Gundams and a new take on mecha in PbP

[Malkavian Grin]

Well, I have my hands on, and am currently trying to read through: Mekton Zeta (my base pick for system), Lancer, Armour Astir Advent, & Mobile Frame Zero. *grabs the snorkel* Wish me luck folks. I may not resurface until Monday...

While I read, does anyone have any desire for a specific setting or otherwise input on the setting? I'm pretty partial to the Universal Century timeline (from Mobile Suit Gundam and on) and can use various known characters within it as NPCs. I'm feeling pretty set on Gundams of some kind, but I could be persuaded to some other setting I suppose. At a baseline, I want the action to happen firmly within our solar system; anything beyond the Kuiper Belt will be considered the "edge" of space that no one goes past because we don't have any outposts that far. This gives us plenty of familiar celestial bodies to work from, but still has realistic constraints on travel and time.

[Phntm888]

As a somewhat late chime-in on this one, I can say that I have played Lancer, and it could work very well for this kind of game. The mech customization allows for a lot of freedom of design, and non-mech scenarios have a more narrative focus. Plus, the Talents allow you to further shape how your mech plays in combat based on the pilot's abilities. It also has Comp/Con, which is a very good, free character builder to help with building pilots and mechs, which makes it easier on new players.

However, Lancer does have its drawbacks for PbP. The first is that the combat system is Turn-based, and the players alternate with the NPCs. The players decide who acts in what initiative spot collectively, as a group. It requires the players to be really tuned in during combat - a Discord server would be mandatory to alert players when its their turn and to actively decide who should go when. Otherwise, the game might bog down for days while everyone discusses who should go. The second is that mech combat is incredibly tactical, so you really need to make sure you have good, detailed maps for combat.

I haven't played any of the other options considered, but my involvement would likely be dependent on the ease with which I could acquire the rules, or your willingness to repost the rules. I don't own any of the others.

[Malkavian Grin]

@Phntm888 Thank you for the insight on Lancer!

Maps I can handle. I really like the flexibility of aggie.io and think it'd work well; I like that players can move themselves because that's less admin for me. And I can likely find plenty of graphics to go along with that. The tactical part of combat is what feels like it'd work poorly for PbP. It's the rare game where everyone stays active longer than the first-half of the initial scene...

As you've seen from my Strange-Shots forum, I've no issue reposting rules for people so they can play along and understand what's happening. I'd prefer not to have to do that, but I will when necessary.

So, both Lancer and Mekton Zeta have great granularity for mechs, with the flexibility for RP scenes in between / during combat. I looked and Mobile Frame Zero and it's not what I want for this specific game; it's far too focused on the wargame aspect from what I read, though it is very well put together. Armour Astir Advent feels almost too rules-lite for what I'm looking for (and again, I don't have the most experience with Powered by the Apocalypse games to pull them off excellently).

My idea is that most combats would be limited to a single PC vs. my NPCs, which would be reasonable to handle in Lancer. It's the combats where multiple people come together that worries me; Discord would be absolutely required for coordination.

[Phntm888]

A single PC versus NPCs would help alleviate Laner's Initiative problem, allowing each PC's combat to advance at that PC's pace. The one time I tried it in PbP, the game ended up breaking off in the "Learn the Combat System" phase because people stopped responding. If you did a few solo combats with each person to figure out their post speed and if they were actually committed to the game before bringing multiple together, you could get a reasonable idea of how difficult the multiple person combats would be to run ahead of time.

[Malkavian Grin]

57 minutes ago, Phntm888 said:

A single PC versus NPCs would help alleviate Laner's Initiative problem, allowing each PC's combat to advance at that PC's pace. The one time I tried it in PbP, the game ended up breaking off in the "Learn the Combat System" phase because people stopped responding. If you did a few solo combats with each person to figure out their post speed and if they were actually committed to the game before bringing multiple together, you could get a reasonable idea of how difficult the multiple person combats would be to run ahead of time.

Wow that's a harsh drop-off!

The intent with solo threads is more to emulate how a show like Gundam Wing advanced its plot; often each pilot had separate missions/goals from one another. This usually meant fighting solo (which wasn't a problem considering how powerful Gundams were supposed to be). The entire game could potentially be comprised of multiple solo threads for the whole thing, if that's how the missions play out! (I doubt they'd all be that way)

[Phntm888]

Eh, it was on Paizo's forums. Non-Pathfinder games don't tend to make it very long there, especially when other posters aren't being proactive.

Solo threads to advance the overall meta-plot/each individual character's plot is a good idea. I meant that you could do some solo combats in addition to that to get a feel for everyone's post speed so that when you do have multi-PC combats, you know roughly how fast everyone will post.

