Favorite bit of silly BTech trivia?

[Drewbacca]

Why do I picture them rolling for initiative and the map bursting into flames.

The map, the dice, the record sheets... and somehow the miniatures reach critical mass.

[Drewbacca]

Back to trivia, I remember the notable pilot of a medium mech in TRO:3025 had specialized in taking out enemy stragglers without making a sound. I always thought that was cool and nonsensical at the same time.

[Mendrugo]

In addition to Loren Coleman's use of Chinese phonetic puns for unit commander names in FM: Capellan Confederation, he also asked Camille Klein (who was on these forums way back as AcidQueen, infamously declared a Jihad against the animated series that culminated in a formal Trial of Grievance at FASA HQ, and wrote the Marian Hegemony section of FM: Periphery) for a list of names he could slip in as Capellan officers.  She provided him with a list of pro-Capellan Usenet users who'd been active on rec.games.mecha in the 1990s, as well as members of her family.

Red Lancers 2nd Battalion Commander Drew Patterson
Red Lancers 3rd Battalion Commander Peter Smith
Dynasty Guard CO Eric Salzman
Dynasty Guard XO Jordan Weiss (for Jordan Weisman)
6th Capellan Reserve Cavalry 2nd Battalion Commander Jeremy Kubasik (for Christopher Kubasik?)
7th Capellan Reserve Cavalry XO Shawna White (Camille's sister)
1st Capellan Defense Force Aerospace Wing Commander Alec Bain (Camille's husband)
3rd McCarron's Armored Cavalry, 3rd Battalion Commander Lance Hawkins (aka Øystein Tvedten)
4th McCarron's Armored Cavalry "Carson's Cavaliers" CO Richard Carson
4th McCarron's Armored Cavalry 2nd Battalion Commander Dave Stansel (David Stansel-Gardner)
15th Dracon XO Clint Swereda
Harloc Raiders 2nd Battalion Commander Michael Zabkar (Mike Zabkar on rgm)
Harloc Raiders 3rd Battalion Commander Adam Olsen
St. Cyr's Armored Hussars XO Ian Hayes
2nd St. Ives Lancers Air Lancers Wing Commander Brett Lonewolf (David "LoneWolf" Williams)
Blackwind Lancers CO Warner Doles

[Frabby]

Blackwind Lancers CO Warner Doles

Warner Doles is on record stating that he won a charity auction to have his name used for a character in a novel, and was later surprised just how central to the Capellan Solution plot the in-universe Warner Doles turned out to be. Not a minor character at all.

[SteelRaven]

The story of Gausszilla made me chuckle.

[BrokenMnemonic]

I like the story of the Hellbie dice, and not just because it ended up on the tropes website, but also because I've had 40K and AD&D players who've never played BattleTech use the expression in games.

[Dayton3]

I liked how in Tales of the Black Widow,   MechWarrior Alexios Delius was serving in the Black Widow Company under a (temporarily) suspended death sentence for murdering innocent civilians.

Natasha Kerensky had the full authority to carry out the death sentence (by battlemech firing squad) at her descretion.

It was said that "facing certain death for the smallest failure in combat or breach of discipline,   Delius has become a letter perfect soldier"

[Drewbacca]

I like the story of the Hellbie dice, and not just because it ended up on the tropes website, but also because I've had 40K and AD&D players who've never played BattleTech use the expression in games.

This is awesome. Hellbie, I bow before your magnificently bad luck.

And as an addendum, I did have a chance to get my first win back around 2001, the dice loved me, my tactics were perfect and I was turns away for winning a four-man free-for-all. Then I remembered I had promised my wife, then fiancee, I would call her before she went to sleep. In Germany. Which meant I had to be home to call in about an hour. I decided to make some bad decisions and make some risky rolls. The dice turned so quickly even Hellbie would have pitied me. Twenty minutes later I am all packed up and driving home.

