Page 1 of 1

Mecha?

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 4:55 pm
by nedpatrick
Hey Everyone,

I'm excited for the release of the new edition. While I am waiting, can the experienced players tell me how well OVA does mecha combat? Thanks.

Ned

Re: Mecha?

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 11:16 pm
by StarRaven
OVA does mecha combat as well as it does any other sort of combat. (Very well, in my opinion.)

It's no different than any other sort of combat.

Re: Mecha?

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 6:14 pm
by nedpatrick
StarRaven wrote:OVA does mecha combat as well as it does any other sort of combat. (Very well, in my opinion.)

It's no different than any other sort of combat.
Cool. I didn't know if it had any mech-specific mechanics in it. Looking forward to the release!

Ned

Re: Mecha?

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 6:46 pm
by StarRaven
There's nothing really specific to mecha, but mecha can be easily built in the existing system. I ran a crazy space hijinks sort of game and a couple of the characters made mechs. They worked just fine. :3

You just build the mecha like it's a character. :wink:

Re: Mecha?

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 1:15 pm
by Chris Brady
Which can cause it's own type of issues. After all, how much damage does a 30 foot long beam cannon do compared to a 5+ ft person?

Re: Mecha?

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 1:25 pm
by CursedEmbrace
Chris Brady wrote:Which can cause it's own type of issues. After all, how much damage does a 30 foot long beam cannon do compared to a 5+ ft person?
Well, that's where the idea of 'scale' comes in I suppose, which is a part of the new book and has been discussed somewhere on the site before I think.

In the case of a mech firing some super laser at one of its gigantic-mecha-kin, you'd likely use whatever DX the attack has as normal, but if it fired at a small guy you might decide, because of the difference of scale you might give the attack more dice to roll, or give it more damage, or both.

Conversely, if the little man attacked the mech you may give it additional levels of Armoured or similar to compensate for the scale difference.

Re: Mecha?

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:13 pm
by StarRaven
Yes, that would be the time to use Scale. If one combatant has an overwhelming advantage, the book recommends giving them a +5. The example in the book is a guy trying to outrun a tank on flat ground -- no matter how fast the guy is or how slow the tank is, it's still a vehicle, and thus has an advantage. On the other hand, if they're trying to maneuver on a crowded street, because of sheer size, the tank has an inherent disadvantage. If a mecha is shooting a power beam at a normal human, give it +5 (or more) to its damage multiplier. You might also give it a penalty to its attack roll, since it's trying to target something extremely small.

However, in situations like this, my old GM had a rule of thumb. He called it The Chunky Salsa Rule. If, at any point, a character is hit by an attack or put in a situation in which he would realistically be reduced to the consistency of chunky salsa, we are not going to bother rolling damage.