Mekton For Macross

[Roy Focker]

Here I'll give you a topic: "When comparing Mekton (II or Z) and the Offical Robotech RPG Mekton is the true Anime Mecha Roleplaying Game. Discuss."

[MjrMisaHayase]

Here I'll give you a topic:  "When comparing Mekton (II or Z) and the Offical Robotech RPG Mekton is the true Anime Mecha Roleplaying Game.  Discuss."

400901[/snapback]

All right then, Linda Richman, no need to get verklempt(sp).

Sorry about that. I'm having an SNL moment right now.

[the white drew carey]

Well, I found technical mech RPG's, being used in the anime genre, to be long, drawn out, and boring. Having a limited amount of spaces or actions you can perform per turn being rigidly controlled just sapped the fun out of it. This would suck in a game trying to portray the fast flying action of Macross or Gundam. It worked well for Battletech since the mecha in that were meant to be more of lumbering, hulking machines instead of the agile VF's we know and love.

[Roy Focker]

Glad someone got the SNL reference.

A large part of Mekton seems to be just creating mecha. After you've finish spending hours creating mecha the rest (combat and movement rules) seem pretty fast and simple. At least in theory I haven't played the system yet I'm starting to get collection of the books going. The rules of it seem to make mecha more mobile then in Palladium's nearly stationary Robotech.

[yellowlightman]

Or Silhouette.

Really, you could hire a dozen monkeys to write an anime roleplaying game system and it'd still be better than the haphazad garbage Palladium churned out.

[Penguin]

Or Silhouette.

Really, you could hire a dozen monkeys to write an anime roleplaying game system and it'd still be better than the haphazad garbage Palladium churned out.

400952[/snapback]

Totally Silhouette. I've been using it for Macross for years. You don't spend hours designing mecha but retain lots of crunchy details for the technophiles amongst your players.

[Gui]

I never tried Silhouette -all the more as it doesn't seem to be part of the topic btw... - but I always found the Mekton system very smooth as far as pure role-play is concerned. The mech' creation, on the other hand, slightly looks like a geek hobby But it can be entertaining at low doses...

[MjrMisaHayase]

For those anti-Palladium, may I suggesst Big Eyes, Small Mouth instead.

[Dax415]

Wow, I haven't thought about Mekton since 2002. The last I knew Mekton Zeta and Mekton Zeta Plus were pretty hard to come by. Have they posted the basic and advanced rules up on the net? Or does one need to hunt down the out of print books? I once read that the basic rules were up somewhere, but the advanced rules were not.

[Roy Focker]

The Zeta books aren't that hard to come buy bought Zeta last week and order Zeta Plus last night. Mekton II on the other hand is super easy to find and dirt cheap.

Here are the basic rules on the net:

http://www.mektonzeta.com/downloads/MektonAlpha.pdf

I think I'm impressed with Mekton is that is was specifically designed for Anime Mecha. Sure Palladium had use of license Robotech/Macross II characters & Mecha but they got that facts about them wrong and worst they used there house system without that much adjustment.

[Noyhauser]

Or Silhouette.

Really, you could hire a dozen monkeys to write an anime roleplaying game system and it'd still be better than the haphazad garbage Palladium churned out.

400952[/snapback]

Totally Silhouette. I've been using it for Macross for years. You don't spend hours designing mecha but retain lots of crunchy details for the technophiles amongst your players.

400953[/snapback]

Do you use Silcore3 or the Jovian 2 rules?

Personally I was one who thought Silcore was a bit of a disaster, and it ultimately made me leave HG. The Jovian II rules were by far the best in my mind.

[Dax415]

Didn't realize the Zeta Books were easy to find now. I looked on ebay and didn't see any though. Mind if I ask where you got them from? I use to have Mekton II and the Mekton Technical Guide. Thought the Technical Guide was great in its idea, it threw me off building mecha up.

[Roy Focker]

Didn't realize the Zeta Books were easy to find now.  I looked on ebay and didn't see any though.  Mind if I ask where you got them from?  I use to have Mekton II and the Mekton Technical Guide.  Thought the Technical Guide was great in its idea, it threw me off building mecha up.

401009[/snapback]

That's cause Ebay isn't the always the best place. I bought some of mine from a used book store. I also found plenty on Amazon and Abebooks.

