Battletech - When Politics and Power Collide - Looking for new players

[Captain Whitebread]

Battletech...  I've heard it described as 'Game of Thrones with big stompy robots.

It's a little more complex than that but it makes a good starting point.

Characters will be part of the military and will have a prestigious role as one of the elite members of any combat force: Mechwarrirors.

The setting is 3025, after man has expanded well into the stars.  Finding nothing else to fight, he continued to fight himself, fracturing the inhabited galaxies into five great houses.

Davion
Kurita
Liao
Marik
Steiner

On certain rare planets, all five houses have a toehold.  These planets are incredibly valuable, as they are the places where information, material and money can change hands easily between the major powers.  Control of these planets is highly sought after and occasionally the balance of power lies in the hands of a very few.

Guess who gets to play those few?

The premise is more based on politics than fighting, so if you're looking for a fight based scenario, this is not the game for you.

The thread belongs to ThisOneGal  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=53822 but I will be GMing.  I've been playing and running Battletech since the mid 80s, and  I'm more than willing to help people who don't know the game well to familiarize themselves.  Contact either ThisOneGal or me to learn more.

[ThisOneGal]

I'm game, obviously. ^^

Old thread link for future reference.

[Chaosfox]

Love this idea. Played the Mech games on the computer never realized there was a board game until I found the books. But I do love the universe. Have read a few of the books but they have always been good reads.

[Captain Whitebread]

Welcome to the battle, ChaosFox.

Follow the Old thread link in ThisOneGal's post and tell us about your character and their mech....

[Chaosfox]

I will think on for the day and try and get a rough idea  tonight. Need to really look over the tech for that era before I decde on anything.

[Captain Whitebread]

If the words double, pulse or the letters XL or ER appear in the name, that weapon, engine or heat sink isn't available.

[Chaosfox]

Im still interested in this I have come down with something and spent all day working on yard stuff yesterday which has not helped me. Just thought I would let yo both know.

[Captain Whitebread]

We are patient.  Get well soon and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Chaosfox]

Thanks and why I don't have any fine details yet I have a couple of ideas For my character concept and narrowed down  to 5 different Mechs they might use.

[Muse]

  What version of the game are you using, captain?  And how fast do you want your game to move? 

[WhatLiesAbove]

I'm interested! Is there a link where I can read up on where you guys are in the game currently?

[Captain Whitebread]

The game has not yet begun, as we are still in the recruiting and concept generation stage.

As per ThisOneGAl's parameters, only wealthy nobles have the resources to maintain mechs, which are rare relics of a bygone age.  Your character is a minor one of these nobles.  A unit as small as a lance will have an enormous affect on the balance of power, when each side holds no more than a company of light and medium mechs.

I'm not using any particular system to run this.  There will be no character sheets or dice rolling.  We're all mature enough to be able to create characters that are not all stellar pilots with unmatched gunnery.  Even Natasha Kerensky was a novice in the beginning.

Any 3025 light or medium mech is permissible.  You'll need to talk me into letting you have a heavy and you'll need to bribe me to get an assault. 

[Muse]

Oh, darn.  Never mind then.  I hope you have a good game. 

[Captain Whitebread]

No battle is over until the assault mechs have finished playing.

[Phaia]

HMmm 3025 ya say. I grew up with a father, uncle and brothers that were huge battletech fans. So I have to ask which planet you are referring too that was contested by all 5 houses. Only Solaris the game world came close. I am sure one close to Terra can fit the bill for the story. Denoban or New Terra of course those worlds have been heavily fought over. Your change to making mechs owned only by the rich and titled means that mechs are much rarer and also discounts the great armies of each House that owned most of the mechs in their army. All that aside I am interested in your setting and how you planned on handling things. I have no problem with a story that at best includes fast and furious combat in mechs and the rest is plot driven.
I do have a concept in mind ...would you allow a Stinger LAM as the mech. Lextatech still made them in 3025.

Phaia

[TheGlyphstone]

What kind of bribes do you accept? I love Battletech games, and pounce on them whenever they appear, but I just adore the old King Crab too much to not at least take a shot in the dark at being able to translate over a character I've used in previous BT E-games.

Is it also safe to assume that this version of BT lacks the mercenaries/mercenary groups that are a central part of the 'regular' setting, since battlemechs are so much rarer and owned exclusively by the nobility?

[Etah dna Evol]

I'm game. Been a Davion loyalist for a long time.

[Primarch]

I'm super interested, though I'm entirely unfamiliar with the setting. The most I know is that someone showed me a bunch of Mechs like a billion years ago and I know I like a Mech that was either called the Wildcat or Madcat.
Games with politics that involve powermongering & kingmaking always interest me, especially if its Game of Thrones in space...and the valyrian steel swords are traded in for giant warmachines.

[Captain Whitebread]

Wow, I certainly didn't expect so many responses in one day.


@Etah dna Evol, your character looks pretty good.  As the first character to with a declared allegiance, it looks like we're going Davion.

@TheGlypstone, the usual.  Cash.  Sexual favours.  Insider trading tips.  I might be willing to give you a King Crab but it would be such a game changer on the battlefield that every other faction on the planet would be competing to steal it, corrupt your loyalty or destroy it to maintain the balance of power.  It WILL start out in very rough shape and WILL be destroyed very quickly in the game, as a plot point.  This would leave you dispossessed, unless you had something very small as a back-up.

@Phaia, the planet does not exist in Canon because in this game there are several like it, probably clustered around the core.  The Great Houses exist but have been forced to rely on (gasp) politics and intrigue.  The disputed planets have the advantage of being places where information and favours can be traded as easily as loyalties.  Anyone faction being lost on a planet excludes that House from participating in the politics of that region, so maintaining the status quo is very important.  That doesn't mean there aren't squabbles, because that is what war has evolved into.  A LAM would be very rare and would also be a target for theft or conversion rather than outright destruction.  It won't face immediate destruction like an assault mech but owning it will certainly make your life interesting.

