Battletech Public Playtest Thread

[payn]

One thing that bothers me a bit about Battletech is that Mechs die too easy. I don't mean that they get to defeated too easy, but that very often they die by damage to the center torso, and the chances of surviving are low. That kinda stands against the claim of mechs handed down by generations. They should almost always be salvagable IMO, the effort and price for it might be something too much for smaller Mercenary outfits. Or the rules (and setting) need clearer support for retreats.

Game wise or narrative wise? In both senses there is forced withdrawal in which once a mech has lost a good amount of its effectiveness its allowed to retreat from the battlefield. So, a fight to the coring of a mech is a rare kind of fight. Pilots will also punch out well before a coring, and many (narrative) situations a victorious force will let the loser come get their stuff off the battlefield.

There is also lore about how battlemechs were sturdy with top tech and manufacture in the SLDF era. Though, loss of brain power and manufacturing ability in hellish succession wars lost the tech such as CASE to protect the survive-ability of a mech. So, the good stuff started to disappear before resurgence with renaissance and clan invasion.

Which also is why mercs and pirates have janky stuff because they are operating in the least honorable places with the least access to supply lines.

 

[TheHand]

That kinda stands against the claim of mechs handed down by generations

Yes! Between CT meltdown and ammo cook off, too many Mechs end up as piles of smoldering scrap.

In the past, when I’ve done MW campaigns or story driven BattleTech games I usually only have the Mech really go up in a ball of fire with 3 specific engine crits. That makes it much more rare that nothing’s left and keeps in line better with the fiction,

 

[payn]

Yes! Between CT meltdown and ammo cook off, too many Mechs end up as piles of smoldering scrap.

In the past, when I’ve done MW campaigns or story driven BattleTech games I usually only have the Mech really go up in a ball of fire with 3 specific engine crits. That makes it much more rare that nothing’s left and keeps in line better with the fiction,

Ah, the stackpole rule. Anytime a mech takes three engine hits in a turn roll 2D6 and on a roll of 10+ critical reaction!

 

[TheHand]

Ah, the stackpole rule. Anytime a mech takes three engine hits in a turn roll 2D6 and on a roll of 10+ critical reaction!

Haha yup!

 

[Kannik]

Its good to be a BT player in the Twin Cities!

Again, envious! Not that I'm sure I'd have a tonne of free time to participate much, but more than the once-per-year-if-I'm-lucky would be great! I think most players here are in home games and so unless you know/are invited, you're on your own.

 

[payn]

Again, envious! Not that I'm sure I'd have a tonne of free time to participate much, but more than the once-per-year-if-I'm-lucky would be great! I think most players here are in home games and so unless you know/are invited, you're on your own.

Not to send the envy meter off the charts, but im heading to Vegas tomorrow for a BT convention called the Desert Hot drop.

Check out my forces here.

 

[RangerWickett]

Cool that you provided suggestions to the MWO team to moderate boating and weapon convergence! What ideas did you present to them?

It would have required a central reticle and other dots floating around it which would adjust in real time (which would probably be fiddly). The central reticle would be be where a weapon fired from your head would hit. It would also be the rangefinder. The other reticles would show where weapons around the rest of your body would hit at that range.

So basically, if you fired four torso lasers on a Battlemaster, they'd hit in a row, burning in parallel instead of converging. Or you could go bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz and shift your aim. The arm-mounted weapons would, if you kept your aim on the same spot for a quarter second, converge on the central reticle.

 

[TheHand]

We had to reschedule the game we were going to play Monday night… I’m sure you all know how that goes. But the group wants to give the side hit rule a real unbiased try, so after the next game we play I’ll report how it went.

We don’t have as cool of setups as @payn though, since we’re all spread out we’ve been playing using a VTT. A bit kludgy but we make it work! (Haha, maybe I can be envious!!)

 

[Kannik]

We don’t have as cool of setups as @payn though, since we’re all spread out we’ve been playing using a VTT. A bit kludgy but we make it work! (Haha, maybe I can be envious!!)

We can envy together. What setup do you use for your VTTing? (And if this is too far afield from the topic at hand actuators, we can discuss elsewhere.)

 

[TheHand]

We can envy together. What setup do you use for your VTTing? (And if this is too far afield from the topic at hand actuators, we can discuss elsewhere.)

I have a pro Roll20 account, so I have a custom BattleTech sheet that I discovered some years ago. The original source of that sheet is gone now unfortunately. DM me if you want to see.