"The Core"
An arena for Virtual Mekton

This arena is divided into three main areas: an upper level, which is mostly open, a lower level with a labyrinth-like layout, and a connecting shaft between the two. It is an indoor/urban setting.

The upper area:

This section is square and almost entirely open, except for a bundle of large pipes that exit the center of each wall and run to the middle of the chamber, turning down to form a pylon through the connecting shaft, and their supports. These pipes form a "+" shaped catwalk through the upper half of the area, and if powerups are being used in the game should have two on each, one at the wall and one halfway to the center junction. The pipes and supports are semi-industructible, that is, normally not damagable, but uberweapons like The Infamous Bomb and anything else the GM decides is badass enough can do so. The players (up to 8) start in individual little alcoves at the center of each wall or the junction of two walls, the "back" of which has a texture map that makes it look like a long, dimly lit tunnel leading into darkness. The room itself is approximately two miles/3.2km square, the pipes are 135 ft/40 meters off the floor, the ceiling is 3000 feet/900 meters high (*). For the most part, this area is textured to look like metal panels, with a few "open bays" showing plumber's nightmares of tangled pipes, and is lit reasonably well, about a 7.

Recomended powerups: wall-crawl, ninja leap, flight, (2)repair, damage enhancer, (2)reload weapons. Powerup length should, IMO, be variable, lasting until a Dramatically Approprite Moment, or when it starts getting old, whichever comes first. If the players complain, remind them that they don't HAVE to get powerups at all.

The shaft:

This area is about 500 ft / 150 meters diameter and 1500 feet/ 450m deep, with the pipes from the upper level forming a column 50 ft/ 15m in diameter down the center, and support struts coming out of the wall here and there to hold the column in place. These struts can be walked on or jumped to (especially with Ninja Leap or jumpjets/GES) to get from one end of the shaft to the other in a controlled fashion. If somone starts falling, roll 1d10: on a 1 or 2 they have hit a strut partway down, taking collision damage as appropriate and making a Piloting roll to hang on. If they have some way of controlling their fall, they can make a Piloting roll then to try to land properly on it, avoiding collision damage but still needing another roll (at a bonus, say +2) to stay. If someone has one of the powerups from the upper level, it should probably last just long enough for them to fall the last little bit out of the bottom of the shaft, if they don't dawdle coming down, except for Wall-crawl, which should probably only last 1/2 or or 3/4 of the way. There are two powerups at most in this area, on the support struts. When rolling to see if someone collides with a strut, a 1 means they manage to land on the powerup - they don't get to try to hang onto it and still take collision damage, unless the powerup would somehownegate that damage. This area is dark (3) , lit only by a few white lights on the column, and a row of red safety lights down.

Recomended powerups: Flight, repair, or reload, no more than 2 total powerups in the shaft.

The lower area:

This area is roughly T-shaped, with a 500 foot/150m ceiling. The two parts of the T are each 4000ft/1200m long and 400ft/120m wide, with an unbstructed "bulge" around the base of the shaft from above. The lower 1/3 of the room is a labyrinth; the walls are designed to be a few feet over the heads of mecha using the arena, and can be stood/walked/run/driven/etc. on. The area is dimly lit, but not really dark, about a 4. The upper 2/3 of this area, the part above the labyrinth, is textured like the upper area and the shaft, while the labyrinth walls are patterned with circuitry and plumber's nightmares. The labyrinth is damagable, each segment requiring 30 kills to be destroyed, leaving a little pile of rubble to mark where it stood. The shaft from above leads down to the junction of the T, the center column spreading into a cone to send falling mecha sprawling away from it. At each end of the T are three hoverboards, each having a gravatic flight MA of 15, 20 Kills, and an MV of -2, and are controlled using normal piloting rolls whenever the GM feels appropriate. They do have foot straps, so rolls to avoid falling off shouldn't be required more than once or twice, or after a particularly violent maneuver.

Recomended powerups: Any type of powerup in any number can be apropriate in the labyrinth, Repair and Reload Weapons especially, Phasing as well.

Powerups mentioned:

Wall-crawl: mecha can move at 3/4 its ground MA on vertical surfaces or even inverted, but needs to make a Piloting roll to jump anywhere except to the normal floor.

Damage Enhancer: all weapons do rated damage x1.5

Ninja Leap: mecha can leap an additional five hexes, acting as it's normal movement action. AKA Seven League Boosters

Flight: MA 8

Repair: Instant fix up to 1/2 of the mecha's Kills, can restore destroyed systems/servos

Reload Weapons: All weapons with limited shots get reset to maximum capacity

Phasing: the mecha can walk through interior walls and is immune to physical attacks, but cannot make any (weapons just pass through harmlessly) and takes double damage from energy weapons.

The lighting scale:

0 is pitch black with no ambient light, 1 is equivalent to the stars on a clear, moonless night, 2 like a full moon through light clouds, 3 like a full moon in a clear sky, 4 like "intimate" restaurant lighting or dark movie sets, 5 is about equal to normal indoor incandescent lighting or a heavy overcast day, 6 is like bright, school or industrial lighting, 7 a lightly overcast day, 8 is equal to full sunlight on a clear day, 9 is like stage lighting, 10 is like stadium or watchtower arc lights.

(*): i.e. Not Within Reach of GES, But Low Enough To Crash Into With Full Flight. Yes, that particular witty comment was removed from the Arena description, but it's too fun to let it pass!

Arena created by CrystalDrogn

 Tamiyka fell through the long connecting shaft, wishing she'd gotten to installing the jumpjets she kept meaning to add to Kindjal. She hadn't hit any support struts on the way down, but that just meant the final impact would be all the harder... cancel that, it looked like the last one was going to catch her.

In what could best be described as a gesture of hope, she thrashed the legs
of her VM in an attempt to get in the right position to catch hold of the strut and at least slow her fall, but only succeeded in starting a tumble. Kindjal came down on the strut flat on its backplates... and hit the
powerup hidden in the shadows on the strut an instant before the strut itself, which it fell right through like a ghost.

The words "Phasing mode!!" marched across one of Tamy's smaller displays, telling her what kind of powerup she'd snagged. In another corner of the screen, a small timer began counting down the seconds until the powerup would wear off. Unfortunately, that wouldn't help her with the impact against the arena floor.

Hoping to minimise the damage, she curled into a tight huddle, like a diver making a "cannonball", and braced for the impact. Kindjal fel on the angled base of the central pylon and bounced sideways, skidding through the walls of the labyrinth beyond as it bounced and finnaly slid to a stop just past the last of the wals... and just as the powerup wore off. Tamy checked her status displays and grinned as she stepped onto one of the waiting hoverboards, then drew and ignited her beam sword.

Time to fly, and someone ELSE die!