Battletech RPG

[payn]

Greetings,

We got a thread going about the Classic Battletech playtest rules currently on going here. This thread is specifically about the RPG and folks experiences with it. @RenleyRenfield

Battletech RPG History

The beginning;
Battletech was a wargame originally dropped in 84 as Battle Droids (but uh some folks didnt like that legally speaking). It wouldnt be long after when the wargame would get an RPG treatment named Mechwarrior in '86. This game would focus on the setting along with doing things outside the mech cockpit. Such as forming alliances, political intrigue, and personal combat. Mechwarrior would go through three edition updates by 1999. (Not to be confused with the cockpit simulator PC/Console video game series also called Mechwarrior).
The Skinny;
2E/3E Tends to be a fan favorite amongst longtime players. Mostly it seems to be thanks to its heavy world building and nostalgia for the roots of the game. Seems to split the middle between ATOW heavy mechanics with Destiny streamline.

The second age;
Then, in 2009 came the fourth edition of the RPG, which Fanpro (licensed at the time) decided to break with the Mechwarrior name and call it A Time of War (what is with 4th editions?). Many rules updates and the core mechanic was set to 2D6 to match the tabletop wargame.
The skinny;
If you want an RPG that is as complex as CBT tabletop, ATOW seems to do just that. Doesnt seem to be very popular amongst any but the most dedicated BT fans due to complexity and reliance on 2D6 as a core mechanic.

Today;
Finally, the BT brand landed with Catalyst Games Lab (also have Shadowrun) and they launched their own RPG called Mechwarrior: Destiny in 2020. This edition was designed to work best alongside the wargame and also allow integration with the Alpha Strike BT rule set (streamlined modern miniatures rules not CBT)
The Skinny;
Destiny updates with a more narrative approach outside the cockpit experience. More streamlined than what came before. IF you want a game that has less mechanics and moves a bit faster bewteen wargame and RPG, Destiny is the version you want.

Tomorrow;
Rumor has it another RPG is in the works for BT. I dont know if it will be a Destiny second edition or a whole cloth new run at the game. I dont currently have any more info than that.

My personal experience is very limtied. I've done modified Chaos Campaigns which is basically the table top wargame with a merc company maintenance off board phase. My players manage their merc company(s), name mech warriors, make decisions based on storylines built into the Inner Sphere setting in various aspects of the time line.

That said, Id love to hear what folsk with actual RPG experience have to say. This is soemthing ive thought a bit about clearly, but havent had a chance to dive in and try it yet.

-Cheers.

 

[TheHand]

@RenleyRenfield I’ll try to answer some of your questions about a mixed campaign here.

I’ve run several campaigns that were split between MechWarrior (the RPG) and BattleTech (TT mini’s). I’m happy to share my experiences:

I’ve played 3 of the 4 Mechwarrior editions (1st, 2nd, and Destiny… bounced off of the extreme complexity of 3rd edition). Though they all have very different rulesets and pitfalls, any one of them works well enough. My current favorite is Destiny, though some may not like the narrative mechanics it introduces (I ran it as a more traditional rpg). One thing I like about Destiny is it has a simplified version of the table top game built into it that plays somewhere between classic BattleTech and Alpha Strike. Destiny was not well supported, however.

Here’s a few bullet points for doing a mixed campaign:

- make sure your players like to both play BattleTech and RPGs, otherwise you end up with players who get bored or frustrated with sections of your game

- The MechWarrior heroes should have some skills and abilities to make them useful outside of the cockpit, otherwise they’ll feel incompetent during non-mech parts of the game. Alternatively, you can run the game “troupe style”, where your players alternate between controlling both an “away-team” operative and a Mechwarrior (or tank driver).

- BattleTech battles can go long, so budget for time accordingly in your play session. It can be challenging to have to stop a Mech fight and set everything back up for the next game.

- you’ll be essentially writing 2 scenarios - one for outside the cockpit and 1 for inside the cockpit, and the trick is always to find ways to thread those together. There’s some adventure modules from the 2nd edition era (if you can find them) that aren’t too bad in accomplishing this. I kind of like “Unbound!” for a quirky Solaris VII situation gone horribly wrong (though I recommend modifying the 1v1 Mech matches into Team battles).

Another thing to consider when writing the MechWarrior parts of the game is to create situations that make sense for them not to be in giant Mechs stomping the opposition into the dust. So intrigue, spying, sabotage, and information gathering tend to be the main focuses in my games. You can also just go with the flow, offer an option for doing a mission subtly as MechWarriors or another for going in full force and see what your players decide.

Hope some of these ideas help!

 

[RenleyRenfield]

Oi! Hello all! Ok, thanks. I was not wanting to derail the other thread and well, it got me thinking.
I am OG player, still have my BattleTechnology box set and so many books and minis.

I am one of those who likes the classic system and will be using the actual wargame and rules for when we break out the mechs. (Yes I am aware of Lancer. I don't like Lancer. It's way out of line for BT lore for its 'mechs'.)

@RenleyRenfield I’ll try to answer some of your questions about a mixed campaign here.

