Spencer Campbell's NOVA, plus Artist Alex Connolly

• A sci-fi heavy setting with sparks (exosuit) mechas
• using the rules lite Lumen system (d6, dice pools)
• which emphasizes combat
• and has an impending update for diceless play and more lore

• An imaginative sci-fi setting with no more sun and fun lore
• Flavorful, distinct options for sparks
• A simple “mod” system to improve your Sparks
• A video-game-esque “drops” system for health and fuel
• Killer layout by Julie-Anne “JAM” ” Muñoz and stunning art by Eddie Yorke
• And lots of support for GMs

I recommend this game! Grab it if you are a combat-loving player of ttrpgs or a GM who wants a world and missions at their fingertips.

NOVA is also one of those games that you can buy just to read the lore and enjoy the art/layout. In fact, this game was ENNIE-nominated for best layout and best rules. It is worthy of both.

Spencer: NOVA's touchstones are Destiny and other action RPGs and looter shooters like Borderlands. Powerful characters with a small suite of powers, or what I call "do cool shit buttons" that you get to push over and over.

Spencer: I think NOVA sits at a really cool place of being an overt power fantasy, but also with some interesting tactical play. I like to say that your characters are already level 20 when you start. It is more about finding builds and playstyles that fit you, but finding the right combinations of mods for your Spark to play them as the badass you want them to be.

Spencer: If you like cool mechs, hate the sun, and want to wipe out waves of enemies with awesome powers, NOVA is for you.

Spencer: My go to mech recommendations come from the same designer. I think Binary Star Games' Apocalypse Frame and Celestial Bodies are two very different but incredible approaches to the mech genre.

Alex: I suspect a number of things fed into it. Growing up on a farm always had me clambering around and riding on tractors, which definitely sewed an appreciation for unromatic industrial design. All function, no superfluity; true nuts and bolts aesthetic. From there, I think it was just an agglomeration of disparate things. A single rented VHS tape of Robotech, a few ancient copies of White Dwarf magazine, that incredible Fleischer Studios' Superman short 'The Mechanical Monsters' from 1941, happening upon a friday night broadcast of Return of the Jedi, where arguably one of the greats was stalking through the Endor forests; all feeding into this appreciation and enthusiasm for things large and legged. 

And when I caught the first Patlabor film by accident as a young lad, which felt like that Junji Ito 'This hole was meant for me' macro, I knew I had found my people.

I can't recall exactly when I started scribbling these sorts of things, but it must have been early. It coalesced with the discovery of the Terran Trade Authority books in my school library, where starships took on this mythic quality. More specifically, TTA's Spacewreck volume; where deep space vessels depicted technological tragedy. Great Space Battles might be the most universally appealing, but Spacewreck's examination of mechanical vulnerability and catastrophic failure was utterly captivating. I don't want to call it wholly responsible for personal design ethos, but the concept of fallibility is much more interesting than magical machinery, and always in the back of my mind.

As an adjunct, the late and unimpeachably great Stephen Biesty was responsible for really driving home the importance of design logic. Sure, we'd enjoyed a raft of detailed technical manuals like Haynes, but Biesty did for technical design what Richard Scarry did for civic awareness. Poring over his books is a cherished childhood memory, but most importantly, it highlighted that if you're going to design something fantastical, it deserves a sort of order within the fantasy.

Alex: The joys are found in being part of someone's dreams towards the fantastical. It's warming to start developing something and the client begins to add ideas into the mix, thus begins a fun collaboration. Even when things don't work out on a particular facet, the redesign focus can only be positive. I won't lie, this aspect has been learned the hard way. In the moment, when the illustrator is in the zone, everything feels like it is working out and magic is being conjured. However, when a design doesn't fire for the client, it can hurt! All those lines and concepts, years in the making: denied! But that right there is a crucial part of the equation. Admittedly, every design development is different. If you're part of an onsite team, the feedback might be immediate and incremental. For remote freelancers, though? Sometimes the feedback might not be expedient, and the passage of time between sending artwork and a response can weigh heavily. Those times are tough! I don't want to speak on behalf of remote operators, but suspect many appreciate a fast turn-around with visual development.

As far as the particulars of mech design, I always feel I get too lost in the weeds regarding the design considerations. Some folks just want a cool machine that walks around. I tend to consider the small things, even when utterly unwarranted. Access and egress, power plant, what sort of machinery is driving the articulation and what sort interface is affording the pilot operation? Technical design illustrators know this all too well, but as much as it's easy to consider far too much, it informs the greater design decisions. In fields like video games or film, attention paid to things like articulation, scale and physics — however farcical and fantastical — pays dividends for a convincing design.

Alex: Every fan is different, but for me, I tend to lose interest when the mech or mecha gets beyond a certain size. Being a huge nerd for that aforementioned fallibility, something like Gundam has diminishing returns from a pure design perspective. It takes on an allegorical element, but I can't deny the clout and sway Gundam has rightfully gained. Equally, Battletech might be an industry titan, but it's the smaller mechs that I prefer over the colossal assault class designs.

As such, designs found in VOTOMS and Heavy Gear have huge appeal. The AT-ST is a stone-cold classic. Anything Kow Yokoyama touches, be it the immensely influential Maschinen Krieger or his work on Genki's mecha dungeon crawlers in the Nineties, is highly regarded. Beyond a specific scale, you can't see the welding marks or rivets, and the articulation takes on a meaningless quality. There are exceptions, such as the body horror of Hideaki Anno's Eva units in all their squishy glory, but the smaller the scale, the better.

In the case of Patlabor, where the machines are not so much governed by rule of cool as they are bureaucracy and maintenance, even better!

Alex: My first technical gig in the TTRPG space was doing all the mech designs for Leyline Press' Salvage Union. I'd been ogling the immensely cool art being delivered for the Lancer TTRPG at the time, and was champing at the bit for something similar. Salvage Union remains a really cherished product, and would love to go back and give the designs a second pass after all these years. One interesting element was having to render technical designs from the immensely talented Hamish Frater's key art on the project. It all hinges on emphasis, and having a painterly style can afford artists a little latitude when illustrating vehicles. But when the brief came down to take some of these illustrations and give them the cutaway treatment, I had to tread carefully and retain the design while inventing systems and structures to underpin its capabilities. It's a terrifically fun pursuit, but a taxing one.

I've also worked on things like Aaron Lim's Spectres of Brocken and the upcoming ARGO-0 by Hatchling Games, all sorts of mecha madness within.

And, naturally, Rust Never Sleeps. And, it might just be a case of novelty, I'm still buzzing from what we designed there. Think the base mech has real utility to it, and whether you're fighting The Man or harvesting corn, it fits the bill. Might be my favourite at the moment, no word of a lie!

Alex: At the moment, I'm doing design work on an upcoming dieselpunk WWII title from Compass Games, so if you like Gear Krieg, you'll enjoy this one. It's really deep design work, because when you're working with military veteran wargamers, you need to hit that sweet spot. Another project I'm trying to find time to create is a system-agnostic vehicle creation set, using playing cards. That's all I'll say for now, but if sci-fi Matchbox Connectables sounds like a fun time, you might be interested.

I've also got a long-term plan to produce an illustrated book, but we're talking universal heat death-grade timeline on that one. But it'll involve needlessly detailed mechanical design, no doubt about it!

Alex: Like-minded folks can find me via my LinkTree profile (@ACiDConcepts | Linktree), which includes things like BlueSky, a website and other assorted digital connective tissue. If you'd like to enquire about commissions and collaborations, get in touch via my website's contact form.

Thanks for the opportunity to wax mechanical!