Well, I doubt this will work for the application here but I am in the process of developing a Zoids based Genesys game that's a bit different.

Since Genesys is a narrative rpg, I'm using it to flush out the world, the npcs, the characters, governments, plot, and all the other various non-robot-combat based things, but for the combat itself, I thought it more apt to use a combat focused system, so I added a mix of the Star Wars X-wing and Armada games. I'm using the bases, maneuvers, and turn based systems from X-wing but using Armada's ranges, damage dice, and defenses...

I'm still pretty early in dev, but I just finished my conversion card that lets me apply Genesys and outside stats to the "ships" (zoids) in the x-wing game. I started with the base stats for the zoids from the old GBA game Zoids sagas II (or legacy in US), I have an old strat guide with every zoid listed. Once I established what each stat controlled in the GBA game I was able to decide which were usable as a basis for the x-wing version.

I ended up snagging HP, EP, GEP, SP, MM, DF, AM

HP=Hull Points
EP=Energy Points
GEP=Generated Energy points
SP= Speed
MM= Movement/Maneuverability
DF= Defense
AM= Crit Mitigation


I made a formula to replace the SR, IV, and DCP stats which applied to their combat system's accuracy and turn system and replaced them with just SR

As shown:


Here's how these work

A common command wolf is worth $25,000

To make zoids more available to players I made SR a quality based system ranging from -3 to 3. Dividing the cost of 25k across the 7 quality levels made each version cost $3600 more than the last, so for instance a command wolf with SR rating of -3 would only cost a player $3600, but would have lower stats because of it, where as a command wolf with an SR rating of 3 would cost $25,200 but would have high stats. Players choose their zoids by what they can afford, different models may be over all weaker but still have a higher SR.

The rest of the command wolf's stats are as follows:

HP:120
EP:18
GEP:2
SP:210
MM:70
DF:20
AM:60

If you take this character


a basic human pilot with 2 ranks in piloting and apply both him and these stats together on the card above

You get this:

Which in an X-wing game would be a "ship" with 5 shields 19 Hull that has a card value of 1. Energy points is going to be the ammunition system each weapon has a cost/range/ and number of armada dice assigned. After attacking you subtract the cost from your EP, your GEP is how much you recover at the end of each round which consists of a base number (in this case 4) and a number of dice, you roll the dice when that ship recovers, each hit counts as an extra point recovered and is added back in (in this case 3 red dice *Armada* are rolled). The combat system uses Armada's dice and defenses, so based on this zoid's stats it has 2x evade tokens and a contain. It cannot suffer critical damage while it has "armor" any damage to the hull can proc a crit.

Other than these slight changes the system will run mostly like a game of x-wing, zoids with lower numbers moving first attacking last and zoids with higher numbers moving last and attacking first.

I haven't assigned maneuver dials yet, but I'm thinking on basing them on the zoids base SP, and MM stats and then using player ranks in piloting to upgrade an equal number of maneuvers and the SR rating to up/down grade the rest.

I've been looking for a game for a mecha game for a while. However, what I want to do is a campaign based on Super Robot Wars. So I'd have to have rules for everything from Petit Mobile Suits, to Mazinger Z, possibly all the way to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan.

3 minutes ago, Lord Zack said:

I've been looking for a game for a mecha game for a while. However, what I want to do is a campaign based on Super Robot Wars. So I'd have to have rules for everything from Petit Mobile Suits, to Mazinger Z, possibly all the way to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan.

I think it's doable.

18 hours ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Well, I doubt this will work for the application here but I am in the process of developing a Zoids based Genesys game that's a bit different.

Since Genesys is a narrative rpg, I'm using it to flush out the world, the npcs, the characters, governments, plot, and all the other various non-robot-combat based things, but for the combat itself, I thought it more apt to use a combat focused system, so I added a mix of the Star Wars X-wing and Armada games. I'm using the bases, maneuvers, and turn based systems from X-wing but using Armada's ranges, damage dice, and defenses...

I'm still pretty early in dev, but I just finished my conversion card that lets me apply Genesys and outside stats to the "ships" (zoids) in the x-wing game. I started with the base stats for the zoids from the old GBA game Zoids sagas II (or legacy in US), I have an old strat guide with every zoid listed. Once I established what each stat controlled in the GBA game I was able to decide which were usable as a basis for the x-wing version.

I ended up snagging HP, EP, GEP, SP, MM, DF, AM

HP=Hull Points
EP=Energy Points
GEP=Generated Energy points
SP= Speed
MM= Movement/Maneuverability
DF= Defense
AM= Crit Mitigation


I made a formula to replace the SR, IV, and DCP stats which applied to their combat system's accuracy and turn system and replaced them with just SR

As shown:


Here's how these work

A common command wolf is worth $25,000

To make zoids more available to players I made SR a quality based system ranging from -3 to 3. Dividing the cost of 25k across the 7 quality levels made each version cost $3600 more than the last, so for instance a command wolf with SR rating of -3 would only cost a player $3600, but would have lower stats because of it, where as a command wolf with an SR rating of 3 would cost $25,200 but would have high stats. Players choose their zoids by what they can afford, different models may be over all weaker but still have a higher SR.

