Transformers d20

[invokethehojo]

It's been a long time since I looked at star wars, but I always felt like the jedi were the most powerful class in the system, and they also worked very differently than the other classes... why not just drop the jedi class entirely and save yourself the work of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole? reflavor the other classes that use minimal force stuff and start your campagin... just a suggestion.

 

[Vance]

Sadly, Mechamorphosis is pretty awful. The main failing is that it shifts everything from d20 into 'vehicle scale'... where are vehicle/mecha are the SAME SCALE. Pretty worthless for Transformers, when you consider that.

In fact, that's one of the big failings of d20 for Transformers. The insistance on balance is pretty rediculous when you have Megatron and Frenzy running around, and the physical differences between them are hardware. If Brawn picks up Megatron's Fusion Cannon (as he's done before), does he suddenly gain 20 levels? Etc...

Honestly, your BEST bet is to say 'screw d20' and find something a little looser and not so obsessed with the almighty XP.

 

[DwelleroftheDeep]

If you don't mind Mutants and Masterminds I bet it would work pretty well for a transformers game. On the official forums over at Green Ronin I've seen plenty of transformers characters. If you want to custom-design your own system, that would be something else, but it might be worth a look.

 

[Vance]

If you don't mind Mutants and Masterminds I bet it would work pretty well for a transformers game. On the official forums over at Green Ronin I've seen plenty of transformers characters. If you want to custom-design your own system, that would be something else, but it might be worth a look.

I just picked up the Manga and Mecha suppliement for M&M today, and flipped over it. While it obsensibly will cover mecha, I haven't yet dug into it. IT's a little disturbing that there's very little 'manga' art in the book (a lot are just regular RPG art with Asians in it, most others use mid-grade 'Christopher Hart' style artwork), and it's written by someone who knows anime/manga from watching Toonami a few years ago.. but, oh well... there may be enough crunch to make it work, at least.

 

[Herobizkit]

To play a TF game using d20 could be done using some simple house rules "borrowed" from various gaming supplements.

Most mecha games have HP for each of the mecha's main "parts" (arm, leg, hand, foot, head, body). Allow 'called shots' at specific body parts at penalty; rolls that miss the called shot but would normally hit the mecha hit the body instead.

Robotech (Palladium Games) - Mega-Damage. 100 HP = 1 M.D. Weapons that do not do M.D. cannot harm things/creatures with M.D. for HP. This is highly unrealistic but works in a game context; human machine guns wailing on a tank will barely scratch it, but one well-placed RPG might.

Constructs: Giant talking robots are simply Large-Gargantuan intelligent Constructs with the Alternate Form ability. They do damage as human weapons scaled properly for their size, and possibly with one extra die and/or up one die step to impress their "uber-ness".

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Honestly, your BEST bet is to say 'screw d20' and find something a little looser and not so obsessed with the almighty XP.

Eh, a level-based system could work, you just have to be a bit looser than normal.

And power disparities don't have to be that big a deal. As long as everyone has something to do in combat, it should be okay. I seem to recall Rumble and Frenzy being especially annoying to the Autobots. And hell, in issue # 3 of the Marvel series, Brawn took on Megatron solo* for a surprisingly long time.

Brad

* - Well, he had help from Spider-Man.

 

[Vance]

To play a TF game using d20 could be done using some simple house rules "borrowed" from various gaming supplements.

The problem isn't the mecha designs 'per se', but the concepts of mecha as CHARACTERS. How do you treat, for instance, Fortress Maximus, Devastator, Optimus Prime, Jazz, Frenzy, and a Minicon all as characters within the same d20 rules set. It can be done, but it's a bit of a pain .. and with d20 worshipping the almighty XP, can become a bit of a futile quest.

 

[ValhallaGH]

The problem isn't the mecha designs 'per se', but the concepts of mecha as CHARACTERS. How do you treat, for instance, Fortress Maximus, Devastator, Optimus Prime, Jazz, Frenzy, and a Minicon all as characters within the same d20 rules set. It can be done, but it's a bit of a pain .. and with d20 worshipping the almighty XP, can become a bit of a futile quest.

Dude, you do know you can run a d20 game with absolutely no experience points, right?

All that's required is for the DM to let players know when their characters level up.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Robotech (Palladium Games) - Mega-Damage. 100 HP = 1 M.D. Weapons that do not do M.D. cannot harm things/creatures with M.D. for HP. This is highly unrealistic but works in a game context; human machine guns wailing on a tank will barely scratch it, but one well-placed RPG might.

Mekton uses a conversion of 1 Kill (mecha scale) = 10 Hits (human scale). The CP2020 conversion rules changes this to 1 Kill = 25 Hits. In Mechwarrior since every die you use is a d6, a 6 on a human scale weapon's damage roll is 1/2 a point of 'mech damage.

 

[Vance]

Dude, you do know you can run a d20 game with absolutely no experience points, right?

All that's required is for the DM to let players know when their characters level up.

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

With the usual d20 model, a 5th level character is generally about the same power level as any other 5th level character. But this breaks down very quickly when you have varying degrees of equipment. A 5th level character with a bunch of +3 gear is much more powerful than one without.

With Transformers, you're dealing with the difference between the fusion cannon and a bunch of 2d6 laser pistols. The character levels (which generally define the internal skilsl and powers of someone) are completely overridden by the body and equipment the character currently possesses.