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Gunwave is a tabletop role-playing system using giant robots. The rules strike a balance between speed and rich tactical options, in a simplification of elements from D&D and World of Darkness in an attempt to capture the fast-moving fun of an anime mecha series.

In Gunwave, you play with a pilot character and a mecha.

Each pilot character has the following stats:

  • Race — Human (flexible), Augmented (uses psychic blasts), Super Human (has various psychic abilities), Mutant (super-strong), or Shinken (gives bonuses to allies)
  • Specialty (class) — Brawler (fighter), Infiltrator (spy), Cyborg, Munitions Expert (destructive), Scavenger (repair expert), Sniper, or Squad Leader (helps the team)
  • Stats — Body, Brains, and Charisma
  • Traits — Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Dual Mecha Weapons, Dual Personal Weapons, Hacking, Insight, Martial Arts, Massive Machinery Operation, Mecha Intuition, Perception, Ship Schematics, Stealth, and Toughness
  • Skills — Twisted Psychic Blast, Rescue of a Loved One, Mutated Power Boost, Unbelievable Domination, Making It Hurt; about 5 available, from a pool of about 75. Some can be used every turn, some once per battle, and some only once a day.
  • A Background Trait, which is some event in your past or present that gives you a special ability now. Examples include Parents Killed, Was Super-Soldier, Child Soldier, and Lover Is Spy.

Each mecha has the following stats:

  • Type — Bio Armor (Evangelion), Bruiser (heavy Gundam), Combiner (Voltron), Converting Fighter (Valkyrie or Veritech), Drone Swarm Commander, Giant Fighter Power Battler (Mazinger Z), Heavy Missile Platform (BattleMech), Penetrator, or Striker (standard Gundam)
  • Stats — Armor (how much damage it can take), Energy (how long it will last in battle), and Speed (how fast it can move)
  • Skills — Missile Barrage, Fist Rocket Attack, Massive Bombardment, Air Strike; about 7 available, each specific to the type
  • Weapons — Up to three at a time, choosing from 13 energy weapons and 5 ballistic weapons, with 9 different kinds of ammunition.

In combat, you use a weapon's dice value to get a count of the dice you roll. You then roll that many 6-sided dice. Every die that rolls 5 or 6 deals one point of damage to the enemy, and is subtracted from the enemy's Armor (for mecha) or Body (for people) score.

You can have as many weapons active as your mecha has hands (usually two). However, each active weapon consumes energy during every turn it's out, and consumes the same amount of energy every time it's fired. Your mecha also consumes energy for every square it moves.

Outside of combat, when performing a difficult operation you use one of your traits (such as Acrobatics or Perception) to get a count of how many six-sided dice you roll. If any of the dice roll 5 or 6, you succeed. Extremely difficult maneuvers may require multiple 5's or 6's. If you roll many 5's or 6's, you may succeed beyond your expectations.

This release includes:

  • A 113-page book with all the rules, mecha stats, character stats, and history to play Gunwave in the "Colony War" setting (a timeline in which a group of space colonies wages a war of independence against an uncaring Earth government). It includes 12 pre-built player-characters, 12 pre-built mecha, and 3 sample missions.
  • A setting-agnostic 10-page rule book that just lists the rules of the game. They're even numbered!
  • A 10-page book containing advice for Narrators (GMs), 3 campaign scenarios, and over 20 mission ideas, plus rules for scrap.

Each of the above books comes in PDF, AZW3, EPUB, and MOBI formats for eReaders.

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Reviews (0)
Discussions (4)
Customer avatar
Jeremy H July 30, 2019 4:43 am UTC
Is there a preview available?
Customer avatar
Patrick S March 28, 2017 9:30 am UTC
Interested in the game, but confused by the comments ...
Customer avatar
Curt M August 24, 2015 2:52 am UTC
PURCHASER
There appear to be several omissions is the book:Bio armor, Combiner and Giant Fighter Power Battler are not explained or statted in appendix B, and pages 86 and 93 in that appendix are black. The header of that appendix is "table of contents."
Customer avatar
Curt M August 24, 2015 2:38 am UTC
PURCHASER
The gunwave.net site listed in the back of the book doesn't seem to be up.
Reply
Customer avatar
joel C February 11, 2018 6:49 am UTC
try: http://brentnewhall.com/ but it does not seem to be any more helpful than what you already know. The designer doesn't seem to be looking at the comments.

I'm curious how these rules would classify the TSFs in Muv-Luv Alternative. From that is listed in weapons above it seems to miss close quarters Mecha combat and a rule set for building mecha.

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Product Information
Silver seller
Author(s)
Rule System(s)
Pages
113
Publisher Stock #
SYS0013
File Size:
7.36 MB
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File Last Updated:
September 11, 2015
This title was added to our catalog on August 21, 2015.