The Implicitly Promised "Livin' it up in the Nebula California" Wish List

[HABeas2]

I so completely thought someone else was going to start a thread like this, that I'm amazed *I* somehow have to be that someone...

As the title suggests, this is mainly a "wish list" discussion, based on the simple fact that the multiverse is big. Really, REALLY big. But only so many things are popular enough AND distantly relevant to players of BattleTech that it makes one thirst for a crossover.

So, first, let's review what worlds and franchise-spoofing adaptations we have already seen in the California Nebula Anomalous Zone (CNAZ), shall we?

NebCal 1: Welcome to the Nebula California (April 2015)

Syberia
     Situation: Robot armies locked in eternal war with each other. Franchise(s): Transformers, Go-Bots
Star Empire
     Situation: Tons of ships, multiple worlds, fighters, shields, guns, and flashy vibroswords. Franchise(s): Star Wars, Firefly
Toreel
     Situation: Magic, monsters, dragons, adventure! Franchise(s): Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Lord of the Rings, any number of swords-and-sorcery settings
Earth
     Situation: Mutants, superheroes, supervillains, magic! Franchise(s): Marvel Comics Universe, DC Comics Universe, any number of anime and Western comic superhero settings.

NebCal 2: Plenty of Room in the Nebula California (April 2023)

Wasteworld
     Situation: Survivors eking out a life amid post-apocalyptic ruins and deserts. Franchise(s): Fallout, Mad Max, The Walking Dead, pick your post-apocalypse
Cobalt
     Situation: Robot uprising. Humans hunted by machines. And starships. Franchise(s): Battlestar Galactica, Terminator
Alpha-Beta-Gamma
     Situation: "Aliens," starships, exploration, space combat. Franchise(s): Star Trek, Babylon 5
Jord
     Situation: Militant humans and theocratic "aliens" battle amid remains of previous mega-engineering. Franchise(s): Halo, Destiny(?), Mass Effect
Honorable Mention: Atlantropa
     Situation: World War II forever. Franchise(s): World of Tanks, Medal of Honor, Wolfenstien, Crimson Skies, look, there are LOTS of WWII-themed games and popular franchises, okay?
Honorable Mention: Barsuum
     Situation: Light fantasy, clockwork science, Victorian sci-fi. Franchise(s): The works of Jules Verne, HG Wells, and Burroughs; Girl Genius, Wild Wild West, all things steampunky.
Honorable Mention: Eighthworld
     Situation: Magic and technology in near future. Franchise(s): SHADOWRUN (duh), Cyberpunk, Matrix, Blade Runner, etc.
Honorable Mention: Pantheos
     Situation: Magic and divine interventions before the Common Era vs primitive "mere mortals". Franchise(s): Every real-world mythology. Also, Stargate?

NebCal 3: Living it up in the Nebula California (April...2031?)
     What do you folks think?

When pitching ideas, I would note the following caveats:
     Caveat 1: Most--if not all--of the CNAZ worlds/world groups are meant to be isolated from one another, so any FTL they possess should be HIDEOUSLY limited. The CNAZ is just under 200 LY across, and the fastest FTL users (beyond our marooned Interstellar Expedition folks, who aren't about to take sides) can only do about 0.5 LY per jump. Multi-world settings should thus be kept to tight-packed star groups less than 5 LY apart if interstellar travel is a must-have.
     Caveat 2: There are no actual aliens here. Every "non-human" sapient seen in the CNAZ are a result of human modifications. Most sapient aliens in sci-fi tend to be humans in costumes anyway.
     Caveat 3: While there may be one or two oddly "advanced" pieces on gear (like the energy shields of the Star Empire and the ABG Trinary), all CNAZ groups suffer from severe tech degradation and limited tech bases. They may ignore or alter some construction rules here and there, but everything generally falls to a baseline of Inner Sphere capabilities as of 3060 and earlier.
     Caveat 4: Be mindful of what's already in play here. As noted above, a lot of the CNAZ groups can cover multiple franchises at once. If another franchise/setting offers little to nothing that can't be done already on another world, it may not be interesting enough for its own group. 
     Caveat 5: Nothing survives for long within 10 LY of the CNAZ's center, jump-capable vessels that go into this area may not safely jump out again (the odds of jump failure rise exponentially the closer one is to the heart of the anomaly, to the point where jump-out becomes impossible at 1 LY or less).
     Caveat 6: No human FTL technology surmount its outer boundary (which is, incidentally, some 3-5 LY "thick").