[Sartris]

My one and only BT credit is in the special thanks of the BMM - this is one more than I ever expected and definitely one more than I deserve

[The Eagle]

On that note, I want to thank TPTB for putting Dan Schulz aka Albatross into Jihad Hotspots Terra.  He was a good friend and that came as a very pleasant surprise.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Albatross was a big name on the forums.  It's not surprising that he'd get a tribute like that.

[truetanker]

I met him before... will miss him and his style of play.

TT

[Drewbacca]

On that note, I want to thank TPTB for putting Dan Schulz aka Albatross into Jihad Hotspots Terra.  He was a good friend and that came as a very pleasant surprise.

I remember Albatross more from the Unkindness forum and his amazing work there. I still find it hard to accept he is not around. This was a class move from TPTB.

[marauder648]

A question about the TRO 3145 TRO's. What is it with them and their bizzare love affair with the Orloff Military Academy being brought up in the notable pilots or fluff section? Is this some reference to something?

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Possibly just (re)establishing that the Orloff Mafia is alive and well in the nuFWLM.

[Daemion]

I always imagine the Clanners having slight fake-Russian accent.
It makes no sense whatsoever even if Kerenskys spoke Russian. But... i don't know, pseudo animal-tribe space-mongols who-speak English with bad fake-Russian accent? My brain just says "let's go with that".

Well, the fact that they were described as trying to keep the English language as pure as possible, to the exclusion of contractions, suggests that they would have adopted the flat 'American' Mid-west accent, at least in my mind. That means the Cartoon had it backward.  The IS should be speaking with odd-flavored accents while the Clans should sound very 'American'.

My favorite bit of trivia is out of older rule-sets.

Did you know that not only could you accidentally set fires, but you could accidentally clear a woods hex by a level with a result of 11 or 12 on the same check roll?

[mbear]

I remember Albatross more from the Unkindness forum and his amazing work there. I still find it hard to accept he is not around. This was a class move from TPTB.

Along those same lines, the Chaffee ServiceMech being named for Doug Chaffee, long time BT artist. And the writeup in TRO:VA Revised is a moving tribute to the man himself.

[Feenix74]

That Iron Wind Metals / Ral Partha still exists in 3025:



Screenshot of the Company Customisation screen from the Captain's Quarters of your dropship in the HBS Battletech game.

[Kit deSummersville]

Or a do not enter sign from the '20s.

[ColBosch]

Nice broken link.

[JadeHellbringer]

I like the story of the Hellbie dice, and not just because it ended up on the tropes website, but also because I've had 40K and AD&D players who've never played BattleTech use the expression in games.

Wait, really? I mean, I knew the meme made its way around this community regularly, but I didn't realize it was mainstream beyond that. I guess the Venn diagram overlap between Battletech players and other games' players is likely pretty broad, never thought about it before, but... wow. I'm strangely humbled by that. Thanks guys! My embarrassment is my fame, I guess!  ;D

[Drewbacca]

You are a legend and a hero, Hellbie. And I hereby issue an official challenge. Let the Bad Dice Bonanza begin. :D

[JadeHellbringer]

You are a legend and a hero, Hellbie. And I hereby issue an official challenge. Let the Bad Dice Bonanza begin. :D

Child, please. You're messing with the champ here.

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=49292.msg1137830#msg1137830

"Look upon ye mighty works and despair."

(Actually I need to update that thing sometime)

[Drewbacca]

OK, you win. Crap, now I am a Falcon Bondsman...

[Feenix74]

Nice broken link.

Can you see it now?

That Iron Wind Metals / Ral Partha still exists in 3025:



Screenshot of the Company Customisation screen from the Captain's Quarters of your dropship in the HBS Battletech game.

It is all photobucket's fault, if they had not gone and stuff up their service, I would not be trying to share via google photos . . .

