Visual Aids?

When playing Mekton I tried to use miniatures as much as possible, but in a manner that got away from Battletech (no offense their guys).  My ultimate plan, still in the works, is to use the Mobile Suits in Action Gundam figures I bought by the ton in Japan to play what I call...One Year War which will take place during, well, the One Year War towards the end when both sides had Mobile Suits.  In the mean time-what do you guys like to use and what's your best sucess story?

--------------------------------------------------------------
That which does not kill you usually hurts a lot.

I find this to be a tricky prospect. There are some issues I have found with this.

a) There seem to be few options for representing mecha from an original series.

b) The cost of the options that are available, is prohibitive.

c) The use of anything other than drawings or markers can often shift the focus from RPG to a sort psuedo tactical game.

The third point requires a bit of explination.

Any time you you start using miniatures or figures you are inviting the players to look away from their imaginations and tempting a move from descriptive play to a lot of pushing of figures into general positions. This may not always happen, but I have seen it happen a lot of times in fantasy RPGs.

-Eli

--------------------------------------------------------------
I See Lead People

My group tends to use home-made counters.  The GM makes a sheet of the counters which has the characters and mecha.  The sheets are then laminated and cut up to make durable counters. 

We use a giant hex map and drawn terrain on that map (with the appropriate erasable markers) when the situation requires it. 

--------------------------------------------------------------
One man's misadventures through life...

Cosmic_Emu wrote: I find this to be a tricky prospect. There are some issues I have found with this. a) There seem to be few options for representing mecha from an original series. b) The cost of the options that are available, is prohibitive. c) The use of anything other than drawings or markers can often shift the focus from RPG to a sort psuedo tactical game. The third point requires a bit of explination. Any time you you start using miniatures or figures you are inviting the players to look away from their imaginations and tempting a move from descriptive play to a lot of pushing of figures into general positions. This may not always happen, but I have seen it happen a lot of times in fantasy RPGs. -Eli

I understand your concern but it never played out that way-probably because ours was such a roleplay based game and much of the combat was verbal (and I gave them much leeway for drama) that it never devolved into "okay I move two hexes this way and turn expending three points..."

I suspect that for one-year-war that may be a minor issues but I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

--------------------------------------------------------------
That which does not kill you usually hurts a lot.