Alright, so I'm in the process of mulling over house rules/setting modifications for mecha combat. Particularly I am going to be running a game set in the Gundam universe (UC).

I'm considering this different from the Battletech topic, as thematically Battletech tends to represent slower and heavier fights. I did consider making the entire game such that the PCs are actually their mechs; that I would just use the personal scale rules, state that sil 1 = normal sized mech. The problem is I do also want to account for PCs who are not mech pilots (have at least one), as well I desire for mechs to be rather standardized (i.e. some players are piloting Zaku IIs, and some are piloting GMs).

The main issue I'm running into is how to deal with Speed. This sort of combat, while often depicted as fast paced, is also characterized by rapid deceleration, and often outright stops. Speed as a vehicle mechanic makes sense for cars, planes, and naval ships, but not so much for vehicles that are basically in the form of humans. I would prefer to not force my players to constantly be making accelerate/decelerate maneuvers. Note that some maneuvers/actions (mainly Evasion/Gain the Advantage) have minimum speed requirements that also don't mesh well. I really need my PCs to be able to rapidly move to a location in one turn, and then in the following turn be able to duke it out in a specific area without moving much. All while offering a full action economy (instead of forcing them to spend full turns speeding up/slowing down).

Next up, survivability. While there is the option of Barrel Roll, there really aren't any other options presented in the core book. As vehicle melee combat isn't a thing, there isn't even a notion of parrying. I intend for vehicle combat to take up a larger section of the game, and as such, would want to ensure better long term suitability.

To top it off, I do still intend to run with tanks, aircraft, and other capital ships (i.e. things that play nice with the current rules), so it doesn't quite work for me to gut and change the vehicle rules; I still need to be able to run normal vehicles.

Currently, what I've come up with is the following:

Quote

Vehicle Trait "Mobile Suit"

-This vehicle is always considered to be at its maximum speed. Instead of having forced movement based on its Speed, this Vehicle instead moves by using the Reposition Maneuver. When using Reposition, instead of moving only one range band, use Table III.2-14 to see how many Range Bands this Vehicle can move. As well, this Vehicle ignores Minimum Speed requirements on all Maneuvers/Actions.

-As this vehicle is basically in human form, it benefits from any talent its pilot has that works on the personal scale. Essentially any talent that uses the word "character" can interchangeably be used with the vehicle itself. If the talent has a strain cost, then to use it the pilot suffers strain as well as the vehicle suffers an equal amount of system strain. However if a talent recovers strain, the vehicle does not recover system strain (and apply the same logic with wounds if such talents exist). When dealing with damage, replace Soak with Armor appropriately.

-When piloting a mobile suit, other mobile suits are not considered "vehicle" targets.

-Mobile Suits are considered to have Brawn equal to their Armor. The Piloting skill is still used to test across the board, but in cases where the actual strength of the unit is in question (e.g. picking up rocks), the ruggedness of the unit is used in place of the agility of the pilot for the test.

-Mobile Suits have the ability to engage in melee combat. For hand to hand, use the base unarmed attacks (using Armor as Brawn for base damage, plus the profile for the qualities). Melee weapons for Mobile Suits work similarly to melee weapons for characters, in that its a +damage profile that determines base damage by adding Brawn (in this case Armor)

I would think that designing the mechs like NPC mounts would be good. They all have their own Characteristics, then add speed and handling. Wounds, Strain and Soak are the same numerical value but instead called Hull Trauma, System Strain and Armour. They have a Weapons load out and special abilities, skill ranks are probably unnecessary.

Your movement rules are solid; speed is a measure of how far the mech moves with a single manoeuvre, no need to accelerate or decelerate. I would say they should be generally slower than a plane but faster than a car.

For how a mech is controlled you could potentially have the pilot rolling checks where their skill is combined with the mechs characteristic to form the dice pool. It would be worth considering breaking up Pilot/Operate/Gunnery into smaller components

Been working on this very topic, I have very early version that working on getting type up.

i be will more then willing to shire with peaple, once finish typing it up.

I suggest that you classify their physical stats as "mobile suit characteristics", so that their Brawn and Agility are measured comparatively against other mobile suits. A light suit like a Jegan might have a MS Brawn of 2, for example, while the Zeta Gundam or Hyaku-Shiki would be MS Brawn 3. More advanced mobile suits like the Sazabi or Nu Gundam would have a Brawn of 4, while massive mobile armours like the O or the Psycho Gundam Mk II would be MS Brawn 5. Likewise, Agility would reflect the relative maneuverability of the suit.

If you're using Newtype abilities, you could certainly allow a Newtype to enhance the attributes of their piloted suit, as this happens a lot in Gundam.

I think that for the most part the starfighter combat rules from Star Wars would probably serve well for depicting mobile suit fights. There's no way to accurately depict the dizzying maneuvers mobile suits are capable of, that's best left to the realm of narration. Changing range bands, gaining the advantage, angling the shield (literally), those all work just as well for mobile suits.

here what came up so far on mech building rules. Just so you know not i've yet started on weapons table.

any feedback/ or help would be welcome.

build table.docx

just finished typing up ruth version that covers all area of mech creation, could people have a look and let me know what people think

area what i need looking over for balance. are weapons as a hull, im not sure if got the weapons as over or under powered.

any input would be welcome.

build v2.docx