1,2,3

Combat

Who does your mech help you fight? Giant monsters? Other giant robots? A thousand people on foot? Is your mech lethal? How much collateral damage do you do?

4,5

Construction

A construction mech can be used both to build structures, and to maintain them. Does your construction mech work on a team or alone? If on a team, does that mean other humans work with the construction mech, or are other construction mechs involved?

6

Exploration

What kind of exploration is your mech designed for? Deep sea diving? Space? Cores of planets? Why haven’t these areas been explored before, without the use of mechs?

1

Leg

If you can move your mech into combat (and if it has ranged attacks) it could still operate as a turret; only its legs are broken. Perhaps you can leave it to guard a location (or perhaps it will need to be guarded if it is unable to run away). If it is a construction mech, can it still be used to lift objects in one solitary location, much like a makeshift elevator?

2

Cockpit

The cockpit is now either smashed open, and exposes you, the pilot to the elements, or the controls have had coffee spilled on them, or rats have chewed through wires, making the controls useless. Your mech can walk around autonomously, but no longer can respond fast enough to you in dire times.

3

Weapon/

Tool

How will your mech fight without the implement they normally have? Can they switch to another type? If they used a rifle, can a replacement sword hold them over? If it was a combat mech, perhaps it can now move to another use, like exploration; or if it was an exploration mech, perhaps it has lost an element (like heat shielding, or pressurization) but can pick up a tool or weapon and be useful elsewhere.

4

Heart

The spirit that fuels the mech has dimmed. Was there a traumatic event? Is there ongoing social turmoil? Has a fight broken out between mech and pilot (you)?

5

Confusion

A second personality has now inhabited this mech. Is it a benevolent spirit? Some spirit with nefarious plans? Perhaps the two spirits will ultimately work better together… except for the times they disagree…

6

Curse

Madness, or misfortune now follow this mech around. Perhaps time spent in the cockpit now transfers some or all of this curse to you the pilot. Was the curse malicious? Or was it a curse brought on to punish and teach a lesson? How can it be broken?

1

Sneaky

This merchant probably doesn’t even call themself a merchant.

2

Exuberant

It is likely you will get what you need, but it is also not likely to be a quick visit. You are treated like an honored guest, in terms of the treatment and attitude you receive… But your time… that’s not quite as respected, by this merchant who is having way too good of a time to care about time…

3

Aggressive

Pushed around. That’s how it feels to deal with this merchant. Are you even the customer? Why does it feel like this person is in an argument with you??? Don’t you want to exchange your resources for the thing they have that you need? Did you do something to earn this treatment? No, right? (And even if you brought this on, it’s really not appropriate how antagonistic this person is being…)

4

Eccentric

This merchant is… interesting. Shop perhaps filled with things you’ve never seen side by side before, or artifacts rarer than you would have expected, or maybe there's just too much, of, whatever these things are. And… that’s just the stock. Talking to this person, is itself, like navigating a maze. You’re pretty sure they have what you want, but it’s almost like they answer you in riddles.

5

Distracted

This merchant means well, and has what you need, but- what is that? -Is there- Wow… there are just so many- what were we saying? Oh yes, this merchant just has a lot going on right now, maybe chronically, or perhaps you caught this merchant on an unseasonably busy day, but you are having trouble getting completion of service.

6

Exclusive

This merchant, or their wares, are in high demand. Perhaps you will have to swap places with someone on a waitlist, or impersonate someone who is scheduled to get into this shop.

1

Capture

[Right on Target]

You’re going to need to bring a third party to this merchant, if you are going to get their help. Perhaps you’ll find a way for the person to come willingly. If you talk to them long enough, maybe you’ll go into the meeting knowing why the merchant needed someone to bring this person in. You might even plot together (You only need the repair for your mech, afterall, you don’t need to keep the merchant happy…)

2

Custody

[Time to Relax]

“Take [x] off my hands. Please!” This merchant doesn’t need something from you, this merchant needs to you to take something of theirs away. Maybe forever, maybe just for a day, but they need you to take this and go so they can have a moment’s peace to do something else. Will there be consequences of relocating, whatever (or whoever) this is? Perhaps you’re supposed to take it away, and bring it back, but what if you only manage to take it away, and something prevents you from brining it back?

3

Event

[Showing Off]

A gala, an exposition, a convention- This merchant needs something from you to impress rooms full of people. Without the impressive item, this merchant is in trouble, because all of these people are scheduled to show up. Soon.

4

Conspiracy

[Bait]

The merchant doesn’t need something from you, the merchant needs you to be at a time and a place and for you to not ask too many questions about it. This exchange… might seem easy, but it’s likely… messier than advertised…

5

Distance

[Footsteps]

What this merchant needs, is not close, not by a long shot. If you have a spaceship, or perhaps if you have access to portal magic, you can go on a journey to collect what the merchant needs. Maybe you’re on-foot without your mech, and you have to go a distance that would be quick for you if you had your mech…

6

Upcycle

[Reuse, Recycle]

It’s not enough that this merchant get something from you, this merchant wants to repurpose something and needs your help to do it. If you have a construction mech, perhaps you are able to offer specific services reshaping something for the merchant after the transaction is complete. 

