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After seeing the other Mech idea thread, i figured id toss in my hat, with my own thread so as not to hijack, with an idea i've had for afew years now. I've always been a big fan of the gundam series, and i've wanted a table top game to play.. So i figured why not try to work up several ideas of my own, and see how that could end up working. Im still a long way from having anything fully set, But i have some general rules ideas written down, that i thought i would share. At first, i want to keep this as simple as i can, Setting durring the One year war, and limiting to only mobile suits, No armors, no vehicles, no infantry.. atleast not at this early stage in the game. I see the game where each player controls anywhere from a single mobile suit squadron, up to a Detatchment of 4 or 5 squadrons. Every Suit has characteristics that set it apart from other types, that ill list below.

Movement: Should be simple, How far a suit can move under walking speed. Double this if you want to run, You wont be able to bring weapons to bare this turn, But you get a bonus to your evasion. There should be an idea for the use of backpack boosters too, Im thinking along the lines of 1.5 times distance, you can still fire a weapon, but no 'heavy' weapons.

Targeting Ability: This is the score that tells how good a pilot, and the onbored systems, are at tracking movement and locking onto enemy suits for long range engagements. It provides a bonus to your rolls for shooting.

Evasion Ability: This is a mixture of the pilot's awareness in combat, and the reaction time of the suit itself. This provides the bonus to your roll to avoid being hit.

Armor: Again, this one is simple. Its your armor value, It shows how much damage you can asorb per shot before it starts effecting your systems and frame.

Then, You have the different weapon systems. Everything from machine guns, Artillary cannons, Missile pods, and beam weaponry. Each has its own rate of fire, type (ala heavy, assault, etc) And possible special rules, Such as splash damage, knockdown, the firing suit needs to be stationary, or so forth. What im having problems with though, is deciding how to actually handle beam based weaponry. In the show, they tended to have the effect of out right ignoring armor.. but game wise, that might be a problem. Also i see shields playing a role in game, but again, this is something im not sure how to impliment, Could it be, they take x-amount of damage untill their destroyed, and then shots hit the suit?

While were on the topic of wound allocation, Could a set up similar to the wound chart on a Warmachine jack be the ideal way to go about it? Or some other system?

And as a quick example of the combat system, how i have it thus far:
P1 opens fire on P2. P1 rolls XD6 where X=weapons rate of fire, and then adds his TA to each shot. This is then compaired to P2's Roll of 1D6 added to his EA. For every roll equal or higher then P2's total, one shot Hits. Damage is then calculated as D6- P2's Armor score per hit.

So say, P1 fires 4D6+TA3, and scores a 4, 7, 7, and 9. Then P2 rolls D6+EA3, for 7. Three shots hit. Then moving onto damage, P1 rolls a 3, 4, 1. P2 has an armor value of 2. The modifies values are 1, 2, and negated, for a total 3 points of damage.

I'd like so see what my fellow dakkaites think on this

There was a game called 'GunplaScape' that was based on the Heroscape roll mechanics and tiles using the 1/400 Gundam trade figures. The rules should be floating around somewhere on the net.

I would get my hands on the old Mekton Zeta/Mekton Plus RPG rules which have a very, very robust mech building system and are actually an excellent miniature rules if you set the movement distances and gun ranges to be whatever inches. It's an RPG of anime mecha combat that is pretty much a wargame with RPG rules tacked on.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=25403&it=1

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=1556&it=1


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A source of information about the different Gundam mecha:

http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Might I suggest sticking with the 1/144 Gundam kits for wargaming? They're still big, but definitely more appropriately sized for gaming.

If you're in the US (or Canada) and don't have a local source, this place is pretty much the best Gundam store on the net:

http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com/

If someone's in Canada, I'd highly recommend Hobbywave for large orders. They only use couriers and have $20 flat shipping, so big orders only.

http://www.hobbywave.com/help.html

There has to be some sort of gundam battle game in Japan there just has to be. Have to ask my friends in Japan.

Kirika wrote:There has to be some sort of gundam battle game in Japan there just has to be. Have to ask my friends in Japan.

Why would they? Space is at a premium over there, and the strategy niche is filled with video games. I really wish they'd release Ghiren's Greed over here.

I've heard of a Gundam tabletop game but I can't remember anything about it.

We need Sir Motor to research it.