I’ve run several campaigns that were split between MechWarrior (the RPG) and BattleTech (TT mini’s). I’m happy to share my experiences:

I’ve played 3 of the 4 Mechwarrior editions (1st, 2nd, and Destiny… bounced off of the extreme complexity of 3rd edition). Though they all have very different rulesets and pitfalls, any one of them works well enough. My current favorite is Destiny, though some may not like the narrative mechanics it introduces (I ran it as a more traditional rpg). One thing I like about Destiny is it has a simplified version of the table top game built into it that plays somewhere between classic BattleTech and Alpha Strike. Destiny was not well supported, however.

......

Hope some of these ideas help!

This is very helpful!

I was noticing that some of the boards talked about a 'lite' version of the wargame. That interested my in case I needed perhaps a quick duel at Solaris VII or such. Not sure I want that, but it would be interesting to try.

I have the Mechwarrior 1e book from when I bought when it was new, never played it much, just a few one shots here and there.

I do have 3 players who love minis games, and so I will run a few BT battles for them with just one to three mechs each to see how they take to it, but I think it should be good. The general idea is each player gets paid a does missions and arena for more cash, then has option: spend to upgrade your current chassis or pay to go up in tonnage (maybe start then at 25 to 30 tons? ) But they only get one mech each. So with three players, that's three mechs, vs. 3 to 5 enemy mechs... should be about the same as a typical Pathfinder or Draw Steel combat I think?

But yeah, for a session 0, we would basically come up with personal ties for characters, and then maybe used the "lore sheet" ideas from V5 to bind the player characters to world plots.

When you ran the game, how many mechs did your players get to use? How often did you have RP nights, vs. Wargame nights?


OHHH!!! Troupe play! Ok, so let's explore this more too... because on one hand "buy and build you own mech" is way fun. But .... troupe play where you have you have a star or a lance. Might have to dig out Ars Magica for grogs ideas... this would greatly slow down the game and be all-combat nights though... maybe its a "stable" hmmmm ideas....

 

[aramis erak]

Greetings,

We got a thread going about the Classic Battletech playtest rules currently on going here. This thread is specifically about the RPG and folks experiences with it. @RenleyRenfield

Battletech RPG History

The beginning;
Battletech was a wargame originally dropped in 84 as Battle Droids (but uh some folks didnt like that legally speaking). It wouldnt be long after when the wargame would get an RPG treatment named Mechwarrior in '86. This game would focus on the setting along with doing things outside the mech cockpit. Such as forming alliances, political intrigue, and personal combat. Mechwarrior would go through three edition updates by 1999. (Not to be confused with the cockpit simulator PC/Console video game series also called Mechwarrior).
The Skinny;
2E/3E Tends to be a fan favorite amongst longtime players. Mostly it seems to be thanks to its heavy world building and nostalgia for the roots of the game. Seems to split the middle between ATOW heavy mechanics with Destiny streamline.

The second age;
Then, in 2009 came the fourth edition of the RPG, which Fanpro (licensed at the time) decided to break with the Mechwarrior name and call it A Time of War (what is with 4th editions?). Many rules updates and the core mechanic was set to 2D6 to match the tabletop wargame.
The skinny;
If you want an RPG that is as complex as CBT tabletop, ATOW seems to do just that. Doesnt seem to be very popular amongst any but the most dedicated BT fans due to complexity and reliance on 2D6 as a core mechanic.

I have run MW 1e and MW 2e, have read MW3, have and have read ATOW and Destiny.
If I run a BT campaign, it will either be MW 2 or MW, with BF1 or BF2 for the large scale engagements.

I love the pre-clans setting... never cared for them, and that drove me out of playing with friends, since all they were willing to do with BT was batchall battles.

As for AToW - too much work for too little benefit.

 

[Blue]

I played Mechwarrior back in the early 90s, and it was a miserable experience.

First, two of us made characters who were well rounded. The other three made characters that only could pilot mechs. They never wanted to play outside the mechs because they were horrible at it, and we ended up spending a lot of time in mechs, where the two of us were significantly sub-par.

That was actually one of my early RPG design lessons, that you must have different currencies of character build/advancement for different modes of the game. 5e for example could learn from this with their feats.

Second, the advancement was based on rolling I think a 12 on . Oh, did I mention I started with a Panther mech, which had one long range and one short range weapon in a light mech chassis, vs. characters who had a bunch of weapons so rolled more often so their characters advanced more quickly.

These are the two flaws that are full-stop, don't play. There were others, like there was a talent (?) called something like Gifted Gunner or Natural Gunner that let you roll 3d6 and take the highest 2. Not only did that play havok with game balance odds, it also made it that you went from gaining advancement XP (whatever it was called) in 1 in 36 rolls (which is 6/216th) to 16/216th. More than two and a half times to get advancement points, in the part of the game with the highest density of rolls (mech combat on a multi-weapon mech).

No idea how the more modern versions of Mechwarrior are, I seriously hope they fixed these problems.

EDIT: Loved the wargame, played lots and lots of it with different groups of friends, including twice long organized ongoing bracket battles with repairs, ammo replacement, etc.