Interest check(Erotic Battletech)

[Seereous]

HOLY SHIT!!!!! BATTLETECH!!!!!

Sorry...had to get over the wave of nostalgia.  What's the tech level going to be?  I know that you're probably not going to want a bunch of people running around in Dire Wolves or Timber Wolves.

I bought all the Field Manuals and Tech Readouts; the novels and all that other fun stuff.  I enjoyed the stories of Wolf's Dragoons, Kell Hounds, Gray Death Legion, Northwind Highlanders and even Camacho's Caballeros.  I just wish they would have written more about Morgan Kell.  He won my favoritism during the Battle of Luthien when he took on a star of Omni's alone in his Archer...great stuff.

Okay, I'm done.  Sign me up!   

[Hunter]

If you don't terribly mind a suggestion, might I suggest pre-clan invasion playing pirates on the perimeter?

[CaptainErotica]

  Tech level will be level 2 Inner sphere, with clan tech still somewhat uncommon. Also some level 3 tech may be available if you can convince me to allow it. The reason behind this is because of the timeline. Once WoB begins it's Jihad however, the tech level may drop back down dependng on the outcome of the players battles, and other story elements.

   As for playing pre invasion pirates, if there is enough interest I could set the game up to run more than one setting. A series of minigames within the game. I wouldn't mind setting up a Solaris VII based game as well(think Gladiator events but with 20-100 ton batttlemechs).

[ChrissaM]

So do we need to be totally up on all the history and the system to play this game?  Because the only things I know about the BattleTech universe is from a Dark Ages book I read called Principles of Desolation.  While the book could have been a lot better, I loved the concept, and the idea of playing an erotic game in the universe is highly intriguing to me.  So what all do I need to know before I volunteer myself?

[Caustic]

Yeeeah, I'm kinda antsy on that, too... I think I'll need a cheat sheet.

[Swedish Steel]

Yeah. I actually bought the boardgame way back when, but I can't say I'm terribly clued in. Tried some of the computer games too, but now I can't even find a list of all the different mechs, at least not one with pictures, that would've been nice.

[CaptainErotica]

   As far as knowing the history, if your patient enough to read through my first 5 posts that is the history of the game universe from inception to just before the current timeline. You don't need any other background information, and really don't even need any but it wil ldefinately help.

  The Dark Age books are set 60 years or so past the current timeline. I believe they are in the year 3130 (not %100 on that) and the current timeline(Word of Blake Jihad) is the year 3072. Most of the style between Dark Ages and Vurrent is the same. Basically at the start of the game, the Jihad will be only a few moths away. Basically what happens is Word of Blake(WoB) goes nuts after the other houses decide to disband the Star League(explained in the history), and threatens dire consequences if they disband. Never the less they do indeed disband and Comstar unleashed a war against the rest of the Inner Sphere. They begin using Nuclear bombs, for the first itme in over a century, chemical warfare, you name the atrocity they probably do it. as a result the whole Galaxy is in thrown into chaos. They wipe the Legendary Mercenary unti Wolf Dragoons into oblivion, along with many other wel lknown mercenary units.

  As far as Battlemechs go there are four categories. Light Mechs weigh between 20-35 tons and are usually used for reconasance as they lack the armor and firepower to go toe to toe with other mechs, but are some of the fastest. Medium mechs are between 40-55 tons and are the most common they are the ones that wade into combat and hold the front until the slower better armed and armored heavies and assualts can reach the battle.Heavy ’Mechs weigh from 60 to 75 tons. Usually piloted by commanders and experienced MechWarriors, they play a major role on the battlefi elds of the Inner Sphere. Heavy ’Mechs can dish out and take immense amounts of damage, and so only another heavy or an assault ’Mech usually can successfully take on a typical heavy BattleMech. Assault ’Mechs, weighing from 80 to 100 tons, are the kings of the 31st-century battlefi eld. So fearsome are these behemoths in battle that one assault ’Mech is often equal to an entire lance of lighter ’Mechs. The pilot of a well-designed assault ’Mech fears no opponent in the fi eld, and the ’Mech’s physical attacks can cripple nearly any target.

  All you really need to know battlemech wise is what weight class you want to pilot, and maybe decide what kind of tactics you prefer. I can then assign you a mech I think you would be comfortable with. Of course if you know the mechs and what one you want just let me know. I will also try to post some sample mechs, as well as give a brief description of the weapon types.

  There is no need to learn the game system since it will be completely free form. For battles I will roll a die and if it is odd we will roleplayout the battle with the PC's winnign at the end, though maybe not without some NPC loss, and minor damages. on an even roll the PC's will lose the battle. It wil ltake some coperation between me and the players in order to make it work, but I think we'll be fine.

[Swedish Steel]

I seem to recall me liking a mech called the Marauder, I believe I liked the way it looked. God, it is almost 16 years ago I bought that game...

[HairyHeretic]

Personally I favour heavy / assault mechs. However, with the backstory I'm working from, I think the most I should have would be a medium, and possibly an older design.

How about a Wolverine 8C or 8K

My aim would be to capture a heavy / assault mech, preferably an advanced or clan tech design.

BTW, here's a site that may be of use to everyone

http://www.chaosmarch.com/

The technical readouts in the left menu break down by year and then mech class, and give pictures and details of each mech individually.

