BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Game Systems => A Time of War => Topic started by: TalonZorch on 06 November 2011, 15:55:31
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Hi,
I just stumbled upon that there is A Time of War - where I only knew Classic Battletech RPG.
Is there some kind of changelog or information what changed between the two versions? Or a conversion guide?
Kind regards,
TalonZ
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The system is pretty different the older editions. You can download the Quick Start Rules and see the basic differences.
QSR - http://bg.battletech.com/downloads/QSR_ATimeOfWar.pdf (http://bg.battletech.com/downloads/QSR_ATimeOfWar.pdf)
The is also a "A Time of War Companion" that is in the works that is supposed to have rules for converting older systems to A Time of War. You can see it's description here; (http://bg.battletech.com/?page_id=474) about 3/4 way down.
Hope this helps
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in many ways atow is closer to 2nd edition than 3rd edition its neuances are different but ....
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Do you think the new, or the third edition is better? .)
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I think there are Babylonian clay tablets that make for a better RPG then 3rd edition
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Do you think the new, or the third edition is better? .)
ATOW is better in almost every way. BUT I do miss the randomness of the 3rd Edition Character Generation.
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IMO?
I liked 2nd edition even if it had some issues with being easy to min/max
I was not fond of 3rd edition ... it was a decient rpg but did not interface well with battletech (or at least any of the other battletech games)
4th edition in many ways is the best of both
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My group tried AToW and we liked it as a game. The group as a whole, however, prefferred 3rd ed over it.
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Thanks for your feedback on my issues. I have just ordered a copy of ToW via Amazon to see it myself - and not just looking through in the game shop. By the way ... its a pity that my local gaming shop charges twenty bucks more then amazon for the book ... I like to support him, but not at this cost.
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The randomness of 3rd Ed drove me insane. You want a Trueborn Mechwarrior. You get a one-eyed amnesiac fry cook with a love of Korean rock opera, and no idea how you got there
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then you didn't do it right.
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Privyet!
well, call me weird, but still prefer second edition here. Of course, I also didn't think that first was unplayable either. ;)
At some point, I plan on trying 'A Time of War." It looks promising. But as a crusty old grognard, I sometimes fail to see why I should spend money on things I already have, in one reiteration or another. :D
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I liked second edition a lot and my group put a bunch of effort into fixing some of the broken problems it had. Some of us had bought third ED but after all the work we had just done we saw an equal amount of work to fix MW3. A year later we found a copy of MW3 Solaris rules and with some tweaks converted to 2D10 for mech and out of mech combat.
Relying on the skill and attribute mix to determine how hard you are to hit seemed to make a lot of sense. It fit fluff of the Awesome (3025 TRO) that danced out of the way of incoming fire etc. With high skill small mech pilots can truly become a problem. There was a natural movement is important aspect to the system.
We took a short break from Battletech and when we came back the ATOW was just finishing beta. With a few tweaks to our MW3 Solaris rules and converting the ATOW 2D6 TN to 2D10 TN. That and we upped the starting points to 5500 to accommodate for higher attributes than the 4's the system is built around. Overall ATOW is a much better blending of MW1 2 and fixes many of MW3 problems.
In normal straight up Battletech any mech that moves x number of hexes is the same number to hit be they a totally rookie or a 20 year veteran. In short that aspect alone was the one that sold me on changing over. In short this system made Battletech feel like and RPG.
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then you didn't do it right.
If that is what the dice rolls got you....I almost would have prevered an old Traveler style rolls where, instead of
crippling you, they were merciful, and KILLED you.
To the OP asking which people prefer? Well, first, let's not turn this into an Edition War(I have all 4 Editions of battletech RPGs),
and, honestly, of all of them, I prefer AToW. 1st and 2nd were just "Pilot Generators", basicly. 3rd Edition/CBTRPG went WAY too
far, and, honestly, a bit too complex over all. Mechwarrior 4th Edition/A Time of War basicly takes the best of Second Edition(directly
translates into Battletech rules) and of 3rd Edition(your character is shaped in part by their life), and put them together. AToW is basicly,
to me, if 2nd Edition was Chocolate, and 3rd Edition was Peanut Butter, and the Rebooted Core line was the speeding cars both were put
into the hands of the oblivious drivers, and Battletroops was the emergency first responder.