In Mechastellar I want it to be fast and easy to design your own suit.  The ruleset can be used for Campaigns / RPGs or skirmish type tabletop Wargaming.  For a Campaign it’s ideal to make enemy creation easy on the GM, the same can be said for Wargaming when developing your forces.  Everyone suit with the same basic rules; then we customize them with their Combat Roles and Suit Types and then weaponry and equipment.  Below you’ll find the basic rules.

Mecha

A mech has five major components.  Frame, Performance, Pilot, Weaponry & Equipment.

• Frame level determines Hull Points (HP), Equipment (EQ), Output (Actions) and Armor Save (ARM)
  • Hull Points (HP) – 200 x your Frame Level
    • Level 1 Suit has 200 HP, Level 3 has 600 HP
    • Indomitable type frames have +300 HP
  • Equipment (EQ) – 1 bonus piece of equipment per level.  Base 4 Slots.
    • Level 1 suit has 5 slots for equipment
    • Level 3 suits has 7 slots of equipment
    • A Mobile Suit can take an extra piece of equipment for +2 Weight (WT)
      • WT = -1 Move and Evade
    • Heavy Arms type frames have +3 to EQ
  • Output (AP) – You have 2 Action Point per level to fire Weapons
    • Level 1 suit has 2 Action Point per turn, a Level 3 suit has 6 AP
    • Note: Some weapons require multiple Action Points
    • Note: Spend extra AP for +1” Move on your turn
    • Assault type frames have +3 AP
  • Armor Save (ARM Sv)
    • Your Armor Save starts at 8+ and goes down by 1 each Frame Level
    • Level 1 – 7+, Level 2 – 6+, Level 3 – 5+, Level 4 – 4+, Level 5 – 3+ Save
    • Roll this number or better on a d8 to negate damage each time you’re hit
      • Penetrating weapons modify armor. A PEN 2 takes your 3+ to a 5+
  • Sensors – 5 + Frame Level
    • Scouting & Ambushing units cannot setup w/in your Sensors range
• Performance level determines Attack & Mobility
  • Attack (R.ATK & C.ATK)
    • Attack is split between Ranged Attack and Close Attack
    • Attack bonus is equal to your Performance plus bonuses.
      • Add this number to your d20 to see if you hit
        • D20 + ATK >= EVADE in order to hit!
      • M.ATK is for any melee attack OR a Ranged weapon used to attack a charging unit
        • e.g. Using a Machine gun burst right before the enemy charges
  • Mobility (EVADE & Mv)
    • • EVADE is equal to 10 + Performance + bonuses.
      • Movement (Mv) is equal to 3 + your Performance plus bonuses.
  • Combat Role – Choose a Role to boost your Performance
    • Gunner – +5 Ranged Attack (R.ATK), +5 Sensors, +1 AP
    • Battler – +5 Melee Attack (M.ATK) +4 MOVE
    • Hi-Mobility – +5 to Movement and +3 Evade
    • Versatile – +3 to RATK, M.ATK, +3 Move

Nothing is complete without an Example.  For this one we’ll use an iconic Mecha from the world’s most popular Real Robots show.

Zaku II

Frame LVL 1

HP 200  EQ 4  Output: 1 AP  ARM Save: 7+  Sensors:  6″

Performance LVL 2  –  Versatile and WT 2

Ranged Attack +5  Melee Attack +5  EVADE 14 (15 +1 -2)  Move 7″ (5 +1 +3 -2)

Pretty quick right?  Next post we’ll talk weapons and equipment.