CBT: Quick-Kill Rules

[Daemion]

Yeah, I could see that. I do think it's fun when everyone's hobbling around with damaged actuators and down to one last functional weapon...

Well, one of my pet peeves happens to be games with linear life meters. Tracking damage, even across multiple locations, is the same, ultimate effect. If you give me something in a game that justifies that kind of simplification (having fun with other aspects that complicate a game and make it more interesting) then I can live with it. Otherwise, give me   odd effects any day.

The current trend in BT rules design, lately, seems to be mostly point tracking - life-metering - with a very low probability threshold for anything interesting happening. First you have to hit. Then you have to power through the armor. You must eliminate all internal structure to destroy a location and deprive a unit of stuff there. You're also looking at any  crit from internal damage only happening 40ish percent of the time.

Yeah. The basic game can be kinda slow and boring at times. Especially when 2 and 5 point damage-clusters seem to be the norm, and the work-horse mechs run around 15 points of armor per location, with the trend toward more the heavier the mech gets.

So, I can see the desire for and increase in frequency of any of the aspects I listed above. More damage. Higher hit ratio. Higher frequency for odd effects.

If you do end up going that way, it does get to a point where one or more units are so crippled as to be a mission kill. The controller in our group usually pulls the unit at that point, claiming they've surrendered, regardless of whether the battle is still raging or not. It does help speed things up when you're not playing to the last scrap if internal structure. Throw in objectives to help focus each side, and games go rather quickly.

[noisenerd]

If you do end up going that way, it does get to a point where one or more units are so crippled as to be a mission kill. The controller in our group usually pulls the unit at that point, claiming they've surrendered, regardless of whether the battle is still raging or not. It does help speed things up when you're not playing to the last scrap if internal structure. Throw in objectives to help focus each side, and games go rather quickly.

That's the way I've been doing our games too, as far as the objectives and surrenders (I became GM by default in our little gaming group, being the only one that's played before, albeit almost 20 years ago). My group does have a tendency to get distracted easily, so getting things to move faster is a good thing.

I also like the idea that gives of "punching through the armor" in a more realistic way, though I can live with the damage-tracking thing. I think it will also especially help, as you say, with the heavier mechs- this group is three games in (perfect timing for the new box set), and so far it's been mostly light mechs and vehicles- but I think that would give a more satisfying feel of doing some actual damage earlier on to keep things more interesting as we move up in tonnage. They've requested heavier mechs for the next session, so we'll see how it plays out.