MechaStellar VER10 had a long run and it was a significant departure from VER 5-9 which had the paradigm of you attack with a flat number of shots and your opponent rolls dice to evade.  Instead VER10 set a new paradigm with both the attacker and defender rolling dice to HIT and DEF.  This solved our #1 FAQ of “Why can’t I roll dice to attack?”.  VER11 will continue with that paradigm, reusing a lot of the same rules and thought processes from VER10 while cutting down on the number of things you need to remember on a mech profile and trimming down mental math.  VER11 will have the following major changes.

We will also cover these in depth in their own separate posts.

Removal of Bonus Hits & DEF

MechaStellar VER10 would have you roll your attack dice then apply a modifier, for example 6d10 + 3 HITs, so if you rolled 4 Hits your total would be 7 Hits.  Likewise for Defense.  VER11 is removing these modifiers and it will simply be dice pool vs dice pool, i.e. 6d10 vs 5d10; and whoever rolls best wins.

This had the advantage of being much faster with less mental math.  It also becomes more exciting because the variance on attacks or defense is much, much higher.  Sometimes you’ll have 6-10 hits, othertimes you might have one or none.  Likewise, this is also the biggest disadvantage.

That said, MechaStellar VER11 is significantly less lethal than previous versions.  And Pilot Skills will let you either mitigate that variance or multiply it, leading to some dramatic moments on the tabletop.

Mech Performance has also been flattened from 1-10 to 1-3 to represent three different eras. It’s now significantly easier to field your favorite units like the 08th MS Team even against superior models from Char’s Counterattack and still hold your own or reenact you favorite scenes like Unicorn’s Torrington base or Kondoh’s Revival of Zeon.

Rest assured, that unit roles like Sniper, Battler, etc. which provided bonus Hits or Defense before will still improve your unit.  Likewise, elite pilot bonuses like Barrage / Bullseye etc. have been folded into the Weapon trigger system, as well as passive pilot bonuses.

Weapon Triggers

The biggest change to VER11 is the inclusion of Weapon Triggers and the removal of Rapid Fire.  While working on small size units you would see in Dunbine, Votoms, or Code Geass, our previous paradigm of low damage but massive +HIT bonuses was not working out.  We were looking for alternate ways to make machine gun types weapons effective, without the tidal wave of hits they were causing.

This eventually led to the development of the “Barrage Trait” for machine gun type weapons that gave you a lot of extra dakka on your rolls while preventing weapons from going over the 10d10 attack dice cap.  Barrage was instantly a huge hit at the playtester tables, and eventually spawned the question of “should other weapons have Trait’s too?”

To do so, Rapid Fire, one of the last legacy items from our 40k roots was eliminated and replaced with Battle Field roles like Barrage Bullseye, Siege, AOE, etc.  Which were all big successes.  Eventually we decided that “Rolling a 10 = CRIT” should be removed and instead replaced with the weapon trait.  For example Barrage 10+, Siege 10+, Bullseye 10+.  Then for the sake of weapon balance the “crit numbers” now called “Trigger numbers” would change to be Barrage 8+ or Bullseye 9+ etc.

Weapon Triggers were the longest development items in the 4 months of VER11 dev time (April through July).  There will be multiple Design Goals posts featuring weapon triggers, how we prototyped them, the mechanical dead ends and the final products.  Since that will likely be a weeks worth of posts, those will come at the of the VER11 Design Goals series.

Here are some sample Triggers. Additionally, the number of saves you roll is no longer equal to the number of unblocked hits.  Instead it’s based on the number of Triggers rolled, making the game significantly less lethal when you cannot avoid a hit.

• Critical weapons still Crit (2 Hits instead of 1).
• Barrage weapons roll lots of dakka dice without needing to be in Rapid Fire range.
• Bullseye weapons can target any unit and gain Crits vs targets without cover.
  • Elites no longer ignore the targeting rules
• Siege weapons blow up cover and generate 2 Saves per Trigger.
  • See more on Saves below
• Pierce weapons improve their Save i.e. Armor Penetration for each Trigger.
• Counter weapons are the only weapon that can counterattack by default.
• There are also Combination Triggers that combine 2 of the above Triggers.

Saves

Armor Saves are no longer the only Save in the game.   Now each weapon has a Save assigned to it, and all weapons can force a Save every time you roll a Trigger.  Since Saves are now tied to Triggers instead of Unblocked Hits, only lucky rolls are lethal.

• Armor Penetration (AP) = Standard Pass the Save or take 1000 DMG
• Stun Save (ST) = They remove actions or deal 500 DMG
• Push / Pull (PP) = These Move the target or deal 500 DMG.
• Break Saves (BR) = This weakens the targets Shield / Armor or deals 500 DMG.
• Mobility Saves (MB) = The target loses a Move action or takes 500 DMG.

Morale

Momentum have been renamed to Morale Points.  You now gain Morale by making a Rally save at the start of your turn or from Control Points you captured at the end of the round.  Morale Point gains are more rare but Pilot Skills are now cheaper.

Pilot Skills & Elite Units

Pilot Skills have been revamped, with Flash and Iron Wall having clear identities.  Many Skills are now cheaper, while Valor is now integrated into the Finisher system.  Boost / Power / Havoc are now tied into skill usage for Flash / Valor / Zeal. 

Elite Units now have built in passives like improved TN to HIT, DEF or Morale.  Captains play just like regular pilots while Captains orders and Pilot Traits are now upgrade options.

MechaStellar VER11 Design Goals Schedule

1. VER11 Core Mechanic
   1. Removal of bonus HITs and DEF
   2. Dice pool warfare
   3. How Mech roles & Pilots now provide bonuses
2. Elite Units
   1. Passive bonuses from Elite Units instead of “remember this trait” making it easier to run a SRW game
   2. Traits and Captain’s orders moving to upgrade options
3. Pilot Skills
   1. Revamped and cheaper pilot skills
   2. Boost / Power / Havoc and the Finisher Phase
   3. Multiple posts on the evolution of pilot skills
4. Morale
   1. Changing the pace of Momentum regeneration
   2. Taking the 3 separate momentum generation systems and unifying them
   3. Adjusting roles and mech stats to play into Momentum generation and CP captures
   4. Additional actions
5. Weapons and the genesis of Triggers
   1. Multiple posts covering different triggers and their evolutions
6. Expanding Saving Throws beyond Armor Saves
   1. Adjusting lethality of the game

The desired end state for MechaStellar VER11 is to make this version the most fun but also the easier version to teach to you and your friends. As you’re reading through the design goals posts, if you see an opportunity to make the game more fun, simpler or easier to teach, please don’t hesitate to comment and let us know. Thank you all for your support and loyalty over the years.