﻿MECH&PILOT by Pam Punzalan
Edited by Fiona Maeve Geist
Original art by Gio Manning
Layout & extra art by Julie-anne Muñoz

Ships so large they blackened the skies replacing the sun, moon and stars with their radiance. We brought the first gods, bound through innovation’s steely will and hubris: phenomenal power robbed of self awareness, restrained beneath mortal hands.
Allegedly the arks broke apart during the Remembrance—the first gods freed themselves from the machines, punishing our impudence. Shattering our dreams of possessing a new world in our palm—and millions of lives.
It’s unknown if we are the second, third or beyond of ourselves. What we know is our skies contain new gods, impressing their will upon our sorry lot. What is a god but a mortal who survived discovering the path to the heavens, taking their place among the stars?
 
Initializing…
MECH&PILOT is an alternative GUN&SLINGER RPG playset about a war machine and accidental pilot. However, it’s designed to be modular mixing, matching and combining for compatibility. A Maestro and two players (Mech and Pilot) tell stories from a planet of highly advanced magitech civilization’s fragments that arrived on massive spaceships. The legacies buried within these Arks empowered nations to become authoritarian regimes—Sky Sovereigns ruling over divided and oppressed land-bound settlements.
If that wasn’t enough, MAG—Mobile Aberrant Geoanimus—wander the lands, corrupting everything they touch. Foul abominations predating recorded history incapable of reasoning with or controlling.
The PILOT realized their (or those they care about)’s survival now depends on a Mech’s miraculous potential. The MECH is a biomechanical weapon, part of the Arks’ wondrous legacies. The MECH desperately reached for the PILOT and is presently uncovering its memories by experiencing the world with the PILOT.
MAGs are obsessed with the PILOT and their MECH. During play, PILOT and MECH investigate what hunts them, restore the MECH’S memories, save the PILOT or their community, and maybe—just maybe—topple a self-styled god.
If GUN&SLINGER explores, expands, reclaims and rehashes the Western, MECH&PILOT’S main inspiration is big robot stories. This is not, however, a hero’s journey. There are no chosen ones, only a strange mortal and machine brought together by desperation.
This game also considers memory and loss, intimacy and distance, identity and community, rebellion and dethroning gods. Human hubris wronged this world, our folly and dark refusal of accountability constructed what we call “Other” or “Monster.”. While the Pilot and their Mech can’t right everything, they may take tenative steps towards a better tomorrow. 
 
Active Systems of Play
Here are some rules adjustments relevant to MECH&PILOT.
Stats
MECH
*Ark-God
    *How well do they manipulate the God-Gode? How much do you remember? How deft or how devastating is their touch upon this world?
*Ark-Hunter
    *How efficient are you as a biochemical weapon? How vast are your databanks? How sharp is the taste of your enemy’s hearts?
*Ark-Shepherd
    *Are you an angry mech? Compassionate? Honorable? Cunning?
PILOT
*Grit
    *Ultimately, every land dweller is a survivor—fighting, persevering, playing dirty and reading situations.
*Word
    *This is a world of stories—multiple truths and manifold lies. Including rumors, political connections, Ark communities’ lore and Sky Sovereign news.
*Fire
    *Gone are the days of bent knees and bowed head! Inspire rebellion, intimidate Sky Sovereigns’ servants and cohorts and seize freedom.

Shared Harm
Mech and Pilot became one being. Piloted Mechs experience human pain’s sharpness: flooding their systems, overloading them with compromised data. Mech-bonded Pilots’ bodies are several cuts above a mortal’s fragile form, capable of transcendent physical feats. Hit a Pilot enough, however, and their supernally reinforced bones and musculature still wears, tears and breaks.
In MECH&PILOT, players share a “health” pool. Whenever one takes a hit or suffers injury, the other also marks 1 Wound.
If all Wounds are marked and someone is hit again, clear all Wounds and both Mech and Pilot mark 1 Assimilation. All physical damage instantaneously heals—including lost limbs and wrecked systems. However, the Pilot’s body transforms and the Mech adapts an increasingly bestial appearance.
Play it quick, loose and easy with what hurts. If the table agrees something won’t mess a Pilot or Mech up, it doesn’t. A Maestro can always invent another complication keeping things interesting—and, as always, players proffer their own suggestions.
It’s possible, of course, Harm isn’t physical. When dealing with emotional pain or mental stress, however, be mindful of Lines and Veils. Respect the X-Card.
 
