MECH WEEK: Is Iron Man a mech?
Live. Laugh. Launch a barrage of SRM-6 incendiary missiles.
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This is part of Skeleton Code Machine MECH WEEK — a week of articles (and coloring contest) about mechs in tabletop games. Subscribe to read them all.
Early mechs
Mecha (メカ) in Japan date back to at least the 1930s, when a villain in The Golden Bat (Ōgon Bat) piloted a giant robot called Dai Ningen Tanku (“large human tank”).1 Since then, other anime and franchises have expanded our idea of what a mech can be:
Mazinger Z (1972): Mechs piloted from inside a cockpit as compared to the remote-controlled robots of Tetsujin 28-Go (1956).
Mobile Suit Gundam (1979): Piloted, humanoid robots mass-produced for war, armed with weapons and nuclear power sources.
Macross / Robotech (1982): Introduced the variable fighter (VF-1 Valkyrie) that could transform between a humanoid form and a jet/space fighter form.
Mechs, giant robots, powered exosuits, and everything in between have become a staple of science fiction and tabletop battle games. BattleTech (Brown, Leeper, et al., 1985) with its tactical, military-style mechs remains one of the most iconic titles in this genre.
Trying to define a mech
Trying to define a “mech” reminds me of Plato’s (perhaps apocryphal) attempt to define a “man” as “a featherless biped” – a definition so literal and yet unhelpful that Diogenes plucked a chicken and, holding it up, declared, “Behold, Plato’s man!”2
Attempting to develop the Platonic ideal for a mech would, I fear, end in a similar way. We know a tank isn’t a mech, even though it has a pilot. Add four or six legs, and it might be a mech. Make it bipedal with arms, and it is probably a mech. Is a mech just another featherless biped?
For the purposes of this series, here is what distinguishes a mech from other types of robots and powered armor:
Piloted cockpit: Like an aircraft, a mech needs a pilot. This could be one person (e.g. BattleTech and Neon Genesis Evangelion) or it could be an entire crew (e.g. Gurren Lagann and Undaunted 2200: Callisto). It is the actions of the human pilots that control the mech, usually from a location in the mech’s head or chest.3
Legs vs. wheels: While many mechs have a humanoid shape (i.e. two arms, two legs, a head, etc.) that’s not always the case. The BattleTech Timber Wolf (Mad Cat) is an iconic mech. While it does have legs and arms, it could hardly be called humanoid. The Firefly has no arms, but is clearly a mech.4 Is an AT-AT a mech? Perhaps. But a tank with tracks and no arms is (probably) not a mech. What about the Factory Striders in Helldivers 2?
Giant scale: Mechs range in size, but they are all big. Gundam are 18 - 22 meters tall (60 - 75 feet). A BattleTech Atlas is 13 meters tall (42 feet) and 100 tons. Being huge is a distinctive feature that means that Iron Man is a not a mech pilot. Is Iron Monger big enough? Let’s just say the bigger they are, the more mech-like they will be.
In tabletop games, mechs are often combat-focused and built as customizable or modular systems. They also often use “military-style” naming conventions with a model number and name: AS7-A Atlas, BEO-12 Beowulf, or M2 Archer.
Whether all of these traits are necessary and sufficient for something to be a mech is unclear.
Iron Man is not a mech
To prepare for MECH WEEK I sent out a reader survey. One of the questions asked, “Which of the following are mechs?”
Here are the results:
The BattleTech Timber Wolf (80%), Voltron (74%), and BattleTech Firefly (71%) were overwhelmingly considered mechs by the respondents.
People were mixed on the Star Wars AT-ST (48%) and Dai-Gurren (46%), with notably less people agreeing that a Star Wars AT-AT is a mech (29%). I can only assume that having two legs (i.e. AT-ST) is more “mech-like” than four legs (i.e. AT-AT).
At the bottom of the list were what I would consider “powered armor” with Iron Monger (14%) and Iron Man (12%). This low acceptance was expected, as I included those mostly as “controls” for things that surely were not mechs. Right?
And yet, the number wasn’t zero. More than 10% of people think Iron Man is a mech!? Even more shocking is that a full 20% of people don’t believe one of the most iconic mechs of all time (i.e. the BattleTech Timber Wolf) is a mech!
