Mobile Frame Zero:
Rapid Attack
A tense, tactical game of giant robot squad battle!
Build your mobile frames of LEGO® or other building toys and bring them to the table to fight for control of the tabletop!
How long is a game?
About two and a half hours for three players. I like 3-player games, but 2-player and 4-player games work well, too!
What do you mean, “tense”?
Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack is a game where you never have enough time or material to make your plans easy. When your robots take a hit, they lose vital parts! When you make a decision, you know Doomsday is coming and you can’t take it back! There’s never enough cover to safely get where you need to go!
Do you work for LEGO®?
Nope! We’re just big fans. You might even want to build your frames out of other building toys like Mega Bloks, Gundam models, or 25mm miniatures!
You sell kits, right?
Paul Janssen’s amazing Bricklink store, The Missing Brick, is selling limited numbers of Mobile Frame Garage Kits to help get players started with the pieces they need. For players who already have a big pile of LEGO® bricks, there are instructions in the rulebook, and you can get help and inspiration from the amazing mecha designers at the Mobile Frame Zero Flickr group, the blog No B.S., Just ABS, and the Mobile Frame Forge.
Wait, I can download it for free?
I know a lot of wargames cost a ton, but we want to make this accessible like Car Wars, Battletech, and other games were when I was a kid. Creative Commons is the best way I can think to do that. If you like the game, tell your friends! The more players who know about the game, the more will pay for it, and the more games I’ll be able to publish.
Can I play with my kids?
I’ve had a great time playing with 10-year olds. One of my favorite opponents is 11. He crushed me last time by being smart and committed when I wavered.
But it’s fun for adults too?
Anyone who likes tactical wargames and LEGO® will have a great time. It has actual tactical depth and even a little strategic planning of resources. There are reasons to keep your guys together and reasons to split them up, reasons to use artillery, direct fire, hand-to-hand weapons, or even use unarmed scouts. The best players design squads to work together, supporting each other’s weaknesses.
Can I make up my own factions and mecha?
Of course! That’s the point of LEGO®, right? Building what’s on front of the box is fun, but using the parts to make your own stuff is the core of the excellence! We’ll even show you how to make your own setting and house rules.
Who are you?
We’re Joshua A.C. Newman (author of Shock: Social Science Fiction and Shock: Human Contact), Vincent Baker (author of Dogs in the Vineyard and Apocalypse World) and Soren Roberts, one of the Internet’s best-known LEGO® mecha designers. Vincent’s son Sebastian is our apprentice game designer.
When will I get my books?
I expect all pre-orders to be complete by the end of April.
I want to know more!
Download the game and play it with your friends! If you like it, come back and shoot me a few bucks. You might want to chat with the MoFØs at the Mobile Frame Hangar to share ideas, ask questions, and learn about building and strategy!
Awesome work! Nice to see other people interested in minis games that are fun and don’t cost a mint to get into. I’m currently working on my own (War of Keys, should be published this summer) and hopefully we can trade secrets.
PS: I think the most brilliant idea in the rules is using Legos as destructible terrain. Awesome!
Thanks for the great feedback. Enjoy it, and best of luck with your endeavors!
This kickstarter looks pretty relevant to this site.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1401652493/the-ultimate-website-to-trade-lego-bricks-and-inst
Sounds like a really cool idea, so I gave it a download. However, parts of the pdf (the parts in bold, I think?) are just gibberish. Furthermore, each time I open the file, it’s different gibberish; sometimes almost readable, sometimes nearly blank. Anyone know what’s going on here and how I can fix it?
We’ll look into this asap. Will hopefully have an answer for you today. Thanks for the heads up!
This appears to be a problem with the PDF reader, and not with the text itself. Try a new reader and everything should be shipshape!
I had the gibberish thing too, turned out it was my PDF reader. For whatever reason it didn’t like the fonts involved. I switched to another PDF reader (without downloading the rules again) and then it was just fine.
This sounds…awesome. I’ve always loved mech combat, but could never afford the ridiculously expensive minis-this is perfect.
This looks amazing. Definitely reminds me of my days kludging up Car Wars models.
