[gurps] A spaceships Mecha - the Chessmaster

[Clinton N. Fell]

First to address Onno's comment about arms.

I hadn't bothered to think too much about it.  Early on I had envisioned 
them as an entrenching tool and debris clearing tool.  But after that I 
mostly just put them there because I only used two legs.  The multiple 
limbs has always struck me as one of the few advantages "mecha" have over 
tanks.  If you blow a limb off the mecha it can still move, if you track a 
tank however it is done until you can get out and fix it.  And fixing 
track-type undercarriage outside of a repair bay is not fun believe me - 
it isn't even much fun inside of a repair bay.  Quad track vehicles 
somewhat mitigate this advantage - but these have problems of their own.



gurpsnet-l-bounces at sjgames.com wrote on 06/11/2009 04:57:10 PM:

> 
> On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 8:18 AM, Onno Meyer<Onno.Meyer at gmx.de> wrote:
> >> The M-CCM1 (Manned - Command and Control Mech 1)
> >
> > I had never even thought of dual control rooms. Two crewmen
> > are better than one, but even two are a small crew for a C3
> > vehicle. We're talking about a 30-ton vehicle, more than
> > most present-day APCs ...
> >
> >
> > What good are those arms? Sure, a proper mecha needs arms,
> > but a C3 vehicle doesn't.
> > Onno
> 


And now for Chris's comment about Warstrider.

I've heard good things about this, but have never read it.  My first 
experience with William Keith's work was on some of the old Battletech 
novels.  And I really didn't like his Battletech novels (but I really did 
like Stackpole's).  I have always liked the walking tank idea of 
battlemechs - and when he was having them doing shoulder rolls into 
kneeling shooting stances it really bugged me.  In the game a mech could 
take significant damage from just a bad stumble - I hesitate to think what 
a shoulder roll would do to one.

And as big of an Otaku as I am, I hate Japanese mecha anime.  For much of 
the same reasons (plus the fact that in these shows a transforming mech 
almost always is better than a specialist mech despite all the equipment 
needed to transform it).  Gaseraki is one of the few exceptions to this 
(and that would probably have been better without the psychic dancing 
kabukimen - or the last episode).

But every once in a while I think about giving the Warstrider series a try 
anyway.


> Makes me think of one of the mecha in William H. Keith's Warstrider
> series.   It was one of the heavier mechs in the setting and it was
> designed as the unit commander's mecha.  It had a crew of three:
> pilot/primary-gunner, secondary gunner, and the unit-commander.  In
> normal configuration, the pilot controlled the legs, arms, and the
> main weapon.  The gunner operated all the secondary weapons
> (counter-measures, missiles, anti-infantry).  The unit-commander was
> in a direct 3D virtual-reality suite commanding all the other mecha in
> the field.
> 
> The big thing in the setting was that all mecha were controlled via
> nanogrown cyberlinks and the command mecha could be changed out so
> that any of the 3 crewmembers could take over operation of any of the
> systems.
> 
> ---
> Chris J. Whitcomb
> "I try to keep an open mind, but my brain keep falling out!"
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I've been working on another drone.  This one intended for direct combat. 
Almost half its mass is dedicated to the best armor available - but it 
still looks like a thin-skinned APC.  Unfortunately I haven't had time to 
finish it.  Maybe next week.

Clint