HOME - Mech x Kaiju Mapmaking RPG
A downloadable game
Save your home from KAIJU!
→ Learn to play HOME in less than 1 minute!
HOME is a mapmaking RPG putting you in the boots of a mech pilot who must protect their home from Kaiju.
One year ago, an invading Kaiju destroyed a city in your home. Scans show that more are coming and so we built the mechs: towering war machines designed to kill Kaiju, if they don't kill you first.
HOME is a story-forward game of action, exploration, hope, and loss. Build your home, pilot, and mech. Prepare for battle by constructing bases, uniting the nations, or searching the mysterious Aether. And when the moment of truth arrives, fight the Kaiju in a deadly showdown that will destroy your home if you lose.
The details
HOME is a TTRPG for players who want to tell a Pacific Rim or Godzilla-style story and make a fun map while doing it.
- 1-4 players - Play solo or with up to 3 friends.
- No preparation, no GM - Get started quickly and build the world through play.
- 6 flavourful playbooks - Craft your home, pilot, and mech from playbooks like the prototype-loving Engineer or the mysterious Aethereal.
- Play as the KAIJU - Build a terrifying monster and battle another player's mech!
- Cinematic special moves - Weave a story with tense flashbacks, devastating Kaiju powers, or the ultimate sacrifice: detonating your mech's core.
- Thrilling dice mechanic - Easy to learn d6 dice pool where every roll matters.
- Perfect for a one-shot - Three escalating scenarios make this perfect for a single evening of play.
How to play
Want to see what a game of HOME looks like? Check out this 2 minute overview video:
And if you want to watch longer Actual Plays:
- 30 minute solo actual play - Check out this 30 minute solo game of HOME and find out if the Aethereal can withstand the Kaiju and the call of the Aether.
- 2 hour, 2 player actual play - Get the full experience with this 2-hour, 2-player game of HOME. Can the bold Royal and methodical Engineer defend their homes?
What people are saying
“Shards of Pacific Rim, Godzilla and early Gundam have been melted down and reforged in tragic fires. What’s left is a quietly devastating game played on a map at a distance 100 miles above everything.” -Chase Carter, Dicebreaker
“Impeccable visual design with an agile rules system? This is my go-to recommendation for mech games.” - Clayton Notestine, Explorers Design
“The dice mechanic is brilliant.” - Matthew Doughty, player
“I love how HOME focuses on telling a story... this would be a great first RPG to play, and still a ton of fun for experienced players.” - Matt Latham, game designer
“The creative prompts really got me thinking of fun ideas for building out the world, mechs, and kaiju.” - Tony Smerek, player
“HOME f***ing ruled.” - sniperserpent, game designer
Want to buy the physical game?
Buy the physical book and learn more about HOMEhere!
Are you ready, Pilot?
| Status | Released |
| Category | Physical game |
| Rating | Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars (40 total ratings) |
| Author | Deep Dark Games |
| Tags | GM-Less,kaiju,mapmaking,mech,Mechs,Solo RPG,storygame,Tabletop,Tabletop role-playing game,Two Player |
| Average session | A few hours |
| Languages | English |
| Links | Homepage,Kickstarter |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $15 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
Comments
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Hey, we are playing a 4-player game, and we just did the Prep rolls for our Second Front, and honestly, it felt really bad. We are all going to be rolling mostly Bane dice. The Extra Bane you get for Front 2, seemed to suck out any chance we have, beyond someone rolling Triple 6's
Which led to me questioning our reading of the rules on a couple of things:
1. Should Prep Moves be building additional Structures, and therefore giving more bonus dice on Prep Moves, ie does Build and Outpost, build an Outpost?
2. Do you only get 1 Reward per Front?
Hey, thanks for playing and commenting!
For your questions, you are correct: you only build one upgrade per front, the prep moves don't add any more upgrades/structures.
And for the prep rolls being really bad, yeah that can happen if you are unlucky with your Bane dice rolls; just make sure you are only adding 1 Bane die to all rolls in Front 2, and 2 Bane dice to all rolls in front 3. The probabilities definitely get tougher in Front 2 and 3, but they aren't impossible.
