Author Topic: [Giorgioverse]Master Thread  (Read 11017 times)

Giorgio76

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[Giorgioverse]Master Thread
« on: 01 January 2019, 12:26:51 »
Revised: 2/07/2020

I temporarily removed all the of the original (multiple) posts in this thread so I can reformat them and repost with new material that I have been working on since JAN 2020. At lot has changed since I wrote my first post back in 2019. 😉
.
Thanks to everyone who has responded so far, and I will be updating this thread on my days off from work (THU-FRI-SAT) as RL time allows.
« Last Edit: 07 February 2020, 07:00:00 by Giorgio76 »

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Alpha Strike via Roll20
« Reply #1 on: 01 January 2019, 13:02:35 »
I don't have experience with roll20, but if you do decide to reevaluate what platform you want to use I'd say VASSAL could work as an online Alpha Strike game platform.

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: The Inner Sphere
« Reply #2 on: 01 January 2019, 13:36:18 »
The DC did reverse engineer the Harchetman (sans the full-head ejection system) based on captured examples.

Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: The Inner Sphere
« Reply #3 on: 01 January 2019, 14:15:32 »
As far as removing plot armor from the 4th Succession War... How did the FS/LC planners not notice all those juicy FWL industrial worlds so close to the border?  Tikonov was nice, but some of those FWL planets would have nicely broadened the shoulder of the combined realm from the other direction.  And we know the DCMS was far more focused on the Dragoons...

Daryk

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For Part A, I recommend this thread.  I daresay that will cover just about everything you need.

Part B is far more involved, and would involve Xotl's RATs, but I think you cited those already.

Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: General
« Reply #5 on: 01 January 2019, 14:30:16 »
C3) This website has a jump route function, and is pretty cool for other reasons too.

C1) The aerospace rules are both more complicated (designs, at least), and simpler in some ways (e.g., there's really no terrain to worry about, nor movement modifiers).

C4) I think you meant "comprehensive", and that would be a no, and I think deliberately so on the part of TPTB.  The Interstellar Players books are basically in universe conspiracy theories, and can certainly give you ideas.

C12) I'd look back at the original TRO 3025 and make some back of the envelope estimates based on that (e.g., bug 'mechs resume being the most common, and things like Archers are far more prevalent than currently).

C2) I don't play Alpha Strike, so really can't help you there.  Others are more familiar.

Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Mercenary Company Rules & Commands (3025 era)
« Reply #6 on: 01 January 2019, 14:32:44 »
I can really only answer 1), and that is correct.  That said, my impression is that the Mercenary Handbooks (all editions) are still worth looking at.

To sort out 3025 era mercenary units, the best strategy I can think of is to reference the original House Books, and look at the units mentioned there.

Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Player Questions
« Reply #7 on: 01 January 2019, 15:06:30 »
I've seen other GMs use Discord, so you might add that to your list of "are you familiar with..." questions.

B12 might need a little more explanation as to what you mean by each element.  Almost all of them are "your mileage may vary" terms.

You talk about 1-3 PCs, but most infantry squads are 7.  You might want to include "PC directed NPCs" in this question.

B2 and B3 seem to be tip-toeing around the "faction" question.  It would probably be easier to just ask explicitly.

Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions I
« Reply #8 on: 01 January 2019, 15:18:58 »
A6) All of the House Books, plus the Star League and Periphery books from the '80s.

The major decision point I'd point to in 3000-3040 would be the decision to attack the Draconis Combine vice the Free Worlds League in 3039.  There was MUCH more to be gained hitting Marik than Kurita in that era.

A5) There are lots of ways to make that storyline more interesting.  Among them: the "pirates" aren't actually pirates (variously: Nation State raiders, mercenaries (suckers) hired to hunt "pirates", simply rivals to the hiring faction (on planet, or a neighboring one), actual rebels, etc.); the PCs have to find the pirate base before attacking (jumpships are notoriously hard to track); the people hiring the PCs are the actual "pirates"; the mission turns into a simple garrison contract (they never come back, and the locals don't want to pay); etc.

A2) Exactly as much as makes it interesting to you as the GM, and no more.

Sartris

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A) while my papertech counters daryk linked are inferior to the box set items  (especially since they aren’t colorized), at least the price is right

B) I would also add Jumpships and Dropships to your background reading. The Star League and Wolf’s Dragoons books may also be helpful

For the most common twenty mechs, that’s going to be a matter of educated conjecture as production and attrition rates have always been spotty. Xotl’s tables will help you with some rough divination (commonality cross-referenced against house mech weight distribution and overall military size) but that seems like a ton of work. Personally I’d go with the Macross 14 (the mechs in the third edition box) plus a few others that you think are cool from TRO 3025 (if you’re set on 20)
« Last Edit: 01 January 2019, 15:21:31 by Sartris »

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Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Mechwarrior RPG Online Resources
« Reply #10 on: 01 January 2019, 15:20:28 »
I can only point to the AToW sub-forum here.  I (and several others) have built spreadsheets for character creation that seem to have been well received (or at least downloaded a lot).

