New Game Master starting up a Battletech Campaign

[OddWalrus]

Hey BT Forums!

Hope I'm posting in the right category! I posted this over in "Ground Combat" as well, but realized maybe this would be another good place to get opinions.

I'm a long time Battletech player, but I've never run a Battletech Campaign before as a Game Master. I recently thought of a good idea for a campaign, and I found some interested players, so now, it just comes down to making sure I run things right.

Naturally, I'm a little nervous. I've Game Mastered tons of tabletop RPG's before, but never a miniatures game like Battletech, which appears to be a lot more work. I have a few questions I was hoping to get some help with.

To give you a little background on the gaming group and what I'm planning:

Gaming Group: is a bunch of experienced gamers, well versed in board games, tabletop RPG's, and various other games. One of the other players is as experienced in BT as me, but he has also never been the Game Master of a campaign. There are 3 player currently, with a possible 4th. No more will show up. If I end up with only 3 players, I can run an extra mech on the player side to fill out the lance.

Campaign: 3025, to keep things simple for the other two players who have never played BT before. Each player would be an independent mercenary who owns their own mech, who works under contract of a larger mercenary company, in this case, the Grey Death Legion, the Kell Hounds, or the Northwind Highlanders (haven't decided which yet). The players would be responsible for the upkeep up their mechs, and would have full control over everything, in terms of customization and modding and so on. I would like to have some sort of "Hardpoint" system implemented on the mechs, meaning they can only replace like weapons with like (can't swap missiles for lasers, etc.), but other than that, they would have free reign to do what they wanted with their mech.

The "scale" of this campaign is very small. People will own their own mech, and that's it. In general, they will also only pilot their one mech. The only way they would be able to pilot two mech is, if they get another mech during gameplay, and then hire an underling mechwarrior of some port to pilot it for them in combat. As such, the campaign isn't going to be at the army/platoon level or anything like that, just the lance/individual mech level, so very small scale.

They will start with either a Light or Medium mech. If they pick a light mech, they'll get the full amount of points they need to make their character, but if they pick a heavy mech, they'll get less points to make their character.

The "Boots-on-the-ground" portion of the game will be done using the Fate Core system. I've run ATOW before, and I don't really like the system, and I want to keep the Role-Playing portion of the game rules light, so that way more emphasis can be placed on the mech combat. I'm familiar with Fate Core, so no help needed on that part.


So now that you know what kind of campaign I'm planning, here are my questions:

1.) What books should I read to figure out how to run a campaign like this? Is there any one book? Is there any guidance anyone can offer on this? The books I've read haven't really detailed anything like this. I was planning on just trying to house rule stuff and come up with things as I went if I can't find anything official, but I would really love any advice here in terms of books to read, or people who have done this before.

2.) This might be covered in a book, but I don't know which one, how do I handle things like customization? I know Techmanual covers some of this, and I have that book, but just wanted to see if there is something else I should be looking at. Also, is there a good place that lists prices for things for markets my players might encounter (i.e., I want to buy a large laser, how much does it cost? How much does a jumpship trip cost?, etc.)

3.) I've heard people mention something called a Warchest system, but I don't know what that is. Should that be something I should consider using? Does this have anything to do with C-Bills?

4.) In terms of Mech Encounter/Combat balance, I was planning on avoiding BV if I could, and instead use tonnage because it feels easier (a lot of Game Masters have used tonnage instead of BV in the past. It's not perfect I know, but it's "good enough" and it seems easier).

Thanks in advance for all the help and looking forward to you all's answers!

[Tangoforone]

Equipment costs are on Sarna.  You could then apply a modifier based on the reputation your merc group has with the system faction.  Personally I would ignore the cost repairs of armor, or charge a flat rate, but I do not like to pretend I'm an accountant.  I like to pretend that I am piloting a death machine, winning honor and glory on the sundered battlefields of 3025.

Campaign Operations, Interstellar Operations, and Mercenary Handbook are probably good investments when looking for costs of random stuff.  I think renting a deck on a jumpship costs $30,000 C-bills per jump (so if the jumpship needs to jump three times then it will run $90,000 C-bills).  That's just a guess, and I imagine CO or IO has those costs.

