Author Topic: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting  (Read 2867 times)

Mulsiphix

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Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« on: 31 August 2017, 18:59:36 »
I play BattleTech but rarely read the setting information bits. I've always treated it like a strategy board game. Though, I've read a few novels and followed product releases over the years, but never read any of the setting material. Not even in the Technical Readouts. Still, I think I have a pretty good feel for the Setting thematically.

I own AToW but prefer to develop a homebrew system (easier for my 8, 10, and 12yr old kids to grasp) that uses the BT Setting. There is also the possibility that I just use a different RPG system. I plan to mine AToW for goodness, of course. I'm just not able to picture what kinds of adventures you could run in BattleTech, that would allow you to have adventures outside the cockpit. I'm curious to hear what kinds of things you guys are doing, when you RPG with BattleTech?

Daryk

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #1 on: 31 August 2017, 23:50:00 »
The game I ran a few years ago here (long buried by board crashes) was based on a ComStar garrison running from the WoB in the wake of the hand off in the FWL in 3053.  Basically, the garrison commander and Precentor didn't see eye to eye about what exactly was to be handed over, and the commander's Explorer Corps contacts gave him access to a dropship to get the troops off planet with their gear... shortly before his untimely demise from a "heart attack" (no, really... ::)).  The PCs were the junior officers of the unit, suddenly thrust into running the show.  We only managed to get to the "leaving the planet" part before the crash, though...  I had a whole series of things to throw at them on the way to Hellespont (the nearest Explorer Corps HQ).

Major Headcase

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #2 on: 01 September 2017, 07:20:25 »
  I am no fan of AToW.  I feel it suffers terribly from complexity creep. I still use Mechwarrior 2nd edition for my RPG work. We play a hybrid 75% CBT tactical/25% MW role play style campaigns now, but used to do full on RPG campaigns.  The focus is the table top battles with the RP elements being pretty strictly defined interludes between battles, the RP outcomes of these limited events then directly influence the following CBT battles (or maybe a battle further down the campaign arc) as the rewards for meeting known and hidden RP objectives are usable assets, special abilities, or favourable conditions in the following CBT game. The 2nd editions simpler rules works better for this more narrative fast style role-playing. 😁 it's fun!
   Not much of a sales pitch I know... 😉

Mendrugo

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #3 on: 01 September 2017, 07:59:49 »
A few suggestions:

1. Classic Dungeon Crawl.

If you look at the early works, the RPG environment was almost custom made for dungeon crawls outside of your 'Mechs.  Make your characters LosTech Prospectors looking for old abandoned/forgotten bases and factory complexes to loot of their high-tech contents.  This works best in a Third Succession War or other pre-Helm Memory Core era, since most of that LosTech was recovered and back in production by 3050.  Fight other rival hunters, enter the ruins of the cache, and battle with still-functional security bots, automated defenses, and/or alien fauna or human bandits that have taken up residence.  Then back to your jumping off point to sell your booty and pick up leads from the crazy old spacers at the bar for your next mission out into the Periphery/Dead Worlds.

2. Commando Missions

Have your players tasked with covertly penetrating an enemy installation where some techno-gizmo is being researched, and steal it/sabotage it.  Or enter a military compound to extract a prisoner of war or key informant.  Or surveil an enemy politician to obtain blackmail material. 

3. Rogue Trader

See the sights and sounds of the Inner Sphere as an itinerant trader.  Pick up cargoes at one world and sell them at the next one.  Goji berries for gorii tuna.  Synthalk for microcommunicators.  Become a member in good standing of the Lyran Free Traders Association.  Fight your way through mind-numbing bureaucracy on a Hanseatic League trading world.  Go head to head against Diamond Shark Merchant Caste reps.  Sneak your contraband cargo through border checkpoints.  And watch out for pirates looking for booty.  Plenty of opportunities for gunplay if a deal goes south.  Or if you see an opportunity for some piracy of your own.  (Get a letter of marque from a friendly government and start freebooting for yourself)
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Ruger

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #4 on: 01 September 2017, 20:49:40 »
The thing to remember about BTech as a RPG is that it's similar to playing knights or mercenary warriors in a fantasy or medieval setting RPG, except the magic is high tech, and your armor, sword, shield and steed are all typically rolled up into one package, whether that package be BattleMech, battle armor, tank, or other...and instead of traveling a few days to invade another nation or to go to the next dungeoncrawl, you are traveling weeks via the sea of stars to invade or raid another world, whether it be for your liege lord or for your next paycheck...