Kilkrazy wrote:I've heard of a Gundam tabletop game but I can't remember anything about it.

We need Sir Motor to research it.

Gundam Battle System

Written by former GW employee Nick Davis.

1st ed. uses 40K 3rd, 2nd ed uses LotR, and I'm working on an unofficial 3rd/revised 1st ed using Flames of War. Could use some playtesters at some point.

I've been playing it since original release(and IIRC, Whitedragon used to play, too). Uses either Mobile Suit in Action action figures or 1/144 scale models.

Bit of warning, it's Universal Century only, so no Wing/Seed/etc. uber suits.

frozenwastes wrote:I would get my hands on the old Mekton Zeta/Mekton Plus RPG rules which have a very, very robust mech building system and are actually an excellent miniature rules if you set the movement distances and gun ranges to be whatever inches. It's an RPG of anime mecha combat that is pretty much a wargame with RPG rules tacked on.

Holy Crap! I used to play that game. I was totally excellent in a back in the day sort of way!. Thanks for dredging up the many many Mekton memories!

-MightyG

Kirika wrote:There has to be some sort of gundam battle game in Japan there just has to be. Have to ask my friends in Japan.

There is, it uses the 1/400 trade figures I talked about earlier.

I don't believe it is supported anymore.

Tau

Cyporiean wrote:

Kirika wrote:There has to be some sort of gundam battle game in Japan there just has to be. Have to ask my friends in Japan.

There is, it uses the 1/400 trade figures I talked about earlier.

I don't believe it is supported anymore.

If we could get a copy it could be translated for western use.

There seems to be a lot of interest in Mecha style games all of a sudden. If people want to write a new, modern set it will be helpful to have as many examples of existing rules as possible.

ATM we have the following:

Battletech
Heavy Gear
Mekton (OOP)
Mobile Suit Gundam Battle System (OOP)
Unknown Japanese rules

There are a couple of card based Gundam games but I think they use a variation of the Dominion card game rules.

Kilkrazy wrote:

Cyporiean wrote:

Kirika wrote:There has to be some sort of gundam battle game in Japan there just has to be. Have to ask my friends in Japan.

There is, it uses the 1/400 trade figures I talked about earlier.

I don't believe it is supported anymore.

If we could get a copy it could be translated for western use.

There seems to be a lot of interest in Mecha style games all of a sudden. If people want to write a new, modern set it will be helpful to have as many examples of existing rules as possible.

ATM we have the following:

Battletech
Heavy Gear
Mekton (OOP)
Mobile Suit Gundam Battle System (OOP)
Unknown Japanese rules

There are a couple of card based Gundam games but I think they use a variation of the Dominion card game rules.

http://www.hlj.com/product/HBJ25328
Here is the rule book we failed at translating and decided to say screw it and make our own system. Its OOP, but you might be able to find a copy at Book Off or other used shop.

and here are the models that HLJ still has stock of. The game is called 'Gundam Collection'.
http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist?SeriesID=655&Dis=2

I remember coming across a rather odd homebrew system, a while back. It was rather simple, with few stats per model and (I think) a single D6 deciding most actions. The novel part was that it was designed to work with anyone's Gundam collection. Smaller figures were obviously more practical, but everything from movement to weapon ranges were measures in "lengths." This could be a predetermined measurement or it could be an arbitrary object, like a pencil or a chopstick, allowing you to scale the rules to suit the size of your play area and models.

oadie wrote:I remember coming across a rather odd homebrew system, a while back. It was rather simple, with few stats per model and (I think) a single D6 deciding most actions. The novel part was that it was designed to work with anyone's Gundam collection. Smaller figures were obviously more practical, but everything from movement to weapon ranges were measures in "lengths." This could be a predetermined measurement or it could be an arbitrary object, like a pencil or a chopstick, allowing you to scale the rules to suit the size of your play area and models.

Could this be the one you're talking about?
http://www.ironhands.com/MSera.htm
It fits your description; with use of figures from your collection and no definite movement lengths.

I appreceate your input, Though i was also looking for a little feedback on the proposed rules i'm coming up with for my own system too, Not just "Use this system, or this system"

I have a box of gundam models in my basement with some rules my buddy and I wrote during 40K third edition. I can't remember the specifics but it mainly used an action-reaction type of system, where one player would make an action during his turn and the other had a chance of making a reaction type of attack that had a lower chance of success. If it was a block, it had a higher chance of success, but it gave you the opportunity of making a high power attack during your opponent's turn. I'll go rummage through my storage boxes and find the ruleset (we wrote it during Cartoon Network's Gundam Wing, so those models were basically Primarchs).

I do remember us buying quite a lot of N scale train terrain at one point in order to make a 4' by 4' board.

Platuan4th wrote:1st ed. uses 40K 3rd, 2nd ed uses LotR, and I'm working on an unofficial 3rd/revised 1st ed using Flames of War. Could use some playtesters at some point.

Pity that the v2 unit list is completely centered around Gundam 8th MS Team. Suggest the following be added in your 3rd Ed. If you wanted to go Flames of War, you could even include the land battleships.

Federation Forces:
Anti-mobile suit platoon (4x Regina Anti-tank gun)
Type 61 MBT
Type 61 Type 5 MBT
Heavy Guntank
RGM-79D
RGM-79E
RGM-79G GM Sniper
RX-77D Guncannon Mass Production Type

Principality of Zeon
MS-06F Zaku II
MS-05L Zaku Sniper
MS-06K Zaku Cannon
MS-06V Zaku Tank
MS-07A Gouf
MS-06B Gouf
MS-09F/trop Dom Tropen
MSM-04 Acguy
MSM-10 Zock
YMS-18 Xamel

http://wargeneral.tripod.com/Gundam.html

An historical link of sorts. Sure, it's on tripod, but seems accurate enough.

hell I'd play it!
I'll lead my Zeon army vs some federation of eath forces, and kick ass with my Zaku I' and Zaku II's!!!

Good you guys hear about the game.

The first group to promote the game was on a yahoo page, but it is now in Facebook too. Since the game is not very popular around the world there are only like 3 players in my country, but I still enjoy collecting the 0079-0083 period of the Universal Century timeline.

The facebook non profit group is called: Gundam Collection 1/400 Tactical Battles

Kilkrazy wrote:
ATM we have the following:

Battletech
Heavy Gear
Mekton (OOP)
Mobile Suit Gundam Battle System (OOP)
Unknown Japanese rules

There are a couple of card based Gundam games but I think they use a variation of the Dominion card game rules.

DP9 actually has a Mekton-based mech game called Jovian Chronicles Lightning Strike with giant mechs, space fighters, and capitol ships that is a fair bit more Gundam than the standard Heavy Gear. Supposedly, they're working on a new version of it too as it has fallen by the wayside development wise over the past 5+ years.

warboss wrote:
DP9 actually has a Mekton-based mech game called Jovian Chronicles Lightning Strike with giant mechs, space fighters, and capitol ships that is a fair bit more Gundam than the standard Heavy Gear. Supposedly, they're working on a new version of it too as it has fallen by the wayside development wise over the past 5+ years.

I think the first version of Jovian Chronicles RPG used the Mekton rules set (way before my time) but I don't know if Lightning Strike has any really left in it. Lightning strike is a neat mix of relatively 'hard' space combat rules with some cinematic gundam-ish elements (Like mecha that can gut large starships with a good melee attack). I will admit I've never played, but there's some neat rules. It's very 'sensor' based in many ways, and not quite the common "Space combat, but based on 'Age of Sail' mechanics" setup found in many games.

Balance wrote:

warboss wrote:
DP9 actually has a Mekton-based mech game called Jovian Chronicles Lightning Strike with giant mechs, space fighters, and capitol ships that is a fair bit more Gundam than the standard Heavy Gear. Supposedly, they're working on a new version of it too as it has fallen by the wayside development wise over the past 5+ years.

I think the first version of Jovian Chronicles RPG used the Mekton rules set (way before my time) but I don't know if Lightning Strike has any really left in it. Lightning strike is a neat mix of relatively 'hard' space combat rules with some cinematic gundam-ish elements (Like mecha that can gut large starships with a good melee attack). I will admit I've never played, but there's some neat rules. It's very 'sensor' based in many ways, and not quite the common "Space combat, but based on 'Age of Sail' mechanics" setup found in many games.

I'm not familiar with the old mekton rules but I'll clarify in that I meant based in the Mekton universe in that the game has the old mechs from that game and some additional ones. DP9 dropped the name in the 90's but its still the same universe the last time I checked (which was admittedly years ago when the Lightnining Strike stuff came out).