Iron Maiden, Steel Succubus, Automatron Doll or whatnot—it's a robot girl that seduces metal. While the hack-sphere already has the Mecha Hack, I bet they aren't ready for this!

Aside from parodying a classic monster who preys on a person's desires of the flesh (or now metal), there were several ideas in mind when I worked with this theme:

• The Iron Maiden: wardrobe, capture, closet and enclosure.
• The Magneto: repel, attract.
• The Metal Bender: command and manipulate metal.
• The Metal Whisperer: speak to metal, command metal.
• The Full Metal Alchemist: shape metal, be an armour person.
• Chow down on that rock hard… well, rock: consume essence, steal power, grow metal armour & weapon.

It is sort of amazing how much you can relate to a simple, goofy idea. Each one of these could be very well enveloped in any aesthetics, a whisperer Dwarf, a Metal Mage… Shame on me for wanting a Mecha Girl in my dungeon-crawling RPG, but the joke actually came from a comic strip:

Real man touches steel.

Now, metal bending typically exploits the material's properties whilst bypassing some inconvenient aspects. Being an already sturdy material, you'd hope to preserve that property of metal while the bender enjoys the freedom of manipulation. Cheating, or so you would say.

Now, what if bending metal to your will also alters the material's properties? I'm not talking about building up stress inside, or about metal getting stronger, or about it flowing like a liquid without melting. What if, instead of a steadfast material of cold brutality, it is soft, comfortable and inviting? What if we personified the desires of the steel? What if, instead of a tricky, cunning master of manipulation, our succubus friend (PC) doesn't get their way most of the time? If not, a lil' ditzy, clumsy, sweet little unforgettable thing?

Okay, I lied a little. The first feature alone is neither soft, comfortable, nor inviting.

This class is a melee grappler. I don't know how it turned out this way after a few revisions, but we're here. This baby can grapple as many as she has armour platings for, whether it is wrapping them in cloth, leather belts on her servos or just between metal panels. It is a great way to grapple with multiple targets without growing extra arms (or just use magnets)! The concept is straightforward and intuitive: clamped between a hard place. This core combat ability shapes her typical fight into taunting, area control and draining HP over turns. The mandatory activation makes it so that the Goblin Boss can cheat it by throwing a few goblins, chickens, or pigs at the Mecha Succubus first.

What I had in my mind was a clumsy-kawaii little robot who gets distracted by her own abilities. Not only do you confuse others, but you are confused as well. Works great as a stall, a time-out localised around you. The success in the INT Test serves as a counterbalance to the second part of this feature. But by virtue of this feature's structure, it presents the attribute tests as an activator, a switch-case & limitation all at the same time. A high INT versus a low INT Mecha Succubus will have drastically different game plans going into an encounter, considering their chances—with a slight chance of hiccups. Moreso, you get to use some fun late-game spells early on.

The second part of this feature is a massive nullification field. This ability is balanced out by the merit that no Weapon or Armour actually functions while they are “Charmed”, including yours and allies. A forced disarm, so will you say. But you still get to keep your foes snag-stuck under your vices! Since the metal items fail their designed functions—and that's certainly not clamping down on someone!!! But I admit this is vague and could be rewritten. I haven't yet decided whether keeping the grapple with this move is a good idea. I have considered many directions this feature could go:

• Full Freedom - Magnetic Field: Metal item follows, and can float whatnot.
• Local Freedom (where we are now) - Metal Bend: Metal item may twist and bend, maybe wiggle and crawl.
• No Freedom - Simply Sentient: Just some chirping metal that can tell you which hand is their master's favourite hand.

The pseudo-charm effect, where metal-armoured creatures are also a weak point in this feature. It's quite up to the GM whether this functions fully as a charm spell or just the armoured torso fighting with the rest of the body. But fundamentally, the melee zone around the Mecha Succubus is deweaponised. Such that the Mecha Succubus controls an area, and chooses to slurp up your armour for herself or throw you around in your armour.

