Battletech

[Jack Stryker]

Battletech, or as it's better known these days, Mechwarrior/MechCommander/MechAssault, is the story of humanity set some thousand years into the future, where war is carried out between massive, multi-ton war machines known as BattleMechs, towering up to 20 meters in height, and loaded with enough armor and weapons to make a modern tank platoon look like plaything.

I would like to test the waters, and see who has actually played the games (or even better, has read the original Battletech novel series), to see if there would be enough of a base for a Battletech roleplay.

[CaptainErotica]

It has been tried a few times, but not sure how well the other games went. The game I was running was going really well, until I disappeared. There are people interested in it, but I think many of them might be a bit weary of another try since they haven't been able to last more than a few weeks or so. I for one might be willing depending how it is set up.

[Jack Stryker]

Well, if there's a good amount of players, i'd be glad to keep things going.  I've had a couple different storylines for a couple years now, but so far i've never really been able to find enough folks to really get things off the ground.

[ChaoticSky]

mechwarrior, that brings me back... i miss those games T_T

id be interested, not sure if ill have time though D:

heres a video, to get people excited ^^

Mechwarrior 4 Intro

[Jack Stryker]

Then you'll be happy to see this.  Mechwarrior 4 was ok, but microsoft screwed it up too much.

This will be better, it's being made by one of the guys who originally made Battletech

MechWarrior Full Debut Trailer [HD]

The way the Battlemechs move about, ducking in and behind cover instead of randomly running about, trying to see who can shoot the fastest.  This is battlemech warfare at its finest.

[ChaoticSky]

nice!

[HairyHeretic]

What era you thinking? 3rd Succession War? Clan Invasion?

[Jack Stryker]

It depends on what most everybody prefers.  I have one scenario taking place during the assault on Clan Smoke Jaguar, and another takin place during the 2nd Succession War, but these can both be changed according to what level of technology is preferred by everyone.

[Calista Jade]

Oooooh Battletech... *twitches*

I played it tabletop (I had an Atlas, LOVED the thing), and I got all the books... Didnt read the novels, though. I didnt see a point, since the then boyfriend was reading them and telling me all about Victor and his evil sister.

[HairyHeretic]

Well, depending on the setting and such I'd provisionally be interested. Read pretty much all the novels, play the board game a bit (House Kurita and Clan Wolf)

[Jack Stryker]

Well, we have a wide selection of choices.  There is the Star League era, Succession Wars (First, Second, Third, or Fourth), Clan Wars, the Word of Blake Jihad, and the Dark Age era.

Personally, i'd much prefer during the succession wars, or the clan wars.

[HairyHeretic]

Anywhere from the 3020s to 3060s would work for me. I didn't think much of the Jihad, and ignored the Dark Age entirely.

[ChaoticSky]

my only preference is that we stick to the proper mechs, and completely avoid the ones that look like gundams DX

[Calista Jade]

Agreed, Darkling!

[CaptainErotica]

Me too. Although I was actually glad to see the timeline finally being advance with Jihad and I found it interesting I don't think it has the fun factor that the Succession Wars and the Clan Invasion have. I love the Atlas as well. It is one of my top ten mechs, but being a big Kurita fan I love the Akuma and No-Datchi. The Saggitaire is also a nice mech and the Fafnir has some major firepower. Although definitely not the best mech I also like the Hunchback for some reason.

Another idea to think about which might be fun is to focus on the Solaris Games. We could all be Mech Gladiators there for whatever reason all vying to become the next champion.

[Anathanasia]

Bloody heck, I've been thinking about this lately and just updated my own ideas thread to include a Battletech idea.

I'm a big old Battletech fan (the setting books that didn't even have and rules-related crap, you know, the pure fluff ones about the history of the Houses and the Star League, are what really sold me on it all those many years ago back in high school, lol), but I personally hate the clans. I'd prefer to see a game that takes place back pre-clans, when the universe was very dark, and losing your mech would be a really big deal.

I'm certainly into discussing this more!

[HairyHeretic]

Solaris could work. The previous game was a merc unit, which is another viable option.

[Carlissa]

I only played the Mechasault game for the Xbox...is that enough to go on?

