (template)
Skelth
Stygian Horror
Ygapmpo
Chapter Four: New Rules
New Feats
New Spells

 

[JoeGKushner]

More firepower for your Dragonmech game

The Mech Manual brings forth new mechs, monsters, NPCs, game mechanics and background to the Dragonmech game. Weighing in at 128 black and white pages for $21.99, the Mech Manual is well priced. Written by F. Wesley Schneider and Matt Sprengler, they are joined by interior artists Jeff Carlisle, Brad McDevgitt, Liz Harper, Noel Murphy, Erik Roman and Grey Thonberry. The interior design is similar to previous Dragonmech books with gears and shaded borders.

When looking through the book, only two things strike me as potential negative effects. One is the art. While it’s not bad by any means, it falls short of the excellence established in the core Draognmech book itself. It looks far more pen and ink style as opposed to the charcoal styling of the original book. Much more in keeping with the art in the first adventure book. The second potential issue is that this book changes the world in many ways by adding numerous mechs to the setting where the GM may have already used his own inventions or may not have planned to have such information in the setting. It’s a familiar problem to GMs of any system that comes out with support books as the GM must now work to retroactively include the material in his campaign.

The book includes over fifty new books and is broken up by faction. We have Stenian Confederacy, Legion, Irontooth, Elven, Orc, and Undead. To further boost the amount of mechs, we also have a chapter on unique and unusual mechs.

The mechs aren’t just simple listings and illustrations. They include background information and details. Some of them are worthy of campaign focus. For example, under the undead, we have Sharlorn the Necropolis, a unique creature that’s the largest undead mech of it’s type that wields Moonquencher, one of the largest intelligent swords ever created. There are several NPC’s associated with Sharlorn, including it’s creator and those who ally themselves with Jyl, a powerful lich, some like Cai, are old friends who believe in the cause, while others like Suulo, have been pulled into Jyl’s plans with little regard to their own wishes.

Some of the more interesting bits that effect the campaign world are found in the ways that the mechs are used to overcome the lunar rain. For example, in terms of religion, things are difficult for the terrain gods right now. Despite that, there are Iron Choirs, the Mechs of the Gods. This section includes a nice breakdown on several of the unique deities of the Dragonmech world like Cronul, the God of Death and Ummoor, the Goddess of Magic. While on these mechs, clerics don’t suffer their normal chance of spell failure and when trying to bring an ally back from the dead, their level is only counted as half, so the chance to bring them back is doubled.

But how to bring the word of faith to the masses? The Iron Choirs are gargantuan machines and are rare treasures, not to be chanced on the field of battle. That’s where others come in like the Avenging Blade, a mech shaped with magic to look like a female paladin who owns it. Melina Blue preaches to the masses in terms of action and strength. Others like Dunkan Tullerd, use his unique mech, the Cathedral, to allow those who come to the mech, the chance to pray and know the gods once again.

Other bits rise to the surface of cool like the Brine Worm. See, the aboleth’s have discovered mecha technology and can use it to move about unhindered and even worse, the drow have also discovered it and have their own unique creations.

Other sidebars show how things move along in a world under siege. Without specific alliances and checks in place, inhabitants of the outer plane, both the familiar demons and devils, as well as their counterparts, to the outsiders who hail from further realms, have started to make inroads into the world.

In addition to the mechs and background bits, the new equipment includes the standard array of new weapons like Mech Hammers and Net Cannons, each with size information including cost, damage, critical, weight, type, and PU.

The new monsters range from natives from the depths that have risen, like the Stygian Horror, to the menaces of the lunar rain, like lunar giants and Ygapmpo, a slimy creature worthy of Mythos inclusion.

The Mech Manual helps flesh out the Dragonmech world even as it provides new options to the GM in terms of machines and monsters to challenge his players with.