Mechwarrior RPG- Without Classic Battletech or the actual Mechwarrior RPG?

[blackout]

Our most recent campaign ended in disaster, and as such, to get a new flavor to wash out what happened recently(I won't go into details...it involved the town guards and a flask of Alchemist's Fire).

My group dislikes the 'regular' Mechwarrior RPG rules(and, personally, I do too), and none of us have access to the Classic Battletech rules.

As a group of gamers that like to play new games anyways, I am currently in the market for people to assist in the creation of a homebrewed Mechwarrior RPG system. Preferably, something that complete and utter rookies would find easy to play and grasp with no issues.

Any takers?

[Matthew]

The classic Battletech rules quickstart is available online, along with a history of the universe:

Classic Battletech Quick Start Rules
Classic Battletech Universe Book

You could start there.

[Ascension]

Frankly CBT could use a nice simplification. It really wouldn't be all that hard to re-fluff most any sci-fi RPG into a form which would be usable with Battletech/Mechwarrior. Sure you'd need to homebrew a bit, but not too much. The question is: What game systems are your players familiar with already? That's generally a good starting point to use when looking for a new system.

[blackout]

Very recently, we playtested my Dustworld system. Everyone in my group said the system looked pretty flexible. Given the opportunity for sufficient alterations, the system could easily be used for a Mechwarrior game.

Their also familiar with the d20 system, at least as far as Future and Fantasy.

They've also had minor exposure to the HERO system, and GURPS(which I don't care for, at all, sorry to any GURPS fans out there).

As for the CBT rules, yes, they look very good, but that seems mostly intended for 'tactical' games rather than RPGs. And as stated before, they've been exposed to the Mechwarrior RPG, and disliked it. It was practically unanimous.

[SurlySeraph]

You could just use the d20 Future mecha rules, though they're not very elegant.

[Swordguy]

There are some misconceptions in this thread:

MechWarrior RPG is a full-on role-playing game.

MechWarrior is either a computer game, or a click-based tactical wargame - neither has any role-playing aspects involved..

Classic Battletech is a full-on hex-based tactical wargame - no role-playing aspects involved.

For the record, the click-base MechWarrior game is, essentially, BattleTech simplified. That's why it's not being actively supported by Wizkids anymore, and Catalyst Gaming Labs has sold more copies of the CBT Starter Box than any other product in BattleTech history. A large part of the draw of CBT is the detail, and every effort to simplify it in BattleTech's 20+ year history (BattleForce, BF2, MechWarrior Clix, etc) has flopped miserably.


Now, if you want a decent RPG that supports Mechs - d20 mecha or some flavor of GURPS are your best bets. I would, however, take a real look at MechWarrior 2nd Edition RPG (the current one is 3e) - the 2nd edition is widely considered to be the definitive BattleTech RPG, is compatible with Classic BattleTech, and is significantly different than MechWarrior 3e.

[Matthew]

There are some misconceptions in this thread:

MechWarrior RPG is a full-on role-playing game.

Classic Battletech is a full-on hex-based tactical wargame - no role-playing aspects involved.

*snippity snip*

...the 2nd edition is widely considered to be the definitive BattleTech RPG, is compatible with Classic BattleTech,

Just to be clear, that is why I linked the CBT QS and CBT UB. Presumably, any BT RPG is going to need to be supported by a set of tactical war game rules... or maybe not?

[Artanis]

Heavy Gear is a lot like Battletech, and as such is probably close to what you're looking for.

By "rookies" do you mean to role-playing, or to the system in general? Because Silhouette (Heavy Gear's system) is pretty easy for an experienced gamer to get the hang of, but a newbie...well...totally non-linear rolling systems don't mix well with newbies.

[Darrin]

My group dislikes the 'regular' Mechwarrior RPG rules(and, personally, I do too), and none of us have access to the Classic Battletech rules.

As a group of gamers that like to play new games anyways, I am currently in the market for people to assist in the creation of a homebrewed Mechwarrior RPG system. Preferably, something that complete and utter rookies would find easy to play and grasp with no issues.

There are three editions of the Mechwarrior RPG. The 1st edition I know nothing about, but is so horribly out of date it wouldn't be worth tracking down anyway.

2nd Edition Mechwarrior is probably the best version, with some caveats. It has pretty straightforward rules, modeled after the tabletop ("Classic") Battletech rules, and the chargen is simple, easy to customize, and can create some interesting characters. However, mechanics-wise it borrows a bit too heavily from the tabletop rules, and can be a bit imprecise when you're rolling 2d6 to resolve everything. It's biggest selling point is it integrates pretty seamlessly with the tabletop game, so the characters can hop in and out of the cockpit of a 'mech without going into a wide variety of mechanical subsystems. However, this is also one of it's biggest problems... if you're not playing a character with a 'mech, it can be extremely frustrating and/or claw-your-eyes-out boring.

3rd Edition is an excrutiating mess that no sane human being should be allowed to come near, much less play with. It was shoved out the door at FASA shortly before they closed those doors for good, so it didn't get much support. It was designed to "fix" what was wrong with 2nd edition by creating a robust stand-alone sci-fi RPG where you actually could play a character that isn't a mechwarrior. This is also it's greatest failing... from what I understand, you can't actually play mechwarriors, since they didn't bother to provide any rules for piloting 'mechs. The rules they do have are horrendously overcomplicated, and as I understand it the chargen system is a little like getting a dozen or so root canals without anaesthetic.

Anyway, it might help if we knew what kind of game you're looking for. If you like Classic Battletech a lot and want an RPG that integrates well with the tabletop version, then please track down 2nd Edition Mechwarrior.

If you want mecha but with a more anime feel, then try BESM or Mekton Zeta (although both systems require a lot of design work from the GM if you want a fairly balanced game).

If you want a mecha game with the anime stuff toned down a bit, track down Jovian Chronicles (Silhouette version) or Heavy Gear.

If you just want a sci-fi RPG without mecha, then there are several good systems out there. Serenity, T20, various flavors of GURPS, Fading Suns, Alternity, Farscape.

[Swordguy]

This is also it's greatest failing... from what I understand, you can't actually play mechwarriors, since they didn't bother to provide any rules for piloting 'mechs. The rules they do have are horrendously overcomplicated, and as I understand it the chargen system is a little like getting a dozen or so root canals without anaesthetic.

Oh...if that's the issue, there's a simple fix. The game explicitly says "to pilot Mechs, use Classic BattleTech; here's a handy conversion table to convert your applicable skills to that game."

Look up your appropriate MW3 skills on the table (piloting and gunnery) and write down next to them what your Classic BattleTech analogs are. Then go play a game of Classic BattleTech. Problem solved.

