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A jam submission

Monster Mech BashView project page

Weird heroes rescue earth from AI nanite plague
Submitted by kiryas — 19 hours, 5 minutes before the deadline
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Monster Mech Bash's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Did it build on the Havoc Engine and add interesting stuff?#373.1823.375
Did it make good use of the Havoc Engine?#453.0643.250
Does the game seem fun to play?#463.0643.250
Overall#463.1033.292

Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

My first impression is that I love the chopped together monster mech on the cover page. I just wish you had used a lion's side profile while roaring to really sell the lazer/whatever it is breath weapon attack. 

The character creation rules feel really special. Building out your monster mech piece by piece and then assigning attribute points based on the pieces you picked is a great way to let players fully control what their mech is while also ensuring it fits nicely into the mechanical game system. One major concern I have is the amount of time it takes to build a character. Maybe to streamline this process, you could have some monster part tables to select from and/or some prebuilt monsters. 

I do wonder if the way you use the monster scores/mech scores does potentially encourage some level of min-maxing. For example, to me it seems like it would be optimal to make a monster out of either 5 parts monster or 5 parts mech, then flavor all of your narratives toward the side you're strongest at. I think maybe you should consider that the minimum mech/monster score is 2 to avoid the extremes.

I really like that you give the players options to build their own systems to attach to each body part, but again, I worry about how long it takes during combat. I think trying to have some prebuilt options to pick from for each body part would streamline the experience. 

I do agree with some of the other comments that the existing doc mostly focuses on how to build your monster mechs with less detail on how to use them. I would definitely like to see a version of this with the rules fleshed out in more detail. I think the damage/injury system could be clarified, as well as adding ways to spend dice. 

Great submission!

Submitted

Feels like some nice and detailed self-balancing rules to construct a mech. I think working out my monster mech conceptually and mechanically would be the fun part (and is where the focus is).

I could see this working almost as a drop-in in another game? Like otherwise normal sized characters suddenly got involved in a mixed up mech/kaiju situation, this would add some nice structure to that.

Submitted

A lot of fun ideas here, I like the monster-mech building mechanic and how you've tried to turn Gear into a point-buy system, although I do think the rest of it could have used a little more to make the theming really pop, like some sample challenges and scenes, or some additional world-building text

Developer

Thanks so much for your feedback :) We hope to playtest this one soon and continue the development. I totally agree a sample storyline is missing. Also, a plot generator like in Lasers & Feelings could work well here (based on a solid random table).

Submitted

Like the concept of the Power Ranger Zord as a theme, but I think you the focus on the mechanics of the building of the characters overshadowed the theming of the game itself. I think some additional mechanics for increasing stats and more detail to what the players are fighting would have helped. The challenges section is interesting but since they are almost all downsides to the players it can make it hard to really show off the power fantasy style that the theming and the system wants to do.

Developer

Thanks for your feedback! We never had the chance to playtest an actual session. The drawing and building phase got us really excited, creating a crazy number of weird doodles. Once we give it a spin, I will know whether the Havoc Engine’s free-wheeling narrative compensates for what you call downsides.