Adding Weapons and Systems
Most of what you will add is gear. The conventions are tight and they matter.
Weapons
Every mech-weapon needs weaponSize, weaponType, rangeBand, pattern, damage and its tags.
Range conversion, applied once:
| Source | Band |
|---|---|
| Melee, THREAT 1–2 | engaged |
| Range 3 | engaged (plus your own zone) |
| Range 5–10 | near |
| Range 15+ | far |
Pattern conversion, applied once:
| Source | Pattern |
|---|---|
| BLAST 1, LINE any | pair |
| BLAST 2+, CONE 3+ | zone |
| BURST 1–2 | engaged-burst |
| BURST 3+ | self-zone |
Tags are a closed vocabulary
tags is an enum of thirty-eight values with an optional numeric value for the X of KNOCKBACK 2, LIMITED 3, RELIABLE 5 and so on.
Do not add tags. The enum is closed deliberately: the GM has a fixed vocabulary and cannot invent one mid-fight, and every tag in it appears in the rules chapters. If a new piece of gear needs behaviour no tag covers, write it in effect as prose. Prose the GM reads once is safer than a tag it has to interpret.
Writing effect text
Write for a reader who will act on it immediately and will not look anything up.
- Name the actual mechanic in capitals: STABILIZE, LOCK ON, ENGAGED, DANGER ZONE.
- Say who saves and against what: "must pass a HULL save or take 6 explosive damage."
- Use zone language, never spaces: "everyone in the target zone", "an adjacent zone", "in contact with you".
- Put the timing first when timing matters: "Once per round, when you hit with…"
Bonuses
If the text grants a flat number — "+2 HP", "+1 ARMOR" — put it in bonuses as well as saying it in prose. The bonuses block is what the sheet derives from. A bonus that only exists in prose will not appear anywhere and the player will be quietly wrong about their own HP.
Descriptions
Every file's description is what the GM sees when the file is set to partial visibility — name and description, nothing else. Write it as a real sentence that tells the GM what the thing is for, not a label. "A mech-scale sidearm. Not going to win a fight, but never empty and never jammed" beats "auxiliary CQB weapon".