an unconventional mechwarrior campaign idea

[ultrasmurf]

So this is an idea for an online Mechwarrior RPG campaign I've been kicking around for a while. My friends and I all have busy schedules, live in different cities, or have a house full of kids. Needless to say, organizing regular, uninterrupted time for gaming, even online, is all but impossible. I'm posting this to get some feedback from this community, especially people who have run or played in online RPG games.

The gist of the idea is that the players are members of some organization (military unit, mercenary corp, clan, solaris house, etc.) in whichever capacity they think would be interesting to play (mechwarrior, mechanic, contract negotiator, pilot, a combination of the above or other roles, etc.)

The gameplay would all be asynchronous in the form of forum posts and / or emails. The GM (me) would describe the situation and preset options or solicit information from the players regarding their plans and preferences.

I've been thinking about having players make up their characters using the A Time of War rules to flesh out their strengths and put them on a relatively level playing field. We wouldn't use the actual mechanics of the game in most situations because it seems way too cumbersome for a game like this.

An example:
The players are members of a merc corp that has been contracted to garrison an industrial complex and it's host city on a Lyran Commonwealth planet (this example takes place in the succession wars era).

The players lay out in general terms (or very specific, up to you) how they want to go about their defense. It could include wide ranging patrols, hiring locals with radios to act as an early warning network, or anything else you can imagine. I will already have some kind of plan for what the antagonists in each situation will be and do and work out what happens next. Interesting encounters could be played out in more depth if the players want including battles using MegaMek.

[Orion]

Seems like a standard PBEM campaign setup to me.  The players give direction to what they would do, and you take all that and fashion a story from it.  Sometimes you use ATOW or MegaMek to determine the outcome of events, while others you use simply declare the outcome because it seems most interesting or logical.  It also resembles what I had once wanted to do in a fantasy game.  There wasn't any direct combat planned, as all characters were to be bishops, counts, fighting order grandmasters, etc., and it was about the grand strategy of each over a long period of time.  I wasn't really surprised when none of my hack n slash friends were interested....

I've seen PBEM that were highly rules centric, and others that used the rules for little more than character generation.  When it starts getting rules light, it starts morphing from a game to a shared storyline with several authors and a coordinator that lightly steers them all.  I would strongly tend to prefer a rules light / heavy storytelling method as a GM, but as a player wouldn't care how the GM made the decisions.  As a PBEM player, if I have to regularly refer to rules or to actually game, I won't bother participating.  To me, gaming is something I do in person, while PBEM is strictly for storytelling.  I've met others that felt that PBEM had to be rules heavy, to the point that it wasn't much more than a gaming tournament with a bit of setting tacked on.  As long as it is clear from the start how things will be done, you should be good to go.

[bblaney]

You could always do it as a Play by Post game on here or another site, though I find a certain site better for a PbP game, rpol.net, than any other so far.

[ultrasmurf]

I've seen PBEM that were highly rules centric, and others that used the rules for little more than character generation.  When it starts getting rules light, it starts morphing from a game to a shared storyline with several authors and a coordinator that lightly steers them all.  I would strongly tend to prefer a rules light / heavy storytelling method as a GM, but as a player wouldn't care how the GM made the decisions.

I'm of a similar opinion. I wouldn't want to go full on communal storytelling though. Places like battletech-mercenaries.com are a little far into that territory for my taste. I would still like to keep it a game. I take if you've played in or run games like this before. Can you offer any tips or pitfalls to avoid?

You could always do it as a Play by Post game on here or another site, though I find a certain site better for a PbP game, rpol.net, than any other so far.

If I can gather up a few players to actually do this, i'll probably use obsidianportal.com.

[bblaney]

Some suggestions for you then

Combat, do it yourself, don't wait for each player to take a turn, that way you can summarize it. Just get how they would fight, albeit long range sniper, close range brawler, or a mix.

Start the game with the unit's NPC's being in control, but eventually the PC's move up into positions of appropriate rank to do said jobs.

Have some great pictures to use as backdrop for locales they visit.

If your looking for players, I could be interested, as I am in a Dark Ages game and a post 4th Succession Wars game, but would prefer neither of those 2 era's.

[ultrasmurf]

Combat, do it yourself, don't wait for each player to take a turn, that way you can summarize it. Just get how they would fight, albeit long range sniper, close range brawler, or a mix.

Absolutely. Though, in some cases, I'll want to give the players the opportunity to make a decision mid encounter (the fight is not going well, withdraw or press on?)

Start the game with the unit's NPC's being in control, but eventually the PC's move up into positions of appropriate rank to do said jobs.

I like this idea. Writing that one down :)

Have some great pictures to use as backdrop for locales they visit.

Yep.

If your looking for players, I could be interested, as I am in a Dark Ages game and a post 4th Succession Wars game, but would prefer neither of those 2 era's.

I'd love to have you. My more battletech savvy friends and I are partial to the 3rd succession war era so no conflict there.

[bblaney]

Third Succession War you say.....