MW3e makes no pretense to allowing players to play in Mechs, and why should they? They already have a game for that. It handles combat up to Battlesuit level quite accurately, though through a horrendously non-intuitive wound system.

The CharGen system I happen to like, as it's stolen pretty much straight up from Traveler (rolling on LifePath Tables) and while it removes some flexibility from your characters (it also says you ARE NOT limited to what's on the tables) it also guarantees everyone starts with a pretty interesting backstory. Creating a starting PC takes about 20 minutes once you've done it once or twice.

The best descriptor I've heard of MW3e is "it's Shadowrun with BattleMechs". If you play it in that vein, you're gold. If you just want a party of MechWarriors, go play MW2e.

[blackout]

Heavy Gear is a lot like Battletech, and as such is probably close to what you're looking for.

By "rookies" do you mean to role-playing, or to the system in general? Because Silhouette (Heavy Gear's system) is pretty easy for an experienced gamer to get the hang of, but a newbie...well...totally non-linear rolling systems don't mix well with newbies.

Both. My group is getting two new guys this coming saturday, school friends of a current group member, and everyone agreed to a new system for the upcoming campaign.

[trehek]

Battletech has always provided me with a lot of variety, because it had so many separate strategy game modules using the 2d6 dice system.

Battletech and it's expansion Citytech
Aerotech
Battletroops
Battleforce
etc.

It has systems for different levels of warfare, with some rules for integration. At some point this was a problem for me when I was still playing a 2nd ed Mechwarrior campaign. In the end I was using MW 2nd ed for the role playing parts and small fights on foot, Battletroops for infantry battles and Battletech for large scale battles. Conversions weren't so important as long as it was possible to approximate characters skills in the new system. Simulation was the word with the war scenes.

Now with 3rd ed I've been more comfortable staying in the RPG rules. I still use the Battletech Master Rules compendium for large warfare with mechas, tanks and aerospace fighters, but roleplaying definitely has more room now. I've liked both 2nd and 3rd edition mechwarrior rules, but they have different styles. I like the 3rd ed chargen rules too.

[blackout]

Well, I've spoken with a few members of the group. Having liked the Dustworld system, they've decided to funnel the word over to everyone else that we'll be using an edited version.

However, when I offered to let them help revamp the Dustworld system for Mechwarrior, they outright refused, saying they'll let me do it.

Honestly, I'm too lazy to edit a system to the point where it's a mech game instead of a post-apocalyptic Mad Max-type deal on my own. I also can't possibly do it by this Saturday with school and the like, at least not on my own.

So, I shalt ask thee all, who all wants to make an awesome Mechwarrior RPG that allows you to drive mechs and such, and fight on the ground, all in the same system? I'll gladly do the lion's share of the work, but I'd like to forge an 'official' development team for this.

[Ascension]

For the record, the click-base MechWarrior game is, essentially, BattleTech simplified. That's why it's not being actively supported by Wizkids anymore, and Catalyst Gaming Labs has sold more copies of the CBT Starter Box than any other product in BattleTech history. A large part of the draw of CBT is the detail, and every effort to simplify it in BattleTech's 20+ year history (BattleForce, BF2, MechWarrior Clix, etc) has flopped miserably.

As a die-hard fan of MW: AoD, who thinks that CBT is needlessly complicated and that the WizKids version was a vast improvement, I take umbrage at the suggestion that it 'flopped miserably.' Sure, everything has turned sour recently, but it had a good run.

[snoopy13a]

. However, this is also one of it's biggest problems... if you're not playing a character with a 'mech, it can be extremely frustrating and/or claw-your-eyes-out boring.

The campaign doesn't need to be centered around Mech combat. Players could be members of the underworld, aerospace pilots, scouts, traders, or even spies (there was even an entire sourcebook dealing with the intelligence aspect of the Inner Sphere). If the campaign is centered around Mech combat then the GM simply tells the players during character creation so they at least get a light mech.

[mangosta71]

You could do a BattleTech campaign in Rifts fairly easily. Little homebrewing on the powered battle armor suits to make them into BattleMechs and your set. Most of the personal weapons are already nearly equivalent.

[Yakk]

I've been tweaking some 'scale combat' rules for space combat, and it should work reasonably well for 'mech' and 'personal' scale combat.

The core idea is that larger things have issues hitting smaller things with their main guns, and are forced to use weapons designed to deal with smaller things: and smaller things have issues carrying firepower to damage larger things, so they tend to target the components of these larger things (which are more on their scale).

Toss in a simple D&D esque d20 resolution system, and you have the basis for a game. A nearly playable sketch of such rules follows:

Spoiler

Show

Core Task Resolution: Roll 1d20+modifier. If you roll a 20, roll again and add 20 to the result.

Some characters have specialties. When you roll a speciality skill, you roll 2d20 and take the best roll. If you happen to roll doubles, however, you add together both dice.

Specialities (getting to roll twice) is denoted by a * after the modifier.

Heroes have second chances that they can consume. When you consume a second chance, you reroll a particular roll, and ignore the results of the first roll. A Hero gets to know the results of a roll before consuming a second chance (ie, being hit or not). You can use multiple second chances on the same roll, but it is costly. The first reroll costs 1 second chance, the second 2 additional second chances, the third 3, etc.

Scale: All weapons, characters and equipment have a Scale stat. 10 units of Scale is a 10x increase in size in every dimension.

Scale makes it harder to hit things, easier to be hit, but also boosts the damage you do when you do hit, and makes you take less damage when you are hit.

Some weapons operate offensively on a larger scale. These weapons are designed to attack larger targets, and offensively use that scale.

Scale table:

0   1.0
1   1.25
2   1.6
3   2.0
4   2.5
5   3.2
6   4.0
7   5.0
8   6.4
9   8.0

For Scale 0-9, the above is in 1/10th of meters. A scale 0 object is 10 cm in size.
For Scale 10-19, the above is in meters. A scale 10 object is 1 meter in size.
For Scale 20-29, the above is in 10s of meters. A scale 20 object is 10 meters in size.
For Scale 30-39, the above is in 100s of meters. A scale 30 object is 100 meters in size.
For Scale 40-49, the above is in 1000s of meters (ie, km). A scale 40 object is 1 km in size.

A typical human is Scale 12 or 13, while a child is Scale 10.

Combat:

To-Hit:
Attacker rolls d20+Attack +any excess scale the defender has.
Defender rolls d20+Defense +any excess scale the attacker has.

It is hard to hit things that are much smaller in scale than you are.

If the attack doesn't beat the passive defense of the target (Defense-Scale), the Defender doesn't even use a defense to beat the attack.