Well, the Mecha Succubus is clearly an anti-personnel class. Unless your GM wants to put collars on them. This is when you carry harpoons, caltrops, fishhooks and metal cages and control those once they are on the beast. Yank them around, twist and twirl, or tie 'em up.

Everything that is an Easter-egg Feature is simply a class feature that didn't make it in. It's lazy, but it works. Some of them are minor enough to be considered flavourful utility abilities. These will come in a future post.

“Well, it's not covered in the rules, so how about this…”

Keeping creatures stuck to you has its merits. They are technically meat shields, should you decide to take cover while walking through a trap. Great for hostages, too. If your GM allows it, you can be stuck with another large creature, like a tick.

But I should mention that as long as there is metal around, anything could be done. Yes?

“I seduce the lock instead of picking it! Open up!”
“Why can't you just mould a key?”
“In fact, you could mould anything. Sword to spear, arrowtrips to shield, armour to a boat…”
“Pass through iron walls.”
“Draw out a thin wire like a snake trick.”
“Intimidate by bending all their weapons → Into flowers!!!”

And more. Is it too op? Don't forget all these on a chance for mass confusion and placing the Mecha Succubus out of commission. Moreso, the metal door might need a little convincing…

Unfortunately, I did not include any access to Advantages on the INT TEST, which will let you control the Doki-doki Wave to raise confusion or charm metal (since the undetermined nature is intended as a drawback). But if you ever get to access an advantage, score! If the Mecha Succubi is smart enough to pull a riddle, joke, (act cute???) or just an absurdist statement out of her digital brain, I almost wonder if you should get to choose the outcome of the confusion spell as well… But, the confusion spell is a massive randomiser to stir up any situation. Also, as a high-level spell that can almost be called at will, it deserves a drawback, so I tagged an immobilisation on that. Once the confusion is out, it comes down to the will of the dice.

Now, a walking suit of armour is a sight to behold, though not unlike a shy knight. A jousting knight, stuck, unable to breathe under a crushed armour, is a scenario for you to save the day. So is escaping cells and running a symphonic metal orchestra. One feature I did cut was the Mecha Succubus's inability to seduce creatures, which was a detriment. But YMMV across your GM. You never know which lord or lady likes steel.

Robot hand fetish is a thing.

While I did not specify their property as a robot: life energy, souls, divine healing, disease, poison, rust, or sleep are things to consider appropriately.

I gave this class the nun theme through her starting items, trying to paint this class of robots in a juxtaposition of evil creatures trying their very best not to be evil, restraining their desires, whatnot. But it is also a good excuse to give them a lot of strange metal items. But this gave rise to a tangential theme behind her abilities: that of an exorcist. Since poltergeist activities often accompany plates and teapots moving around, what’s to say pots and pans? In fact, this gives me an idea to tie this in with the other classes for this jam… A common theme of spiritual phenomena classes.

There is a lot of synergy going on here, but the features are LOADED, and it might be overbearing. In fact, this will lock a PC into repeating actions in a fight. At the same time, the “Metal Bending/Socialisation” also has too much freedom, which could trivialise problems. A better restraint would be for the GM to adjudicate this, making the “Awokened Metals” difficult to deal with or simply acting chaotically. What I could include is a Mishap Table detailing how the PC's commands could be misinterpreted or fail in interesting ways.

I believe that classes are a presentation of an aesthetic. Its features, in effect, guide the controlling player down a particular playstyle (their niche). And gets to feel like that role by virtue of decision-making that considers their capabilities. If you are a succubus, then be a succubus. If you are a parody of a succubus, then be that parody. A class that is designed to be open to change and interpretation might lose its flavour. If you needed that new flavour? Don't fight the system, just make your own class. That is the beauty of an OSR hack—you shape the game you're playing in you shape.

But goodness gracious, I am losing track of how this fits into any coherent theme to package up for the jam. If only I could nail down a theme or topic… Mecha variants of monsters?