[MrBelpit]

Any chance this project is still in the works? Very interested in Zeta-era UC, but any time period in UC works fine.

 

Always wanted to do a rule-based Gundam game in a play-by-post format, but every community I've ever been in has been allergic to introducing even the lightest guidelines or anything with numbers.

[Malkavian Grin]

3 hours ago, MrBelpit said:

Any chance this project is still in the works? Very interested in Zeta-era UC, but any time period in UC works fine.

 

Always wanted to do a rule-based Gundam game in a play-by-post format, but every community I've ever been in has been allergic to introducing even the lightest guidelines or anything with numbers.

Yes definitely still in the works but it's going to be awhile before I'm confident with both rules and setting. I also just started a New job so i need to settle into that as well.

[Anthr4xus]

It's light on the focus of the mech specifically, but it is technically a mech-focused rpg so I thought I would mention: Pride & Extereme Prejudice!

It is a gshowett one-pager, a really concentrates on the relationships of the sister pilots, but a mech fight almost always breaks out in there somewhere.

[Malkavian Grin]

15 minutes ago, Anthr4xus said:

It's light on the focus of the mech specifically, but it is technically a mech-focused rpg so I thought I would mention: Pride & Extereme Prejudice!

It is a gshowett one-pager, a really concentrates on the relationships of the sister pilots, but a mech fight almost always breaks out in there somewhere.

Interesting. I'll give this a look when i have a chance, thank you!

I didn't mind rules lite stuff at all. In fact I'm looking to run some games using 24XX (set in the 2400 setting) which are all 2 pages long.

Any game can work on whatever rules you have As long As all players are on the same page for what they, and the GM, expect.

[MrBelpit]

On 10/14/2023 at 1:31 AM, Malkavian Grin said:

Yes definitely still in the works but it's going to be awhile before I'm confident with both rules and setting. I also just started a New job so i need to settle into that as well.

Awesome, I'll check in periodically to make sure don't miss out. Wish I could recommend a rule system that hasn't been mentioned already, but I've certainly always wanted to give Mekton Zeta a try.

 

I guess I kinda like FATE for a light and fudgy system, though not sure how well it'd work for mech combat. Stuff outside the mobile suits would probably play fine in it though.

[roryb]

Fate Accelerated works really well for mech pilots!

[Malkavian Grin]

9 hours ago, MrBelpit said:

Awesome, I'll check in periodically to make sure don't miss out.

I guess I kinda like FATE for a light and fudgy system, though not sure how well it'd work for mech combat. Stuff outside the mobile suits would probably play fine in it though.

I'll be tagging everyone in this thread once I get things going, so there's that at least.

I hadn't thought about using FATE... I've played it before a few times but never GM'd a game of it. I do love how the tagging system works as well as players having some control over the scene via temporary aspects like blowing up an asteroid and making an area "Littered with debris" and that sort of thing.

Likely, the mech combat wouldn't feel any different from non-mech combat, though, and I'm not sure how to feel about that. On one hand, it's one set of rules so that's easy to keep going. On the other hand, it could feel lackluster because there's no hard rules there to build tension on like how many missiles you have left and so forth.

I'm still debating how crunchy I want the system to be, and I think that'll determine what kind of players I get. Some players only care about numbers and only feel tension when those get low; others can feel tension no matter what, just based on the fiction.

[roryb]

Besides the narrative control of Fate (and Approaches doing a nice job of distinguishing pilots), you could build out lots of easy mods to get that feeling. Ammo is one of them. There can be a stress track for that. It can be ticked off to increase rolls. Once it's done, weapon systems are esssentially "offline". Weapon, targeting, computer systems, and armor systems can be pre-designed stunts for purchase. Frames can be aspects and good for invoking a specialized number of things (speed, maneuverability, armor, capacity, etc). That can be simlle yet feel distinct.

If you want a more complex Fate build, there’s Camalot Trigger. It's really cumbersome and broken in spots, but there are some ideas for cannibalizing. I like how systems of your frame get shut down with a certain amount of damage.

If players like really lite and narrative, I did a hack for FU that has depleting ammo and customized frame stuff.

I can put together some ideas for Fate or send the FU hack if you're interested.

[Malkavian Grin]

Ohh yeah i forget just how customizable FATE is! Really reminds me of The Window system, which is rather old now.

I would definitely be interested in whatever info you have. Sounds like i could get just enough crunch to really represent what the important parts are but without combats bogging down. I would definitely want something for ammo and perhaps critical systems, maybe fuel, maybe psychic connection, etc.

My only concern is FATE games seemed destined to fail on MW.