Armour Astir and Sacred Machinations
Featuring Armour Astir, plus interviews with Briar Sovereign and Drakoniques
This is Asa Donald with the August mecha ttrpg newsletter. If you’d like to hear more from me, you can check me out on bluesky. This newsletter features a different mecha ttrpg each month, interview its creators, and add bonus interviews with artists, actual play performers, and other mecha ttrpg content creators.
This newsletter is free. However, if you'd like to support me and my games, you can grab a copy of Rust Never Sleeps, my grunge solo rpg about doomed mech pilots, or sign up for the Pilot's Lounge tier for as low as $1.00 per month.
In this month's newsletter, you'll find:
- Community content, like Bastionland Press's MAC Attack crowdfunder, a recent review of HOME: Mech x Kaiju, and what ttrpgs have your favorite mech designs according to Bluesky;
- A featured mech ttrpg, Armour Astir, and an interview with its creator Briar Sovereign; plus
- An interview with actual play producer and mecha ttrpg designer Drakoniques about Sacred Machinations.
This month, members of the Pilot's Lounge get exclusive access to a mission generator and an alternative character sheet for Rust Never Sleeps.
Join the Conversation: On Bluesky, I asked: What ttrpgs have your favorite mech designs? Check out their answers and add your own.
For next month's mecha ttrpg newsletter, I want to know: What ttrpgs have your favorite mech designs and why? Do you like them to look human or not at all? A mech suit? A sleek and alien robot? Bulky and functional? Supernatural and mythological?
— Asa Donald | Backwards Tabletop (@backwardsttrpg.bsky.social) 2025-07-14T10:39:35.902Z
Bastionland Press is crowdfunding MAC Attack: Mobile Armor Collosus, their Sci-Fi Mecha Miniature Wargame. You might recognize the name of the press after their most recent Ennie Nomination. MAC Attack is a fast-playing, explosive mecha tabletop wargame, where factions of a fractured humanity fight for dominance on alien new worlds. It has already received a feature in Rascal News by Caelyn Ellis:
Caelyn Ellis
Austin Ramsay of Beam Saber and Briar Sovereign of Armour Astir join the folio AP podcast to play this is where the stars died:
Christopher John Eggett writes a review of HOME: Mech x Kaiju, a game that I recently had the pleasure of sinking my teeth into.
Thomas Gibes
I will be co-hosting a Mecha TTRPG Game Jam on itch, starting September 1st. Join early! This game jam is for mini games like the ones you can find in Meguey and Vincent Baker’s Firebrands. In Firebrands, each mini game is usually 1-2 pages in length and rarely takes longer than 30 minutes to play. Feel free to submit one mini-game or a collection of several!
Armour Astir Content
Content for this week's featured TTRPG:
- 11dragonkid showcases Armour Astir in the video Intro to Armour Astir Advent, Knight & Mag-oh someone took this name already.
- Playful Void reviews Armour Astir in "I Read Armour Astir: Advent"
Community Releases
Darwinrobo
NHP Shaka (Ukuwa Station, Field Guide to Mfecane) announces the playtest for Mechanized Body, a card-based mecha ttrpg with some pretty wicked preview art on its itch page. Grab the playtest doc and its adventure for free on itch.
Lone Archivist just released their equipment-as-class, d12 roll-under microlite mecha TTRPG: GRAND ARMOR.
Sponsored Content
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Featured Mecha TTRPG
This month's featured ttrpg is...
Armour Astir: Advent by Briar Sovereign
Armour Astir: Advent is a PBTA game where the players use their wits, expertise, and their huge magical mechs to fight back against an oppressive power. A love letter to mecha anime and fantasy fiction broadly, Armour Astir is designed to evoke the feel and pace of shows like Mobile Suit Gundam and Escaflowne in an accessible, narrative-focused format without skimping out when it comes to the exciting action.
Armour Astir: Advent ($15.00)
Armour Astir: Advent is a high-fantasy roleplaying game about striking back against an authority that seeks to control you. It is a game of rival pilots clashing in steel-clad Astirs, of soldiers holding their own against the odds, and of spies and diplomats twisting the world to their ends. It is not a game of careful preparation or pleasant truces.
It's hard to change the world without taking a risk.
Characteristics
- A high-fantasy setting meets mechas
- in a PBTA (light, storydriven, d6)
- for 3-5 players + the GM
Highlights
- Conflict-driven stories with a blank-canvas fantasy setting
- Mechas meet magic
- Juicy downtime scenes at your home base (Carrier)
- Confidence and desperation for modifying rolls
Consensus
I recommend this game! In particular, I recommend it if you have the mecha+magic itch, want to build out a world of your own with an anti-authority plotline, and/or love PBTA games.
You can get the basic version of AA for free, but I recommend buying the game. This "grimoire" is gorgeous, and I like that it doesn't provide a pre-written setting. The game's art, which is quite diverse in style, is very suggestive to the different directions you can take the game. This is a book for GMs who like to get creative.
Next month, I'll be featuring another solid mech ttrpg, one with two well-deserved Ennie nominations dating back to 2022. What could it be?
