Very interested. Not totally knowledgeable in Gundam, but love Robotech and have played Mecha before.

Sadly, I dunno the Gundam setting well enough to have understood half of that. :P

Personally, I like psychic weirdness, but I also like taking that stuff to extremes that would be inappropriate in any Gundam game. As it is, all this sounds close enough to the Steel Gunner setting that I should be able to follow along easy enough.

Morty: What sets PCs apart from all the other mooks is that they have names. :D Actually, I'd kinda like the idea of the PCs /not/ being a special species, and the enemy having access to all those super soldier types. Underdogs are awesome.

Okay, I just got the rules, and the system sounds pretty fun! I'm definitely interested in playing. ^_^

In reply to Nintaku (msg # 9):

well, in the Itano circus world, underdogs eat missiles. ;) Just look at https://data.desustorage.org/m...93/1459933908976.png and for giggles https://data.desustorage.org/t...81/1454814608671.jpg . Any pilot surviving that gets named. Also, there's the technical part. I don't think playing the underdogs in Mecha is feasible ;)

I believe most, if not all, memorable characters in Gundam are "special" - newtype, coordinator, x-rounder, etc. And Char is Newtype ;) Mind you, newtypes don't have to have any "special" abilities - it's supposed to be the natural evolutionary progression triggered by living in space. Or something.

I disagree on the matter of having all of the speical and memorable characters being newtypes actually though. There's usually a team 'non-newtype' like Mu La Flaga from Gundam SEED. Additionally, there are series which don't really feature them at all, like Gundam 8th MS Team.

This message was deleted by a moderator, as it was against the forum rules, at 18:25, Wed 08 June 2016.

Doesn't gundam have quite a few badass normals keeping up with whatever fancy psychic whiny heroes in shiny super robots using only crappy mass produced mecha?

Jerid Messa was one during most of Z, Yazan remained one, ZZ has Rakan, Char's counterattack has Rezun, IGLOO has Oliver May, the original series had Ramba Ral, and that's just the highlights from UC.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:28, Wed 08 June 2016.

My earlier comment about underdogs was because I've never gotten to see the original Mobile Suit Gundam and only saw a snippet of the movie in which Char helps Amuro change a flat tire. This whole time I was under the impression Amuro was a normal kid and Char was a supersoldier. Turns out Amuro was also super. Looks like I'm basically down for anything, then. :P

I have found a few hitches in the system and am interested in the GM's feelings on them, but can wait until there's a game to bring them up in PM.

Char actually was probably the weakest newtype in the franchise, he made up for it by being an amazing pilot.

The Overdrive mechanic could be themed as newtype abilities, or just being awesome. I'd leave that to the players to decide.

This message was deleted by the user at 20:54, Fri 10 June 2016.

Sounds fun, count me in!

Might a pre-gen character be available?

I am very familiar with the genre and it's tropes, but my experience with the Gundam universe specifically is limited. G Fighter was one of my favorite shows. I vaguely remember watching the original series, I read a short manga spin-off named Blue Destiny, and I watched a fair amount of Gundam Wing. Both Fighter and Wing take place in their own continuities, so all this New Type and Overdrive talk is Greek to me. Overall, I wouldn't feel comfortable making a character from scratch intended for that setting.

In reply to chupabob (msg # 19):

A newtype is someone who has reached a new stage of human evolution in the Gundam universe. The theory behind this is that, in order to adapt to life in space, humans have begun to develop heightened mental awareness.

Overdrive is Mecha's equivalent to fate points, luck points, hero points, etc. and is used to activate the various special qualities which a character's mecha possesses (called Configurations in the rules). Fairly straightforward...

@klingsmith.a: Were you planning to use just the core book, or material from the supplements as well? (Mercenaries is prolly the most useful.)

I don't currently have the supplements, so just planning to use the core stuff. If there is something that you think would fit, let me know!

What preference do you all have regarding the side you're on? Earth or space?

Hm. One possibility would be to split the players into two groups: one Earth and one Space. Then you could tell the stories of each faction. They're probably both thinking they're innocent and in the right, and perhaps there's more than just one way to complete the story arc of the war. Not to mention the tales of friendships and rivalries across enemy lines to be told. The problems there would be a) few people dig the PvP that would create (it's like running a Smallville game), and b) slowdown on one side would make for some lopsided play. Maybe not a good idea. Hm. Well, my vote is for whichever side is the least evil and most outmanned and outgunned. Because I'm like that.

I have a couple of the supplements, but doubt they'll be useful to this game. You're really better off just looking at the Steel Gunner setting in the book and tweaking that to suit your needs. Sounds like you'd just need to take out the psychic demons, set one of the factions in space instead of another continent, and you're good to go there.

Personally, I'd just suggest removing Skills and instead setting a standard difficulty of 3 or 4, but that's because out of the six skills, only Mecha Combat is likely to see more than one use per Episode, and whoever has that even one point higher than the next guy is at a ridiculous advantage. (By that same token, I'd suggest rolling a new Initiative order each round, otherwise whoever specialized in that is going to be so sad.) Other than that, the core book has all the rules you'd need for a Gundamy game. I've been itching to try out this Combiners book, but this is not the setting for that. :P

All right, rough setting ideas.

Humanity has had colonies in space and on the Moon and Mars for just short of a century. The colonies have a specific cultural outlook that sees Earth citizens as wasteful and short-sighted, since living in an enviroment that is one mechanical failure from disaster imposes its own type of discipline on you. The Earth governments see the colonies as expensive and overly picky about finding and supplies.

After a long awaited shipment of parts for one of the L5 colonies turned out to be improperly manufactured and resulted in the death of the colony, anti-Earth sentiment peaked.

In response, the Lunar and Martian colonies formed the Ares-Selene Combine. The Combine began manufacturing colony goods and supplying any colony that paid them. The Earth Federation seized the shipments, eventually provoking a revolt by the Combine.

The Federation quickly pushed the Combine forces out of Earth orbit, but an elite Combine unit has intercepted a secret message detailing the Federation's new mobile suit prototypes being demonstrated at the L1 colony cluster.

The opening session would start en route to the demonstration, allowing for player scenes as desired, with the combat starting after the Federation test pilots are replaced by the PCs and the prototypes are stolen by the Combine.

Thoughts?

So the PCs are Combine agents?

I think the PC's are Federation pilots actually?

Could be either. I like the idea of being the guys who steal the prototypes for the Combine, but you could just as easily interrupt the theft and become the new Federation prototype pilots.

All the PCs on one side though.

I'm up for Combine agents stealing Federation tech, personally.

I'm always pro-Earth, but that's me. :-p

I expect to have the game open for recruitment by Monday. See you then!

I'm leaning toward the Combine as well.

The game is going live now. Check it out!
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