The Mecha Hack: Civilian Applications

Occasionally, the Mecha genre gives us giant robots doing something other than violence. Sometimes it's just around the edges of the lore; such things being spin-offs of spacesuits, or construction vehicles. More rarely, that's kinda the point of things. The archetypal example is Patlabor, a episodic comedy anime OVA, turned TV series, turned serious film series, turned live action. This sees a fairly grounded take on the Mecha concept, with "Labors" arising from big construction projects, and prompting law enforcement to acquire some. I really wish there was more convenient youtube clips of it, and that I'd seen more. I've just kept missing it, somehow. Nevertheless, here are a few ideas for how to include civilian-oriented giant robots in your Mecha Hack game.

A Sample Cop Class

The class below assumes that your idea of a Police Officer is someone closer to the "British Bobbie" ideal, than the overly-militarised American Dirty Harry trope. I.e. someone trained to bring offenders in alive, de-escalate a situation, and only carry firearms in matters of extreme seriousness. If you wanted a more “shooty-bang-bang” take on law enforcement, you can just use the regular classes and call it the SWAT team. Of course, this is not to suggest British coppers are any less prone to racism, corruption, and outright villainy than anyone else. Especially given recent events. But what I'm aiming for here is the film Hot Fuzz and The Ankh Morpork City Watch. Use, or cynically subvert, as you see fit.

Patrol Officer Chassis

Hit Die d8 Damage Die d8 Reactor Die d6

Starting HP

1d8 + 4

Weapons and Armour

All handheld weapons, shields, & armour

Levelling Up

Roll your hit die to gain new hit points. Roll to see if attributes increase, rolling twice for Mobility and System. At levels 3, 6, & 9, gain a new module.

Starting Equipment

Revolver (Light Ranged Weapon), Stun Baton (Light Melee Weapon), Shield (2AP), Patrol Armour (3AP), Comlink, assorted Police tools, paperwork, and paraphernalia.

Design Features & Weapons

Protect & Serve: see Kinetic Absorbers, page 17.

You're under arrest: You may choose to have a successful melee attack inflict only "disabling damage". This works just like normal damage, except that if this removes the last HP a foe has, that foe is incapacitated rather than destroyed.

A Sample Labor Mecha Class

The rulebook gives a fair few examples of these as foes, but not as player characters. Logically, such things should be based around improvised attacks and feats of strength. Ranged attacks would be problematic, possibly based around modules and Reactor die, as these are explicitly not meant for combat. The class below draws most directly on the famous Power Loader from the Aliens franchise, something I wish to see again at some point. Other example includes the aforementioned Patlabor, and Gundam's Worker Zaku.

Teamster Chassis

Hit Die d8 Damage Die d8 Reactor Die d6

Starting HP

1d8 + 4

Weapons and Armour

All handheld melee weapons & light armour.

Levelling Up

Roll your hit die to gain new hit points. Roll to see if attributes increase, rolling twice for Power and System. At levels 3, 6, & 9, gain a new module.

Starting Equipment

Industrial Claws (Light Melee Weapon) Tough Hull (3AP), Comlink, assorted builders paraphernalia, I.e cup of tea, Yorkie Bar, tabloid newspaper etc.

Design Features

Grapple & Lift: As a Use action, test Power to hold a close foe in place. It may not move away from you until you fail a Power, Mobility, or System test.

Lift & Throw: Following your melee attack, you may test Power to throw an enemy you just defeated at another close target for 1d8 damage. Roll your Reactor Die.

 

 

Alternatively, you may wish to represent such a machine being slowly upgraded to combat grade. In this case a player could have the option to gain a new weapon, shield, or armour proficiency at each level up or third level.

A Sample Sports Class

Would people use giant robots in sport? I have no idea of how sport works. I know they already use armoured roombas for deathmatches, but would you see stuff like races? Would there be mecha jogging around the Nürburgring? Would there be sub-cultures of highly customised vehicles with their own gangs? Would Top Gear even have to change its name? The following assumes that civilian mecha exist, which can be tuned for speed, and possibly for the bass.

Boy Racer Chassis

Hit Die d6 Damage Die d6 Reactor Die d6

Starting HP

1d6 + 3

Weapons and Armour

All single handed melee weapons, shields.

Levelling Up

Roll your hit die to gain new hit points. Roll to see if attributes increase, rolling twice for Mobility & Presence. At levels 3, 6, & 9, gain a new module.

Starting Equipment

Knuckleduster (Light Melee Weapon), Shield (2AP),  Comlink, Deafening Sound System, Furry Dice, etc.

Design Features 

Speed Freak: you can take 2 move actions in a single Moment without having to roll your Reactor Die for repeating an action.

Watch this!: Once per moment, you may roll your Reactor die to limit the damage you just suffered, in daring manoeuvre. If your Reactor die degrades, you suffer the damage as normal, otherwise it is reduced to 1. Abilities of friendly mecha do not affect this roll, I. E the Auxiliary class Core Overrride ability.

Wrapping things up

Well, there we go. I may do more stuff on Patlabor if I get to around to watching more of it. If you end up using these rules, please drop me a comment.