Nerd-o-rama
2010-03-03, 01:48 AM
So, as like three people might know, I was once a player (and spin-off GM) in a freaking awesome campaign of D&D called Eberron with Giant Robots, originally created by Magnus_Samma, which postulated the idea of huge magical construct suits of armor as major weapons of war in the near future of the Eberron setting. The campaign (and my lame spin-off) is over now, but my favorite thing about it was always designing new crazy-ass mecha ripped off from various TV shows and video games for it. I also once considered upgrading said rules to 4e, and now, like a year later, insomnia has struck and I'm going to throw some together.
Approximate flavor justification:
In the years since the end of the Last War, the arms race between the nations of Khorvaire (and other factions) reached a fever pitch. In an effort to capitalize on this, House Cannith vastly increased its research into ancient Giant schema found in Xen'drik with the aim of mass-producing arms and armor for Khorvaire's armies at a fraction of the cost of standard forging techniques. Unfortunately, the arms produced with the knowledge from these Schema, while quite inexpensive to forge in bulk, were of a size completely insuitable for humans and the similarly-sized intelligent races that populated Khorvaire. While Cannith designers despaired, the infamous Baron Merrix d'Cannith had one of his characteristic flashes of brilliance - he could make giant weapons and giant freestanding armor. Rather than trying to make them smaller, why not just design a control system that would translate a "wearer's" movement into larger sizes and keep the advantages of being really, really huge? And thus was the Auto-Mobile Suit of Armor (Mobile Suit for short, or mech if you want to be generic) and a new age of arms race born.
Mecha work like magical armor in many ways. While exceedingly large and durable, the sophisticated enchanted harness systems inside translate a user's motion directly into armor motion, making the freestanding armor into something of a larger version of the warrior inside. Mecha mainly effect the scale of combat and absorb damage for the pilot rather than the specifics - in most cases, characters treat them as they would any suit of armor. The following are exceptions:
1) It takes a full-round action to "don", or rather mount and start up a mech
2) Mecha have their own Maximum Hit Point, Bloodied, and Surge values - while a character is piloting one, all damage he would normally take is applied to the mech, accounting for the pilots' resistances and vulnerabilities.
2b) Effects with the [Healing] keyword can effect a mech normally, but cannot effect the pilot inside the mech - just like damage, healing is applied to the mech instead.
2c) When a mech reaches 0 hit points, it becomes unusable, and the pilot must leave it (a full-round action) in order to take any other actions. Player Character Mecha with 0 or fewer hitpoints are considered Dying and must make Death Saving throws as normal - if a mech "dies", it explodes fantastically, dealing its Bloodied value in damage to its pilot if he has not escaped yet. An attacker may not choose to render a mech "unconscious" when reducing it to 0 or fewer hit points unless his name is Kira Yamato.
3) Mecha have their own Size listing - while piloting a mech, its user is considered this size in all respects, including the ability to wield weapons of that size (and inability to wield weapons of other sizes).
4) Mecha have their own Movement speed - likewise, a character uses this movement speed instead of his own.
5) People piloting mecha cannot use Medium-sized weapons held in their own hands, but they can use implements as normal, or implements held by the mech.
6) Minions given mecha as equipment are still considered to have 1 hit point, and their mecha are destroyed as soon as they take any damage no matter the mech's normal hit points.
7) The Area and Range of Ranged and Close powers and weapons are increased by a factor of the Mech's size: x2 for large, x3 for Huge, and so on. Melee powers are given additional reach as normal for size increases.
Other than that, mecha work as normal magical armor. They do not effect abilities, powers, healing surges per day, or Non Armor Defenses (usually). Any powers with the [Weapon] keyword may be used with weapons held by the mech. Mecha may have any effects, properties, and item powers a DM deems permissible - "unique" mecha often have multiple properties and should be priced accordingly. As a designer, I encourage people to mix and match properties and descriptions to create their own mech.
