Let's Build a Mecha Setting

[Amaril]

Well, I haven't done one of these in a while, since the last couple I tried fell a little flat, but lately I've been thinking of giving it another go--with a setting for a mecha game.

I don't have anything specific to put up for the first idea, but I think it would be really cool if we could somehow have mecha battles in space

Go nuts.

[Admiral Squish]

This sounds awesome! Do you have a system you want to work with, or are we coming up with something just for this? Is this magic, tech, both?

The mechas HAVE to be customizable. At a minimum, something like Armored Core, with a long, long list of parts. But if we can get more in depth than that, awesome.

[LordErebus12]

magic and tech, of course

[Admiral Squish]

Well, if we're gonna have magic involved, I could probably give you a big chunk of the stuff I came up with for my old Tome of Iron Project. I've got a lot of parts, cores, and the like we could probably use. It's all aimed at 3.5, but we could modify it pretty easily.

[Empedocles]

DragonMech for 3.5 is a great 3rd party setting based on mechs you could take a look at, if for no other reason then inspiration and ideas.

[Amaril]

Whoa, whoa, whoa guys--I'm really glad to see such an enthusiastic response, but before we do ANYTHING else, there's one extremely important question we have to answer:

Japanese mechs or Western mechs?

I'm personally in the mood for Japanese, but hey, this is a community project.

[Empedocles]

Japanese. All the way.

[ShadowFireLance]

Japansese All the way.

Dragon-Based Mecha, Yeah, I can do that.

[Admiral Squish]

Hmm... How exactly are we defining the difference?

[LordErebus12]

we talking robotech or gundam over here?

also, many terran races (elves, etc.) or humans plus aliens

[Amaril]

Hmm... How exactly are we defining the difference?

It's basically in how anthropomorphic the mechs look and move. Think of everything that separates the mechs in Gundam from the ones in MechWarrior. It is, of course, entirely possible to balance or combine the two, but which is favored more can also help determine the flavor of the setting, so I think it's important. Also, some systems are better suited to one or the other.

Anyone want to offer something as the first idea post for the world?

[Craft (Cheese)]

EDIT: Better first idea: No FTL travel, but interstellar travel is possible with wormhole gates built up over generations of sending out humans in cryogenic freezing to build them. A recent civil war has erupted and caused this gate network to largely be shut down, leaving most of the colonies cut off until the gates can be fixed.

[Amaril]

2: Although most mechs are used for military purposes, gladiatorial arena combat between mechs is also an extremely popular sport. Skilled pilots can earn great fame and fortune through these competitions.

[Craft (Cheese)]

3: Mechs, however, are proprietary technology and the building of them is carefully monitored and controlled: New mechs are only made at top secret, heavily guarded facilities back on the home world. Most importantly this means that with the gate network shut down, players have to rely on repairing old and broken mechs: Brand new ones are basically impossible to get.

[Admiral Squish]

I'm thinking more like Armored core, personally. The basic model is a sorta gundam-style mecha. But you can customize it to easily depart from that basic humanoid model.

Okay, do we want to have piloting be an extension of your body, with brain-controls, or a skill thing with lots of switches and levers and dials, like piloting a fighter jet?

Are we going to have rules for human-scale adventures too? If so, I vote for humans, a few modified human subraces, and alien versions of all the traditional fantasy races, kinda like warhammer.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Okay, do we want to have piloting be an extension of your body, with brain-controls, or a skill thing with lots of switches and levers and dials, like piloting a fighter jet?

I say you need substantial brain and spinal cord implants to even interface with one at all. With the shutting down of the gate network, the medical facilities capable of doing these procedures are out of reach, so people with the implants to pilot one are in short supply and can't be replenished.

Are we going to have rules for human-scale adventures too? If so, I vote for humans, a few modified human subraces, and alien versions of all the traditional fantasy races, kinda like warhammer.

I vote no aliens. An unmodified human majority as well as minorities of different types of modified human.

[Amaril]

I say you need substantial brain and spinal cord implants to even interface with one at all. With the shutting down of the gate network, the medical facilities capable of doing these procedures are out of reach, so people with the implants to pilot one are in short supply and can't be replenished.

I agree we should have pilot interfacing be done with some sort of implanted technology (it makes sense), but I think we might want to avoid making it particularly gruesome-looking and visible, so the players don't have to be saddled with a character appearance they might not like. Possibly the older, more outdated forms of interface technology are more visible, while the newer ones are subtle.

