Introducing: Metal Aces - Champions of Heavy Metal

I am very excited to present a project I have been working on for the past year.

https://studiogrubbel.itch.io/metal-aces

WELCOME TO THE HEAVIEST GAME IN THE WORLD

Heavy Metal is the most popular sport in the world. Full contact, live fire, death and explosions galore! Nothing could ever beat it. Two teams of superstars face off against one another, equipped with heavily armed and armored mech units. Millions of viewers tune in to watch their favorite aces reduce the opposition to burning scrap, and the results of these matches can determine the fates of nations.

The stars of the Heavy Metal games are known as Metal Aces - sports stars and war heroes in one.

Heavy Metal is played at every level of society, from street-level amateur battles to orbital god-machine combat. Everything from entertainment superstardom, global warfare, and political dominion is decided in the Heavy Metal arenas. 

It’s time to suit up, the whole world is watching.

Metal Aces is a game about brave pilots in combat mechs engaging in a brutal gladiatorial sport called "Heavy Metal" where two teams of superstars duke it out in televised battles.

I have been working on this game since late 2024, when I started work on Metal Aces as a gritty futuristic warfare game, using the Blades in the Dark: Deep Cuts rules. I ran a brief playtest of that version of Metal Aces for one of my roleplaying groups, and while it was a fun romp I sensed some issues with the theme and the design.

This summer I made a decision to pivot the project to a more light-hearted and satirical theme of sports - while keeping the combat mechs. The result is a game that can call on a bottomless well of inspiration from sports and TV and movies - with a lot greater breadth of tone and content.

System Changes

Metal Aces is based on the classic Blades in the Dark formula, but I've made several sweeping changes:

Stress replaced with Heat

Heat works very much exactly the same as Stress, but it also represents how much hostile attention is on the player. Characters with high heat may be more likely to be targeted by their opponents.

XP replaced with Fans

Metal Aces is a game about a rise to fame, so instead of earning xp for playing to their archetype, players instead gain ticks on their fans track. The fans track has nine steps and when it is filled the player gains a star, which increases their star power rating.

Star power can be rolled like a rating for certain situations where you're betting on the cameras and audience being focused on your character. Stars can also be spent to buy upgrades and special abilities.

XP triggers replaced with role and persona traits

To actually get fans, the player has to play to the expectations on their role in the team, and also express their character's persona to their audience.

Inspired by Blades '68, players can burn out their persona traits, which gives an automatic critical success on the player's next roll but cuts off one of their sources of fans.

Devil's Bargain replaced with fouls

Inspired by bites from Slugblaster, players can take an extra die as a bargain with the GM but instead of negotiating an immediate complication to the scene, the player simply gives the GM permission to hit them back at some point later in the game. The Devil's Bargain discussion no longer takes away from the action, and the GM can think about how they want to apply the penalty for the foul.

Edge and Cover

Whenever the players roll a critical success they earn an edge - which they can spend immediately for improved impact on their action (get some extra benefit from the critical outcome) or spend on a later roll for +1D (they use an advantage or leverage the momentum).

Cover replaces the set-up action, so that instead of resolving a whole action to adjust the position or effect of an ally, the cover action sees a teammate face a danger for a friend and that friend receives cover. Cover can be spent to immediately take action with improved impact or reduced danger.

Reloads

Possibly the most controversial design decision: Having run and written several combat-heavy FitD games, I felt like there's a tendency to fall into a rhythm where the players aren't sure what to do besides shoot the enemy. So they just shoot the enemy. Nothing really happens, both sides just exchange fire until somebody gives up.

Of course it's a matter for the GM to introduce interesting developments to the combat situation, but I've been looking for a way to make the players seek a different rhythm in the action. The reload rule says that once a player has used a weapon that requires reloading, they can't use that weapon again until they've taken a reload action. When the player reloads, they must choose to either let their opponents gain ground, have their character become surrounded, or fall back.

This means that players are encouraged to not always fire with everything they've got, to choose varied loadouts useful for different situations, and to let the opponents maneuver.

Instead of losing position, the player can also choose to spend edge or cover, which makes those tags very useful for maintaining momentum in hectic combat.

Other Changes

There are many more changes under the hood, like a new harm module inspired by Defying Danger, a fully replaced set of 12 action ratings, 7 playbooks all with unique quirk mechanics that impact how they act in a match, team services, sponsors, manufacturing partners, units and unit gear, events and drama, and a dozen opposing teams with unique lineups and arenas.

It's a lot. It's a whole thing! The playtest document is a serious 90 pages, and I am still putting it through its paces.

If you think this all sounds interesting and you'd like to playtest the game, it is available for free on itch.io here: https://studiogrubbel.itch.io/metal-aces

If you want to come talk about the game, please join our brand new community Discord! https://discord.gg/gmjxKC7u94