MEKTON ZERO

Please forgive the Kickstarter plug.

Mekton is back! The original mecha anime tabletop RPG is back!

While so many gamers were plodding around the battlefield, micromanaging heat output of a couple of walking tanks in that other game in the mid-1980’s*, the rest of us were recreating what we saw on Mazinger, Gundam, Macross, Dougram, Votoms, Escaflowne, Five Star Stories, or any number of other mecha anime worlds with Mekton. And, unlike some other, more well know RPGs, Mekton kept getting better with each new edition!

Mekton was always a great mecha anime wargame wrapped in a very good RPG. This time, Mekton Zero will be a specifically designed to work as a wargame as well as an RPG. Mekton Zero is also designed to be compatible with Mekton Zeta, so you can port over your characters and mecha. And there will be new miniatures.

Yes, it’s a Kickstarter, but Mr. Pondsmith and R. Talsorian Games have been making tabletop RPGs for over 30 years; classics like Castle Falkenstein, Teenagers from Outer Space, Cyberpunk, and series specific games like Bubblegum Crisis and V.O.T.O.M.S.


From the Kickstarter page:

”What about previous editions?

    Zero is based on same systems as Mekton Zeta and Zeta +

    Build your own Mekton using Zeta and Zeta+ and use it in the Zero setting.

    Play as a role-playing game

    Play as a squad based tabletop wargame

    Play in customized arena combat.

What's next?

    New gaming miniatures for Mekton Zero.

        New mecha figures

        New hero character figures

        Giant alien beast and monster figures

    Follow-on books with new mecha for factions in the Zero setting

    New and interesting hero/villain characters

    Novels and manga planned to support the RPG.

    Future online world and video games being developed”


Give it a look. If it’s for you, then become a backer.

As of this posting, it’s 67% funded – in less that 48 hours of being live.

Update:  69% funded, $13,900 pledged, 28 days to go!

Update:  83% funded, $16,685 pledged, 28 days to go!

Aw, heck. Here's the automatically updating widget:



*  Please note: there’s nothing wrong with plodding around the battlefield, micromanaging heat output of a couple of walking tanks, but it didn’t do on the table what the mecha did on the TV screen – which is what got me interested in gaming giant, stompy robots to begin with!

It Takes a Gamer to Build a Really, Really Small Village: Part 1

Foamboard, MDF bases, and fake fur: the stuff of legends. 

This will log the efforts of trying to build a small “Viking” village for 28mm skirmish gaming. 

Started semi-serious planning of this project recently. Wandered around online and decided that timber A-frame huts with thatched rooves were period and quite common. Yes, the historical wargamer is slipping out. Get used to it. Fear naught: during this time it was believed that the world was flat, magic was real, and all sorts of monsters roamed the Earth. There will be dragons as well as dragonships in my games. But that will be later. 

Found some 6” x 6” and a 6” x 12” piece of MDF board in the hoard, so those shall be the bases for smaller huts and a longhouse. Yes, they might be a bit on the large side, but the figures will fit more easily inside. The rooves will be removable so that figures and other goodies may be secreted within; which brought up the subject of roofing material. 

Again, roving around the interwebz found some serviceable examples of model thatching done with fake fur, but no tutorials. Posted a query on a miniature wargaming site about it which produced many helpful suggestions, as well as attempts from folks who were determined to seduce me with the power and glory of cotton towels soaked in PVA. Almost half the thread was devoted to dishtowels, and some of the posters were very grumpy about it. Saw the examples posted and they looked unappetizing, so, unswayed, I moved on. To each their own, fellas. 

Having built a few buildings and ruins before, the project doesn’t seem that difficult, though thatching will be a new skill to develop. It seems pretty straight forward, though the finishing will dwell more in the realm of art than science. Experimentation shall take place on the huts, with the conclusions executed on the longhouse. We shall see.

Vikings are the New Pirates!