1

Lynchpin

This person is a pillar of the community. Your work might seem innocuous, but actually it benefits a person who, if they go down, the entire community is soon to follow. This could be a leader, or someone in the shadows, or someone who doesn’t even realize the value they provide just by being themself.

2

Stranger

This person does not know you. You do not know them. They are not a significant player in the public sphere. But because of your deeds, because of what you and your mech can do, their life is forever changed. Maybe they will never know you helped, maybe they know some mysterious stranger and mech helped them one day, but their life was saved in a passing act from you.

3

Stubborn

There is someone who refuses to get help any other way and you and your mech are the only ones who can save the day. Everyone else in this person’s life have tried to offer up alternatives, but you are the only choice, as far as they’re concerned.

4

Meticulous

Someone has been planning, and they need you for their plan to work… Maybe there's a battle that has been planned for years, and someone is relying on you to be there. Maybe there's a structure that needs to be built and you’ve got the only mech specialized enough to help and without you, a person’s vision can’t be realized, or home can’t be returned to.

5

Defeated

This person cannot go on. They have been fighting a good fight for some time. Maybe it was a combat situation, but also it could be someone who has been trying to get through bureaucracy and get something built, or someone who has been searching in vain for years. They need you to pick up where they were forced to leave off.

6

Journey

This is someone who is on a tough journey; they are a protagonist in their own right. Your paths cross, and with your help, they are able to keep going. Both of you are slightly, forever changed by your meeting. They needed you, but you needed them just as much.

1,2,3

Happy Ending

You did it! You got what you needed, you enjoyed the result, everyone is happy for you, and people are enriched because you went on this journey! Go back through your actions, and look at every person who can be affected positively by your actions, and build a ‘credits montage’ showing yourself a nice happy scene from each character you interacted with on your journey. Do you retire in glory? Or is this but one leg of your ongoing saga?

4

Disaster

This could not have gone worse. Beyond that, you can see how each of the failures that compounded in this tragedy, were of your own doing. Go back through your actions, and provide alternative routes you ‘should’ have taken, that are only visible now that you have reached the end of your journey and “Hindsight is 20/20.” Is this the end? Or can you correct your mistakes?

5

Pyrrhic Victory

You win. Great. It sure seems great for one shining moment, and then it hits you: The cost. This was a victory in name only. Go back through your actions, and look for everything that had to go right for you to succeed, every person who helped you; now make the cost for that success much, much worse for each contributor you met. Unintended consequences, shattered alliances, lines you said you’d never cross. You gave up something to reach this end, and you weren’t the only one. Do people resent you? Or does your ultimate victory shield you from scrutiny? Will you end your story hoping no one every calls you out on your behavior, will you hide away so that no one ever finds you, or will you pick up somehow and try to right things with whatever resources reman?

6

Dodged a Bullet

It… feels like a loss… at first. -And in a way, it’ll always probably bug you that things didn’t go your way. Buuuuuut, once you saw someone else succeed where you had failed, you realized: success isn’t all its cracked up to be… (At least that’s true of this success.) You were chasing the wrong goal, or attracting the wrong kind of attention. If you had succeeded at this goal (and again, it bothers you to no end that you didn’t just: succeed) it probably would have followed you around for the rest of your life, and so now you are free to go about your business, however you please. Do you: Go back to everyone you worked with, and try again? Seek out new companions who might get it right this time? Do you go back to the friends you made along the way, but pursue different goals with them this time, leaving your ‘cursed’ goal in the past? Go back through your actions, and find some value in everything you did, even if it didn’t actually bring you to the goal you pursued; not every quest is the main quest; maybe these were important side-quests, getting you ready for something greater.

1

Happy Ending

“Barely an inconvenience,” why were you so scared?

2

Disaster

Mini-Dark-Night-Of-The-Soul. You have to find a reason to go on, and the ‘lifeboats’ are looking very good right about now… Scenes like these are important because your hero can’t be brave if there's nothing they fear. Remember: no failure happens in isolation; we often experience failure and revisit a chain of failures from our past.

3,4,5

Pyrrhic Victory

The most common result of a story, is the characters seeming to get what they need, but they end up paying a bigger cost than they meant to. This scene end is all about Unintended Consequences that set up your future scenes; these problems will be back to haunt you.

6

Dodged a Bullet

You don’t get what you wanted, and like in the Disaster scenario, it starts to bring up past patterns of failure and make you doubt yourself, but then… You see someone else succeeding where you failed, or you see what the consequences of your success would have been, and there's a wave of relief. This disaster turns into a chance to catch your breath and look over your other options.