MJMecha

Pilots

Attributes

Body: The Body attribute measures the overall physical fitness of a character, their strength, stamina, and durability. Body is the primary determinant of the physical punishment a character can take, and also caps the effective maneuverability of a machine due to the pilots' g-tolerance.

Reaction: Reactions measures the grace, reaction speed, and agility of a character. A character with high Body but low Reactions is fast but clumsy, while low Body but high Reactions is a common purview of a wimpy surgeon or guys who paint miniatures all day long. Reactions is used for evasion and hand to hand combat.

Perception: A character's awareness and 'street smarts' fall under Perception, which is the attribute used for ranged combat.

Knowledge: Knowledge represents a character's education and "book smarts". Outside of the obvious benefits to engineering, science, and so forth, knowledge is also necessary for the use of complex equipment, such as ECM suites, Active Stealth, drone controllers, and so on.

Psyche: A character's mental toughness is measured by psyche. As all Avatars use direct neural interface and AI control, nonhumanoid machines are much harder to control than humanoid ones. Psyche caps the alteration from human norm that a machine can achieve-low Psyche characters are greatly limited in terms of the systems that can be added to their machine. Note that this is every nonhuman feature-even something as simple as a set of thrusters or an integrated gun adds a Psyche tax.

Charisma: A character's charisma is their physical and non-physical attractiveness, their ability to get along with people, and so on. In this world of half-salvaged hypertech mecha and frankenbots, Charisma adds to the amount of upgrades and the maximum technological level you can manage to scrounge up to stick on your machine. Charisma also gives characters narrative inertia.

Derived Attributes

Synch Limits: A character may synch to a frame with a maximum psyche cost of (Psyche * 2).

Machines

Definitions

An Avatar is the premier war machine of the present age. Often humanoid (to minimize pilot acclimatization difficulties), piloted by neural interface, and built using components around a modular Core, which contains the primary power systems and the cockpit. These cores are then connected to extremities, such as arms, legs, gun pods, and so on, Avatars can take on lesser, non DNI using craft with ease-especially since technological degradation has made producing systems of their quality prohibitively expensive.

Avatars come in a few common forms:

• Aerospace Fighters: Although difficult to interface with, Aerospace Fighters are relatively easier to produce and can achieve flight agility unheard of in any other design.
• Tanks: Again, like ASFs, tanks are extremely hard to interface with, but relatively simple to produce, and their primary advantage is single purpose lethality. Tanks are generally specialist gun carriers, mounting single heavy ranged weapons rather than an entire arsenal of smaller systems, and are best suited for a 'sniper' role although their ability to mount thick armor and heavy defenses allows them to take a lot of punishment.
• Hybrids: In general 'hybrids' are nonhumanoid half-and-half machines, like humanoid torsos mounted on tank bases, or fighters with the ability to deploy arms and reverse-knee legs and so on.
• Humanoids: Two arms, two legs, maybe a pair of wings or other things, one head. Simple body plan. The problem is that they're expensive and difficult to produce. Although powerful jack of all trades generalists if properly designed, they do not achieve the same
• Exotics: Exotics are generally a catch all for designs which do not conform to these plans, such as transforming variable fighters, spider robots, and such.

Design Basics

The only system an Avatar technically requires is a Core, but having a disembodied torso (or equivalent) floating in space is generally not the best of war machines. Past the core, most mecha have a series of additional components that are used to expand their capabilities. Each of these components has a number of slots which can be filled with equipment, and occasionally allow external stores to be used (i.e. Hardpoints).

However, throwing on components willy-nilly can negatively impact a machine's Agility and Speed, and each component requires a certain amount of Power to use, which is generated by the core and any auxiliary generators mounted.

Components have several stats:

Connectors: The number of discrete additional components which can be added. There are three types of connectors which attach certain systems. Adapters exist to modify these connectors, but :

Limb Connectors: These are used to attach things like wings, arms, and legs.

Turret Connectors: Heads, gun turrets, and whatnot.

Drives: Drives are large, nonhumanoid propulsion systems that provide propulsion, like a tank's treads or a fighter's engines.

Space: The amount of internal space a component has.

Power: How much power it generates or uses. Most components do not use more than a trickle of power, it's internal equipment which uses most of it.

Durability: The ability of a component to resist damage. Durability reduces the effect of hits to the component in question.

Strain: Some components, being nonhumanoid in nature (i.e. tank treads, reverse joint legs, etc), add strain to a vehicle, increasing the psyche requirement. This is in addition for any strain for a nonhumanoid body plan.

External Components

Armor

Armor is a cheap way to protect units from various weapons. Armor in this system is unified-there is no such thing as patchwork armor. Various armors exist, some of them providing excellent overall protection, while others provide additional benefits. An Avatar may have only 1 armor type (applique armors do not count as they are equipment, not armor).

