Mobile Frame Zero is a tabletop wargame dealing with battles that take place in the Solar Calendar setting. "Mobile Frames", mass-produced battle mecha, are the primary unit of the military, although if you can build them, tanks, infantry, and aircraft/drones are all entirely useable.
Also, all of the mobile frames you field? You build them yourself. From LEGO.
The rules can be freely downloaded from here
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Mobile Frame Zero was assembled using these tropes
- Animesque: The artwork of the characters in the rulebook seems heavily inspired by anime.
- A Mech by Any Other Name: Mobile frames.
- Built with LEGO: Evolved from the original Mechaton.
- Earth That Used to Be Better: Earth has pretty much been gutted over the centuries.
- The Empire: This is how everyone else sees the Solar Union.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: All of the factions have made mistakes, but it's hard to view any of them as full-on "bad guys". The rules for trademark use even encourage that you ensure every faction you create is capable of negotiation.
- Interservice Rivalry: Expeditionary Marines resent that Transit Marines get to call themselves "marines".
- La Résistance: How the Free Colonies view themselves.
- Our Weapons Will Be Boxy in the Future: Due to the boxiness of many LEGO components, most of the guns shown in the corebook are chunky pieces of kit. The bog-standard Chub's rifle gets special mention, being a chunky and rigid gun wielded by a chunky and rigid robot.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Ijad, until they find their ideal host and become symbionts instead.
- Real Robot: Virtually all frames are mass-produced, although you can still end up with significant variety across forces depending on the parts you have available.
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The ijad are a subversion; while they are devoutly religious, they prefer normal conversion techniques to ones relying on gunpoint.
- Spider Tank: Ijad mech design seems to begin with the phrase "four legs each".
- Starfish Aliens: The ijad resemble lumpy, flattened sea cucumbers with antennae.
- The Symbiote: The ultimate hope of any ijad is to achieve this state.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Strenuously discouraged - the copyright statement specifically asks you not to do anything Nazi-related with your mech companies or homebrew material.
- The War of Earthly Aggression: The Solar Union's only hope, at least at the moment.
