Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been into mecha. I was in deep with Transformers, all over Robotech, but not so much into Voltron. (I just didn’t dig the lions, man.) My formative years were shaped by Force Five and Magnizer -- although I knew it as Tranzor Z.
My love of mecha didn’t stop with television. I eventually fell into building Gundam models, or “gunpla”. I built a few kits while I was in high school and college, mostly because they looked cool. I didn’t start watching any of the Gundam series until recently, but suffice to say I’m hooked.
*pours one out for Lockon Stratos*
My love for mecha didn’t stop with model-making, either. If there was a mecha-based role-playing game, odds are I’ve played it. Battletech, Mekton II, Mekton Zeta, Robotech (Macross, Southern Cross, New Generation, and Sentinels), even some d20 systems that came out during the 2000s and the hay-day of 3rd edition D&D.
Ever since Genesys appeared in the gaming world, I’ve been idly poking at using the Narrative Dice System for a mecha game. It was a back-burner project for two years, then in late 2019 I decided to put some serious time and effort into its development. After a year of development, experimentation, play-testing, re-development, additional experimentation, and more playtesting the rules are just about done.
Coming soon from Studio 404 Games is Mechasys: A Mecha Construction and Campaign Supplement.
What is Mechasys?
Mechasys is a supplement for the Genesys Role Playing Game. It’s not a campaign setting, like our Starcana Space-Opera setting. Mechasys is a rules supplement that will allow players to create giant robotic suits as well as the pilots who operate them. Mechasys can be adapted for practically any theme or setting. You can build mecha for Fantasy, Steampunk, Weird War, Monsterworld, Post-Apocalyptic, and of course Sci-Fi settings. The rules are generic and leave the flavor to you. Your mecha might be powered by arcane energy, mystical ether, fusion power, or inert dreams from far flung realms of reality. How you describe the flavor of the mecha is up to you and your fellow players. Mechasys provides the tools and framework for making your mecha-influenced campaign happen.
Big & Stompy or Nimble & Speedy
Mecha comes in all shapes and sizes, and Mechasys is built to handle that. If your idea of a mecha is a big multi-ton death machine that plods around the battlefield, firing off particle cannons and loosing volleys of missiles with steady determination, Mechasys can handle that. If your idea of mecha is a flight of high-performance aero-fighters that streaks across the sky, suddenly transforming into humanoid robo-soldiers that continue to shoot down alien robo-pods the whole time, Mechasys can handle that. If your idea of a mecha is a dynamic, one-of-a-kind galactic defender that battles giant space monsters and somehow moves with the agility of an Olympic athlete in spite of its skyscraper-sized body, Mechasys can handle that.
Mecha Are Characters, Too
At the core of Mechasys is the idea that the mecha are constructed in a very similar fashion to characters. They are built using Build Points, or BPs. Before the campaign starts your group determines how many BPs the players receive for building their mecha. You can spend Build Points to increase your mecha’s performance and add on new equipment, options, and abilities.
Mecha have their own set of characteristics that mirror those of player characters. Mecha have Brawn, Agility, Intellect, Cunning, Willpower, and Presence. They have chassis, which represent their archetypes. A Gladiator-chassis is going to function differently than a Striker-chassis, or a Commander-chassis. Mecha have equipment and weapons, as well as Upgrades that function like Talents.
Finally, mecha gain experience too; as your character earns XP, your mecha earns additional BPs to spend on new options or to improve existing qualities. How often you can spend those BPs is determined by the group before play too. You may be able to spend them as you go, representing your character fine-tuning their machine or your mecha growing and developing on it’s own. As an alternative you may only be able to spend those points during extended downtime, such as after accumulating 50 or 100 BPs. This limitation may represent a tech team integrating new technologies into your mecha or your pilot being assigned the next-generation version of your previous mecha.
“Neo-Avatos Mk II, All Systems Nominal! Launching Now!”
In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some more details about Mechasys as well as some behind-the-scenes development of the rules. I hope you’re as eager to get Mechasys on the table as much as we are to get it out to you. Keep an eye out on our Mechasys page for more announcements!
