Does anyone know any good ones out there???
Well...
I'm looking for I guess Anime-Inspired...but not in any specific setting.
Does that make sense??
True20 has a Mech vs. Giant Monster section in the base book. It may be a little thinner than you were looking for. I believe BESM has rules for Mech.
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ROBOTECH!
And while the book itself is pretty bad, it does its job alright. or at least my players never compalined (and all the problems should be fixed if you wait for the hardcover). And seriously, who doesn't want a motercycle that transforms into an armored war suit? It's like iron man, but a billion times cooler since it's also a motercycle.
Also, there needs to be a Megas XLR RPG. I would preorder that and buy 3 copies. And it would be amazing. In fact, I might just get on writing rules for one. It'd be like taking Mechwarrior and throwing RISUS at it. hilarity and giant robots. rock on!
Contributor
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BESM has decent rules for giant monster battles. At least, second ed. did. I haven't had a chance to look at 3rd.
The same company, Guardians of Order, also produced a D20 Mech book entitled (appropriately enough) "D20 Mecha" that includes rules for including mechs in a D&D or D20 Modern game, as well as a very comprehensive point-based system for building your mechs.
There was another D20-based book entitle "Factory", from Perpetrated Press. I don't think the mecha rules were as good as D20 Mecha, but they also included rules for robots, bionics, and computer systems (ostensibly based on advanced magic, rather than science). The book is excellent, but for just mecha I wouldn't recommend it. It's more appropriate for a weird/awesome D&D campaign.
Mutants and Masterminds is also about to release an anime-inspired sourcebook called "Manga and Mecha" in another month or two. Their writing and production values both tend to be great, so you might want to wait for that.
If you don't want to go D20, then you've got a few more options.
Palladium books does a complete line of Robotech books, but feelings on their system in SHARPLY divided, so I don't know if you'll go for that or not. I've played some Palladium games back in high school and college, and if you've got a firm GM and players who are interested as much or more in story that the rules, they aren't bad, especially with their 'simpler' (read: fewer source books) systems.
There is also the Mechwarrior RPG, set in the Battle Tech universe. It got re-released by Fan-Pro last year as "The Classic Battletech RPG", but I haven't had the chance to pick up a copy. The original system focused mainly on very detailed robot combat, and your characters had few attributes beyond their piloting abilities.
GURPS has also released a number of mech-oriented books over the years, including books for specific series. For the current edition (4th), there's GURPS High Tech and GURPS UltraTech. For 3rd, there was a variety of tech books, including GURPS Robots and GURPS Mecha.
Exalted, from White Wolf, also has mecha rules (called Warstriders), but it isn't the focus of the series and they're broken up throughout several books. That said, you could salvage a decent mecha-oriented game with a little bit of work.
I'd actually recommend against picking up True20 if your only interest is Mecha games. The "Mecha vs Kaiju" sample campaign is all of 6 pages and described almost nothing about building or piloting mechs.
Good luck
I don't know if it's still in print, but you might look around for the Mekton and Mekton Zeta brands that were published by R. Talsorian Games. Very detailed mecha system, with almost limitless customization across any mecha genre.
The system was a bit involved, but I had fun with it :)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
The latest mech hotness is CTHULHUTECH. It has a very detailed setting based on the Lovecraft Mythos. Major influences include Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Guyver, Robotech, Ghost in the Shell and of course the whole Cthulhu genre. It's a brilliant mix and the sourcebook is gorgeous.
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One I've been using since the late 90's is Heavy Gear. Since then I've transferred to Jovian Chronicles. It uses a D6 success system for combat and its very good for integrating combat between different scales of vehicles. The Silhouette Core Book 003.1 is the core rules for all of the companies game world.
The PC scale isnt very in depth but there's room for adjustment. I use a modified White Wolf sheet I created for characters and keep the success system but scale it up to D10's for successes. Convert the way White Wolf PC's take damage to how Silcore does damage and it works great. More character freedom and Vehicle Combat integration.
Heavy Gear: Civil war on a newly inhabeted planet in another solar system. Recently Earth Showed up to take over.
Jovian Chronicles: Gundam in every sense of the word as far as story, mecha, and combat go.
Tribe-8: Post Apocalyptic Earth with angels and demons.
Core Command: Space Police, nothing else needs mentioned.
Dream Pod 9. here is the website.
-Stabbity
The old school "Battletech" rules literally wrote the book on Mech combat games. As Immora pointed out, they published an RPG called Mechwarrior which was fully compatible with mini game. You can usually pick up a copy on eBay.
Yes, Heavy Gear is another proven and well play-tested Mech RPG. Though I stopped playing when they converted from the bigger size minis to the smaller ones.
What about d20 Future Tech?? I have the d20 Modern PHB and I was wondering if the Future Tech would be a good purchase or not??
BTW Thanks for all the input!
The old school "Battletech" rules literally wrote the book on Mech combat games. As Immora pointed out, they published an RPG called Mechwarrior which was fully compatible with mini game. You can usually pick up a copy on eBay.
Yes, Heavy Gear is another proven and well play-tested Mech RPG. Though I stopped playing when they converted from the bigger size minis to the smaller ones.
What's with the past tense and eBay? As Immora said, they changed MechWarrior 3rd ed.'s name to the "Classic BattleTech RPG," but it's still in print and available from Paizo here.