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Old 03-08-2018, 08:21 PM   #21
Kelly Pedersen
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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Default Re: How do *you* build Mechas?

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Originally Posted by PTTG View Post
Anyone have recommendations for balancing (and, for that matter, running) combat against the kaiju?
Well, you'll almost certainly want to use D-scale or even C-scale hit points and DR (that is, divide all the relevant values by 10 or 100) - if all the fights are kaiju vs. mecha, the numbers using regular scale are going to just get silly. However, if you do use one of the higher-scale numbers, be aware that damage then becomes much more variable. 100d of damage will vary reliably produce 350 points of actual damage, the average, so 350 DR will reliably stop it, 340 will reliably let 10 through, and so on. But when you switch the scale and start rolling 10d D-damage the odds of it being so reliably 35 points of of damage actually drop, because of the way the probability of dice work. And it's even worse if you use C-scale - sure, the average of 1d of C-scale damage may still be 3.5, but actually, every result (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) is equally likely to occur.

What I'd strongly suggest is using some variation on the "DR as dice" system. This has been well-covered by Douglas Cole, particularly in "Armor Revisited" in Pyramid #3/34, but the gist of the system is actually quite simple: convert the DR into the number of dice of damage it stops on average, and subtract those from the damage before rolling. To find the average number of dice a given bit of armor would stop, divide its value by 3.5. So, for example, our hypothetical DR 350 mech would stop 100d of damage. A weapon that did 102d of damage would roll just 2d against it, but whatever it rolled would be the amount of damage it took. This system has the advantage of working very well no matter what scale you choose to use: 35 points of d-scale DR subtracts 10 dice from D-scale attacks, and 3.5 points of c-scale DR subtracts 1d from C-scale attacks, which all works out to the same average damage penetrating.
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Old 03-08-2018, 09:08 PM   #22
mlangsdorf
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Default Re: How do *you* build Mechas?

A couple of general points from having run a mecha versus giants game, which is conceptually similar but different:

* Precalculate as much as you can. I put together a table of Acc bonuses versus Aiming times after the second session, because people were having problems calculating the bonuses of Acc 6+3 (with a +3 gunnery bonus that kicks in after 2 turns of Aiming) weapons.

* Make a cheat sheet or summary of all the special rules you're using for mecha fights, unless you're just treating mecha as really, really tall humans and using only standard GURPS rules. And even then, you're probably going to increase the map scale to 5 yards to the hex or something, and that's going to affect how people move, and you'll need to think about and create a cheat sheet for those changes.

* Don't use Armor as Dice. I did in my Mecha game and was a mixed bag. AaD is great in concept, but it can be a little confusing in play, especially if you have people shooting APDS rounds through cover to hit their targets. I'd recommend (without having tested it) using minimal variation fixed damage, where you convert all damage over 3d to a fixed value. Instead of dividing DR by 3.5 to convert it to dice, subtracting the armor dice, and rolling damage, you just roll a few dice and add or subtract numbers. So a 7.62mm rifle would do 3d+14, for instance, and if you shoot it through a DR 10 obstacle, it does 3d+4 to it's target. (With armor as dice, you'd have to convert the obstacle to 3d on the fly, subtract 3d from 7d, and roll 4d damage for the target, which can be a hassle in game). Much easier, but it's still low variation so you don't have to worry about a lucky damage roll from a weak weapon blowing through someone's armor.

* I personally find Injury Reduction to be confusing, but you'll have to decide for yourself.


As far as mecha and kaiju design goes:
* If mecha are supposed to be easy to disable but hard to destroy, give them a lot of torso and cockpit armor, but significantly weaker armor on the limbs. Kaiju will be incentivized to dismember them instead of wrecking the torso or cockpit and destroying them.

* Kaiju should not be doing nearly enough damage to one-shot a mecha, or even take off a limb in a single attack. If it's a puzzle battle, the PCs are going to need some time to figure out what works and what doesn't, and that won't happen if a PC mecha is going down every time a kaiju attacks.

* Kaiju should be nigh-invulnerable to mecha weapons, aside from weak points/tactical considerations. PCs shouldn't expect to be able to grind a kaiju down without doing something clever. Conversely, almost any attack at their weak point should succeed, and should give immediate feedback that the kaiju was badly hurt and the PCs should try to repeat that attack. Except for evolving kaiju, of course, where the puzzle is to keep coming up with new attacks, but for those kaiju, you want the kaiju to react and then cover up it's weakness.

I'm not sure what numbers I'd use for the kaijiu and mecha, and to a large extent, it doesn't matter what the actual values are. As long as the two sets of numbers are appropriately scaled, you should be fine.
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Old 03-09-2018, 11:53 AM   #23
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: How do *you* build Mechas?

I would suggest building mecha as characters, not equipment, but you'll be operating in a range where GURPS character building has issues, so I recommend an advantage along the lines of:
Mecha-Scale
You're functioning on the scale of mechs, rather than humans. As long as you are fighting other mechs, use the normal GURPS combat rules. If for some reason you have to interact with non-mech-scaled opponents, make the following adjustments:
  • Base SM is <X>. Set <X> to a value that matches common mechs in the setting -- for example, <X> is +4 for Macross (9 meters) while it's +10 in Pacific Rim (80 meters).
  • Any powers that reference hexes actually function in scale hexes. To determine the size of a scale hex, look up <X-2> on the range/speed chart. Thus, a Macross hex is 5 yards.
  • Any powers that reference time function in scale time units. Scale time units are optional, but having the giant monsters function on a 5-10s turn can be useful for PC survivability when they're out-of-mech.
  • Any powers that reference pounds actually function in scale pounds. To determine the size of a scale pound, multiply by 10 for each +2 to <X>, and if <X> is an odd number, multiply by 3. Thus, a Macross pound is 100 lb.
  • When interacting with human scale targets, giant robots have a DX penalty of <X>. This includes attack rolls. However, giant robots also measure range penalty based on scale hexes (alternately, ignore the first <X> in range penalties).
  • Damage, Damage Resistance, and Hit Points are all measured in scale hp. Don't try to come up with formulas based on SM, just pick a scale that works well. D-scale works fairly well for smaller mechs that are supposed to be at least somewhat worried about humans, kaiju might be C or M scale.
  • To balance innate attack against DR and melee attacks, innate attacks are limited to (Swing) dice of damage.
  • Exact point value of all this is irrelevant, as it's a setting switch -- when you're in a mech, you have mech-scale abilities.
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