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Gears vs. Giants


Steve

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Among the many ideas I have in my campaign-making notebook, the most recent one I've come up with involves steampunk-style powered armor (that I'm currently calling Gears) that allows a human warrior to fight evenly against giants.

 

Said giants would be the main adversaries (possibly using Orcs as their infantry) against humanity and its allies (possibly Elves and another race or two). Since I was thinking that giants could be the equivalent of mechanized infantry, having humans armed with giant-sized mecha had an interesting feel to it.

 

Other than Gears, I was also thinking that the Alliance of men and the other small humanoid races depend on a great Wall to defend their territories.

 

 

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Reminds me of a recent thread on rpg.net where someone talked about his sci-fi game (Star Frontiers?), where the landing party entered the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief...

 

(And I'm surprised that there's no anime covering this. Although, didn't one of the early Final Fantasy's have steampunk mecha/battlesuits?)

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I'm debating whether or not to have the Gears be vehicles or some sort of magitech symbiote where damage getting through the defenses affects the pilot.

 

If I let the pilot feel damage, it will be more like Evangelion/CthulhuTech. I suppose. More clanky, mechanical armor would be a vehicle sort.

 

I'm starting to feel this could be more like Battletech mixed with Warhammer 40K.

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Such automata have some basis in mythology. Talos comes to mind.

 

The ancient Greeks also built some very large war machines in reality--giant self-propelled siege towers, giant cranes for destroying attacking ships, and so on.

 

Let us not forget the AutoCrossbow as shown on Mythbusters.

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It might also be worth looking up "The Iron Kingdoms".  I believe what started as a D&D / Pathfinder campaign setting may have evolved into its own game system.

It's somewhat like what I am going for, at least as far as the existence of fantasy mechs. I've never read it in much detail, so I'll have to see what I can use from it.

 

I'm thinking that only certain individuals in my world are able to utilize a Gear, requiring something like a magic talent to get it to operate. I'm not sure what to call such a talent though, and it depends on what I end up going for as far as building a Gear. It will either be a vehicle or a Focus with levels of Growth built in.

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Check out The Vision of Escaflowne if you get a chance. The mechs in that series are more mechanical than robotic (if that distinction makes any sense) and they also look really freakin' cool. :D

Wow. I haven't seen Escaflowne in ages. I'll have to research it. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Maybe off-topic, but I'll put in my 2¢.

 

Vehicle vs Character.... Is there a middle ground for mecha-ness? Maybe a character in armor with reduced DEX and/or SPD? And then there's Robotech's valkries. Clearly a vehicle when in fighter and gerwalker mode. But in humanoid mode, it acts (follow the rules) like a character. It had to be since the villains are giants (oops, spoilers).

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There's also the Dragonmech setting. This link goes to the listing of the core rulebook which has some rather generous excerpts. "There was a D20 setting for this" is the RPG's equivalent of "The Simpson's did it already"... (In the 90s it was "there's a GURPS sourcebook for it")

 

I'm particularly fond of the Dwarven "walking tower" mech.

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I you really consider something to be a spoiler, than put it under a spoiler tag.  If that's too difficult for you at least mention it's a spoiler before saying it, not after.  If a property is old enough you don't actually consider it a spoiler, than why say it in the first place?

Maybe off-topic, but I'll put in my 2¢.

Vehicle vs Character.... Is there a middle ground for mecha-ness? Maybe a character in armor with reduced DEX and/or SPD? And then there's Robotech's valkries. Clearly a vehicle when in fighter and gerwalker mode. But in humanoid mode, it acts (follow the rules) like a character. It had to be since the villains are giants (oops, spoilers).

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As far as mechs go, I'm thinking they only exist at the large size, allowing a human to fight a giant. This allows for a sort of fighter pilot mystique for Gear operators/pilots.

 

If I remove guns from the scene, it makes things a bit simpler on the battlefield with a Gear going up against a giant in melee.

 

The power source for a Gear will likely be some form of steampunk magitechnology. The image is have in my head is more like a form of a Gundam, not any kind of a transforming mecha.

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It's old enough. And it seems I've failed my attempt to humor.

I did not actually mean to imply that it deserved to be spoilered.  But 99% of the time when someone goes "whoops, SPOILERS lol!" after the fact it is a troll who is actually posting spoilers and is the type of troll that wants to point out and emphasize the fact that, yes, they know it was a spoiler and even thought about it before posting.  So I tend to have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to that sort thing, sorry.

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