And just like that, I realized Mecha really are a wondrous and terrifying reality

I recall twenty+ years ago while watching Gundam or Armored Trooper Votoms having a discussion with people who all generally seemed to agree that while mecha were cool, the reality was that no one would ever find a way to make humanoid war machines practical.

While I think it's still reasonable to say that a aerodynamic transforming mecha jet in space makes less sense when it has a pilot vs. being autonomous, this video below has now convinced me that mecha are not only in the future, but likely:



I mean....holy cow. Now imagine that guy with a seriously reinforced titanium carbon frame and thirty feet tall. Consider me.....fascinated and terrified all at once! If this sort of robotic engineering gets cheap and efficient, I predict a battlefield full of terrifying mecha killbots in twenty years or less.

Savage Worlds XII: Aegis Mobile Cores

Next up: Even More Mobile Cores, this time used by Aegis Division:

The Aegis Division employs "stealth armor suits" for use in the field and to combat threats such as the Yanoh Sutah and the Cleaner agents. These suits stand about 2.2 meters tall, and are designed for stealth:

Aegis-Division Stealth Suits (MCX772)
Chassis: Light
Size 1, Armor +8, Mods 5 (0 free), Pace 8
Mods:
Sensor Suite
Stealth System
One Weapon Mount: either a medium MG or light railgun, or medium laser

Aegis Division Stealth Units in Action

Aegis units in the field who need more firepower utilise the Threat Resolution Units instead. This is the same basic chassis as the stealth suit, but with the immense stealth pack removed to make room for more augmentation and armor as well as a survival-minded trauma system designed to keep the agent fighting even after injury. The extra armor and strength augmentation makes these suits stand out a bit at roughly  2.7 meters tall.

Aegis-Division Threat Resolution Units (MCX772A)
Chassis: Light
Size 1, Armor +10, Mods 5 (0 free), Pace 8
Mods:
Sensor Suite
Strength X1
Armor X1
Trauma System
One Weapon Mount: either a medium MG or light railgun, or medium laser

Aegis-Division Threat Resolution Units backed up by a modified heavy military unit

Savage Worlds X: Mobile Cores

Next up: mech time! The mech below was built using the Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion Mech system.

Gryphon Class MCHE0321

Mobile Cores

The backbone of the Federated Commonwealth's exploratory marines is the Mobile Core unit, a rough and tumble exosuit designed to handle almost any hostile environment from the depths of space to searing hot worlds. Mobile Cores are built to handle a range of weapons and extensions, tend to stand about 6-9 meters in height, and are also sold in stripped-down civilian versions which are used for mining, research and hauling.

A typical 9.5 meter tall Mobile Core exploratory marine unit looks like this:

Gryphon Class MCHE0321 - Mobile Core Heavy Exploratory Unit
Chassis: Heavy
Size 3, Armor +12, Mods 12 (0 free), Pace 4
Mods:
Strength X3
Flight Pack
Magnetic Pads
Propulsion Jets
Self-Sealing
Targeting System
Two Weapon Mounts-Choose two of the following: Heavy Missile, Heavy Railgun, Minigun, heavy laser

BRP Mecha - First Look

In responding to a question about it at rpg.net I realized I ought to put my answer on the blog for anyone interested in this PDF:

I bought the PDF of BRP Mecha yesterday, plowed through a good chunk of it last night. So far it's a good read, and has a decent set of build mechanics for making mecha of the "super" and mundane variety (Voltron vs. Gundam, essentially). It's got a short campaign setting and scenario in the back. The core conceit of the mecha rules is a matter of taking the BRP rules and scaling them up to "Mecha scale" which is a 10:1 vs. normal BRP scale in terms of translation (so a lot like I recall Mekton Zeta handling this).

The game has a lot of cool build options for mecha, but does not work on a point-buy system, favoring a "setting driven" design approach instead: build to need, essentially. This is about on par with the BRP philosophy. It would have been nice if a point buy option had been included for those GMs who wanted to run a campaign where players have direction and control on building their mecha, but the design goal of a pointless design mechanic was to discourage an obsession with balancing everything (which runs counter to the thematics of most mecha anime, I suppose).

The character updates are a bit leaner, but it adds new skills, a discussion of the different poweer categories as they relate to the mecha genre (psionics, mutations, super powers, magic), rules on motivations, and fate points (which function more like hero points in other games as get-out-of-jail" points you spend to avoid distaster and do cool stuff). The fate points add a cinematic flair and help avoid the "brutal, senseless death" element BRP can be known for.

Artwise it's alright, with a decent cover and lots of anime-flavored black and white interior art. About the same level as old Mekton books, I suppose. Overall editing appears to be good so far...I'm no pedant, but I also haven't encountered any measure of unusual typos or evident errata. The book's design is nice looking, although black-bordered side bars might be printer ink intensive for those who print out copies of their PDFs.

Throughout the design of this book I felt there was more than a little Mekton influence showing. It reminds me of what I might imagine Mekton would look like had it been designed for BRP. That's not a negative.

The book did lack content for character-specific features (new human equipment, for example) although it has detailed vehicle rules. It lacks specific material on introducing cyberpunk or transhumanist material into games, which often go hand-in-hand with mecha anime these days, so you'll have to lean on powers in BRP (with advice from this tome) to construct such content.

One omission: while it has a mecha sheet in the book it's missing a custom BRP character sheet. With the additional skills and fate point rules a customized PC sheet would have been handy.