Remember a few years back when Pirates of the Caribbean movies were all the rage? In the microcosm of miniature wargaming, piratical miniature battles also gained additional table-love. Like many, I painted a small band when one of the local groups started a skirmish campaign using Legends of the High Seas.

And now it’s time for the Vikings to take center stage! How do I know this? 

• Several sets of Dark Ages/Vikings rules have been or shall soon be released, and even some older ones re-released.
• New Viking figures are being produced in metal and plastic.
  
• The History Channel has a scripted miniseries on the topic: Vikings. *UPDATE*: A second season of 10 episodes has been ordered!
• How to Train Your Dragon (2010) - a CGI children's movie about Vikings with Scottish accents learning to live with dragons - spawned a successful TV show, Dragons: Riders of Berk, and a second movie is in the works for release in 2014. 
• Inexpensive lots of Viking miniatures have disappeared from eBay and other online markets, only to be replaced by packs of new figures at retail prices or unimpressively painted, used armies.
• The cover of the flyer from the Miniature Figure Collectors of America has Vikings on the cover.

Coincidence? I think not!

I’m quite happy about this because it’s always been a period of interest, with four painted warbands already in the collection. Yes, being ahead of a miniature wargaming trend is an odd experience.

Modified a set of simple rules for Viking skirmishing a couple years back that are fun, fast and FREE: RAVENFEAST - newly updated, version 1.2. Sample stats that are given were designed for ease of play at conventions, but rules for designing your own troops are included. Remember: these are not the legions of Rome; they’re Scandinavian farmers behaving badly!

I was fortunate enough to run a driftage rights skirmish at the local club a couple weeks back which inspired painting another two basic warbands (in the works) and then expanding them all. Also need to make up a serviceable farmstead for raiding and burning.

Any suggestions on a good online how-to for thatched rooves on wargaming buildings?

Thanks for stopping by!

VOID RACERS: the Second Playtest!

And this is slightly after where we all made it through the first gate and promptly flew off the edge of the mat!

Got together with a few members of the local club and had another go at Void Racers. And, boy!, did we go. Right off the mat. Inertia does, indeed, fight you both tooth and nail. 

This was a four player game around a new course: a simple loop with 3 numbered gates. As can be seen in the photo at the top, a few gas clouds were added to grant cover but not imperil movement as they act like stationary, perpetual smoke clouds.

All 4 racers made it out of the starting gate at maximum acceleration. The next turn we all crossed the firing line; mayhem ensued. So far, so good.

Here's where the education started. It had been discovered that speed was a form of cover, so going faster (at least twice as fast as your nearest opponent) was better than going slower. Everyone increased their speed. We all blasted through the first gate.

It was at this point that Newton bitch-slapped us. Unable to generate enough thrust - or temporarily unable to control our racers due to a critical hit - we discovered that the universe may be infinite, but felt game mats are not. Eventually, we made it back on course (see what I did there?) and dropped our speeds. 

Then the body-count started to climb. Weapons fire and critical hits took their toll on our racers. By the passing of the third gate, there was only one racer left.


Things learned:

Like all proper, old school wargames, clipboards were required!

There was the desirable effect of players having to choose between lining up an attack, or favorably positioning themselves for their next movement phase.

The race course will be surrounded by a energy barrier that allows errant racers to return to the race though at very low speeds. Have to see if this will be abused.

The dogfighting aspect of the game seems to be working, but the racing portion still need some tweaking, as it's proving far too deadly. Simple solution: there will be two levels of play - racing and dogfighting. Instead of inflicting damage, racing will use the same rules and weapons for combat, but the damage will be nonlethal and short-lived. Thrust points instead of structure points will be lost for a turn, and critical hits will temporarily disable random systems. Combat will still have a part in the race, but racing shall be what wins the game.

And, yes, we're still using counters. The miniatures are on the assembly table.

Thanks for stopping by!

Even More VOID RACERS!

Sample Work In Progress Racer Play Sheet.

