How it begins

In the desolate ruins of the Future Earth, there range warriors astride titans of steel! Be it the strength of the machine that conquers one another? Be it the wisdom of the fighter? One thing is above the rest: their spirit!

After a devastating war, mankind has settled into space colonies, each representing a country. Having come to an agreement to fight no more, the space colonies decided to send their best fighter as a representative down to the Earth, to wander and battle the others until one is the victor! Then, they shall challenge the current Champion at a location of their choosing! Now: Jormun Gundam of Neo-Norway awaits in the Artic, for the final challenger!

But... what is it that the powers that be hide from the space colonists? What truths shall the Gundam Fighters uncover in the ruined Earth?

The Game

Apocalypse Frame at last! I had planned running this game for a long time, but I managed to wrench D...a into playing this with me during a break in our Basedverse activities. Game's good. At this stage in my life an old man like me needs some brevity. I run a tight, lean and mean ship, and Apocalypse Frame fits the bill. You make up a dude with 3 stats (Drive, Control, and Speed), pick a mecha (frame), choose weapons; each mecha has some stats (Tension, Vigor, Fuel), which your pilot stats influences. And wala, as the French say. Ready to rock. The system is interesting, too, in that combat is more along the lines of a PbtA action than DnD. That is to say, in your turn, you can take 2 actions, plus an extra one per Tension spent. This means that D..a's character Allie Brennan could, for instance, act around 9 times per turn. Wow! What kind of action economy is that!!! Well, here's the trick: each one of her rolls has a chance of activating an enemy unit! This means that even while she's acting, their enemies may act! Activations can be plainly counterattacking, or some other thing- game ain't hard on the rules. But it works! it works really good! I like it! Apocalypse Frame ain't bothersome at all! It even has a pretty strong GM-guide in the back section to do the preparation and off-screen management of factions and war goals for you! Wow!!!

So, uh, how is a game meant to evoke the Armored Core feel supposed to be translated into a wuxia mecha fighting game? That's based on vibes, man. I be cooling, bru. Simple: called the Frames Gundam. Since each fits an archetype of sorts, each could be the basis of a Gundam, I felt. Rename the Fuel to Chi or Fighting Spirit or Kiai. And that's about it. The rest is in that each Operation ends up with a duel against another Gundam Fighter, which is ran using the rules the book provides for champions and whatnot. It's been fun thus far!

Naturally, as this is based on Mobile Fighter G-Gundam, the players will need a secret agenda. If this were to be run on a table with each player being a Fighter, each would have their own, which might clash or not with the agendas of other players. That would be fun! In addition, every player would have the possibility of summoning their Gundam flashily once per deployment, using a deployment token. They can gain more by: befriending other NPC Fighters and helping them on their Secret Quest, capturing the headquarters of another Fighter, defeating another Fighter and sparing them.

Since I have just one player now (below), the secret agenda is following and uncovering the mystery behind the Jovian Codex, at the behest of the CIA.

Of course, the name is a reference to the line in Big Iron by Martin Robbins.

The First

Representing the Neo-American Colony: the hot-blooded heroine Allie Brennan! Victor of the Inter-American Tournament with the Arizona Ranger Gundam! Yee-haw! With the stunning Freedom Dash she closes any distance, and with the fastest hand in the West she draws the Big Iron and BANG! wrecks any and anybody that comes her way! She's armed with a metal-wrecking Plasma Blade and a holstered revolver. She's quick, hits hard, and is powered by a noble heart!

How'd she get such lightning fast reflexes? She's been gaming since age 3 lacking any parental supervision.

It ain't ever been that easy, though. Her missing mother's the world's most daring scientist, and may have a plan to restore the ruined earth! A plan written in secret codex scattered across the globe... her CIA liaison says that only Allie knows the password and can discover the mystery behind her mother, the world, and herself! But... who is this other pilot who follows her steps; white-haired, evil-eyed... Holden, astride the Meridian Gundam!

Thus began the world-wandering adventure in a martial arts huge robot tournament!! A heroic story about fightan' robots, romance, and a sobering reflection on human nature!