August 6: Favorite Game You NEVER get to play. LOL! Okay, I’m actually going to do favorite genre I never get to play since I could be here naming individual titles all day. I’d have a tough time narrowing my selection down to one system, much less a specific title.

This is more of the favorite genre I never get to run because if I want to play it, finding a GM is tough. I would estimate Iowa has one Mecha TTRPG player per 1,000 square miles or thereabouts. Battletech, yes. I can find Battletech players around here, but it’s not a roleplaying game. Some of us remember the MechWarrior RPG, but those days are long gone, and players were pretty hard to find even then.

I picked up a somewhat obscure indie mecha game called Beamswords & Bazookas a couple of years ago that I’m very interested in trying out. I have now backed two separate Kickstarters on The Mecha Hack from Absolute Tabletop. I’ve had Chris Perrin’s Mecha TTRPG on my shelf for a number of years and that looks like a lot of fun. Of course, there are more popular mecha addons for Cypher System, Starfinder, and Big Eyes Small Mouth that deserve mention, too. There’s also Rifts, Robotech, and Transformers RPG, too. Those are somewhat low hanging fruit compared to the indie mecha games.

I have this little backburner project that I’ve been pecking at on and off for a couple of years now based on a couple of short stories I wrote that details a large scale conflict in space that involves copious amounts of giant robot combat. I also have three or four campaigns from as far back as thirty years ago that started with Mekton Z and the original BESM. One of those campaigns has managed to survive in my notes in one form or another the whole time and I’m determined to release it as a full campaign for a system somewhere, someday.

I’ve been fascinated with the mecha genre ever since I first saw Voltron and Robotech/Macross as a young nerd living in small town Iowa. I love giant robots. I love everything about them, and I’m constantly trying to find ways to wedge them into my gaming experience. Sigh. It doesn’t always work out the way we would like, I suppose. It seems like whenever I’m coming up with a new campaign, one of the first questions I ask is, “How can work giant robots into this thing?”

I almost forgot. I want to drop a shameless plug for Mecha Vs Kaiju 202X (5E) in there. This is the link to the Kickstarter. I have other versions of this game. I especially like the FATE version. Jonathan Wright is an outstanding game designer and MvK is one of the best game settings I’ve ever owned. It’s part Godzilla, part Pacific Rim, and a little bit of Power Rangers thrown in. I love it. Please check it out if you get a chance.

Thanks for stopping by. I can literally talk mecha and mecha games all day every day. I appreciate you being here. More tomorrow.