Greetings, Dan here!

In the early 2000's I had the privilege of getting to watch Megas XLR, a two season, anime/video game/MTV inspired western animation show about a super robot sent back in time. Once there, this advanced technology came into the hands of Coop, and overweight, gamer and mechanic. He and his friend Jamie, naturally stoked to be gifted a giant robot from the heavens, set to work souping it up, not just into an advance war machine, but a flame painted, car headed, swiss army knife, of a ridiculous, over-the-top mech capable of smashing alien threats (and unfortunate surrounding cities) with wrestling moves, absurd amounts of guns, and really anything an extreme 90's kid could think to cram in there. For any who haven't seen it, it is a great little piece of mecha comedy from the period. Not everything will have aged well, but the rock-infused, excessive nature of action is great fun.

But for an ultra powerful super robot, especially one that pulls out a new set of weapons every episode, each trying to outdo the last in how outrageously cool they can be, how can any game system support a build for such a mech, especially one aiming for mid to light crunch? Well, that's the beauty of giving the players the freedom to skin the mechanics of the mech they build. For Megas, rather than trying to build as many as possible, we'll lean into the over-the-top nature of it's weapons, and aim for versatility instead.

Once more for the mech parts, we'll aim for a "mid-tier" build that represents an experience pilot, but still with room to grow, expand, and tweak. To start, we'll equip Megas with a Blitz Tech Frame, giving it 24 AP. This will let the robot-car get in close for combat, and take some damage before going down. Megas was as fast as it needed to be in the show, but for the purposes of allocating resources elsewhere we'll stick with a Caballero Corp Booster for its Movement Rate of 1. (You don't have to run/fly far to bodyslam another mech/giant monster). We'll give the Megas a Blitz Tech CPU allowing for 2 Utilities. Lastly, to accommodate the super robot's absurd arsenal, we'll equip an Anodyne Labs Radiator, giving it a Heat Rating of 12.

For our two Utility Systems, we'll install a Aerial Frame, allowing Megas to pile drive opponents from the sky (or engage in chainsaw v sword fights in the air). We will also install a Heavy Weapons Mode Converter that will let us create a mode-specific weapon using the full HR value of the radiator equipped, as well as adding an additional damage dice to the damage tier. This will come at the cost of minus 2 MR, but we'll use a versatile weapon construction to compensate.

For the Megas XLR, the weapon systems are the most important feature given the mech's nature. So to get the feel of driving the mech from the show, we'll have to build it slightly differently from the previous showcases we've done so far. One that relies on the creativity of the player and the discretion of the Game Master. First, to account for the excessive power that Megas exhibit, we will be pouring all heat into a single weapon system, and installing mods. This weapon system will be called the Badass Melee. The stats will be set, but the physical description of the attack will be up to the player to describe with the GM determining if it fits the game the group agreed to. So if the player wants to attack with twin, superheated chainsaws, perform a lariat, or piston-fist their opponent in the faceplate, the mechanics will remain the same. For damage, we'll aim high with five heat raising the damage to 1s12. We will also apply the optimization to damage, giving it a +3 to final damage. For RoF, we'll stick with the base level of 1, but for Ammo, we'll spend four heat to raise the total ammunition to 10. As for the effective range, this is melee, so we'll spend two heat for Melee thru Close range.

Since we are only doing a single main weapon system, we'll install all mods on it. The first and most important will be the Mode Shift System, allowing us to build a second weapon kit off of this same system. (More on that in a moment). For our second mod, we'll install Explosive Ammo for flair so whenever the 1d12 for damage rolls a 12, the die is rolled a second time for additional damage. Lastly, we'll install an illuminator for the car headlights for further flair.

Now as for the second mode to our Badass Melee weapon system, we'll build the Kickass Ranged mode.  For this mode, we'll only spend two heat for a modest damage of 1d6, but for rate of fire, we will spend three heat to raise it to 3 attacks per turn. We will also apply the weapon optimization to raise it to 4 attacks. (Missiles, more missiles, all of the missiles) Since we'll be shooting an excessive amount, we'll want a high amount of ammo, so we will spend four heat to raise the ammunition total to 10. Our remaining three heat we will spend for Medium thru Sniping range.

With our basic variety attacks covered, we just need to build our mode specific, Heavy Weapon System. Much like our basic system, we want this to be able to take a variety of forms from a gigabeamsword to a kamehameha, so we'll call this the ULTRA FINISHER. For this weapon system we are going to spend six heat to max the level at 1d20, as well as apply the +3 dmg optimization. Since this is a Heavy Weapon System, an additional damage die will be added, bringing the total damage to 2d20+3+WS Bonus. For the Rate of Fire, we will only spend one heat for 1 attack. (It is a finishing move after all.) We will spend two heat for a total of 6 ammunition. Lastly, to ensure we have versatility in the attack descriptions, we'll purchase a variety of effective ranges. With our remaining heat, we'll pick up Melee, Medium, and Sniping ranges. 

With our absurd array of attacks taken care of, we'll finish up the build with a pair of Disposables. First, we'll equip the Megas with an Aquatic skid in case it needs to battle in the ocean (probably described as an epic-sized surf board), and a decoy drone purely for annoying the enemy in the middle of combat.

I had a lot of fun channeling the early 2000's extreme nature of Megas into this build, which even at mid-tier feels incredibly bombastic and powerful. For advancement from here, the player could increase other primary parts for better performance (Frame and Booster come to mind), or keep increasing their Heat Rating for further ridiculousness.

For next time, I'd like to tone down the power scale back to a starter mech, as well as take a look at a proper, organic biomech. While I'm sure some minds will snap to a certain purple mech, I'd actually like to stretch the mech descriptions a bit further, by looking at something unexpected. Next time, we'll take a look at building the Armored Titan from Attack on Titan.

Thank you again for your interest, and see you soon!