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Who Loves Giant Robots? We ALL love Giant Robots. … · brave heroes of the Algol world were...
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24 GREATER GAMES INDUSTRY • #44 SPRING 2018 Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Who Loves Giant Robots? We ALL love Giant Robots. Or a preview of MEKTON ZERO by R. Talsorian Games continued on next page – “We have no business being here.” -Piers the Historian W ith this statement, we’ve set out to turn the entire world of Mekton upside down. See, the original premise of Mekton has always been that the brave heroes of the Algol world were daring mecha fighters who landed on a distant world, colonized it successfully, and went on to spoil the whole thing by engaging in a senseless, useless war with big robots. But in our new retelling of the tale, Mekton Zero, the colonists of Algol are actually a ragtag bunch of unprepared, pampered nobles, rescued by a group of mercenaries on the losing side of an intergalactic war, who crash land in the most badly organized attempt to set up a colony ever. In fact, they don’t even set out to colonize Algol, a huge water world teeming with gigantic, immicable life forms-- no, they only end up stuck there because their Captain, in a desperate attempt to avoid utter annihilation, stops the oncoming alien horde at the cost of their ride home. From then on, the epic tale of Algol is about a ragged group of survivors who have to huddle in heavily fortified stone cities just to keep the monsters at bay, until the rediscovery of a lost technology frees them to finally conquer their adopted home-world. Mekton Zero explores the idea of a world where giant robots are more than just warmachines; they are an integral part of a world where almost everyone has access to a multiton metal humanoid giant, becauise they need them just to survive. That’s what Mekton Zero is all about. More Than Dumb Machines: We also really wanted to make the MEKTONS—the giant robots you command-- more than disposable vehicles. This meant giving them some reason to be memorable. The breakthrough came when we realized that in almost every mecha show, the hero mecha is treated like an individual, even if it really is just a hunk of steel. Some shows take this even further, giving the mecha a definite awareness, but in this case, we didn’t want to take the player’s agency away from them; on the other hand, we did want their MEKTONS to be more of a personal vehicle. The compromise is a vehicle that has enough awareness to be interesting, but never enough to act independently of it’s “master.” In Mekton Zero, you don’t just create one character; you actually create two. One is your “Pilot” character—the person who drives around in a giant robot. But the other Character is the MEKTON your Pilot drives. Drives is actually a poor way of describing the relationship between your Pilot and their MEKTON. A better way to describe this relationship would be interacts with. On Algol, mecha are considered to be somewhat dimly sentient—about a bright as a really stupid horse—and your relationship with a given mecha is somewhat similar to that of a rider and their mount rather than a driver of an automobile. It’s got its own mind—not a terribly bright one, but still a defined personality that makes having your own thirty foot tall metal “pet” its own ” ” unique feel. Be the Hero of Your Own Mecha Anime Show: But Mekton has never been just about giant robots— it’s also always been a game about playing a character in an anime show who has a giant robot. So this time around, our plan was to make it easy to play a character that fit right into the genre by bringing the idea of Cyberpunk’s Roles to the Mekton universe. We also use a special system to make sure that whatever Role you play, your stats will be appropriate for the Role. That’s where your Profession fits in. Besides defining a group of players by what they do, Professions also define a certain array of skills, perks and benefits that go with the profession. And for the players who are uncommitted to a Profession, we also have the category of Friends; a group that hangs together for a common reason. You can be in any profession, no matter what your actual role. While certain Roles might have a harder time fitting into a Profession, like a dedicated Healer working as a Hunter, it’s possible that your Healer might fit into the Hunter role as someone who hunts down sick, injured or rare animals not to kill them, but to rehabilitate them. You can also change professions, allowing older and more experienced characters to create a career over time, possibly even using the same MEKTON in each career. The Profession you choose will also shape the Mekton you end up with. All of these designs have been built in the original MEKTON ZETA construction rules, and then converted into the simpler MEKTON ZERO format.
Transcript of Who Loves Giant Robots? We ALL love Giant Robots. … · brave heroes of the Algol world were...
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Who Loves Giant Robots? We ALL love Giant Robots. Or a preview of MEKTON ZERO
by R. Talsorian Games
continued on next page –
“We have no business being here.”
-Piers the Historian
With this statement, we’ve set out to turn the entire world of Mekton upside down.
