Mech Construction Showcase: King Crab from Battletech

Greetings, Dan Here!

Layout for the standard version of the core rulebook continues steadily. While everyone waits, I thought I might post some devlogs to showcase the variety in the mech construction system by recreating a number of popular mechs from across media. I'll post the sample mech sheets with explanations for how/why I built the mechs the way I did.

 The construction system was designed to allow for deep customization while remaining quick and easy to build. Players are asked to prioritize how they want their mech to perform while choosing their mech parts, purchase the statistics of their attacks in weapon construction, and finally, choose individual abilities for the mech through utilities/disposable equipment. Much character creation in Savage Worlds, mech construction determines the capabilities on the mech in game mechanics, while the "skin" or nature of those mechanics are left to the discretion of players. That is how two mechs that are mechanically identical could have completely different appearance or weapon descriptions. (Fortunately, thanks to the number of options during construction it is extremely unlikely two mechs would ever be identical.)

To kick off this demonstration I have built the King Crab from the Battletech franchise. This is distinctly a later campaign, or "high level" mech build as befitting my favorite assault mech. For those not familiar, the King Crab is a massive beast of a mech that can sheer through enemies on the battlefield like a reaper with a scythe by using overpowered weaponry. Naturally as an assault mech, it sports a ridiculous amount of armor, reflected here in primary parts with a Sakura Industries Frame giving it 48 Armor Points. Unfortunately, the trade off for this super-heavy, is that it's, well, heavy. The King Crab stomps its way slowly across the battlefield, here with Caballero Corp Boosters, and the Movement Rating of 1.  Fortunately, to compensate for this slow speed, the crustacean monarch has many powerful weapons. This is supported by the Blitz Tech CPU giving it two utility systems that can be installed. In this case, we installed two Heat Sinks, adding +2 Heat Rating each on top of the Sakura Industries Radiator with it's 14 HR. This brings the King Crabs total HR to 18.

That Heat Rating score is poured into two weapon systems, the first, is the assault mech's iconic, massive, ballistic autocannons contain within a pair of claw-like shields which can double as melee weapons. These Autocannon Claws as described here, deal a d12 of damage per attack, and was given a Rate of Fire of 2, allowing each claw to fire once on an attack action. The ranges of which are for far and sniping, but melee has also been purchased so that the claw shields can be used to bludgeon opponents as well. While the available ammo for these cannons is low, having being able to melee with them will allow the mech to continue to attack with them, albeit with reduced damage, even after all ammo is expended. To help, the weapon's optimization was put into ammunition to grant one extra ammo just in case. Since this is a high level mech a couple of weapon mods have been installed as well. Irradiated Ammo will allow for additional damage against enemy mechs, while the Targeting AI will grant a bonus to hit with this weapon.

The second weapon to cover the range gap between melee and far, is the Large Laser. While it fires less, and for less damage, it has more ammo to compensate. In addition, the weapons mod, Explosive Ammunition gives it the opportunity to deal damage again if the d4 damage dice ever rolls a 4. Something that is more likely to occur with weapons using lower damage dice levels. 

Now the King Crab is also known for sporting Long Range Missiles. While this could technically be achieved by installing more Heat Sinks, or perhaps a Heavy Weapons Mode Converter for utility systems, instead, two disposable Rocket Decks were instead purchased here to serve the same purpose as needed. Lastly, to help with the ammo situation, (and to scare any unsuspecting opponent), the King Crab is equipped with a disposable Ammo Hopper, containing a full refill on ammunition for one weapon. While I did not specify which in the character sheet, I think enemies would be more frightened were it a refill on the autocannons. 

While this was a high end built, a similar approximation of these same qualities could be achieved by players at start. Naturally, not every option would be filled in for the player's first mission, but a mech could certainly be built that would still feel similar to the King Crab even with starting equipment. To help demonstrate, the next devlop sample mech I'll build is the fantasy mech, the Escaflowne.

Thank you once more for your interest in BTE, and I'll see you then!