Oh, and inspired by
chadu's own work on a space opera game, I'm working on hacking PDQ# into handling zero-gravity mecha combat of the type seen in
Macross and
Zone of the Enders.Here's a rundown of how it works so far:
(Please note this is currently very rough. Feedback is welcome.)- Orbital Frames or any humanoid mecha are handled using the standard Duel rules, except that both parties make a Flashy Challenge before each round to determine initiative on the exchange, with the loser also forbidden from utilizing a Full Defence for that round. Optionally, the victor can choose to forgo the combat round to launch drones, switch weapons loadouts, attempt escape (prompting a chase scene) or perform another non-combat action. This simulates the "flurry, break, repeat" cycle seen in the source material.
- Mecha are 'worn', and add directly to the pilot's own Fortes. So a Good (+2) Mecha Pilot handling an Average (+0) frame that's been fitted with a Good (+2) High-Speed Interception kit would roll at +4 on the between-rounds Flashy Challenge. Per standard rules, the pilot can choose to apply damage to either his own Fortes, or those of his mecha, generating Plot Hooks as appropriate. Typically, baseline mecha get 4 Forte ranks to spread across their own frame rating (governing basic operations, attack, maneuvering and defence) and any specialized subsystems they carry. (Subject to playtesting, of course. But this abstracts a lot of the fiddly bits of Real Robot combat while still allowing for loadout variety. It also means that a pilot is about twice as 'powerful' (in terms of raw Forte rank count) while in his mecha than he is on foot. This, I feel, is roughly the sweet-spot for simulating the genre.)
- Capital Ships or any large, non-mecha vehicle use the standard vehicle combat rules. Typically, they treat mecha as environmental hazards - while on the volte-face, it's an extended challenge for a mecha to take them down (multiple rounds of flying through the superstructure, strafing key components, lining up for the key shot, etc.). So it's hard for a capship's beam weapons to hit the lightly-armed, fast-moving orbital frame suits (meaning that capital ships are mostly going to be a backdrop to the real dogfights taking place at mecha scale), and it's appropriately difficult for a group of mecha to affect a colony drop. (For the purposes of rules abstraction, space stations are treated as capital-scale vehicles)
- Small, non-mecha combatants (swarms of combat drones, semi-autonomous laser arrays, cluster missles, dudes in spacesuits with anti-materiel rifles, etc.) are treated as minion squads by mecha, standard opponents while on foot, and generally ignored by capships. Typically, they're there to harry and distract; not to do significant damage. 'Mook' mecha could also be treated as minions.
- I'm tempted to say that PCs are never treated as minions, but I don't know how much that would blur the scale divisions. Typically, you don't see fights over more than one size category (foot, mecha, capship) apart.
- For an expenditure of an extra Forte during pilot generation, the player may upgrade to a Greater Mecha. Greater Mecha begin play with 6 Forte ranks for their frame and equipment kits, and may also optionally enter ship-scale combat as a corvette with a virtual crew equal to the mecha's frame rating plus onboard AI or targetting computer (if any)
- I'm also going to offer a "ship-buster" kit - either a beam cannon or missile launcher which allows a standard mecha to enter into ship combat with a virtual crew equal to the weapon system's rating - with the provisio that standard mecha take double damage from capship weapons when engaging in direct combat.
- Unless the PCs are involved, battleships and up basically just sit in the background and foul up the combat space. There's not a whole lot of interplay between size categories on the upper end otherwise.