For me, this is the sort of BRP sourcebook I've been really hoping would come along, with a good SF focus, and a shift away from fantasy and horror, which has dominated BRP resources so far. I hope it does well and motivates Alephtar to publish more cool SF-related BRP material in the future. I am enjoying it enough that I am already planning a campaign.

PDF Version Here (priced at $12.90, and worth it imo)

Print Version coming soon

BRP Mecha!

Even as I was pondering the recent Mekton Kickstarter and whether or not I should risk putting money into a project that's already technically a decade or more late by some standards, out of the blue pops up Alephtar Games' BRP Mecha. Wow....this is exactly the sort of supplement for BRP I've been waiting for. The BRP monographs, 3PP and Chaosium books have all been very heavy on the fantasy and horror genres, and we haven't gotten enough hard hitting sci fi, so I really hope this sells well and motivates Alephtar and others to start putting out more SF-themed BRP books.

Anyway, check it out in PDF here or pre-order a physical copy here. I'll be doing both!

Botcon: A look down the rabbit hole for Camazotz

Weird! Apparently Botcon is a real thing, and there really are some hardcore, dedicated fan collectors out there. I mean, I figured this existed....but its funny to realize that there's yet another branch of geekdom (that I once, loooong ago had a connection to) which still exists. This must be what it's like when I talk to some guy at work or in a decidedly non-geek context and mention I am into RPGs. "Like, D&D? Wow, I played that back in high school. People still play that?"

That conversation happened in February, while moving. We donated a fish tank (with fish) to our neighbors. The husband came over to our almost completely vacated apartment and said, "You must have played D&D in high school."

Rather than get into the "Well I still do" component with someone I barely knew, I simply said, "Yeah, my wife and I both were into it. How did you know?"

Turns out he'd spotted a D10 next to the fish tank that had escaped our notice. "I played that game to death in High School. Absolutely loved it. Good times." and that was that.

Anyhoo.....

So when I was about twelve the Transformers arrived on the scene. I meticulously collected all Transformers, and even got a few imports from WorldCon and WesterCon (and other cons, when I attended). Hasbro/Takara had a release schedule that produced a specific set of figures annually, likely in stages (I forget now) over the year, no doubt with an emphasis on holiday sales. I was very efficient at this, spending all of my allowance money on Transformers. And RPGs. And books. I recall that by "season three" I had all of them but two. All Of Them. Thousands of dollars' worth of figures.

Those of you who might have seen my fanzines from those Middle and High School days may recall that Transformers and giant mecha seemed to crop up a lot thematically. I even published a little-known RPG called Mechanical Men that sold mostly at conventions I attended. Despite my love of the genre, I didn't advertise it much, however. It felt like one of those nasty little hobbies back in the 80's that you weren't supposed to be into, unless you were maybe seven years old. That might shock some kids today (and by kids I mean anyone under the age of 24), in an era when toys are specifically marketed at an older audience with money, or at kids who have parents pining for the nostalgic days of their youth.

So by the time I turned seventeen in 1988 I was still collecting Transformers but was also torn by other interests and a rapidly developing fascination for the opposite sex that it started to fall by the wayside. I think by the time I headed off to college they had sort of run the toy line into the ground, releasing non-transformable action figures that were cool looking but sort of defeated the whole point of the toy line.

In the end, many childhood hobbies I had went to the wayside, my fanzine died and I repurposed my existence to being a good student. My sole release for entertainment for years would boil down to only three elements: women, RPGs and movies (a majority of my college reading was study-related). I didn't even own a TV, and my aging PC was having trouble running stuff like Eye of the Beholder. I actually played no computer games in college, which ultimately was a Very Good Thing. I can't even imagine how students today pull it off (being poor may be the only saving grace, I imagine). (That's a whole different issue, too; my fascination for computer games today is very much a modern thing; my opinion of 99% of the computer/video game market prior to 1996 was very, very low).

So anyway, stumbling across this network of existing modern Transformers fans and collectors just sort of reminded me of that time when I at last shelved the whole collector-of-toy-robots things as I moved out of house and home and off to college. It was a worthy venture back in the day, as my desire to be a good student, develop a social life and meet women far outweighed my desire to collect toys. I have to say, I am glad that RPGs didn't go to the wayside. For whatever reason, when I started playing at age 10 I knew that this was one thing, one hobby that would mature and grow with me as I went along. It could carry its own prestige and not look scary to the stiffs and the mundanes, provided I was careful not to get carried away with it (or at least masquerade as someone who wasn't deeply obsessed about RPGs).

Anyway, I couldn't even imagine getting back into the giant-robot-toy-collection hobby, but its nice to see that others have kept it alive and well. It does make me wonder what life would have been like if I'd decided to keep the collection (and not sell it to a woman in Tucson who ran a used goods shop--she gave me a nice deal for the time, but I bet she made a killing on collectible reasales) and continue to pursue the hobby. Probably very expensive, and probably not the easiest thing to bring a date home to. Just sayin'. I don't care how much the movies tried to Sex it All Up.

And just between you and me, lapsed and former Transformers fans still have it good: we've got the movies (which I find perfectly enjoyable; I am under no illusions that we're dealing with sophisticated literature in the genre of giant transformable robots here) and the even better video game (Transformers: War for Cybertron, which was a real blast to play).