Pilz MechaHomebrew

Dice System:
   10d10 with dice returning a success on a 7+.


Character Elements:
   4 Primary Traits(ramge from 1 to 5, granting bonuses of +1 to +5):
      Weapons is for shooting and slashing
      Piloting is for movement between Terrain Zones (explained later) and evading oncoming fire.  (Athletics when out of mech)
      Operating is for the use of complex electronic systems.  Radar, Electronic Warfare/ECM/ECCM, and Point Defenses fall under this skill.
      Engineering is for the use of complex mechanical systems, or compensating for their damage.  Engineering can be used to remove or negate damaged consequences from your mecha, and is used to operate Shields.

   2 Minor Trait(range from 0 to 4, granting bonuses of +0 to +4.  Much slower to level)(WIP):
      Reaction is used for initiative.
      Tactics is used to gain control of an Engage for a turn.


MECHA ELEMENTS:
Design Specialties:
   After a mecha has been built (stats, weapons, etc complete) a player creates a number (1-2) of Design Specialties that tie certain elements of the mecha's statistical performance to a visual feature.  These Design Specialties can be invoked when appropriate (With some limits) to add an additional effect of the same type.
      ex1:"My mech is a quad with +stability. This is because the legs are really bulky and have inbuilt deployable pitons, so it can always brace itself firmly between at least 2 solid anchor points and 2 less secure ones."
Later, on a rockey mountainside, the player tells the GM "since my legs are ideal for this situation, I'd like to invoke them to negate the stability penalty I'd normally be under."  The GM allows this.
      ex2:""my mech is a biped with +stability.  This is because of a complex set of microthrusters embedded into the frame which constantly adjust positioning or fire to offset recoil or the weight of a weapon."
While flying in turbulent air or firing a large weapon or one judged to have significant recoil or weight the player can invoke these jets in the same way as the legs above.
   Design Specialties can be destroyed when the limb or part of the mecha they are assigned to is damaged or destroyed.  This can result in penalties as a key feature of the mecha has been destroyed.  In example 1 above, should the mecha's legs be seriously shot off the GM might apply a penalty to stability until repairs can be done.  In example 2, the GM should note that damage disabling a widely integrated and complex system like microthrusters would be fairly catastrophic, and potentially apply additional piloting penalties as well as those to stability.  These disadvantages should reflect the breadth of the Design Specialty.  If it can be invoked basically whenever it is likely heavily incorporated into the mecha's structure and should be treated as such.


Mecha Stats(HEAVILY WIP):
   Power Generation: How much power/turn is generated? (power is used to carry out special actions or fire certain weapons/defenses)
   Max Speed: How fast can the mecha go if the pilot really guns it?  Used for moving between Terrain Zones or closing/entering an Engage.
   Stability: How much is the mecha affected by recoil or similar shakes.


Tuning (HEAVILY WIP)
   Tuning allows players to shuffle points between elements of a mecha to tweak its performance.  Points added to an element must be taken from its opposing elements.
   Elements:
      Efficiency: Discounted firing of weapons requiring energy, certain maneuvers requiring power rerouting. (v Storage, Weight)
      Storage:  How much energy can you have rushing about the system at once?   (v Efficiency, Finesse)
      Velocity:  How fast can you go fast?  Closing distance and moving through Terrain Zones. (v Weight, Storage)
      Delta V: How fast can you stop going fast, or change the vector of your gofast?  Dodging. (v Weight, Finesse)
      Weight: How heavy are you?  How hard is it to knock your mecha over or change its direction forcibly? (v Efficiency, Finesse)
      Finesse: How delicately tuned are your mecha's actions? (v Delta V, Storage)


Weapons:
   Weapons are built by selecting options from a given list.  Some options can be combined with others, or invested in more heavily to 'level up' that weapon.  The options are(WIP):
SP: Railgun, MG, Flak
Laser: Beam Cannon, Pulsed
Missile: Swarm, Payload, Homing, Area, Shaped
Melee: Deploy-able, Imbued
   Solid Projectile weapons have a limited number of shots before time must be spent reloading.  There is no actual limit on ammo, so this reload period is effectively a cooldown time.  Machine Guns (MGs) have no cooldown time.
   Laser weapons require the expenditure of Energy to fire.
   Missiles have a limited number of uses per Combat Scene, but are very powerful.  Some can attack entire Engages or Terrain Zones, making them fairly devastating weapons against clusters of enemies.
   Melee: Some can be charged with energy to do large amounts of damage.  It is difficult to shoot when attacked by a Melee weapon.

Defense:
   There are 3 types of defense beyond simple armour.
      Evasion: the most basic type of defense.  Everyone has a little of this.  Based on Piloting.
      Point Defenses: A secondary type of defense system that can be equipped at the cost of Evasion.  Based on Operate.  Point Defenses can be activated and drain energy while active, but negate a small amount of damage for any type of non-melee attack.
      Shields: Not simply a hunk of metal, Shields contain energy projectors that can be fine-tuned to deflect specific types of attacks.  A player can invest energy to 'charge' a shield for a turn.  When a player charges their shield, they choose a weapon type (SP, Laser, or Missile) and for a full turn the shield can negate all(WIP) damage from those weapons.  based on Engineering(WIP).

