Hi Folks, I took itch Games for Gaza bundle. Among the games in the bundle, I’ve seen 2 mecha games, Apocalypse frame and Beam saber, I believe the first one is a PTBA and the second a FITD, I have no opinon on these “system family”, it’s vague enough that it can lead to a good or bad game.

I’ve been considering running a mecha game, for a while. Last time I played a mecha campaign it was a Mekton Z (at the time when code geass was the popular anime). I’ve even downloaded the free version of lancer, but only had a quick look (and the fact that atribute have weird 2-3 letter name like LL gave me the impression it’s a complicated game). Now, I have a few games on my “pdf library” and need to choose one to read in details. These last years I focused mostly on one-shot/mini campaign (10-20 sessions once every 2 weeks)

I am not really sure which direction to take. I am too old to spend a whole session on a fight, and traditionally, I am more a Mystery/investigation GM. Mecha wise, I like how Macross feature the duality between artists and fighter offering two ambiances in one, while I love how Gundam isn’t just good versus evil (and then I really enjoyed Geass, but it’s not really a mecha anime). RPG wise, on the sci-fi games I GMed a lot of fading suns, and some Eclipse phase (the example of a game with a great setting but a bad system)

i haven’t checked in details the setting of the 3 games from my thread, but it seems they’re semi setting agnostic. I might re-use some element from Eclipse phase and focus on the solar system rather than a whole galaxy.

Any opinion on these system/settings and which one I should choose (beside reading 3 times a 300 pages manual to decide ?)