Mobile Frame Zero (LEGO robot wargame)

[The Supreme Emissary]

I discovered this little gem a few years ago and a friend just reminded me of it. It's still a great premise, build LEGO bots is fun no matter what! This game is designed with 2-5 players in mind but adding more is not particularly difficult. You'll need to download the PDF for the full details but i'll cover the key elements here. 

The main site is nice and simple, the rules are a free to download PDF, there's a Flikr and forum group that appears to still be active more or less. There are so many cool designs for bots you could drown in them!.
Website link

TOOLS
Book/PDF - Free to download. Give it a bit, it may stick. The real rules start on pg57.
Ruler - 8 Units long. 1 Unit = variable (the length of the ruler can be modified to better reflect the size of the figures being used)
D6s white, blue, red, yellow, green
D8s red, green
D12 / D20 (turn counter)

MODELS
A 'Company' of Mobile Frames.
Terrain. 

Your Company
A Company is a player army made up of Mobile Frames and Stations. How many you use depends on the type of game and number of players. 
1-3 Stations, 3-8 Mobile Frames, 3 Single-Shot Rockets 
When you design your company you make things as big or as small as you want but you will compare it to your opponents and a handicap will be given.

Stations
These are like your personal flags, they can be anything as long as they're no bigger than a 4x4 plate (pegs, not inches). They will hold your objective flags so model them accordingly.

Mobile Frames
Your robot is called a "Frame". A frame can carry up to 4 "Systems". Systems are weapons and equipment that have an in game effect. A frame cannot carry more than 2 systems of the same 'Type'. A loaded Frame is a robot body fitted with removable system bits that may be detached over the coarse of a battle. The Frames can look like anything so long as they're awesome. The systems can be made to look like what you want but they at least suggest what they represent and be removable. 

System Types
Movement - Jet packs, wings, wheels, rockets in the tail pipe, or anything else that makes the frame go faster than just plodding along. Each system adds a Green d6. having a system allows the frame to ignore terrain when moving. Otherwise the model has to move around it. 
Defense - Heavier armor, a shield, camo or jamming systems, that kind of thing. 1 system adds a Blue d6. 2 systems adds 2 Blue d6s and lets the frame act as cover for other frames.
Surveillance/Communication - Radios, lights, scopes, cameras, etc. Each system adds 1 yellow d6. With no systems the frame can only spot targets with direct fire weapons and only when the target is out of cover. With 1 system the frame can spot targets with direct fire and in cover. With 2 systems the frame can spot targets anywhere.
Melee Weapons - Just what you think they are. 1 system adds 2 Red d6s for hand-to-hand combat. A second system adds 1 red d8 for hand-to-hand.
Direct Fire Weapons - Exactly what it sounds like. Like the melee systems it adds 2 red d6s for using direct fire range and a red d8 for having 2 systems.
Artillery - Just like above but for Artillery range.
Sprint - A frame with no Direct Fire or Artillery systems gains a Green d8. This is not actually a system and can't be destroyed.
Single-shot Rockets - A company keeps 3 rockets that can be divided up between frames or placed on just 1. These each add a single use Red d8 for Direct Fire range. These are not actual systems. 

Ranges
Hand-to-Hand (1 unit) | Direct Fire (more than 1 unit and less than ruler range) | Artillery (beyond ruler range)
Opional: Players may decide to treat 1 weapon system as split, adding 1 red d6 to 2 different ranges rather than 2 d6 to 1 range. pg132

Actions
Move - Green d6
Defend - Blue d6
Attack in melee - Red d6
Spot a target at range - Yellow d6
Every frame gets 2 White d6s which are WILD and may add more depending on their Systems. 

Compare Assets Your Score = Number of Assets (Frames and Stations) x Score per Asset (relative strength)
Each player counts up the value of their Company and compares. This is a bit of math that goes into determining how players start and how hard they have to work to win. 
Your frames, their systems and the stations you control go into calculating your asset values. You start by comparing your relative "Score per Asset" which is modified by the relative strength of each player's company.   
The player with the highest 'Starting Score' is on the defensive and can win by keeping what they have in play.
Everyone else is on the offensive.
The player with the lowest starting score is on "Point" offense. 
See the PDF for examples.

Terrain
Lots of stuff here, lots of options on how to build your battlefield. Everyone needs to agree on the field before play, but that shouldn't be a problem. 
Cover = Any object 3+ bricks high. Stations don't count.
A typical battlefield should be 4-6 ruler lengths across diagonally, the shape doesn't really matter. Again the size of the ruler can be varied to suit the size of the frames. A game should use one ruler/standard for the entire game. There are suggestions for making modifications for your choice of table.
1 ruler length = 8 units. 1 unit = 5 studs. 1 ruler = 40 studs. 4-6 ruler lengths = 160-240 studs = apx 80-120cm/~4ft
Deploying your assets comes in a complicated order meant in concept to force players to think carefully about how they spread their resources. Better you read the file, it'll take a few games to get the feel for it.

Combat (starts on pg87)
Some common sense judgement will need to be used when measuring such variable figures. The game doesn't actually use line of sight rather it cares about whether there is cover in reach and between the attacker and its target. 
The combat rules are extensive, making me glad a Company includes such a small number of figures.

Game Length - The Doomsday Clock
At game start set your D12/20 up on 11 and count down 1 at the end of each game round. Players may vote to count it down more to speed the game along. This means that depending on the number of players a game could last 3-11 rounds. 

---
Making it Your Own pg137
There is sooo much going on in this game system to try and allow players to use anything they want and keep them interactive. Like LEGOs it's ALL about doing your own thing and the creators have included a section for modifying their own dizzying rule set.
This can also be a good starting point for a gaming group to get their expectations in line.

