MECHA! How to handle them?

[Inspector Valin]

Ok, I've been looking to build a custom SF setting using Pathfinder for some time, something that could make full use of the Technology Guide and robots and so on. However, the one thing that remains outside of my grasp that I'd really like to add to the game is mecha combat. I've got a few potential sources that could work with some adaptation: the Pathfinder Final Fantasy pdfs have a system, DragonMech looks like it could in theory be adaptable... but I'd like to ask you guys first. Has anyone ever tried to run mecha in Pathfinder, and how did it turn out? Any advice on systems to use?

[Alent]

What kind of feel do you want for your mecha?

My group's tried several different things several times while we were using pathfinder. For Exile we've used a few different attempts to customize vehicles from the 3.0e Arms and Equipment guide to good success. I wish I had these typed up to put in the Setting thread, but they didn't vary that greatly from the A&EG, mainly we just ran each mecha part/limb as its own segment, with our own rules on power sources, and otherwise used it fairly straight using Ride, Kn(Architecture and Engineering), and Profession(Pilot) as the key skills. We were aiming for a very inelegant and clunky mecha feel and this delivered, but I think it would also support more elaborate mecha with an appropriate delivery.

For a oneoff I ran, we just used the Battletech quickstart PDF for mech combat and PF for ground combat and it worked okay enough, but we never had a mixed forces situation. (was always all mech or all ground)

[Jeraa]

What kind of mecha are we talking about? Smaller, powered armor types? Those can be represented by enchanted suits of full plate. 60 foot tall gundam types? Western-style walking tanks?

d20 Mecha (if you can find it; it does have a SRD available online somewhere) has a point-based design system, with a conversion for figuring out the prices in different games (Purchase DC for d20 Modern, gold pieces, etc). It is meant to work for any d20 game, which would include Pathfinder.

[Prime32]

I would strongly recommend that you fluff mecha as being connected to their pilots' life force - their strength is proportional to that of their pilot, and damage to one is reflected on the other. This allows you to treat mecha as modifiers to the pilots' stats, rather than having independent stat blocks - as a result character progression is much smoother, and there's room for character concepts that would otherwise raise a lot of questions. E.g. a barbarian pilot entering a rage to fight better doesn't really make sense if his performance is based solely on how well he can operate complex machinery.

[Inspector Valin]

Hmm.... interesting options presented. :smallwink: And quickly too! Thanks, guys. I'll investigate d20 mecha and Battletech

For the size/feel, I'm looking at... in d20 size terms, I'd say Large to Huge. Not a gigantic skyscraper sized machine (at least not for the protagonists. :smallbiggrin:) but bigger and stronger than regular power armoured suits. The sort of thing that could be taken down in theory by a team of protagonists working together... or that could give a team of heroes a shot against a really big monster. The Paladin from RWBY is a pretty good indication of what I wanted to play around with.

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/d/d0/White_Fang_Paladin.png/revision/latest?cb=20140827033319

[Almarck]

There's some stuff in the homebrew forums about mecha.

I recall a few classes tackle on the subject more than ones to various degrees of success. That may not be what you want.

I myself built a "build -any type of robot" system for use by a.i.s using rules from d20 future as the basis.

Speaking of which. D20 future, a suet of d20 modern is available on the Internet for free to view. You can find their mecha and robot rules with little difficulty. The real problem may be having to adjust the numbers of the systems and instituting prices in gold or whatever currency you have in mind.