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After ten long, long years, Armored Core VI was announced. I've been a fan of the series since I was a wee one in the 90s and it stoked my passion for mechs.

In honor of that, I thought it'd be fun to talk about some mecha focused ttrpgs. I haven't played (or read) all of these, but it should be enough to help you find something that'll spark your interests.

Mekton Zeta - Link

We're starting off with what I'd consider the closest mechanically to Armored Core. There is a very large focus on the construction of Mektons (The in-universe term for Mecha) and a very detailed combat system. In short, it's a very crunchy game. You'll be invidually tracking the hp and armor of every part of your mekton, your facing, your weight, and more. It's not for everyone.

Mekton is a series created by Mike Pondsmith (The guy that made the Cyberpunk RPG) to emulate anime and sci-fi mechs. Zeta is the fourth edition in the franchise, published in 1994 (It shows it age). It shares the Interlock System with Cyberpunk 2020 and Teenagers from Outer Space, allowing crossplay between them.

There was a successful kickstarter for Mekton Zero in 2018, but it never reached a releasable stage and the funders were refunded. Speculation is that Pondsmith got too busy with Cyberpunk RED and the 2077 videogame.

If you can deal with the crunch, it's a neat system.

Jovian Chronicles - Link

Another anime mecha game, this one focuses more on space. It started as a third party supplement for Mekton II, but eventually switched to Dream Pod 9's Silhouette System. I'm not terribly familiar with it, but reviews are favorable of the system.

There were two editions after Mekton. The first edition core book used the Silhouette system and contained all the basic rules needed to play and there were a whole lotta splat books to back it up. The second edition was dual statted for both Silhouette Core and DnD 3.5. It only saw the release of the core book, but it consolidated a lot of material from the previous edition's splat book. Unfortunately, you also needed to purchase either the Silhouette Core rulebook or 3.5e.

The last release for this series, Jovian Wars, is a wargame that switched the focus from mechs to ship combat.

If you you like space based Gundam series, this one's for you.

Heavy Gear - Link

Dream Pod 9's OTHER mecha game. This one has a more terrestial and political focus. There is high praise for it's meta-campaign. It's gotten several video games and a (bad) TV series.

The First and Second Edition used the Silhouette system, and the third edition used Silhouette Core (Again, having to purchase the Silhouette Core rules seperately). Like Jovian Chronicles, the latest release, Heavy Gear Blitz is a wargame.

A fourth edition has recently finished open playtesting with plans to launch a kickstarter next year. Until then, the designer recommends using the 2nd edition rules.

If you like a more grounded mecha game (Ok, there are genetically mutated clones and psionics) and politics, this one's for you.

Armour Astir - Link

We're getting into contemporary games now. Armour Astir is a fantasy mech game, but it is easily reflavored into a sci-fi game. This is a much lighter rule game that uses Powered by the Apocalypse (PBtA) for the system. Odds are you've at least heard of another PBtA game, if not played one. You've got Monster Hearts, City of Mist, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Avatar, there's just so many.

What sets Armour Astir apart from other PBtA games is how it's structured and the Faction system. You're always fighting against some form of Authority. Their control is represented by three "pillars," literal or figurative representations of power, and you spend the campaign removing their control of those pillars before defeating them.

The Faction System could be an entirely seperate game. They even suggest having an entirely different group of players play out the Faction Turns.

Strongly recommending reading Armour Astir, even if it's just to steal the Faction System.

Maharlika -Link

A Filipino mythology inspired, technomystic game. I haven't dug too deep into this one yet, but what I've seen is really interesting.

It's uses its own tactical combat system with rules for tracking debt.

Recommending this one specifically for its setting. It's very unique compared to other mech properties.

Beam Saber - Link

This is a straight forward, no mess, no fuss mech game with a focus on characters. It uses the Forged in The Dark system, very similar to PBtA.

Lancer - Link

The current king of mecha ttrpgs. It's got it's own webapp and probably the most support material available out of all the others. It's primarily a tactical combat game with little mechanical support for roleplaying and skews more to the super-robot end of the spectrum.

If you like tactical combat with less crunch, this one's for you.

Salvage Union - Link

This one isn't out yet. Currently there's a free quick-start pdf with plans for a PDF release later this month and physical release sometime next year.

It's already one of my favorite systems.

It hit my Goldilock's level of crunch. Not too little, not too much. (They did go overboard with rolltables, but I love rolltables.)

You play salvagers in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. You harvest scrap, repair/upgrade with scrap, and fight to survive.

GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT GET IT

Unlike other mech games, Beam Saber's about the characters.

I probably have a much lengthier ramble in me about this at some point but

I firmly believe that the core building block of any good tactics game is The Recognized Opportunity

• The enemies standing next to each other that you can catch in a plus-shaped AOE
• The high ground you can use to snipe without return fire
• The geo panel you can set off with just the right throw combo
• The enemy just waiting to be pushed into the ocean
• The extra distance that gives you just enough time to throw up that vital buff
• The cover that has just that perfect line of sight on the hallway
• The wall that makes the perfect entry point if you blow it up

I firmly believe that it is the job of the tactics game designer to create, not ""challenging"" systems but ones that Suggest Opportunities to the player. A good skill or job system immediately makes you think about what you could do with it, in isolation and in synergy. A good level design lets the player look for things they can take advantage of and maneuver around.

A tactics game lacking these elements often devolves into a simple slugfest where ganging up Just So is the only leverage you have. I have played more than my fair share of games like this. They are excruciatingly boring.

I would really recommend any newbie tactics games designers think hard about what opportunities your game is flagging. Think of the ways the games you like telegraph them - Differently-shaped attack radii, terrain features, conditional abilities, etc - what are they offering to the player? How often are they offering these different opportunity types and how do they vary? What about it is it interesting? What makes it feel worth it? What feels fun about it? Please don't just clone FFT's mechanics without considering why. I promise it is a recipe for tedium. FFT works very hard in its level design, enemy design, move and job design, to offer the player a lot of interesting opportunities, from the small and frequent AoE to the complex long-term metagame job combination.

To go on a tangent for a minute, the details matter on these things, too - Recently-ish I played a demo that featured positioning-based skills and chokepoints for player advantage. The game also gave everyone - enemies and players alike - colossal move radii, resulting in every single fight having a single initiation round and then everyone was immediately in each other's face. The result was that positioning became immediately irrelevant, because there was no opportunity cost for anything - precise moves had 100% uptime because repositioning every turn to make them effective was trivial, rendering weaker, less position-relevant moves pointless. If you had a strong ranged attack and a weak melee, it didn't particularly matter, because you could simply gain the necessary range every round. Why even use that other move? At the same time, defensive, wall, and trap-type skills became nearly irrelevant because circumventing them was trivial. There's no opportunity to get your weaker characters away from enemies when everyone can move the majority of the map in a single turn. With this single, simple-seeming choice of move radii, the developer seriously harmed their players' ability to spot, create, or take advantage of any of the opportunities the skillset offered.

Considering this kind of stuff is an absolute minimum to make a decent tactics game at this point. What are you offering, can players see it, and can players actually take advantage of it?