We want Mecha for Space Combat. It's a cool concept, even I want it, but how would it all work?
Compare a Mecha to a Starship, now of course this wouldn't apply to all mechs as they come in all shapes and sizes, but let's use a humanoid mech model like a Gundam or Voltron. How would the arcs work? And turning?
The mech has a front, obviously, but it doesn't really have Starboard and Port sides. Most weapons on those kinds of mech for the most part face forward, or are in the hand. In theory the average person's arm can aim in about 720° when you consider rotating your torso and fully extending your arm, so a humanoid mech still has a theoretical blind spot in the aft arc. Rarely though would you have guns aimed or mounted from the sides though.
Then mobility. I feel like looking at how a mech is supposed to move, the turning values don't quite fit. Often we see them do 180° turns while floating stationary. This fits the turn in place stunt, but not really the mobility one expects from a Gundam. They'd almost need a reverse flip and burn where they pivot and then blast off.
In theory, if a theoretical mech had only two arcs, the front three being one, and then the aft, then make them more maneuverable with either adjusted flight rules or new stunts... There are problems. Shields are the big one, when you have one arc as big as three pooling most of your shields. You could in theory have it mechs can only mount weapons in the front ark, but then give all weapons on a mech the broad arc quality.
Then there's weapon variety. Let's face it, the sword-shield combo mech is almost iconic, but there isn't melee in Starship combat, especially with the restrictions on mobility. Concievably they could be flyby-only weapons, but then could they be used for AoOs? At which point increased mobility would be much too strong of an advantage. My team actually made habit of parking ourselves in front of high-turn enemies just so they had to fly through us and provoke (particularly if we lost the Piloting roll and couldn't get the advantageous end position).
So I dunno. What are other people's thoughts on it? It is something I for sure want in the long run, but what accomodation would need to be made? To look at a slightly different thing with the same kind of problem: space monsters. A planet-sized monster, would it apply by the arcs rules, and how would it play?
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I can't find the website right now but here is a google doc of a homebrew Umbral Reaver made. LINK - MECHFINDER. The website had a lot of photos. It's pretty solid.
The only problem is with how cool Mechs are it's incredibly difficult to use them in a campaign. Your game would basically have to be built around them and I just don't see a lot of story telling you could do with them. I am a huge giant robo fan but even with all the animes and shows I have watched I can't come up with much to warrant adding them to my game. It's the reason why I haven't tested out the rules and last time I asked Umbral Reaver he hadn't gotten any feedback himself.
Story plots: Waring nations/planets? Blue Gender type monsters? Ummm...
I always thought giving powered armor some sort of spacefaring quality, so they can battle in space, would be a cool idea.
If we do get mechs in space, I would treat their attacks as turrets instead of giving them arcs.
Thanks for the mention. If there's enough interest I might expand the library of mechs and mech equipment. :)
If we do get mechs in space, I would treat their attacks as turrets instead of giving them arcs.
The problem then becomes say, a Unicron-sized mech cannot have capital weapons, as they cannot be mounted on turrets.
Tactical positioning is a pretty big part of Starship combat. If you take that away, then any mech would become distinctly better than a Starship. Having no arcs, shields would apply in full on all sides, and facing which influences movement would be redundant to keep track of.
If we do get mechs in space, I would treat their attacks as turrets instead of giving them arcs.The problem then becomes say, a Unicron-sized mech cannot have capital weapons, as they cannot be mounted on turrets.
Tactical positioning is a pretty big part of Starship combat. If you take that away, then any mech would become distinctly better than a Starship. Having no arcs, shields would apply in full on all sides, and facing which influences movement would be redundant to keep track of.
it's not to say they can't have arcs, but it's meant to model their flexibility. It's also an attempt to balance their potential low weapon count. Even most starships can have 2-3+ turrets at a time
A Unicron size "mech" would probably be considered a starship, at that point.
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Powered armor that has highly configurable starship stats and a unique base frame. Is limited in size and capability like an interceptor or fighter (no capital weapons for example). Combing multiple such ships yield stats equivalent to larger starships.
Just for ships and giggles, call it Nuar tech since they are good at that kind of stuff. :)