Damage and Location
   When creating a mecha, players have great freedom of design to determine how their mecha looks.  They must then assign spaces on a damage table to indicate the size and strength of these parts.  There are 10 slots on the damage table.  An ordinary, humanoid mecha might assign space 1 to the head, spaces 2-5 to the torso, spaces 6-8 to the legs, space 9 to the right arm and space 10 to the left arm.  On the other hand, a player wishing to build a mecha themed after a gigantic snake might place slots 1 and 2 for the head, slots 3-6 for the torso, and slots 7-10 for the long tail.  regardless, players must have at least one slot assigned to the head and one slot assigned to the torso or body of their mecha.  Players must also choose the location of the cockpit.  A number of points are then assigned to each body part of the mecha, corresponding to the number of slots they have been assigned.  players may use these slots to purchase armour or equipment to place on the limbs.  A player may also assign a full slot to a weapon if they feel its size or importance warrants it.  When a location is hit, armour is destroyed first, then the part's slots are destroyed one by one.  Weapons or equipment contained within those slots go offline as the slots are crossed out.  Players may make an engineering check to keep the systems online despite damage.  When all the part's slots are crossed out, the part is destroyed.  All equipment on it is useless until it is repaired, and additional penalties may apply.


COMBAT DISTANCE:
Combat is done using a grid, containing squares or hexes (or spheres, any shape will work so long as connections between zones are clear) called Terrain Zones.  These zones will contain large features on the battlefield.  A forested area or lake could be a zone, as could a debris field, the hull of a battleship, or the area surrounding a space station.
When combat begins, mecha will begin to attack each other.  When a mecha declares an attack against another, the two combine into a single map token called an Engage Zone (or just an Engage).  Mecha within an Engage cannot attack anyone outside of their engage, and must make checks to exit the engage.  At the end of every round, the side that is controlling the Engage determines how the token moves.  Control of an Engage is determined by (Mechanics still WIP.)  Mecha outside an Engage can try to enter an Engage and attempt to assist their allies within.  Certain weapons are capable of targeting an entire Engage or all enemies within that Engage.



--------------------------------------------------
weapon speculation:
A weapon is as combination of a Type, a Subtype, and potentially a Mod.  The Type and Subtype will also have levels from 1-3 indicating potency.  The Type of a weapon costs 20 points per level.  The Subtype costs 10 per level. A Mod costs an additional 10.
Example Max-level weapon: 3 Machine Gun, 3(Flak); Tracer

A weapon's Type gives its damage and base functionality.  The Subtype adds a set of effects.  The Mod adds a situational bonus.

TYPES:
Solid Projectile:  Have a magazine size.  The weapon must be reloaded after the magazine is depleted.
   Machine Gun: Damage 2/4/6, 0 Reload, hits x2/x3/x4 (makes 2/3/4 attacks per use).  Range: Engage
      subtype: Can fire an additional 1x/2x/3x a round by spending 3 energy, assuming you don't have to reload.
   Flak: Damage 10/20/40, 2/3/4 shots per magazine, 2 reload, hits adjacent for 5/10/20.  Range: Engage
      subtype: Hits max 1/2/3 adjacent parts (defender's choice) for half damage per hit.
   Railgun: Damage 30/50/50, 2/2/3 shots per magazine, 3 reload, Destroys +1 segment if it hits a stripped location.  Range: Zone
      subtype: Spend up to 1/3/5 energy to add 2 damage per energy spent to every location hit by the weapon this round.

Laser: Require energy to fire.
   Beam Cannon:  Damage 40/60/80, costs 4/6/8 energy per shot.  Can target an Engage.  Range: Zone
      subtype:  The player can spend 2 energy a turn to build charge in this weapon.  Each charge adds 5/5/10 damage to the weapon when it is fired.  Charges are depleted when the weapon is fired.  A weapon can hold a maximum of 2/3/3 charges.
   Pulsed: Damage 20, costs 4/2/1 energy per shot.  Can hit a specific target in an Engage.  Range: Zone
      subtype:  This weapon does half damage on a miss to 1/2/3 random locations.  This damage only applies to armour

Missile: Have a limited number of uses.  Once they're gone, they're gone.
   Payload: Damage 60.  Can be used 1/2/4 times.  Can target an Engage/Engage/Zone.  Range: Zone+1
      subtype: This weapon does 10 damage to 2 adjacent/all adjacent/all parts of mecha hit with this weapon.
   Homing: Damage 30.  Can be used 3 times.  Grants 1/2/3 more successes on the attack.  Range: Engage.
      subtype: The player may reroll/reroll/choose the targeted location(s) on an enemy Mecha.
   Swarm: damage 5/10/15.  Can be used 6 times.  Can target all ENEMIES in an engage.  Does an additional 5/5/10 damage per segment to each location on the hit mecha.
      subtype:  negates 1/2/3 successes from Point Defence rolls on attacks with this weapon.