Damage:
Attacker rolls d20+Firepower +any excess Scale the attacker has
Defender rolls d20+Toughness +any excess Scale the defender has

Once you have hit, it is hard to damage something that is larger scale than you, and easy to damage things smaller in scale than you.

Defender continues to re-roll until they beat the Attacker's roll. Each failure generates 1 wound.

Heroes get to accumulate the value of the d20s when defending against damage.

Components:
Most devices and characters have components. Humans have limbs and gear, and mechanized equipment has components.

Subsystems exist on a smaller scale, and can be targetted. When directly attacked, subsystems take damage but the "whole" does not, unless the component has the shock component. (ie, shooting the arm off of a human hurts the human, while shooting the gun system of a mech just disables the gun) The shock property has a multiplier, which is how much damage is applied to the rest of the system when it is damaged.

Wounds:
Each wound damages the target as a whole, and also damages a random subsystem if it has any. A given attack should be allocated to a single subsystem randomly, and any "left over" damage halved and applied to yet another subsystem.

Damage to shock components in this step doesn't roll back to the main target, and damage from shock components doesn't roll into another components.

Each Wound generates a -1 penalty to all actions by that target and component. Each target also has things that happen as it takes more damage -- people die or fall unconscious,

Damage side effects are listed like:
56 jams on each wound
means that you roll a d6 for every wound the component takes, and on a 56 your weapon jams.

Units:
Different types of units have different components.

Humans: Arms(2) (scale -6), Legs (scale -4), Head(scale -10), Core(scale -1)
Damage to Arms(1-3,4-6): penalty to anything in that arm. After HP/3 damage, arm becomes crippled. Shock x1/2
Damage to Legs(7-10): penalty to movement. After HP/2 damage, unable to move. Shock x1
Damage to Core(11-19): penalty to all actions.
Damage to Head(20): penalty to all actions. +5 toughness from skull. After HP/3 damage, target is KO'd. Shock x2

Mechanized units: Weapons, Motivators, Sensors, Cockpit, Power Train, Core

Turrent: Sensors, Weapons, Cockpit

Fortress: Typically has subsystems the size of other units, which have subsystems. Damage that 'falls down' from a main target hit does not fall down again (because that gets crazy).

Quick and Dirty Gear:
This is an attempt to make some gear that can be templated to various scales, from human up to giant mech. The relative scale is the size of the item compared to the owner (useful if someone tries to target it). The attack scale is relative to the user, and details what size targets the weapon is designed to attack.

A +1 to scale is very much like a -1 accuracy +1 damage change in the weapon.

Burst weapons and range need work -- ideally, they would be measured in meters, and scale up with the weapon. :-)

Rifle: Relative Scale -6, +2 Toughness. Attack Scale +0, 10 range, 10 firepower.
Reload 1, very light ammo
Move Action: Aim, +5 accuracy until start of next turn.
4 wounds to destroy, 56 chance of jamming on each wound.

Pistol: Relative Scale -8. Attack Scale +0, 10 range, 5 firepower
Reload 1, very light ammo
Move Action: Aim, +2 accuracy until start of next turn.
3 wounds to destroy, 456 chance of jamming on each wound.

Missile Array: Relative Scale -4. Attack Scale +2, 20 range, 14 firepower, burst 2 (targets 2 adjacent squares, may not target components).
Reload 2, 3 shots
Standard Action: Lock, +5 accuracy until end of next turn or loses LOS.
3 wounds to destroy, 456 chance of exploding on each wound (dealing an auto-hit Firepower attack on the owner of the weapon.

Torpedo: Relative Scale -3. Attack Scale +15, 30 range, 8 firepower.
1 shot.
Standard Action: Lock, +2/+4/+6 accuracy (repeated), until does another action or loses LOS.
2 wounds to destroy, explode 456

Autofire Weapon: Relative Scale -5, +2 Toughness. Attack scale -10, 10 range, 15 firepower, burst 3 (targets 3 adjacent squares, may not target components)
Recharge 0

Ion Cannon: Relative Scale -3. Attack Scale +8, 30 range, 10 firepower
Recharge 3
Move Action: Aim, +2 accuracy until start of next turn.
1 wound to destroy, 3456 chance of exploding.

Ion Pistol: Relative Scale -8. Attack Scale +4, 10 range, 10 firepower
Recharge 5
Move Action: Aim, +2 accuracy until start of next turn.
1 wound to destroy, 3456 chance of exploding.

Ion Sword: Relative Scale -9 (hilt). Attack Scale +0 to +5 (see below). Melee Range, 15 firepower, +5 Accuracy (can be parried)
Recharge 0
Move Action: change attack scale of Ion Sword
3 wounds to destroy, 56 chance of exploding

Ion Dagger: Relative Scale -10 (hilt). Attack Scale +0 to +5 (see below). Melee Range, 8 firepower, +5 Accuracy (can be parried).
Recharge 0
Move Action: change attack scale of Ion Dagger
2 wounds to destroy, 456 chance of exploding

These weapons can be scaled up/down to arm humans or mechs.

Personal Utility Mechanized Armor suit: (PUMA suit)
1 Pilot (neural link)
+1 Scale over user. Adds +10 toughness, +5 movement.
Has all components of user, and damage is passed through, plus:
Sensors: +5 to attack, 5 toughness, -10 Scale, 2 wounds to destroy (56 stops working).
Active Camo: +5 to defense, +5 sneak, 5 toughness, -5 scale. 3 wounds to destroy (56 stops working).
Weapons: Typically 1 Large (Rifle, Sword, Missile, etc), and one Pisol-sized (Pisol, Ion Pistol, Ion Dagger).

Hit Table:
Arms(1-2,3-4)
Weapons(5-6)
Legs(7-10)
Core(11-17)
Camo (18)
Sensors(19)
Head(20)

PUMA's have an auto-loader.

Giant Mech:
Scale 25 (32 m tall)
1 Pilot (neural link)
Toughness: 10
Components and Hit Table:
20: Cockpit (Toughness 15, Scale 15). Damage done is applied to pilot. Force eject 6 on each wound. 5 wounds to destroy, forcing ejection.) All damage applied to pilot.
19: Sensors (Toughness 10, Scale 16). +5 to Attack, 3 wounds to destroy. 456 disabled. Feedback x1/2 (head).
18: Point Defense Shielding (Toughness 5, Scale 17). +10 Defense against missile, +5 vs Energy and Projectile ranged weapons. 3 wounds to destroy, 456 disabled.
17: Missile Array (Toughness 10, Scale 21). See Quick and Dirty.
16: Power Plant (Toughness 10, Scale 17). 5 wounds to destroy, +1 recharge per damage, -1 move per damage, 56 disabled (no move, no recharge)
11-15: Core (Scale 24). 12 wounds to destroy. Feedback x1/3
7-10: Legs (Toughness 12, Scale 21). 6 wounds to destroy, -1 move per damage, 56 disabled. Feedback x1/2
6: Rifle (Toughness 12, Scale 19). See Quick and Dirty.
3: Autofire (Toughness 12, Scale 20). See Quick and Dirty.
1-2, 4-5 L/R: Arms (Toughness 10, Scale 19). Damage to Right Arm penalized attacks with Rifle, left arm Autofire. 4 wounds to destroy, 56 disabled. Feedback x1/2

Giant Mechs have an auto-loader.

