Mecha rpg : Apocalypse frame vs beam saber (vs lancer (vs mekton Z) ) ?
Mecha rpg : Apocalypse frame vs beam saber (vs lancer (vs mekton Z) ) ?
Hi Folks, I took itch Games for Gaza bundle. Among the games in the bundle, I've seen 2 mecha games, Apocalypse frame and Beam saber, I believe the first one is a PTBA and the second a FITD, I have no opinon on these "system family", it's vague enough that it can lead to a good or bad game.
I've been considering running a mecha game, for a while. Last time I played a mecha campaign it was a Mekton Z (at the time when code geass was the popular anime). I've even downloaded the free version of lancer, but only had a quick look (and the fact that atribute have weird 2-3 letter name like LL gave me the impression it's a complicated game). Now, I have a few games on my "pdf library" and need to choose one to read in details. These last years I focused mostly on one-shot/mini campaign (10-20 sessions once every 2 weeks)
I am not really sure which direction to take. I am too old to spend a whole session on a fight, and traditionally, I am more a Mystery/investigation GM. Mecha wise, I like how Macross feature the duality between artists and fighter offering two ambiances in one, while I love how Gundam isn't just good versus evil (and then I really enjoyed Geass, but it's not really a mecha anime). RPG wise, on the sci-fi games I GMed a lot of fading suns, and some Eclipse phase (the example of a game with a great setting but a bad system)
i haven't checked in details the setting of the 3 games from my thread, but it seems they're semi setting agnostic. I might re-use some element from Eclipse phase and focus on the solar system rather than a whole galaxy.
Any opinion on these system/settings and which one I should choose (beside reading 3 times a 300 pages manual to decide ?)
Lancer is great. It is complicated, not as complicated as battletech though. Which to me is great for getting new players in.
The best way I've found to teach people in that system is to create a new character in their character sheet/compendium website, comp/con. And then have a GM to run the game and help with concepts. License Level 0 (starting level) is very restrained. The next level (LL1) opens up interesting opportunities. And then LL 2 is where your options become a bit opportunity heavy.
The official discord is active and there are several other side discords that are active. I'm currently both playing and GMing. There is a reprint of their physical book coming out next year.
As for the lore, there are 4 manufacturers. The post office, anime, luxury cars, and cthulhu mechs.
With the online tools it's free for players, GM pays for background information and npc stats. There are foundry and roll 20 that can run this for online play.
Combat is fundamentally an easy concept. D20 to see if you hit and D6's for damage. Although if you have 5 players you can easily spend a session on just one combat, which from what you said is a downside.
I've only played Lancer, it's very much d&d with mechs: you customise your equipment, roll d20s, and have tactical combat on a grid. Great fun, but not everyone wants combat to be the main focus. Also the stats aren't that complex, simpler than d&d!
I've not played the others, but in my experience FitD has good mechanics but isn't all about combat and you won't be rolling dice all night, and PbtA is a very freeform narrative game where you occasionally roll a die. Probably best choose based on what sort of game you and your table are looking for before you get into settings and rules!
I’ve only played Lancer, it’s very much d&d with mechs: you customise your equipment, roll d20s, and have tactical combat on a grid
I am not really sure whetherD&D& with mec is supposed to tell the game is good, or bad ? I don't like D&D in general for too much focus on combat, ignoring the rest, and as someone who grew up with Vampire and Shadowrun, I am no fan of single dices system especially on the crunchy side (I like to call shadowrun a diesel engine, it's heavy to start with, but once you're started it runs smoothly)
Good and bad are pretty subjective based on what you like. If you don't like d&d because it's too combat-focused then you probably won't like Lancer for the same reason, that doesn't make it bad but it's probably not for you.
Personally, I love Mekton Z. It shares a lot of mechanics with old school cyberpunk if you ever played that, and has an awesome and expansive system for building an entirely custom mecha. I still use it with a ton of homebrew conversion rules for my World of Darkness campaign (why are Mecha in my WoD game? Don't ask, it's complicated.) It's got a lot of the same intricate style and flare as cyberpunk 2020 and it's chrome books, so if you're into that, highly recommended.
MechWarrior: Destiny
BattleTech is originally a tabletop game, but MW: Destiny is their latest PRG ruleset and is designed to play like a narrative driven game like FATE system. No need for maps, minis, or anthing like that. The rules can also be blended with the various systems, Classic BattleTech tabletop, AlphaStike quick miniatures rules, and the various other MechWarrior RPG editions, to find a balance you & your players are looking for.
More importantly, the BattleTech universe has decades of lore development with hundreds of sourcebooks and novels spanning many, many, many different major eras of the universe.
One of the genius things the original authors did was write in many different mysteries into the lore. Many of those have been answered over the years of development, but some still remain and if you're players are not familiar with the universe, you can just utilize any of them as the center of a campaign.
And of course it has Giant Stompy Robots.
Off the top of my head I'd think a campaign where your players are MechJocks/Mercenaries for an Interstellar Expeditions team trying to track down the origins of the Minnesota Tribe in the deep Periphery would a good possibility.
The game also has ties art-wise back to the Macross/Robotech transformable Valkyries. They literally exist in BattleTech as the Phoenix Hawk, Wasp, & Stinger Land-Air-Mechs. They're not popular in universe, and generally poor units for tabletop, but there's nothing really holding them back in the MW: Destiny rules and I could see the flexibility they offer would make sense for an Interstellar Expeditions team.
I haven't played any of these but in terms of prominence of online mentions they go Lancer > Beam Saber > everything else in my experience