See, the original premise of Mekton has always been that the brave heroes of the Algol world were daring mecha fi ghters who landed on a distant world, colonized it successfully, and went on to spoil the whole thing by engaging in a senseless, useless war with big robots. But in our new retelling of the tale, Mekton Zero, the colonists of Algol are actually a ragtag bunch of unprepared, pampered nobles, rescued by a group of mercenaries on the losing side of an intergalactic war, who crash land in the most badly organized attempt to set up a colony ever. In fact, they don’t even set out to colonize Algol, a huge water world teeming with gigantic, immicable life forms-- no, they only end up stuck there because their Captain, in a desperate attempt to avoid utter annihilation, stops the oncoming alien horde at the cost of their ride home. From then on, the epic tale of Algol is about a ragged group of survivors who have to huddle in heavily fortifi ed stone cities just to keep the monsters at bay, until the rediscovery of a lost technology frees them to fi nally conquer their adopted home-world. Mekton Zero explores the idea of a world where giant robots are more than just warmachines; they are an integral part of a world where almost everyone has access to a multiton metal humanoid giant, becauise they need them just to survive. That’s what Mekton Zero is all about.
More Than Dumb Machines:
We also really wanted to make the MEKTONS—the giant robots you command-- more than disposable vehicles. This meant giving them some reason to be memorable. The breakthrough came when we realized that in almost every mecha show, the hero mecha is treated like an individual, even if it really is just a hunk of steel. Some shows take this even further, giving the mecha a defi nite awareness, but in this case, we didn’t want to take the player’s agency away from them; on the other hand, we did want their MEKTONS to be more of a personal vehicle. The compromise is a vehicle that has enough awareness to be interesting, but never enough to act independently of it’s “master.”
In Mekton Zero, you don’t just create one character; you actually create two. One is your “Pilot” character—the person who drives around in a giant robot. But the other Character is the MEKTON your Pilot drives. Drives is actually a poor
way of describing the relationship between your Pilot and their MEKTON. A better way to describe this relationship would be interacts with. On Algol, mecha are considered to be somewhat dimly sentient—about a bright as a really stupid horse—and your relationship with a given mecha is somewhat similar to that of a rider and their mount rather than a driver of an automobile. It’s got its own mind—not a terribly bright one, but still a defi ned personality that makes having your own thirty foot tall metal “pet” its own “pet” its own “pet”unique feel.
Be the Hero of Your Own Mecha Anime Show:
But Mekton has never been just about giant robots— it’s also always been a game about playing a character in an anime show who has a giant robot. So this time around, our plan was to make it easy to play a character that fi t right into the genre by bringing the idea of Cyberpunk’s Roles to the Mekton universe. We also use a special system to make sure that whatever Role you play, your stats will be appropriate for the Role. That’s where your Profession fi ts in. Besides defi ning a group of players by what they do, Professions also defi ne a certain array of skills, perks and benefi ts that go with the profession. And for the players who are uncommitted to a Profession, we also have the category of Friends; a group that hangs together for a common reason. You can be in any profession, no matter what your actual role. While certain Roles might have a harder time fi tting into a Profession, like a dedicated Healer working as a Hunter, it’s possible that your Healer might fi t into the Hunter role as someone who hunts down sick, injured or rare animals not to kill them, but to rehabilitate them. You can also change professions, allowing older and more experienced characters to create a career over time, possibly even using the same MEKTON in each career. The Profession you choose will also shape the Mekton you end up with. All of these designs have been built in the original MEKTON ZETA construction rules, and then converted into the simpler MEKTON ZERO format.
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GREATER GAMES INDUSTRY • #44 SPRING 2018 Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk Industry Talk
Who Loves Giant Robots? - continued from pevious page.
Please visit R. Talsorian Games page ---, thank you.
And while as a rule we encourage GMs to set the basic parameters (All Military, All Civilian, Mixed Used Suits, all Experimental) for all the players in a single game group, within those parameters, there’s a lot of possibilities.
The idea behind it is simple: Most of the time, it’s easy to get a bunch of Mekton jocks together. Put em in the military and there you go. But Mekton Zero is set in a world of mecha, and in that world only a few people are actually serving in combat capacities. Our goal is to show the many ways in which having a giant humanoid of your very own can be useful and even fun, and Professions are a great way to show the many ways in which that can take place.
Now Everyone Can Love Giant Robots!
So whether it’s a mecha version of Law and Order or Mecha NFL Sunday Night, now your group has a reason to be together and use giant robots as part of that reason. Now you can be a mechanized pop idol; a wild animal hunter, a gridiron superstar, a secret agent, a swashbuckling pirate; even an annoying kid brother who hides in the trunk of the hero’s fi ghting machine. Because with Mekton Zero, everyone can love Giant Robots!
MEKTON
Mecha Manual II#MK1801, $14.00
Mekton Wars#MK1101, $15.00
Operation Rimfi re #MK1501, $16.00
Starblade Battalion#MK1211, $18.00
Tactical Display#MK1901, $15.00
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