The rest of the command wolf's stats are as follows:

HP:120
EP:18
GEP:2
SP:210
MM:70
DF:20
AM:60

If you take this character


a basic human pilot with 2 ranks in piloting and apply both him and these stats together on the card above

You get this:

Which in an X-wing game would be a "ship" with 5 shields 19 Hull that has a card value of 1. Energy points is going to be the ammunition system each weapon has a cost/range/ and number of armada dice assigned. After attacking you subtract the cost from your EP, your GEP is how much you recover at the end of each round which consists of a base number (in this case 4) and a number of dice, you roll the dice when that ship recovers, each hit counts as an extra point recovered and is added back in (in this case 3 red dice *Armada* are rolled). The combat system uses Armada's dice and defenses, so based on this zoid's stats it has 2x evade tokens and a contain. It cannot suffer critical damage while it has "armor" any damage to the hull can proc a crit.

Other than these slight changes the system will run mostly like a game of x-wing, zoids with lower numbers moving first attacking last and zoids with higher numbers moving last and attacking first.

I haven't assigned maneuver dials yet, but I'm thinking on basing them on the zoids base SP, and MM stats and then using player ranks in piloting to upgrade an equal number of maneuvers and the SR rating to up/down grade the rest.

1) Whoo, Zoids! 2) Very, VERY interesting to see Genesys and X-Wing/Armada mechanics getting blended together. Only thing I need like a mecha RPG is a proper mecha minis game. Keep at it, and keep us updated, yeah?

16 hours ago, Lord Zack said:

I've been looking for a game for a mecha game for a while. However, what I want to do is a campaign based on Super Robot Wars. So I'd have to have rules for everything from Petit Mobile Suits, to Mazinger Z, possibly all the way to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan.

I agree with Tesoe, it's definitely doable. You just have to really lean on the fact that Genesys is a narrative system.

Honestly, I'm reminded of something Brendan Conway said when we talked about Masks . To paraphrase, as with real robots vs. super robots, with superheroes you've got wildly different power levels - Hawkeye vs. The Hulk - where if getting hit just involved taking damage then poor Hawkeye would be a smear. But he noticed what really happens in those types of fights, most of the time, is that the 'hits' traded have an emotional impact. There's a near-miss and Hawkeye becomes Afraid, Hulk gets hit between the eyes with an exploding arrow and becomes Angry(er). Hence Masks' Conditions.

Now, off the top of my head I'm not sure how I'd do something similar with Genesys (maybe the pilot's Strain Threshold becomes super important/the main target), or even if doing anything mechanical along those lines would be worthwhile in the first place. But I believe it's a thought worth keeping in mind, if only to keep your eye towards the narrative instead of worrying about a Zaku getting pancaked on the TTGL's kneecap.

Of course this could also depend on who the players are; you only need to think about it if they're piloting different mecha types. But if they're only piloting real robots and the bad guys have the supers, see Aldnoah Zero. If they're only piloting the supers and the bad guys (mostly) only have real, see TTGL or maybe even just Gundam Wing/00 season 1.

Hmm, I pitched the idea to my group and they had one quest: say you're in the interior of a space fortress, let's call it O-Boa-Cu, with your mech. If any check were to occur I said it'd be Piloting due to the fact that it's still space, but they could say it was Driving due to corridors being solid ground. What do you think?

That is also us asking for asteroid fields and standing on ships.

14 minutes ago, satkaz said:

Hmm, I pitched the idea to my group and they had one quest: say you're in the interior of a space fortress, let's call it O-Boa-Cu, with your mech. If any check were to occur I said it'd be Piloting due to the fact that it's still space, but they could say it was Driving due to corridors being solid ground. What do you think?

That is also us asking for asteroid fields and standing on ships.

So for my game, anytime the suit is walking or running you use Driving. That includes in zero g while say magnetized to the outside of a colony or interior of a space station. Anytime you are flying, falling, or floating you use piloting.

So if the suit is walking down the hallway you use Driving.

If the suit is floating down the hallway using it's thrusters and pushing off of the walls, then it'd be piloting.

25 minutes ago, Tesoe said:

So for my game, anytime the suit is walking or running you use Driving. That includes in zero g while say magnetized to the outside of a colony or interior of a space station. Anytime you are flying, falling, or floating you use piloting.

So if the suit is walking down the hallway you use Driving.

If the suit is floating down the hallway using it's thrusters and pushing off of the walls, then it'd be piloting.         

