Question about mechs

[Chris Goodwin]

@zorak asked this in Rules Questions, and seemed a little shy about starting a topic over here.  I thought it deserved some discussion, so...

 

Quote

Hi. Had a question about mechs (giant robots, giant powered armor, ect). How would I go about building them in hero terms? If this is covered somewhere I apologize but I must have missed it. 

 

Zorak, the way most folks would probably do it is using a Vehicle to represent the mech, with Extra Limbs for the arms if it has them.  A Transformer or Veritech Fighter type could have a Multiform.  

 

I also happen to favor the third edition standalone game Robot Warriors though it's a bit behind the times as far as modern HERO System rules are concerned.  RW has its own separate build system for mechs, similar to but not quite the same as the current edition's vehicle rules.  You might check it out.  Also, definitely take a look at Star Hero and The Ultimate Vehicle (for 5th edition, but it's compatible with 6th with a little bit of reworking).  

 

Anyone else want to chime in?

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

So @zorak, two big questions we'll need you to answer if we're going to give you the best advice possible: What sort of game are you running, and what role do mechs play? 

 

Because if you're trying to make Giant Robot Man to fight your superheroes, that's a very different thing from making a Robot Gladiators game or having a Nazi Bipedal Tank show up in your WWII soldiers game. 

[zorak]

Thanks. I'll give both of those a look. If I can find the robot warriors book in one form or another, I'll check that out too. Appreciate the info 

[Chris Goodwin]

If you have other questions, feel free to ask!  We try to be a friendly and helpful bunch.   

[Duke Bushido]

 

5 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

@zorak

 

Anyone else want to chime in?

 

Be glad to, but I don't know if it helps; I have to preface this, you see:

 

Way back before Measured Time, in the First Age, we needed vehicles.  Alas, no Great Sage had ever come to us to our humble village to speak the Official Words of how one might acquire a vehicle.... 

 

So we did what seemed pretty obvious to us, way back then.  Truth be told, it seemed so simple and so elegant that we assumed this was probably all along the intention of the Great Council of Wizards Clerics and Mathemagicians who had gone Before and laid out the original plans of the Righteous Text....

 

Short version is that we built vehicles on character sheets.  We made some assumptions that, once there were official rules, proved "correct" - - inanimate objects had no INT or EGO; AI-driven vehicles could have both, and computers could have INT; vehicles could have SPD higher or lower than the driver, and were operated at the lower of the two, etc, etc... 

 

We made some assumptions that were "wrong" by the official rules-- you don't use Growth to make a larger vehicle; you don't use Shrinking: only to reduce mass" to lighten a vehicle that calculated out way heavier than its real-world counterpart--

 

At any rate, we used (and still do, because the official rules are just stupid when it's possible to make a _character_ who _is_ or _turns into_  a car on a character sheet with character rules, but then we were introduced to a whole new set of "special circumstance" rules to do the same damned thing?  Nah; i'm good. I mean, is the existing system "universal" or is it "universal except for X?" 

 

At any rate, that is pretty much how we built all vehicles and all large equipment back then, and how I did it a few weeks ago, because we never adopted any version of the newer vehicle rules. 

 

Shortest version yet:  I'd build your mech on a character sheet. 

 

We never adopted multiform, either, as we were (and still are) supremely happy with "only in X identity," where identity means any altered shape or function significantly different from the primary form.

. The upshot of this is all the arguments we never even knew existed about Yield Signs, Stop Signs, and "balance" or "experience point" issues because of the divide-by-5 costing nuttiness. 

 

So a transforming mech, at our table, would be written up on a regular character sheet with _alk_ of its abilities, each one tagged as 1, 2, or B (including whatever characteristics you didn't buy down to zero: a process we jokingly refer to as "figuring the factory rebate."

) 

 

Those available in both forms (marked did not take the "Only in X form" Limitation, while the others were, of course, eligible for it. 

 

 

Funny aside:

 

Once Increased Knockback" was understood, we had several crafty players compare the KB modifiers of Shrinking and Growth and start "reducing mass" for their vehicles via custom physical limitations for their vehicles:  increased knock back due to reduced mass.   

 

 

Sometimes, we'd let it slide.  ;). Mainly because it was skin to saying "Hey, GM: I want my car to get battered a _lot_...!" 

[dsatow]

You can still get the pdf for Robot Warriors at drivethrurpg.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/61459/Robot-Warriors-3rd-Edition

 

And sometimes copies show up on ebay.  Here's one on sale til the 21st.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Robot-Warriors-Hero-Games-System-Giant-Robot-RPG-Battle-Champions-compatible-/312624301072

[Duke Bushido]

Is the PDF not available through this site anymore? 

[Chris Goodwin]

It totally is.  I linked it above. 

 

I'm poking around the boards looking for other threads where we might have discussed mecha.  Here's what I'm finding: 

• https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/17725-robot-warriors-sample-mecha/ - started by me, some years ago.  Duke, there's some technobabble there, so I think you'll get a kick out of it.    The stats are for Robot Warriors, which means they'll largely be recognizable if all you have is 5th or 6th edition.
• https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/23569-roman-mecha-your-comments-please/  - alternate universe Roman mecha (5th edition)
• https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/2724-gundam-wing-mecha-stats/ - some Gundam Wing stats (5th edition)
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080128152013/http://www.starherofandom.com/h_robotech/index.php - some Robotech writeups found on the Wayback Machine
• https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/39012-battletech-hex-hero-hex-mphkph-spd-mvnt/ - a thread here at the forums discussing converting Battletech movement rates to Hero
• http://mattcave.fcpages.com/champions.html - Mathew Ignash has a lot of writeups here, mostly from 4th edition, not too different from 5th.  You can find writeups for Transformers, Robotech mecha, and maybe more.  

There've been quite a lot of others over the years, but many have succumbed to link rot, both within the boards and without.  The ones above I've at least looked at to confirm there's something there.

[Duke Bushido]

4 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

• https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/17725-robot-warriors-sample-mecha/ - started by me, some years ago.  Duke, there's some technobabble there, so I think you'll get a kick out of it.    The stats are for Robot Warriors, which means they'll largely be recognizable if all you have is 5th or 6th edition.
• https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/23569-roman-mecha-your-comments-please/  - alternate universe Roman mecha (5th edition)
• https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/2724-gundam-wing-mecha-stats/ - some Gundam Wing stats (5th edition)
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080128152013/http://www.starherofandom.com/h_robotech/index.php - some Robotech writeups found on the Wayback Machine
• https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/39012-battletech-hex-hero-hex-mphkph-spd-mvnt/ - a thread here at the forums discussing converting Battletech movement rates to Hero
• http://mattcave.fcpages.com/champions.html - Mathew Ignash has a lot of writeups here, mostly from 4th edition, not too different from 5th.  You can find writeups for Transformers, Robotech mecha, and maybe more.  

 

 

So many things I didn't know I wanted.....  

 

 

I know it wasn't for me, but thanks, Chris!