Author Topic: Looking for help with RPG mech battles  (Read 2920 times)

rogueranger1993

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Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« on: 19 June 2016, 16:45:37 »
So, I've been running a game with A Time of War rules for a few weeks now, and the players (who are running a mercenary mech unit) just got into their first mech-scale 'fight', participating in a simulator battle at a local academy. It was a good way to test out my plan to use tabletop rules to play out vehicular combat, and it was an eye-opener for a few problems.

The main one was that it took too long to be feasible for my group, and that was with a decent bit of slimming to the rules. My group has limited time when we meet, usually only 4-6 hours per session, and the vast majority of that time is taken up by roleplay. That means we don't have enough time for fullblown tabletop engagements, which means I need to find something that will run a mech battle faster than regular tabletop to keep everyone interested. I want to use the hex maps I have to illustrate each unit's position, or at least the minis I have on hand and a tabletop.

The game is set in 3020, so I ruled out alpha strike since it didn't mesh too well with my plans to keep them scrounging for repairs and parts, etc. I have considered running mechs somewhat like characters and simply giving them two HP pools; armor & structure. Critical hits would only occur when all of the armor points are gone, and players wanting to hit a specific location like an arm to try and blow it off would just make a called shot. This would eliminate crit rolls for most of the game, as well as hit location rolls, and I might have weapons rolled in groups (i.e. 4 MLs fire all on one roll) to cut down time spent further. However, I wanted to know if anyone had a different, possibly better idea to share before taking such a step, since I do wonder if the idea above would really help any.


1. Incoming fire has the right of way.
2. The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
3. Always remember that your weapon was built by the lowest bidder.
                                   - excepts from Murphy's Laws of Combat

Archangel

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #1 on: 19 June 2016, 18:59:56 »
Well Alpha Strike is already pretty strict requiring players to go for the optional points to really get ahead, but with some minor tweaking you should be able to get the results you want, such as reducing the number of points awarded for achieving goals (either primary or secondary), require them to put the majority of points into player stats or instead of the points being guaranteed to be the ones they need require some RPing to get the actual parts they need (example:  salvage an actuator for a Phoenix Hawk, but need one for a Panther; require them to go somewhere where they can possible exchange it, either legally or illegally, for what they need).  Dealing with the Black Market or even Galatea provides plenty of RP adventure opportunities (gangs trying to rob them, deals going bad, getting caught up in a police raid, etc) and, of course, even if there is a Black Market on the planet they are on, getting access to it and searching it for the items they need is going to cost time and resources (reducing AS points) and there is no guarantee that the parts they need are even there (result = AS points wasted and fewer points available when the time comes to actually buy the item).
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Daryk

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #2 on: 20 June 2016, 06:42:39 »
How many PCs do you have?  If you're running lance on lance engagements, they shouldn't take that long.

hive_angel

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #3 on: 20 June 2016, 09:11:58 »
I always take a picture of a game a freeze it till next session. This gives players more to look forwards to next session, outcome of game, outcome of RPG to come.
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Maelwys

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #4 on: 21 June 2016, 01:33:32 »
Well, you've ruled out Alpha Strike, but I don't know if you have to. You can run Alpha Strike for the game to speed it up, and if you don't mind some extra bookkeeping you can figure out what exactly happens to the 'Mech after the game.

So say in the Alpha Strike game, you lose 2 out of 3 points of armor, but don't take any internal structure damage. Then after the game, you'd sit down with the standard Battletech record sheet, and roll the location for X number of hits, and reduce the damage by say, 5 points per hit.  If a 'Mech suffers internal structure damage, you can roll for X number of critical hits (or possible critical hits). Ammo explosions you could roll randomly to determine which ammo goes up ,and then figure out the damage based on however many rounds you think might be left in there.

That would let you play with the speed of Alpha Strike, but get the gritty details of standard Battletech and you could have them scrounging for parts and armor to repair their `Mechs and what not.

Of course, the downside to this idea is figuring out the Alpha Strike stats for partial repairs...

rogueranger1993

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #5 on: 21 June 2016, 11:42:16 »
So, first, thanks for all the answers, guys. Now, to answer some of the replies...

My party is currently made up of three players, but the interesting bit is that we only have one mechwarrior; the other two are playing the head technician and a bartender/street thief respectively. I've considered just letting the one player control the full lance, since I had control of the NPC mechs the first time, and it makes some sense. It might have also taken so long because it was only her second time running a tabletop game.