Daryk

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Don't sell yourself short, Sartris… that was some awesome work!  :thumbsup:

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: General
« Reply #12 on: 01 January 2019, 15:36:54 »
SLDF caches are usually found as required by plot, conventionally. You can assume that the closer you get to earth, the more picked over the planets are going to be and any finds there will be in extremely remote locations (eg my old GM made one appear via a violent volcano eruption and earthquake once). The "north east" of the inner sphere is probably less likely to have substantial finds as well, as that is the territory crossed through by Kerensky's fleet on their way out of town for the Exodus. By all accounts they took everything they could carry and would have had a fairly comprehensive list of installations. This probably also holds true for the path carved through by Kerensky himself during the Rim Worlds Campaign and Operation Chieftain in the Amaris Civil War.

That said, any planet could have anything from a long-forgotten warehouse to a full-fledged base with mothballed units. There have been at least a few threads over the years where we discuss what would actually still be good in such caches (do YOU want to try the rations packed in 2770?)

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Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: General
« Reply #13 on: 01 January 2019, 15:41:12 »
Heh... I just threw half a case of MREs from the 2500s (Reunification War) at my players... :)

skiltao

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: General
« Reply #14 on: 01 January 2019, 16:13:27 »
C3) Here's another distance calculator, and I think there's a couple more if you google "battletech jump route calculator." (I'm not currently aware of any which account for charging times at specific stars or saving time by occasionally changing ships, or ubiquitous random delays.)

If you know your starting and ending coordinates, you can find the minimum number of jumps with the equation sqrt((x1-x2)^2 + (y1-y2)^2)/30.

C4) Can I ask why you ask? If you're looking at scope, I believe the Liao regiment Cochrane's Goliaths were formed around (at least sixteen, and less than thirty-six) Goliath 'Mechs recovered from a cache, and I think the old Star League sourcebook says about one SLDF cache is found every year. Contents can, of course, vary; some finds have been literal libraries of books, and I think some have been geological monitoring sites.

C12) The HBS game has a number of TR2750 designs, which are basically unheard of in the traditional 3025 material; FanPro and CGL books have gone back and forth on how common they "really" are, so I think how you resolve the question will ultimately be a matter of taste. The simplest way to reconcile it with the traditional 3025 material is to recognize that random old designs of all kinds can occasionally pop up anywhere, and to assume that the bulk of these in particular are leftovers from Kerensky's war against the Periphery.
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Re: [Giorgioverse] Alpha Strike via Roll20
« Reply #15 on: 01 January 2019, 16:14:10 »
I've never played Alpha Strike on Roll20, but I've had quite a lot of experience with it and there's probably no reason it shouldn't work reasonably well?  You'll have to get your maps made up ahead of time, obviously, but if you're playing that huge pile of things all at once, then well, I see no reason you couldn't

Come to think of it, considering the character sheets I've seen for D20system games and Valor, there might be someone out there who's skirting legality and making Battletech sheets that automatically roll dice for firing weapons, hit locations, etc.  Probably not, most of the fandom is in Megameck, but it should  be possible.
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Re: [Giorgioverse] Mercenary Company Rules & Commands (3025 era)
« Reply #16 on: 01 January 2019, 16:19:41 »
1) Not Tactical Operations - that book has nothing relevant. You probably mean Strategic Operations, where the detailed repair and maintenance rules currently reside.

2) If you had such an index, what type of information do you hope to find from it? If you have the old House sourcebooks, I think most of them have a short listing of associated mercenary units towards the back.
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Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Mercenary Company Rules & Commands (3025 era)
« Reply #17 on: 01 January 2019, 16:31:25 »
Well, TacOps does have some "new" equipment listed as available in the 3025 era, and how to use it (e.g., Recon Cameras, Remote Sensor Dispensers, etc.).

Sartris

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Mercenary Company Rules & Commands (3025 era)
« Reply #18 on: 01 January 2019, 16:32:25 »
The housebooks have mercs listed alongside national forces in the deployment tables, yes

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: The Periphery
« Reply #19 on: 01 January 2019, 17:06:59 »
C6) The Star League economically undermined the periphery realms, purposely draining them of technological infrastructure, and the Concordat's industry took additional damage while Kerensky was putting down the Vandenberg Revolt. (So much, in fact, that most of the region is no longer part of the Concordat.) While the periphery nations didn't "participate" in the Succession Wars as such, they are small enough that their individual regiments were just as active as the average Successor State regiment, and it takes much smaller campaigns to subject their worlds to the same level of predation. HPGs are also scarcer in Periphery nations, which makes grand projects harder to pursue.