An interview with Briar Sovereign:
This month's interview features Briar Sovereign, author of Armour Astir. Armour Astir is a mecha ttrpg that comes highly recommended. Honestly, I was surprised that I hadn't heard of it, when it was first recommended to me. I looked it up online, and I found dozens of organic recommendations for it on Reddit and more. I read the free version first to see if it was my cup of tea and then grabbed the full version when it was part of a bundle. And wow, I don't regret it! It's on my list of games that I'd like to have a physical copy for in my collection.
I knew that AA was one of the first games that I wanted to feature in my newsletter, and I reached out to Briar back in March with these questions. They were kind enough to provide the answers below:
What inspirations or touchstones does Armour Astir draw from?
Briar: Armour Astir is drawing primarily on Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam & Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. There's a host of other, more specific influences, but in terms of the broadest strokes regarding where a lot of my view on mecha fiction and action pacing comes from, it's those two.
What is unique about Armour Astir?
Briar: If I had to nail it down to one thing, I'd say it's Armour Astir's harm system. Rather than measuring health or hull points or armour thickness etc, characters in Armour Astir trade off adjectives as risks and perils, conditions of varying severity and duration that determine how close to being defenseless - and vulnerable to a finishing blow - they are.
Why should people try Armour Astir?
Briar: Want a mecha game that's more interested in dynamic action, character relationships, magical weirdness and big-picture faction play than getting busy with technical details? That's Armour Astir.
What other games do you recommend?
Briar: Tendencies: Spirits & Glamour/Soul & Bone for all your hot blooded shonen action, depending on the flavour you prefer.
The Between is a killer gothic horror investigation game that I've been really into lately.
I also got to play Songbirds 3E not so long ago, which I really enjoyed!
If I can throw out another of my own games, CASE&SOUL is my FITD take on mechs. It's tighter, lighter, and grittier than Armour Astir, built for short campaigns and messy one-shots.
Did you read or play this ttrpg? If so, share your own highlights in the comments, along with any recommendations for similar ttrpgs or actual plays.
Bonus Interview
This month, I've wrangled up a bonus interview with...
Drakoniques on Sacred Machinations
Drakoniques or Drak (he/they) is a ttrpg streamer & writer and the award-nominated producer of “Beyond the Brook” They are also working on a very cool mecha project, which is both an actual play and a new game, called Sacred Machinations. Powered by Fabula Ultima, this game is about divinely endowed mech pilots confronting their destinies.
I'm looking forward to the game, and the actual play is fantastic quality. In the interview below, I ask about both the game and the AP, starting with several questions about the ttrpg and its inspirations.
Sacred Machinations
When ancient monsters re-awaken, five resistance fighters must embrace their destinies as divinely endowed mech pilots—despite clashing duties and domains.
Starring GM Lexi McQueen (he/they/she) and players Connie Chang (they/he/she), Stellaluna (she/they), Drakoniques (he/they), Sea Thomas (they/them), and Hamnah Shahid (any pronouns).
In general, what is the Sacred Machinations ttrpg about, and what is it like to play?
Drak: Sacred Machinations is a game about shards of myths, legends, and the divine residing in or taking the form of mechs called Machina and choosing pilots to wield them against monsters that crawled out from the depths of the Earth, called Remnants. The game is Powered by Fabula Ultima and built around having highly customisable mech pilots and Machina. It’s fast-paced and purposefully rules-light.
What inspirations or touchstones does the Sacred Macinations ttrpg draw from?
Drak: It draws from a few touchstones and inspirations –a few anime, like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon, and the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise; books like the Gearbreakers series by Zoe Hana Mikuta, and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson, The Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase series; and the Hades video game.
What is unique about Sacred Machinations?
Drak: What makes Sacred Machinations unique is the marriage of the supernatural aspects of gods & monsters with the science fiction of mechs. It’s a game that encourages the mashing of fantasy and science fiction. You can play in a world where androids and cyborgs can be chosen by gods to wield their power in towering machines. I started writing this game specifically because I couldn’t find anything like it, and that was a world I wanted to tell stories in.
Why should people try it when it releases?
Drak: People should try it when it releases if they’ve wanted to play mech games but felt intimidated by how granular and crunchy some of the more popular ones are.
As for the actual play, what have been some of the challenges and joys of running the Sacred Machinations AP?
Drak: The main challenge has been scheduling. The BBEG of all gaming. While most of the cast is in America, we are all still in several different time zones and are all very active and busy in the TTRPG content-creating space. But I wouldn’t want to play with any other group for this actual play. Playing with them is the greatest joy. They are all incredible storytellers and have inspired me for years, so it’s honestly a selfish wish come true to have them all at a table with me. Every episode we record manages to be the new best episode we’ve recorded.
What mecha-related games or content would you recommend? Other games?
Drak: I mentioned it as one of the touchstones for Sacred Machinations. I can’t recommend the Gearbreakers books enough. It’s by Zoe Hana Mikuta. It’s queer, badass, and such a fun read.
Have you caught up on SACRED MACHINATIONS? ⚙️ Sometimes, protagonists hit the ground running. Other times, they just… hit the ground—. ➡️📻 Episodes 1-5 out now, on all podcast services: pod.link/1800039701
— DRAK (@drakoniques.itch.io) 2025-06-06T14:59:28.290Z
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This month’s RNS Content.
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Additional RNS freebies.
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