@Cannibal Halfling HalflinglflHalfliHalflingHalflinglflHal (mobile editor is being weird here)

Thanks! I went with cunning because in the description of the TS-MA2mod.00 Moebius Zero says its gun pods require a high level of spatial awareness to use. And cunning just seemed to fit the best for that.

@Cannibal Halfling Sweet support ships. Things are turning out great!

I've also worked rules for how to handle bits/funnels/incoms, and a few examples. I'd love feedback on it. I'm cross posting here and in my setting thread to try and maximize feedback.

Bit, Funnels, and Incoms

Bits, Funnels, and Incoms are types of equipment sometimes attached to a vehicle with either a Psycommu or quasi-psycommu system installed. Such a vehicle is referred to as the mother unit.

Bits and Funnels are types of a drone units that are designed to be remotely controlled by a Newtype pilot using a vehicle equipped with a Psycommu. A Newtype pilot is able to control these units with great precision, allowing him to remotely attack an enemy from all directions.

Bits and funnels are fundamentally similar, except that a bit has its own on-board power generators, and do not require re-docking with the mother unit for recharging. When funnels are not in use, they are attached to the mother unit for recharging.

Incoms are a type of weapon developed by the Federation’s Murasame Research Institute for normal (i.e. Oldtypes) pilots. They are similar to bits and funnels operated by psycommu system, except that Incoms are wire-controlled by a quasi-psycommu or psycommu system. They have to be tethered to their mother unit by wires because the electrical signals to the incom would be otherwise disrupted by Minovsky Particles. They can execute the apparent all-range attack like bits and funnels, but are inferior in attack range and complexity of maneuvers.

Unless otherwise specified the term “Bit” will be used to refer to both Bits, Funnels, and Icoms collectively.

Bit Rules

As a collection of remote vehicles controlled by the mind of the pilot of their mother unit, Bits function in a manner similar to both Minions, Animal Companions, and Vehicles, while still having some rules unique to themselves.

• Unless otherwise specified, bits follow all the same rules for vehicles, and perform maneuvers and actions as if they were a vehicles with a silhouette of 2, a handling of +4, and the same max speed as their mother unit.
• Bits may use the Reposition maneuver at speed 0+.
• Bits may be deployed from the mother unit by its pilot, or re-dock with the mother unit, as an incidental.
• When deployed from the mother unit, bits may be controlled individually or broken up into groups by the pilot controlling them. A group of bits can contain any number of deployed bits, of the same type, controlled by the mother unit. A character may break up, rearrange, or otherwise change the number of bits in the groups they control as an incidental.
• Once per round in structured encounters, the pilot of the mother unit may spend one maneuver to direct the groups, or individual, bits they have deployed in performing one action and one maneuver each. The bits must be within range of the mother unit’s psycommu system to do this, or still tethered to the mother unit in the case of an incom.
• All checks made using a weapons equipped to a bit use the Cunning characteristic of the mother unit's pilot.
• A group of bits may use both the Blanket Barrage and Concentrated Barrage actions, as long as the group is made up of at least two bits. In addition, the pilot of the mother unit may choose use the weapons equipped to a group of bits to perform either of these actions in conjunction with the mother unit’s own weapons of the same type, as if the bit’s weapons were equipped to the mother unit. Doing so still requires the pilot to have spent a maneuver directing the bits they control, and uses the actions of both the pilot, and the group of bits used, for the round. Any checks the pilot makes as part of these actions uses the appropriate skill for the check, at the pilot’s skill rank, and the pilot’s Cunning characteristic. These actions may be performed regardless of the silhouette of the mother unit or bits.
• Like minions:
  • Unless otherwise specified, Bits do not suffer strain. Anything that normally inflicts strain inflicts wounds on a bit instead. Bits also cannot voluntarily suffer strain.
  • Bits do not possess skills. They can compensate for this by operating as a group. A bit’s profile lists several skills in which that bit type gains ranks when acting as a group.
  • Bits can fight as a group. Controlling bits in groups containing more than one bit has several advantages. It simplifies combat and makes bits more dangerous while allowing a pilot to control a large numbers of bits in encounters.
  • Working as a group also allows bits to use skills. A group of bits gains one skill rank for each bit in the group beyond the first, as long as the skill is on the bits’s profile. So, a group of three bits would count as having two ranks (for the two bits after the first) in any skill checks the group makes for skills listed on their profile.
  • A group of bits has a single wound threshold, shared by all bits that group. A group of bit’s wound threshold is equal to the sum of the wound thresholds of every bit in the group. (For example, a group of three bit, each with a wound threshold of 4, has a wound threshold of 12.) Each time any bit in the group suffers wounds, you apply the wounds to the group’s wound threshold. Individual bits in the group are defeated one at a time, each time the total wounds suffered exceeds a bit’s share of the group’s wound threshold. For example, when the bit group exceeds 4 wounds, one bit is defeated.
  • When characters attack a group of bits, they attack the group as a whole, not an individual. Narratively you may describe them as attacking an individual bit, but mechanically they’re attacking the group.
  • Critical Injuries destroy bits. If a bit suffers a Critical Injury, it is immediately destroyed. If a group of bits suffers a Critical Injury, it suffers one bits’s worth of wounds plus one (so that one of the bits in the group is destroyed).

I liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that, the wee lad picked up the Crawling skill that requires me to chase him, work went crazy, and I put myself into a feedback loop because the latest System Hack required more thinking than number crunching.

It's all paid off, however, because I finally got Genesys Mecha Alternate Rules out of my head and on to the screen!

A lot of the stuff in this one is going to be familiar to you folks here, because this is similar to the original Design Goals article in that it's more ideas and thinking things through than crunchy mechanical bits, and a lot of those ideas got their start right here in this thread. I've pointed readers here so they can see what everyone here has cooked up yourselves, and given what is hopefully the right level of credit where it's due. Thanks to all of you, and thanks for reading, and look forward to a return to schedule with some Transforming Mecha next month.

Time to change things up a bit with some Transforming Mecha ! We have:

The CHM-06TF Oden, the testbed for the frame shift technology capable of shifting between a humanoid and a jet-like form.

The CHM-06TT Codrus, the answer to the question "How do we get MORE strategic-range firepower than a Peren?", transforming from two-legged to tank-like tracks.

The CHM-06TA Vendrick, the scourge of the seas, with a humanoid amphibious form and an aquatic mode with deadly claws and heavy torpedoes.

New Mecha Traits, the first machines to use the Encumbrance rules rather than strictly hard points (which is slowly but surely spreading to the other mecha), and an interesting place between the rest of the CHM line and the CHX super prototypes. Let me know what you think, especially when it comes to both forms of each machine being useful/balanced. Thanks for reading!

What Genesys Mecha has consisted of up to this point has been theorycrafting, thought processes, and building blocks. I’ve mulled over what I wanted this particular series to do, built some giant robots, designed some pilots, tweaked some rules here and there, and went back and altered things as other ideas developed. While different pieces have built off of one another, and even influenced changes in the ones that came before, they haven’t quite been properly tied together yet, until now. In this month’s System Hack for Genesys Mecha we’re talking character creation XP, starting mecha, tone, and logistics with some Campaign Setup !

Thanks for reading!

Is there a link to where all this information is collected for easy download?

On 4/23/2019 at 9:29 AM, HaphazardNinja said:

Is there a link to where all this information is collected for easy download?

Yes! The Genesys Mecha Armory has all the stats for the weapons, equipment, and mecha that have been created so far. It needs a few more additions - the ship and support craft, the archetypes, and a glossary of terms - but we'll get there.

Great work as usual, looking forward to seeing this develop into a full-blown setting.

Let's meet the bad guys.

In this System Hack for Genesys Mecha's Minions and Adversaries , I address the problem with Star Wars starfighters, how mecha have so far been toughened up, and one way to keep Minions and Rivals on the table without having to write three different versions of every machine.

Once that's done I turn back to designing more mecha, this time trying to come up with a different 'faction' of machines with some different design philosophies - along with some new traits to give them a hand (heh) with standing apart from the CHM and CHX lines.

Let me know if you think the Mecha-Mooks work out, and what you think of the MAM-02 Berkanan, the MAM-09 Ūruz, the MAM-12F Laguz, and the Othala- class Cruiser. Thanks for reading!

Sure, you could enlist and get issued a giant robot by your space military. Or you could be a traditionalist and just steal fall into the cockpit of the nearest mecha to start your adventure. Why trust some other engineer’s design, though? You’ll be making your own story, why not your own mecha to tell it with? Well if that’s what you want to do then you’re in luck, because that’s what we’re doing for one last G.E.N.E.S.Y.S. Mecha System Hack.

Custom Mecha

With the Expanded Player's Guide in the way and the Foundry being a thing now, any further work on this Hack will hopefully end up looking much more official. In the meanwhile, though, I had promised one more thing, so while we wait for the EPG grab a character with a good Mechanics skill and get to building!

Thanks, as always, for reading.