Fear all the little blanks that need to be filled in! Well, not really.

Welcome back!

The top third of the sheet is where all the information about the racer goes: thrust points, modifiers, places to track damage, etc. The gray box in the center is for listing weapons, with range, ammo, and any "to Hit" modifiers and spacial rules. Those familiar with MEKA TAC - GIANT STOMPY ROBOT EDITION will notice a similarity with that game's mecha sheets.

The rest of the sheet is for tracking your racer's movement across the table each turn. As the racer's movement during the previous turn has a effect of how it may move this turn, this information needs to be recorded. Each turn has its own line.

Initiative = last turn's speed + modifiers + die roll. The higher the score, the earlier in the turn your racer activates. This is a racing game; speed is good.

TP (Thrust Points) Spent: It's a spot to jot down the number of thrust points used in the current activation. Each racer has a finite number of them, and unspent thrust points cannot be saved for later use.

Vector: This is where the shorthand notation (usually one or two pairs of a letter and a number) of where you'll end up at the end of this activation, and where you'll end up next activation if thrust points are not used. Movement is based from where you'll end up if the racer does nothing, not from where the racer starts its activation. Momentum is a cruel mistress, so plan ahead.

Speed: The number of hexes the racer enters during its activation. This is the path from where the racer starts its activation to where it ends its activation. Do not count any turns, only movement through hexes.

Facing: The racer's final facing at the end of its activation, or latest facing, as certain factors may force a change the racer's facing outside of its activation. Thrust comes out the back of a racer, so where it's pointed is important.

VOID RACERS is MEKA TAC - GIANT STOMPY ROBOT EDITION with a slightly more complex movement system. More about that next posting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Void Racers Mini Playtest #1

Furball at the First Gate, End of Second Turn.

Had a quick playtest this weekend. As it was just one game of several others planned, it ended up only lasting a few turns. We had 4 independent players, while I refereed. The players were experienced gamers, but not regular wargamers, so their gameplay was very educational.   

The VOID RACERS Playtest Course.

The map above was the intended course, but on a small table. The players easily grasped most of the mechanics, though the movement system took a little experience to master.

Observations:

The players didn't gracefully swoop around the bottom of Gate 1 to get to Gate 2; that would have impeded shooting the crap out of each other. They passed through the first gate, then burned their thrust points to immediately go back through in the other direction. As they had all passed through the gate in the correct way, there was nothing lost by going back through the other way. It's space; you can do that.

Area effect weapons are very, very messy in close quarters.

Bigger play areas are preferred, as there is greater opprotunity for maneuvering out of weapons' range.

The game is doing what was envisioned, so work shall continue.

More Void Racers

Preview of a Sample VOID RACERS Race Course Carousel.

Racing is the core of VOID RACERS. Okay, racing while shooting at the other racers is the core of VOID RACERS. I mean, who would pay perfectly good credits just to watch a bunch of vehicles making continuous left-hand turns for hours on end without any weapons-fire? Booooring.

Race Course Basics: 

The orange line with arrows shows the intended flow of the course. The course above is "once through"; no laps.

The red line is the firing line. A racer's weapons are locked until it passes that point in the course. After that, weapons are hot and crowd goes wild! And there is nothing stopping the pilot from shooting at the slowpokes who still have their weapons locked.

The lines with circles at the ends are gates that the racer must pass though. They represent a pair of stationary buoys marking the location and size of the gate. A racer may need to pass though the same gate more than once in a race, and not necessarily in the same direction.

The green gate is the starting gate. Racers must start the race behind it and pass through it to enter the course. 

The three blue, numbered gates represent narrow areas the racers must pass through in a particular direction and order. Going through the wrong way or in the wrong sequence does not count towards course completion. Note that one gate is labeled "1 & 4", meaning that the racers must pass though it twice - when entering and exiting the loop portion of the course.

The black gate is the finish line. Again, a racer must pass in between the buoys to finish the course.

The first racer that finishes the course wins the race.