xMachiner: Mecha Fantasy Skirmish Battles

RE: Core Rules v2.1 Update: Balance Changes to Max. Weapon Name

Hello Traveler!

There’s a very small, yet meaningful change in this update. Just one additional clause to gears that greatly balances the game, maintains the fun, and encourages creative mech loadouts.

Zero Cost Gear Matters

We’ve tested it, ran the numbers, and yes, this does make a big difference in battles. Having a zero-cost attack allows greater flexibility in team building, and ensures that no matter what, a mech will have something to attack with. However, it did result in an unintended exploit where a mech just has zero-cost gear in every part, such that destroying one doesn’t really hamper their performance in battle; they can still attack twice with the same weapon in most situations, even after losing several parts. This led us to the one change we are making for this update.

Maximum Two of the Same Gear

All gear will now be limited to a maximum of two (2) with the same name. This keeps the mech’s ability to have something to attack with at any given time but provides a strategic opportunity for its opponent to aim for destroying one to prevent attacking with the same weapon twice or just force them to attack with weaker zero-cost gear at any given distance by getting rid of the more powerful gear.

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Short and simple update, but we believe that this will lead to a more pleasant game experience!

-Mykey

RE: Core Rules v2.0 Update: LOTS of changes! Please check out the designer commentary to check out all the adjustments I made. There's plenty. Core gameplay remains the same, but stats, attack bonuses, and action limits have been reworked.

RE: Core Rules v1.2 Update: Quality of Life Improvements

Hello Traveler!

Don't panic! Core Rules v1.2 is just a quality-of-life update that will very be helpful to non-wargamers! None of this changes the gameplay from v1.1, but it makes a certain behavior more narratively and mechanically sound, as well as open up design space for the future!

Core Rules v1.2

• "Build Team" now also tells players to use any terrain they can find, and a handful of six-sided dice (d6). Without terrain, the game just becomes a simple shooting gallery. Also, not everybody knows what a d6 is, which is referenced throughout the document.
• "Shield X+" definition has been cleaned up, and more importantly, removed the 'front arc' part of the effect not only to simplify what it does, but also to add a core mechanic that was baked into the Shield keyword ability but should have been explicit from the start.
• "Rear Arc Damage" is a new core mechanic derived from the original Shield keyword ability to highlight the importance of outflanking the opponent and attacking their rear arc. Damage dealt by attacking the rear arc is now unsaveable. This does not change anything from v1.1, but it does make attacking the rear arc feel better narratively and will allow us to design traits or effects that can affect this rule.

Yeah, that's it, really! Haha. I was bothered last night thinking about how I could have just made the rear arc attack benefit an actual core rule than baking it into the Shield. A player should feel rewarded in the Core Rules for outmaneuvering an opponent, whether or not there's a Shield involved, but because Shields are so important in the game now, it matters in a way that doesn't fundamentally change the original design intention. I wanted to offload extra mechanics from the Core Rules, but I think the unsaveable damage to rear arc is not a heavy addition.

-Mykey