If you were one of these modern Diogenes, please pluck the nearest chicken and leave a comment with your reasoning.
Enter the MECH WEEK coloring contest
Thanks to some amazing art by (Shouting Crow Press), you can make your very own “Plato’s Mech” this week!
Part paper doll and part coloring contest, you can download Plato’s Mech (free) from the Exeunt Press Shop or itch.io. It comes with a “featherless biped” (plucked chicken body), mech legs, and various weapon attachments for endless customization.
Show me your mechs! Here’s how to enter:
Create your mech: Download the free Plato’s Mech template. Color it. Cut it out. Customize as much as you’d like. Take a photo to share!
Enter the contest: Email your creations to murphdog@exeunt.press.5 Put “MECH WEEK: Featherless Biped Mech” in the subject line. One entry per person please!
Win some prizes: Ten (10) random winners will be selected to receive free download keys for Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game (PDF) from Skeleton Code Machine.
The deadline to enter is Sunday, November 17, 2024. No purchase necessary. If you have any questions, contact me at games@exeunt.press.
A week of mechs
Now that we have definitions (or lack thereof) out of the way…
Similar to last year’s Dice Week, I thought it would be fun to do a series of posts on mech games. Not as reviews of the games, but rather explorations of how mechs are represented and used in various game designs. I don’t want to explain how the games play, but rather zoom in to a single feature, lesson, or mechanism for each one.
This includes all types of tabletop games: board games, roleplaying games (TTRPGs), and miniature skirmish games.
The goal is to get some inspiration for how to use mechs in different ways, with the potential side benefit that you might discover a new mech game you want to play.
So get in the cockpit.
Buckle in.
Check your heat sinks.
Arm your short-range missiles and autocannons.
And get ready for Skeleton Code Machine MECH WEEK!
Conclusion
Some things to think about:
Remember Plato’s mech: While meant to be a silly example, the discussion of Plato’s mech above can be helpful. While strict definitions are rarely helpful, understanding common characteristics of games and genres can be useful when we want to bend/break those genres to create something new and interesting.
Enter the MECH WEEK coloring contest: Here is your chance to make your own mech! Download the Plato’s Mech template, customize it, and send your entry to murphdog@exeunt.press. Next time you are playing BattleTech, hold it up and declare, “Behold, Plato’s mech!”
Subscribe to Skeleton Code Machine: Join the over 3,000 other subscribers of Skeleton Code Machine so you don’t miss a day of MECH WEEK. It’s ENNIE-nominated, packed with tabletop game design inspiration, and its free.
What do you think? Which of the criteria suggested above is the most important when it comes to characterizing a mech?
— E.P. 💀
P.S. Big announcement coming Wednesday. If you enjoy Skeleton Code Machine, you won’t want to miss this one.
Skeleton Code Machine is a production of Exeunt Press. All previous posts are in the Archive on the web. If you want to see what else is happening at Exeunt Press, check out the Exeunt Omnes newsletter.
The Golden Bat might be the world’s first superhero, starting in 1930. Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze (Hager & Reckner, 2023) includes The Golden Bat as a playable character which I really loved. Simple character to play and hits hard.
Here’s how the story is described in Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius (Book VI), translated by Robert Drew Hicks: Plato had defined Man as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture-room with the words, “Here is Plato's man.” In consequence of which there was added to the definition, “having broad nails.”
There are some exceptions to this of course. Voltron has multiple pilots, each in a separate part of the overall giant robot. One pilot is, however, the primary controller. This concept is deftly explored in “I’ll Form the Head” by M.C. Frontalot.
How does a mech with no arms get back up if knocked over? There was (of course) a discussion of this very topic on r/battletech.
Murphdog is Skeleton Code Machine Editor-in-Chief and a very good girl. 🐶
You can also download the Plato's Mech coloring contest page from itch.io: https://exeuntpress.itch.io/platos-mech
I think the most essential characteristic is that a Mech is mechanical. Otherwise, Remy piloting Alfredo in Ratatouille would count as a Mech, at least from the point of view of something the size of a rat.