Apr 1, 2018

Introducing Dai-2-Ji Battle Century.

Join the Evolution!

In November of 2014, I launched a Kickstarter to fund Battle Century G and Battle Century Z, aimed at creating a universal mecha system that had cinematic action, fast combat and depth of gameplay. Since then, more than 5,000 gamers just like you joined in the fun by playing the new Battle Century G and Battle Century Z rules and providing feedback, and the rest is gaming history. Now, almost 4 years later, it's time to put the lessons of the last almost 4 years to use and evolve the game once again. It's time for Dai-2-Ji Battle Century!

Dai-2-Ji Battle Century, or "2nd Battle Century", is the evolution of the game. It combines Battle Century G and Battle Century Z and steals ideas from many better games made in the past 5 years to move the game forward in new and exciting ways. As we count down the days to the 2nd Battle Century Kickstarter, I'll be revealing more information on the following topics (and more!) on the Gimmick Labs blog:


  • Power Levels 6 to 10, to accurately let you represent the likes of Demonbane, Getter Emperor, Ideon, Doraemon and Ginguiser.
  • Remote Weapons with their own turns and stat blocks.
  • Ten pages of Design Flaws to squeeze every bit of MP you can for your death machine.
  • Deathblow users gain a bonus to saves vs Fear, Transpatial Randomizer now has three new possible results called: Limited Wish, Wish and Yuzurenai Negai.
  • Official One Year War sidestory campaign setting with ten unique Gundam prototypes meant for Amuro that your PC can use.
  • Compatible with your GGG and BCG books (GGG and BCG adaptation rules modules sold separately).
  • An innovative "GM May I" system to let players come up with their own Improvised Weapons and Genre Powers on the fly.
  • Designed to make you feel the way you did when you were twelve and Gundam Wing was on TV.
  • Four hundred pages of rules to memorize if you want to make a character that doesn't suck.
  • Pink fuzzy mascot Player Characters with adorable speech quirks.
  • Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry(tm) series.
  • PCs make three dice rolls every time they get hit to avoid death and have to keep track of every drop of fuel, bullet fired and grain of sand clogging their joints.
  • Instead of rolling Initiative, Rounds are divided into PC and NPC Turns.
  • A houserules chapter full of blank white pages so you can truly make the game your own.
  • A random character generator with the Lifepath(tm) system to create PCs with as little as forty dice rolls, deciding everything from how many family members have died of dysentery to whether they speak in anime references, bad puns or internet memes, leaving nothing to the imagination.
  • A competitive PvP BattleCenPla tournament scene to find the best BattleCenPla builder and pilot.
  • Stock art plus repeated art pieces from previous books.
  • Scanned PDFs without bookmarks and with the printing, copy and paste functions disabled.
  • Designed for exploration and roleplaying unlike all those other games centered around combat in which roleplaying is impossible. 
  • Seven Actions per turn: Offensive, Move, Utility, Setup, Power, Reaction and Interrupt.
  • Pilot stats tied to Mecha stats.
  • A constant trickle of new books with a handful of worthwhile additions to the game in each every few months, ensuring you have to buy all of them.
  • True to Super Robot Wars.
  • Character designs by Tetsuya Nomura to ensure a pleasing ratio of belts and zippers to every other piece of clothing.

2nd Battle Century Products

All 2nd Battle Century Playtest PDFs will be released as FREE downloads exclusively at this blog. But because I really like money, I'll also release limited-edition print versions of the 2nd Battle Century Playtest System Reference Documents, 2nd Battle Century Playtest Mini-Campaign, and 2nd Battle Century Playtest Battlemap Pack for players and Genre Masters seeking the ultimate playtest experience. These print editions can be preordered from the usual avenues and all preorders will receive a 5% discount because I just love you all so much. These products will be available in softcover and hardcover formats, and TRUE FANS (like you!) will buy both.

2nd Battle Century Playtest System Reference Document
The evolution of Mecha RPGs begins here! This 420-page rulebook contains everything you need to create and advance your 2nd Battle Century character from level 1 to 10, as well as hundreds of new and updated traits, upgrades, weapons, powers, and Genre Master rules necessary to run a complete 2nd Battle Century Playtest season! Explore the farthest reaches of the galaxy with a brand-new deep space robot unsuited for doing anything else, or convert your favorite existing characters to the new system using rules that are clearly not meant to work together! With little to nothing in the way of interior art, the books are full of text walls on nearly every page, making the 2nd Battle Century Playtest Rulebook your gateway to the future of Mecha RPGs. The only thing missing is your money playtest feedback!

2nd Battle Century Playtest System Reference Document Special Edition
This is the exact same thing from the paragraph above but given its own entry to make it seem more special! This deluxe special edition is bound in faux leather with metallic deboss cover elements and a bound-in cloth bookmark. The perfect way to prove that you are a TRUE FAN of GGG and Battle Century G!

2nd Battle Century Playtest Mini-Campaign
This book consists of a series of mad libs anime plots you've seen a hundred times already! You can recycle scenarios until the end of time with none of your players ever noticing! This Mini-Campaign also includes prewritten enemies and operations you've already seen in Battle Century Z, except some of the descriptions are different so it's totally new! You will have hours and hours of fun with your group, doing the same thing you've been doing for years with a new coat of paint in this 42-page softcover collection of five scenarios designed to introduce the 2nd Battle Century Playtest rules in a guided shared playtest experience coinciding with regular surveys and feedback from players just like you, which I'm going to ignore because I already was going to do whatever I wanted anyway!

2nd Battle Century Playtest Battlemap Pack
Playtest the new 2nd Battle Century rules in style with this collection of battlemaps with hex grids and square grids (the latter of which uses brand new mapping technology compatible with 1:1 diagonals, 1:1.5 diagonals and 1:2 diagonals) featuring five key operation areas from the 2nd Battle Century Playtest Mini-Campaign! Featured setpieces include a colony drop for the Gundam fans, a space Vietnam trench battle for the Votoms fans and an empty map with nothing but fog of war that was really cheap and easy for me to make! These portable, affordable maps measure 24" x 30" unfolded and 8" x 10" folded, because I'm a dinosaur who refuses to adapt to the infinitely superior metric system.

Next: Introducing Battle Century H, the 18+ splatbook for mature audiences only.

Gimmick Out.

6 comments:

  1. I'm not sure whether I'm more embarrassed about not figuring out this was an April Fools joke until bullet point 8 or 9, or the fact that I kind of want some of the things listed in the post.

    Sidenote: Is monsterpunk still being worked on? It looked pretty neat from what you posted here.

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  2. April Fools is an art form. :)

    Monsterpunk is being worked on, yes! As a matter of fact, I have spent the last week polishing up what might be the final private playtest version. I'll make a post about it sometime after I finish the BCZ retrospective series.

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  3. Urgh. I too did not notice it was a gag until pretty deep into the article. ... man, I was late to the party, so I was really looking forward to be part of the kickstarter this time around. haha.

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  4. This may be a joke but let it be known you have my monies if a second edition ever happens. BCG is still my jam!

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  5. You had me going there, you! I make sure to mention BCG whenever I can, since I don't think anything has come close when it comes to mecha.

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  6. I appreciate all of your support. I promise to let you know if (more of a 'when' than an 'if') a second edition is on the horizon.

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