A game of mecha and tanks

[Graysire]

So I've been looking around for a mecha rpg with most of the following qualities

Robust combat system

Ability to support multiple scales(i.e. having mecha, tanks, and infantry in the same battle)

ability to design your own mechs/vehicles

I'm not too worried about miniatures, but free-er rulesets are ideal.

I haven't found much so far, so I come before the playground asking if you guys have any suggestions

[Beneath]

It sounds like what you want is BattleTech, but idk if the RPG side holds up since I haven't actually played that, just the wargame (and I don't think that individual people on foot can do much of anything mech scale, and they're pretty fragile. Infantry units are platoon-scale)

[JoeJ]

There was a 2nd edition M&M supplement called Mecha and Manga that covered this. In 3rd ed. the Gadget Guide includes a chapter on mecha.

[LordEntrails]

I will second BattleTech. I have in a box somewhere the first edition of Mechwarrioir (the RPG/character part of the game) and will say that it was somewhat lack in adventures/plots, but I think that was rectified in later editions and with supplements.

It's fun to play as a board game / table war game, and from a character aspect as well. Plus their are lots of fiction story books to draw inspiration from.

[Chromat]

Lancer. You can probably find newer version...

https://killsixbilliondemons.com/lancer/

[Mechalich]

A mech combat scenario is almost purely wargame. The characters are trapped inside machines that can pretty much interact with the world only through movement or destruction. The can't solve puzzles, they can't really conduct social interactions beyond applying simple modifiers to the wargame, their role has been reduced to a tactical framework. Effectively mech combat is going to be a minigame that the characters enter into from time to time. It's a set of rules you tack onto the rules for an actual RPG. This is a thing in some other systems: starfighter piloting in Star Wars tends to work this way.

So you might as well just use the Battletech rules for mech combat and a completely different system for everything else your characters are doing. What that is depends on the setting you're using and the goals of your campaign. In the actual Battletech universe the various major characters spend the majority of their non-mech time either engaged in various other forms of combat (clan members engage in a massive quantity of fisticuffs) or some kind of politics. In Star Wars, pilots tend to engage in commando-style adventures or, if they happen to be Jedi, Jedi adventures. So you should figure out what you want to do and use a system appropriate for that.

[John Campbell]

I'm not sure how well the current BattleTech RPG interfaces with the wargame, and being unarmored infantry in a 'mech fight is not a recipe for a lengthy life, so individual infantry troopers are basically just the platoon's hit points, but other than that, your post sounds to me like, "I'm looking for BattleTech. Where do I find BattleTech?"

[Waddacku]

As far as I know, you are pretty much straight up describing Heavy Gear by Dream Pod 9. At least I think it has design rules as well. Robust, mixed scale combined arms combat is basically what people sell the game on.

[Goblin Slayer]

War hammer 40k? They got imperial knights. they god titans. They got various automata. they got baneblades and lemen russ tanks.

[lightningcat]

War hammer 40k? They got imperial knights. they god titans. They got various automata. they got baneblades and lemen russ tanks.

As much as I love 40k, none of the current RPGs can pull off what the OP wants. There are no rules - that I am aware of - for Imperial Knights or Titans. The upcoming WH40k game might be able to pull off everything, but I have no idea when Wrath & Glory is set to release.

[hamishspence]

As much as I love 40k, none of the current RPGs can pull off what the OP wants. There are no rules - that I am aware of - for Imperial Knights or Titans.

Deathwatch has rules for Warhound Titans at least. Those could be extrapolated from to produce rules for the bigger or smaller mecha.

[The Glyphstone]

Deathwatch also has rules for dreadnoughts, and Only War has stats for Sentinel walkers. Both on the decidedly smaller end of 'mecha', but could be building blocks.

[gkathellar]

A few things about Battletech:

• The mechs are big, clumsy, and run hot - more the walking tank flavor of giant robot than the huge person. It makes them feel very real, on the one hand, but also might not fit the vision you're going for.
• You can't generally design your own mechs from the ground up, but the customization options are pretty robust.
• There's a very robust setting in which mech pilots are something like chivalric knights of old.
• They have tanks, but in most incarnations of the rules, they exist to get stomped on. Literally.