[Jack Stryker]

MechAssault will give you some small glimpse into the greater Battletech universe, but Microsoft got their hands into the game too much for it to really be anything close to the real concept.   I've always been a nerd about this particular genre, so I can answer most any question.

It seems that the general concensus is leaning toward a pre-clan invasion Inner Sphere.  I guess we should take a vote, see what kind of story everyone wants.  General options are a Solaris VII series of games, or a heavy battle during one of the Succession Wars.  If you could, please add in a particular year you'd prefer, and we can take the average between them all.  I ask this because there are certain Battlemechs that wouldn't be available in certain years, as opposed to others.  Like the Hatchetman battlemech wasn't in production until 3023, so if the RP takes place in 3010, nobody would be able to use it.

Personally, I think Solaris would be fun, something I haven't had much experience with.  Favored year would be perhaps 3042.  Gauss Rifles have been reintroduced, and could present plenty of friction between players of different realms with the recent conclusion of the War of 3039, and the Fourth Succession War.

[Anathanasia]

Yeah, I'm game for something in the early 3040s as well. I liked the new tech stuff, just not the Clan versions (or the Clans...they ruined my favorite merc company! ).

I think the Solaris idea could be cool, but it might lend itself to a more 'open' set, where the players are likely to be in open conflict with each other. That could be neat, playing as rival 'gladiators', but I have to confess that personally, I'd rather have us all in the same unit. We could do that as the players making up the stable of one Solaris outfit, though I would prefer to play a more typically battlefield oriented game where unit tactics are a large factor (not to mention Gauss Rifles are crummy arena weapons! Damn minimum range!). In this era, if memory serves, there's still a ton of the typical skirmishing going on between the successor states. As in the previous game, if we opted for being a merc band we could have a nice variety of backgrounds and origins to our characters, which would provide a nice low-level RP conflict to drive the interpersonal stuff. We could always say we got our paws on a Star League cache to allow our lowly little merc band to have some sexy gear, y'know?

To sum up, my preference is for a small merc game in the early 3040s, though I remain open to any Battletech setting just so long as we can explain getting my character out of her mech and molested at least occasionally! 

[ChaoticSky]

D: i dont think the Nova Cat or Mad Cat MkII (my preferred mechs) were around then... does anyone have a list of what mechs and variants are available in what timeframes?

also, i vote for mercs, i dislike tournament RPs. 

[Anathanasia]

D: i dont think the Nova Cat or Mad Cat MkII (my preferred mechs) were around then... does anyone have a list of what mechs and variants are available in what timeframes?

also, i vote for mercs, i dislike tournament RPs.

Best I can think of is to check out Solaris 7

You can search the battlemechs by year there.


There's also this great little program: The Drawing Board

Grab the second download from the top (I think it's the only one from 2005) and it should have all the mechs seperated into folders by year.


Finally, for general info, there's Sarna.net, the classic Battletech wiki


Those are my picks anyways.

[ChaoticSky]

thankies

i probably should have asked this before, but are we thinking system or freeform?

[Anathanasia]

System or freeform...I dunno either...

As always, I would prefer to not do freeform, but we can't do a by the book battle in Battletech turn by turn either. We'd be running one small fight for the better part of a year in a play-by-post game. Ick.

I think the way we were going to do it in the game Robguy started all that time ago was a nice little hybrid idea. Wish I could remember the specifics, but it was basically initiative rolls to determine early advantage, freeform style writing keeping that roll in mind for the 'slant', then based on peoples posts the GM might make some behind the scenes 'rolls' to see if actions that could potentially turn the battle succeeded or failed and add an element of chance into the outcome of a battle. Sort of like refreshing that original initiative roll, actually.

Players would rarely, if ever, actually have to handle the dice. Going with good posting ettiquette, meaning that players never determine themselves if one of their attacks hits or actions succeeds (except for the trivial and mundane to which there's no reason the players can sort themselves out), the GM can make the occassional, important, hidden roll and just post the results of the player's action. Most of the time the GM wouldn't need to, unless they felt inclined to, mind you.

Robguy, wasn't it something like that? Care to elaborate?

[HairyHeretic]

I think it was something along those lines. I know I used to have a site bookmarked that had every mech design listed. It was a great resource. I'll see if I can turn it up again.