Interest Check: A Battletech game (MUL)

Started by The American Patriot, July 21, 2008, 03:02:45 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

The American Patriot

This would be a Battletech game that would take place in the Chaos March, and possilby deal with Sun Tuz Liao's move to force the St. Ives Compact to return to the Capellan fold...

The players would either be part of a Lyran unit that was sent into the Chaos March by Katherine Steiner-Davion officially to 'protect the Lyran interests in the Sarna March,' but in reality they would either be pro-Victor or those who are suspected of having pro-Victor sympathies. Or they would be the survivors of those units that have been mauled and destroyed by the burtal fighting in the Chaos March.


The Chaos March

In 3057, Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao and Captain-General Thomas Marik launched a strike at the Federated Commonwealth in retribution for Victor Steiner-Davion's Operation Doppelganger, which was a plot to replace Marik's son with a body-double. This so-called Operation Guerrero was stalled when Katherine Steiner-Davion seceded the Lyran half of the Federated Commonwealth and negotiated a separate settlement with Marik that allowed him to achieve his objective. Katherine ordered home all traditional Lyran units to within the Lyran state's pre-Fourth War borders, leaving many worlds bereft of defenses. Because of the secession, the rump Commonwealth lacked the JumpShips necessary to reinforce the Sarna March. With the League's pull-out, however, the Capellans lacked the military force to secure the worlds that the Commonwealth had all but abandoned.

Prior to the offensive, Capellan terrorists had stirred up old Capellan loyalties amongst the populace, as well as masterminding many terrorist attacks targeting the infrastructure of these systems. In the absence of national militaries, many local governors (and other concerned interests) seized the initiative to restore order. On the worlds were this restoration was successful, most governments were resentful of the apparent lack of interest by the Great Houses, and set up their own nations. Some of these minor powers became influential enough to become multi-world nation-states. The constantly shifting web of alliances, as well as the rapid rise and fall of planetary-level governments led observers to dub this area of instability the

Over time, both the Capellan Confederation and the Federated Commonwealth were able to exert more influence and military pressure on the worlds of the Chaos March, leading to its shrinkage. Though both would become distracted (the Capellans by the war with St. Ives and the Commonwealth by the Clans), many worlds of the Chaos March had been reclaimed by one of the Great Houses.

"Do you have any idea how we are talking about here? We are talking about the 'Butcher of Keiv'... The 'Cakemaker of Keiv' could kick all of our asses, and we are talking about the 'BUTCHER of Kevi'... Does that tell you anything?"

Story of the Accident... https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=29000.0

Seereous

Seems that you've put quite a bit of thought into this. And being that I am a BattleTech nut myself, I have no choice but to say that I'm in.

HairyHeretic

I like battletech myself, but unfortunately he's picked about the faction and region that least interest me :)

My forces are the 2nd Sword of Light, and Clan Nova Cat.
Hairys Likes, Dislikes, Games n Stuff

Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
I know a thing that will never die
Fair fame of one who has earned it.

Lilian

I dont know an entire lot about BattleMech.. I've played almost all of the mechwarrior games? Mew..

And that last erotic battlemech game got my attention!

Anathanasia

*sigh* I've been trying to resist, but the nostalgia is too strong!

I might be up for this, so long it'll fall into at least [NC-H], and not be totally freeform. Like I said when we were organising the last one, I do not think we should play out anything turn by turn, that'd be insane, but there should be some randomness, even if it's all handled by the GM. I think I said back then we should roll something for the bits where the battle could take a dramatic turn?

Anyways, I think I've got the write up for my character from the old one somewhere, so that'd be what I'd like to do. She was Lyran too.

I'll watch this space and see where things go. :)
A Special Craving: Rookie Cop has a Bad Day

My Cravings & Desires: Six Ideas in Search of a GM, Solo System RPs


Avatar provided with permission by the artist, Vaesark!

Seereous

Since I haven't seen anything from anyone else about this topic I thought that I would ask if anyone was still interested.

What time period would you all like to play in? Pre Clan? Post Clan? The Word of Blake Jihad? I'm up for just about anything.

sleepingferret

#6
Unless my time period accounting is mistaken 3057 is post clan invasion....been a long time, I don't even remember where I put my old Battletech books at.

Still can't find my darn books....bah... and I know they recently defaced several of them in the republishing under the "classic" battletech title

HairyHeretic

Hairys Likes, Dislikes, Games n Stuff

Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
I know a thing that will never die
Fair fame of one who has earned it.

Anathanasia

Yeah, the clans invade in like 3050 or so. Remember the 3050 Tech Readout? I remember when it first came out; we were all 'oooo' and 'aahhh' at the new stuff... >.>

I'm still interested, although I personally hate the clans. If we're going to go really canon my vote would be a game in the late 3040s, just prior to the clan invasions. If memory serves, it was still lots of skirmishes between the successor states, but a lot of the new tech that was presented in the 3050 Tech Readout was coming into use, so we have a bit of interesting stuff to play with. My second era of preference would be classic 3025-3030, back when it really felt like a feudal game, when mechwarriors mostly owned their mechs, in a combo feel of how a medieval knight owned his armour and a samurai his katana.

