Hey guys! You know what goes surprisingly well with Ironsworn?
Hey guys! You know what goes surprisingly well with Ironsworn?
Anime styled mecha action like Gundam, Aldnoah, Zoids, Patlabor, Mazinger, etc.
Yup, that's right, I just found out how cool Ironsworn can be for giant robot combat adventures when modded for it. I want to tell you I'm actually working on a small hack for Ironsworn in order to adapt said media into the game, I present you my project: Mechasworn (I have to think of a better name...)
WHY IRONSWORN?
Mecha anime genre focuses in the personal struggles and relationships of the pilots and the bonds they make while leaving most of the action and danger to amazing and over the top giant robot scenes. In mecha anime, you fall in love with your enemies and fight your allies, you lose important people and swear to defeat your rivals, and you fight for your beliefs in a time and place where people might not care for them.
Mecha genre is highly cinematic and emotional and I think Ironsworn is a system that perfectly captures that. I've also wanted to play a solo mecha game for long and the alternatives were too crunchy and needed lots of book keeping, or too simple that it felt more like writing a fanfic than actually playing a game, and again, Ironsworn strikes the perfect balance between the two.
WHAT CHANGES WOULD BE IMPLEMENTED?
Not much, honestly. It's what I consider a small hack that plays with the versatility of the rules and the fact the game is mostly narrative.
The changes are primarily centered in reskinning and renaming the core moves to better fit the thematic, and this won't always be necessary. When you travel between planets or through enemy ridden zones you still Undertake a Perilous Journey, fox example. Turn the Tide would be renamed "Make a Last Stand" for example, just for genre purposes.
Another thing here is that assets would be completely removed. The Pilots are badasses but as stated before, the action doesn't really focuses on them and their out of mecha abilities. It would use the "Using Roles instead of Assets" rule found on page 238 of the Core Book. Your pilot could be something as "The Ace", "The Comic Relief", "The War-Torn Orphan", "The former Idol", etc.
SO, WHAT ABOUT THE MECHAS?
Part of the fun of a mecha game is actually making your own mecha. The character sheet of Ironsworn would represent the pilot so, how you go with mechas in a hack where I remove the Assets?
I took inspiration from games like Mechas & Monsters, Chris Perrin's Mecha and Camelot Trigger: You select a Frame and you modify it through Systems, you pretty much create your asset.
Frames would work like companion assets, and during combat you apply the damage from moves to the Mecha or, if you're willing, you can make the Pilot absorb some of the damage instead. The frame also comes with some innate abilities and limits the number of Systems and their Type.
Systems would be the meat of mecha customization, things for example like Nanomolecular Energy Blades (When you Draw the Circle against another Mecha and you score a Strong Hit, your first strike against them will deal 1 extra Harm) or Ablative Armor (When you Face Danger against ranged attacks with +Iron, add +1 and take +1 Momentum on a Strong Hit). Systems would consist of categories like Weapon Systems, Defensive Systems, Mobility Systems and Special Systems. Weapon systems focus on agression, Defensive on avoiding and repairing damage, Mobility on speed and Special for stuff such as transforming or combining with other Mecha.
The systems would be shut down as the mecha takes damage and can be repaired.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES I FACE?
I work and I don't have as much free time as I would like. Also, I'm not a native english speaker and I don't have much knowledge in how to make a pretty document, plus this is the first time I venture into hacking an RPG. Feedback and helping me correct some typos when the document is out would be actually very nice :(
I don't plan to make it a big document, it will contain some explanations on why I rename some of the core moves, I would add a couple new moves regarding mecha combat, and lastly a Your World section for you to have some quick ideas on what kind of mecha game you want, plus a section with example enemies.
Hope you guys are interested :)
Anime styled mecha action like Gundam, Aldnoah, Zoids, Patlabor, Mazinger, etc.
Yup, that's right, I just found out how cool Ironsworn can be for giant robot combat adventures when modded for it. I want to tell you I'm actually working on a small hack for Ironsworn in order to adapt said media into the game, I present you my project: Mechasworn (I have to think of a better name...)
WHY IRONSWORN?
Mecha anime genre focuses in the personal struggles and relationships of the pilots and the bonds they make while leaving most of the action and danger to amazing and over the top giant robot scenes. In mecha anime, you fall in love with your enemies and fight your allies, you lose important people and swear to defeat your rivals, and you fight for your beliefs in a time and place where people might not care for them.
Mecha genre is highly cinematic and emotional and I think Ironsworn is a system that perfectly captures that. I've also wanted to play a solo mecha game for long and the alternatives were too crunchy and needed lots of book keeping, or too simple that it felt more like writing a fanfic than actually playing a game, and again, Ironsworn strikes the perfect balance between the two.
WHAT CHANGES WOULD BE IMPLEMENTED?
Not much, honestly. It's what I consider a small hack that plays with the versatility of the rules and the fact the game is mostly narrative.
The changes are primarily centered in reskinning and renaming the core moves to better fit the thematic, and this won't always be necessary. When you travel between planets or through enemy ridden zones you still Undertake a Perilous Journey, fox example. Turn the Tide would be renamed "Make a Last Stand" for example, just for genre purposes.
Another thing here is that assets would be completely removed. The Pilots are badasses but as stated before, the action doesn't really focuses on them and their out of mecha abilities. It would use the "Using Roles instead of Assets" rule found on page 238 of the Core Book. Your pilot could be something as "The Ace", "The Comic Relief", "The War-Torn Orphan", "The former Idol", etc.
SO, WHAT ABOUT THE MECHAS?
Part of the fun of a mecha game is actually making your own mecha. The character sheet of Ironsworn would represent the pilot so, how you go with mechas in a hack where I remove the Assets?
I took inspiration from games like Mechas & Monsters, Chris Perrin's Mecha and Camelot Trigger: You select a Frame and you modify it through Systems, you pretty much create your asset.
Frames would work like companion assets, and during combat you apply the damage from moves to the Mecha or, if you're willing, you can make the Pilot absorb some of the damage instead. The frame also comes with some innate abilities and limits the number of Systems and their Type.
Systems would be the meat of mecha customization, things for example like Nanomolecular Energy Blades (When you Draw the Circle against another Mecha and you score a Strong Hit, your first strike against them will deal 1 extra Harm) or Ablative Armor (When you Face Danger against ranged attacks with +Iron, add +1 and take +1 Momentum on a Strong Hit). Systems would consist of categories like Weapon Systems, Defensive Systems, Mobility Systems and Special Systems. Weapon systems focus on agression, Defensive on avoiding and repairing damage, Mobility on speed and Special for stuff such as transforming or combining with other Mecha.
The systems would be shut down as the mecha takes damage and can be repaired.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES I FACE?
I work and I don't have as much free time as I would like. Also, I'm not a native english speaker and I don't have much knowledge in how to make a pretty document, plus this is the first time I venture into hacking an RPG. Feedback and helping me correct some typos when the document is out would be actually very nice :(
I don't plan to make it a big document, it will contain some explanations on why I rename some of the core moves, I would add a couple new moves regarding mecha combat, and lastly a Your World section for you to have some quick ideas on what kind of mecha game you want, plus a section with example enemies.
Hope you guys are interested :)
That all sounds fantastic. I agree with shifting the focus for assets from the character to the mech. I'd be tempted to give the mech frames a simple character sheet where you can place your system assets. Maybe a cool way to visualize heavy frames vs light frames with some art.
ReplyDeleteVery cool
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteDavid, this is brilliant! I’d been wondering how to handle spaceships and crews for a space opera mod and you’ve got some great ideas for handling it!
ReplyDelete