|
Mechwarrior: Destiny is really great and I can't wait until it fully launches.
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 04:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 20:16 |
|
|
I guess I'd certainly want to go more the mech aspect. I was thinking the players as a merc company. If I just wanted normal humans throughout I'd just do something like use the shadowrun system minus magic with Battletech background. I guess I could always do that for out-of-combat, then just use the Battletech "game of armored combat" rules for, well, combat.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 05:08
|
|
|
Floppychop posted:I guess I'd certainly want to go more the mech aspect. I was thinking the players as a merc company. If I just wanted normal humans throughout I'd just do something like use the shadowrun system minus magic with Battletech background. This is always an option in the Battletech RPGs, with rules to translate your characters into pilots for the board game. It's pretty much the way I'd go, although the mech combat rules in Destiny aren't awful.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 05:46
|
|
|
I also really enjoyed MW:D and not just because it name-drops the 2nd Donegal in the first few pages. But yeah, I think having a system for your RPG characters to get in a mech really feels like a solved problem. With all the granularity involved in how each mech plays, you've already got a role-playing game feel.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 05:56
|
|
|
Speaking as one of the testers for A Time of War, I'd definitely suggest either tracking down a copy of MechWarrior 2nd edition or, better yet, waiting to get your hands on MechWarrior: Destiny. MW:D really works well with the boardgame I find, and is a lot easier to convert between than AToW.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2020 17:32
|
|
|
Floppychop posted:I know this thread is mostly for the wargame/boardgame. But anyone have good pointers for a ruleset for running an RPG? A Time of War is cool
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2020 22:06
|
|
|
Was just thinking, dropships have really small carrying capacity. How did larger Mercenary orgs like Wolf's Dragoons or the Kell Hounds get an entire regiment or 2 anywhere for duty? I don't remember any novel (granted the last one I read was probably +20 years ago) covering the number of jumpships and dropships needed to do an actual planetary invasion other than them just kind of handwaving it for the Clans as "well they got a lot of ships, ok?"
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 20:14
|
|
|
The Kell Hounds were founded with a huge pile of money they got from the will of the Archon's late husband, so when they were starting out, they had an Invader-class JumpShip. Its three docking collars each carried an Overlord, which each had one mech battalion. Presumably they got a second one between the 4SW and 3050. The Dragoons, as always, are cheating. They probably have a couple of Monoliths at their disposal, which can truck around ~3 regiments of troops. Most mercenaries, though, rely on their employer to provide JumpShip travel.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 20:19
|
|
|
Fidel Cuckstro posted:Was just thinking, dropships have really small carrying capacity. How did larger Mercenary orgs like Wolf's Dragoons or the Kell Hounds get an entire regiment or 2 anywhere for duty? I don't remember any novel (granted the last one I read was probably +20 years ago) covering the number of jumpships and dropships needed to do an actual planetary invasion other than them just kind of handwaving it for the Clans as "well they got a lot of ships, ok?" Bigger dropships can carry more stuff. An Overlord can haul an entire battalion.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 20:24
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Bigger dropships can carry more stuff. An Overlord can haul an entire battalion. What DropShip they send tells you how serious of an offensive this is. Leopard = 1/10 Union = 5/10 Overlord or higher = 10/10
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 20:28
|
|
|
3+ Overlords supported by 3-5 Unions or Leopards: 
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 20:48
|
|
|
I want suggestions, I am looking to add 4 more mechs to my collection. hoping someone can help me make sure I am having a well rounded collection of mechs. here is what I have so far: Annihilator Awesome BattleMaster Catapult Commando Dragon Flame Linebacker Locust Mad Cat MKII Marauder Nova Cat Shadow Hawk Thunderbolt Timberwolf (Mad Cat) Viking Wolverine
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 21:16
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:What DropShip they send tells you how serious of an offensive this is. For those less familiar with them these three dropships also reflect the standard structure in battletech. Leopard: 4 mechs (1 lance) + 2 aerospace fighters (1 lance) Union: 12 mechs (1 company) + 2 ASF Overlord: 36 mechs (1 battalion) + 6 ASF (1 squadron) Most transport dropships tend to follow that structure, though there are exceptions. Clan vessels are usually refitted for their star arrangement (star, binary/trinary, cluster)
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 21:28
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:The Kell Hounds were founded with a huge pile of money they got from the will of the Archon's late husband, so when they were starting out, they had an Invader-class JumpShip. Its three docking collars each carried an Overlord, which each had one mech battalion. Presumably they got a second one between the 4SW and 3050. I guess it's good to be Morgan Kell!