[ANS Kamas P81]

Shows there.  Also imgur is a very efficient host as well, if you don't mind sharing your photos with the internet (often for hilarious comment)

[ColBosch]

Shows there.  Also imgur is a very efficient host as well, if you don't mind sharing your photos with the internet (often for hilarious comment)

I'd rather eat rocks than use Imgur again. I use Flickr, but I'm wary about their sale to SmugMug. *sighs*

Anyway, I like that pic! I should probably go ahead and buy this game at some point. ;D

[trboturtle]

Wait, really? I mean, I knew the meme made its way around this community regularly, but I didn't realize it was mainstream beyond that. I guess the Venn diagram overlap between Battletech players and other games' players is likely pretty broad, never thought about it before, but... wow. I'm strangely humbled by that. Thanks guys! My embarrassment is my fame, I guess!  ;D

In case you haven't seen it..... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/EpicFail/TabletopGames

In the BattleTech community, there is a term for this as applied to dice rolls — Hellbie dice, where a roll or series of rolls is so utterly catastrophic as to completely ruin a player's chances in a game and goes beyond mere Critical Failure by defying the laws of averages. Named for JadeHellbringer, global moderator for the main forums for Classic Battletech and regular at the Battletech tables of several conventions. In one oft repeated instance, he played a game where he was given a 'Mech with ten Ultra autocannons. This type of gun can be fired normally, or with a double mode activated that doubles the firepower at the risk of the gun jamming itself into utter uselessness for the rest of the match. Any given gun has a 1 in 36 chance of failure (2 on a roll of 2d6) when fired on double mode. While firing all ten guns on their double setting, he managed to jam seven of them on his first turn. The utter defiance of averages in favor of astounding failure is a hallmark of his history with dice.

• For the record, the odds of rolling that badly are approximately 1 in 700 million assuming unbiased dice.
  
• Though whether these dice were biased is moot: after this little performance, Hellbie took them out into the carpark and "retired" them. With a pocket torch.
• A variant of the Hollander seems to have been an Epic Fail in the making when it was being built. It is quite possible to destroy itself without receiving a single shot of enemy fire. The Heavy Gauss Rifle requires a piloting roll to stay standing if fired in a round when the mech has spent any movement points, and the rear armor is insufficient to withstand falling damage. If the pilot fails a roll and falls onto its back on the side with the gun, the gun can detonate, doing exactly enough damage to tear the 'Mech apart. An Epic Fail in both design and action.
• When artillery rules were updated in the rules book Tactical Operations, the artillery miss chases were so bad that when using on-board artillery it was entirely plausible that a shot could be fired at an enemy 600 meters directly ahead of the unit and have it accidentally land on the the unit that fired the shot or even have it land directly behind that unit.

And http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanNickname/TableTopGames:

Hellbie Dice - specific to Classic BattleTech, spread through its online community. Named for JadeHellbringer, a forum moderator and community veteran—specifically, his terrible luck in rolling dice. It refers to rolls that critically fail to such an absurd, game-ending degree that they become epic failure, mostly through a combination of Disaster Dominoes and defying the law of averages. Miss easy shots? It happens. Jam one of your guns in the process? Bad luck (and a 1 in 36 chance). Jam a gun on your first turn? Lousy luck, but entirely possible. Jam 70% of your 'Mech's guns, get rendered almost useless on your first turn as a result, then get killed by a damaged 'Mech 30 tons lighter than you? Now it's Hellbie dice.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I would like to point out that the story of Hellbie Dice is so famous and so epic that it's been allowed to stay on the Epic Fail page despite the trope normally being restricted to in-universe examples only.

[Feenix74]

I'd rather eat rocks than use Imgur again. I use Flickr, but I'm wary about their sale to SmugMug. *sighs*

Anyway, I like that pic! I should probably go ahead and buy this game at some point. ;D

Consider it a donation to the PGI fighting fund  :thumbsup:

I know the game is made by a completely different entity HBS, but HBS licence the 3d models of the mechs from PGI. So some of the money makes it back to PGI in some form.