As for Alpha Strike, I looked throuhg the rulebook again and thought some on it, and decided that it could be a really good idea, and I would just do the conversion bookkeeping after the game and/or use a healthy amount of GM's fiat to declare which mechs can or cannot be repaired. I actually looked around the forums as well, and found the 'Mech Combat' PDF in the player creations/rules subforum, and I'm interested to give them a try as well. I intend to experiment with both in order to see which one I prefer. Either way, thanks for the help you guys were willing to give.


1. Incoming fire has the right of way.
2. The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
3. Always remember that your weapon was built by the lowest bidder.
                                   - excepts from Murphy's Laws of Combat

Daryk

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #6 on: 21 June 2016, 12:33:01 »
Practice will definitely speed things up.  Just give it some time.

PurpleDragon

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #7 on: 21 June 2016, 17:04:33 »
Another thing you might consider; it would allow you to play some solo; MegaMek.  It is as close to a PC version of the tabletop game as I have ever seen and is a work in progress.   The guys developing it have gone a long way and have the majority of the current rules implemented.  Of course it would require a computer be available during a game session.  It does not push Alpha Strike, so it stays closer to the actual battletech game as it was meant to be, meaning no watering down of damages and loss of detail and such.  And it allows for you to play out a much larger battle in much less time, once you get used to how it works. 

A lance on lance battle should take around an hour, if that long.  You could set it up where the PCs are on one team, the enemy on one, and the NPCs on another, then link the PCs team with the NPCs.  It will also take care of double blind rules if you are playing on multiple computers.  I think it will do so if you hotseat as well, but I have never had to do that yet. 

Some of the controls/commands/options are not very intuitive so there is a little bit of a learning curve to get used to using it.   However, since I have tried it and learned some of it, I will probably not be going back to tabletop, for anything other than RPG as I never seem to have enough room. 

Something else to consider for RPG oriented 'mech battles would be to look into Solaris VII.  There were two different sets of rules released:  one for CBT:RPG which is the third ed version most here do not like.  The other was a boxed set released years before that which basically broke down everything to 1/4 size/movement/time...   It gave weapons recharge rates and had rules for allowing a jump capable 'mech to "stay airborne" for up to four turns. 

I hope this gives you some options that might be enjoyable for your games. 
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guardiandashi

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #8 on: 21 June 2016, 18:15:23 »
since you have said it is 3025 tech basically (3020 era) I will say that I have run into a number of things that really speed up stuff that I never bothered to do but...

1 get the other players to run the NPC mechwarriors during the lance battles.
this should both speed things up, and keep them interested.
2 movement dice these are typically D6 in 3 colors to represent walk, run and jump you use the correct color die (for movement type) and modified target number turned up.
3 a "box of doom" basically a clear box with multiple bays that you read the die results after shaking the whole box. (it can in many cases handle a whole round of combat rolls at once)
4 fire sticks.  these would be something like popsicle sticks with the weapon name, and range bands marked on it, that when fired is placed on the table indicating what was fired at what target.
5 if necessary, turn time limits. remember each turn is supposed to represent ~10 seconds of time don't let someone take 10 minutes planning out how they are going to move each unit typically ~1 minute or so should be enough.  Turn RESOLUTION will take longer but not declaration.
have a cheat sheet of basic combat info for everyone basically the last page of the "Classic Battletech Introductory Rulebook"
6 **strongly encourage everyone to "preplan" their moves while other players are moving.**
seriously this has a HUGE effect on speeding things up.
7 in most cases resolving the attacks that do the most damage first in the phase will also speed up combat (although it can cause more critical checks, once internal structure starts being damaged, this does not "have" to slow down the resolution that much.

Greyhind

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Re: Looking for help with RPG mech battles
« Reply #9 on: 22 July 2016, 13:09:19 »
If you can contrive it you can probably cut the battle down to six turns or so by getting rid of the NPCs (oh no, they're stuck behind an avalanche!), putting your player in a slow 'mech with big guns (The CO has had a heart attack. Take her ride!) and putting the lone enemy in a slow 'mech with heavy (medium?) weapons (Kill it. Kill it with fire!).

Obviously that'll get bland after a couple of games but like Daryk said BT gets quicker as you get experienced. Its a simple thing to ramp up to full scale play as you go, perhaps move to fighting two opponents, then speed them up, then go full hog?

Running Megamek face to face is possible, if you have a plan at the start of the battle then it might take only an hour for a lance engagement and and you can probably simultaneously run the other two characters through some minor roleplaying.

Beyond that its either adapting Alpha Strike to your requirements or just not playing with the models.