Standard: Standard armor is your average armor, with no real strengths or weaknesses. An excellent combination of compactness, durability, and cost effectiveness.

+3 Durability to all components.

Foamed: Foamed armor is lighter but much bulkier for equivalent protection, meaning you can have more of it at the cost of internal space, providing additional durability compared to standard armor but reducing available equipment volume.

+4 Durability, -2 Space to all components.

Monocoque: Monocoque armor integrates the armored shell and the skeleton of a machine into a single unit. This drastically cuts down on durability but grants significant additional internal volume.

+3 Space to all components (maximum: Doubled space).

Smart Skin: All armor has integrated sensors and electronic countermeasure emitters, but smart skin compromises structural integrity further for additional bandwidth and local processing power. This reduces the durability benefit but greatly increases a machine's electronic warfare ability.

+1 Durability to all components, +2 Electronics.

Hyperdense: Super-high-density armor plating. Heavy, huge, and exceedingly bulky, hyperdense armor restricts the amount of equipment a machine can carry and additionally penalizes its agility.

+6 Durability to all components, -1 Space to all components, -2 Agility.

Stealth: Stealth Armor combines integrated EM countermeasures, chromatophores, and proper angling to reduce any sort of signature. However, the extremely low-radiation design of stealth armor means that various sinking systems have to be replaced by less efficient methods of dumping waste heat, which put a strain on the power system and distribution network.

+1 Durability, +3 Stealth, -1 Power.

Distortion Plating: All armor has integrated low power integrity fields which reinforce it and deflect micrometeors and other minor threats (thus meaning that daily wear and tear won't even scratch the paint) but only Omega Dust components can provide a meaningful amount of deflection against military grade weapons.

+3 Durability to all components, +1 Shield Bonus, Omega Dust

Applique Armor: Applique Armor is not actually an armor type but represents additional armoring of a component above and beyond "standard" protection. Applique Armor can be mounted either internally or externally. External applique armor is generally termed modular armor.

Size: 2 Spaces/1 Light Hardpoint, +3 Durability

Cores

Cores contain a machine's cockpit, the power distribution subsystems, and such. They can even be fit with engines, modular armor, and weapons.

Tanks

Tank Core: An Avatar core intended for use by a tank. As such, it has an extremely low number of connectors but a high amount of space and excellent armor thickness.

Connectors: 2 (1 large turret, 1 small turret)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 25

Base Criticals: Cockpit (6), Internal Structure (8)

Tank cores have their cockpits placed extremely deep behind (literally) meters of armor and shielding, and thus ignore the first two cockpit hits. Tank cores are huge bricks with very stable centers of mass and therefore inflict an Agility penalty of -3.

Supertank Core: Holy shit it's a giant flying space tank. The difficulties in synching with a supertank core are only equalled by the raw lethality they can put out.

Connectors: 4 (2 large turrets, 2 small turrets)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 35

Base Criticals: Cockpit (7), Internal Structure (10)

Superank cores have their cockpits placed extremely deep behind even more meters of armor and shielding, and thus ignore the first three cockpit hits. They also penalize agility inordinately, inflicting a penalty of -8.

Fighters

Fighter Core: A Core designed for an aerospace fighter. Extremely lightweight.

Connectors: 2 (2 standard limbs)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 20

Base Criticals: Cockpit (4), Internal Structure (4)

Gunship Core: A heavier fighter Core. Unlike fighters, they typically mount significant passive defenses rather than just active ones.

Connectors: 3 (2 standard limbs, 1 small turret)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 30

Base Criticals: Cockpit (4), Internal Structure (6)

Humanoids

Basic Humanoid Core: Cores designed for humanoid use.

Connectors: 5 (4 standard limbs, 1 small turret)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 10

Base Criticals: Cockpit (4), Internal Structure (6)

Super Robot Core: A larger core used for heavy frames or super robots.

Connectors: 5 (4 large limbs, 1 small turret)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 20

Base Criticals: Cockpit (5), Internal Structure (8)

Super Robots are large and have plenty of redundant systems, and therefore ignore the first cockpit critical hit.

Limbs

Limbs are important for a humanoid machine. Every extra limb above or below 4 increases the psyche cost of a frame by 1 due to nonhumanoid configuration. Furthermore, to minimize psyche stress, this must be 2 arms and 2 legs-each mismatched limb (i.e 3 arms, 1 leg, 4 arms, etc) adds +2 to psyche cost. This means for machines with no limbs, such as tanks, they automatically have a cost of 12.

Wings

Standard Wing: Used by a fighter frame and "angelic" humanoid frames, wings are intended primarily to mount maneuvering systems or hardpoints, and automatically start with wingtip hardpoints.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 5

Base Criticals: Large Hardpoint (1), Internal Structure (3)

Standard Wings find it much more efficient to mount hardpoints and thrusters and as such consider them as half size. Items of size 0.5 can be mounted 2 per space. Wings add +1 agility if they have a functional thruster system.

