Mech-supporting RPG systems?

[exelsisxax]

So some friends have an idea for a future campaign. Post-apocalyptic, with a general 'mech theme - although much more titanfall than mechwarrior. But before anyone just says "battletech", this is for more than just fightan robot skirmishes.

We'd like to play up the survival aspect of the destroyed world. Relatively rare mechs that are difficult and expensive to maintain and are too valuable to use all the time. Damage needs to be granular enough to become a roleplaying or potentially plot point. Ammunition is supposed to be a deplete-able and important resource.

So maybe another way of looking at it is "low sci-fi survival RPG that can also do mechs"

[Kane0]

So Mad Max with 'mechs instead of cars?
Wasnt there a Fallout RPG? That might have usable stuff.

[KillingAScarab]

So Mad Max with 'mechs instead of cars?
Wasnt there a Fallout RPG? That might have usable stuff.

No, it seems there hasn't been, though there was Fallout:Warfare. It did get a mention in Geek & Sundry's suggestions for what to use to play Fallout as a tabletop RPG, but it is specifically called out as a wargame. I don't have experience with their recommended rules systems, but GURPS seems the most likely candidate which could contain both mechs and an adapted post-apocalypse. If you need more freaky protagonists for your survivor story, you could look into MUTANT: Year Zero, but it has no mechs of which I am aware (though it seems there may be robots).

[The Glyphstone]

It's been a long time, but from what I remember the the Battletech RPG does include rules and states for the actual pilot, expecting at least some of the game to be spent out of the cockpit. So it might still be worth looking into depending on what style of mech you want in your games; Titanfall mechs look from gameplay videos to be significantly more agile than the typical Battlemech so it might not be a good match on either scale.

[BladeofObliviom]

Funnily enough, I literally just posted the OP for a mech-related Campaign Journal resulting from a similar hankering of mine.


Shameless plug aside, Chromestrike works pretty well, and it does reasonably granular damage and such without drowning you in rules. Mechs are difficult and expensive to repair in that system, and if you want to really play it up, you can get rid of the parts market. There are even rules for salvaging damaged or destroyed parts if you want to make that the primary way to get material for repairing things.

It doesn't include limited ammo by default in a general sense (though some weapons have limited ammo capacity, it's only intended to apply within the context of a single mission before you can refill), you could easily change this by just keeping track of ammunition collected and spent.

[Mando Knight]

It's been a long time, but from what I remember the the Battletech RPG does include rules and states for the actual pilot, expecting at least some of the game to be spent out of the cockpit. So it might still be worth looking into depending on what style of mech you want in your games; Titanfall mechs look from gameplay videos to be significantly more agile than the typical Battlemech so it might not be a good match on either scale.

The latest version is A Time of War (link is to the book's page on the Battletech site, which also has links to PDF vendors). The book does spend a lot of time detailing the setting and how to make characters appropriate for it, so it would take a bit more work to file off all the serial numbers and rebrand it for a different setting (unlike for Star Wars Saga edition, for example, where just banning the Jedi class and relabeling a few things is basically all you need to do to get a generic sci-fi action RPG with psychic powers).

[holywhippet]

You could try using the Cthulutech rules. You'd probably need to strip a bunch of things out of the rules though.

[exelsisxax]

Funnily enough, I literally just posted the OP for a mech-related Campaign Journal resulting from a similar hankering of mine.


Shameless plug aside, Chromestrike works pretty well, and it does reasonably granular damage and such without drowning you in rules. Mechs are difficult and expensive to repair in that system, and if you want to really play it up, you can get rid of the parts market. There are even rules for salvaging damaged or destroyed parts if you want to make that the primary way to get material for repairing things.

It doesn't include limited ammo by default in a general sense (though some weapons have limited ammo capacity, it's only intended to apply within the context of a single mission before you can refill), you could easily change this by just keeping track of ammunition collected and spent.

After a quick look, this looks like what we're going for. The primary guy pushing for this even wants it armored core themed, so it's almost perfect. Thanks!