Man I need to get acquainted with that one, never read much about it, as never played in a game during that time, as the tech is basically the same as the 4th, and such

[ultrasmurf]

Third Succession War you say.....

Man I need to get acquainted with that one, never read much about it, as never played in a game during that time, as the tech is basically the same as the 4th, and such

Its not because anything spectacular happens in that particular era. Its more because the great houses are more or less at parity (I think) and there is no Federated Commonwealth or clans.

[Orion]

I'm of a similar opinion. I wouldn't want to go full on communal storytelling though. Places like battletech-mercenaries.com are a little far into that territory for my taste. I would still like to keep it a game. I take if you've played in or run games like this before. Can you offer any tips or pitfalls to avoid?

I haven't actually ever been in a PbEM game.  I've been in discussions to do it, but they always end up heading into a games heavy thing that caused me to back out.  Some were to the point that gaming skill would be the only thing that determined the outcome - basically, a tournament that someone might do a storyline for after the fact.  I've tried to get games going with friends, but none of them have much interest in settings or roleplaying, as they are self-described tactical gamers with no interest beyond combat.  They are happy to read my after-action reports, but aren't going to bother creating personalities, long-term goals, or character and unit histories.

Personally, I'm okay with a situation that is no more than a shared storytelling environment, and have developed setting stuff that way.  My biggest tips is to be very clear up front what direction things are going to go in, and have one person given complete veto power.  If there are three great potential stories, someone has to make the choice of which to do.  That person also decides when one faction has been up or down too long in the story, if the story is straying to far from accepted canon, how much emphasis to put on any character/faction/story bit, and so on.  I've found that while I often disagreed with the primary coordinator/editor on details, I found having a one person drive the story well worth it.

[Sir Chaos]

Check out www.rpol.net as a site for your game - it´s literally made for that sort of thing.

Also, I would be interested in joining your game.

[ultrasmurf]

I haven't actually ever been in a PbEM game.  I've been in discussions to do it, but they always end up heading into a games heavy thing that caused me to back out.  Some were to the point that gaming skill would be the only thing that determined the outcome - basically, a tournament that someone might do a storyline for after the fact.

While I do want to know a character's Gunnery/Mech skill, for example, it will nearly always be less important than the strategies and tactics the players choose. Setting up effective ambushes, using more mobile forces to outmaneuver enemies...those are the kinds of things that will be really important. Unless a character somehow gets himself into a dueling situation....

but aren't going to bother creating personalities, long-term goals, or character and unit histories.

This is really the meat of any good RPG in my opinion. Something I definitely would encourage.

Personally, I'm okay with a situation that is no more than a shared storytelling environment...

The reason I don't like this style is due to past experience. Maybe it was just the group I was with but, without an arbiter, the story rapidly spiraled into the ridiculous.

Check out www.rpol.net as a site for your game - it´s literally made for that sort of thing.

Also, I would be interested in joining your game.

I'm going to use obsidianportal.com to host the campaign. I like the features it offers and accounts are free unless you are a GM and want all the extras (I do). You can view the public info at: https://pbp-battletech.obsidianportal.com

If you're interesting in playing, create an account and send me the username or email address and i'll send you an invite. We're discussing what kind of setting we want on the forum there now.

[Orion]

The reason I don't like this style is due to past experience. Maybe it was just the group I was with but, without an arbiter, the story rapidly spiraled into the ridiculous.

I've only done shared storytelling and universe building when there was an acknowledged driving force from the start.  Sometimes it was just an agreement among us who was going to be the lead author, while other times it was an actual company-appointed person.  I think not having a know lead would have been a trainwreck, as we'd have all gone off and done our own things, which may or may not have ever gotten completed.

[Kodiak06]

Hello Ultrasmurf,

I am interested in joining your campaign.  I have never played a play by email game.  I have played BT on and off for years.  I own the RPG but never played it, seems too complicated. 

I would like to know about your expectations, how many posts a week, what faction,  what roles do you want?

Thanks,

Jim

[bblaney]

His game is going to be a play by post game, which makes things much easier

[ultrasmurf]

I am interested in joining your campaign.  I have never played a play by email game.  I have played BT on and off for years.  I own the RPG but never played it, seems too complicated. 

I would like to know about your expectations, how many posts a week, what faction,  what roles do you want?

Faction is still an unknown. We're still discussing it. As for roles, i'll be relying on the players to pick roles that interest them, hoping that it will motivate participation.

The general style of the game is this. I will describe the current situation, solicit some player input, and maybe lay out some general options. I'll set some deadline for input (the obsidian portal campaign has a calendar feature) and then write up what happens next. That could take the form of a battle report, a log of mercenary contract negotiation, an inventory of what was acquired in a salvage operation, or any other situation that the players care to involve themselves in. My hope is to complete something of significance each real time week but could certainly go faster if the players want to.

I'll send you an invite to the campaign on obsidian portal. Go ahead and accept if you're interested and chime in on the forum there re: story options.

[ultrasmurf]

For anyone who is interested, the campaign is starting to take shape. It also has a new name and address. You can check it out at https://battletech-ronin-war.obsidianportal.com/