@Primarch, the MadCat and WildCat both come from the Clans, which means they are advanced tech, from 25 years in the future and therefore not available.  Did I mention I hate advanced tech AND the clans?  Send me a PM and we can figure out what mech fits your character.  This will be far more power struggle than open war.  Of that I can assure you.

[TheGlyphstone]

That seems kind of pointless to bother with then - I had a vision of this sort of setting using its tiny number of Assault-grade mechs as siege-breakers, rather than field units - lights as scouts as skirmishers, mediums as the bulk of combatants, rare heavies as spearheads/cavalry analogues, and assaults as formation centerpieces or siege units. It's one reason I like the KGC-001 in particular over 'better' assaults like the Zeus or Atlas, because it's a much 'purer' vision of what I think an Assault 'Mech should be - a brawler with clearly defined countermeasures, not a walking firepower depot at all ranges. If they are so valuable that every other faction would be competing to destroy or steal it, I'd expect that 'our' faction would be investing as much effort into protecting it and maintaining it, so dangling that sort of carrot with scripted intent to take it away (basically removing the character from play, since a Dispossessed warrior in this barebones version of Battletech is completely worthless) looks weird. So I'll just take that whole bit as a very long-winded 'no, you can't have it if you want to stay a player in the game'...which is fine, but would have been a lot easier to type.

The concept I had anyways was for a minor Kuritan nobleman, really not transferable to Davion. Ah well.


EDIT: If Mechs are far less common/valuable, do other units, like Tanks and Aerospace, have a larger role in combat when it happens? Rather than gearing up to a 'bigger' mech, I could see some big potential for intrigue/plotting/politics in the role of the commander of a tank squadron...

[Etah dna Evol]

The concept I had anyways was for a minor Kuritan nobleman, really not transferable to Davion. Ah well.

I think a minor Kuritan that finds himself in the service of House Davion and against people that share his culture and blood could be very interesting. Maybe your father was dishonored and disinherited for some reason or another and your family turned to Davion to retain their ancestral lands on this planet.

[TheGlyphstone]

I think a minor Kuritan that finds himself in the service of House Davion and against people that share his culture and blood could be very interesting. Maybe your father was dishonored and disinherited for some reason or another and your family turned to Davion to retain their ancestral lands on this planet.

I'm not against being a Kuritan ex-patriate, it's just that the specific backstory I had in mind was very Kuritan and wouldn't work for a Davion-aligned character. It's something to consider, depending on how Captain feels about tanks (normally relegated to an inferior/support role in regular BT, but here they might form the bulk of armies with the rare-and-precious battlemechs supporting them instead).

[Etah dna Evol]

I would be down for a PC tank commander as part of our group. Maybe Davion recruited you into the Federated Suns with land and title because you brought a tank company with you. Gotta wait for the story tellers though.

To the story tellers, I had mentioned in PM that I was interested in a Griffin. Even though that's a medium mech is that too big? Is there a negative correlation between the size of the mech and how good of shape they are in?

[Phaia]

I am not real trilled with being in any house with the setting. I had an idea as well for a Kurita background. Though it did include her being 'offically' disinherited over a political set up that did dishonor her and could have embrassd her famous grandfather, a general with one of the 'Sword of Light' regiments. Since there is no large miliatry ...no sword of light that swears to serve the Kurita family, and that knocks a lot of holes in my idea.

The problem I see is that with the way the setting seems to be developing there are weak states and powerful lords. If the states ie House Davion does not have mechs and they are all in the hands of nobles then the nobles have a huge amount of power. The innersphere becomes a very feudal setting.

Being part of a state is find but instead of just House davion. Maybe it should be one of the lords on planet that have Davion colors under thier own colors. We will have to ignore all the rich hostory of the innersphere. With mechs being in the hands of nobles there would be no Wolf's dragoons, or any other large mech merc unit. There would be as much war amoung the nobles as against each state. So with that a divided planet works well. Though it needs to be further divided into factions within a House.

Example: Baron Bahhh had 2 mechs both mediums. Duke frrsdd needs those mechs to sercure a planet from a different lord... Bahhh can wring all sorts of deals from the duke or not agree at all.

There would also be far less jumpships, since a good percentage resst with various nation-states to move parts of thier miliatry.

To really create a background I need more info then what has been given. Since all I have are a few bits and pieces.

I am going to hold off on going any further to see what else develops here.

Phaia

[Captain Whitebread]

ThatOneGal is defining the venue.  I'm just presenting the stage within the parameters that I have been given.  The ability to produce mechs has been destroyed.  The grand regiments are a thing of the past.  That doesn't mean that they didn't exist.

Which House the characters belong to is irrelevant to me.  Davion was the first one chosen but if the majority prefer another house, I'm flexible.

In ThisOneGal's Battletech, each noble supports their own mech.  There are no grand armies of mechs, so infantry and tanks carry the majority of the weight.  Yes, tanks will be making a huge portion of the military.  If you want to play a non-noble tank character (or even a dispossessed noble)  I have no problem with that.  One of my favourite BT characters drove a 25 ton Harrasser, so yeah, I'm good with tanks.

Medium mechs are fine.  It will be a little beaten up but fully functional.    Think of it this way.  Mech + spare parts = 55 tons

Assault mechs are one step short of unavailable  After double checking, the King Crab is off the table because it has advanced tech.  Any 3025 assault mech is acceptable.  Just be aware that a mech like that will be a target and will not be fully operational....

Did I address everybody's questions?  Poke me if I didn't.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask.