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View Full Version : Homebrewing a System for Pacific Rim (PEACH and Assistance?)



Amaril
2013-10-11, 06:56 PM
So, I have a friend who's a huge fan of Pacific Rim, which I also like, and since I've been itching to run a mecha game of some description lately, I've been thinking it might be nice to offer to run a game for her in that setting (and then get some other people if she says she's interested). I know there are a number of existing systems that could work for this, but I've been getting into designing my own systems, so I'm in the mood to brew up some form of custom system just for the Pacific Rim setting. I'm not looking to do anything super complicated--just something that would be easy to pick up and play, with a fast pace and not a huge amount of time spent on crunch.

Here are some of the ideas I already have:

1: The game requires a minimum of three players--one GM and two co-pilots. All players play the game in teams of two.
2: Each player on a team creates and roleplays their own individual pilot (although it's recommended that they do so co-operatively). The team then creates their Jaeger together.
3: Every pilot has stats that start at a default of 5 each--the pilot can customize their stats by removing points from one stat and putting them in another at a 1-1 ratio. Jaegers have the same stats as pilots, and they can be customized in the same way (except possibly for some kind of "focus" stat related to Drifting stability).
4: When the pilots have to perform a task that requires a die roll (such as attacking a Kaiju), the GM first sets a target number. Each pilot rolls a d10 and adds the relevant stat. The two co-pilots add their totals together, and then add the value of the same stat of their Jaeger. If the final total equals or exceeds the target number, the pilots succeed in their task. Die rolls for individual pilots outside the Jaegers work much the same way, except that they only get their own die and their own bonus (because of this, pilot-level tasks will usually have much lower target numbers).
5: Pilots will sometimes have to roll to avoid problems during the Drift, with consequences for failure.
6: Movement and positioning in combat will be approximated into zones with different terrain types, like city, coast or ocean. Terrain will impose modifiers in combat.
7: There will be rules for GMs for generating Kaiju randomly, or they can create them themselves if they so choose.

So I'm looking to hear what everybody thinks of these ideas, and any help you might be able to provide with coming up with more for the system. What do you guys think?