Huh, yeah, that's a pretty good metric. Will use that.

18 minutes ago, satkaz said:

Huh, yeah, that's a pretty good metric. Will use that.

My players all found it pretty intuitve and logical.

Just now, Tesoe said:

My players all found it pretty intuitve and logical. 

Just pitched it myself, and they like it. Thanks, Tesoe.

2 minutes ago, satkaz said:

Just pitched it myself, and they like it. Thanks, Tesoe.

Welcome. I also use Driving and Piloting for melee attacks. Same logic applies. It made sense to me, and my players like it because it gives a feel of being a better pilot directly correlates to being better at fighting with your mobile suit. Ranged weapons are handled with Gunnery, and everyone felt that made sense. Maybe I should start cross posting my stuff to this thread instead of just my own. I wanted to keep the clutter down, but I'm starting to loose track of what I've said where : P

On 6/20/2018 at 7:39 AM, Cannibal Halfling said:

1) Whoo, Zoids! 2) Very, VERY interesting to see Genesys and X-Wing/Armada mechanics getting blended together. Only thing I need like a mecha RPG is a proper mecha minis game. Keep at it, and keep us updated, yeah?

I know right? Love me some zoids action. That said I have been working with a friend and long time GM to start refining the combat system into something that's actually functional, and incorporates some of the RPG skills.

How combat breaks down:

1.) Planning Phase
-Players secretly choose their maneuvers (in this case, if the players are working as a team they can take a moment to plan their moves together, but ultimately if a player doesn't agree, what they choose is still up to them.)

2.) Activation Phase
-In order of lowest to highest INT players and NPCs activate their zoids, perform their maneuver, and use actions if one is available to them until all zoids have activated.

3.) Combat Phase
-In order of highest to lowest INT players and NPCs attack with their zoids until all zoids have attacked (attacks break down as followed)

A.) Declare target

I.) The attacker declares the defender
II.) The attacker measures range and LoS

B.) Roll attack dice

I.) The attacker chooses a weapon and gathers all dice available at the defenders range (if no dice can be gathered at that range the attack is canceled).
II.) The attacker spends the required EP from his total pool (If the attacker does not have enough EP the attack is canceled).
III.) The attacker rolls their dice.

C.) Resolve attack effects

I.) The attacker can resolve any of its effects that modify its dice. This includes talent effects.
II.) The attacker can spend one or more of its [Accuracy] icons to choose the same number of the defender’s defense tokens. The chosen defense tokens cannot be spent during this attack.

D.) Spend defense tokens

I.) The defender may spend one or more of their defense tokens. (they cannot spend the same type of token twice in one attack).

E.) Resolve Damage

I.) The attacker can resolve one of its critical effects, if rolled.
II.) Then the attacker determines the total damage amount. The damage is the sum of all [Hit] and [Crit] icons.
III.) Then the defender suffers that total damage, one point at a time.
IV.) Each ship has the following standard critical effect: “ If the defender is dealt at least one damage card by this attack, deal the first damage card face-up.”
V.) A zoid cannot attack the same zoid more than once per activation.

4.) End/status Phase
-Players perform any necessary clean up, refresh defense tokens, and apply their GEP.

A.) Recover EP

I.) In order of highest to lowest INT players and NPCs recover EP according to their calculated GEP and roll the corresponding bonus dice.
II.) The the sum of all [Hit] and [Crit] icons is added to the total EP recovered.

B.) Refresh exhausted defense tokens.

C.) Remove one stress token.


These phases repeat indefinitely until all player zoids are destroyed, all NPCs are destroyed or other objective based conditions are met.


Here's a preview of a completed zoids card as it stands now:

On 6/20/2018 at 7:39 AM, Cannibal Halfling said:

I agree with Tesoe, it's definitely doable  . You just have to really lean on the fact that Genesys is a narrative system.

Honestly, I'm reminded of something Brendan Conway said when we talked about Masks . To paraphrase, as with real robots vs. super robots, with superheroes you've got wildly different power levels - Hawkeye vs. The Hulk - where if getting hit just involved taking damage then poor Hawkeye would be a smear. But he noticed what really happens  in those types of fights, most of the time, is that the 'hits' traded have an emotional impact. There's a near-miss and Hawkeye becomes Afraid, Hulk gets hit between the eyes with an exploding arrow and becomes Angry(er). Hence Masks' Conditions.

Now, off the top of my head I'm not sure how I'd do something similar with Genesys (maybe the pilot's Strain Threshold becomes super important/the main target), or even if doing anything mechanical along those lines would be worthwhile in the first place. But I believe it's a thought worth keeping in mind, if only to keep your eye towards the narrative instead of worrying about a Zaku getting pancaked on the TTGL's kneecap.