Acts of Violence
When committing a violent rebellious act, prepare for consequences.
Even separated Pilots and Mechs can attack. However, they always mark 1 Wound for every attack made separately.
An attack while the Pilot is in their Mech cannot be made unless both agree to fight. Before attacking, both players draw a card, making any new pairs. Attacks are always Blind Pays unless another Move is chosen.
A single hit defeats a regular enemy but those protected (by armor or other means) or MAGs may take more. If the Pilot defeats an enemy, they draw a card. If the Mech defeats an enemy, they draw a card. Both can draw cards.
Memory, Separation & Assimilation
Mechs’ character sheet has a “Memory” gauge representing important milestones regarding the truth about themselves, MAGs, Sky Sovereigns or another setting element. If a MECH&PILOT campaign has a “win” condition or a “happy” ending it’s restoring a Mech’s Memory.
There are Moves and consequences that could lose a Mech’s point of Memory. In which case, the past events tied to this Memory don’t necessarily disappear. Instead, corruption begins compromising the Mech’s system, making them more susceptible to their wondrous legacy’s fearsome power. As Memory disappears and Assimilation advances, the Mech’s personality collapses and overwhelmed by desires to rend, conquer and devour.
As far as anyone can tell, a Mech and Pilot’s union renders both immortal. Their existence only “ends” via extended separation and Assimilation.
For every week spent without the Pilot entering the Mech’s cockpit so the Mech can synchronize with their soul, permanently mark 1 Assimilation, which is unclearable indicated some special way (i.e. use another color, scratch it up).
A Pilot whose Assimilation gauge fills physically melts into the Mech’s core. This traumatic process wipes the Mech’s memories, reverting to a feral state until they meet another Pilot or a MAG devours them.
A Mech whose Assimilation gauge fills loses its physical form with frightening speed—transforming into a nanomachine virus driven to possess the Pilot devouring their soul’s warmth. Without protection, the virus devours the Pilot from within. They “resurrect” as a feral Mech, devoid of sense and memory, until they meet their own Pilot or a MAG devours them.
A Mech and Pilot whose Assimilation gauges fill simultaneously become a MAG.
The only way to prevent Assimilation is completely filling the Mech’s Memory gauge.
 
The Setting
MECH&PILOT takes place on a planet with a wide range of biodiversity across an expansive climactic spectrum. Its surface is dotted with Arks ruins: massive spaceships of unknown origin, filled with such comparably advanced technology it is practically magic.

The Arks housed a civilization that bound gods to their spaceships on their dying original planet. These gods powered all technology and harvested their essence for mankind’s benefit. Eventually, the gods broke their mortal-imposed shackles in “the Remembrance.” Enraged, they obliterated the Arks, remaking mortals without any memory, locking the past’s truths within their blood, waiting to reawaken.

Sky Sovereigns—a ruling elite who unlocked some of Ark’s more powerful secrets or rediscovered a sleeping god—sail serenely on restored Arks. For the Sovereigns, surface people are chattel that exist as labor or entertainment. Sky Sovereigns fancy themselves as gods, presenting themselves to common people as such. Some benevolent dictators demand worship and promise the flock’s worthy will “ascend.” Some fearsome tyrants, glutting themselves on the land’s bounty, leisurely take whatever they will.

The landbound, Sovereign-enslaved settlements huddle desperately around ruined Arks. They scavenge among left behind legacies, hoping roaming MAGs won’t devour them.
Mechs are biomechanical weapons constantly excavated from Ark ruins. It is hard to say what activates them. Some claim mortal blood; others they stir arbitrarily. They appear to have been the Arks’ evolving, sentient defense systems against the spaceship’s machine-bound gods.

Pilots are never born; they’re made. Some Pilots find a Mech delving ruins, others are rescued from a MAG and discover their mechanical hero needs saving. Regardless, initial synchronization irrevocably bonded them. There is no known way to deprogram the connection.

Few know what MAGs are. Sky Sovereigns mercilessly pursue any Piloted Mech.

Factions & Threats
The MAGs corrupt, devour and defile. They’re bestial and incapable of reasoning. Whatever they assimilate gains twisted, transformative qualities. MAGs shape the world by swallowing it in darkness, seemingly only defeatable by Piloted Mechs.

The Sky Sovereigns are gluttonous oppressors roaming the skies in resurrected Arks hoarding the surface’s remaining Arks’ legacies. They are not united—in fact, Sovereigns oft war amongst themselves using land dwellers as pawns.
Skystrikers collectively refers to any faction rebelling against the Sky Sovereigns. Some act from a sense of justice; others secretly hope to usurp the Sovereign’s power. Those without Mechs constantly seek to befriend Mechs and their Pilots. Of course, they may also seek to divest a Pilot of their Mech.