As for species, I'm cool with having aliens, but I'm not so fond of fantasy races. This is primarily gonna be a sci-fi game, after all, and I think we should stick to that image.

EDIT: And let's not forget, we're going for a Japanese mecha flavor here. I'm not that experienced with that particular sub-genre, but I think it should be our primary source of inspiration.

[ShadowFireLance]

I think that there Should be Some type of Dragon-Creature that has a unique type of Mecha, Based off of Flesh, In place of Mechanical Engineering.

[Amaril]

4: The invention, and later construction, of mechs would never have been possible without the discovery of their primary power source--Jovium, a metalloid element foreign to Earth. Because Jovium is used to power numerous modern technologies in addition to mechs, the dwindling supply remaining on Earth since the beginning of the war has become almost as much of a concern to the homeworld's inhabitants the colonies' lack of mech construction capability is to the colonists.

[Admiral Squish]

Hmm. I dunno about biomechs. It seems like it'd be so different from other mechs that it would need completely different rules, you know? Maybe we could make some giant space-capable creatures as enemies?

Well, if we're gonna avoid space-adapted fantasy staples, then what kinds of aliens are we gonna have? Humans with funny foreheads, a la star trek, or 'real' aliens? Are they gonna be playable, or purely antagonists?

[Grinner]

I vote for no standard-issue fantasy races.

Aliens might be okay, depending on how they're handled.

I say you need substantial brain and spinal cord implants to even interface with one at all. With the shutting down of the gate network, the medical facilities capable of doing these procedures are out of reach, so people with the implants to pilot one are in short supply and can't be replenished.

Seconded.

I'm thinking that the pilot's seat melds into the the pilot's spine? Perhaps through a series of plugs like in The Matrix?

I think that there Should be Some type of Dragon-Creature that has a unique type of Mecha, Based off of Flesh, In place of Mechanical Engineering.

Seconded.

[Amaril]

The simple thing would be no aliens at all--although I do like the possible idea of a long-dead alien civilization that left a bunch of cool gadgets lying around, partially because of my weakness for cliche, and also because stuff like that makes great sources of loot for PCs. If you want to give them fancy new equipment, have them find alien artifacts.

[Craft (Cheese)]

4: The invention, and later construction, of mechs would never have been possible without the discovery of their primary power source--Jovium, a metalloid element foreign to Earth. Because Jovium is used to power numerous modern technologies in addition to mechs, the dwindling supply remaining on Earth since the beginning of the war has become almost as much of a concern to the homeworld's inhabitants the colonies' lack of mech construction capability is to the colonists.

5: Furthermore, most colonies were not self-sufficient and were relying to some degree on imported shipments of food, water, and oxygen; Shipments that are no longer coming. Some of the more recently founded colonies have already been wiped out by starvation, thirst, or suffocation. The more developed colonies are still surviving, but the shortages have caused mass civil unrest.

[Empedocles]

What system are we using?

I would argue that the aliens should be more along the lines of Star Trek and less "real" aliens, since additional playable races would probably be welcomed by many players, and because it's actually not that unrealistic, or at least, an argument can be logically made in its favor.

[Grinner]

Some questions to consider:

• What kind of colonies do humans establish?
• Are they chiefly space stations, or do terrestrial ones also exist?
• Does terraforming technology exist?
• If so, why the need to ship air? (Wouldn't they be shipping oxygen recycling products instead?)
• Where do the mechs fit in all of this?

Edit:

What system are we using?

I would argue that the aliens should be more along the lines of Star Trek and less "real" aliens, since additional playable races would probably be welcomed by many players, and because it's actually not that unrealistic, or at least, an argument can be logically made in its favor.

These are usually system-agnostic.

You bring up another good point though. How much are we actually going to focus on the mechs? Additional races don't mean much if everyone's inside mechs anyway, unless we emphasize cultural and technological diversity between the races.

Basically, if we add aliens, we really need to make sure they contribute to the setting, rubber foreheads or not.

[Admiral Squish]

I dunno about ancient long-dead civilizations. That always bugs me when it comes up, ancient artifacts that plug in perfectly to modern tech. Because clearly, ancients use the exact same hardware and software. Though, possibly, I could see some sort of spacefaring giants that created giant weapons that could be wielded by mecha.