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 21:59
|
|
|
I said come in! posted:I want suggestions, I am looking to add 4 more mechs to my collection. hoping someone can help me make sure I am having a well rounded collection of mechs. here is what I have so far: That lineup is pretty heavy so from a gameplay perspective I might add a couple of lights/mediums. If you wanted a scout/skirmish lance right now all you've got is the Locust and Commando. Classic mobile units like a Phoenix Hawk, Spider, Ostscout or Jenner would help round out a scout lance. You've got four Clan 'Mechs so I would suggest at least one more to make a Star of five. From a "faction flavour" perspective, looking at your Clan selection, you have one Clan Wolf-only 'Mech (Linebacker), one Nova Cat-only 'Mech (you can guess which), a general-service-but-favoured-by-the-Wolves 'Mech (Timber Wolf) and a sold-by-the-Diamond-Sharks 'Mech (Mad Cat Mk. II). According to Sarna a bunch of Mad Cat Mk. IIs were bought by Clan Nova Cat, so you have the makings of a Nova Cat or a Wolf Star if you want to expand on it. If you get just one Clan 'Mech, how about a Stormcrow - Wolves and Nova Cats both use it, although it's not their favourite. If you wanted to add a couple more 'Mechs to make a faction-specific Star, consider a Shadow Cat and Nobori-Nin/Huntsman for the Nova Cats; an Ice Ferret, Phantom or Pouncer for the Wolves; and an Adder, Warhawk, or Gargoyle which work for either Clan. Only a few of your Inner Sphere units are faction-specific (Annihilator = Wolf's Dragoons; Viking = Comstar/Free Rasalhague; Commando = House Steiner) so you can pretty much throw some of those units together and call them a unit of whatever faction you like. I have no idea which of my recommendations are currently in stock, mind you...
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 22:44
|
|
|
Carbolic posted:That lineup is pretty heavy so from a gameplay perspective I might add a couple of lights/mediums. If you wanted a scout/skirmish lance right now all you've got is the Locust and Commando. Classic mobile units like a Phoenix Hawk, Spider, Ostscout or Jenner would help round out a scout lance. Thank you very much! I am able to get your recommendations. I ordered the Phoenix Hawk, Jenner, Shadow Cat, and Spider.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2020 23:20
|
|
|
Fidel Cuckstro posted:I guess it's good to be Morgan Kell! Considering he hid the Archon (before she was the Archon) from Assassins, and went on a wild "pirate" rampage that was still talked about 20 years later (public never knew), the Kells were high in Katrina (the original/ONLY Katrina) Steiner's opinion. edit: to elaborate (from sarna) In 3004, Morgan, Katrina Steiner, and his cousin (future husband of Katrina) Arthur Luvon were attacked by Lyran Commonwealth Intelligence and Loki (the Lyran FBI/CIA) on Poulsbo. Then-Archon Alessandro Steiner had sent forces to assassinate Katrina due to her opposition to his Operation Concentrated Weakness. Members of the loyal opposition force, Heimdall, saved them and allowed them to flee to the Periphery. This was made famous as they took on the personae of the Red Corsair and her henchmen. Acting as undisclosed pirates through the Periphery, they re-entered the Inner Sphere through the Free Worlds League's border. Leading to Katrina's return to Tharkad and helping her to "retire" Alessandro. So, yeah, he probably earned a couple regiments out of the Lyrans. As well as the ultimate Blank Check. A piece of paper that read: “Deny this man, Morgan Kell, nothing. Katrina Steiner, 22 July, 3007 ” (her second act as Archon) SirFozzie fucked around with this message at 02:10 on May 9, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 02:07
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:3+ Overlords supported by 3-5 Unions or Leopards: And here's me trying to figure out if that's even enough to move an RCT. RCTs are weird. SirFozzie posted:Considering he hid the Archon (before she was the Archon) from Assassins, and went on a wild "pirate" rampage that was still talked about 20 years later (public never knew), the Kells were high in Katrina (the original/ONLY Katrina) Steiner's opinion. Don't forget that he's literally magic, because Stackpole thinks that's what makes characters cool Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 02:12 on May 9, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 02:10
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:And here's me trying to figure out if that's even enough to move an RCT. Leopards (and, to a lesser extent, Unions) allow fast redeployment. It means they intend to set down, find you, and then throw assault lances at you until you stop moving.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 02:19
|
|
|
Aerodynes have to make sense in SOME way. Anyway that's just where my brain goes when someone lists DropShips. The logistics of moving an RCT are something I'm just kinda stuck on?
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 02:21
|
|
|
IMO the interstellar travel is the one part where battlemechs make the most sense in the entire setting. Moving military units from place to place is challenging and due to how it works with both space on dropships and docking collars on jumpships, bringing around tanks for an invasion that you have to land before you can fight with them isn't always a great idea. Sure you can drop-pod them, but IIRC the risks for a tank are far higher than mechs. The challenge of moving forces around is why after the nuke-orgy of the 1st succession war large offenses started to become more and more rare, at least until the 4th. Before that the SLDF had shitloads of armies to move around but also had hundreds of warships (many of which had their own collars) and even more jumpships, but again after the Amaris throwdown and the nuke orgy afterwards there was a lot less of everything capable of interstellar travel.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 02:34
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:The logistics of moving an RCT are something I'm just kinda stuck on? The Excalibur-class. "They're only rare in the Lyran Commonwealth, not in the Federated Suns, that way Grayson Carlyle isn't a liar!"
