Hello all!
Summary: Over the past few years I've been slowly becoming more interested in, and learning about, Battletech, and now I want to run an A Time of War campaign. But Sci-Fi RPGs are new to me and combined with the sheer scope of the Battletech universe, I'm not sure where to begin! I want to run this game online for multiple reasons. Specific questions will be at the end of this post.
Detail: I've been GMing D&D campaigns (and rarely, playing in some) since 1999. While I think this gives me a good handle on many important general elements of running an AToW game, I'm getting bogged down in the details, and in switching paradigms. For example, dungeons, traps, and varying combat through different monsters seems to be (mostly) antithetical to a Sci-Fi game. Sure, I could set up a Star League depot (dungeon) with automated defenses (traps) and a combination of robotic defenders and sheltering alien wildlife, but I think that's going to have to be one adventure, and then moving on. Plus, all of my battlemaps are fantasy-based. While in a pinch a stone dungeon could be re-used as a fortress dug into the side of a mountain, or perhaps even a space station, the arcane sigils, lava pools, and glowing summoning circles may break the player's sense of immersion.
So in many ways, I need to re-equip and change my thinking pattern to fit, not only a general Sci-fi theme, but also the very specific nature of the Battletech universe. I'm still working on that, but if anyone has any tips or advice, particularly in finding some good infantry-scale battlemaps, I would be very appreciative.
The other thing I'm really worried about is consistently getting the Battletech lore wrong. I do know that in D&D, the vast majority of players don't seem to even be aware of, say, The Forgotten Realms, let alone care about the accuracy with which I depict it. From what I see here though, the fandom is much more attentive to these details, so (for example) if I have an NPC merchant talking about visiting the Tikonov Free Republic in 3010, or mixing up the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth(something I genuinely struggle with), I'm going to quite rightly feel a fool and possibly even derail the campaign. But I don't know exactly how to get better at this without years of study, and I don't want to wait that long.
I feel like I'm rambling already, so I'm just going to post a series of more specific questions I have.
1) When players go into an A Time of War (or other edition) campaign, what are some of the default expectations in regards to
A) Battlemaps (i.e., will very crude hand-drawn blobs on Roll20 be acceptable, or blurry over-pixelated stolen maps, or is there a batter source I should be aware of)?
B) quality/depth of overarching storyline/plot (i.e., do players want a strong campaign storyline, or is the default for A Time of War an open-ended sandbox campaign consisting of a series of episodic contracts)?
C) Accuracy to the printed lore of Battletech (please note I *want* to stay accurate; I'm just overwhelmed and I know I'm going to mess up a lot)?
2) What kind of scale do people typically want for AToW campaigns? What I currently am brainstorming is a short campaign set on a tiny backwater planet. What I want to run is a short 'Mech-less campaign, where all the players are basically infantry, like a special team trouble-shooting a variety of problems on the planet as an elite arm of the planetary militia, or perhaps a tiny mercenary company. But would anyone even be interested in a campaign without 'Mechs?
3) Is it possible to run a campaign on Roll20? I know they have a character sheet, but maybe there are different preferred programs elsewhere? I realize that running 'Mech-scale combat using Total Warfare rules would probably not do well in roll20, but for an infantry-only start campaign?
4) How welcoming is the Battletech community to new (but non-contradicting) lore? I'm thinking that likely every planet would have its own set of local manufacturers for "basic" items, like linens, holloware, personal computers, vehicles, even firearms and more. Is it expected that I stick to the extant manufacturers, or is making up local factories fine?
5) Finally, it seems to me that combat is extremely lethal and/or debilitating in Battletech. For a "local" campaign like my idea, taken a non-lethal bullet to an arm or leg can still put a character in traction for weeks. Is this usually side-stepped by Dropship/jumpship travel times? Or do players usually make a small cadre of characters and swap them out as needed or desired?
Thank you in advance for any replies.