I will also try and answer any questions about the CNAZ and its denizens that come up in this thread, but for the most part, I'm interested in seeing what folks would like to see in the unlikely case where a third volume is written...

Thanks!

- Herb

[monbvol]

Hmmmm....

Oh I know a good one.  Tron.  Everyone thinks they are computer programs and some people even have little floating digital assistants that follow them around.  Popular sports are bike racing with barriers similar to the ones in the Steiner arena on Solaris that pop up behind the racer(probably actually triggered by some sort of weight/pressure sensor also rigged to detect direction of travel) to give the illusion of leaving behind light barriers.  Gladiators that brave deadly local fauna that they call 'bugs'.  Tank duels as another form of 'entertainment'.  But all the horrific human cost is hidden behind the social perception of being computer programs.

[Maingunnery]

Robot Jox
Assault/Super-heavy 'Mech playground, no FTL, no Aliens, but it would require some additional tech & relaxed construction rules.

[Richard S.]

This might break the tech limit in a few places, but I'm thinking WH40K by way of stranded Clanners. A single system, Armageddon, ruled by an oppressive warrior-dominated empire, primarily using infantry, vehicles, battle armor, and oddly protomechs. The scientists and technicians split off to form their own faction, followed by basically going full manei domini with prosthetics, but are mostly allied with the empire; they also have the lion's share of battlemechs. There's colonies of belters and aerospace phenotypes in the outer reaches of the system, mostly living in massive converted dropships, and while most of them try to stay clear of the empire there's one large group of them who've taken to piracy and slavery. There's a group of scientists that ran off to one of the outer dwarf planets and are trying to start a new society, with generally better technology and mechs but also setting themselves up as the top caste and greatly enforcing the eugenics program. There's also a nasty bit of local flora in the form of a fungal infection that turns people into raving, violent lunatics and has proven impossible to fully eradicate, always popping up again somewhere. And plenty of room for rebels fielding mutated monsters, swarms of alien bugs, and other such things.

Now that Jord exists I think this idea overlaps a little too much with that, but I've been sitting on this for a while so I wanted to get it out.

[glitterboy2098]

i've already got a fair bit of a gundam meta-setting expy worked up..

[pokefan548]

Original series Gundam: Char and Amuro seem like they'd make for fun AToW characters. First-third Amuro, in particular, might be fun: a character with superhuman gunnery and piloting with tons of SPAs, but also basically no tactics or strategy skill and the Combat Paralysis and Compulsion/Hate War traits. Char needs a custom SPA that gives him 3x MPs at all times. Also this gives you the chance to clarify (entirely for legal purposes), that your totally original mook 'Mech is no Zaku, boy! No Zaku!

For some reason, I have a sudden desire for a planet of Beavises and Buttheads...

I've also got most of a Metroid-based idea cooked up. I'm down to post it myself in the fan boards, but if you want to talk just say the word.

[Fat Guy]

Macross/Robotech

LAMs are common, QuadVee analogues exist as do transforming "warships".

[Dragon Cat]

Love the Warhammer idea (I don't even play it but it sounds fun) if you gave every side tons of infantry and limited armour/Mechs no WMDS it could be fun the Clans are a great idea to base them off of

I'd love an expansion of the BSG area with civilian jump capable ships that make up the fleets

A BT version of Leviathans or Blazing Skies/Ace Combat would be cool a world just populated with opposing air squadrons/airships

I like the Metroid idea from the other board with a Nebula wide travelling Bounty Hunter sounds fun too

[Kit deSummersville]

We need a Gamma World/Thundarr the Barbarian one. Kind of a wasteland but with super science and magic.

[Maingunnery]

Martial-Tech
Situation: Chosen MechWarriors are revived to fight in a melee tournament against the forces of evil. Choose champions to fight for humanity, let them undergo a training arc to awaken more of their true potential, let them get stronger from each victory.   
[no custom tech, but a expanded (mostly melee) system with elements, schools, styles and techniques. Where Phantom 'Mech ability for example is just something average.]
Franchise(s): Dragon Ball, Mortal Kombat, any other martial arts franchise....

