Tex Mechs - Ashcan Edition
A downloadable game
Disclaimer: This game is offered for free AS IS. This is an fully written and playable RPG but the amount of work that it would take to turn it into a commercial product is beyond my ability right now.
What is this game?
Tex Mechs is a fun little economic and agricultural simulation RPG set in a post apocalyptical kaiju dominated Earth where you and your fellow players run a Kaiju Ranching operation and a good portion of your business involves cool mecha-sized gunfights.
In Tex Mechs you play as mech riders. Agricultural workers who lead megasized Kaiju Cattle Drives from ranches deep in the American wilderness to fortress cities like Chicago, New Orleans or Atlanta. In the world of Tex Mechs kaiju are economically important livestock and mechs are agricultural equipment.
Tex Mechs was inspired by TTRPGs like Troika!, Apocalypse World, Traveller and The Mecha Hack. It was also inspired by movies and TV shows like Godzilla, Gamera and Ultraman. The final inspiration for Tex Mechs is of course cowboy culture and cowboy history.
What this game is:
This downloadable file is an ashcan edition of Tex Mechs.
This is a fully written and playable TTRPG with over a dozen character options, 36 fully modable mechs, a deep economics based setting and dozens of enemies to do battle against.
This is an unfinished version of the game available for those who are curious. There is no art in this book and the numbers related to overland travel times and economics later in the book are completely un tested. The book is mostly edited but I would not be shocked at all to learn some typos slipped through the cracks. That is why I am offering this game up for free. I am proud of the work I put into this product and I hope you enjoy it too.
Download
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Development log
Comments
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Hi there, I recently talked with you on Reddit about this game. I am going to play it solo and wondered about the number of PC's needed. The rules just say that a group is needed, but it would seem difficult to do well as a solo for a kaiju drive and possibly an encounter with a large or behemoth with just 1 PC. I could of course play some sort of "specops" type missions by myself, but wanted to try the kaiju drive first.
The second question is regarding the reference to "kaiju riding" in some of the mech specs. Is this some sort ability that allows the mech to jump on the back of a kaiju? I'm not sure how this would be used with domesticated kaiju as they're about the same size as our mechs. I could see it being used against large or behemoth wild kaiju though.
When I was writing the game I kind of imagined 4-6 riders and however many NPCs the crew wants in the Wagon Vehicle (mechanics, laborers, maybe a veterinarian or whatever.) I was kinda basing those numbers around two things: 1) traditional RPG party size and 2) actual cattle drive size.
Historically cattle drives needed about 10-12 cowboys. So I kinda scaled everything down. There are Fewer Kaiju in a drive than actual cattle in a historical cattle drive so fewer riders than cowboys.
You pretty much nailed the purpose of Kaiju Riding as a skill. I kinda imagined it as climbing up onto a wild Kaiju as a way to get your riders into a "bucking bronco" type situation which I feel is essential for a western style narrative. Clarification/errata might be in order for that skill.
The pun alone is masterful. This is on my to-try list, for sure.
looks awesome
Thanks!