(Mongoose) WarMech 2089 - Background

[Emiricol]

With high production values to boot! Oh I want it badly.

Mongoose, with the books driving the plot, will you be releasing plotline advancement summaries? F@SA did a lousy job coordinating the plotline advancement (20 year update, anyone?).

Now I know you want to drive sales of the book, but if perhaps a summary of events portrayed in the LAST book were made into a Web Enhancement when the NEXT book is hitting stores, if you see what I mean...

Oh, one more thing! I think a system kind of like what Spycraft folks did at their site would be really cool - at least, based on what you posted above. Any plans for such a thing?

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Yes and no.

What we do _not_ want is what we Games Workkshop fans call Codex escalation, where every new technology books makes the previous one obselete. What I want to concentrate on is the political side of things in terms of development, which will be driven by the novels. We will, of course, have technology-type supplements (there are just way too many good ideas flying around the office to squeeze them all into the rulebook!), but only have a major 'shift' or advancement in what is actually possible every year or so in real time. Basically, we are looking at the breadth of the setting, as opposed to its length, but there will be storyline advancements.

I am well aware of the Spycraft site and it is certainly a possibility - we are planning a supercharged version for the game-that-can-still-not-be-mentioned (the real title is _way_ easier to type!), so elements of that design, which is being done in parallel with WarMech, may make it to the world of 2089.

 

[The Black Kestrel]

Matt,

The intro you provided is fantastic and while the Anime/ Manga feel has been excluded (mostly, Mechs are there obviously) I think you have a very serious contender in the Mecha game genre. I'm interested to hear if Mongoose has included rules for Ortillery, regular artillery and CAS?

Also what about the War for the High Frontier, right now US doctrine anticipates having space superiority and the possibilty of having to fight for it. Is Mongoose planning anything for that theatre of the war?

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Hi there,

Funny you should mention that - the working title of one of the supplements just happens to be The High Frontier

As for artillery and all the other juicey support bits and pieces - you bet.

To give you a basic run down, one of the options (the default, if you like) is to create a Mercenary Company. Every player generates a character as usual (and there are a number of specialised Mech Officers), then the group as a whole creates the Company. This is how individuals afford Mechs, which are hellishly expensive - it comes from the Company's purse, rather than your own personal fortune. Players will have to work together to create a successful company, as they will not get very far if they all try to grab the most expensive Mech possible, or try to share company fubnds. No, they are going to have to look at fulfilling specific roles within the Company - Scout is an obvious one. However, one of the coolest, for my money, is the Comms Mech Officer, who can use some very specialised equipment. It is his role to engage in electronic warfare, jam transmissions, intercept enemy broadcasts - and call in support. As well as Mechs, the Company can purchase support facilities, air assets, armour, artillery - and a whole bunch more. If Mechs are your thing, you will have the ability to stick with them and ignore the other material. But if you want the full mercenary company experience, you will have all the rules you need.

And that is not even going into players who instead wish to join the military or form one of the corporation Mech squads (very cool technology, but you will always be beholden to your employers and their own political machinations).

Basically, there are plenty of options to get yourself into lots of trouble!

 

[Dwarven Godfather]

I'm impressed with the storyline so far

I see alot of sourcebooks that could come out because of everything you have written. Different Factions and fighting for space mainly, I planned on getting both mecha games for the resources they would help each other with and maybe even pulling out other books from other games and incorporate them into the game as well like battletech unless I will not need them.
This sounds like a winner to me, but that is because I'm a big Sci-fi fan and would eventually like to see fantasy mixed with this also. Since I'll be incorporating the Warmech/mecha into my Dragonstar planet of Alfglade for one of the factions on the planet. Maybe even if Matt would like to hear my storyline to this planet, your staff and you could print it up for publication for me. I also planned to develope this planet as well, but is part of the Dragonstar Universe.
Yeah, maybe Mongoose and FFG could get together and develope something together for Dragonstar, now that would be cool and the mechs would fit the system since it's fantasy/sci-fi. I really don't see where FFG would have problem and I'm sure the Dragonstar fans would enjoy a supplement of mechs, in fact we have started to talk about it on Jojostarfinder's Dragonstar forum which is what I started up when I heard all about this. Others were loving that Halk-dragons and drows could eventually pilot mech/mecha. I have plans for my Dwarven Mafia who have developed body armor and massive power armor. I would also like to write a book on this organization as well for Dragonstar or any D20 sci-fi rpg.
Well, Matt what do you think of these ideas? Any of them really hit you as interesting topics for future sourcebook or could use in a D20 environment?

 

[Blacksad]

Sorry to spoil your joy Matt, but I'm not impressed by the storyline, it breaks my suspension of disbelief, mainly because it stretch a bit some events without mentioning the personalities responsible for such stretching (i.e. like Churchil staying in London during WWII).

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Sorry to spoil your joy Matt, but I'm not impressed by the storyline, it breaks my suspension of disbelief, mainly because it stretch a bit some events without mentioning the personalities responsible for such stretching (i.e. like Churchil staying in London during WWII).

What do you expect in just three pages?

Seriously, this is just an introduction, a scene-setter. Personalities will drive the background in more ways than one and will, of course, become a major recurring feature of the novels.

 

[Knightfall]

Footprints of Thunder!

...maybe Mongoose and FFG could get together and develope something together for Dragonstar, now that would be cool and the mechs would fit the system since it's fantasy/sci-fi.

I'd love to see that. It would greatly enhance my Arcanum of the Stars Dragonstar campaign. I've already done some work on converting BatteMechs to be used in a Dragonstar campaign but I only scratched the surface.

Go here to see how I've incorporated mecha into my Dragonstar campaign: http://www.geocities.com/rielun/campaigns/arcanum.html

It's under the bottom section called Footprints of Thunder. (And you get 5 points if you can tell me where I got that name from - and no it's not mecha related.)

I guess I just knew in my head that something like WarMech would come along eventually. I'm also looking forward to Dream Pod 9's d20 Mecha Compendium.

Cheers!

KF72

 

[Dwarven Godfather]

The 5 point answer

Well there went my 5 points, my guess would have been the mech called Thunderbolt. I think Mechwarrior should be converted over to D20, I did like that system but not enough interest in the system in my new groups to even run that game, at least with D20 everyone knows the system and especially everyone I'm gaming with right now will be educated in the D20 system especially if I'm running the game. There goes another great thing for Matt and the Mongoose group to get ahold of the Mechwarrior system and convert it over to D20. At least I have not seen anything that talks about revamping the Mechwarrior system. The rules talks about the same thing that Matt talked about where there is a group pool of money or tonnage.
Maybe Matt and the Mongoose crew does have the publishing rights to Mechwarrior and are redoing the system from the beginning but just calling it something else instead of Battletech. Do everyone see how they compare to one another: Mechwarrior had the group pool for mech types (one person gets a light mech, the next person has alittle more to spend on a more heavily armed mech (medium) and so on), the next thing is the mercenary companies that the houses use and it deals with mechs they are similiar in those ways and many more once we all can sit down and read the final rules for the system. What does everyone else think of this?

 

[digitaldark]

However, no, we chose not to use D20 Modern for either of our forthcoming sci-fi games (WarMech in March and the-game-that-can-still-not-be-mentioned in May), as the core D20 System is _far_ more flexible if you want to get into the mechanics and really start monkeying around. Which, for a project as comprehensive as this, is a must.

Personally, I feel that the opposite is true. I feel d20 Modern is more flexible because it was written to be such, while the standard d20 system was extracted from 3rd Ed. D&D....but I have no doubt that you will turn out a magnificent product like always!!

Really looking forward to it!!!