More on MAGs and the Twist
The planet’s rogue nanomachines, “The Twist” may be running on instincts, an extension of a MAG’s power or have their own goals. Whatever it is, land dwellers consider the Twist an unstoppable, corrupting force.
Encounters with MAGs or the Twist should be terrifying. Such creatures don’t need stats and their capabilities are infinitely flexible. Of course, MAGs are intended to be shadowy berserkers uncannily similar to a bonded Mech and Pilot. Their sentience is at your discretion.

Maestros, when conceptualizing the Twist’s next threat, consider: the nanomachine cluster’s original purpose and how a MAG or Remembrance trauma screwed everything up. A terraforming nanomachine cluster, for example, could spew toxic waste upon a verdant field attempting a total biome kill. Alternatively, one intended to restore living creatures could be stuck in an infinite restorative improvement loop, horrendously mutating entrapped animals.

The Questions & Prompts
*For the Table
	*The Twist terrorizes the planet, claiming whatever it wants. What new threat was introduced in the last decade? How’s daily life changed? How have Sky Sovereigns capitalized?
	*Recently, the Sovereign defeated their strongest Skystriker opposition. What transpired? How are they made an example?
	*An area previously shrouded in Twist-infested fog was cleared, revealing a virgin Ark in a fertile land. Who’s attempting to occupy it?
	*What major landmarks do all the continents' large settlements and travelers know? Everyone creates at least one.
	*How does the populace perceive Mechs? How common are they locally? Do Sky Sovereigns offer tempting rewards or bounties for bonded pairs?
	*Are other sentient objects and machines commonplace or legendary? What stories are told?

*For the Pilot
	*You had a moment of truth about… well, everything, before the Mech. What lie were you and your community told? Was enlightenment worth it, or do you miss the comforting lie?
	*What is your Home like? Does it still exist? What Trinket do you carry? What’s its personal meaning?
	*Is your journey about personal survival, helping your Mech or saving loved ones?

*For the Mech
	*What woke you—the Pilot or your meeting?
	*What weapon systems do you gravitate towards? Does it reflect your Pilot or does it harken back beyond recollection?
	*MAGs and the Twist speak to you. Do you open your ears or turn your sensors away?
	*How does dependence on a mortal Pilot’s life essence and soul fire feel?

*For the Mech & Pilot
	*How did you synchronize? How long have you wandered together?
	*What are disagreements about?
	*How does sharing thoughts and senses feel?
	*You are each-others’ line to The Other—a world beyond your own.
	    *For the Mech, the Pilot is a lifeline in the physical world.
	    *For the Pilot, the Mech is a frightening legacy the world wishes lost.
	*What’s such an alien connection like?

The Mech
You are a biomechanical weapon with a forgotten purpose. Your initial memories were reaching for a Pilot’s soul and letting it inflame your chassis’ internal circuitry. At that moment, you recognized your mother-frame’s deep emptiness. A keen sense of something missing.
Remembrance consists of disorienting technobabble flashes and complex data strings. You adapt like scintillating liquid metal to your Pilot’s situation and desires—an extension of their limbs as they became your Core.
With prolonged contact, your respective psyches’ separation blurred. Do you accept this confluence’s proffered truths or fear changes?

You are a weapon intended to grant mortal hands the power to slay gods.
Your evolution has a phenomenal pace, adapting within the blink of an eye. Your databanks are full of information you don’t initially understand, but the right stimulus unlocks your mother-frame’s digital gates.

You’re capable of flight. When you fly, flip the deck’s top card: its value determines how many hours you stay airborne without cost. You’re faster than anything save an Ark. By sacrificing a Memory, you can rip a hole into reality to any location on, below or above this world and step through.

Your Legacy
Every Arc-born Mech’s mother-frame possesses a God-Code, whose nature and summoned nanomachines capabilities are shaped by your Core’s protocol.
By removing a Limiter, you can minorly manipulate your surroundings beyond your Abilities. Small augmentations such as boosting your sensors’ range or altering the sort of damage you deal. Not every action accomplished removing a Limiter requires a check but the Maestro may decide something more involved requires one.
You restore your Limiters by:
    *Resting: regain ½ used Limiters
    *Spending a Single: Regain Value

Your God-Code’s Complexity
A weapon fit to slay gods must be honed reaching for infinite possibilities. You begin with a Limited God-Code complexity growing stronger as you gain advancements. Each level has accompanying examples:
*Limited: basic, simple nanomachine manipulation.
    *Power small Ark relics, transform weapons, generate minor energy shields
*Complex: permits complicated manipulation
    *Extend perception through a nanomachine wave, communicate with Twist beings and MAGs, transform
*Substantial: The strongest possible, things at a larger and more complicated scale may require a check.
    *Expand your form, summon multiple weapons, create temporal black holes
You can perform magic at levels beyond your current Complexity by spending 2 Limiters per additional Complexity level.

