Which Fantasy Mech book is best?

Ghostwind · Oct 6, 2004

With all of the mecha style books out there, which one would you go with first to both create fantasy style mechs and use the rules from? More importantly, why would you make that choice?

Ranger REG · Oct 6, 2004

You forgot Mongoose Publishing's Armageddon: 2089.

Aaron L · Oct 6, 2004

I like the D20 Future system. It's simple. I tried the GOO system and it was just way too complicated.

JRRNeiklot · Oct 7, 2004

No option for "Mech sucks?"

cignus_pfaccari · Oct 7, 2004

JRRNeiklot said:
No option for "Mech sucks?"

I've been unimpressed with the two choices I've seen. As sad as it is to say, Sorcerer and Savant has the best treatment of fantasy mechs with its warstriders. They fit a nice happy medium; they're treated, effectively, as suits of armor, but lots and lots bigger.

IKCG, well, I haven't looked enough at it, but I don't recall their mecha actually having pilots, just wizards who hung out nearby.

DragonMech, while it might be nice, I have conceptual issues with. I'm not entirely sure how a giant walking city is useful, or even doable, and exactly how it can dodge chunks of falling moon. While it may be the best mecha system for fantasy ever, I'm not going to touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Brad

Impeesa · Oct 7, 2004

cignus_pfaccari said:
I've been unimpressed with the two choices I've seen. As sad as it is to say, Sorcerer and Savant has the best treatment of fantasy mechs with its warstriders. They fit a nice happy medium; they're treated, effectively, as suits of armor, but lots and lots bigger.

IKCG, well, I haven't looked enough at it, but I don't recall their mecha actually having pilots, just wizards who hung out nearby.

DragonMech, while it might be nice, I have conceptual issues with. I'm not entirely sure how a giant walking city is useful, or even doable, and exactly how it can dodge chunks of falling moon. While it may be the best mecha system for fantasy ever, I'm not going to touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Brad

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it's worth pointing out that only the city-mechs are city sized. It also has a fairly detailed system for fantasy mecha on a more useful scale, such as a hero might pilot.

--Impeesa--

cignus_pfaccari · Oct 7, 2004

Impeesa said:
I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it's worth pointing out that only the city-mechs are city sized. It also has a fairly detailed system for fantasy mecha on a more useful scale, such as a hero might pilot.

--Impeesa--

Heh. No, I do get that. I actually have the WW/S&S quarterly thing with a preview.

I'm not normally one of Those People...you know, the ones who get turned off to a setting or game because of one small thing. But in this case, city mechs and super-tough moon monsters turn me off completely.

Brad

haiiro · Oct 7, 2004

cignus_pfaccari said:
Heh. No, I do get that. I actually have the WW/S&S quarterly thing with a preview.

I'm not normally one of Those People...you know, the ones who get turned off to a setting or game because of one small thing. But in this case, city mechs and super-tough moon monsters turn me off completely.

I haven't seen the preview, but I do have (and love) DragonMech and Shardsfall Quest. Maybe the preview doesn't give the full context, but city mechs make a lot of sense in relation to the setting as a whole -- granted, it's over-the-top fantasy sense, but it works.

As for dodging moon chunks, by and large the city mechs don't dodge them, which is the whole idea: they're so big and so well-armored that only the largest chunks would do any lasting damage.

I'm a pretty shameless DragonMech fanboy, but only because I think it does such a good job of integrating a typically non-fantasy concept into a fantasy world, and the rules associated with it rock.

Dwarven Godfather · Oct 7, 2004

IKCG would not be good since it covers only the Warjacks which are automatons for Wizards to create. I would prefer to use the OGL Steampunk which Mongoose did. Great Creation rules for everything from equipment to bunkers. There are good Feats to add to these items as well. I was very turned off from Dragonmech because they had very little creation rules for creating mechs
I know for future reference, I will be using OGL Steampunk for everything that needs to be created.

Keeper of Secrets · Oct 7, 2004

IKCG is different than the others. I voted for it because that is the sytle of 'mechs' I would most prefer. I see serious problems with characters actually getting inside the mech. Usually the classes for theose characters are not all that versitle outside the mech.