Transforming Angel Mecha?!

[Goldgardian]

concept. A starfighter that turns into a giant mecha, and is powered by angelic energy and magic, and has a giant laser sword. and shield.

How do I do this?
I know there's rules for making a starfighter in GURPS spaceships, and rules for mecha in spaceships 4. but I can't figure out how to make a transformer

[Kelly Pedersen]

You'll want three books for this, Spaceships 1, Spaceships 4: Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha, and Spaceships 7: Divergent and Paranormal Tech. Spaceships 1 is the basic design system, and includes the Reconfigurable Systems option, which allows you to include systems in your design that transform into other systems. Spaceships 4 has a wide array of already-finished mecha designs that you can look at for inspiration, or simply steal and adjust to fit. And Spaceships 7 has rules for power plants and such based on odd energies, like angelic energy or magic.

Unfortunately, none of these has rules for mecha-scale melee weapons or shields. However, you could grab Low-Tech Companion 2: Weapons and Warriors, which has rules for scaling weapons to different size modifiers, and apply those to a suitably ultra-tech sword and shield. Or just use the stats for a regular sword, and assume it's doing d-scale damage instead of the standard scale.

[Fred Brackin]

Yes, Kelly has covered the mechanics but if you're wondering "But where is the option that makes it change shape?" spaceships really doesn't care about that sort of thing. Changing other systems into arms and legs is as close as you're goign to come probably.

As an example, of Spaceships and shape you may want to put lasers on the tips of your wings like a X-Wing. you might be thinking that he wings are sort of at the back or maybe they're sticking out to the sides or something but in Spaceships all weapons with a fixed mount that fire forward are in the Front section. Weapons on the tips of different wings could all be in the same battery too.

[Goldgardian]

I was honestly considering the rules for super vehicles (page 84 Gurps supers) and give it the alternate form advantage or something along those lines... but that seemed... tricky to say the least, so the reconfigurable systems should work better for this. thanks for that.


New question what skill would be used to swing a gigantic force-sword being held by a spaceship's robot arms?

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Goldgardian

New question what skill would be used to swing a gigantic force-sword being held by a spaceship's robot arms?

By the RAW, it's still Force Sword (or Broadsword for a one-handed physical sword, Rapier for a very large mecha-fencing weapon, and so on). I personally find this a bit odd, since unless the mecha is being controlled entirely by mimicking its pilot's movements, someone's training in personal-scale melee weaponry doesn't seem like it would transfer over very well. There are a few approaches you can take to address this:

• Make a totally new skill or skills, something like "Mecha Force-Sword". Same difficulty as the base weapon, though you could consider making it based on IQ rather than DX, if you think knowing the mech's controls well is more important than your hand-eye coordination in wielding it. These skills should probably default to the weapon skills they're based on, at something like -2 to -4 (depending on the control scheme, with controls that mimic the user's movements being smaller default penalties).
• Allow the melee weapon skills to be used as-is, but cap them at the pilot's Driving/Piloting (Mecha) skill.
• Have the melee weapon skills be used, but at a penalty (say, -4), which can be bought up as a Hard technique.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Goldgardian

I was honestly considering the rules for super vehicles (page 84 Gurps supers) and give it the alternate form advantage or something along those lines... but that seemed... tricky to say the least, so the reconfigurable systems should work better for this. thanks for that.


New question what skill would be used to swing a gigantic force-sword being held by a spaceship's robot arms?

Sword. Personally I'd actually go the super vehicles route. Sure it's more work, but you'd get something closer to what you really have in mind, I suspect. This doesn't sound like an off the rack mass produced model.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

By the RAW, it's still Force Sword (or Broadsword for a one-handed physical sword, Rapier for a very large mecha-fencing weapon, and so on). I personally find this a bit odd, since unless the mecha is being controlled entirely by mimicking its pilot's movements, someone's training in personal-scale melee weaponry doesn't seem like it would transfer over very well.

Roughly speaking, there are two ways to control a mecha.

The first, and most common in fiction, is to directly control the limbs etc as though they were your own body. This doesn't necessarily mean mimicking your own movements, or even direct neural interface, although it's difficult to justify with characters who are just using hand controls. In this case, you'd certainly be using your own personal skills, but they may be capped or otherwise limited (or in some settings, enhanced, although I'd do that as Techniques on the original skills) by a combination of your Piloting skill and the abilities (notably, the DX score) of the mecha itself.

The second is to basically issue orders to the mecha - via voice command, physical controller, or whatever - which it then carries out. This is more akin to playing a video game - notably a First Person Shooter - where your character handles the minutiae of aiming, reloading, switching weapons, staying stable while moving around, and most of the nuances of melee combat. Your own input is to tell the mecha/character what to do, and with good target recognition it could end up being more akin to playing with an aimbot or similar mod. In any case, with this scheme the mecha would have its own skills, which would be capped or otherwise limited (or, again in some settings, enhanced) by your own Piloting skill.

EDIT: I'll note that, in a setting where you can have a variable fighter that is powered by angelic energies, the former seems the most appropriate. The latter is probably more appropriate for hard military scifi where mecha somehow make sense.