The Vision of Escaflowne in The Mecha Hack

Okay, here's an article that percolated while running a game of The Mecha Hack. This might even be a series, who knows.

Anyways. Released in 1996, The Vision of Escaflowne is a highly regarded anime that I should probably write more seriously about. Its currently available on All4. It was fairly unique at the time for taking the whole mecha concept and placing it into fantasy style fiction. It can also be viewed as something of a trope blender, mixing concepts usually aimed at Japanese boys with those aimed at Japanese girls, hence the intro.

Yes, Escaflowne is the rare mecha anime whose lead is both female and a non-combatant. And neither quality should be as rare as they are, TBH. But, obviously it does still have robot punching, with the mecha of the series designed like extensions of knightly plate mail, mimicking the movements of their wearers, while powered by a dragons heart. So here's a combat clip. Perhaps not watch all of it, if you want to avoid a minor spoiler.

The Zaibach Mecha

On first impression, adapting Escaflowne to The Mecha Hack should merely be a matter of changing names. Or just using the regular Black Hack. However, the series does feature the highly advanced Zaibach Empire, whose mass produced "guymelefs" have invisibility cloaks , flight capabilities, metamorphic weaponry, and flamethrowers. I.e. the baddies from the clip above. Running from them, and finding a countermeasure to them, is a significant part of early episodes. Mechanically, this would be an easy fix for a player character, just use the stock Scout, but as enemy? This would probably be a huge issue for a low level party, and require a more considered to approach to running a battle. This could easily take on a horror angle, as players would be continually paranoid, always fearing their deaths from an unseen foe. Below are some possible stats to use, or you can ignore this issue and create a more generic setting without them, for more “knightly” combat.

Alseides HD 4

Invisible: Starts the battle hidden, revealed after an attack.

Backstab: Adds 1d6 damage to attacks when hidden.

Flight: If not hidden, Ignore difficult terrain; reach far locations in one move

Liquid Metal Attack: Mobility, Close or Near, 1d8.

The Mods

So, to make a quick and dirty approximation of Escaflowne, apply the following changes to The Mecha Hack.

1) No ranged weapons or modules without explicit GM approval.

2) The Brawler class is unchanged.

3) The Striker class looses REACTOR CHARGE and gains SIDESTEP - When making its first move action in a turn, it does not provoke Opportunity Attacks.

4) The Scout class is limited to Zaibach characters only.

5) The Titan class replaces is ENERGY SHIELD with the Grappler module as a freebie.

What do you think?