Mobile Suit Gundam Table Top

[Stratassj]

Hello my fellow gamers, I wanted to submit this all to everyone, just to see what the general idea of it might be. For a whille now, Me and one of my friends have been playing with the idea of creating a Mobile suit gundam tabletop miniature game. Our idea as it currently stands to start with a core game of land based warfair set durring the One Year War, and up though 0080- War in the Pocket. Naturaly their would be two sides to the game, the Earth Federation Forces, and the Principality of Zeon. The diferent types of units at the start would be broken down as the following:

Infantry
The basic grunt units, non armored personel fighting, fighting where Mobile suits and tanks are unable to. Not sure yet how they will counter tanks or Mobile Suits. They will be low point cost

Tanks
Prior to the invention of the mobile suit, these were the mainstay fighting weapon of most armed forces, now their used in conjucntion with other more advanced weaponry to aid in firesupport, and assaults. Tanks Will most likely be a low-medium point cost, easyly deal with other tanks and infantry, though have problems with mobilesuits alone.

Mobile Suits
Warfare had forever changed with the invention of the mobile suit, Becouse of the blocking of radar on earth, these new weapons could scout out and fight in areas before unreachable. Mobile suits will generaly operate in teams of three or four, encluding a command suit for each team. Weapons will vary greatly. Gundam type units will be limited to 0-1 unless a massproduction type. Point cost Medium-High


Mobile suits that had numerous variants, such as the Zaku II, GM, and the like would more then likely have several different versions included within the game system with slightly different stats. Eventualy we plan on putting in the addition of Air units, Mobile Armors such as the infamous Big Zam, Expanding into space combat, with ship combat at some point, and developing special scenario missions, such as the invasion of Jaburo, Odessa, Battle of Solomon, And colony drops.

Were thinking of adapting the 40k system to work for us, however were not quite sure what the best way to go about it would be, Or how to really handle the combat system. We do have afew ideas allready, but we'd like to hear what other people might suggest, Or any questions you guys might have.

[TheButtman]

I think this idea is Hectic!
You should follow through with it
=D

[kithre]

Have you considered using the BattleTech rules for this, as many of the Gundams will have similarities to 'Mechs such as the Valkyrie and the ShadowHawk.

[omegoku]

Due to the skirmish level of combat you could use the more complex rules of 40k past.

I have toyed with a mobile suit army for 40k, purely as an excuse to use the models from Gundam wing I have.

Infantry and tanks are very much a minor thing in the Gundam universe and as such could be ignored for now. What size models are you intending to use?

The simplest way I think to represent the Gundam in game is to make them either vehicles with a new damage table, or use something similar to the vehicle locations table of 1st and 2nd edition.

Example :

Zaku II - Generic Pilot
wS3 BS3 S6 I3 A2 Ld7 Armour 11 11 10
Type walker
Weapons: Machine gun range 25" S6 AP4 Heavy 2, Zaku Axe - power weapon
Options: May take missile launcher leg pods for x points range 36" S8 AP3 Heavy 1

When you score a glancing or penetrating hit roll on the following table to see where the hit lands, add +2 in cc

6 - cockpit
5 - head
4 - body
3 - arm
2 - legs
1 - weapon

roll on appropriate table to see what happens, normal modifiers for glancing hits, etc apply

Cock pit
1 - crew shaken
2 - crew shaken
3 - crew stunned
4 - pilot injured
5 - pilot killed
6 - Suit destroyed

(pilot injured - ws and bs reduced by 1)
(pilot killed - suit stops moving and is now terrain)
(suit destroyed - explodes d6", S 6 blast, pilot cannot escape)

Head
1 - crew shaken
2 - crew shaken
3 - crew stunned
4 - Sensors damaged
5 - Head destroyed
6 - Suit Destroyed

(sensors damages - suit must use night fighting rules to see if he can target opponents for 2 turns)
(head destroyed - suit must use night fighting rules to see if he can target opponents for remainder of game)
(suit destroyed - explodes d6", S 6 blast, pilot can escape on a 4+)

and so on

there is more record keeping in this game due to changing BS, and different rules for different suits but that should be fine for a 4 suit vs 4 suit battle

Suits should have a max value for each stat, as even the best pilot cannot get more out of a suit than the suit can handle, but the stats them selves depend on the actual pilot. You could also have exp in campaigns to learn techniques or improve stats

Zaku II max stats ws 5 bs 5 S6 A3 Ld10 12 12 10
Gelgoog max stats ws 7 bs 7 S 8 A 5 Ld 10 13 12 10

Also whenever a unit comes under fire, they must use Ld or falll back or be pinned like infantry. Possibly bring in the target priority rules too.


Have fun developing a fuller ruleset!

[kithre]

How about going one further and using Necromunda rules

I like the use of Datafaxes though - very nice!

[Karmoon]

Just remember to keep it realistic.

No gundam wing, X, G, Seed... or basically any of the kiddy crappy ones.

If you do include beam weaponry, remember the impact they had on the one year war. The fact that one well placed shot can destroy a battleship.

Awesome!

ZIEG... ZION!

[Stratassj]

Allright, thanks for your insperation to tackle this behemoth of an idea! So for you now, I have a first draft of several game mechanics that ive reworked to fit my idea. As you'll see, it didnt exactly keep it using only 40k game mechanics.



