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Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:06 pm
by GrayKnight
A friend of mine is about to start running a game set in the same universe as Iron-Blooded Orphans, and while I have watched the series, I wanna design my own Gundam. I'm not sure where to start with building one in terms of game mechanics, I know It would be the vehicle(mecha) ability, but a Gundam seems pretty complex. If anyone could help or pass some Ideas my way I would truly appreciate such a friendly senpai.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:11 pm
by Sabersonic
Don't mean to do this to trump my own horn, but I do have a topic that would at least get you a few ideas on how to start it up.

Might want to look at the later entries though, I've had a lot of brain farts. Still working on a few brain farts for my campaign as well.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:21 pm
by GrayKnight
Oh! Awesome thank you very much Sabersonic senpai!

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:50 pm
by Sabersonic
Welcome- OH! Before I forget, you need to consider what type of Gundam/Mobile Suit you want.

Assault Mobile Suits are designed to zoom past layers of defense to get at the objective, usually a warship of some kind. Thus they have high speed and armor, with presumably an equal amount of firepower, but poor maneuverability and possibly ill-suited for close quarters combat.

Fighter Mobile Suits, and their sub-varients of Close-Quarter Mobile Suits, are designed to take out Mobile Suits almost exclusively. So they're probably not as fast as an Assault, maybe not even that well armored but they are very agile to avoid those nasty rounds from hitting it as well as flanking it to deliver the final blow. The only difference between a Fighter and Close-Quarter is that one's more adept at ranged combat while the other is more beam saber range.

And then you have the....I forget it's either Attack or something like that, but I'd like to go with Support. These are the heavy hitters, the snipers and mobile artillery. These may or may not be heavily armored but they are heavily armed. Also, they're quite slow compared to the other two and even not as agile since they're mostly used for long-range combat. If not that, then as a Mobile Suit version of the SAW (Squad Assault Weapon) Gunner to fire a lot of lead down range.

EDIT: In case you need some stats, here are some from my own campaign, omitting a few weaknesses and flaws since they're campaign/setting-specific.
FIGHTER
Level - Ability
  • +1 - Agile
  • +1 - Combat Expert “Mobile Suit Combat”
  • +1 - Evasive
  • +2 - Quick
CLOSE COMBAT
Level - Ability
  • +2 - Attack “Mobile Suit Weapon Systems”
  • +1 - Evasive
  • +1 - Heightened Senses
  • +1 - Knowledge “Ranged Mobile Suit Combat”
  • +2 - Quick
  • +1 - Tough
Level - Weakness
  • -1 - Ineptitude “Melee Mobile Suit Combat”
ATTACKER
Level - Ability
  • +2 - Agile
  • +2 - Attack “Mobile Suit Weapon Systems” (Cancel x2, Melee Attacks)
  • +2 - Evasive
  • +1 - Heightened Senses
  • +2 - Knowledge “Melee Mobile Suit Combat”
  • +1 - Quick
  • +1 - Tough
Level - Weakness
  • -1 - Ineptitude “Ranged Mobile Suit Combat”
BOMBARDMENT/SUPPORT
Level - Ability
  • +2 - Attack “Mobile Suit Weapon Systems”
  • +2 - Heightened Senses
  • +2 - Knowledge “Ranged Mobile Suit Combat”
Level - Weakness
  • -1 - Frail
  • -1 - Slow
  • -2 - Ineptitude “Melee Mobile Suit Combat”
Also a forum link with Toysdream whom explains the whole Unit Type for Mobile Suits (UC at least) in case you were wondering.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:47 pm
by GrayKnight
Thanks for all the resources! However, I'm wondering something. I'm assuming you've seen IBO? Looking at The Gundam Wiki Barbatos is classed as a General-Purpose Mobile Suit, even Gusion Rebake is classed as a Custom General-Purpose Mobile Suit. So would these just fall under the Fighter Type? The Flauros is classed as Custom Transformable Artillery Mobile Suit so this would be Bombardment? Also I'm thinking of using these classifications you've shown me a little more like guidelines than absolutes for what each Gundam is. For example rather than thinking that the Fighter stats you've given is a template that all Fighter Type Gundams have.I would think that many Fighter Gundams have these abilities or similar ones, but don't have to use these specifically. I would do the same for all the classifications of course, that was merely an example.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:53 pm
by Sabersonic
Well a good rule of thumb about Mobile Suit Unit Types is "If it has no classification, it's generally a Fighter Type".

Anything Artillery-related when it comes to Mobile Suits, it's best to assume that they're Bombardment types. Personally I'm more fond of the Support-type classification since technically they are supporting other mobile suits in battle.

So long as you're consistent and you balance out the pros and cons not unlike real-world combat aircraft, it's fine to me. Just giving you some ideas to jump from.

OH! And since you're doing a Gundam of the IBO/PD universe, you might want to also add in a Weakness to reflect the fact that the Alaya-Vijnana System is required before it could be used.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:43 pm
by GrayKnight
Yeah I was already thinking about how the Alaya-Vijnana system would work. I guess the best way to make it work would be to make it a gear and have it add bonuses to things like Agile and Evasive.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:48 pm
by Sabersonic
I guess gear would work since those pilots need those odd back-mounted man-machine interfaces in order to connect with the Gundam itself.

Also considering the nature of the darn thing, you might as well add Combat Expert, Knowledge and/or Piloting to suggest that uneducated individuals could otherwise NOT use a mobile suit without it. Maybe make it a weakness to show that it also requires a mobile weapon that has compatibility with the Alaya-Vijnana System in order to function properly.

And I also assume that in this campaign, there'll be at least one satisfying end to a villain?

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:53 pm
by GrayKnight
Awesome! I really like that combat expert and knowledge idea! Didn't even think about it. And yeah the weaknesses is definitely a good idea. Also lol, I have no idea what my friend has planned villains or otherwise, but we'll see.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 5:19 am
by Malancthon
One thing I'd talk with your GM first is to cover how detailed you want to get into designing the mecha. Saber favors a lot of details and mechanics that might be overly complicated for what you might want to do.

For example, his Strike Gundam would technically require Vehicle level 18 or so. If the GM is not using the Vehicle ability, it might be less of a concern to go into details.

Over here I give an example of a mecha using much less detail to fit into the Vehicle ability. You can ignore the Mecha/Monstrous abilities if they don't fit in with your game, just replace them with Attack and Tough.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 11:04 am
by Sabersonic
Malancthon wrote:Saber favors a lot of details and mechanics that might be overly complicated for what you might want to do.
Well it's less of a preference to details and mechanics and more like allowing players the ability to customize their loadout to suit their play styles.

That and, well, not having to write up multiple profiles for what is effectively an environmental and mission type swap. Especially for a system as abstract as OVA2e.

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 1:01 pm
by Clay
I really need to catch up on my anime watching...

In any case, the Vehicle Ability is mainly there to handle game types where characters with and without vehicles mingle. (For instance, in a supers type campaign, it's kind of important that Batman gets called out for his fleet of Bat-Vehicles.)

But in something like Gundam, where all the major players have mecha, or the mecha are outright assigned by some military, actually pointing up the Vehicle as part of the character is not necessary and only stands in the way.

So whether you stat up every mecha-like detail or go for something more freeform, don't shy away from 18 point mecha if that's what you need. :D

Re: Mobil Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 4:13 am
by Sabersonic
Clay wrote:So whether you stat up every mecha-like detail or go for something more freeform, don't shy away from 18 point mecha if that's what you need. :D
Well in my Strike Gundam build's defense, I gotten it down to about +9 Vehicle/Mecha, same with my Gundam build at +7 Vehicle/Mecha. Double points and all.