[Dragon Cat]

Subnautica/Waterworld where the much ignored wet navy goes to flourish

Sea based towns, underwater settlements, deep see monsters (Kraken, Megladon), and genetic engineering aka gene-caste

[Sapphirus]

I've also got most of a Metroid-based idea cooked up. I'm down to post it myself in the fan boards, but if you want to talk just say the word.

That would be awesome!  ;D

[Istal_Devalis]

Name: To be determined
Hook: Giant robot animals and medieval tech
Summary: A world where mecha 'naturally' evolved as the dominant lifeform. Humans live in a 'primitive' manner, no super advanced technology, but have learned how to capture and 'domesticate' the wild mechs that roam. Humanity being humanity, they also adopted them into tools of war with each other. Basic inspiration is the Zoids franchise early in its history, but there are themes similar to Dunbine, Dinoriders, Escaflowne, Insectaurs, Dragonriders of Pern, Monster Hunter, and Horizon Dawn. See also any 'Cavemen and Dinosaur' movie, and the Ewoks vs Empire walkers

Caveat notes
1: It all happens on one planet. There is some backstory involving humans crash landing on the planet but that actually works in its favor.
2: No aliens at all involved. There are 'Natives' but they're close enough to human they might as well be human. Likely earlier settlers that have regressed.
3: Technology is primitive. While the mechs are armed, it's with either 'engineering equipment' the mechs come with 'organically', or primitive weapons. Human weapons are roughly medieval analog with the additional extra harvested from Mechs now and then.
4: There's some overlap with Syberia, but the mecha there are fairly sapient while these are are animalist.

Rough Brainstorming notes
An early wave of humanity landed on the planet. These early humans setup a system of  IndustrialMech factories for terraforming and labor. At some point they managed to automate them using the idea of evolutionary robotics with a minimum of human supervision. Humanity suffered some cataclysm, regressing to a more tribal stage, but the factories continued without them, continually evolving Industrial Mechs that gradually came to take on the form of animal like 'life' in service to the factories. Humanity hunt the mechs for parts, fuel, and labor, learning how to hijack (the mechs still have 'vestigial' cockpits and controls) and domesticate them. Humanity have since progressed to a more medieval style tech base and, of course, have taken to use these 'natural' mechs as tools for war. Mech weapons are a mix of engineering tools that come with the mechs, and primitive (medieval era at most) siege weapons. [insert a picture of an army of pikemen with shock spears, lead by knights on a light quad mech resembling a horse, approaching a castle, with a giant robotic 'T-rex' fighting a giant robotic 'gorilla', both of them dotted with siege weapons, in the background.

[namar13766]

For a general idea, I was thinking about having someplace which has Centaur and Hexapodal battlemechs, each of which would have their own unique advantages and drawbacks compared to bipedal, quad, and tripods.

Edit: but for a more specific one

Karahk
Inspired by: Homeworld Deserts of Kharak
Unique Tech: Superheavy Support Vehicles such as XL and XXL VTOLs, WIGE, and Hovers.

Legio:
Inspired by: Renegade Legion

[Giovanni Blasini]

i've already got a fair bit of a gundam meta-setting expy worked up..

Original series Gundam: Char and Amuro seem like they'd make for fun AToW characters. First-third Amuro, in particular, might be fun: a character with superhuman gunnery and piloting with tons of SPAs, but also basically no tactics or strategy skill and the Combat Paralysis and Compulsion/Hate War traits. Char needs a custom SPA that gives him 3x MPs at all times. Also this gives you the chance to clarify (entirely for legal purposes), that your totally original mook 'Mech is no Zaku, boy! No Zaku!

Gundam also works well because, thanks to Strategic Operations, we've already got a core set of rules for "BattleMechs in Space!" - they're highly inadaquate when compared to an aerospace fighter, but that's half the fun.

Macross/Robotech

LAMs are common, QuadVee analogues exist as do transforming "warships".

That's a road we probably want to mega avoid just in the interest of not having another run of lawsuits, parody or not.

We need a Gamma World/Thundarr the Barbarian one. Kind of a wasteland but with super science and magic.

You might be able to make this work as-is, and make it different enough from Wasteworld, but, alternatively, you might combine it with another major sci-fi classic: "Dune", by Frank Herbert.  The problem is that even then, you could probably fold this into Wasteworld.