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 02:40
|
|
|
Taerkar posted:IMO the interstellar travel is the one part where battlemechs make the most sense in the entire setting. Moving military units from place to place is challenging and due to how it works with both space on dropships and docking collars on jumpships, bringing around tanks for an invasion that you have to land before you can fight with them isn't always a great idea. Sure you can drop-pod them, but IIRC the risks for a tank are far higher than mechs. The versatility they get around with is a big one too. The BattleMech can traverse just about anything given enough time, which is pretty great if you're trying to have a rapid reaction force that can quickly deploy to threats to your planet and the four others within a single jump. Plus, when they were invented, the Ares Conventions were still a thing and if you snuck up behind someone, they were supposed to surrender and go home instead of shooting you.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 02:56
|
|
|
You can move most of an RCT by Mule, you just need an Overlord or a couple Unions to have a couple 'Mech companies set-up a beachhead first. Planetary Invasions don't resolve in a matter of hours, you'll have time to unload an armored regiment or three the old-fashioned way.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 03:38
|
|
|
Taerkar posted:IMO the interstellar travel is the one part where battlemechs make the most sense in the entire setting. Moving military units from place to place is challenging and due to how it works with both space on dropships and docking collars on jumpships, bringing around tanks for an invasion that you have to land before you can fight with them isn't always a great idea. Sure you can drop-pod them, but IIRC the risks for a tank are far higher than mechs. This is kind of what I was getting at when I was thinking about Dropships- I can't decide if the relative parcity of space in most dropships, the number of dropships, and number of jumpships, was a well thought out component of the universe or poorly thought out. Like getting 1 or 2 RCTs to a planet is a pretty complex and logistical investment. I guess some of that is offset by a lot of planets having pretty low populations- in the 10s/100s of thousands- and it not taking a lot to effectively be conquered. But it does mean that big wars and battles are rare, and I guess it helps explain why lance and company level fights are so important- sometimes that's all you can really land on a planet quickly.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 03:38
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:Mechwarrior: Destiny is really great and I can't wait until it fully launches. Is there an overview of the mechanics online?
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 03:45
|
|
|
NoNotTheMindProbe posted:Is there an overview of the mechanics online? It's still in closed beta IIRC so probably not, but the general premise is "BattleTech as an action movie" for ground player character stuff and it's got a system for running 'Mech combat in Destiny without having to break out a hex map or play tabletop / Alpha Strike which the older Mechwarrior RPGs generally lacked. It's still D6 based but if you need to make some sort of roll, most everything is a skill contest of some sort with the GM encouraged to make things more complicated on a "failure" rather than throwing walls in the players way. I think the rules for the 'Mech combat are solid, they're sort-of a midpoint between Alpha Strike and standard Tabletop play in terms of what your 'Mech can do but everything's been set up in such a way that you can run an entire combat using theater of the mind without ever breaking out a miniature. It's hard to explain, but where Alpha Strike abstracted what the 'Mechs were doing to make a fast-play tactical game, Destiny abstracts the map while keeping what the 'Mechs are doing pretty crunchy. As a GM, I really like having options like that.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 04:04
|
|
|
Its honestly kinda wild that this came from that attempt at making a storygame-ish Shadowrun ruleset that nobody was happy with.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 06:18
|
|
|
I'll believe that Catalyst is capable of making good RPG rules when and only when I've read the Destiny rules for myself
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 08:22
|
|
|
That's fair, they don't have the greatest track record. Character generation takes 20 minutes if you have a strong concept in mind and the game is an order of magnitude less lethal than A Time of War, with options to make it more (or less!) lethal if your group likes that feel.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 11:14
|
|
|
Can you be something other than mechwarriors? Like A Time of War lets you be really anything in the battletech universe, you don't even need vehicle combat really
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 19:20
|
|
|
Yeah, you can be whatever. The character sheet has a built-in spot for a vehicle of some kind the character uses, but that can be anything from one of those Akira bikes to spacecraft.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 19:53
|
|
|
Does anyone know if there's a formula for the engine rating to weight table? I tried to pull it out of excel and got .000000006x^4 - .000003x^3 + .0006x^2 - .0019x, which seems like it's pretty close but doesn't really handle the rounding oddities obviously...
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 22:50
|
|
|
There's no real formula. It was done by hand back in the 80s. Also things get rounded up to a half ton.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 23:01
|
|
|
Awful! Well I'm pretty sure that formula is as close to a curve as excel will make it, so I'm going with it. I mostly wanted it so I could try and slightly adjust the curve for some homebrew rules without manually redoing every entry on the table. dropping the x^2 coefficient to .00055 gives a nice little .5 to 2 ton reduction to everything above a rating of 80 or so.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2020 23:08
|
|
|
 
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2020 11:40
|
|
|
That owns
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2020 12:46
|
|
|
Loving the Mercury and Sentinel designs too.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2020 13:22
|
|
|
Is that a king crab?
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2020 14:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 20:16 |
|
|
Nystral posted:Is that a king crab? Yes, from one of the upcoming Comstar boxes
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2020 14:13
|
|