Each magical mecha has at least three available positions: pilot, gunner, and engineer. On their turn, the pilot can either move the mecha or turn it up to 180 degrees, or activate special movement abilities like wings or drills, the gunner can either fire or reload one of the weapons, and the engineer can repair one system or recover the hull by one. Weapons can only fire at targets in a semicircle in front of the mech, unless they hit all adjacent. Movement system with speed higher than 1 can only move in a straight line, and cannot move less than their full speed. Multiple crew can work at each station, but there's no benefit beyond two pilots or two gunners to a weapon. Crew can move to other stations, but it takes one round if they were piloting or gunning.
Attacks hit automatically, dealing one hull damage and disabling one system as determined by 1d6. When Hull reaches 0, the mech is damaged beyond use. Each movement system and weapon has an equal chance of being hit (a mech with more than six systems would be excessively powerful). Whenever a mech is hit, the crew add their mech's instability to the impact of the attack, and try to roll that number or higher on 1d6. If they fail, their mech is turned by the attack to face, away from the attacker.
These craft are massive, similar in size to an upright castle. Any attack from one will completely obliterate a human-scale target, up to creatures like dragons or kraken which can manage survive one hit and deal some damage back. Any attack less than a dragon's fire or a siege weapon will deal no damage to any mecha, but invaders can attack the crew.
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| Baba Yaga Hut by AlcoholicHamster |
1. WALKING TEMPLE
Exiled priests of Roaz built a new home and named it Virth, thus giving life to a new conquering god and granting it full form in a humanoid shell of gilded marble.
Hull: 6
Instability: 2
Storm Ballista: 10 range, 1 impact
Angelswarm Wings: 2 speed flight, +4 clumsiness
Inverted steeples: 1 speed walk
2. COVEN BEAST
Some say the oldest magics are the greatest, and the glimmering teeth and claws bursting from a home built by hand incuse a testament of such claims into the ground with every step.
Hull: 4
Instability: 1
Claws of the Moon: 2 range, 3 impact
Fangs of the Stars: 1 range, 0 impact, always targets movement system
Great Beast's Legs: 1 speed crawl, if not used, -1 clumsiness for one round
3. WAR THESIS OF WIZARDRY
As the kingdom of Waylet found itself more and more deeply embroiled in war the monarch put equal pressure on the wizards to develop more powerful magics.
Hull: 8
Instability: 3
Ultrastaff: 5 range, 2 impact, roll two systems and choose which takes damage
Wheels of Progress: 1 speed roll
4. GRAZIAX FROM ZHELL
Wayward god-prince of a distant, unimaginable divine realm fleeing from a devourer of worlds. It seeks the aid of intrepid pilots to enter its body in a symbiosis that is apparently common in its home realm.
Hull: 6
Instability: 2
Acidic Outpour: 3 range, 1 impact, can hit two adjacent targets
Grand Pincers: 1 range, -6 impact, no system damage but can latch on and move with target (can let go at any time)
Catapult Legs: 4 speed leap, takes two turns to leap
5. BONEGRAVE MAUSOLEUM
Lich lords from the ancient days, long thought defeated and slain, have merely been building their strength in quiet crypts. Now they unleash power and death gathered through the ages, meaning to take back the lands of the living.
Hull: 5
Instability: 3
Necrotic Megascythe: 3 range, 2 impact, any human-scale creatures in range are killed and raised as undead
Countless Femurs: 1 speed crawl
6. DREAM LORD
Slumbering deep in the sea since perhaps before the first human flesh imagined its own existence, it has been awakened by wild cultists whom it consumes and takes counsel from in their eternal sleep.
Hull: 10
Instability: 5
Awakening Star: 6 range, 0 impact, target's crew make Will saves or become incapacitated by nightmares for a turn
Voidwind Wings: 1 speed flight, even in space
Slithering City: 1 speed swim
Eats mortals, who make a Will save to become trapped in its dreams and then die. If successful, they become a new crew member.
