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
. There is also an expansion, Intercept Orbit, which focuses on space combat rather than mech brawls.
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.
- Arbitrary Weapon Range: The three main range bands are "melee", "direct fire", and "artillery range", determined by a range ruler constructed from Lego segments. These are exclusive; artillery weapons cannot fire on anything within the ruler distance, and direct fire weapons cannot be used in melee or reach targets outside the ruler range. Also, given the default "7P" scaling - in other words, a human being approximately 7 Lego plates tall - direct fire range is, estimating generously, maybe a couple of hundred feet.
- 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.
- Glass Cannon: Since you only have four systems, any mech with high firepower is sacrificing something compared to the Soldier configuration, whether it be movement, sensors/comms or, yes, armour. One popular build among players is the "Recon By Fire" loadout, which is a support/artillery build with two comms attachments and two artillery-range weapons, defending itself solely with the basic white dice and the vague hope of staying away from opponents but providing significant damage at very long ranges while marking targets for everyone else.
- 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.
- Lightning Bruiser: Units with no ranged weapons get a bonus die to determine speed, allowing them to close faster. This has led to the "Brawler" configuration, which has nothing but heavy armour and melee weapons, being a relatively common sight and one of the premiere ways for people to bully other players' frames off objectives.
- Master of None:
- The "Soldier" configuration has a reasonable blend of comms, armour, firepower and speed, but will be outperformed in any of those fields by a specialist.
- "Split fire" weapons can operate at two different ranges - for example, you might have a shotgun that can function both as a direct-fire and a melee weapon - but roll fewer dice than a dedicated weapon for that range.
- No-Sell: Having two defensive systems allows your frame to body-block shots aimed at other robots without taking damage, forcing your opponents to weigh up whether it'll be more effective to fire on the Glass Cannon behind it at lower chance or focus on killing the bodyguard while enduring the damage.
- 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". This is because instead of humanoids, the Ijad are small creatures that vaguely resemble a sea cucumber, and while some have entered symbiosis with humans, their typical hosts are the four-legged "ghanat" creatures, so they built mechs to mimic that body plan instead.
- Starfish Aliens: The ijad resemble lumpy, flattened sea cucumbers with antennae.
- The Symbiote: The ultimate hope of any ijad is to achieve this state.
- Taking the Bullet: Mechs are able to provide cover for other mechs. With two defensive systems, they can No-Sell any damage taken by doing this, allowing you to provide your Glass Cannon frames with bodyguards.
- 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.
