From: Robin Paul <Robin.Paul@t...>
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 11:23:03 -0400
Subject: Mecha Carnage and Aargh!
Hallo gents- re Aargh! I got through the viva OK, and thanks to all of you who wished me luck- "all on the Full Thrust email list" is in my acknowledgements list! And all it means is I'm smarter than the caterpillars... I've also been having a shot at "Mecha Carnage" since I regained consciousness. I've been playing solo with the handful of mecha I own. My early impressions are _very_ positive. The complexity level is closer to, but less than, that of DS2 rather than FT, and neatly combines playability with anime-style chrome. The game requires d4/6/8/10/12/20. Players take turns to activate single mecha, as per FT. You don't have any of that high definition hit location stuff, and tracing the fate of every Joule of energy, that stopped me playing Battletech more than twice There is a critical hit system which works simply and well. The system is generic and easily "tweakable" to specific backgrounds. There is a points system, which seems to be a reasonable one. Different tech. level mechs of the same size have different capacities for weapons, and different effective ranges with the same weapons. The "Macro Size level" idea would let you run real monsters in the same game as more "normal" (if that makes any sense for mecha!) machines. Transformable mecha are included. Overall, it is exactly the level at which I want to play mecha/anime, and if I'd been told it was a GZG game I wouldn't have been surprised, which is high praise. Cheers, Rob