It's the loss of that feel that came with the Clan invasion that I really disliked. For some reason, they really seemed to play up the 'standard' military feel after that. Prior to the clan invasion being a mechwarrior and having a mech felt special - remember The Disposessed? - but afterwards, it felt like if you got your mech shot out from under you it was "Don't fret! We'll get you a new one fresh from the factory!" all the damn time. Lame. :P
A Special Craving: Rookie Cop has a Bad Day

My Cravings & Desires: Six Ideas in Search of a GM, Solo System RPs


Avatar provided with permission by the artist, Vaesark!

Seereous

What if we didn't play a canon unit? How about another Merc unit, say a company in size? Back in the 3025-3030 time frame, you could take and hold a planet with just a company of Mechs.

sleepingferret

3050 was actually the rough halt of the Clan invasion by a tentative treaty.  The 3050 technical readout was essentially the time line documentation of what the Inner Sphere had seen and learned so far.  The 3055 technical readout was the beginnings of the Inner Sphere's attempted technology response in the forum of new Mech designs to counter the Clan's superior firepower.  It also showcased the old Inner Sphere/Star League era influenced non-omnimech designs fielded by typically second line units of the Clans.

As for the Mechwarriors owning their own Mechs, during the Successor State war era many did because many were mercenaries rather than members of the House military.  Some House regulars own their own Mech, it depends on their background and well sometimes they end up with the Mech as sort of a reward for continued and loyal service.

sleepingferret

With all the interest in a Battletech game floating around.... someone should really try to compose something.  I think we'd end with a decent game, I know there are a lot of differing opinions on time period and such, but still... seems we have quite a few people wanting to get out the old Mechs and go to war with maybe a bit of an E twist to it.


Seereous

I just ask people what they like because I'm more of a Armored Infantry/Cover Ops kind of guy, not necessarily a BattleMech guy.

Anathanasia

I meant canon as in strictly following their timeline/history. I've always liked the idea of what would the Inner Sphere have looked like if everything went as they had it up to the Grey Death Legion getting that computer core and the War of 3039 or so, but just NO CLANS! :P

I really do dislike that whole Clan thing. And not just because it kind of killed Wolf's Dragoons mystique.

I would love to play a 3025-3030ish unit, but they could be a House unit or mercs, it's no matter to me. I don't care which House either. I'm also fine with the OPs setting and timeline, but it's not my first choice. As far as content, I'm always "story first", but I definately want some erotic RP, and the game overall should fall into NC-H at least, or I'm not interested. I just don't like to waste precious fantasy time on things I can get IRL, y'know? ;)
A Special Craving: Rookie Cop has a Bad Day

My Cravings & Desires: Six Ideas in Search of a GM, Solo System RPs


Avatar provided with permission by the artist, Vaesark!

Seereous

How about this.

The Circinius Federation, a Periphery realm wedged between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League that is well known for its piracy. Pirates regularly raid their neighbor Periphery realms and the Successor States, often leaving behind a trail of death, rape and broken families.

One band in particular is making their way in the world of piracy. Sebastian Kreel, a rather dashing man with a niche for cruelty leads a particularly nasty band of rapists, thieves and murders with an iron fist. Several of his victims have ended up actually joining him after a long string of rape, torture, and then surprising tenderness.

Who wants to join this pirate band? I'm thinking it's based in the 3025-3030 technology era.

sleepingferret

Quote from: Anathanasia on August 09, 2008, 01:41:24 AM
but afterwards, it felt like if you got your mech shot out from under you it was "Don't fret! We'll get you a new one fresh from the factory!" all the damn time. Lame. :P

Regardless of time period, it wasn't if qualified Mechwarriors "grew on trees".  If one happened to survive punching out and managed to getting to safety with most likely several other mutli-ton behemoths still waging battle around him/her along with the supporting infantry and vehicles...he was probably worth every bit of his paycheck.

He/she just happened to meet a better Mechwarrior in combat or get pounced by a heavier Mech and wasn't able to escape fast enough, are usually the reasons why a Mechwarrior ends up punching out.

And well funded military units, be they House supported or large mercenary units will more than likely keep their Mechwarriors with a Mech to pilot, until the other one can be repaired if possible.  If it can't then hopefully it can at least be salvaged somewhat to balance out the costs.

------

I still don't like the 3020 - 3030 technology era, it was too limiting and quite frankly it often came down to who fielded the heaviest firepower.  Still does in 3050 on, but the technology level allows scout units to a potential to survive.