[Dax415]

I would really like to get into this, wish there was a gaming group near Fairfield (Northern CA) I could join. Hope to hear more about how the system works and what house rules you come up with.

[Penguin]

Do you use Silcore3 or the Jovian 2 rules?

Personally I was one who thought Silcore was a bit of a disaster, and it ultimately made me leave HG. The Jovian II rules were by far the best in my mind.

401005[/snapback]

Jovian Chronicles was my original basis, although I have moved some stuff to SilCORE. I don't think SilCORE is all bad... my players prefer the new complexity system, for example. Since we never used the tactical rules, there's not a lot of difference between the pre- and post-SilCORE stuff.

[Grayson72]

I would really like to get into this, wish there was a gaming group near Fairfield (Northern CA) I could join.  Hope to hear more about how the system works and what house rules you come up with.

401370[/snapback]

Dude I'm in Sacramento, if you find a game I'm in.

[Cruel Angel's Thesis]

Haven't messed with the system for Jovian Chronicles, but I have worked with Mekton plenty and have been working on the Valkyries for Mekton. I prefer Plus for designing, Mekton II's design premise was weight yielded your points for building so it can be a problem. You decided your wieght figured your points (i think double your weight then you built it). I did like the setting they brought out in Mekton II, Mekton Empire.

Back to this Mekton was created to be anime roleplyaing game, its root was created from Gundam and from DunDraCon when feedback showed there was a market for a anime roleplaying game. How the design system used in Mekton II and reworked for Plus is a rather funny story. The orginial designer for Mekton II was Adrian Kaehler and according to Benjamin Wright was a rocket scientist (really) and he designed the sytem so he could make mechs to destroy his players with. Since Mike knew Adrian the system was adopted for Mekton II and has been part of Mekton since.

As for taking time in creating mecha, once you get the system down it goes pretty fast. I can crank out a mech in less then a half hour if i have a good concept idea before. Average time on the Valkyries is about 10 hours, usually checking the Valkyries before it to make sure I'm keeping them in line and looking at the Compendium to make sure i have everything in the right place. and after all that i have a good design for the Valkyries, almost overdone to the point of what was i thinking. Even had a sheet designed for FAST and Armor variant design. I like the system myself and probably won't change to any other cause i like the system and IMHO is the best for anime mecha destruction.

Roy Focker quick question which Mekton Z cover you have the first one with Yuji Kaida or the one from the Invasion Terra line?

Grayson72 hit me up man, I'm over in Natomas, i have 3 days I don't work and have been dying to get some gaming in. Send me a PM and lets see what we can work out.

Cruel Angel's Thesis

[Dax415]

Wow, other MW gamers in Northern CA! If Cruel Angel's Thesis wouldn't mind me tagging along (I don't mind traveling) that makes three of us. And I thought Grayson72 was just into macross models all this time. Cruel Angel's Thesis, do you pretty much stick with the book rules or have you modded some house rules? The last time I played a long while back was when Mekton II was in and the Tech book just came out.

[Ginrai]

Uhm, I like Macross and would be interested in trying RPGing, but I'm a lot closer to Oakland.

[Roy Focker]

I have the cover by Yuji Kaida with the clearly rip off of a GM fighting with a Zaku in front of the bridge of a battle ship.

If you have some conversions share them. I'm still waiting for Plus in the mail so I'm stuck making generic character conversions until then.

I read a few Macross/Robotech conversion online but I noticed a few things. I don't trust the stats made that seem designed for Robotech and most of the formatting is horrible. A blank white page with numbers all over the place. Instead of posting stats they post the cost of everything. The books uses tables to keep things clean and organized. It is very hard for a novice of the Game to make heads or tails of people posted stats without a book. That was one of the reason why I wasn't interested. Once I bought a dirt cheap copy of Mekton II it all started to make sense.

Great a in person game and I'm 10 hours away. I'll have to stick to message boards.

[Dax415]

I noticed the same thing about the conversions, I think they are all based on Robotech info and not the Macross Compendium. Roy, too bad you are 10 hours away it would have been cool if us MWers could get together for this game. What message boards were you planning on joining? Were you going to GM it or just be a character?

[Grayson72]

Cool I'm in for a game with just da three of us.

