Category: Mecha RPG

Battlefield Report: Assault the Hidden Base

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NOTE: I took a break from blogging for a bit as my duties at work increased.  These drafts are from the VER 2 rule set, we’ve since had many playtests and made it to VER 5 which is a very different game.  We’ll have more to post in the future.

This past weekend we busted out some of favorite terrain to give this scenario another try.  It involves one force dropping into a forest to assault a hidden mountain base replete with anti-aircraft guns.  It also gave us a chance to continue testing Shield rules and see if we wanted to adjust things.  Here’s the Battle Report with a round by round summary.

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MechaStellar: Pilot Skill – Shooting and Evade

 

Gundam ZeongWhen it comes to designing a Mech in MechaStellar there are three pillars to build off of.  Frame Level, Performance Level, and Pilot Level.  We use these three categories to build just about any suit.  We have grunt suits with ace pilots (Low Frame, High Pilot), Prototype Units with inexperienced pilots (High Frame, Low Pilot) and all-rounders like my favorite the GM Custom (Mid Frame, Mid Performance, and Mid-High Pilot Level).

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MechaStellar: Playtest Report – 0083 Space Skirmish

Gelgoog Marine Cima

One very nice benefit to the stay at home order is that we’ve had a lot more time around the house to take care of chores, cook some really healthy meals and work on some hobbies.  Following some successful Zeta tests where we were able to try out a new Skill system that was a bit more engaging giving player’s more agency we decided to do another round of testing this time using some newly minted 0083 suits.

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Mechastellar: Deciding when to Twin-Link

Guncannon

In today’s post I’d like to talk about choosing equipment for your Mech.  Right now, my wife and I are watching through 0083 A Stardust Memory (Mayfly of Space).  For me it’s a rewatch after about 10 years, for her it’s the first time so it’s a new experience for the both of us.

When I’m designing Mobile Suits I usually try to wait until I watch the series they are in again.  In the case of MSV-R type suits, I don’t want to work on them unless I’ve recently read the sidestory they’re in or played in a game that does them justice.  There are many version of Gelgoog available to choose from, and now that we’ve entered space in the show it’s given me a chance to start designing the Gelgoog Marines.

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MechaStellar: Playtest Report – Zeta

Zeta Test Units 1
1/400 Scale Gundam Suits – Easy to find and make for great War Gaming

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to playtest a large number of games and game mechanic redesigns.  One large benefit of social distancing and the California stay at home order means we have a lot of time for indoor hobbies.  The pictures above and below show some the units we were using in various tests.

Zeta Test Units 2
I have a few 1/1200 Gundam battleships from our trip to Japan 2018.  Amazingly we got them for under $5 each.  They’re old kits that require glue to assemble but make for fun set pieces. 

This marks the third time we were playtesting Zeta suits and its a refreshing change of pace from the One Year War (OYW) suits that are far less mobile.  It also means we have to revise our tactics because our units are sturdier with a plethora of Gundarium alloy and far more mobile, especially transforming suits.

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Playtest Report – Jaburo Drop

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Playtest Report

<Meant to post this one two weeks ago>

We haven’t played a large game in a while so we broke out some forest and aquatic terrain and decided to try reenacting the Jaburo Drop from 0079.  We did the scenario three times, each time increasing the size of the army to see how well it would scale; it also gave us a chance to try some of the very minor rules tweaks we were discussing.  The scenario would be a pseudo two-mission campaign with the twist being the second mission (underground) kicks off while the first mission (top side) is ongoing.  The sooner the 1st mission is completed the sooner reinforcements can arrive.

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