RIGHT. So my gaming group got around to watching pacific rim again and now they want to play some ridiculous mecha campaign.
Any ideas as to which system we should use and why?
>>47814917
Mekton Zeta's a bit crunchy but acceptable. Not too sorted for monster on robot stuff, but if you use plus, you can build the kaiju as biomechs, essentially.
>>47814927
Daaaamn, that looks pretty good. Thanks for the suggestion. Do you have any more? maybe something less crunchy?
>>47814917
MZ is great ( get the advanced technical manual) for doing what ever you want. It is a bit heavy on rules, modifiers, etc, but not all that much more so than other RPGs of its time. I actually find that the different rolls you do for different weapons and and all the extra little rules are fun and make combat more dynamic. Also, the build system is really addictive, though it has a bit of a learning curve.
>>47814993
alright. so i just need the advanced manual? or is there a core rulebook somewhere that id also need? Gonna have a lot of reading to do this weekend by the looks of it.
>>47815014
Get the Mekton Zeta Core Book, and the Mekton Zeta Plus Advanced Technical Manual. The former will give you the play rules you need, the latter will give you the tools to build just about anything.
>>47815098
Thank you kindly.
>>47814917
Dream Pod 9's Mecha Compendium maybe.(Supposedly works for D20 or Silcore, their own system.)
>>47815618
What does it offer? checking it out but i dont want to buy it unless ill actually use it.
d20 is pretty alright. basic system were all familiar with so that might win us over.
Traveller would be pretty good for this. Handles vehicles and persons very well.
There's a lot of battletech systems out there...
>>47814917
Use Fate.
It's the best available for the malleable flavor of scifi. It does vehicles very well with its fractal nature, basically you can stat mechs as characters. And it's more fun to play than wieldy lists and tables tracking details the story doesn't care about.
But Fate can be a challenge for DnD victims and many just refuse to get into it. So if you need something more classically structured, ORE is the best you can get. It's fast, detailed, and a joy to mod. ORE Mecha will show you how to handle giant robots.
But for both systems you will need to build your own game. In Fate this can happen in direct cooperation with the players. Gurps books can be helpful at that stage, just stay away from its mechanics.
If you want it out of the box then Mekton is probably your best bet. It doesn't work too well, but it has stats for mechs ready and is playable.
>>47814917
>No mention of Battle Century Z
I thought I knew you, /tg/.
Battle Century Z is a rules-light mecha RPG designed by a couple of guys who got really tired of the autistic levels of minutia in other mecha RPGs and wanted something that handled a little smoother. If you're not into rules-light systems and like things on the crunchier side, BCZ has nothing for you. But if you're fine with giving up the some the bean-counting that inevitably happens with crunchier RPGs (especially ones with point-buy systems), then BCZ's simplified generation system is probably more for you.
Personally, I find actually playing Mekton Zeta to be kind of a chore. It's all the problems with combat in Cyberpunk 2020 with none of the extra fixes for quick resolution. I can get why people like it, but it really isn't my thing.
10t fist bump
>>47814917
Obligatory mention of refluffed 4e and Strike!, though from your description you probably want something different.
>>47818346
>spam
>>47818346
>>47818398
Since we're spamming, I'll discuss GURPS before someone else does. You *can* do this via Spaceships. It'll do mecha and even transforming mecha. Pyramid has some articles expanding on it. You have bio-mecha, gestalt mecha, rules for fast packs and command armor, handheld weapons, transformers, different kinds of interfaces, jump jets, etc. And grappling.
With that said, Spaceships is a fantastic way to do spaceships and aircraft, and a merely ok way to do stompy robots. So if you're adding mecha to an existing campaign, go for it. But if you want to make it the focus, at least for now it's not the best choice.
Battletech's RPG systems tend to be the most comprehensive choices. You've got a construction system, rules for refitting, repairing, maintaining, plus analyses of infrastructure and required support personnel. AND the full economic/political/military/ideological implications of having stompy robots. They even have transforming mecha.
The only things they don't have are bio-mecha and gestalt mecha. There's a rule in battletech against walking personnel carriers, but that's easily handwaved if you want to throw it out.
A final option is using battletech's construction system but then actually run the game using WoD or Fate.
>>47818346
>refluffed 4e
wat.
Tell me more.
>>47820995
Rifts has some cool mechs and there's a new version coming out for a maybe playable system, maybe give that a look?
>Okay, okay, let's see...
Silcore!
>No? How about
Starship Troopers?
>Still not it, huh? Um-
Robotech
M&M2e Mecha&Manga
Bliss Stage
Battle Century G
BESM
ugh- Cthulhutech?
>>47818019
This.
BCZ is the best mech game I've seen that isn't Chromestrike. But really both are for different flavours of mecha.
>>47821780
>cthulhutech
EEEEENTERESTING. It even has kaiju and shit. fucking nice anon.
>>47821794
You know where I can find the .pdf of it?
>>47814917
I'll throw one out there: Hardboiled. It's probably best known as the system for the various "Vs. the World" games.
>>47820995
4e works well for silly shounen anime/grid mecha game style mechs (you know, where the big strong guy has a big strong mech). Your powers are for your mech, and you just refluff them as needed, fireballs becoming incidenary rockets, etc.
It's not fit for lego mechs (like armored core) or real mech like battletech stuff, but for gamist style it should work great.
Strike! works for the same reason (being a sorta 4e clone), but is even easier to handle.
>>47814917
I'll add Remnants to the suggestion list. Moderate rules complexity but play (especially fights) is *very* fast.
Setting needs refluffing, but thats true of most suggestions I've seen here.