Heck, you can even roleplay as pirates...

And few things are as satisfying as starting out as a ragtag bunch of down-on-their-luck mercenaries that can barely cobble together a lance of 'Mechs, and through wit, guile, skill and strategy, build up your own battalion strength (or greater) merc unit...

Ruger
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guardiandashi

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #5 on: 01 September 2017, 21:16:33 »
I play BattleTech but rarely read the setting information bits. I've always treated it like a strategy board game. Though, I've read a few novels and followed product releases over the years, but never read any of the setting material. Not even in the Technical Readouts. Still, I think I have a pretty good feel for the Setting thematically.

I own AToW but prefer to develop a homebrew system (easier for my 8, 10, and 12yr old kids to grasp) that uses the BT Setting. There is also the possibility that I just use a different RPG system. I plan to mine AToW for goodness, of course. I'm just not able to picture what kinds of adventures you could run in BattleTech, that would allow you to have adventures outside the cockpit. I'm curious to hear what kinds of things you guys are doing, when you RPG with BattleTech?
you can literally run ANY adventure you want in the setting with the AToW system.  AToW is not a setting per say but a rpg system that plugs into the battletech setting.

for example you could use "d20" palladium, gurps, D6, shadowrun, the new star wars system, the warhammer 40k rpg, or any number of RPG's to play in battletech heck you could even use FATAL or hackmaster if you really wanted to.

what is happening is you are confusing the rpg with the setting.  which is a fairly common confusion I believe.

for instance I long ago played star wars using the WEG (West End Games) D6 system, and honestly I much prefer it to this day to the newer wizards of the coast D20, and or saga edition version of star wars.

what the RPG is frankly is a ruleset that you use to setup "how" you are going to play in a setting and what conventions you are going to use to play/simulate the experience.

the setting is the background and environment you insert yourself or your characters into to have fun.

so if you prefer to use another rpg "engine" to play, the biggest issue you will have is figuring out how to adapt or convert the stuff from system A to system B

for example lets say you chose to use the palladium RPG to play a "battletech" game no problem, you just have to decide what the "scale" is IE are mechs sdc, MDC, or some other damage scale, how much damage does the battletech themed weapons do etc.

as far as using the battletech setting its a mish mash of stuff ranging from cyberpunk or shadowrun level tech (but no magic) to literally places (and planets) where the most common transport is you walking, or if you are more well off you might have a horse or xeno-horse to ride.  heck you can also literally have planets where in a major city it resembles Coruscant in star wars with "air cars" flying between buildings, or to use another example... the city Bruce Willace was in, in the movie the fifth element.

monbvol

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #6 on: 02 September 2017, 12:05:09 »
Battletech is a pretty diverse setting.

You can do most anything you want with it.

Solaris VII in particular offers a great deal with it's corruption on almost all levels, organized crime, and the games.

Minchandre

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #7 on: 02 September 2017, 22:57:37 »
I play BattleTech but rarely read the setting information bits. I've always treated it like a strategy board game. Though, I've read a few novels and followed product releases over the years, but never read any of the setting material. Not even in the Technical Readouts. Still, I think I have a pretty good feel for the Setting thematically.

I own AToW but prefer to develop a homebrew system (easier for my 8, 10, and 12yr old kids to grasp) that uses the BT Setting. There is also the possibility that I just use a different RPG system. I plan to mine AToW for goodness, of course. I'm just not able to picture what kinds of adventures you could run in BattleTech, that would allow you to have adventures outside the cockpit. I'm curious to hear what kinds of things you guys are doing, when you RPG with BattleTech?

Any flexible system could work with Battletech.  D20 modern has the advantage of being fairly simple and well-known.  Personally, my favorite system is Fate, which I find to be very adaptable to any setting, and good enough, though not necessarily a good "similar feel" to any of the Battletech RPGs, which have always been very heavily skills-driven.

As to what's being run...