Anathanasia

Sleepingferret, I get all that, I really do. But check out the really early campaign supplements, like MacKinnon's Raiders (not sure about the name, but a Davion House unit, not mercs) and original Black Widow Company, and there are mentions all over the place of even House mechwarriors (I think several in MacKinnon's Raiders) owning their own mechs. And damn near everyones mech had permanent damage.

I always thought the relative scarcity of both mechs and mechwarriors meant that people didn't fight to bitter, last mech standing, end very often. It wasn't worth it for either side, the losers for obvious reasons, but even the eventual victors wouldn't want to risk any more than they absolutely had to.

Despite that, yes, there are new mechs being produced, so the powerful Houses (the big five for sure, but also their powerful supporters in rich families and corporations, I'm sure) would help out mechwarriors, but that threat of losing the mech that's been in your family for 200+ years was always very real. I also still maintain that far less mechwarriors would have easy access to a 'free' mech than mechwarriors who lose thiers; for most of them, there's always someone better.

On the tech, I do agree. It's why I was suggesting mid to late 3040s, just before the clans. However, since we're not actually going to lay out the maps and play a game of battletech at any point, and in fact I think most of the action will be stylised via our prose, we probably won't be affected all that much by the tech level. It'll be a consideration, certainly, but if you ever read any of the novels mechs weren't the giant lumbering tanks-with-legs behemoths the abstraction of the game (and all the videogames) made them out to be; they really are just massive extensions of the mechwarriors, even to the point of ducking and rolling.

All that said, I'm still okay with the post-3050 era, especially if, like the OP, we're far from the clans.

Seereous, not feeling the pirate thing. Pirate life would be pretty shitty, like the third world, but with even less water, and severe cases of Stockholm Syndrome don't appeal to me to RP. The other side isn't hugely appealing either, since it doesn't play to my submissive fantasies. ;)

We could always look at what the OP proposed, but make it a merc unit instead of a House one?
A Special Craving: Rookie Cop has a Bad Day

My Cravings & Desires: Six Ideas in Search of a GM, Solo System RPs


Avatar provided with permission by the artist, Vaesark!

Seereous

I'm fine with a Merc unit. I was just offering something else since there hadn't been anything else posted. I'm fine with a merc unit and any time period, honestly. I might even consider something from the MechWarrior: Age of Destruction as long as it is well thought out.

sleepingferret

Quote from: Anathanasia on August 10, 2008, 03:58:32 PM
On the tech, I do agree. It's why I was suggesting mid to late 3040s, just before the clans. However, since we're not actually going to lay out the maps and play a game of battletech at any point, and in fact I think most of the action will be stylised via our prose, we probably won't be affected all that much by the tech level. It'll be a consideration, certainly, but if you ever read any of the novels mechs weren't the giant lumbering tanks-with-legs behemoths the abstraction of the game (and all the videogames) made them out to be; they really are just massive extensions of the mechwarriors, even to the point of ducking and rolling.

I've personally never taken much interest in the novels, but unlike many gamers I do like the background behind the setting.  All the flavor text, that essentially makes the setting what it is, that describes what a Particle Projection Cannon was designed to do or tells why the great Houses still would pretty much rather see each other burned to the ground even with the Clans breathing down their necks.

As such I've personally, always incorporated the Mechwarrior system into all my Battletech games, and allowed those daring enough to try it, to perform various stunts with their Mechs.  I used a conditional based modifier system based on what they wanted to do, what class of Mech they were piloting (light, medium, heavy, or assault), and also took into consideration whether or not it was reactionary based (such as trying to getting out of the line of enemy fire); then made the player make a piloting skill roll.

Anathanasia

That's cool, sleepingferret. I also read a lot of a the background stuff, but I have to admit I haven't been actively into battletech in over fifteen years. I may very well be projecting my thoughts as to 'how things should have been' on top of how they really were. I do still have three different editions of the Mechwarrior RPG rules in a box someplace...

All I recall is that it really seemed that with the Clans it began to feel a lot more like mechs were 'issued' than they did previously. The big Houses felt like nations more than empires, and certainly not at all like the feudal states I thought they were supposed to be. If I recall correctly, there is a great stock in the nobility in the Inner Sphere, with powerful landowners holding title to entire systems and worlds, swearing their allegience to someone who controls a region, who swears up to someone who controls a larger region...and up to the five great successor states, right? And it was dark! It was a real dark age, people forgetting how to make fusion reactors and jumpships...hell, Comstar is holding onto the technology like the monks held onto the written word in the real dark ages...hmmm...

So maybe if you have a really capabable mechwarrior you help him or her out, keep their mech repaired, maybe give them a spare if they do get creamed. However, if I remember the numbers at all accurately (I had all the original House books at one point...love the background, as you said), there may not be even enough operational mechs in all the successor state armies (circa 3025-3050) to put one mech lance on every inhabited world, but I doubt very much more than that.