[Roy Focker]

macrossroleplay.org I've been there for a while and been trying to convince the palladium die hards of this better system.

[Cruel Angel's Thesis]

I'll get to posting the converions when i can, i have some stuff coming up on my days off, but I should be able to get the VF-1 and variants if nothing else, just going to be a pain to type it all out on this board, i haven't been able to make it work for stat posting, one reason i didn't post the F-14 or MiG-29 stats it just wouldn't fit properly, but i will probably work something out.

My conversations are from scratch, based on some ideas from the GM screen and working from there, i did borrow some ideas from the stating Benjamin Wright did for Macross Plus, but that was for the first 2 episodes so i have to figure out most on my own and repeated watching of the series. I really had to backtech the F-14 and MiG-29 to make them fit into the Macross universe.

Good Luck on converting the fans, Palladium fans like many for a certain system are diehards, the system is perfect and if you have a different opinion then well not going to type it out there might be kids reading. There is another gamin group for Macross using Fuzion and Mekton, but they are on crack with the designs I'll look at it and almost go blind from how torn up the system is and why everything has to have a ungodly amount of kills. Its scary.

Cruel Angel's Thesis

[Dax415]

macrossroleplay.org? I'll have to check it out, I've never played online before. Good luck with trying to convert the palladium crowd. Never understood why that company never updates its system though. Probably a part of why they are going down hill along with that big theft of theirs.

[yellowlightman]

Cool I'm in for a game with just da three of us.

401752[/snapback]

I'm over in Davis and I'd be down for a game, doesn't have to be Macross but some sort of Mekton/mecha game would be great. Most of my friends are only interested in FRPGs.

[MjrMisaHayase]

Cool I'm in for a game with just da three of us.

401752[/snapback]

I'm over in Davis and I'd be down for a game, doesn't have to be Macross but some sort of Mekton/mecha game would be great. Most of my friends are only interested in FRPGs.

401815[/snapback]

One complant: macrossroleplay.org hadn't been updated in nearly two years.

[sketchley]

Try the forums:

http://macrossroleplay.org/forums/index.php

The ongoing games are updated weekly and sometimes daily.

[Roy Focker]

More like one year. He just didn't update the main page to reflect it.

[Grayson72]

Playing online just ain't the same as having a bunch of guys sitting around the table, dice and papers everywhere, arguing with the GM about the feasibility of a VF doing a double back flip and shooting ten battlepods in the back. Oh and don't forget the pizza

[Roy Focker]

I agree that in person is more instant fun. Problem is all most people want to play stuff that is uncool or just different version of the same thing. How many FRPG do people really need?

Those that want to do something else or genre specfic have to go online. Then there are those like me who could possibly round up a few people but working a rotating schedule means I'd miss 50% of the games.

[Ginrai]

Bleh, I lived in Davis for about 9 months, but moved back to the bay area a year ago.

[Cruel Angel's Thesis]

I prefer gaming in person, but sometimes you have to settle for another way. I have run games over AIM. Was running 2 at one point, but it was a small number and then one left the Mekton game so I'm just running my BGC game. IM game was fun i could have the players make their rolls without each other seeing have them make their actions then described the whole round. Everything else was in main chat. It was fun wouldn't mind that again, but i prefer gaming in person.

As for answering a question i missed earlier Dax i use home rules if the game calls for it. Mostly i stay with the book unless i need extra rules, had to come up with a few for Macross and thats about it.

Cruel Angel's Thesis

[Grayson72]

I agree that in person is more instant fun.  Problem is all most people want to play stuff that is uncool or just different version of the same thing.  How many FRPG do people really need?

Those that want to do something else or genre specfic have to go online.  Then there are those like me who could possibly round up a few people but working a rotating schedule means I'd miss 50% of the games.

401955[/snapback]

Ok I give what's FRPG?

[MjrMisaHayase]

I agree that in person is more instant fun.  Problem is all most people want to play stuff that is uncool or just different version of the same thing.  How many FRPG do people really need?

Those that want to do something else or genre specfic have to go online.  Then there are those like me who could possibly round up a few people but working a rotating schedule means I'd miss 50% of the games.

401955[/snapback]

Ok I give what's FRPG?

402015[/snapback]

Fantasy Role Playing Game such as Dungeons & Dragons.