Another more wild setting that could go into a third book would be Larry Niven's
 "Integral Trees" / "Smoke Ring" setting.  Battletech has all the technology needed to pull off such a setting, and the neutron stars at the center of the CNAZ make a handy source to make the necessary gas torus around one of the formerly-orbiting gas giants.  It'd be a great setting where jump technology has been completely lost, but surviving DropShips could have set up the floating colonies.  What's more, it could probably be combined with James Cameron's "Avatar" setting, too, where instead of native aliens, they're tecnologically-regressed human descendants who, like the denizens of the Integral Trees, have been shaped by the low gravity of their environments.

I'd love an expansion of the BSG area with civilian jump capable ships that make up the fleets

BSG got covered in Book 2, though.

A BT version of Leviathans or Blazing Skies/Ace Combat would be cool a world just populated with opposing air squadrons/airships

You could probably make Leviathans work and be different enough from the settings in Books 1 and 2.  That'd actually be a good one, too, with the Leviathans Kickstarter having just run, too.

[Richard S.]

Dune with mechs. Superheavy support vehicles, megafauna, and pure melee mechs. Needs an explanation for why guns can't be used though.

[Mendrugo]

Starship Troopers - the Infiltrator II illustration from Field Manual: Federated Suns is already labeled "J. Rico," and the ruleset would support both standard BA and heavier "Marauder" suits in battles against local exofauna.

Babylon 5 - A chance to break out the space station ruleset, not to mention having Starfury expys.  Rather than K-F drive cores integrated into all ships, they could have come up with an alternative method, where a station generates a K-F field as a ship enters its circumference and then "jumps" things like DropShips, Monitors, fighters, etc. without their own K-F drives directly to another system.  Opportunities for diplomacy to get a chance among the various factions stranded in the nebula.

[Istal_Devalis]

Gundam also works well because, thanks to Strategic Operations, we've already got a core set of rules for "BattleMechs in Space!" - they're highly inadaquate when compared to an aerospace fighter, but that's half the fun.

'Intense EM Radiation effecting sensors' does a lot to devolve space combat into the knife fighting range Gundam is known for, though.

[pokefan548]

Just use the StratOps ECM rules and crank the strength and range every ship and 'Mech's ECM up to 11.

[SteelRaven]

Figure Pacific Rim and Neo Genesis would be natural, Mechs vs Mega Fauna

Not-Pacific-Rim: for some reason all their mechs requires duel cockpits and their greatest weakness is budget cuts.

Not-Neo-Genesis: totally-not-Nerv is a WoB like organization experimenting on kids! You need to rescue them and get them some damn therapy!   

Original series Gundam: Char and Amuro seem like they'd make for fun AToW characters.

This would be great! I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen more Griffins in Zaku green. Have the mechs/suites play similar to the Quickdraw QKD-8P/8X, toro mounted cockpit and hand held weapons, TSM leading it to favor melee attacks such as the hatchet. Can make the Axman AXM-6T/6X the base for a certain hero mech (just add TSM for more formidable carrying complicity) can even call it the Gunman as a nod to Gunboy, the original name for the Gundam when it was still being workshopped. 

Macross/Robotech

 ... lets not poke the bear that's been dogging the franchise with legal issues and accusations of IP theft since the 90's, shall we.

Starship Troopers -

Toads vs Bugs! Yeeeaaaah! :D

[I am Belch II]

Everyone has already named all the ones I want.
GI Joe


How about expand more like you did with Transformers.
Star Trek and even Star Wars if you can expand.

[pokefan548]

Everyone has already named all the ones I want.
GI Joe

Putting aside that if I want my knock-off G.I. Joe in BattleTech fix, I could always go watch the animated series and nab the 1st Somerset Strikers book, I would totally be down for this.

Hey, maybe an entire planet of classic family-friendly action shows. The G.I. Gregs must team up with the Awesome-Team and McGalver, along with their newly shanghai'd team of IE explorers to stop the plans of the evil Dr. Nefarioso.

Also, just had a thought, we've had a deserted wasteland, but does California include a wild-west planet yet? Maybe something along the lines of Trigun or Desert Punk, but with more of a John Wayne bent than the apocalyptic inspirations covered by Wasteworld. All I'm saying is I do love a sci-fi western setting with classic, low-tech weapons and tools contrasted with intermittent hotspots of lost high-tech. Nothing beats a classic space cowboy (why yes, I am a Fronc Reaches enjoyer, how could you tell?).