7. FORGEMASTER'S MOUNT
Built by ancient dwarves with tonnes of the finest steel, over generations of master craftswork. The explosive powders are a wonder to alchemists, who insist that the wizards have it all wrong with their 'mountain magic' theories.
Hull: 7
Instability: 4
Ancestor's Hammer: 1 range, 2 impact
Mountainfire Sling: 6 range, 3 impact, 2 hull damage, five shots per battle
Short legs: 1 speed walk
Inverted Volcano: 5 speed leap, one use per battle
8. KRASCHKUL THE THUNDER
An ancient hero of the giants, perhaps the oldest still living and the only one to ever have a full suit of plate mail forged for him, as well as a blade that could be called a broadsword. Those legends have left out how dull of mind he is, having been secretly guided to most of his heroism by hidden human passengers.
Hull: 5
Instability: 2
Sword of Kraschkul: 1 range, 3 impact
Giant's Roar: 1 system damage to all adjacent mecha
Charging Storm: 3 speed run, takes 2 rounds to charge, 1 hull damage to one target in path
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| The Boat by Salvador Dali |
9. THE YELLOW STAR
Something of a moving palace made to be as comfortable as possible, ultimately with many concessions in terms of combat ability. Commissioned from golemancers of the Yellow City by its wealthiest slugmen, it is a polished stone giant with huge decorative topaz eyes.
Hull: 13
Instability: 2
Major Mass Flare: lights fuses at the start of the turn, looking like a weapon charging up. At the start of the next turn, shoots a huge array of fireworks up into the air in a stupendous but harmless display
Avalanche Slam: 1 range, 3 impact
Ponderous Steps: 1 speed walk
Contains an opium lounge full of silk pillows, and a delightfully stocked tea cabinet. Crew get +1 against mecha abilities that affect them.
10. GYS SILVER MANTIS
An oddly-shaped craft ridden by pirates from across worlds, its shoulders sport metallic sails and crystalline cannons protrude around the waist.
Hull: 5
Instability: 3
Aether Cannons: 4 range, 2 impact
Boarding Hooks: 1 range, -6 impact, allows the Astral Mallard's crew to board the enemy
Luminary Sails: 2 speed flight in astral currents
Port and Starboard: 2 speed sail
11. BIRIGX THE PUNISHED
The whipping post of all hell, a great hulking demon whose skull has been wrenched open and whose innards have been carved out. There are greater demons of equal magnitude, but they do not answer to summons and Birigx is not given a choice.
Hull: 4
Instability: 1
Mass Trident: 5 range, 2 impact
Cataclysmic Dismissal: hits all adjacent, 3 impact, 2 hull damage, kills Birigx crew and sends him back to hell.
Tattered Wings: 1 speed flight
Cloven Hooves: 2 speed run
12. CHARIOT COLOSSUS
Once in an empire long past, the land's greatest engineer determined to make a more powerful chariot. They succeeded, and kept on succeeding until they had created this gleaming tower of a warrior with lumber and bronze.
Hull: 7
Instability: 2
Rain of Bronze: 3 range, 1 impact
Greatest Pike: 2 range, 3 impact
Wheeled Basis: 2 speed roll
Done as part of the GLOG mech/robot rules challenge. Other participants:
https://slugsandsilver.blogspot.com/2019/10/yoon-suin-glog-clockwork-golem-player.html
https://nuclearharuspex.blogspot.com/2019/10/mech-rules_5.html
https://octarinetinted.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/mantle/
https://oblidisideryptch.blogspot.com/2019/10/ezcocotli.html
https://crateredland.blogspot.com/2019/10/having-mechs-on-first-date.html
this is *very* useful stuff. As a battle game by itself? Maybe not. But as a grand background to some crazy adventure? Absolutely. I could see a game run in parallel where the heroes are doings tuff and every 10 minutes one of the great mechs fires! Also, say, War Thesis and the Coven Beast are fighting the Dream Lord. Why? What lead to this? Just asking can trigger a lot of creativity. Wonderful entry.
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