C7) If you draw a line through the Pleiades to Tentativa, everything on or "below" that line used to be under Taurian control.

C10-A) With the Concordat's leader paranoid and turtling, it'd be easy to start an accidental brush war with them. The Aurigan Coalition are basically merchant-minded, so it wouldn't be surprising to see them supplying munitions and other basic supplies to either New Syrtis or Capellan aligned forces. Politically, a Capellan duke could worry about becoming a "gift" to help seal a union with Hasek, and try to court the Aurigans as either an ally or a bolt-hole.

C10-B) I see the Aurigans (especially if they hold onto the Argo) mostly in the role of a trade cartel, shipping goods between the colonies, and carrying their output back to the Concordat.
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2ndAcr

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: General
« Reply #20 on: 01 January 2019, 17:17:01 »
 MekHQ calculates charging time for you. Plus the travel time from your current planet to jump point and then jump point to planet surface at your destination.

Daryk

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: The Periphery
« Reply #21 on: 01 January 2019, 17:32:41 »
C10) Another possibility would be for either side to transit through on the way to (or from) a surprise attack.  That could get very complicated very quickly.

skiltao

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what would you recommend as the Most Common ™ 20 BattleMech designs, and Most Common ™ 20 Vehicles/Infantry unit types, fielded by each of the Great Houses, Minor Houses, ComStar, Mercenary, and Pirates forces of the 3025 era?

Aside from a very small handful of signature of faction designs, the "most common" is going to be the same for everyone. I agree with Sartris about the 14 'Mechs from the 3e box (which are from several shows, not just Macross), and then add the... eight? ...factional 'Mechs from the 1e RPG.

Technically, the Stalker, Banshee and Charger would all be more common than the BattleMaster, and the Dervish and Orion are quite likely more common the Rifleman. More importantly, though, lots of people would advise against giving players a 20-ton bug 'Mech as their PC's ride.

For the Twenty Most Common ™ vehicle types, I'd again start with the ones the 1e RPG, then add the Galleon and Von Luckner from TR:3025, and then the LRM/SRM missile carriers from TR:3026. Infantry is a simple case of the better it is, the less common it is. Foot rifle infantry is most common and rocketeer laser infantry is least common.
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Sartris

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Aside from a very small handful of signature of faction designs, the "most common" is going to be the same for everyone. I agree with Sartris about the 14 'Mechs from the 3e box (which are from several shows, not just Macross)

yeah good correction. i got my unseen lists mixed up.

3E Mechs
-----------
Locust (Crusher Joe)
Stinger (Macross)
Wasp (Macross)
Phoenix Hawk (Macross)
Griffin (Dougram)
Shadow Hawk (Dougram)
Wolverine (Dougram)
Rifleman (Macross)
Crusader (Macross)
Thunderbolt (Dougram)
Archer (Macross)
Warhammer (Macross)
Marauder (Macross)
Battlemaster (Dougram)

In the back of my head, I was thinking of the macross (or macross-inspired like the Osts), which also number 14

Wasp
Stinger
Valkyrie
Ostscout
Phoenix Hawk
Ostroc
Ostsol
Rifleman
Crusader
Archer
Warhammer
Marauder
Longbow
Marauder II

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions I
« Reply #24 on: 01 January 2019, 20:16:05 »
A1) If Anton Marik doesn't massacre the Dragoon dependents, he could win his civil war (or at least not lose it) and marry Max Liao's heir. This gives the Capellans stronger backing for the Fourth Succession War, and - without Thomas Marik in the line of succession - means the FWL has no incentive to back the FedCom and Dracs during the Clan War. Lots of things also change if Alessandro successfully assassinates Katrina.

If Max succeeded in assassinating the Duke of Tikonov during the 4th Succession War, the FedCom wouldn't have gained that region so easily; and if they fail to cut the Tikonov Commonality from Sian's control (and especially if Anton has been a stronger Liao ally) the Suns won't conquer the further parts of the Sarna commonality. Alternatively, if Justing Xiang becomes consort to the new Capellan ruler, the whole Confederation (instead of just St Ives) could become a Suns protectorate.

A2) The players should be aware of anything major their characters would be aware of when the campaign starts, and I think it's fair to offer a vague warning about the scope of other changes they might encounter as the campaign progresses. Probably important to describe the scope of the campaign and how much influence the players can expect to exert.