[Mendrugo]

There's also the option of applying BattleTech-friendly rulesets to:
- Robotix: humans transferred their consciousnesses into 'Mech bodies
- Voltron/Power Rangers: five quad BattleMechs combine their forms into a single superheavy equipped with a 'Mech-sized vibroblade.
- Aliens: Colonial Marines deploy to enforce the authority of MegaCorporations.

[pokefan548]

There's also the option of applying BattleTech-friendly rulesets to:
- Robotix: humans transferred their consciousnesses into 'Mech bodies

Unfamiliar with Robotix, but from the brief description that could cover Gen:Lock as well (BUT JUST SEASON 1 PLEASE).

- Aliens: Colonial Marines deploy to enforce the authority of MegaCorporations.

Might also be a good opportunity to produce some really bizarre and deadly critters.

[Mendrugo]

Unfamiliar with Robotix, but from the brief description that could cover Gen:Lock as well (BUT JUST SEASON 1 PLEASE).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotix

[Giovanni Blasini]

Dune with mechs. Superheavy support vehicles, megafauna, and pure melee mechs. Needs an explanation for why guns can't be used though.

If you really, really wanted to go that route, it'd be easy.  And guns in Dune are a complicated thing: they fell out of use, both in laser and projectile form, when shields took off, because shields stopped projectile weapons and reacted explosively with lasers (both for target and shooter!).  Ignoring that, though, and having energy shields be consistent with their behavior on other CNAZ worlds, then lasers are pretty much stopped cold anyway.

For projectile weapons, there's an easy way around that: look at Dune.  Do you think the materials to make explosives are in ready supply?  You could have access to all the metallurgy and materials for solar power, or fusion power, or even fission power (you have to have your House Atomics, right?), but if you don't have a steady source of petrochemicals, or explosives precursors, then SRM/LRM rocket motors are out, missile warheads are out, and cannon propellants are out.

A world where only gauss weapons, muscle-powered ranged weapons or melee weapons would be interesting indeed...and Worms may hate gauss weapons.

[Richard S.]

If you really, really wanted to go that route, it'd be easy.  And guns in Dune are a complicated thing: they fell out of use, both in laser and projectile form, when shields took off, because shields stopped projectile weapons and reacted explosively with lasers (both for target and shooter!).  Ignoring that, though, and having energy shields be consistent with their behavior on other CNAZ worlds, then lasers are pretty much stopped cold anyway.

For projectile weapons, there's an easy way around that: look at Dune.  Do you think the materials to make explosives are in ready supply?  You could have access to all the metallurgy and materials for solar power, or fusion power, or even fission power (you have to have your House Atomics, right?), but if you don't have a steady source of petrochemicals, or explosives precursors, then SRM/LRM rocket motors are out, missile warheads are out, and cannon propellants are out.

A world where only gauss weapons, muscle-powered ranged weapons or melee weapons would be interesting indeed...and Worms may hate gauss weapons.

Good ideas. Also probably worth noting that lasers wouldn't be much use if there's too much sand in the air, so that's another ding against them. Gauss weapons still present some problems for a melee-focused world, but it'd probably make sense to say the weather plays havoc with any form of targeting too, so they really are only usable at BTech ranges. Using them against worms does sound fun though...

[Luciora]

Hmm, let me see what I've kitbashed already and see if there's any missing themes.

[Dragon Cat]

Starship Troopers - the Infiltrator II illustration from Field Manual: Federated Suns is already labeled "J. Rico," and the ruleset would support both standard BA and heavier "Marauder" suits in battles against local exofauna.

Babylon 5 - A chance to break out the space station ruleset, not to mention having Starfury expys.  Rather than K-F drive cores integrated into all ships, they could have come up with an alternative method, where a station generates a K-F field as a ship enters its circumference and then "jumps" things like DropShips, Monitors, fighters, etc. without their own K-F drives directly to another system.  Opportunities for diplomacy to get a chance among the various factions stranded in the nebula.

I love both of these

I was wondering about how to make a B5-esque setting work but you hit the nail on the head I think put a station between a few systems and have it be the method of travel

Each of the systems could have a smaller one which allows them to send ships to the atation

[Wolf72]

tagged for later!