If you're interested in checking it out, a pretty robust computer adaptation of it was just released that I will recommend. Not exactly an RPG, but it might give you a feel for the universe and mechanical tone. (Heavy tanks can actually be fairly threatening in this game's ruleset, but still explode if you stare at them too hard.)

[Satinavian]

Will also recommend Battletech and the various RPGs spawned from it. Seems like a perfect fit.

Also there are rules for designing your own mechs frm the ground up, it is just that in the background that doesn't happen that often and people mostly modify existing models instead of building complete new factories and productions lines for new ones. But the rules exist anyway.

[Goblin Slayer]

Iron harvest if you like a steam punk like mechs

[Knaight]

This is a bit off kilter, but Remnants might fit this well. The mechs there are a little weird, but the system is solid, while also being fairly fast and free-er.

[Karl Aegis]

If you're okay with swords able to cut through armor, Tenra Bansho Zero has Armours, killing machines and cyborgs fighting alongside buddhist monks, ninja and demonically-possessed super soldiers.

[JeenLeen]

I'd think any system that could mirror Front Mission III (the video game) would probably do what you want. That game had you as mostly mech pilots, but sometimes you'd be a single person walking around, and you'd fight helicopters and tanks as well as mechs. If I recall correctly, individuals could do pathetic damage and had very low HP, but were hard to hit due to be smaller than what mecha weapons generally target (mechs or tanks.)

Do you want infantry to be able to be a realistic threat to a mech, or just be an annoyance? A similar question: should human-vs-mech combat be common, or is it that you sometimes want human missions and sometimes mech missions?
...I'm remembering playing Xenogears way back in the day, and revisiting an old area while at high level. It was a place you were supposed to travel in mechs, but I was walking through it since my level made that okay. Having Fei just one-shot punch a mech was cool.

[Mordar]

Robotech RPG from Palladium? Doesn't that cover the bases?

- M

[Kane0]

Funnily enough, Battletech had a major PC game release just last week on Steam. It's a very good adaption of the lore and mechancics of the tabletop game and damn good fun to boot, though the RPG aspect I don't know much about sorry.

1. Robust combat system
2. Ability to support multiple scales(i.e. having mecha, tanks, and infantry in the same battle)
3. Ability to design your own mechs/vehicles
4. I'm not too worried about miniatures, but free-er rulesets are ideal.

In regards to Battletech:
1: Check. Combat rules haven't deviated much in 30 years, and hold up well.
2: Check. You have infantry, power armor, armored vehicles, aerospace and of course mechs
3: Check
4: The online resource is an excellent starting point, and there are some starter pdfs available too i believe. (Here maybe?)

[Florian]

They have tanks, but in most incarnations of the rules, they exist to get stomped on. Literally.

TacOps and StratOps really upgraded the non-mech forces. LAC2-towing stealth infantry can really be a nightmare when fielded in sufficient quantity and the newer tanks are pretty good by themselves.

[Wraith]

I played Heavy Gear very briefly some years ago.

I don't remember a lot about the specific rules, but I do recall that a big selling point of the system was that the more conventional vehicles - landers, tanks, copters etc - were actually worth taking into a fight against mecha, unlike games such as Front Mission where they're little more than fodder.
In some cases, it was actually beneficial to have a guy running the drop-ship or carrier, as then it would benefit from PC skills and customisation rather than being a glorified NPC.

[Hurske]

I ran a game of Savage Rifts that had that. You could reskin it, to remove the magic aspect and crazy shenanigans, and just leave the tech part in.

[Tanarii]

Robotech RPG from Palladium? Doesn't that cover the bases?

- M

The problem with Robotech (and Rifts) is the Palladium system isn't very good.

I say this as someone who played it extensively in my youth. You can get enjoyable games out of it, but it's in spite of the system.

