Classic Battletech: the campaign?

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Is there a book that offers some framework for running Classic Battletech as an ongoing, growing campaign? The kind you'd read in the novels where "players" would start with a unit (like a lance) and then grow the unit over various missions, improving the characters that pilot the mechs.

I'm fine if this comes from the current iteration of the Mechwarrior RPG system, but I want to almost entirely run mech missions where the pilots improve at a predictable rate and the unit can evolve other than by handwavium. Or is this something the game publishers never saw a market for?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

AFAIK, Mechwarrior is it. Not that that is a bad thing.

If you want the Battletech pilots to improve at a certain pace, just do a little translation table of the piloting skills of Mechwarrior PCs to Battletech bonuses.

My one concern would be that the 2 goals are a bit at cross purposes. Usually, when you play Battletech, your group is going to be evenly divided on the various sides in the scenario. In addition, pilots get killed- that's part of the design of the game.

When you play a RPG, usually everyone but the GM is on one side. There is less likelihood of your proxy getting ganked because there's an inherent design decision to balance the odds of the game slightly in the PCs favor.

That means that there will be uneven progression, nearly guaranteed.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

My desire is to play this a bit like a D&D campaign. That is, I will play the entire enemy forces, while the players will run portions of the "unit".

There won't be that many players. It will start with my 10-year-old son, there will be infrequent participation by my nephew and very infrequent participation by my brother.

I don't want the players getting attached to specific pilots nor specific mechs. I want the focus to be able to run a unit and grow it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1) How many "characters" do you want each person to run at one time?

2) How many "characters" do you want each player to run overall?

3) Which version of Battletech are you running- the board game or the minis wargame?

4) Another thought: look at Crimson Skies and Car Wars. Both of them, as I recall, have rules for advancing pilots/drivers, and may give you some insight on how to do this for your game without going as in-depth as a full RPG like Mechwarrior.

 

[Stormonu]

I seem to recall there being scenario/campaign packs being made before the clan invasion material came out (The one that sticks in my mind is the Grey Death Legion and The Black Widow Company). They're out of print now, but you can get them as PDFs off the likes of rpgNOW, I believe.


More recently, I think sets like Sword and Dragon may be what you are looking for.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

1) How many "characters" do you want each person to run at one time?

2) How many "characters" do you want each player to run overall?

I don't really want them running characters. My concept is that they'd start with a lance. Whoever shows will get their pick of the mechs to run. As the unit grows with success they may get to add assault lances, recon lances, etc. Whoever shows picks from the list in the lance. I hope to have the various mech pilots get better as they survive, moving from green to veteran to elite, but none of those pilots will be "owned" by the players.

3) Which version of Battletech are you running- the board game or the minis wargame?

I want to stay in the 3025 era tech, I might even rewind the timeline a few years to the 3010 or so. I have the pick of rules systems, I want it simple for now and might stick with the introduction boxed set.

4) Another thought: look at Crimson Skies and Car Wars.

hmm.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

OK...you're not running them through a full RPG type thing, you just want pilots to improve as they survive battles.

Yep, look at those games for how pilots/drivers improve their skills. That may be exactly what you're looking for.

If you're not in a position to do so, try this: You roll a particularly good roll with a weapon- a head shot, or perhaps your missile hits are so tightly grouped you just peel the armor off of another mech's torso in one round of combat- you get a bonus to your weapon rolls. (You might even make it a bonus to a particular weapon type.) Survive a piloting check with ridiculous negative mods and that pilot gets a permanent bonus to piloting checks.

You will have to do some bookkeeping to keep track of the pilots- and their preferred mecha- but that's cool, and will add a bit of verisimilitude. It will be like how a Squad Commander knows who his best sniper is, who his best scout is, and so forth.

However, once you do something like this, you'll have to ensure that your players don't pick the same pilots over and over again. Perhaps they "take leave" or "get demoted/promoted" or get "special duties/training". You could have pilot availability be a random thing, or perhaps some kind of draft.

 

[MerricB]

Do I take it that you're running this as a boardgame and not as a RPG?

Because that's exactly what the Chaos Campaign is for. It gives you guidelines for buying & selling mechs, gaining new pilots, improving them, and suchlike. It also scales depending on the size of the force you have.

(Per the standard BattleTech boardgame rules, pilots gain 1 XP per mission they're in, plus 1 extra XP for MVP. 4 XP improves piloting by one, 8 XP improves gunnery by one. Chaos Campaign has alternative rules).

The Chaos Campaign does not give actual missions, though. They're in the various supplements.

Sword and Dragon is set just before the Clan Invasion in 3048-9, and contains a simplified version of the Chaos Campaign rules, plus many generic missions plus set "touchpoints" for important events in the campaign. I think it would suit your purposes admirably. It and the Introductory Box Set contain everything you need to play.

Era Report 3052 gives details of the Clan Invasion of 3050 and the early battles - plus the mission tracks needed to create a campaign in that era.

Era Report 3062 covers the late Clan Invasion era, as well as the mission tracks.

A bunch of the Jihad books contain more missions for the Word of Blake's Jihad (3067-81). (Blake Ascending + Hot Spots books). The Starterbook: Wolf and Blake also gives a self-contained campaign.

For the Succession Wars era, there are some Historical Turning Point PDF-only products (Misery, Galtor, etc.) which use the Chaos Campaign rules and give a selection of specific missions (Galtor has 6).

Again, I strongly recommend you look at Sword and Dragon. I've played quite a bit with it, and it holds up well - allowing you to advance the company and take them through a structured campaign.

Cheers!

 

[Wycen]

Didn't the basic rules of BattleTech have rudimentary rules for upgrading pilots? I vaguely recall it was you increase your gunnery or piloting skill by 1 for every 4... something. 4 battles or 4 kills. I know there was a mechanic in my old school books, but I haven't played and read the rules in so long I can't dig the details out of the fog of memory.

 

[MerricB]

Didn't the basic rules of BattleTech have rudimentary rules for upgrading pilots? I vaguely recall it was you increase your gunnery or piloting skill by 1 for every 4... something. 4 battles or 4 kills. I know there was a mechanic in my old school books, but I haven't played and read the rules in so long I can't dig the details out of the fog of memory.

It's changed a little over the years, but the current version is (as referenced in my previous post):

* Each mission a pilot participates in gives 1 XP.
* The most valuable pilot (MVP) as determined by the opposing side gains an additional 1 XP.

* Four XP can be spent to upgrade piloting by one level
* Eight XP can be spent to upgrade gunnery by one level

Cheers!