Feedback means that damage to that component causes damage to the pilot, via the neural link. This damage is bruise damage (heals quickly), and the damage penalties are already factored into the effectiveness -- only apply these penalties if you leave the mech.

---

Character Stats:
+0 is average human, +1 is above average, +2 is world-class, +3 is world-champion.

Attributes are:
Build []
Coordination []
Smarts []

Heros can have one 3, one 2 and one 1.

Other numbers:
Your Base Scale is equal to 11 plus your Build.

Heros start with 2 second chances per milestone. Heros may purchase an additional second chance by lowering one attribute by 1 point.

Heros start with 10 HP (non-Heros start with 6).

Talents:
Same scale as attributes. The attributes that tend to be used for skills under each talent is listed in brackets.

Talents represent both broad training and natural talent in an area.

Core Combat Talents: Shooting[C], Defense[C], Melee[B and C], Toughness[B], Military[S], Mechanics[S]

The rest:
Sneaky[S and C], Knowledge[S], Charisma[S], Athletics[B and C], Perception[S], Intuition[S]

Heros pick 2 Talents to get a Speciality * in, no more than 1 from the Core Combat list.

Characters start out with level 2 in both Speciality talents, two additional level 2 talents (no more than 1 from Core Combat), and 3 additional level 1 talents.

Skills:
Narrower than Talents. Almost always associated with a single attribute.

Skills are under the same scale as attributes and talents. Also write down the total modifier for the skill (attribute+talent+skill), a number from 0 to 9.

Heros pick 2 Skills to get a Speciality * in that are not covered by their core Talents.

Characters start out with 5 skills at level 1, and 1 skill at level 2.

Example skills: Rifles, Swords, Ion weaponry, Pistols, Missile Weaponry, Mech Defense, PUMA Defense, Melee Defense, Stealth, Security,

In general, if two skills apply to a situation, use only the best skill. If that use is marginal, subtract 1 from your roll modifier.

[TODO list]

Combat:
Each turn you get 1 standard action, 1 move action, 1 system action and 1 reload action

Standard and Move actions may be downgraded to System or Reload actions.
You may burn a Standard action to get a boost to your Move action.

Standard Actions: Attack is pretty standard. :-)

Move Actions: Moving. Some combat units automatically move at a given pace, and use move actions to steer. Burning a move action generally lets you go about 50% faster.

System Actions: Repair components (in humans, recover from shock -- in machines, do patch-work repair jobs).

Reload Actions: Reload a weapon by 1 step. Some units have auto-loaders which, once per turn, can be used as a reload action to reload every weapon 1 step.

[TODO details -- but based off of 4e/3e, shouldn't be that tricky to figure out. The System actions are checks to repair disabled components that are not yet destroyed.]

Advancement:
Adventures are divided into milestones. Achieving each milestone is worth 2 XP. Flubbing at a milestone is worth 1 XP, and a heroic overkill victory is worth 3 XP.

It costs 10 XP to go up a level.

    HP   Second Chances   Heroic Bonus      Skills            Talents      Specialities
1   10         2               0               -                 -            2T  1S
2   10         2              +1         1:0->1 1:1->2          0->1          2T  1S
3   10         3              +1         1:0->1 1:1->2          0->1          2T  1S
4   12         3              +1            2:0->1              1->2          2T  2S 
5   12         3              +2            1:2->3              0->1          2T  2S
6   12         3              +2         1:0->1 1:1->2          1->2          2T  2S
7   15         3              +2            1:2->3              0->1          2T  3S
8   15         3              +3            2:0->1              2->3          2T  3S
9   15         4              +3            1:2->3              1->2          2T  3S
10  21         4              +3         1:0->1 1:1->2          2->3          3T  2S

Heroic Bonus applies to all actions.

Second Chances refresh at each milestone, and the total continues to climb. Characters who purchased an extra second chance at character creation have 1 more than the above table indicates.

Skills and Talents and Specialities are upgraded as noted.

Note that at level 10, you upgrade one of your Skill specialities to a Talent speciality. This may also deplace another Skill speciality -- in which case, you can repurchase it elsewhere.

The deadliness of combat probably needs to be balanced for the right pacing.

The scale mechanics end up adding lots of modifiers to many rolls. That could be crufty.

Starting heroes have about a +7 modifier to their core skills, and get to roll 2d20 and take the highest. Level 10 Heroes will hit +12 modifier, and generally be "broader" than Starting heroes.

Rerolls are common (second chances and specialities).

Movement and Range mechanics need work, as does the "burst" rules (so mech-sized auto-guns can saturate large areas) -- I'm thinking that there should be a 1 m, 10 m and 100 m scale hex maps.

Surviving a hit from a mech-sized autocannon ... will be nearly impossible for non-heroes. Heroes will be killed or wounded.

[snoopy13a]

I've been tweaking some 'scale combat' rules for space combat, and it should work reasonably well for 'mech' and 'personal' scale combat.

The core idea is that larger things have issues hitting smaller things with their main guns, and are forced to use weapons designed to deal with smaller things: and smaller things have issues carrying firepower to damage larger things, so they tend to target the components of these larger things (which are more on their scale).

Toss in a simple D&D esque d20 resolution system, and you have the basis for a game. A nearly playable sketch of such rules follows:

Spoiler

Show

Core Task Resolution: Roll 1d20+modifier. If you roll a 20, roll again and add 20 to the result.

Some characters have specialties. When you roll a speciality skill, you roll 2d20 and take the best roll. If you happen to roll doubles, however, you add together both dice.

Specialities (getting to roll twice) is denoted by a * after the modifier.

Heroes have second chances that they can consume. When you consume a second chance, you reroll a particular roll, and ignore the results of the first roll. A Hero gets to know the results of a roll before consuming a second chance (ie, being hit or not). You can use multiple second chances on the same roll, but it is costly. The first reroll costs 1 second chance, the second 2 additional second chances, the third 3, etc.

Scale: All weapons, characters and equipment have a Scale stat. 10 units of Scale is a 10x increase in size in every dimension.