Of course this could also depend on who  the players are; you only need to think about it if they're piloting different mecha types. But if they're only piloting real robots and the bad guys have the supers, see Aldnoah Zero. If they're only piloting the supers and the bad guys (mostly) only have real, see TTGL or maybe even just Gundam Wing/00 season 1.

More than likely the players would be piloting both real robots and super robots. Though there wouldn't necessarily be that much of a gulf between them. If a player plays Amuro Ray, they may start with the RX-78-2 (or -3 or Re-GZ more likely), but end up piloting the Hi-Nu Gundam, while Koji Kabuto starts with Mazinger Z, but upgrades to Mazinkaiser. Likewise the opponents will scale. There's also characters who are good enough to fight advanced, prototype units in a mass-produced unit. So it certainly does seem like a supers team-like situation, where heroes of different power levels can all contribute in some way. Perhaps I could take a look at Cortex Plus Heroic for some inspiration.

Energy weapons, Breach-proof armor, and experimental tech: the Super Prototypes have arrived!

I’ve felt pretty sure about the CHM Models, but the CHX-01 Paladin, CHX-02 Warlord, CHX-03 Avenger, CHX-04 Ardent, CHX-05 Warden, and CHX-06 Seeker all push things a bit, so i’m eager to hear what people think. Too much? Not enough? Areas to improve?

At the bottom of the article you can find a link to the CHM-01A Aqua Ogo, originally given an early release for our Patrons.

Thanks for reading!

I'm liking them, from the design of Experimental Super Mechs. In the original gundam they'd be the RX-78, in Zero they'd be things like the Custom models from Endless Waltz, and in Voltron you'd have- well- Voltron. In the scale of Ogo being the mass produced, the Peren being the advanced model, and the Paladin being the bleeding edge supersuit I think it works rather well and it even answers a few questions I was having with my game for how Lunar Steel Alloy should operate, what role energy weapons should fill, and how to build a gatling gun.

Do have three questions, though.

1: How do you handle Movement in the combat walkers? I'm planning on running a game and I'm unsure how to set up maps and how the movement would work, because the last time I ran anything to do with Genesys was the actual star wars games. Think the automatic vehicle movement should be used, or should it be like a person and they just move where they like? Like- trying to visualize a ground fight and how the mobility plays into things with handling ratings and range bands.

2: Is there any other Patreon-exclusive mecha content besides the Aqua Ogo that you need to donate to see? I'm hungry for more Genesys Mecha and I'd like to know if there's anything else on offer before I decide to begin donating or not. Loving all the content you put out and I'd put out a few bucks to see anything to do with vehicles, weapons, design decisions.

3: What do you think the hardpoint cost for installing a weapon onto a suit that normally doesn't come with it? Stuff like giving an Ogo a pair of small chest-mounted miniguns, or slapping some shoulder missile launchers onto a suit. One of my players is a Mechwarrior fan so he's loving the idea of adding in-built weapons systems to his suit and I'm not sure how to handle that.

Thanks for everything you've done so far and I'm looking forward to more. This has got to be hands-down my favorite thing to do with Genesys.

On 7/23/2018 at 3:18 AM, Fumblemunky said:

I'm liking them, from the design of Experimental Super Mechs. In the original gundam they'd be the RX-78, in Zero they'd be things like the Custom models from Endless Waltz, and in Voltron you'd have- well- Voltron. In the scale of Ogo being the mass produced, the Peren being the advanced model, and the Paladin being the bleeding edge supersuit I think it works rather well and it even answers a few questions I was having with my game for how Lunar Steel Alloy should operate, what role energy weapons should fill, and how to build a gatling gun.

Do have three questions, though.

1: How do you handle Movement in the combat walkers? I'm planning on running a game and I'm unsure how to set up maps and how the movement would work, because the last time I ran anything to do with Genesys was the actual star wars games. Think the automatic vehicle movement should be used, or should it be like a person and they just move where they like? Like- trying to visualize a ground fight and how the mobility plays into things with handling ratings and range bands.

2: Is there any other Patreon-exclusive mecha content besides the Aqua Ogo that you need to donate to see? I'm hungry for more Genesys Mecha and I'd like to know if there's anything else on offer before I decide to begin donating or not. Loving all the content you put out and I'd put out a few bucks to see anything to do with vehicles, weapons, design decisions.

3: What do you think the hardpoint cost for installing a weapon onto a suit that normally doesn't come with it? Stuff like giving an Ogo a pair of small chest-mounted miniguns, or slapping some shoulder missile launchers onto a suit. One of my players is a Mechwarrior fan so he's loving the idea of adding in-built weapons systems to his suit and I'm not sure how to handle that.

Thanks for everything you've done so far and I'm looking forward to more. This has got to be hands-down my favorite thing to do with Genesys.

First, thanks for your kind words! Really glad you've enjoyed the System Hack so far. Now on to the questions!