As an overall tip, at least for my games, make sure the players have a definitive ending to the campaign.  Personally, I would lose interest pretty fast if my only objective was to get a bigger mech.  It could be that my mech was stolen by a family friend who betrayed us, and now I have some derpy Locust or Flea and my objective is to recover the family heirloom.  Or maybe some jag decided to usurp my family while I am working with the merc company and I have heard rumors that he has a regiment of infantry, small tanks, and some mechs, with one or two really big ones.  Obviously I can't fight a regiment with a Commando, so it's time to start trying to upgrade to reclaim my fiefdom and save my family. Or some other story line that gives a purpose for trying to get bigger, better mechs, which then help bring the story to a conclusion.  It sounds like you and your group are into RPGs, so maybe y'all already thought of this, but it's something that gets overlooked sometimes.

Be careful with tonnage balanced fights.  A 3025 stock Awesome vs. a 3025 stock Banshee would likely be a one-sided fight in favor of the Awesome, even though the Banshee outweighs it.

[Church14]

The Warchest system is from the Chaos campaign system. It’s a pretty easy to manage way of counting costs of operations, paydays, and repair/reload costs. It also provides mechanics for purchase of new units and improving skills.

There’s a free PDF for it available on DriveThruRPG

[Daryk]

What didn't you like about AToW?  If it's just character creation, I built a spreadsheet and am pretty proficient with building characters these days (especially from the 3025 era).

[Greatclub]

consider your logistical tail. Techs, supply sgt, cook, secretary (So you don't piss off people with a call tree that doesn't work,) a squad of grunts to pull security, etc.

campaign companion goes into some depth in that, and lays out a couple different campaign systems with varying levels of detail, plus standard merc contract terms.

Finally, there are the various versions of mercenaries handbook; the 80s one for 3025, the 90s one for clan invasion, and '00s one and the supplementals for civil war/early jihad.

[guardiandashi]

I am going to suggest that there are several ways to go on some of the campaign aspects.

1 KISS use the warchest system which gives simple flat expense rates.

2 a modified RPG aspect.  you (or your players) use list materials and reimbursement rates (gotta remember labor)

3 a variation on option 2 where if your players have characters with the skills and time they can do some of the repairs and maintenance themselves this could potentially cut down on labor costs they have to deal with (or increase personal profits) but ...

if you go with 2 or 3 I would also have more skilled techs reduce repair times IE a level 1-2 (skill) lead tech on armor repairs is going to a lot longer than a lead tech with level 4 or 8 skill

[Kovax]

Almost all of the older rule books included a section on custom designs, which included prices, weights, and the critical slots each item took up.  In one of the books, it detailed modifications, where changing an item for one with the same tonnage and number of slots was a lot easier than altering the tonnage or slots, which was considerably more difficult and ran the risk of unbalancing the 'Mech.  Swap a Medium Laser for a Flamer, no problem.  Swap a PPC for a Large Laser and it's going to need some competent engineering time (not by your techs), or else risk problems.  You probably want something a little more "tongue in cheek" for this campaign, but not to the point where it encourages "cheese" and heat-neutral energy-weapon zombies.

You might also want to insure that everyone chooses a 'Mech that's at least passably armored at the start.  Nothing discourages a player like having their flimsy 'Mech shot out from under them, or badly crippled (such as a gyro hit, engine hit, or main weapon knocked out), on the first round of combat.

[Church14]

I gave all my players one point of Edge that refreshes at the start of each mission. It helps with curbing the really low odds floating crit shenanigans that put a player’s mech down so quickly.

[skiltao]

1 - My favorite book for this would be the first edition RPG, but that's long out of print, and I doubt it's been pdf'd into Catalyst's online shop. There are a number of scenario packs which had mini-campaigns of linked scenarios, but I don't recall offhand which they were or which people like best; I know Starterbook Sword and Dragon used a version of the warchest system, and might be adaptible to your purposes, but I can't speak as to its quality or balance.

2a - Official customization rules are in Strategic Operations. I wouldn't worry about them - they just use critical slots instead of hardpoints as their limiter. The main thing is that there should be a cost and total success shouldn't be guaranteed.

2b - Cost of travel depends on how you travel. Travelling as regular passengers, each person should cost 500 C-Bills per jump, and each ton of cargo should cost 100 C-Bills per jump. If you're chartering a whole dropship, costs for that should be in TR:3057 or one of the merc field manuals, and each jump collar you use costs 50 000 C-Bills per jump.

3 - It's a system for abstracting costs across a whole force. (It's what you'll find in the Campaign Operations book.) I don't think it really does anything for you when each player only has a single 'Mech.

4 - Sounds fine. Once you get a feel for things, it'll probably be easier to ignore tonnage too and look directly at armor and firepower. However you measure it, someone here in the forums (I forget who, sorry) recommends setting the enemy at 2/3rds of the players' strength for a fight that feels difficult without risking a party wipe.