World details like those from the new PC game?

[1000Foot]

Hi all,
  Returning player, dusting off his mechs that haven't seen a tabletop in two decades. This is largely due to the new game by Harebrained Studios, and as great as the game is, there's nothing like getting your fingers on some chunks of lead.

My son has been hooked by the big stompy robots and we're excitedly planning a series of campaign games for our tabletop confrontations. We've decided on the Periphery near the Lyran/Combine border, and I've been trying to find some good locations to fight over. I really liked the variety and descriptions of planets in the HBS game: evocative, varied and just enough fluff to get a good sense of what each planet is like. I can't seem to find similar descriptions for planets outside of the PC game locale. Sarna.net either has brief "this is an inhabited system" notes or lengthy descriptions about troop movements when the planet in question was part of an established campaign. I can't even find out if these planets are temperate or desert, etc.

So, any help? Am I looking in the wrong place, or expecting too much of the existing Battletech fiction?

Thanks!

[Daryk]

The original House books had longer descriptions of a hand full of worlds each, but the level of detail HBS has offered exceeds what's out there for the vast majority of worlds.  There are also the Touring the Stars supplements (mostly available for $5 or less as pdfs).  As far as I understand it, that was a deliberate decision on the part of TPTB to give GMs the maximum flexibility possible to detail their campaigns.

[glitterboy2098]

FASA, FanPro, and CGL all have generally avoided giving in depth descriptions to most worlds. if they aren't a main focus of a scenario pack or the like, they tend to get very little.
but this is basically just conservation of effort. there are a lot of worlds in the battletech setting, and trying to fill them all out would take forever. plus worlds with limited info give authors of the various print works more freedom.

[Alsadius]

For a quick sense of it, check out the wiki at www.sarna.net - it has entries for all planets I've ever tried to look up, and usually in enough detail to get a sense of what to do with it in a game.

[Sartris]

as previously mentioned, the Touring the Stars PDF series has around two dozen entries (a drop in the bucket, I know). These really give the most in-depth overview of planets we've ever had.

With planets that have virtually no detail, you could easily take planetary descriptions from other settings and plug them in with virtually zero worry of coming within a country mile of canon (if you even care about that kind of thing)

[SteelRaven]

Bad news, allot of planets have always had a vague description until a writer decides to write it up in a novel or short story. Good news, gives you allot of creative freedom. Want a battle on Salt Hoth/Crait? Go for it! Terra Therma/Mordor like planet? Go for it! That planet for Forbidden Planet? Hey, why didn't I do that myself earlier!   

[Sartris]

there's also this

http://masterunitlist.info/Tools/GenerateSystem

it generates you a random system with some bare-bones stats that give you the seeds for a narrative description. don't like the result, just refresh

[pheonixstorm]

as previously mentioned, the Touring the Stars PDF series has around two dozen entries (a drop in the bucket, I know). These really give the most in-depth overview of planets we've ever had.

Not entirely true. One of the old FASA books had A LOT more detail on the statistics side of things. Anyone care to guess which book?

[Daryk]

The House books had some decent detail, and BattleTechnology had its "World Book" section early on.  But a specifically FASA book outside of the House Books?  I'm drawing a blank...

[Mendrugo]

A wide variety of sourcebooks have full write-ups.  The original House books and the later Handbook series are good sources, but you can find full writeups scattered throughout the FedCom Civil War, Inner Sphere, Shattered Sphere, Warriors of Kerensky, Hot Spots, Touring the Stars, WizKids INN Planetary Profiles, etc. 

Plus, there are references to locations, climates, flora, fauna, etc. in the novels, scenarios, short stories, etc.  Sarna has been pretty good at catching and compiling those.

[pheonixstorm]

Well doesn't look like anyone ever bothered with the Galtor Campaign I guess... There is a ton of planetary info in it such as Defense % of GDP, mineral, industries, metric tons of meat produced... Birth and Death rates (per 1,000), population, even the number passenger and commercial vehicles. It was designed for the original BattleForce system.

For those who want to see a regimental breakdown you can get it for several different units if you have the time to convert everything.

Anyway, if anyone wants to check it out the pdf is $5 or you can skim over what sarna has.
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/The_Galtor_Campaign
https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-the-galtor-campaign-pdf

[Colt Ward]

Explorer Corps might have some of the information you are looking for since that is where the Clans went through . . .

[Daryk]

Galtor, eh?  I've got that laying around here somewhere... Obviously I need to go back and re-read it...