[Grinner]

I dunno about ancient long-dead civilizations. That always bugs me when it comes up, ancient artifacts that plug in perfectly to modern tech. Because clearly, ancients use the exact same hardware and software. Though, possibly, I could see some sort of spacefaring giants that created giant weapons that could be wielded by mecha.

If the mechs are biomechanical like ShadowFireLance suggested, then maybe they could be implants jury-rigged to work with modern mechs?

[Craft (Cheese)]

Some questions to consider:

• What kind of colonies do humans establish?
• Are they chiefly space stations, or do terrestrial ones also exist?
• Does terraforming technology exist?
• If so, why the need to ship air? (Wouldn't they be shipping oxygen recycling products instead?)
• Where do the mechs fit in all of this?

My answers:

- Self-enclosed arcologies, mostly for the purposes of mining Jovium and other rare materials. People flocked to the colonies because they offered well-paying work in hard economic times back on the homeworld. Most colonists left their families behind on the homeworld and send them the majority of their wages, similar to what many immigrant workers do today. (I'm thinking the homeworld is a separate world from Earth: Making it Earth In The Future gives us too much baggage we have to carry over and explain.)

- Mostly terrestrial, as mining is the entire purpose of the colonization effort in the first place. Space stations are kept and maintained, but aren't heavily populated.

- Mass terraforming? No. If you want something, you have to make it from scratch, recycle it from waste products, or ship it in.

- Oxygen shipping is done at first and is then phased out: It usually takes less than 6 months to get a fully self-sufficient oxygen recycling system up and running that can cover the whole colony. Next to be made are the water and food systems. Water recycling begins immediately but isn't 100% efficient and supplement water needs to be shipped in to make up the difference until water production gets up and running within a year. Food takes the longest and it usually takes over a decade of the colony's first forming for food shipments to no longer be necessary, so only the very first colonies aren't suffering food shortages.

- Mechs are essentially environmental suits designed for both work and combat in extreme environments. Your classic humanoid mech exists, but most "mechs" are non-humanoid shapes and are used for construction and mining work: The neural interface allows for levels of reaction time and easy fine control by users that can't be matched by traditional control consoles, and this adaptability means you only need a handful of mech types to accomplish any task, as opposed to hundreds of specialized machines. The disadvantage of mechs is that humans have to be in them for them to work, but running the colonies is still much more profitable in the end than attempting to run a remotely controlled or fully automated facility due to problems in those systems.

There are a few kinks that need to be hammered out, honestly: Like, why are the rebels shutting down the gate system? Why does food take so long to get up and running? What exactly are the problems with remote-operated and fully-automatic systems that make running the colonies somehow more viable economically?

[Grinner]

There are a few kinks that need to be hammered out, honestly: Like, why are the rebels shutting down the gate system? Why does food take so long to get up and running? What exactly are the problems with remote-operated and fully-automatic systems that make running the colonies somehow more viable economically?

In protest of social conditions on the homeworld, the Rebels have blockaded the gates in an attempt to starve the governments of Jovium. Having fresh stocks of Jovium, they've been able to operate without being overwhelmed by the under-supplied military navies.

Building agricultural facilities takes a long time. Usually, the crews responsible for them are understaffed. It's fairly cheap to ship food in, and because it's the primary factor in any colony's profitability, mining always takes priority. The facilities themselves take a long time to construct, as they need to be large enough to produce massive quantities of food in less-than-ideal conditions. After the shielding is put up, the facilities then need to be scrubbed clean of radiation, as many colonies exist in hostile environments. Finally, getting harvests in takes another year.

Robotic colonies are nice in theory, but deep space has an interesting way of throwing wrenches into the works. Sometimes, they simply can't operate with local electromagnetic interference. Other times, things just break. In certain cases, micrometeorites have been known to perforate key components, crippling the entire operation. Admittedly, those were really the fault of the engineers for not foreseeing that. Frankly, it's more profitable in the long run to establish human colonies, since the practice provide jobs, alleviates overpopulation, and brings in enough profit to make it worthwhile.

The colonies also give convenient access to new solar systems, ideal locations for new warp gates. Government and corporate parties already have plans drawn up to establish new colonies in these systems...

[LordErebus12]

Automated Mechs? AI?