Name? ________  Pronouns? ________ 
Your form?________
(Assign 2, 1, and 0 to your stats, added to what you pay for Costs and Checks)
Ark-God:
Ark-Hunter:
Ark-Shepherd: 
Wounds: 0/5
Memory: 0/10
Assimilation: 0/10
Attack without a Pilot at your own risk.
God-Code Limiters: ○○○○○○○○○○ || Strength: limited >  complex > substantial
Within you is God-Code, the Ark’s greatest legacy.
Choose a Protocol. Mark a Limiter to use it.
MERLIN PROTOCOL: Rip away the world’s deceitful veil.
Pick a random card from the deck. For Value seconds everything within sensory range’s infinite probabilities are revealed. Your systems instantaneously calculate you and your Pilot’s best route. If you draw a face card, put it at the bottom and re-draw.
GALAHAD PROTOCOL: Take heaven between your fangs.
Pick a random card from the deck. The value targets are speared by  multiple energy swords summoned from pocket dimensions. If you draw a face card, put it at the bottom and re-draw.
MORDRED PROTOCOL: Become like a god.
Pick a random card from the deck to exercise temporary, crushing control upon the Twist and MAGs. Higher Values are more beneficial, lower Values turn the Twist and MAGs against you. If you draw a face card, put it at the bottom and re-draw. 
What shapes do your favored weapons take?
What shadow do your wings cast?

 
The Pilot
You are a land dweller whose life took an unprecedented turn as your soul synchronized with a Mech. You were irreversibly changed, serving as its Core.
You kind’s lot is enslavement and exploitation by Sky Sovereigns if they have any say—and they have for a very long time. As a Pilot, you’re an affront to their senses. If you (and your Mech) will not bow they will crush you under their heel.
Together, you and the Mech can make a, previously unattainable, life. Will you choose survival or turn your eyes heavenward to self-styled gods’ thrones?

The God-Killer’s Hand, Steady at the Hilt.
Synchronization permanently flooded your body with the purest Ark nanomachines, shifting your biological makeup. At first glance, nothing sets you apart—but unlike your less resilient peers you bleed blue and circuitry.
Spend 1 Integrity to draw upon your changed nature. You may harden your skin and become temporarily impervious or triple your sight past human capacity or ignore the need to eat or drink, shifting your appearance… anything goes when subsuming your human nature for the God-Code’s power.

If you wish to manipulate your body’s nanomachines with full Integrity, you may take 1 Wound.
You restore your Integrity by:
    *Resting: regain ½ used Integrity
    *Spending a Single: Regain Value Integrity

There’s always something Ark-like about you, no matter how you obscure it. What are your transformation’s marks?
The business of slaying gods mixes opportunity, hubris and sheer luck.

Choose one Move. Draw a random card from the deck and check the results.
Heart of the Machine: Reaching through the bond you grant yourself and your Mech new power.
Before drawing a card, declare a Value. If the card drawn is equal to or within two points of it, you and your Mech restore 2 Assimilation. If you draw a face card, put it at the bottom and re-draw.
Six Million Gods & Devils: You impose your will upon the God-Code drawing upon its strength.
You produce weaponry, tools or gear (you choose) using your Mech’s nanomachine colonies. The higher the value, the better quality or more produced lasting Value days. If you draw a face card, put it at the bottom and re-draw. 

Sky’s the Limit: You surrender, briefly, to the Twist. If you survive unscathed, you gain a little power.
Draw three cards at random from the deck after declaring: a single Value or specific face card. If you get one, put it in your deck. If two appear, place them in your hand. Discard the rest.

Character sheet:
Name? ________  Pronouns? ________ 
What is your look?________
(Assign 2, 1, and 0 to your stats. You add your Stat value to the value of what you pay for Costs and Checks)
Grit
Word
Fire 
You have a trinket from home, what? What does it do? What’s it’s personal importance?
Wounds: 0/5
Assimilation: 0/10
Integrity: 5/5 (empties instead of filling)


In addition to the applicable options in GUN&SINGER, The MECH & PILOT spend Braids to:
Mech:
* Strengthen their God-Code.
   * Advancement costs are the same as Connection in GUN&SLINGER
Pilot:
Raise their max Integrity 
* The cost is current Integrity + 3.
Both:
* Spend 20 Braids to raise both of their Assimilation caps by 1.
   * This cost can be split and paid together. (Both can pay 10, one cay pay 15 and the other 5, etc.)
* Spend 5 Braids to clear marked Assimilation.