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The kaiju stride across the world like a force of nature — unstoppable!
Imagine a world where every giant monster movie you’ve ever seen is true! The first wartime atomic bomb breeds the first kaiju. Titanic lizards invade Asia. Mutagiant insects ravage America. Europe builds a fortress at its borders to keep the monsters out. Africa reshapes its own destiny in the face of imminent attack. The history of the world is forever changed by the coming of the kaiju.
What force is capable of standing against such monstrous strength?
The Mecha Assault Force!
Inspired by the classic mecha anime of Japan, the giant robots of the M.A.F. stand ready to do battle against the monstrous might of the kaiju! From human-size servo suits to towering war machines to gigantic super robots, mecha give humanity the strength to match the kaiju might for might.
The Never-Ending Battle of Giant Monsters and Robots Begins Anew!
Mecha Vs Kaiju is back! It began in the Millenium era, with the release of Mecha Vs Kaiju for True20. It continued in the Reiwa era with Fate Core. Now Mecha Vs Kaiju 202X arrives with a custom-designed 5th Edition engine, purpose built for the action and drama of anime, manga, and kaiju eiga, yet fully convertible to any other 5E system!
Become Part of an Anime, Manga, or Monster Movie
When the action gets hot or the drama gets heavy, it’s who you are as much as what you do that counts. That’s why we crafted this system to reflect the internal lives of characters, as well as their abilities, just like your favorite stories do.
At the heart of every MvK player character is their Archetype. For years anime and manga fans have debated the attributes of their favorite characters, cataloging them into a series of archetypes. From the silent and moody Danmari to the motor mouthed Keet and the aggressive Tsunshun, part of the pleasure of watching and reading Japanese media is seeing these archetypes play out, often in surprising ways. In Mecha Vs Kaiju you choose one of 12 famous archetypes, each one with its own strengths and weaknesses, special abilities. and skills and connections.
The “5Evolved” Game Engine
Where Who You Are Counts as Much as What You Can Do
We’ll be honest, the MvK game engine is the 5th Edition system we’ve always wanted to play. The result of over 50+ years combined experience as players, DMs, and creators, the single goal of the 5Evolved variant has been to develop a system where
- who you are counts for as much as what you can do
- dynamic action is hardwired into every choice, and
- both players and GMs have the tools to directly contribute to the story.
Character traits define a PC’s Aspects and personality, their individual Style of action, and the Values they hold dear. Character Dice replace static trait bonuses and statistics, making “Calling out your traits”, describing your character’s thought process as you select dice from each trait set, a roleplaying exercise all its own. Combine those trait dice with a d20 Fortune Die and add two results together for your Action Total. Highest total wins!
Player choices don’t end there, as a remaining die result becomes the PC’s Impact, which you can spend to cause stress, defend allies, create boons for yourself, or put conditions on your enemies — or any combination of these actions you wish. Need to crack a code while also bolstering a fallen friend and knocking an enemy off their feet? You can. Say NO to static “roll-hit-next” combats!
Find Out More About 5Evolved on the Mecha Vs Kaiju website!
A Game Over 40 Years in the Making
Johnathan Wright’s big brother, Randy, was his first nerd pusher back in the 1970s, showing him first Lost in Space, then Star Trek, and finally blowing his little 8 year old mind taking him to see Star Wars on the big screen. But Johnathan’s love of giant monsters grew out of Saturday afternoon and late night movie marathons, and anime was a part of his life every day with Speed Racer and Star Blazers.
Not long after, his love of roleplaying games began, with friends running Dungeons and Dragons adventures. During the first great gamer boom of the 1980s he played Gamma World, Marvel Superheroes, and of course Mekton and Battletech. While he loved playing with the fiddlybits to build new characters and robots, the overall systems often seemed static and rules bound. It was the storyteller boom of the 21st century that convinced him that there was another way to run games.
Johnathan experimented with systems in the early days of the Millennium era, but it wasn’t until the release of Fate Core that he found an engine that not only encouraged creativity, but rewarded it as well. But always was the search for the golden mean: the perfect blend of story and crunch.
Today Johnathan Wright has teamed up with 5th Edition game developer Jeremy Forbing to create a truly unique variant of 5E. Jeremy is a veteran game developer with dozens of credits to his name. 5Evolved is the result of countless late nights Johnathan and Jeremy have spent crafting a system that emulates anime and manga action and drama, while giving players and GMs the freedom to act and the power to put dynamic rules into those actions.
Mecha Vs Kaiju 202X has been in development for over a year on Patreon, where over 60 patrons participate in playtesting. An ongoing online campaign has honed and strengthened the system, and will continue to develop new elements over the coming months.
Campaign Goals
Initial funding is for production of the Mecha Vs Kaiju 202X 5E Corebook.
MvK is an entire game world in a single book: character creation; point-buy monster and robot construction; custom powers, talents, and tools; a player history of the world; a secret history for the GM; stats on famous monsters and robots of history; game creation and GMing support; and a starter adventure and campaign, complete with key NPCs and opposition!
Nearly 10 Years Worth of Stretch Goals
The previous edition of MvK has been in development since 2014 — almost a decade of kaiju entries, mecha designs, and settings to add to the system. Initial stretch goals would increase the size of the corebook, without altering the price.
But there are just as many words written about the monsters as the corebook itself will have. So the first stretch goal would double your MvK library with a definitive edition of the “Big Book of Kaiju”! Written as an in-universe encyclopedia of giant monsters assembled by a motly crew of kaijutaku, the BBK features dozens of kaiju at various stages of their development, from initial appearance to endgame threats of a planetary nature.
But there are far more ways to tell stories about humans building machines to give them the power to fight monsters, and MvK has presented multiple settings which do just that. From a steampunk Victorian empire on the brink of war, to a fantasy land of magitech battlers powered by life force, to a four color world of sensational sentai teams, the settings of Mecha Vs Kaiju explore multiple genres of monsters and robots. This stretch goal would add a third book detailing these and many more.