That's really all I'm saying. That's what I remember from all the early Battletech stuff, and it felt like they dropped that whole futuristic feudal scenario stuff like it was a wet bag of avian flu when they introduced the Clans. And that bleak, dark ages feudal thing is what I really liked about the background of the original battletech!

BTW, Seereous, wtf is Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction?
A Special Craving: Rookie Cop has a Bad Day

My Cravings & Desires: Six Ideas in Search of a GM, Solo System RPs


Avatar provided with permission by the artist, Vaesark!

sleepingferret

Comstar needs a good kick in the ass.... always has...always will.  I'd love to just declare an all out war on them. :P

Too bad my mercenary unit I used to run, doesn't have enough firepower for something quite that bold. 

-------

Anyways... as far as numerical strength goes during 3025 - 3050, the Successor State armies would've had to had more than just one lance (4 Mechs) per inhabitable world.  They didn't necessarily always garrison more than one Mech lance on certain worlds, and tactical analysis indicates that the Inner Sphere deploys combined arms battalions and regiments, rather than entire units comprised of Mechs.  The closest the Clans have ever come to a combined arms unit is having their OmniMechs deploy BattleArmor units.

I'd say for the most part during 3025 - 3050, throughout the Successor States each House could have mustered one full Mech regiment (144 BattleMechs) for every 20 inhabitable systems they controlled.  Which means the larger Houses could have pulled together more but for the most part the Inner Sphere deploys combined arms tactics, so Mechs are rarely seen alone.

Seereous

Quote from: Anathanasia on August 11, 2008, 01:12:13 AM
BTW, Seereous, wtf is Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction?

:)  Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction was a new novel line that was started up by WizKids when they bought the BattleTech license after FASA shut down. The line starts a little more than 52 years after the FedCom Civil War when that bitch Katherine finally got what was coming to her.

That of course means that the Word of Blake Jihad is over, and they essentially lost. During the jihad, a man named Devlin Stone reconquered Terra and and set up the Republic of the Sphere, with Terra as its capital. The Successor States still exist, as do a few of the Clans. It's a very feudal culture. Clan Sea Fox (they changed their name back from Clan Diamond Shark.) now sells Clan Tech Mechs to those that can afford it. Essentially, they are Clan Tech machines but they were built in the Inner Sphere. Please don't take that to mean that there are Mechs running around everywhere, because they are not. In Mech Warrior: Age of Destruction, there is a greater emphasis on combined arms, so you get to see a lot more from the Armor and Battle Armor Infantry side of things, though the MechWarrior is still the "main character." I actually like this aspect, because like I said earlier, I would rather suit my guy up in a suit of Power Armor like the Longinus or Kage than put him in a BattleMech, because everyone has BattleMechs.

The Lyran Alliance, Federated Commonwealth, Draconis Combine and Cappellan Confederation are still around. The Free Worlds League is in shambles, made up of smaller fiefdoms with no Captain General, well, not until recently anyway. When is was discovered that The Master, the guy who orchestrated the Jihad was none other than the real Thomas Marik, and the Thomas Marik that was Captain General was actually a fake, well, the Free Worlds League was torn apart. The Free Rauselhague Republic was absorbed by Clan Ghost Bear and it became a part of the Ghost Bear Dominion.

The Republic of the Sphere is what used to be called the Terran Hegemony back in the day of the original Star League.

Anyway, that's it in a nut shell without getting into a lot more story, but if you have more questions, let me know.

sleepingferret

FASA got shutdown over some stupid ass lawsuits over some lame artwork conflicts, brought up by people amongst other things.

If it wasn't for the fact that FASA didn't have the money to pay for multi-million dollar court fees and lawyers, they'd still be in business and the game wouldn't have been affected at all.

Seereous

New Classic BattleTech novels are going to start being published again, starting in November. Catalyst Game Labs, owned by Loren L. Coleman, got the contract to start publishing new CBT novels. When FASA was publishing the novels they went through Roc Publishing for the old BattleTech novels. Something that I didn't know was that Roc actually put word limits on the CBT novels as well as the MechWarrior: Dark Ages novels. So authors would turn in novels that had too many words and they would have to trim it down, cutting books short that could have had a much more in depth story than the ones that were published. I enjoyed the BattleTech novels, no doubt there, but I'm excited to see what is going to come out of this new publishing deal.

sleepingferret

 ???

This thread is going on what, 2 weeks old?  And the OP hasn't responded at all.  :'(

So anyone else who happens to not have their rulebooks buried, want to run a game?  I'm still trying to find mine.  If nothing else I'm going to go find digital copies of the last ones FASA made.  As I dislike what happened to some of the Mech designs and such after the lawsuits and such.  I'm glad someone picked up the torch, and carried the game on but some of the changes were in my opinion a disgrace.