Scale makes it harder to hit things, easier to be hit, but also boosts the damage you do when you do hit, and makes you take less damage when you are hit.

Some weapons operate offensively on a larger scale. These weapons are designed to attack larger targets, and offensively use that scale.

Scale table:

0   1.0
1   1.25
2   1.6
3   2.0
4   2.5
5   3.2
6   4.0
7   5.0
8   6.4
9   8.0

For Scale 0-9, the above is in 1/10th of meters. A scale 0 object is 10 cm in size.
For Scale 10-19, the above is in meters. A scale 10 object is 1 meter in size.
For Scale 20-29, the above is in 10s of meters. A scale 20 object is 10 meters in size.
For Scale 30-39, the above is in 100s of meters. A scale 30 object is 100 meters in size.
For Scale 40-49, the above is in 1000s of meters (ie, km). A scale 40 object is 1 km in size.

A typical human is Scale 12 or 13, while a child is Scale 10.

Combat:

To-Hit:
Attacker rolls d20+Attack +any excess scale the defender has.
Defender rolls d20+Defense +any excess scale the attacker has.

It is hard to hit things that are much smaller in scale than you are.

If the attack doesn't beat the passive defense of the target (Defense-Scale), the Defender doesn't even use a defense to beat the attack.

Damage:
Attacker rolls d20+Firepower +any excess Scale the attacker has
Defender rolls d20+Toughness +any excess Scale the defender has

Once you have hit, it is hard to damage something that is larger scale than you, and easy to damage things smaller in scale than you.

Defender continues to re-roll until they beat the Attacker's roll. Each failure generates 1 wound.

Heroes get to accumulate the value of the d20s when defending against damage.

Components:
Most devices and characters have components. Humans have limbs and gear, and mechanized equipment has components.

Subsystems exist on a smaller scale, and can be targetted. When directly attacked, subsystems take damage but the "whole" does not, unless the component has the shock component. (ie, shooting the arm off of a human hurts the human, while shooting the gun system of a mech just disables the gun) The shock property has a multiplier, which is how much damage is applied to the rest of the system when it is damaged.

Wounds:
Each wound damages the target as a whole, and also damages a random subsystem if it has any. A given attack should be allocated to a single subsystem randomly, and any "left over" damage halved and applied to yet another subsystem.

Damage to shock components in this step doesn't roll back to the main target, and damage from shock components doesn't roll into another components.

Each Wound generates a -1 penalty to all actions by that target and component. Each target also has things that happen as it takes more damage -- people die or fall unconscious,

Damage side effects are listed like:
56 jams on each wound
means that you roll a d6 for every wound the component takes, and on a 56 your weapon jams.

Units:
Different types of units have different components.

Humans: Arms(2) (scale -6), Legs (scale -4), Head(scale -10), Core(scale -1)
Damage to Arms(1-3,4-6): penalty to anything in that arm. After HP/3 damage, arm becomes crippled. Shock x1/2
Damage to Legs(7-10): penalty to movement. After HP/2 damage, unable to move. Shock x1
Damage to Core(11-19): penalty to all actions.
Damage to Head(20): penalty to all actions. +5 toughness from skull. After HP/3 damage, target is KO'd. Shock x2

Mechanized units: Weapons, Motivators, Sensors, Cockpit, Power Train, Core

Turrent: Sensors, Weapons, Cockpit

Fortress: Typically has subsystems the size of other units, which have subsystems.

Quick and Dirty:

Rifle: Relative Scale -6, +2 Toughness. Attack Scale +0, 10 range, 10 firepower.
Reload 1, very light ammo
Move Action: Aim, +5 accuracy until start of next turn.
4 wounds to destroy, 56 chance of jamming on each wound.

Pistol: Relative Scale -8. Attack Scale +0, 10 range, 5 firepower
Reload 1, very light ammo
Move Action: Aim, +2 accuracy until start of next turn.
3 wounds to destroy, 456 chance of jamming on each wound.

Missile Array: Relative Scale -4. Attack Scale +2, 20 range, 14 firepower, burst 2 (targets 2 adjacent squares, may not target components).
Reload 2, 3 shots
Standard Action: Lock, +5 accuracy until end of next turn or loses LOS.
3 wounds to destroy, 456 chance of exploding on each wound (dealing an auto-hit Firepower attack on the owner of the weapon.

Torpedo: Relative Scale -3. Attack Scale +15, 30 range, 8 firepower.
1 shot.
Standard Action: Lock, +2/+4/+6 accuracy (repeated), until does another action or loses LOS.
2 wounds to destroy, explode 456

Autofire Weapon: Relative Scale -5, +2 Toughness. Attack scale -10, 10 range, 15 firepower, burst 3 (targets 3 adjacent squares, may not target components)
Recharge 0

Ion Cannon: Relative Scale -3. Attack Scale +8, 30 range, 10 firepower
Recharge 3
Move Action: Aim, +2 accuracy until start of next turn.
1 wound to destroy, 3456 chance of exploding.

Ion Pistol: Relative Scale -8. Attack Scale +4, 10 range, 10 firepower
Recharge 5
Move Action: Aim, +2 accuracy until start of next turn.
1 wound to destroy, 3456 chance of exploding.

Ion Sword: Relative Scale -9 (hilt). Attack Scale +0 to +5 (see below). Melee Range, 15 firepower, +5 Accuracy (can be parried)
Recharge 0
Move Action: change attack scale of Ion Sword
3 wounds to destroy, 56 chance of exploding

Ion Dagger: Relative Scale -10 (hilt). Attack Scale +0 to +5 (see below). Melee Range, 8 firepower, +5 Accuracy (can be parried).
Recharge 0
Move Action: change attack scale of Ion Dagger
2 wounds to destroy, 456 chance of exploding

These weapons can be scaled up/down to arm humans or mechs.

Personal Utility Mechanized Armor suit: (PUMA suit)
1 Pilot (neural link)
+1 Scale over user. Adds +10 toughness, +5 movement.
Has all components of user, and damage is passed through, plus:
Sensors: +5 to attack, 5 toughness, -10 Scale, 2 wounds to destroy (56 stops working).
Active Camo: +5 to defense, +5 sneak, 5 toughness, -5 scale. 3 wounds to destroy (56 stops working).
Weapons: Typically 1 Large (Rifle, Sword, Missile, etc), and one Pisol-sized (Pisol, Ion Pistol, Ion Dagger).

Hit Table:
Arms(1-2,3-4)
Weapons(5-6)
Legs(7-10)
Core(11-17)
Camo (18)
Sensors(19)
Head(20)

PUMA's have an auto-loader.

Giant Mech:
Scale 25 (32 m tall)
1 Pilot (neural link)
Toughness: 10
Components and Hit Table:
20: Cockpit (Toughness 15, Scale 15). Damage done is applied to pilot. Force eject 6 on each wound. 5 wounds to destroy, forcing ejection.) All damage applied to pilot.
19: Sensors (Toughness 10, Scale 16). +5 to Attack, 3 wounds to destroy. 456 disabled. Feedback x1/2 (head).
18: Point Defense Shielding (Toughness 5, Scale 17). +10 Defense against missile, +5 vs Energy and Projectile ranged weapons. 3 wounds to destroy, 456 disabled.
17: Missile Array (Toughness 10, Scale 21). See Quick and Dirty.
16: Power Plant (Toughness 10, Scale 17). 5 wounds to destroy, +1 recharge per damage, -1 move per damage, 56 disabled (no move, no recharge)
11-15: Core (Scale 24). 12 wounds to destroy. Feedback x1/3
7-10: Legs (Toughness 12, Scale 21). 6 wounds to destroy, -1 move per damage, 56 disabled. Feedback x1/2
6: Rifle (Toughness 12, Scale 19). See Quick and Dirty.
3: Autofire (Toughness 12, Scale 20). See Quick and Dirty.
1-2, 4-5 L/R: Arms (Toughness 10, Scale 19). Damage to Right Arm penalized attacks with Rifle, left arm Autofire. 4 wounds to destroy, 56 disabled. Feedback x1/2

Giant Mechs have an auto-loader.

Feedback means that damage to that component causes damage to the pilot, via the neural link. This damage is bruise damage (heals quickly), and the damage penalties are already factored into the effectiveness -- only apply these penalties if you leave the mech.

---

Character Stats:
+0 is average human, +1 is above average, +2 is world-class, +3 is world-champion.

Attributes are:
Build []
Coordination []
Smarts []

Heros can have one 3, one 2 and one 1.

Other numbers:
Your Base Scale is equal to 11 plus your Build.

Heros start with 2 second chances per milestone. Heros may purchase an additional second chance by lowering one attribute by 1 point.

Heros start with 10 HP (non-Heros start with 6).

Talents:
Same scale as attributes. The attributes that tend to be used for skills under each talent is listed in brackets.

Talents represent both broad training and natural talent in an area.

Core Combat Talents: Shooting[C], Defense[C], Melee[B and C], Toughness[B], Military[S], Mechanics[S]

The rest:
Sneaky[S and C], Knowledge[S], Charisma[S], Athletics[B and C], Perception[S], Intuition[S]

Heros pick 2 Talents to get a Speciality * in, no more than 1 from the Core Combat list.

Characters start out with level 2 in both Speciality talents, two additional level 2 talents (no more than 1 from Core Combat), and 3 additional level 1 talents.

Skills:
Narrower than Talents. Almost always associated with a single attribute.

Skills are under the same scale as attributes and talents. Also write down the total modifier for the skill (attribute+talent+skill), a number from 0 to 9.

Heros pick 2 Skills to get a Speciality * in that are not covered by their core Talents.

Characters start out with 5 skills at level 1, and 1 skill at level 2.

Example skills: Rifles, Swords, Ion weaponry, Pistols, Missile Weaponry, Mech Defense, PUMA Defense, Melee Defense, Stealth, Security,

In general, if two skills apply to a situation, use only the best skill. If that use is marginal, subtract 1 from your roll modifier.

[TODO list]

Combat:
Each turn you get 1 standard action, 1 move action, 1 system action and 1 reload action

Standard and Move actions may be downgraded to System or Reload actions.
You may burn a Standard action to get a boost to your Move action.

Standard Actions: Attack is pretty standard. :-)

Move Actions: Moving. Some combat units automatically move at a given pace, and use move actions to steer. Burning a move action generally lets you go about 50% faster.

System Actions: Repair components (in humans, recover from shock -- in machines, do patch-work repair jobs).

Reload Actions: Reload a weapon by 1 step. Some units have auto-loaders which, once per turn, can be used as a reload action to reload every weapon 1 step.

[TODO details -- but based off of 4e/3e, shouldn't be that tricky to figure out. The System actions are checks to repair disabled components that are not yet destroyed.]

Advancement:
Adventures are divided into milestones. Achieving each milestone is worth 2 XP. Flubbing at a milestone is worth 1 XP, and a heroic overkill victory is worth 3 XP.

It costs 10 XP to go up a level.

    HP   Second Chances   Heroic Bonus      Skills            Talents      Specialities
1   10         2               0               -                 -            2T  1S
2   10         2              +1         1:0->1 1:1->2          0->1          2T  1S
3   10         3              +1         1:0->1 1:1->2          0->1          2T  1S
4   12         3              +1            2:0->1              1->2          2T  2S 
5   12         3              +2            1:2->3              0->1          2T  2S
6   12         3              +2         1:0->1 1:1->2          1->2          2T  2S
7   15         3              +2            1:2->3              0->1          2T  3S
8   15         3              +3            2:0->1              2->3          2T  3S
9   15         4              +3            1:2->3              1->2          2T  3S
10  21         4              +3         1:0->1 1:1->2          2->3          3T  2S

Heroic Bonus applies to all actions.

Second Chances refresh at each milestone, and the total continues to climb. Characters who purchased an extra second chance at character creation have 1 more than the above table indicates.

Skills and Talents and Specialities are upgraded as noted.

Note that at level 10, you upgrade one of your Skill specialities to a Talent speciality. This may also deplace another Skill speciality -- in which case, you can repurchase it elsewhere.

The deadliness of combat probably needs to be balanced for the right pacing.

The scale mechanics end up adding lots of modifiers to many rolls. That could be crufty.

Starting heroes have about a +7 modifier to their core skills, and get to roll 2d20 and take the highest. Level 10 Heroes will hit +12 modifier, and generally be "broader" than Starting heroes.

Rerolls are common (second chances and specialities).

Movement and Range mechanics need work, as does the "burst" rules (so mech-sized auto-guns can saturate large areas) -- I'm thinking that there should be a 1 m, 10 m and 100 m scale hex maps.

Surviving a hit from a mech-sized autocannon ... will be nearly impossible for non-heroes. Heroes will be killed or wounded.

There's already rules in place for infantry vs. Mech combat. A party of five people would be an infantry platoon down to only five members. How much damage they did would be dependent on their weaponry (are they a rifle, laser, missle, etc platoon). I believe infantry get a bonus hiding in woods (it has been a long, long time since I've played battletech) but recieve no other bonuses.

Mech weapons are so large that they measure damage in infantry killed. A PPC kills 10 men and a large laser would kill 8 (I think, there might be a double damage against infantry rule that I'm forgetting). An autocannon 20 shot would kill 20. Machine guns and Flamers are special. I believe a machine gun blast kills 2D6 (instead of 2) and I can't really remember what flamers do on direct damage against infantry but they can start fires which are bad for infantry.

If your character ejects from a mech then he/she is considered an unarmed (unless they are carrying a rifle) infantry platoon of one. You are basically counting on the enemy behaving in a chivarious way so you can flee off the battlefield.

There are also rules in places for integrating aerospace fighters in Mech combat and in atmospheric flight as well as grounded dropships. With the Battlespace game, one can even integrate orbital bombardment.

Overall, infantry are weak in the battletech universe. The only exception are armored infantry (Elementals or Power Suits) who are more powerful and have armor that can withstand Mech weaponry (to a point). Infantry are usually used for support roles such as being forward observers for artillery, capturing enemy mechwarriors who ejected, scouts, sentries, etc. There are specialized light infantry trained to disable Battlemechs (anti-mech infantry) that climb up on the Mech and plant explosives but they are relatively rare.

[Yakk]

Heh. Open the spoiler.

The OP asked for a Mechwarrior RPG without Classic Battletech or the Mechwarrior RPG.

So I wrote one. Well, most of one. :-)

[blackout]

I have to say, I'm impressed, Yakk. I'll have to run this system by my group, but, sadly, I can't make any promises about using it. It definitely looks interesting, but I'll make certain to go about asking the group to use it.

[Yakk]

Thoughts....

Need to calculate movement.

Move: Base move is equal to your scale (or, 10*scale, if you use the system in the spoiler below) in meters per round. Humans get a bonus equal to their Athletics+Build or Athletics+Coordination, whichever is better.

Full move: Double your base move, cannot do any other actions. Humans get (Base+Athletics+Build+Running) before doubling. May require Athletics+Build+Endurance rolls to maintain over any length of time.

Sprint: Double full move. Cannot be maintained. Lowers your DEF by 5.

This lines up, roughly, with human real-world performance.

Humans are considered slow. Medium units move twice as fast, and fast units 3 times as fast.

PUMA suits triple human movement -- they are fast for their size.
Giant Mechs are considered medium speed.

...

A cleaned up scale system (same mathematics, except now it is easy to use)

Spoiler

Show

Scale: Factor of 10 change in size.
Size: 10 steps between the Scales. Scale 1 Size 10 = Scale 2 Size 0.

Attacking a target 1 scale larger in scale gives you a +10 to hit.
Attacking a target 1 scale smaller than you gives you +10 to damage.

Being attacked by something 1 scale smaller than you gives you a +10 to soak.
Being attacked by something 1 scale larger than you gives you +10 defense.

Ie, the scale table:

                     They are
                Larger     Smaller
You are:
Defending       +10 DEF    +10 SOAK

Attacking       +10 ATK    +10 DAM

Scale:
0 is 10s of cm
1 is meters
2 is 10s of meters
3 is 100s of meters
4 is kms.
5 is 10s of km

Size:
0 is 1.0
1 is 1.3
2 is 1.6
3 is 2.0
4 is 2.5
5 is 3.2
6 is 4.0
7 is 5.0
8 is 6.3
9 is 8.0
10 is 10.0

Humans are Scale 1 Size 1 to 3 (1.3 to 2.0 meters). PUMA suits are Scale 1 Size 2 to 4. Gears are Scale 1 Size 6 to 8. Tanks range over Scale 1 Size 6 to 10 (well, Scale 2 Size 0).

Giant Mechs tend to be Scale 2 Size 1 through 6. A 2.4 Mech is about 25 meters tall.

Land Cruisers are Scale 2 Size 7 through 10.

Behemoths are Scale 3 Size 1 through 6. A 3.6 Behemoth is 400 meters long.

You denote Scale and Size by 2.5 -- Scale 2, Size 5.

---

Your size determines your base attack/defense/damage/soak.

Base Attack: (10-size)
Base Defense: (10-size)
Base Damage: Size
Base Soak: Size

---

That's a simplified system that doesn't require futzing around nearly so much with Scale during the fight.

Targetting something 2 scale sizes off becomes ... well, futile. So you only need to use the +10 modifiers.

A 1."10" tank is ATK+0, DEF+0, DAM+10, SOAK+10.
A 2.0 tank is ATK+10, DEF+10, DAM+0, SOAK+0.

But, because of the scale differences, the modifiers end up being the same against any attacker or defender.

A 15 scale before becomes a 1.5 Scale.Size afterwards.

The base attack/defense/soak/damage numbers include all Size factors -- so you just have to factor in Scale modifiers, which are blocks of +10.

Much better. :-) (I remembered I did something like this for the space variant, but had forgotten the details).


---

This also MASSIVELY simplifies a number of things.

First, by default, all COMPONENTS are 1 scale smaller than you. You then change their size on that scale relative to you.

So a Leg is a +6 size component. +6 size means it has +6 soak and -6 defense compared to the baseline. It is still one scale smaller.

Thus, targeting the components of something a larger scale ... involves no scale mathematics. Everything is calculated for you.

Here is a rewrite of most of the first post using the scale.size tricks:

Spoiler

Show

[d20] Scales of Warmachines

This is a d20 system designed for combat on huge relative scales.

Snipers firing rocket pods at the cockpits of mechs. Mechs climbing on the sides of km long landcruisers. Swarms of small mechs besieging a large one.

Everything in this system has a SCALE and a SIZE. This is denoted SCALE.SIZE (as in 1.2, the scale and size of the average human).

Each increment of 1 SCALE is an increase of 10 in every dimension.

In this system, things have components. Humans have limbs and heads, giant robots have cockpits and power plants. These can be targetted.

Components are targetted as if they where 1 scale smaller than the whole they are a part of.

Basic Attack Rules
An attack on a target has two values -- an ATK value, and a DAM value.

The defense of the target has two values -- a DEF value, and a SOAK value.

First, roll 1d20+ATK vs 1d20+DEF. If the attacker exceeds the defender, the attack hits. Ties always go to the defender.

Second, roll 1d20+DAM vs 1d20+SOAK. Repeat the soak roll as many times as is required to beat the attackers roll.

For every roll failed by the defender, the defender takes 1 wound.

Scale Rules
When you attack something that is a scale larger or smaller in scale then you, things work differently.

Attacking something a scale larger than you is really easy to hit, but hard to do significant damage. The opposite is true for something smaller than you.

You get a +10 bonus to hit when attacking something a scale larger than you, but they get a +10 bonus to soak your damage.

Similarly, you get a +10 bonus to your damage when attacking something a scale smaller than you, but they get a +10 bonus to defend against being hit in the first place.