[CaptainErotica]

The maurader. kinda hunched over with a big huge gun on top? If so then yeah thats the one.

here are tow more sites if you want to check out some of the mechs just look for what is called TRO's(Tech Readouts). The second link is for a chracter generator. It could be usefull if you need help with a backstory,  just follow the life paths and use the random events to help give you a rough history to work with. You will need to set up a forum account to use it through(free).

http://www.solaris7.com/

http://www.netbattletech.com/nbt-solaris/char_management/pilot_main.php

[Caustic]

OK... so, not trying to be a downer here... I'm not tryin' to keep bringing this up, but...

I COULD handle the mechanics-- it's fun, and it's not hard, as I recall, so long as somebody is there to supervise and make sure the math's done right. However, I'd prefer it as freeform.

I WOULD enjoy the character-to-character interaction, descriptions of the combat, the volatile relationships between soldiers/gladiators (ever see RobotJox?  HAHAHAHA). 

Particularly, I LOVE the idea of using this to explore the contrast between cold, heavy machines tearing each other apart VS. impulsive, passionate individuals having wild and desperate flings behind the scenes, tearing down the walls in completely DIFFERENT ways in a desperate attempt to fulfill some deep need in themselves and each other.

The thing I never could get into is the notion of having -too- much backstory.  I find it daunting to have to fit a pre-determined setting that I know little to nothing about... so is it possible for us to do this with minimal setting restrictions?  Maybe you could just 'lay-it-on-the-line' for us?

[HairyHeretic]

Battletech is not black and white, good versus evil. Its all shades of grey. Everyone has their own angle.

300 years or so ago, the Star League, the big all encompassing empire of humanity broke apart. Most of the Leage military followed their best general into exile, and vanished. Cue the best part of 300 years of raids, skirmishes and outright war. The general tech level decreased somewhat, as the facilities to keep stuff going were destroyed.

From over the borders of known space come the Clans, the descendents of the vanished Star League army, kicking ass and taking names across hundreds of worlds. Much desperate fighting, and the Clans are slowed and eventually stopped.

Political maneuvering re-establishes the Star League, assorted dirty politics cause it to fragment again some years later, leaving the over all political map something close to what it had been prior to the last big war. Except you have a chunk of the galatic north now lying under clan control.

I think that sums it up.

[CaptainErotica]

 Pretty much. If you know as much as what Hairyheretic just stated that is enough to join the game. It is not mandatory for you to know anything about the history of the universe to enjoy the game. It is simply there for those who wish to use it, most notably for character background purposes. Most of the history is boring anyway. As long as you know the basic layout of the galaxy(I'll have am ap up once I get the board set up) and a general idea of the major factions.

[Seereous]

I'm guessing that we will be Mercenaries, yes?  What year are we going to be operating in?  I think that I'm going to run with the Highlander as my Mech of choice.  If that is allowed of course.  I'm going to have to dig through my MechWarrior stuff that I have and find my old Merc character that I used to play.

Wow...I'm actually getting really amped up about this game.  When I played MechWarrior, we did it in a RPG format with character interaction and my character was the commander of a company of Mechs called The Stacked Deck.  Had our own Union Class Dropship called the Riverboat and we were broken down into Hustler, Gambler and High Roller Lances.  It was good times.  I know that was probably more info than you guys wanted, just sharing the love.

[CaptainErotica]

   As of right now I plan on the Pc's being part of a mercenary unit, though if everyone prefers we could also switch to a Solaris VII stlye game. What that means is that instead of large scale battles mosts fights would be solo matches or team matches...Think WWE but with hundred ton mecha. Each match earns points and at the end of the season the top twenty mechwarriors are eligble for the grand melee to decided that years champion. There has also been a request to do a pre Clan invasion pirate group, but I'd rather not try that one. The timeline will be current real life month 3067.

[HairyHeretic]

I'd prefer mercs over Solaris.

[Seereous]

I agree with the Mercs. Never was a big fan of Solaris.

[ChrissaM]

I'd rather play as mercs, also.

I think I'd like to go with a Locust LCT-1V.  Small, not much in the way of heavy weapons.  Sounds like a challenge.  I like that.  I could go with a scout type character or something.

[CaptainErotica]

  Sounds good Chrissa. Locust is a good solid scout mech. Just make sure you don't get hammered by the big boys.  .


On a side note...We could defiantely use some more female players, with Chrissa being the only female so far. I can't say that wasn't totally unexpected. Come on girls. You can even have a pink mech.

[Swedish Steel]

A pink mech? Perfect camoflage, no one will believe it's a real mech.
The pictures of the Marauder didn't exactly match my memory, I remebered it being a bit cooler. I will look through the links a bit more.

[HairyHeretic]

They've changed the designs of some of them lately. Check the '25 TRO, you might see the one you remember. Is this it?

http://www.chaosmarch.com/output.cfm?ZVType=1&flag=0&ZFaction=1&XEra=2&XVid=95&XPrev=94&XNext=168&ZVotes=929

[Swedish Steel]

Yes, that's exactly it, I must say I like the old design better then.

[CaptainErotica]

You may have also been looking at the Maurader II by mistake.  Actually it is a great camoflage. I don't remember what unit it was but someone took a Panter mech and painted it pink and called it The Pink Panther. Most of the time people ignored him, until after he messed them up with his PPC.

[Swedish Steel]

A Marauder is a heavy, isn't it?

[CaptainErotica]

Yup..all 75 tons of it.