[John Campbell]

A few things about Battletech:

• The mechs are big, clumsy, and run hot - more the walking tank flavor of giant robot than the huge person. It makes them feel very real, on the one hand, but also might not fit the vision you're going for.
• You can't generally design your own mechs from the ground up, but the customization options are pretty robust.

There are complete rules for designing your own 'mechs - or tanks, helicopters, aerospace fighters, battle armor, conventional infantry, dropships, jumpships, warships, or even 'mechs that transform into fighters or tanks - from the ground up, and all of the canon units (except some infantry types which antedate actual infantry construction rules) are built using those rules, and can be modified using them.

If you want to stick close to the canon setting, it can be difficult to come up with fluff to justify completely new designs, though.

But even there, in the mostly-canon game I'm currently running, we've added a few completely new units, mostly support vehicles, where there was an obvious hole in the group's needs that it should have been possible to fill, but no extant canon unit did. The justifications were just stuff like, "Yeah, tanker trucks like this are everywhere and have been around forever, but they're not notable enough for anyone to have ever bothered putting in a Technical Readout. But you guys need one, so here you go."

• There's a very robust setting in which mech pilots are something like chivalric knights of old.

Eh, it varies. There's been a gradual trend away from "MechWarriors as feudal knights" towards a more modern style of military ever since the game was introduced.

When FASA went under, WizKids acquired the property and tried to kill actual BattleTech and replace it with a terrible click-base collectible miniatures game, and did some horrible things to the setting in an attempt to revert it back to where it started. ClickyTech failed, BattleTech (now "Classic BattleTech") endures, but the current Catalyst sourcebooks, while quality, are having to work around an awful lot of stupid that WizKids introduced to the timeline.

• They have tanks, but in most incarnations of the rules, they exist to get stomped on. Literally.

You're not using your tanks right.

Vehicles are obviously weaker than 'mechs in many ways. They also have several significant advantages over 'mechs. Depending on the motive type, it can be really easy to make them go fast, and while their terrain-handling is more limited than 'mechs' in some ways, again depending on the motive type it can also be a lot less limited. Their heat handling is also different, more strict for energy weapons, but they don't have to care about ballistic or missile heat at all.

A lot of canon tank designs, especially newer ones, try to be battlemechs, and fail at it. The ones that just do what tanks do well instead of trying to do jobs that 'mechs do better can be extremely effective - especially on a cost-effectiveness basis.

The problem with Robotech (and Rifts) is the Palladium system isn't very good.

And, having played Savage Rifts... replacing it with the Savage Worlds system is not an improvement. Savage Worlds isn't cut out to handle mecha (or Rifts) power levels.

[thedanster7000]

GURPS can do this, but only if detail/customisation are important, and a fair amount of time would have to go into prep compared to others.

[Aresneo]

Melton Zeta is an older option that can handle what you're looking for and plays significantly faster than battletech. It's designed to replicate mecha anime, rather than the walking tanks of battletech.

[1337 b4k4]

Dirt Side might work. Never played it myself.

[tensai_oni]

I'm going to suggest the generically-named Mecha RPG, often called Chris Perrin's Mecha (after the author) just so we have a more specific title to discuss and google.

The combat system is a little on the simple side, but it's also very tight and tactical, almost like an Into The Breach-type positioning and crowd control puzzle. It allows people and mecha on the same battlefield, but the former will be at a pretty big disadvantage - which I'm going to assume is what you're aiming for, as opposed to super powered individuals cutting down robots on foot, Tenra Banshou Zero style. It also has customization options and they are both extensive and pretty simple to wrap your head around.

Or, if you want something more mechanically complex, there's Mutants and Masterminds. 2nd ed had a whole expansion based around anime things which yes, included mecha - but I found mecha simple enough to homebrew in without that, whether you are playing 2nd or 3rd ed. Just make them a Device of whatever cost per rank you feel comfortable with (I tend to go 4 pp/rank for custom units and 3 pp/rank for premade grunts), possibly with a different higher power level themselves, and different attack/defense tradeoffs. Works like a charm.

[Kelb_Panthera]

For completeness sake: d20 future.