Goodman Games

Cheers,

The link below is to a revised set of Mech creation rules for DragonMech.

I'm a huge fan of DragonMech. I wrote most of the Steamborg material in Steam Warriors and I ran Destiny of Steam and Steel here on the boards for a while.
I was frustrated with the mech rules and reorganized them. It's all exactly the same material, but in a more linear order, which, IMHO is a little easier to use. I've also expaned the Incremental Improvements side bar into tables (but only for steam mechs so far).
My appologies. This material is mostly done and very functional but it isn't finished and my red-notes are still in the PDF marking where additional work needs to be done. I'm too busy to finish it right now but with a resurging interest in Dragonmech I thought I ought to make it availible.
Enjoy,

http://www.brokensolaris.com/DragonMech ... 202007.pdf

Mark Charke

this is exactly what i was hoping for; a little editing to smooth out the rough edges and i'd say it'd be well suited for addition into future printings

When you're calculating the base cost for incremental improvements, do you include armor cost? Or just labor and materials?

Incremental improvements are based on just Labor and Materials.

Armor hasn't been factored in. Your mech's size determines the cost of the armor. Unless you have made a LOT of incremental improvements, don't bother adjusting the cost of the armor. It's the same cost regardless of the incremental improvements.

If you want to be tremendously accurate, someone who makes a LOT of incremental improvements might want to recalculate the size of their mech. Keep in mind, this would mean starting over and recalculating most of the stats and costs for the mech. Size is the 2nd item you choose when designing a mech and just about everything else is based on it.

Recalculating Size - Determining the size modifier
There are six areas the Incremental Improvements modify. (Str, Dex, Fort, Ref, Speed, HD) Start with 0; For each area that is increased 1 size, add +1. For each area that is decreased 1 size add -1. Divide this number by 6 and round the result (.5 or higher rounds up, .49 or lower rounds down). A positive result is how many sizes up your mech should be. A negative number is how many sizes down your mech should be. A 0 means you should stay where you are.

John the Mech Builder modifies his mech.
The strength goes up 4 size categories to make a stronger mech.
He pushes the Dexertiy down 3 size categories. It's a slow mech.
He pumps the HD up 6 size catergories to make a really tough mech.

[(+4) plus (-3) plus (+6)] divided by 6
[7] divided by 6
= 1 (1.1666666 rounds down)

The mech should be treated as one size larger.
(Any costs and labor based on size change to the new size but none of the mech's stats or abilities change. It is still physically the size it started as. Optionally the GM could rule the mech does need to be bigger or smaller, in which case the stats change.)

Incremental Improvements really opens the door for min/maxing mechs but it also allows for greater customization. The logical abuse is increasing the "best" stats Str/Speed/HD.

You could have two mechs with the same stats, but different sizes. The larger mech would suffer more size restrictions but is faster and better at grappling. The smaller mech is cheaper and has less size penalties but is slower and worse at grappling.

I don't think the cost differences are significant enough to warrent this level of detail - double checking size and rebuilding the mech because of it. Moving up a few steps gets very expensive, very fast. Moving down doesn't save very much money at all.

Mark Charke