Covert ops/special ops/scouting is the easiest thing to do, since it's military and involves lots of time out of 'Mechs.  Standard military campaigns could include a diplomatic and logistical element, or you could just run a diplomatic campaign (possibly with intelligence/covert ops elements if you want).  For example, maybe you're playing a group of representatives from a Lyran company sent to the Free Worlds League in the Civil War era to try and negotiate an arms deal, only to discover that there's some Blakist plot to try and gain leverage on your company for mysterious reasons.  Or maybe you're playing an Outworlds free trader trying to navigate the Snow Raven takeover and keep your company above water.  Maybe you're playing a Mimir cell resisting the Clans.  You can always mine the RPG scenarios (though they tend to have gratuitious 'Mech battles for, like, no reason).

The 3rd edition Clan book has a campaign involving the Inner Sphere embassy on Strana Mechty, which is a neat idea.  I also really love Living Legends and keep meaning to run a campaign based on it, adapted to the Jihad (Blakists instead of Jaguars, etc).  The Empires Aflame setting is also neat, and it's good for players who aren't super well-versed in the setting fiction, because it plops the characters in a completely new, foreign setting that they don't know anything about - the "Inner Sphere delegation to the Clans" is also good for this reason; as, I guess, would be "Clanners in the Inner Sphere", though playing Clanners might be kinda complicated).

skiltao

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #8 on: 06 September 2017, 15:49:43 »
I believe Paint-It-Pink's Mummerset Campaign alternated battle sessions with out-of-cockpit sessions. (I know I've seen a couple other people blog their RPG campaigns but I'm at a loss right now to find them.)

Other campaign ideas:
  • Your liege lord sends you to help and befriend a vassal who is having mysterious problems.
  • Developing contacts with (or outright infiltrating) a neighboring center of power. (The court of the next duke over, a bandit king, planetary corporation or interstellar cartel, whatever.)
  • Power brokering between conflicting interest groups on-world.
  • Finding out what's got the peasants riled up, and then solving it / making it worse.
  • Get handed some fragmentary, centuries-old archival records and shipping manifests, and get ordered to scavenge for useful tech (not necessarily weapons or miltech).
Here's a very lite system someone else came up with (plus character sheet). I haven't tried it; I'd probably come up with my own lite system too.
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beachhead1985

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #9 on: 09 September 2017, 20:11:58 »
I'm a fan of the classic PCs as small-merc-unit campaign.

There are plenty of in and out of cockpit adventures for them to get into that way.

It's really a very open setting, but you actually have to get into the weeds of it to see what is there beneath the leaves for you to get into.
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These, in the day when heaven was falling,      Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
The hour when earth's foundations fled,         They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
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And took their wages, and are dead.             And saved the sum of things for pay.
     
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BiggRigg42

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #10 on: 27 September 2017, 08:48:09 »
I am currently reading through the Clan Jade Phoenix trilogy along side the Clan Jade Falcon/Wolf source books to create my campaign. The plan is to start my PCs off in a sibko, where I will do a fourth wall break to teach them the advanced combat rules from the aToW companion. There will also be in character class time, where will I teach them clan history and lore; they will be expected to ask questions and stay in character during all of this. 

After the sibko, we will start the crusade, before sliding into the Wars of Reaving source book.

idea weenie

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #11 on: 27 September 2017, 19:53:39 »
I am currently reading through the Clan Jade Phoenix trilogy along side the Clan Jade Falcon/Wolf source books to create my campaign. The plan is to start my PCs off in a sibko, where I will do a fourth wall break to teach them the advanced combat rules from the aToW companion. There will also be in character class time, where will I teach them clan history and lore; they will be expected to ask questions and stay in character during all of this. 

After the sibko, we will start the crusade, before sliding into the Wars of Reaving source book.

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BiggRigg42

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #12 on: 30 September 2017, 16:00:14 »
"You can earn up to 10 XP per session.  But each time you use a contraction, you lose 1 XP.  Understand, quiaff?"

I am so tempted to do this. It would be great. Two military guys in my group might do it, but the other people are less hardcore about roleplaying. Maybe I should put this up to a vote with the group.

Wrangler

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Re: Sell Me On BattleTech As An RPG Setting
« Reply #13 on: 30 September 2017, 19:11:34 »
Try Shadowrun 5th edition. Drop all the fastasy, tone down the tech, and add missing skils related to Battletech related stuff. Its fun system.
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