Building your Bots pg151
There's instructions on some example frames and details on how one can acquire all the bits they need more easily.
Go online and you'll find hundreds if not thousands more designs of all types!

[The Supreme Emissary]

CONCEPTS
A list of ideas to help give us a structured jumping off point using ideas an expansions built into/suggested by the original system and developed by players.

Infantry - Single stud figures. There have been board game type character figures made but some folks have made them out of bits so they can hold other bits.
Mobile Frames - Small-ish one man powered armor suits of varying designs. 
Ground Vehicles - Tanks, Jeeps, transport trucks, trains, etc. Obviously distinct from mobile frames in that they include some kind of humanoid element like arms and/or legs.
Air Vehicles - Jets, helicopters, gunships, dropships, airships, etc. Vehicles that have no obvious ability to move along the ground but can be represented by actual models on the table. High altitude craft or those that would strike/act from off the table are not appropriate. Particularly large models may be more appropriate as mission set pieces or terrain features. 
Drones - Semi-autonomous models that may represent one of the above like an NPC or a unique Frame System. 
Monsters - Perhaps some alien equivalent of the above but must fit into one of those categories.
Stations - Any kind of tokens used as objective markers.

Range of Conflict - Some non-specific future Earth-like world where factions battle for survival.

How big a Ruler
The ruler's area of measurement is based on a Mobile Frame's range of movement of d6 or d8. Having this range match the attack ranges allows melee units to remain viable. The actual length of the units of measure depends on the size of the figures players want to use. The robots featured in MFZ are bigger than LEGO mini-figures but still relatively small at between 1-2". Making them bigger allows more room for details and conventional building techniques but also begins to affect how the figure functions on the table. It will also affect how cover and terrain is set on the table. So ultimately it will be best to keep figures in a relatively consistent size to the examples set by the creators.  
The folks who developed MFZ put a lot of thought into their efforts so let's keep using what they learned. The tables we play on can be bigger or smaller but we've become accustomed to one form of standardization or another and if we can use resources from other games our lives will be that much easier. 
A ruler is 8 units long. A unit is 5 studs long (apx 2.5cm or 1") which is also the range for Hand-to-hand combat and to use cover. A ruler is therefore 40 studs long (apx 20cm or 8") which is also a Frame's maximum potential movement and the limit of Direct Fire weapons. Artillery weapons are left to fire on anything else on the table beyond that distance. 

Building Cover
Part of combat is the destruction of cover. When you have to break down walls brick by brick it helps to have some standards in mind when assembling your battlefields. It doesn't do to assemble intricate scenery of big or interlocking pieces just to have a single attack rip it apart.
Hard Cover - Can't be destroyed. Represents support structures, reinforced walls or extra dense materials.
   Supports = 2x2 bricks | Walls = 2x? bricks | Foundation = everything less than 3 bricks high
Light Cover - Can be destroyed. Represents normal building materials or non-structural objects.
   Posts = 1x1 type bricks | Walls = 1x1-6 bricks (because it's is easy to use when you're supposed to remove 6 bricks of cover at a time)

What are these dice for again?
Part of the game is taking ALL your frames dice and rolling them together up front. What that means is you will get to choose the best results in advance rather than hoping to roll well during the respective action. This can save a lot of time but enforces the need for those differentiated dice. 
White - Every frame comes with 2 white dice, they can be used for any action but each can only be used once per round. They are also your frames last 2 health points. Adding systems gives you more health points but also frees up your white dice for other actions. 
(M) Movement - Green dice allow you to move through terrain. You can get the Green d8 if you've lost your ranged weapons. Having 2 movement systems gives you a redundant green die.  
(C) Communications - Yellow dice are for spotting. A frame Spots after it attacks so it can't use it's own spot but any other frame in your company can use it. An attacker can add the yellow spot die value to their appropriate red attack die value in an attempt to beat the target's blue/white defense die value. You can still use a white die to spot a target out in the open. 
(D) Defense - Blue dice free up your white dice, make you harder to hit and harder to hurt.
(H) Hand-to-Hand, (F) Direct Fire, (A) Artillery - An attack either hits or it doesn't but how damaging it is can vary widely. You get 2 Red die for each weapon system that only applies at that range type and a d8 for having 2 of the same. These help you to hit your target. Hurting them however relies on a set of charts and a handful of d6s.

Soldier Configuration
MDFC - Gives you all your color dice. You can fight hand to hand even without a weapon system, using a white die. 

Split Range Weapons
A good way to keep your weapon options open in exchange for chances to hit.
Rifle with Bayonet/Sickle & Chain/Whip/Pistol - Hand-to-Hand and Direct Fire
Sniper Rifle/Cannon - Direct Fire and Artillery
Grenade - Hand-to-Hand and Artillery (stick it or lob it)

Company Sizes
3 Stations
1-2 Fire Teams of 4 Frames. Each Fire Team has 1 Leader Frame.
1 Frame = Light Frame
2 Frames = Medium Frame
3 Frames = Heavy Frame
4 Frames = Super Frame
5 Frames = Mega Frame
6 Frames = Ultra Frame
7 Frames = Alpha Frame
8 Frames = Omega Frame
1 Infantry Squad of 6 men = 1 Frame. H 1W
1 Squadron of 3 Light vehicles = 1 Frame. HM 1W
1 Squadron of 2 Medium Vehicles = 1 Frame. FMC 1W
1 Squadron of 3 Heavy vehicles = 2 Frames. AFDC 1W
1 Squadron of 6 Super vehicles = 5 Frames.