This is summed up in the following table:

                     They are
                Larger  |  Smaller
You are:                |
Defending       +10 DEF |  +10 SOAK
------------------------+------------------
Attacking       +10 ATK |  +10 DAM

These modifiers are doubled if the target is 2 scales away, and tripled if 3 scales away, etc. Generally, things get pointless fast.

Large units tend to have weapons that are designed to attack smaller scale targets. Small units often attack the components of larger scale units.

When you target a component, it has it's own DEF and SOAK values, and it is considered a scale smaller than what it is attached to.

----

Evaulating damage.

Each chunk of damage that a unit takes also damages a component of that unit. Roll on the component table and apply damage to that component. Any 'blowthrough' is halved (round down) and applied to yet another random component.

If you target a component, the whole does not take any damage. If your compunent has components of it's own, have the damage 'fall down' to the components components. In addition, if the component has a Shock multiplier, damage is done to the unit as a whole.

In both cases, if damage is transfered to a component or back up to the unit, the cycle does not continue -- only transfer damage this way (from unit to component, or via shock from component to unit) once.

Weapons
Rifle
+0 ATK, +10 DAM, x20 Range
Aim: Move, +5 ATK
Reload 1, very light ammo

-4 DEF +8 SOAK, 4 wounds, 56 jam

Pistol:
+0 ATK, +5 DAM, x10 Range
Aim: Move, +2 ATK
Reload 1, very light ammo

-2 DEF +2 SOAK, 3 wounds, 56 jam

Missile Array:
-2 ATK, +16 DAM (Burst 2), x20 Range
Reload 2, 3 shots
Aim: Standard action, +5 ATK

-6 DEF, +6 SOAK, 3 wounds, 456 explode

Torpedo: +1 Scale Weapon
-5 ATK, +8 DAM, x30 Range
1 shot
Aim: +3/6/10 standard action

-7 DEF, +5 SOAK, 2 wounds, 456 explode

Autofire: -1 Scale Weapon
-5 ATK, +15 DAM (Burst 3), x10 Range
Reload 0, very light ammo

-5 DEF, +5 SOAK, 3 wounds to destroy, 456 jams

Ion Cannon: +1 Scale Weapon
+3 ATK, +5 DAM, x30 Range
Aim: +3 move
Recharge 3

-7 DEF, +7 SOAK, 1 wound, 3456 explode

Ion Pistol:
-4 ATK, +14 DAM, x10 Range
Aim: +2 move
Recharge 5

-2 DEF, +2 SOAK, 1 wound, 3456 explode

Ion Sword:
+5 ATK, +15 DAM, Melee Range
Recharge 0
Move action: Move as much as +5 ATK to DAM, or back again.

-1 DEF +1 SOAK, 3 wounds, 56 explode

Ion Dagger:
+5 ATK, +8 DAM, Melee Range
Recharge 0
Move action: Move as much as +5 ATK to DAM, or back again.

+0 DEF +0 SOAK, 2 wounds, 456 explodes


PUMA suit (Personalized Utility Mechanized Armor suit)
1 Pilot (neural link)
+1 size over user. (So a 1.2 human wears a 1.3 PUMA suit)
-1 size ATK, +5 Sensors ATK
-1 size DEF, +5 Camo DEF
+1 size SOAK, +10 armor SOAK
+1 size DAM (assuming weapons are also to scale)

Special: -1 size Stealth, +5 Camo Stealth
Auto-Loader (once per turn, can use a reload action to reload all weapons 1 stage)

Movement: 3 times normal.

Carries one "large" and one "small" weapon typically.

Additional hit locations:
18: Camo, 19: Sensors
3: Left weapon, 6: Right weapon

Sensors: +0 DEF, -5 Tough, 3 wounds (56 fails)
Camo: -5 DEF, +0 Tough, 3 wounds (56 fails)

All damage passes through the suit and is applied to the wearer.

Giant Mech
2.5 Scale.Size (32 m tall)
Wounds: 12
SOAK: 10
ATK: +10 (5 size, 5 sensors)
DEF: +5/10/15 Melee/Point Defense Range/Point Defense Missile
DAM: +5

Special:
Auto-Loader (once per turn, can use a reload action to reload all weapons 1 stage)

20: Cockpit (+0 DEF, +5 SOAK, 5 wounds, Shock 1x, Feedback x2, 56 Eject)
19: Sensors (-1 DEF, +1 SOAK, 3 wounds, 456 disabled)
18: Point Defense (-2 DEF, +2 SOAK, 3 wounds, 456 disabled)
17: Missile Array (see Weapons)
16: Power Plant (-2 DEF, +2 SOAK, 5 wounds, +1 recharge per wound, Shock 1x, 56 disable (no recharge, no move))
11-15: Core (-9 DEF, +9 SOAK, 12 wounds, Feedback x1/2)
7-10: Legs (-6 DEF, +8 SOAK, 6 wounds, -4 move per wound, 56 disable)
6: Rifle (see Weapons)
3: Autofire (see Weapons)
1-2, 4-5: L/R arm (-4 DEF, +4 SOAK, 4 wounds, -1 ATK with weapon per wound, 56 disabled)

---

Character creation is basically unchanged, other than:
Humans vary from 1.1 (tiny tiny person) to 1.4 (huge massive person) in scale.size.

Build 0 players must be size 1.1 or 1.2.
Build 3 players must be size 1.3 or 1.4
Otherwise, you are free to choose either 1.2 or 1.3 as your Scale.Size.

Heroes start with 10 HP, plus twice your Build.
At level 7 and level 10, you add your Build to your HP again.

[blackout]

I've overlooked your system, and run it by my players, and...*dramatic music*I am sorry, my group refuses to play it for reasons unknown to me.

I was hoping to use it, too...

[Yakk]

Heh, it's ok. :-)

It isn't that close to playable -- I mean, Military talent has nothing listed.

I was thinking... and might as well post it:

Military(initiative) -- who goes first. You get a +10 bonus from having surprise.

Military(tactics) -- once per combat, you can burn a standard action on a tactics roll against a 15 target. You get a +1 bonus for every round of combat that has occurred. If you win, you get 2 standard actions. If you lose, you get 0. For every 5 you beat the DC by, you get a +1 to all actions on this turn.

Military(strategy) -- once per combat, you can burn a standard action on a strategy roll against a DC 15 target. If you win, one other player of your choice gets an additional standard action on their next turn. For every 5 you beat the DC by, you may select an additional player. You may not select yourself. A given player can benefit from this ability at most once per combat.

(Between them, that makes having Military Talent and Skills rather tempting, eh?)

I like making systems, even if nobody wants to use it.

[blackout]

No, seriously, I was definitely hoping to use it. By making it, you've saved me the effort of making one myself.