1) Oooo, this is a really good question, and well-timed because I've actually been mulling over movement myself for a little while now. First, you can definitely treat the mecha like a person and have movement be abstract, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you've got the continuous movement in play, I think the most important thing is the change they made to the Accelerate/Decelerate Maneuvers: you can adjust your Speed as much as you want, you just take System Strain equal to the change minus 1. This is why the CHX-05 Ardent got the Scramjet Boosters that lets it Accelerate/Decelerate without taking S.Strain, meaning it can go from Speed 0 to Speed 6 without cost.

Picture, if you will, a Bombardier Ogo racing through a city at Speed 3. About to reach a T-intersection, the mecha skids to a stop, chunks of the street being torn up and sent flying into the building the Ogo would have slammed into if it hadn't stopped, its legs groaning from the abuse (the pilot used the Decelerate maneuver, dropping Speed to 0 to bring his machine to a halt in the intersection, and the Ogo suffers 2 System Strain). Target sighted down one branch of the intersection, the pilot aims and fires their Ogo Bazooka!

Since Accelerate and Decelerate are capable of much greater adjustments, I think keeping the vehicle movement rules as written could be useful to create some really dynamic action.

2) We're making a general push to put out more stuff for CHG's Patreon in general, so you're in luck: aside from the CHM-01A Aqua Ogo , which is now available for all to see, we just posted a Nemesis-grade Adversary and their custom machine: the ace known as Sablestar, and the CHM-02C Custom Dacar !

Genesys Mecha patron bonuses will either be like the Aqua Ogo, where the patrons get to see them at least a week before everyone else, or permanently exclusive like Sablestar. I really want to do more of them, too, both to thank everyone who has been generous enough to support us and bring more people into the fold.

Plus they're fun.

3) This is why, for most things, I'm creating hard point costs for every item created as they go into the Genesys Mecha Armory . My basic metric is that one-handed weapons usually cost a single hard point, two handed ones cost two, and most weapons and gear with the Built-In trait (which can't be dropped and don't require a free hand(s) to use) cost two hard points as well.

One point of potential tweaking is how many hard points a mecha actually has. Most Genesys Mecha machines have 5 at the moment, but that may be low.

There's also the idea, raised earlier in this thread, of using a variation on the encumbrance rules instead of hard points for things like handheld weaponry. After the Support Craft and Ships article in August, September is probably going to focus on Alternate Rules, and something to that tune may show up then.

Other things to tweak via gear: I don't have prices, nor rarities, and at some point I'd like to add that in. Weapons and gear also don't have hard points of their own, and honestly that at least will probably remain the case.

Well I've officially signed up as a Patron. That's a good idea with the accelerate/decelerate mechanics and moving around; it means that someone stationary could move nearby at normal speed without needing any issue, but to kick it up into higher gear to run is either going to need wind-up and cooldown time or it's going to cause system strain. Would you be alright with me posting some weapon stats in here once I finalize some ideas? I'm leaving energy weapons for the truly special mechs but one of my players loves him some Dakka and I'm building a mech based around this-

-and I've been playing with the ideas for non-energy miniguns. Probably lower the damage a point and drop the breach. Still playing around with it.

Hmm, now I'm wondering how stuff like funnels and bits would work. Give them Guided or make a new property for it?

2 minutes ago, satkaz said:

Hmm, now I'm wondering how stuff like funnels and bits would work. Give them Guided or make a new property for it?

I've considered a lot of things. I'm leaning towards making them count as one of the vehicles weapons for vehicle actions, so you can use things like Concentrated Barrage to handle firing them all at once, and like an animal companion, so you can use a maneuver to command them more precisely.

So I've been planning my own game around the themes of Battletech, Gundam, and Front Mission. I've run a few spectacular test games and I've come up with a few rulings that may or may not apply to your own situations, but I'd like to share with the thread. I've also come up with a few weapons and such.

First of all, Movement. I tried using purely vehicle rules, but every turn felt way more sluggish than it was supposed to; people reacted and machines moved way more after the fact than even stompy robot suits should. There is a good feeling of weight and heaviness to a mobile suit using these rules, but if you have to wait your entire turn before your suit starts moving after you Accelerate it kills a lot of the iconography of jetting into battle guns blazing and, more painfully from a Game Design perspective, introduces a "Null turn" where the first action every single pilot will always take is some combination of Accelerating, Accelerating Again, or Bracing for Impact. Thus I came up with the following ruling:

Ruling: Your turn's automatic movement can come after an Accelerate or Decelerate Maneuver, but you still only/must move once per turn.
This means that you can get the feel of firing on your boosters and jetting into combat, but the specifics of your Speed, your automatic movement, and your facing are all still important. Especially since I'm using a battletech-style Hex Map where your speed is doubled and that's how many hexes you move on your turn. Led to some really cool moments where a suit was jet skating up the side of a highway, jumping over a convoy it had to protect, and laying on some suppressing fire on oncoming mechs- then having to lay on the breaks hard and make a piloting check as they passed him so he could whip around and fire at their back the next turn. It's a good mixture of the Infantry-style "you can move whenever you like" and the vehicle "you must move in a specified way" and it really blends into a unique feel of fighting in both a vehicle but also as a foot soldier, like good Mecha combat should.