One final word - mecha can be any type of Armor, light or heavy. "Cloth", "Leather", and "Hide" mecha are not actually made of these materials (usually), but these categories give an indication of how sturdily constructed the mech is vs. the amount of mobility it allows to translate from the user.
To do: figure out how the hell to price these damn things, create "canon"/sample mecha based on my favorite Japanimation.
Questions, Comments, Flames?
Approximate flavor justification:
In the years since the end of the Last War, the arms race between the nations of Khorvaire (and other factions) reached a fever pitch. In an effort to capitalize on this, House Cannith vastly increased its research into ancient Giant schema found in Xen'drik with the aim of mass-producing arms and armor for Khorvaire's armies at a fraction of the cost of standard forging techniques. Unfortunately, the arms produced with the knowledge from these Schema, while quite inexpensive to forge in bulk, were of a size completely insuitable for humans and the similarly-sized intelligent races that populated Khorvaire. While Cannith designers despaired, the infamous Baron Merrix d'Cannith had one of his characteristic flashes of brilliance - he could make giant weapons and giant freestanding armor. Rather than trying to make them smaller, why not just design a control system that would translate a "wearer's" movement into larger sizes and keep the advantages of being really, really huge? And thus was the Auto-Mobile Suit of Armor (Mobile Suit for short, or mech if you want to be generic) and a new age of arms race born.
Mecha work like magical armor in many ways. While exceedingly large and durable, the sophisticated enchanted harness systems inside translate a user's motion directly into armor motion, making the freestanding armor into something of a larger version of the warrior inside. Mecha mainly effect the scale of combat and absorb damage for the pilot rather than the specifics - in most cases, characters treat them as they would any suit of armor. The following are exceptions:
1) It takes a full-round action to "don", or rather mount and start up a mech
2) Mecha have their own Maximum Hit Point, Bloodied, and Surge values - while a character is piloting one, all damage he would normally take is applied to the mech, accounting for the pilots' resistances and vulnerabilities.
2b) Effects with the [Healing] keyword can effect a mech normally, but cannot effect the pilot inside the mech - just like damage, healing is applied to the mech instead.
2c) When a mech reaches 0 hit points, it becomes unusable, and the pilot must leave it (a full-round action) in order to take any other actions. Player Character Mecha with 0 or fewer hitpoints are considered Dying and must make Death Saving throws as normal - if a mech "dies", it explodes fantastically, dealing its Bloodied value in damage to its pilot if he has not escaped yet. An attacker may not choose to render a mech "unconscious" when reducing it to 0 or fewer hit points unless his name is Kira Yamato.
3) Mecha have their own Size listing - while piloting a mech, its user is considered this size in all respects, including the ability to wield weapons of that size (and inability to wield weapons of other sizes).
4) Mecha have their own Movement speed - likewise, a character uses this movement speed instead of his own.
5) People piloting mecha cannot use Medium-sized weapons held in their own hands, but they can use implements as normal, or implements held by the mech.
6) Minions given mecha as equipment are still considered to have 1 hit point, and their mecha are destroyed as soon as they take any damage no matter the mech's normal hit points.
7) The Area and Range of Ranged and Close powers and weapons are increased by a factor of the Mech's size: x2 for large, x3 for Huge, and so on. Melee powers are given additional reach as normal for size increases.
Other than that, mecha work as normal magical armor. They do not effect abilities, powers, healing surges per day, or Non Armor Defenses (usually). Any powers with the [Weapon] keyword may be used with weapons held by the mech. Mecha may have any effects, properties, and item powers a DM deems permissible - "unique" mecha often have multiple properties and should be priced accordingly. As a designer, I encourage people to mix and match properties and descriptions to create their own mech.
One final word - mecha can be any type of Armor, light or heavy. "Cloth", "Leather", and "Hide" mecha are not actually made of these materials (usually), but these categories give an indication of how sturdily constructed the mech is vs. the amount of mobility it allows to translate from the user.
To do: figure out how the hell to price these damn things, create "canon"/sample mecha based on my favorite Japanimation.
Questions, Comments, Flames?