Mech Upgrade Questions. UPBs, Mech Points, and missing rules.

[The Nightgaunt]

I'm getting ready to run Mechageddon and I came across some confusing rules regarding mech upgrading in the adventure path.

On page 4 of Mechageddon the book is clear that credits are supposed to be used for character gear and UPB for upgrading mechs.

"Credits are intended to help the PCs purchase new equipment, while UPBs are provided as material for upgrading their mechs."

And throughout the adventures the players are rewarded with vast hordes of UPB. Many encounters in act 3 rewarding tens of thousands UPB per encounter. And the purpose of UPB is repeated multiple times throughout the book. ex "...pays each PC 25,000 credits for completing the job and approves a work order worth 6,250 UPBs each for mech upgrades and repairs."

But in Tech Revolution, mech construction and upgrading is done via the Mech Point system. By level 20 a PC will have 300 Mech Points to spend on building their mech. The ONLY mention of UPBs is for repairing mechs, and even then, the normal cost is 10UPB per HP. So a tier 14 mech with 170hp would only cost 1,700 UPB to repair from zero.

So there seems to be a gap here.

TR has mechs created and upgraded with Mech Points, a level based build point system. Mech parts only have prices listed in terms of Mech Points. And usually not that many mech points. A chainwhip costs "tier x3" so a Tier 20 mech would have a chainwhip that costs 60 Mech Points, That's not a lot compared to PCs getting rewarded with close to 60,000 UPB at one point.

Mechageddon has mechs upgraded with UPB, a currency used as an alternative to credits. And it's clear these are meant to be used to upgrade the PC's mechs.

But I can't find where these two rule system meet. It seems like something is missing.

I've seen a comment on a reddit thread where someone thought that maybe PCs are supposed to use the "Scaling Equipment" rules from Starfinder Enhanced to calculate the cost of mech upgrades. But that seems to just be a guess as Mechegeddon doesn't seem to recommend using it.

Also there's no indication if the UPB upgrades are meant to supplement Mech Points, or be a replacement for Mech Points (a currency to buy, sell and trade mech parts in a mech based campaign. Like how it works in Mechwarrior).

Am I missing the part in Mechageddon where this is explained? Is there an errata?

How have you dealt with this in your own Mechageddon campaigns?

[The Nightgaunt]

I figured out one bit at least. We are meant to use BOTH mech points and UPB. Mech points are how big you can build your mech and how much you can put on it. But you have to be able to actually afford those parts via UPB.

There are a few spots in the AP where it says basically (paraphrased) "Because the PCs have unlimited resources here, they can upgrade their mechs without needing to worry about UPB costs, as long as they have enough Mech Points".

There's just no UPB price list that I've found so far.

[Bartimaeus2]

Is there any new information here?

[Peff]

Having played with mechs a lot, I think it was a gap in understanding between some of the writers and the actual mech rules.

You don't spend money for mechs, much like starships. You just don't for the same reasons of "We sell the mech and retire" or "we buy a level 20 weapon." Yes, parties shouldn't do that anyway (nor should a GM allow it) but its proof against dead ending an adventure.

As far as UPB, you do need them for repairing damage. That's pretty much the extent of their use (outside of making gear for the PCs).

As there are no alternative rules presented in Mechageddon compared to the standard mech rules in Tech Revolution, you have to go a bit Occam's razor with it as an editing mistake.