I try to switch my mindset a bit when I roll poorly, and focus on the tragic story that's unfolding. Will your Pilot sacrifice themselves if things are obviously so dire? How does your home and connection react to the terrifying destruction of the Kaiju? What does it mean to persevere against such terrible odds? What will be left after Front 3?
Hope that helps!
I am not sure I follow the logic here:
The first roll with 1 Bane is a 50% chance of failure and generating just a Bane result, provided you take your best Prep action. 60% if you did something suboptimal.
From there, the Next result is 65% likely to end in failure.
So we spent a 2-hour part of the game worldbuilding and describing our homes, for literally nothing to work, and a fight that, at the very least, the majority of us cannot win.
It feels like a foregone conclusion.
If you are optimizing while playing, you'll have 2 upgrades by Front 2 that increase a single prep move. That will give you 3 boon dice (1 you start with & +2 from the upgrades), and rolling 3 dice only has a12.5% chance of only getting a 1, 2 or 3 as your highest. Add in 1 bane die from the front danger level and the odds get a little worse (around ~32% i think, but would need to recalculate it), and that's not including any special move rerolls.
But yes, I won't deny that it can be a game that feels difficult to beat the kaiju! Emerging completely unscathed is really difficult, and that's the intent of the design: what will your pilot do when the odds are stacked against them? Which parts of your worldbuilding will be destroyed, and what will remain in the ashes?
It's a game that asks you to be ok with losing these things, and still finding the story within it. It's not something that everyone enjoys.
I played it last night with a group of five (yeah, yeah, I know - it was a bit crowded, but we accepted the challenge ;-) ) and we were really impressed with the game and fell so much in love with our own created setting, that we are thinking about another rpg campaign on these isles.
Did you ever think about a change to the third front, something where the repeating pattern from the first and second front are broken? We thought about allowing the team of pilots to fight together against the mother of all Kaiju or something like that? I think that would be a great supplement to this awesome game.
I’m currently solo playing this and chose to write my story in a word document. I felt like I was gonna be hindered by pen and paper, which I guess makes me the odd duck in the crowd. So far I have almost setup the actual “one year ago” background and will hopefully be on my first phase this week. It feels like I’m stretching it out to myself, but I think that’s the fun of world building, only to slowly destroy it by mech versus kaiju battles. The art is great too! Great game!
I wasn't sure what to expect from Home Mech x Kaiju. I was very interested in the idea of it and due to health issues I was looking for something fun to keep me distracted.
Definitely reccomended this for solo play and anyone that's into mechs and/or giant monsters. Great backbone to allow you to interact and use your own cewative for a fun story.
If the Kaiju does enough damage to kill the Mech, then yes it'll start destroying locations in your home.
The Mech health is linked to the fronts, so if the Kaiju reaches your Home Front (basically at your doorstep), your Mech should have 1 health left. After that it's a dead mech and dead locations.
i enjoyed the demo a lot, when i get a new job i shall purchase the full game, i kind of want to introduce Lancer Mechs into the mech rotation an form a new type of enemy, a Non-human person threat from non-causal reality. i can see big potential in small changes like this. Ice giants of Norse mythology, titans from Greek myths. even Warhammer gods and asymmetrical warfare or something else from that genre
is there some where for me to post my finished ideas?
that would be so cool, i would love to add to the game, home has been a really fun experience. i especially like the freedom to be creative and allow the players to make a scenario how they see it. and that's why i immediately wanted to expand the variety of enemies and encounters home could have. ill keep my eyes open for the new section
This game was fantastic! It was my first map making rpg, so I fell in love telling the story through the creation of my home, then feeling awful as you watch it get torn apart from a failed attempt. This is where I feel really inspired to give it another go. I ended up buying a physical copy from how much fun I was having!
just finally got round to playing this (after backing so long ago) and it's incredibly fun; three players (consul, engineer, outrider), one of them (engineer) obliterated during front 3, the other two making out mostly alive, but the consul ended up founding an aetheric religion in the wake of the disaster that befell Thera (after preparation built a full 5 Boon pool for the showdown)
we added some gundam twists, really played up the eerieness of kaiju foreshadowing, and had plenty of clutch rolls - thank you!