Next are some rulings that won't help everyone, but I found make the game a very unique experience reminiscent to a less rules-obscene Battletech. This assumes you're using Hex Maps with height layers but a lot of these can work if you just substitute "hex" for any standardized unit of measurement, and things like facings with degrees of movement. This is also based physically on Gundam combat, with jet dashing and running and mechs being weighty but not absurdly stompy-slow.

Ruling: Mechs must move 2xCurrent Speed Hexes every round in the direction they are facing.
With Engaged being in the same hex (and requiring 1 hex worth of movement to enter or exit), Short being within 2 Hexes, Medium being within 4 Hexes, Long being within 8 Hexes, and Extreme being anywhere on the map, I've been having great success using tournament-style Battletech mapsheets. The number of enemies I intend to use mandates using a map, but my players didn't like the Vageuries of Range Band movement with a tactical game. This is working out really well in our test games and also works really well with a lot of the in-built rules without making complicated command tables and charts.

Ruling: You may turn one hex facing to the left or right each hex you move without a check, making a Driving check for harsher turns. (Easy for 2 facing, +1 difficulty per facing)
This really does give a feeling of weight to the suits and gives a reason for the Maneuverability stat to exist. Big clunkers aren't going to turn as fast, but speedy mechs can corner on a dime and pull off some amazing circle strafe or hit-and-run tech. This does technically mean you're making a check for a turn at 90° but it meshes well with the increase for speed and models general mobile suit mobility quite nicely.

Ruling: You can step up one Height Layer per Hex with no check, but extra layers require a Driving check. (Easy for 2 Layers, +1 difficulty per layer)
With Height Layers being assumed to be "half cover" (waist high on most Silhouette 3 mechs) per layer, and most Mecha designs having booster jets, I figure you could jump up height layers with an appropriate check. This emulates a lot of fights I'm wanting to model where suits are chasing each other around, over, and sometimes even through large terrain pieces taking shots wherever appropriate.

Ruling: Firing from above your target grants 1 Blue. Firing from below them grants 1 Black. Firing over 1 height layer or through light cover grants 1 Black. Firing through 2+ height layers or through thick cover may be impossible depending on material, or impose 2 Black.
This introduces XCOM-style Height and Cover mechanics into the game without becoming needlessly complex, taking advantage of the Height Layers, Terrain Hexes, and other things that come standard with a Battletech mapsheet. Blues and Blacks are nice and causes people to think about positioning, but doesn't dominate the battlefield because they usually add little to an actual roll on their own. In one test game I ran a Sniper had nestled himself into a good place in a mountain, high enough to get clear view and with a rock wall in front of him for some low cover. He was effective, but even firing from below and through Cover a Rifleman did enough damage to scare him out of his hiding spot and force a retreat. It models tactics without requiring a billion rules, just slotting in/modifying the existing cover rules for blues and blacks.

Ruling: New Vehicle Quality for Mecha weapons; Sidearm. Weapons with the Sidearm quality can be used alongside other weapons in a Loadout. If only a single Sidearm weapon (or two grenades) are carried, their Hardpoint cost is reduced to 0.
This is more personal taste because I I like the ability to have loadouts, but notice there's absolutely no backup weapons involved. In the stories I'm emulating most suits have a backup/alternate weapon even if they're a specialized suit, and I also noticed that the Bombadier loadout gets a talent to increase their thrown grenade range- but gets no grenades! What weapons get Sidearm? Pistols, Grenades (Which are 2 grenades for 1 HP), 1-handed Clash weapons, basically stuff that needs 1 hand and has 1 or less hardpoint that isn't the Carbine. I like my Zakus all carrying Heat Hawks as backups and my Bombadiers having some grenades.

Speaking of Grenades, that gets us into the new weapons I'm working on. I've filled a few niches like non-energy variants of a few weapons, I've added a weapon type I loved in Front Mission in the form of the Uzi, a model for single-shot Tank Rifle style weapons, and a Shoulder Shield like the Zaku use, including a Knuckle Shield that can alternate as a shield on your shoulder or become an up-close punching weapon for melee combat. I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with the grenades because I'm not used to writing in the Genesys framework, but here's what I've got so far and I have plans for many, many more. Please tell me what you think!