I cant paint tiny models. i am terrible at custom models and alterations. rubbish at making terrain. so Warhammer and warmachine be damned. This game is my scene now.
Just wanted to ask something-I know the kickstarter is over, but can I still buy a commission of frames? (Yes, that’s the new plural.) And if so, roughly how much would such a thing cost?
There is a real possibility that this is the best game ever.
I agree!!!
When I was younger, LEGO had these little sets called “X-Pods”. On the website, there was an official game called “X-Pod Playoff”. Make little builds, send them across a custom-built mat (via the online flash utility), and take your opponent apart brick-by-brick!
“Mobile Frame Zero” is that game fully-realised, and I love it for this.
YES! I had two of those. You had a points limit by bricks, and they influenced the stats. That’s the first thing I thought of upon seeing this.
This is so ridiculously rad – I just bought two garage kits and a copy of the book! :D
That’s awesome. Thank you!
Hey guys… what should I do if my address has changed since I’ve purchased my physical copy of the book??? I’m no longer at my old address….
I tried to download it and it just opened up in a new window with no dload options. What am I doing wrong?
Got it. But thanks anyway!
Are you guys bringing purchaseable books to Conpulsion?
If you’d like to fly us there, sure thing! Otherwise, it’s too far to travel. :)
Aha, I picked Conpulsion’s news up as you guys were coming. Will try and get some games in tho.
Hay I live in Alaska and bought a copie of the book around the end of January/start of February, I was told by the pay-pal confirmation receipt that I would receive the book within one to two weeks, not counting Sundays and holidays its been over two weeks I would like to know where my book is and money went.
As so often happens with Kickstarter projects, delays lead to delays, but progress is ever forward! Please see the Kickstarter updates for news!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/JoshuaACNewman/mobile-frame-zero-rapid-attack/posts/422053
My completely noncommitted hope is that shipping will start this week, but the budget is annoyingly knife-edge.
The pdf doesn’t work on the ipad with either Good Reader, iAnnotate or iBooks. Quite frustrating :(
Got it working by printing the document in a pdf virtual printer, effectively flattening the whole document.
Whoa! Brilliant! I’ll try that!
Is this a remnant of early MoF0 or a blatant ripoff?
http://lumpley.com/pdfs/mechaton.pdf
That looks to be a very early version of Mechaton which was the precursor to Mobile Frame Zero.
“Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack kickstarted
Posted on March 5, 2012 by wordman
For its tenth anniversary, Mechaton, a game of giant fighty robots made of LEGO, is getting a revision and a new title. Today the Kickstarter for the new version started. Please help fund it.
Also, if you have a lot of cash, seriously consider one of the high level awards. Soren Roberts is an extremely talented LEGO designer and the rewards for his original work are rare offers.
Thanks in large part to prior posts here about Mechaton and LDraw, I’ve been asked to render the assembly instructions for the mechs in this product. Hopefully I can post some LDraw models when the product is published.”
Taken from:
http://divnull.com/blog/tags/mechaton/
Ahh very cool. I was curious about that. Thanks!
I know the website now indicates that pre-orders will ship by the end of April, but it this firm? The last time I checked it said the end of Feb.
Cam, I sure hope so! We’re working hard!
Hey,
Your PDF does indeed seem to be a bit messed up. Only working in some viewers isn’t the best. I don’t know what you put the manual together in, but you might want to tweak your export options. All transparencies should be flattened, all fonts embedded and you could probably down-sample images for a smaller file.
Shoot me a message if you want a hand with it. I’d be happy to help.
.. oh and the game looks awesome. Good job :-)
Hi – I ordered the book & pdf bundle for my son’s birthday. The PDF downloaded fine but I am wondering when the book will arrive – I see preorders are intended to ship by end of April. Is that just Kickstarter backers? When can those of us who just came by this page and ordered it expect our copies?
Ananda, your son’s book is en route. Kids’ birthday games are serious business!
AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
are you guys going to be at the uk games expo? http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/
Hi, Ross, I’d love to do a UK convention sometime, but haven’t been able to find a way to cross the pond.
This got liked, hardcore. Mecha fan & I still mess around with my Legos on occasion (probably due to Minecraft, but that’s taking things to the Inception route).