Orks, orks, orks, orks, orks, orks, orks, orks, orks. Periodically, I try to force all my obsessions into a huge great nerd sandwich of a thing. So, this article happened. About how you could run Gorkanauts and Morknauts in The Mecha Hack. You might ask, why not do Imperial Knights, or Titans? Or T'au Battlesuits? Or Marines? Surely if you wanted to do a 40K game in The Mecha Hack, there are other more obvious candidates? Well, perhaps, but Orks are the faction I play, so they get rules instead. What? There's a new codex soon? Oh, its just a happy coincidence, as I've been sitting on this one for months.
A Word On Scale
The Warhammer 40,000 setting has almost every conceivable weapon of sci-fi war, but its treatment of giant robots does not line up easily with the Japanese Mecha genre. On the one hand, we have what are basically mini-mecha with an infantry support role or western-style walking tanks. On the other? Mobile Fortresses big enough to appear on a map, which will be redrawn after they've done firing. These rules aim towards the larger end of category one.
Notes on Converting the 'Orkanauts
Morkanauts and Gorkanauts carry a wide variety of secondary guns just basically because they can and its awesome. It's a mess of rokkits, big shootas, skorchas, & kustom-megablastas. While mainly mentioned for purposes of flavour, they may be collectively represented by a light ranged weapon that does not count towards the hand limit, termed “Ovver-Gunz”. Gorkanauts and Morkanauts also have interior space for 6ish Orks in cramped conditions, the “Belly Cabin”. This is an opportunity for tag-along NPCs, consumables, and tag-along NPCs that work as consumables. I mean, where else is a Snakebite gonna keep his herd of angry squigs? While there is an obvious overlap between a Gorkanaut and a Morkanaut, I've tried to retain the different tactical roles they fill in 40K. As such, the Gorknaut is great at killing Swarms, but mediocre at ranged combat against other mecha. The Morkanaut is the more rounded of the two in this ruleset, as it was the anti-tank variant, and slightly less melee focused. It comes with a Kustom Forcefield, because of course it does.
Clan Kulture Modules
Ork mecha may at the time of creation choose a single clan affiliation as a module, and once selected, this cannot be changed. If a player decides to defer this decision, it is a big thing, they must instead choose one at level 3. If in doubt, choose Freebooter. The inspiration was the 8th edition clan rules.
Bad Moon: If you have not moved this turn, ranged attacks become critical successes on a roll of 1 or 2.
Blood Axe: You have Advantage on tests to find/use cover, hide, and lie like the sneaky git you are.
Deathskull: You may reroll dice rolls of 20 on all tests.
Evil Sun: Once a Moment you may take two standard moves as a single action. Then roll your Reactor Die.
Freebooter: If a friendly ork mecha has already killed an enemy this Moment, gain Advantage on your first attack.
Goff: Melee attacks become critical successes on a roll of 1 or 2.
Snakebite: You may reroll your Hit Dice when resting, and levelling up. You may also reroll your starting HP.
Gorkanaut Chassis
Hit Die D10 Damage Die D8 Reactor Die D6
STARTING HIT POINTS
1d10 + 4
WEAPONS AND ARMOR
All armor, all weapons, shields
LEVELLING UP
Roll your hit die to gain new hit points. Roll to see if attributes increase, rolling twice for Power and Presence. At levels 3, 6, and 9, gain a new module.
STARTING EQUIPMENT
Comlink, Klaw of Gork (light melee weapon), Dethstorm Mega-Shoota (light ranged weapon), Ovver-Gunz, light armor (+3 AP), Belly Cabin.
WAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!
Announce the name of this ability. As a Move action, immediately move to a Near enemy and make a melee attack against them. Roll your reactor die.
BIG BULLY
This mecha inflicts +2 damage on Swarm enemies. However, when making a ranged attack with its Dethstorm Mega-Shoota at another kind of target, it is resolved as d6 damage instead of a d8.
Morkanaut Chassis
Hit Die D10 Damage Die D8 Reactor Die D6
STARTING HIT POINTS
1d10 + 4
WEAPONS AND ARMOR
All armor, all weapons, shields
LEVELLING UP
Roll your hit die to gain new hit points. Roll to see if attributes increase, rolling twice for System and Presence. At levels 3, 6, and 9, gain a new module.
STARTING EQUIPMENT
Comlink, Klaw of Mork (light melee weapon), Kustom Mega-Zappa (light ranged weapon), Ovver-Gunz, light armor (+3 AP), Belly Cabin.
WAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!
See above.
KUSTOM FORCEFIELD
As a Use action, create a barrier of 2 AP, usable by yourself or a Close mecha against Ranged Attacks. The barrier lasts until you dismiss it or until the AP is spent. Roll your reactor die.
Sample 40k unit to Swarm conversions
For this mod, I have decided to use the Swarm Enemy rules to represent things smaller than a Morkanaut, as it makes the most sense on the face of it. That said, you may have to do some fine tuning. "Hack" games are very stripped down and minimalist. Warhammer 40k can be somewhat minimalist for a 28mm war game, but suffers from rules bloat and fanboyism. As such the rough conversions I present below can only be abstract approximations subject to my biases. My assumption here is that infantry should present no real threat to your average Gorkanaut, but the challenge is doing it fast enough. You'll also note that as HD/HP goes up the Swarm die goes down, as a LOT of Infantry in 40k tends to wear armour needing an anti-tank round to bypass, while things like Terminators can happily bludgeon tanks to death. Proportionally, as they get more powerful, the better targets they are for mecha, and the less the Swarm die is necessary. Whatever you end up doing, aim for fun, instead of a slog.
Light Infantry, I. E. Boyz, Termagants, Guardsmen, Cultists etc: HD1, HP3, 1d4 damage, max Swarm die: 1d12.
Medium Infantry, I. E Fire Warriors, Nobz, Scions: HD2, HP4, 1d6 damage, max Swarm die: 1d8.
Heavy Infantry, I. E most Marines and Necrons: HD2, HP5, 1d6 damage, max Swarm die: 1d6, plus an appropriate ability.
Light Vehicles and Elite Infantry, I. E bike squadrons, Battlesuits, Meganobs: HD3, HP8, 1d6/8 damage, max Swarm die: 1d6, plus an appropriate ability.
Actual Tanks, greater daemons, dreadnoughts, your typical "Shoot The Big Ones" Tyranids: Not a Swarm.
Going Further
While certain modules or concepts don't necessarily fit the setting, like handheld shields, most can be renamed with no issue. For example, you can simply rename the 4 basic pilot types as Boss, Mekaniak, Git, and Mouth. Another thing you could do is is adapt the new Hybrid Chassis into a Gargantuan Squiggoth. You'd just have to swap out the Mawbeam ability for WAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!.
If you end up using these rules, do let me know how it turns out.
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