Stub Wing: Stub wings are smaller, fatter wings with less area but significantly more durability. These are typically only found on gunships and ASFs which emphasize survivability above , rarely finding their way onto other designs.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 5

Base Criticals: Large Hardpoint (1), Internal Structure (4)

Stub wings add an additional +1 agility if they have a functional thruster.

Arms

Arms add +2 accuracy to any weapon integrated in them due to their superior articulation and dexterity.

Standard Arm: Arms are more mechanically complex, with artificial musculature, multiple points of articulation, and surprising manual dexterity. This is a standard arm, designed for general purpose use.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 8

Base Criticals: Hand (1), Musculature (3), Internal Structure (3)

Destruction of the hand destroys any handheld weapon.

Heavy Arm: A heavy arm is an oversize limb, normally used in very large frames or super robots.

Connectors: None (uses large limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 10

Base Criticals: Large Hand (1), Musculature (4), Internal Structure (4)

Heavy Arms ignore the first musculature critical.

Weapon Arm: Weapon Arms provide additional weapons stability but have no hands, trading versatility for available space. In general, most of their space is typically taken up by a large hand to hand or ranged weapon.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 11

Base Criticals: Musculature (3), Internal Structure (3)

Weapon Arms have a Psyche Cost of 1.

Kinetic Ram Arm: Kinetic Ram Arms are standard arms with additional musculature and electromagnetic accelerators for increasing limb velocity (and therefore melee impact) but sacrifice space for this.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 4

Base Criticals: Hand (1), Accelerators (1), Musculature (3), Internal Structure (3)

As long as the Accelerator functions, all melee attacks gain a further +1 accuracy and +2 penetration.

Legs

Legs are generally in constant motion to counterbalance arm movements and thrust vector, and as such mounting weapons on them subtracts -2 from weapon accuracy (guided or drone weapons are immune).

Standard Leg: Legs are mechanically complex systems that let a machine walk. As a rule of thumb, a mecha needs two working legs to walk. Legs are typically longer and significantly

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 8

Base Criticals: Musculature (4), Internal Structure (4)

Legs may mount a foot at no cost. Feet allow a machine to stand upright without the use of levitation systems, but have no real additional benefit.

Heavy Leg: An oversize leg found on super robots or very large frames.

Connectors: None (uses large limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 12

Base Criticals: Musculature (5), Internal Structure (6)

Like the standard leg, but the first critical hit to musculature is ignored.

Thruster Assembly: Thruster assemblies sacrifice musculature for additional space to mount drives. With additional heavy-duty power couplings they give excellent maneuverability (but no real speed) advantages to their users, at the cost of additional psyche strain.

Connectors: None (uses standard limb)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 6

Base Criticals: Internal Structure (4)

Thruster Assemblies consider thrusters as half size when mounting. Thruster Assemblies cost +1 Psyche (they have no hip joints).

Turrets

In general, any machine without a turret mounting adds +1 to Psyche cost. Note that most "proper" turrets (versus mecha heads) typically have +2 Psyche Cost, so keep that in mind.

Heads

Standard Head: Your standard head, with a variety of designs from the utilitarian to the baroque. Typically mount the sensors and various other systems needed to look around in a humanoid frame as well as a point defense weapon or two.

Connectors: None (uses small turret)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 6

Base Criticals: Sensors (2), Internal Structure (2)

The basic sensors of a standard head give +1 Electronics per functional system.

Reinforced Head: A tougher, sturdier head.

Connectors: None (uses small turret)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 4

Base Criticals: Sensors (1), Internal Structure (3)

The basic sensors of a reinforced head give +1 Electronics per critical.

Turrets

Small Turret: Mount a single gun (sometimes a Dual Weapon), and generally little more than that. Gunships, tanks, and the like often use these to mount lighter weapons to harass and destroy lightly armored targets.

Connectors: None (uses small turret)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 5

Base Criticals: Internal Structure (3)

Small Turrets consider the largest they mount to be half size (round up). Small turrets cost +2 Psyche.

Large Turret: Large turrets are the small turret on steroids, typically mounting very large weapons (quite often multiples of them)

Connectors: None (uses large turret)

Base Durability

Component Space: 20

Large Turrets consider the largest weapon they mount to be half size (round up). Large turrets cost +2 Psyche.

Sensor Turret: A fragile turret design intended to mount sensors equipment.

Connectors: None (uses small turret)

Base Durability:

Component Space: 5

Base Criticals: Sensors (1), Internal Structure (2)

Sensor Turrets consider sensors to be half size. Their basic sensors give +1 Electronics. Sensor turrets cost +2 Psyche.