Targeting Ability: TA: The level of the suit’s targeting computer
Evasion Ability: EA: The ability of a suit and its pilot to notice, and then evade incoming fire.
Armor Value: AV: How much punishment your mobile suit can withstand.

Attack and Defense

When electing a target for attack roll Xd6, where X is equal to the number of attacks a given weapon posesses, adding the attacking suit’s TA. Then compare this to the single roll of the defender, adding in the defenders EA. For each attack roll that equals, or greater then the target’s evasion roll, one hit is scored.

EX: A Zaku II elects to open fire on a GM with its machine gun. Rolling 3d6, with the results of 1, 3, 5 and adding the Zaku’s TA of 3, the results total 4, 6, and 8. The GM rolls 1d6, and adds its roll of 3 to its EA of 4 to total 7. Since only one of the attackers rolls is greater then the GM’s 7, only one hit is scored.

Please note, that any roll of a 1 for your evasion is an automatic failure to evade, as the pilot is caught off guard.

Wounding/Damage

After you have successfully hit an enemy mobile suit, it is time to see if you are capable of doing any damage to it. The first thing you do is roll 1d6 to see where on the suit you hit (Refer to chart 1 below) After the area of impact has been found out, roll 1d6 and add the weapons strength compared to the armor value of the target mobile suit. It the armor value is matched evenly, then a glancing hit occurs. If the AV is exceeded then a penetrating hit occurs. (see damage charts below.)

For glancing hits, Subtract two from your total roll.
AP1 weapons Add two to your roll



Dice Roll Area Hit
1 Head
2 Torso
3 Right Arm
4 Left Arm
5 Legs
6 Weapons/shield


Head
1 crew shaken
2 crew stunned
3 sensors damaged
4 sensors damaged
5 Head/sensors destroyed
6 Head explodes

Torso
1 crew shaken
2 crew stunned
3 sensors damaged
4 sensors damaged
5 suit destroyed
6 suit explodes

Arms
1 crew shaken
2 crew stunned
3 arm damaged
4 arm misaligned
5 arm destroyed
6 arm explodes

Legs
1 crew shaken
2 crew stunned
3 legs damaged
4 legs frozen
5 legs destroyed
6 legs explode

weapon/shield
1 shield hit
2 top shield destroyed
3 bottom shield destroyed
4 weapon damaged
5 weapon destroyed
6 weapon explodes

If you roll on the table for a part that has already been destroyed, then reroll.

Crew Shaken: Suit can Move, but not fire
Crew Stunned: Suit cannot move OR fire

Sensors Damaged: The effective visual range of the suit is reduced to 2d6x2 for one turn
Sensors/Head Destroyed: The visual range of the suit is reduced to 2d6x2 for the rest of the game
Head Explodes: The units head is destroyed in an explosion. Not only is the suits visual range reduced to 2d6x2 for the rest of the game, Also add +1 to the next roll on the damage chart.

Suit Destroyed: The mobile suit is destroyed, and its pilot killed. It becomes difficult terrain for the rest of the game.
Suit Explodes: The suit is destroyed in a horrific explosion. Any other suits caught within d6 inchs of the explosion take a strength 9 hit

Arm Damaged: Any hand held equipment is dropped.
Arm misaligned: The arm and targeting computer are hit out of alignment, From this point forward only add half of your TA to rolls.
Arm Destroyed: The suits arm is destroyed, anything being held is dropped
Arm Explodes: The suits arm is destroyed in an explosion. Anything being held is also destroyed. Add +1 to the next roll on the damage chart.

Leg Damaged: Suits movement speed is cut in half for the rest of the game
Legs Frozen: The suit cannot move for one turn, how ever it can still shoot.
Legs Destroyed: The units legs are destroyed. It becomes immobile, and hence can no longer evade.
Legs Explode: The units legs are destroyed in an explosion. Not only does it become immobile, but also adds +1 to its next roll on the damage chart.

Sheild Hit: The shot hit’s the shield, no damage! (if theirs no shield, or its been completely destroyed, treat as a weapon damaged)
Top shield destroyed: The shot hit’s the shield just as its supposed to, though the top portion is destroyed. (if its already been destroyed, treat as shield hit)
Bottom shield destroyed: The shot hit’s the shield just as its supposed to, though the bottom is destroyed. (if its already been destroyed, treat as shield hit)
Weapon Damaged: The weapon of your enemies choice jams and will not work for one turn.
Weapon destroyed: The weapon of your enemies choice is destroyed.
Weapon Explodes: The weapon of your enemies choice is destroyed in an explosion. Add +1 to your next roll on the damage chart.

[mpdscott]

Looking at your "damage" rules, I'd say that Kithre's suggestion of using the Battletech rules is a good one.
The rules are already in place for infantry, tank and giant robot combat, and so it's more a case of making adjustments to suit the "new" universe.

[Lord Penny Pincher]

Dear Stratassj,

You may want to check out some of the details from the "08th MS Team." Land based MS' required a support/logistics unit such as the hovertank which would provide you the opportunity to incorporate vehicles more frequently.

One potential addition: anti personnel flechette discharger - any infantry unit wishing to charge a mobile suit (regardless if the MS is incapacitated or fully functional) will have to receive a str 4 ap 4 pie plate centered over the mobile suit.