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[MECHATON] Giant Fighty Robots, made of Lego
robotsunshine
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Mechaton is a simple, rules-lite miniatures wargame, where everything is made of Lego. It's made by the same dude who made Dogs in the Vineyard.
Really cool Mechs
The mighty Guncrab
It's a Mech game with a 28 page rulebook that costs $6. Most of those pages are filled with large text. The rest are blueprints for some basic mechs. What I'm saying is, the rules take ltierally less than 5 minutes to learn. You'll need a handful of different colored dice though (the game suggests white, yellow, green, blue, and red. All d6. Then a couple of red and green d8)
You can find the old playtest rules online here, but be warned that the six-dollar has a few rules tweaks and altered mechanics. But the playtest stuff is a great way to see if you'll like the game or not.
What do I need to play this wonderful thing?
Different colored dice, the rules, and lots of Lego. Don't have a bunch of Lego laying around? Fear not! Bricklink is a site that sells individual Lego brick (and they've got ALL of them) for 2 - 8 cents. Your rarer stuff can get a bit more pricey, 1 - 5 dollars, but essentially, you can create a squadron of four mechs, all kitted out with sensors and radios and railguns and forcefields for about 12 bucks, plus shipping.
What you do is you make a team of mechs, and then give them Attachments. Attachments are divided into four catagories - Movement (things like jump jets, extra legs, rocket stabilizers), Spotting / Surveillance (radios, targeting systems, laser signalling arrays), Defense (armored hulls, shields, protective forcefields), and of course, weapons! (in three flavors: hand-to-hand, direct fire, and artillery)
Each mech gets up to four attachments. Just build something that looks neat and mecha-ey, and call it whatever you want, and there you go. Each attachment gives you a dice of a certain color (weapons give you red dice, defense attachments give you blue dice, etc.), and at the start of your turn, you roll 'em all and assign them to your mech's various stats. From there, it's just a simple notion of "Is my attack higher than your defense?" You then roll dice according to how many hits you get. Whenever a mech gets hit, he loses one of his attachments - you take it apart and set it on the battlefield.
Campaign play is beautiful, mixing light roleplay with objective-based gaming. Each player in a campaign creates an army and a homeworld, giving them some backstory and fluff, and then three objectives are created at group consensus. They're what everyone fights over, basically. Each army then vies for control of special Lego terrain features linked to one of those objectives, and the end result of the battle is: points are scored, and the story changes, everyone making it up as they go. In addition, you've got a die called the Doomsday Clock, which ticks down from 11 at the end of every campaign game, and then the loser gets to decide whether or not to tick it down again. When it reaches zero, that's the end of your campaign, complete with a climatic end battle.
If you're looking for the campaign rules, they're currently being playtested, but you can find them here: http://www.lumpley.com/comment.php?entry=265
Aren't Mechs hard to make? I'm not that good with Lego.
The rules give you design schematics just like the instruction booklet that comes with any Lego set. After you get familiar with that, it's just a notion of being creative and figuring out what parts go where to make something really cool. But you're all set to make 5 or 6 different Mechs - not to mention that when you give them various attachments, they'll all be individually cool.
You also make Lego terrain and cover, as well as special battlefield features.
So drop down about 20 bucks to grab some Lego from Bricklink and give this game a shot. Then post your armies and stories!
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EDIT: I think they might also be too big. What is the scale supposed to be?
I HOPE YOU"RE HAPPY!
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
In grade school before I really knew what the expanse of tabletop gaming was I tried to make a game system using my LEGO Castle knights and shit where they had powers and moved using inches on a ruler. I WAS BREAKING GROUND.
anyhow, yeah. ::goes to the linked fansite::
Ok, how much is "a couple pounds" cause man, Ive got huge rubbermaid tubs of legos in my parents attic. And Imma go get em next time Im home.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
Same here, honestly I don't know if I can handle such a small scale, maybe I can supersize this.
Like... let's say "significantly more than 5 lbs" based on comparison with what I have on hand.
Back in the day, at the Boys & Girls Club, I made the hover bike from Mega Man X2 and the Falcon from Final Fantasy III/VI out of Legos. Little pudgy lego mechs in a wargame! I'M GETTING THIS! And bricks!
They still sell them by the bucket-full, right? Or do you guys think it would be better to shop for individual parts?
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
I dunno if they have buckets of the kinds of pieces it looks like we need. Ive only seen buckets of the basics, the 6 peg blocks and boards, 4 peg blocks and boards, two peg blocks and boards, that kinda thing. But Ive never really bought in bulk so I might be wrong.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
Any way to convert this for some online lego battling?
Edit: Might be hard to convince my friends to get into this.
Mechaton Flickr group
My LDD blueprints
EDIT: Also, official updates can be found here. You can buy the rules in book and/or PDF form, and one purchase will entitle you to the PDFs of later versions.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
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Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
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Take snapshots of your creations and just play on a hex grid?
Edit: Any excuse to bust out the Lego sets from some closet or attic, am I right?
Points-per, as was mentioned. Then there's building limitations: you can only build up to four attachments on a mech, and for each attachment shy of four, you get an extra initiative die for that mech (so if jumping the gun and running to grab an objective is your thing)
Also, in a play write-up, one guy made a mech that had max spotting attachments and (I think) movement and maybe a hand-to-hand. Under the new rules, such a mech gets a free green d8, meaning it moves FAST. The mech ran around spotting targets and causing massive damage.
Also, I heartily endorse an online or PBP game, though the whole Lego factor will be dulled somewhat.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
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That's why the Lego gods invented cameras.
Found a link answering my questions about how to go about buying the legos. They talk about it a bit here:
http://www.lumpley.com/comment.php?entry=334
I reply to things!
In the rulebook, they have designs for space marines. The semi-sorta-official ruling is to just treat them like mechs. The rules are pretty universal - weapons, movement, defense, targeting. Tanks, aerial units, and infantry squads are just considered weirdly-shaped mechs.
Here's some citizens, tragically gunned down.
There is probably nothing small enough to represent infantry in lego form at the represented scale though.
Man, why do you guys have to reply so fast? I was gonna insert an "Objection!" and everything!
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
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I don't have anything to add. I just wanted to say that those mockups are incredible, dude. Specifically the infantry guys.
Or a bit taller, depending. But yeah, about that.
@Jubeh: Why, thank you.
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<edit> Also, just looking through this stuff, it gives off a real-life Advance Wars vibe, which is good. Except it's more in depth. And has mechs. With huuuuge fucking rifles.
Also, I just today discovered that LDD screenshots have transparent backgrounds. I tried transposing some spaceships over a starfield - it was pretty.
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"you can only build up to four attachments on a mech" Um.. What are "attachments"?
"a mech that had max spotting attachments" Spotting attachments? I must be reading the wrong rules here.. Let me see...
<edit> Figures. I didn't read the revised rules. My weapon can have 4 red dice? Haha awesome.