Titanfall in ICRPG

inspiration
#1

My son is a big Titanfall fan. For those of you unfamiliar with the game it is essentially a Mech-piloting game where the mechs are maybe 20 feet tall. It has a tremendous narrative and I’d like to continue that at the game table. A few questions:

1). Are there any good pre-existing mech games already constructed in the ICRPG rule set?

2). Any thoughts on handling the scale issue? The game takes place equal parts in and out of the mech (they can operate independently) and the relationship between the Titan and the Pilot is a key feature of the game. I was thinking that Titan-to-Human scale reads damage as straight hearts (d6 hearts instead of effort), or always Ultimate where size is an advantage, etc. any thoughts on this?

3). I see ideas posted on “chunking” armor and damage; where can I read up more on this? I’m working my way back through the Patreon Mainframes so maybe it’s in there?

Thanks in advance. Happy New Year!

  • Angelo
#2
  1. Vehicles in ICRPG already deal 2x and take .5 when dealing with pedestrians. I’d stick to the simplicity of this.
  2. In the back of Core 2e is the Fall of Arnor adventure. I’d start there when it comes to making my own Titanfall inspired game as it gives examples of Power Armor and Chunks. If you need more specifics in that vein, the ICRPG Worlds book has a full break down on how to make that kind of armor. For an overview of what Chunks are, look at the Speed kills adventure in Core 2e. The Vehicles secton is actually where they were first introduced. There are Mainframes and Thinky Sheets on Chunks as well, if things aren’t clicking. Hank actually has a whole episode, Mainframe #14, devoted to it.

If this isn’t enough to emulate TF to you, look up other Mecha games to steal inspiration and mechanics from. Anything d20 compatible will convert easily to ICRPG, doubly so if billed as OSR. The Mecha Hack from Absolute Tabletop comes to mind.
Victor Diaz/ Ezzerharden may have something already brewing in his incomplete works, but I haven’t looked into it, so don’t quote me.

P.S. I remember Hank saying something about an awesome Mecha game in either the RinCon or the Theater of the Mind Mainframes. Specifically that the area they played in was the shape of a hotdog or banana. I don’t know if he dropped who or what game it was, but there may be a kernel there.

How are you thinking about implementing the Parkour aspects of TF? Dex and Str checks with the landscape being exceptionally scaled?

#3

Ref: Power Suit Play Sheet

#4

Thanks for the feedback!

The parkour aspects I’m trying to keep simple. I’ll give pilots Normal rolls for things that would be Hard for regular soldiers and give them Hard rolls for things that an ordinary person couldn’t do. I’ll also allow Loot-based moves (wall running, jumping back and forth between walls, etc.) where appropriate.

#5

I’m looking to start up a Titanfall campaign as well. My biggest concern is making the piloting of titans feel different from being on the ground as a pilot, grunt, or simulacrum. In the video game, the pacing changes rapidly from high speed shooter with quick kills to slow methodical tank v tank play with lots of shields and suddenly right back to high speed shooter. How did it go for you? and how can I make mechs feel very mechanically different from ground forces to change the game pacing?

Thanks ya’ll!

#6

We are in a Titanfall-inspired mech-based game currently with the incomparable @Dennis_Smithson. Here are the keys to me that give his game a Titanfall feel:

  • When playing as a pilot, he keeps the action fast by letting us play fast and loose with movement.
  • Key pieces of loot/abilities let us feel amazing: cloaking devices, clone devices, jump jets, slide jets, assault rifles, armor, grenades, etc.
  • Human enemies are a threat, but not a huge one unless we are going up against another pilot. Thus, we felt badass against human and robot threats.
  • Mech enemies are a major threat. I think two of us were downed with one failed save against a mech attack. We felt squishy agains them.
  • Surge Capsules (as per the rules in the Altered State expansion) let us push the feel of the game and push the boundaries of what is possible.

In contrast, once we were in our mechs, we felt badass in a whole other way: several chunks per the rules that give our mechs 4 or 5 key abilities: bolt cannons, limit break swords, deflection shields, repair arms, flame throwers, mortar launchers, swarm missiles, etc. From there, the feel changes because Dennis masterfully:

  • Made mech versus mech combat feel like a true back and forth battle
  • With several chunks, we could assign damage anywhere, so you didn’t feel nearly so squishy, and combat takes longer; however, with only 5 hit points per chunk, you can’t just go toe to toe with another mech too long
  • Against human opponents, we were gods. We easily crushed human troops by walking on them (no roll needed); picked them up and threw them across the map like dolls; and didn’t have to roll to mow them down. On the flip side, their bullets just plinked off of us ineffectually.
  • Many of the normal mech functions were just hand-waived to a degree: anyone can overload your reactor and go nuclear; when your mech goes down, you auto eject and parachute down in a random D8 compass direction; you assign damage among systems (chunks); you can have another mech pull your pilot compartment off and attach it to their mech; your mech can be given commands when you are in your pilot form, and it will execute them (stand guard, follow, scoop you up), etc.
  • And then he used several great maps, where we felt the scale difference. As humans, the highway was a huge space, but then once in mechs, a large battle map had us fighting across the whole city. That kind of ability to “zoom in” and “zoom out” (easy with our VTT game) to discrete spaces and then larger ones is key.

I am probably missing a few, but because Dennis leaned into those pieces, our game definitely had that killer Titanfall feel. We felt totally badass on both sides of the coin, which I think is the key to that Titanfall game.

#7

There is probably a lot of inspiration to be garnered from the old FASA Battletech tabletop and Mechwarrior TTRPG rules that the grognards among the Shield Wall may remember. (I cut my teeth on BT back in the late ‘80s; it was the first skirmish game I ever got into seriously…) The Battle’Mech chassis types in the game were all rated by tonnage, and the armor and weapon loadouts were all allocated by space and tonnage available after the appropriate power plant was installed—as long as cost wasn’t the limiting factor. It was endlessly customizable and a min-maxer’s dream, great fun to tweak the build to suit your play style and work within the combat mechanics. I’m sure there could be a streamlined chunk-based ICRPG hack using classic Battletech ‘Mech construction as a guide.

#8

One of the very first games I ever designed was a battle tech inspired game with tons of customization options. Ah, the good old days of heat sinks.

#9

I know, right?! :wink: Now just imagine heat hearts! :smiley:

#10

Brilliant! Thank you for these tips and tricks. Game on.