Mecha Kaiju Sensō Tai!!!: Battling Robots and Monsters for Savage Worlds


メカ怪獣戦争対!!!

Mecha Kaiju Sensō Tai!!! (Mecha-Kaiju War!!!)

Strange invaders threaten the Earth! Warlords of the sunken continent of Mu summon unholy terrors from beyond the dawn of time! Aliens from Planet Z descend from the skies in fearsome mechanical beasts!  Evolved apes and sentient cockroaches from Earth’s far future terrorize the human race! All that stands between them and conquest is YOU!

Join the International Crime Prevention Organization and become a daring secret agent! Join the International Kaiju Countermeasure Command and train your psychic powers! Join the International Science Organization and become a science ninja!

Command a kaiju!

Pilot a mecha!

Fight to save the Earth!
***
Mecha Kaiju Sensō Tai!!! Is a Savage Worlds setting of earth-shattering battles and super-heroic espionage.  It is an homage to the mecha and kaiju anime and films of all eras – but especially the ‘60s and ’70 -- with a dash of tokusatsu and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (科学忍者隊ガッチャマン, Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman).  Players take on the roles of the science ninja pilots, inventors, and super-spy buddies of giant mecha and the fairy priestesses, prepubescent boys, psychically-linked teenage girls, and scientists who somehow find themselves able to call on the help of giant kaiju.   

All players play two characters: their human-level character and a kaiju or mecha that their human-level character can summon and/or control. Kaiju and mecha are on a completely different scale than conventional weapons.  They are beyond Heavy Weapons; it is completely impossible to hurt them with anything except another kaiju or mecha. Therefore, kaiju and mecha are built as standard player characters and have the same range of attributes – just on a Gargantuan scale.

Races
Humans will be the primary human-level player character race, but Earthling androids, evolved ape renegades (as Half-Orcs), fairy priestesses (as Half-folk), and Muvian renegades (as Atlanteans) might join the battle to save the planet.  Sentient cockroaches and Zillian aliens are jerks and never join the good guys.
All mecha are obviously androids.
Kaiju can be created by using the Atlantean (Ebirah), avion (Mothra, Rodan), half-folk (Minilla), rakashan (King Caesar), and saurian (Anguirus, Gamera, Godzilla, Gorosaurus, etc.) races. Kaiju do not get any starting funds (seriously, what would a semi-sentient giant lizard buy?) so they get an extra skill point.  Kaiju are at least semi-sentient and are not restricted to Smarts d4 (A), but it is unlikely they have a true functional language. 
Mecha and Kaiju rate their Strength and Vigor on the Gargantuan scale; example: Strength d8 (G).

Skills
No changes for human-level characters. 
While mecha are obviously vehicles and limited to some degree by their pilots ability to control them, most mecha have pilot-assistance programs or mechanical limitations that mean in practice they have their own independent skill ratings.  For example, a hotshot science ninja may not have Shooting at all because he uses feather-shaped shuriken instead; his mecha, on the other hand, is armed with a Laser MG and has a Shooting skill that simulates targeting computers.
Kaiju obviously have little need for Investigation or Streetwise, but some of them do have Persuasion.

Hindrances
No changes for human-level characters. 
Most mecha are not sentient and may ONLY take the following Hindrances: All Thumbs (watch Dai Guard sometime), Bad Luck, Elderly, Enemy (yes, sometimes the bad guys project their frustrations onto the robot instead of the pilot), Habit (Minor), Lame, Obese, One Arm, One Eye, One Leg, Quirk, Small, and Ugly.
Kaiju are giant freakin’ monsters and therefore may NOT take the following Hindrances: All Thumbs (they break everything they grab anyway), Bad Eyes (Minor), Big Mouth, Delusional, Doubting Thomas, Greedy, Illiterate (no kaiju can read), and Poverty.  There’s pretty much some way to make any other Hindrance work for a kaiju; Wanted kaiju, for example, find the Earth’s defense forces mobilized against them even when they’re fighting to save the planet.

Edges
Background Edges: Kaiju may not take the Noble and Rich/Filthy Rich Edges.
Leadership Edges: Leadership Edges apply to human-level characters’ bonds to their mecha and kaiju. Mecha may not take Leadership Edges.
Professional Edges: Mecha may be programmed with applicable Professional Edges, but kaiju cannot take them.
Weird Edges: Mecha and kaiju with Beast Master get a Gargantuan-scale companion.  Kaiju do not have pockets and cannot take Scavenger.
Kaiju can take the following Monstrous Abilities as Edges: Aquatic, Burrowing, Infravision, and Low Light Vision.

Gear
All levels of gear, including Futuristic gear, are available.
Kaiju cannot buy gear, but mecha can.  Mecha starting funds and gear prices should also be considered to be on the Gargantuan scale.

Setting Rules
Blood & Guts, Born a Hero, Critical Failures, Heroes Never Die, High Adventure, Joker’s Wild, and Multiple Languages (everyone understands Japanese).

Powers
Human-level characters can take any Arcane Background.  Some science ninjas know ninpo, the secret magic of ninjas; use AB: Magic or AB: Miracles as you see fit.
Some mecha and kaiju have super-scientific powers so advanced and strange they seem identical to AB: Magic, others (like Mothra) obviously have AB: Miracles, and some others are simply super-powered.  Neither mecha nor kaiju can take AB: Weird Science.  Mecha cannot take AB: Psionics. 

Bestiary
Practically every animal and monster in the Savage Worlds Deluxe bestiary can be adapted into a robo-beast or kaiju (ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and zombies being the only likely exceptions).  Assume that they’re all on the Gargantuan scale, adjust accordingly (a kaiju dragon, for example, is Huge even amongst kaiju), and describe them in wild and crazy ways.

EDIT: I finally remembered where I got some of the inspiration for this post.  Thanks go to From the Sorcerer's Skull for GIANT SPACE ROBOTS!

EDIT 2: Since I've decided to run some Godzilla stats, let's clarify the Gargantuan scale. Gargantuan scale in Mecha Kaiju Sensō Tai!!! differs slightly from the Gargantuan Monstrous Ability in Savage Worlds Deluxe.

  • Gargantuan Armor: Kaiju and mecha on the Gargantuan scale may only be Shaken by Heavy Weapons; their attacks count as Heavy Weapons for the purposes of bypassing Heavy Armor..  They may only be wounded by G-scale weapons such as the weaponry of other G-scale creatures and weapons of mass destruction.     
  • Gargantuan Damage: Kaiju and mecha on the Gargantuan scale are considered to be Size +20 for purposes of interaction with human-size targets; they add +20 to all damage rolls made against non-Gargantuan targets.
  • Gargantuan Size: G-scale kaiju and mecha suffer the attack penalty for being Huge; man-sized creatures are at +4 to attack rolls to hit G-scale creatures (including attacks by Heavy Weapons).
  • Gargantuan Stride: 1" in distance for G-scale kaiju and mecha equates to 5" of human-scale distance; this applies to movement and ranged weapons.

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