Super Mario Giant Robot

Super Mario Giant Robot

 

Robot Stats parallel person stats:

 

Heart -> Energy

Power -> Power

Smarts -> Scanner

Coolness -> Design

Toughness -> Toughness

Speed -> Speed

 

HP -> SP, Structure Points

FP -> EP, Energy Points

Badge Points -> Module Points

 

Energy: Represents the overall power-generation capability of the giant robot.

Power: Represents the physical strength of the giant robot.

Scanner: Represents the detection and electronic warfare systems of the giant robot.

Design: Represents the overall aesthetic and advancement of the giant robot.

Toughness: Represents the armoring and internal redundancy of the giant robot.

Speed: Represents the agility and mobility of the giant robot.

 

These mostly serve the same purposes as the stats for normal-size people, with some inevitable differences. For instance, Scanner cannot be used to analyze a work of literature or contemplate clues to a mystery, as Smarts can. Design is used, like Coolness, for special maneuvers, but mostly does not contribute to social rolls; that’s the pilot’s job. Some tasks simply need the personal touch, as opposed to a cold unfeeling giant metal claw.

 

Ranged attacks are a property of Scanner, not Speed.

 

Robot rolls are structured similar to a team test, with both the robot and the pilot contributing to the roll. Either the pilot or the robot is the primary actor, and rolls directly. The other provides a supporting roll, with each success providing an additional die to the primary roll. In the interest of minimizing the number of different rolls needed for a single action, the supporter may opt to simply provide half their dice, rounded down, to the primary actor instead of rolling for it.

 

The pilot, naturally, uses whatever the most relevant attribute is for their roll. This may result in strange situations, like a pilot with high toughness somehow making his robot more resistant to damage, or a cool pilot dealing more damage with her experimental plasma cannon. I recommend letting these circumstances pass without comment; other GMs or players may instead wish to invent some explanatory technobabble, restrict the types of rolls to which pilots may contribute, or find a game other than Super Mario RPG for their giant robot needs.

 

Team Tests involving multiple giant robots and their pilots are treated normally.

 

When interacting with person-sized obstacles in areas where being huge would be a benefit, robot attributes are assumed to be 5x greater than person attributes. 6 SP = 30 HP, a Power of 3 translates into a 15-dice attack when directed at a regular enemy, etc. Where being huge is neither a benefit nor a detriment, no modification occurs. So a giant robot might apply a 5x modifier to straight-line speed, but not complex acrobatics, even though they're both governed by the Speed stat. Where being huge is a detriment, the dice pool is divided by five, rounded up.

 

Larger or smaller robots may be created simply by adjusting the multiplier value. A set of bulky powered armor may be a measly 2x multiplier; truly giant robots may be as much as 100x. The divisor value for attempting inappropriately scaled action is also modified similarly, although I recommend simply ruling it impossible and doomed to failure past 10x personal scale. You'll need to get out of your giant robot sometime. It's recommended, but not required, that numbers much beyond 20x be reserved for special units such as combining robots, major bosses, walking fortresses, and the like.

 

(Person-scale 'giant robots' being piloted by exceptionally tiny people may be treated as 1x scale robots, although I recommend just using the normal rules instead.)

 

If robots of different sizes throw down, the larger robot has its rolls multiplied by the proportion between it at the smaller. For example, when a 5x robot and a 10x robot fight, the 10x robot applies a 2x modifier to its rolls. The same thing happens between a 10x robot and a 20x robot. Meanwhile, a 25x robot fighting a 5x robot gains a 5x advantage.

 

Then there are combining robots. When performing a roll, a combined robot can choose any of its constituent robots or pilots to be the primary actor, and all of the other pilots and their robots can contribute to the roll using the normal rules for robot rolls. In addition, a combined robot can undertake multiple actions in a turn as long as they are not obviously mutually exclusive, up to the number of pilots in the robot. However, each pilot and their robot can only contribute to a single action. For example, a five-component combined robot could charge at an enemy, shoot them, and then punch them, but the remaining two pilots can only contribute to one of those actions; one will have to act without assistance. The size modifier of a combined mech is determined simply by adding together the sizes of all the component mechs.

 

Aside from combined robots, larger than standard robots may, at GM discretion, require larger crews to operate. The exact progression of how power should scale with crew size (and if it should scale with crew size) is left to the GM, as different methods of scaling may result in entirely different genres. A simple method of scaling, where each 10x increment requires an additional crewmember (10x = 1 crew, 20x = 2 crew... 100x = 10 crew) produces an even scale of power. A geometric scale, where each increment requires twice the crew of the one before it (20x = 2 crew, 30x = 4 crew, 40x = 8 crew... 100x = 1024 crew) creates warship-like giant robots that are exclusively the domain of powerful organizations. An inverted geometric scale, where each new crewmember allows for double the power of the previous (2 crew = 20x, 3 crew = 40x... 10 crew = 5120x) means giving a mech to a party of any size will result in the players going utterly mad with power. Choosing larger or smaller increments also has effects. A 5x increment keeps power levels more down to earth; a 20x or 25x increment allows you to go utterly crazy. Consider carefully!