A3) Canonically, I think an Andurien/Betelgeus/Canopus block is the only viable candidate for changing the balance of power.

A4) If the Federated Suns could sway the An Ting region over to their side, like they did the Northwind Highlanders, they begin to cut the Combine off from its historic root in Galedon and New Samarkand. The Free Worlds could absorb Canopus or some Lyran duchy. It's easy to justify individual worlds or small duchies going one way or another on any border, but anything bigger - like Rasalhague, Tamar, Chesterton, New Syrtis - gets harder because of animosities, current momentum on the border, and specific personal ambitions.

A5) The pirates are lairing under a historic church or important industriplex the PCs' patron won't want damaged. The pirates are secretly supplying a worthy cause. They're all orphans from Penzance. The "pirates" aren't pirates at all but political dissidents or opponents of the PCs' sponsor. The pirates have personal connections to someone the PCs' like. The pirates are on a personal vendetta related or unrelated to the PCs' sponsor, where certain kinds of action will draw the PCs into a bigger mess between multiple players. The pirates are friendly or unfriendly POWs escaping fair or unfair treatment. The pirates possess knowledge - buried munitions depot, names of the PCs' secret political enemies, how to contact a good information broker - the PCs want. The PCs have family among the pirates. The PCs' sponsor(s) have family among the pirates. One of the pirates has a hereditary claim to the PCs' sponsor's title, lands or possessions. The pirates have leverage on the PCs. The pirates have leverage on the PCs' sponsor. The sponsor has leverage on the pirates. The PCs have a specific target they want the pirates to attack.

A6) The "DropShips & JumpShips" book, and the "Chaos March" sourcebook. The latter isn't the right time period but it's a fair survey of duchy-level activity across a small region.
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skiltao

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: The Inner Sphere
« Reply #25 on: 01 January 2019, 20:58:13 »
C5) Sure.

C8) Try filtering the Master Unit List by tech level and then sorting the results by their "intro" date. I suspect MegaMek Lab and Solaris Skunkwerks have similar functions.

C9-A) That depends on how original the Merlin really is, whether the Houses believe it's actually new, and whether they actually hear about it. Both the Draconis Combine and the Federated Suns have strong industrial ties inside the Outworlds Alliance, so I suspect they'd try to recruit or kidnap the relevant personnel rather than invade.

C9-B) The Davion-aligned Dr. B. Banzai is believed to have worked on the Lyran Hatchetman design. Lyran engineers are known to have traveled to the Davion world of Quentin to improve the efficiency of the factory there. I believe the NAIS also reserved some seats for Lyran students.

C9-C) Sure. That's probably how the Lyrans got enough skilled technicians to actually finish that fusion plant factory.

C9-D) Possibly. Anton Marik and Max Liao exchanged 'Mech blueprints a decade or two earlier, and the Concord of Kapteyn did include limited BattleMech and weapon sales. However, the Cataphract isn't so much a "new design" as a desperate kludge of other 'Mechs that (I suspect) the Capellans were losing the ability to produce. Of the Kapteyn allies, the Capellans have the least technological skill.

C9-E) The Houses are always trying to infiltrate each other's factories and acquire each other's skilled personnel. The DC did acquire Hatchetmen at some point, though they do not seem to have stolen the blueprints.

C11) Arbitrarily flip all successful assassinations to unsuccessful, and all unsuccessful to successful.

How did the FS/LC planners not notice all those juicy FWL industrial worlds so close to the border?

Huh? The Lyrans got everything near Oliver almost for free, and the others - Amity, Kalidasa, Irian - tend to be pretty well defended even if the Lyrans were to draw troops off the Kurita front.
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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: The Inner Sphere
« Reply #26 on: 01 January 2019, 21:04:12 »
I don't know if 3028 Amity, Kalidassa or Irian could stand up to a determined RCT or two.  It would strike me as a gamble worth taking.

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Re: [Giorgioverse] Mercenary Company Rules & Commands (3025 era)
« Reply #27 on: 01 January 2019, 21:17:21 »
The housebooks have mercs listed alongside national forces in the deployment tables, yes

The regimental bios have some additional info too.
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Re: [Giorgioverse] Open Campaign Questions II: General
« Reply #28 on: 01 January 2019, 21:19:29 »
MekHQ calculates charging time for you. Plus the travel time from your current planet to jump point and then jump point to planet surface at your destination.

That's neat. Does it do the full schedule, telling you which stars you're stopping at along the way?
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In the back of my head, I was thinking of the macross (or macross-inspired like the Osts), which also number 14

Hah, that's neat. Never noticed that before.
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