One thing I have often wondered about the RPG version of the game was why everyone is the same TN to hit after moving the same distance.
In the red corner we have a guy who can barely move his mech 3 hexes and in the blue corner other a guy who is the best mech warrior ever to have existed.
Yet they are the same to hit based solely on movement. Plus reading the fluff about notable mech warriors with the ability to make a slow seemingly ponderous mech dance out of incoming fire.
In the standard game I get why they are the same. But in the RPG not so much.
Having played the RPG for over 20 years my group decided to try something out. I mentioned this to some of the design folks and they thought this would be the place to start talking about this.
Starting with MW3 Solaris rules and their 2D10 system we thought it was silly to have a conversion table back to 2D6 so we fully converted to 2D10. But their were still problems with our system and certain builds could be as hard to hit parked in a woods as people moving a fair distance. When ATOW came along we made a few tweaks and now feel we have a good system.
The group came up with a simple formula to create a defensive value for each mech. Remember this is the 2D10 formula. I am sure we could work out a 2D6 formula. Right now I am talking concept and theory.
Walk DEX+INT+Sensor Operations divided by 3
Run/Jump DEX+INT+Sensor Operations divided by 2
EXAMPLE: A DEX 6 INT 6 Sensor Op +4, Piloting mech +4 warrior would have a walk/run base of 5/8. To this you can add your piloting skill up to the limit of your skill. If the mech they pilot crosses 4 hexes they get to add all 4 of their piloting skill. If the mech crosses say 6 hexes they are capped at 4 by their piloting skill. The better the pilot the harder they are to hit.
To make things simple we use dice next to the figures. The GM has a set of plain white dice to further ID the bad guys. In the case above if the mech ran and covered 4 hexes the dice would read 12. Anyone shooting would then apply normal range and cover modifications to the TN minus their skill.
PRO: Not everyone wants to pilot a 3/5 100 ton assault mech. Speed is very much rewarded and the battlefield is a lot more dynamic.
CON: It makes attributes important again but not in a broken way like MW2.
While there is more to this system and other tweaks we made to ATOW for 2D10. This is the core of our working concept.