@satkaz @Tesoe I've been mulling over how to handle Newtype Shenanigans and their generic brand psychic nonsense equivalents, and I haven't decided on anything solid. But for Funnels, maybe their use is maneuver? Representing how quickly they move and fire? This may very well end up costing the pilot Strain, but since they're psychic in the first place they'd better have a good Strain Threshold.

. . . . perhaps the attack rolls would use Discipline?

@Fumblemunky I am digging this stuff. The first ruling I like straight out of the gate, no questions asked. I think I was mentally house-ruling things the same way without realizing it. The hex stuff is nice and crunchy, and while you're right that the level of detail won't work for everyone, it all looks very serviceable. I think people looking for a less abstract, more tactical style would find it very useful. I also really like the Sidearm quality. While I like what I did with the Ogo's Load-Outs, the cases where their weapon gets destroyed have been bugging me lately, and this provides an alternative. Plus, more 1 HP weapons are very good.

On passing glance the weapons themselves look good. I'll need to throw them up next to the existing weapons to see how everything compares to see if the math works, but nothing jumps out as problematic. One thought: the Ogo Cannon. With the Ogo Bazooka already in the mix, do you think the Cannon might be better as a shoulder-mounted, Built-In weapon? A weaker version of the CHM-03 Peren's big gun, maybe?

@Cannibal Halfling , my latest idea for funnels and bits:

You command them like an animal companion. The player spend a manuever to command the bits to take a manuever and an action. Doing so let's the player command any number of bits under their control.

Bits have a group hit point total like minions, and handle critical hits and system strain like minions.

Bits are broken up into groups when attacking. When attacking bits use the pilots Cunning and gain one skill die for each bit in the group beyond the first.

Bits are treated like as a vehicle weapon for vehicle actions like Blanket Barrage, and Concentrated Barrage.

@Cannibal Halfling I was figuring the "Cannon" would be the framework for weapons like a Tank Rifle or the Mecha equivalent of say an M1 Garand; single-shot rifles over multi-shot rifles. Basically trading some crit potential since you're not firing bursts with armor-breaching. They're more or less designed to fill similar niches but one of my players asked how to model that and I figured that'd be the best. I am looking at making more shoulder-mounted stuff, though, or things like wrist or head-mounted cannons that do no practical damage to enemy mecha but tear through soft targets.

I am glad you like the rulings! I'm especially proud of the Sidearm quality. I'm building a lot around Gundam and they always have backup sabers and/or grenades, and the Zaku is the design I'm using for one of my own 'Ogo' style designs I'm calling MP Suits (mass-produced).

MORE WEAPONS!
But Fumblemunky? Isn't there enough weapons? Bah! There can never be enough weapons in Mecha!

This time I've focused primarily on filling a few niches I like from Armored Core and Gundam; namely Melee Weapons and Installed Weapons, with a few additions that are pretty common sense. Design philosophy talk, I've come up with an easy shorthand for people who want to have weapons installed on their suit in the form of Shoulder Weapons, Head Weapons, Chest Weapons, or other such attachments. If the weapon originally cost 1 Hard Point to equip, it gains the Inaccurate 1 quality. If it originally cost 2 Hard Points to equip, it gains Inaccurate 1 and Prepare 1.

The shoulder weapons are a bit niche since most break Loadouts but one of my players loves a lot of Battletech and Armored Core and asked me how we're modeling shoulder-mounted weapon platforms, so here we are. There's also a few weapons designed to not break loadouts, but they're almost exclusively designed to be secondary guns; things like the RX-78-2's head cannons or some of the many many many many in-built armaments of the Gundam Heavyarms. Note since I'm using my own universes terminology, replace the word "Wanzer" with "Ogo" and you're good to go. Oh, a note about the Railgun. In my head this is a "Sniper" that's so heavy it has to be physically attached to the suit using it and even requires the suits arms to aim and stabilize it. It pushes the boundaries of single-target weaponry to the non G.E.N.E.S.Y.S limit, but hoo boy the damage it does. If only there was a quality for hitting multiple targets in a line.

Without further ado, The Weapons

(assuming Default Grenade)

