Eldritch Automata: Nicholas Francia Speaks About the Mecha Horror Tabletop Game in the Kickstarter's Final Hours

The world is destroyed. You are one of the few survivors, as horrors and worse ravage the globe. The only defense left is to climb into an Automata, a massive machine of war, and take the fight to the monsters. But you may be a threat yourself…

This game uses Free League Publishing’s Year Zero Engine, which you may be familiar with from games like Vaesen or ALIEN RPG.

You can find Eldritch Automata on Kickstarter through tomorrow.

Eldritch Automata is an upcoming tabletop RPG game designed by Nicholas Francia, who works for Gehenna Gaming. His previous tabletop work includes Monsterhearts – the Forgotten Skins.

It was our pleasure to sit down with Nick to discuss the game.

Before anything else, tell us about Eldritch Automata. What can players expect?

Big mechs, big monsters, and a lot of high octane action and horror. The game very much is a blend of power fantasy and panic inducing horror, and its so interesting how each blends into the other. Players can expect mechanics that are easy to get into and create characters in but a lot of customization and depth in order to keep games interesting many sessions into them.

Could you tell us about the all-new setting that players will find themselves in?

Eldritch Automata takes place in a world very much like our own with one big exception: the world has ended. The apocalypse has come and gone and we’ve advanced the clock 20 years later on the surviving remnants of humanity who are fighting back. It’s a world that’s familiar but lost, nature has overtaken many of the once populated areas. The Horrors have created a hostile environment where much of humanity has hunkered down. While the game is very much about fighting giant creatures, there is a theme of rediscovering what you’ve lost and how you can get it back.

What are you most excited for GMs and players to encounter?

Character creation is one of my favorite aspects of any game and we’ve taken steps to really create a fun and expansive experience when creating a character. I can’t wait to see how people dig into it and what they come up with. See what pilots take the field, and what Automata and their combination of weaponry are ready to launch.

While mecha combat will be a key focus, what will players do when they’re outside of a pilot seat? What does a normal adventure look like?

Out of combat exploration and downtime has a very big focus in Eldritch Automata. We have a unique system of measuring character bonds and relationships called Strands which specifically are managed and handled using roleplay focused actions. These Strands are used to empower rolls inside and outside of battle. Making it feel like roleplaying is not just fun but also mechanically rewarding. A typical adventure in my mind involves a lot of upfront investigation. Horrors can be sneaky and determining whether or not it’s time to call the big robots that cause a lot of collateral damage is a decision that can come back to bite you if you don’t take time to consider it. Also pilots are often seen as celebrities or even pariahs depending on what region you are playing in, there is a lot of attempting to fix things for the long term. This helps contrast the gigantic Automata battles which I find are the best climax points of the adventures. Of course fighting a Horror out of Automatas as a group of brave humans also has its appeal and becomes a much more deadlier game.

In a previous interview, you described Horrors beginning as something small enough a normal human could encounter, and then growing to a size that requires Automata to take on. Could you expand on this? What are players in for?

Something you can tell from the cover of the game that we’ve plastered across our Kickstarter is the Horror, the Horror is an amalgamation of humans, humans it has eaten or assimilated into itself. But Horrors begin at a smaller stage, usually a single human before they begin to rapidly mature. Horrors mature as they find other humans either alive or dead to eat or assimilate. As the Horror grows in power, it gets bigger. The Horrors you face in your Automata are the often endgame of that. Neutralizing a horror before it becomes your threat requiring an Automata is something we’ve played around a lot with in our games.

You’ve discussed having 144 different combinations of pilot and automata archetypes. What are some of the options that players will have the chance to jump into?

I’ll talk about one from each. Something in the book but not something we’ve revealed to the public yet are the Manufactured. They are humanoid androids that have been built as artificial pilots in order to mitigate the risks of employing human pilots in the Automata. You can play as the Manufactured in one of the Pilot Archetypes and when you do it ends up being a very different game, Empathy becomes Integrity and you play with this sliding scale of a stat where you can track how human you are becoming over time. Eventually able to turn Integrity back into Empathy and discover true humanity. How others treat you and whether or not you’re seen as a machine or a real person are questions we pose in that archetype.

For the Automata Archetype, the Strainer is one I am very excited for people to play. Stress and managing stress is an important part of EA, and the Strainer flips that on its head by having an Automata that is constantly building your character’s Stress and even providing positive effects for when your Pilot finally gives into that Stress and panics!

Where can people find Eldritch Automata? Where can readers find you?

People can find Eldritch Automata at our Kickstarter. They can follow with the project along on social media at Gehenna Gaming (@GehennaGaming) and they can follow me the lead designer at @NoblemanNick on both Twitter and Instagram. Lastly you can join Gehenna Gaming Discord in order to chat with us. Hopefully you’ll be able to find Eldritch Automata at your FLGS by year’s end.

And to see us out, what is your favorite piece of media that inspired Eldritch Automata, and why?

As cliché as it is, this game would not exist without Neon Genesis Evangelion which totally flipped the mecha genre on its head and showed me what this genre could do and how we could push it into heavy and interesting narratives and gaming. I urge you to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion if you ever get the chance. I can ramble for hours and hours on NGE. If it’s not your vibe and you want to go with something a little more fun-focused, Pacific Rim is another great place to get your mech fit and the Automata where heavily inspired by the designs in Pacific Rim.

You can find Eldritch Automata on Kickstarter.

Featured Image: Gehenna Gaming

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