Heat Cap and Stress
Your mech can take heat from tech attacks and some of its own systems. If it takes more heat than its Heat Cap, it overheats. Mechs also have Stress, which is similar to Structure – when they exceed their Heat Cap, they take 1 Stress damage and clear all heat. When they lose stress like this, mechs have to make a special stress damage check and receive a consequence based on the roll. Most mechs have 4 stress, and are destroyed when they reach 0 stress.
Overheating
When a mech exceeds its Heat Cap and takes Stress damage, its player (or the GM) makes an overheating check.
To make an overheating check, roll 1d6 per point of Stress damage marked, including the Stress damage that has just been taken. Choose the lowest result and check the overheating chart to determine the outcome. Rolling multiple 1s has particularly catastrophic consequences.
Next, it takes any excess heat beyond what was required to exceed its Heat Cap, potentially causing it to overheat more than once
Reactor Meltdown
Overheating sometimes results in a reactor meltdown. This can take place immediately or following a countdown, in which case the countdown is updated at the start of your turn and the meltdown triggers when specified. When a reactor meltdown takes place, any pilot inside is immediately killed and the mech vaporized in a catastrophic eruption with a Burst 2 area. The wreck is annihilated and all characters within the affected area must succeed on an Agility save or take 4d6 energy Damage. On a success, they take half Damage.
Cooling
A mech’s marked heat can be cleared with Stabilize, or by using certain systems. Heat also resets when you rest or perform a Full Repair.
| Overheating Table | ||
|---|---|---|
| 5-6 | Emergency Shunt | Your mech’s cooling systems manage to contain the increasing heat; however, your mech becomes Impaired until the end of your next turn. |
| 2-4 | Destabilized Power Plant | The power plant becomes unstable, beginning to eject jets of plasma. Your mech becomes Exposed, taking double kinetic, explosive, and energy damage until the status is cleared |
| 1 | Meltdown | The result depends on your mech’s remaining Stress: 3+ Stress: Your mech becomes Exposed. 2 Stress: Roll an Engineering check. On a success, your mech is Exposed; on a failure, it suffers a reactor meltdown after 1d6 of your turns (rolled by the GM). A reactor meltdown can be prevented by retrying the Engineering check as a free action. 1 Stress: Your mech suffers a reactor meltdown at the end of your next turn. |
| Multiple 1s | Irreversible Meltdown | The reactor goes critical – your mech suffers a reactor meltdown at the end of your next turn. |