Going through a rundown of my thoughts on each one-
Grenade Launcher: A more accurate type of boom-gun than the Bazooka. Basically gives non-grenadiers a way to get medium range grenades. For grenadiers, you get the Accurate bonus and a few extra grenades for the HP cost. (2 HP is normally 4 Grenades. Taking a dedicated Launcher as your weapon ups that to 6 since you're paying that second hand as a cost). I think it fills a nice niche between Grenades, Missiles, and the Bazooka. Naturally if you replace the default grenades with the EMP grenades or other grenades you change the stats the match.
Mounted Guns: These hit the niche of the head/chest/wrist guns lots of suits have as secondary weapons. The anti-personnel ones are intended for hitting soft targets, while the anti-vehicle ones are designed for up-close last-ditched combat or as a weapon that's very hard to disable. They do terrible damage, but they fill their niches nicely as sidearms that don't need hands to use. Also yes you see that right. Autofire (Personal). Against mechs you have to do a full burst to even try to lay into them, but when targeting non-vehicles you can use Auto-fire for those long sweeping strafe runs that mow people down. 2 damage on a Mech with 3 armor default is basically useless, but 20 personal damage will chum most people on foot. As giant robots should.
Shoulder-Mounted Weapons: I went into these a little earlier. This is more of an Armored Core-ism than a Gundam-ism, but a lot of suits have installed weapons and this is a good way to represent it. Really light things that take 1 Hand gain Inaccurate 1 (Using the Carbine as an example), while bigger stuff gains Inaccurate 1 and Prepare 1 (using the Cannon as an example). That way you get the benefit of not needing hands, but it has a trade-off. As for the Railgun, that's it's own beast. Honestly probably not going to make that a default option for most suits and might make it be the specialty of its own suit- but I like the idea of suits with massive snipers attached to their bodies who need to set up to shoot you.
Fists: The Default Fist comes with every suit. It sucks. No for real, it sucks. I had numerous suits Engage Fisticuffs against each other during my test games and they were doing like 1 to 2 damage max. But that's what you get for free weapons that every suit has, I suppose! ?
Upgraded Fists: Imagine adding rockets to your fists. Or spikes. Or mech-sized knuckle weapons. Better than the default fist, but its main saving grace is getting 2 for the price of 1 free Sidearm and always having them on hand. Still kind of sucky unless you're the God of Robot Punching. Hmmh... now I'm pondering statting out Shining Finger....
Shoulder Shield : Zakus have it. My default models are Zakus. I figure it's nice to have a shield option that doesn't take hands and can be added on to otherwise normal loadouts.
Heat Rod: This is no Zaku, boy! No Zaku! The "Special" quality is that it can Disarm for two advantage instead of three. As an actual weapon not great for doing damage, but good for doing System Strain and Disarming weapons and shields. Also one of the few one-hand melee weapons that doesn't get sidearm.
Mace and Hammer : I made the default mace a bit smashier. Knockdown at first sounds awesome, but you need 4 advantage to trigger it due to the default sizes of mech. But that isn't necessarily super hard to get if you spec towards it, and a round of guaranteed knocked over mech can really change the tide of a battle. The Hammer's where the real bludgeon fun kicks in. Trading in raw cutting edge for Concussive, an amazing quality that can just shut down single target enemies by clobbering them around while their gun fires wildly at everything but you. I wanted the choice of Blunt versus Cutting to exist. The Mace and Hammer represent basically any one or two handed Giant Mecha Bludgeon.
Blade and Greatblade: Axes, Swords, Polearms, this covers the lot when it comes to non-energy weapon blades. Wanted the choice to come between whether you want armor-piercing and crits versus the chance of denying people turns by knocking them around, otherwise the blades are the same stats as the bludgeons with the one-handers getting Sidearm and the two-handers getting Defensive 1.

I've also got a clarification on Sidearm . If you only have 1HP worth of Sidearm weapons (2 upgraded fists, 2 grenades, a Sword, a Pistol, etc.) the HP cost is reduced to 0 for those weapons. I like all my suits having a fallback, but it's not intended to be a way to load up any given suit with dozens of mounted guns and grenades. You usually have to pick if you want a free shield, a melee weapon, some grenades, or a backup gun as your Sidearm. You *can* straight load up all your remaining HP on them and have a loadout armed to the nines with secondary guns and grenades but it's ultimately not going to be all that more effective than the normal model and locks you out of stuff like sensor kits and jump boosters.

Get the mecha to the catapult system, seal all the bulkheads, and charge up the energy cannons: it's time to launch the Genesys Mecha Support Craft and Ships !

We've got flight systems for atmosphere and space, and a patrol craft, cruiser, and assault carrier to fight in your fleets and carry your mecha into battle (or get hunted by your mecha, if on the other side). As part of the package there's a new use for Despair, some new Traits for large ships, and even a new Talent for your ship gunners!

In addition, at the end of the article there's a link to something our Patrons got a peek at earlier this week: Anti-Mecha Infantry, Tanks, and Fighter Craft!

I tried to balance things so that the ships would be useful, yet still have trouble dealing with a mecha attack run. Let me know what you think, and as always thanks for reading!

P.S. @Tesoe I like your funnel/bit ideas! I think I'd use Willpower for the psychic side of things, but that's just my personal preference. I really like them giving a single mecha access to the Barrage actions.

@Fumblemunky More really cool weapons and gear. And thanks for your help so far with the Genesys Mecha Armory! Really good work there.

Really excellent work as usual! Keeping a close eye on this, I'd love to try running a mecha game in Genesys in the future.