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The same book also has Vlad's Wolves, the only ones still on the Crusader traditionalist bandwagon in the Dark Age outside of the Falcons, conquer Arcturus and leave the civilians alone because they figured out that bullshit doesn't work and just causes problems. Then after the Wolves left the Falcons rolled up and decided aggressive rationing of medicine and mass murder of peaceful protestors was a good way to compel compliance, with millions subsequently dying. How the Falcons were able to kill their scientists in the 3070s, including Inner Sphere civilians they classified as scientists after they invaded, and not have every Falcon found alone outside their barracks grabbed by LOKI-supported civilians and rendered like Elijah Wood’s character in Sin City (among other dishonorable ways to get murdered) is beyond me. If the Falcons lost a galaxy on Terra to civilians emboldened by ~Japanese spirit~, they sure as hell aren't imposing their will on anyone outside their gunsights.
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Feb 15, 2024 03:20
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drat. poo poo got dark in the battletech universe. I haven't read most of this stuff after the civil war, and it seems pretty bonkers.
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Feb 15, 2024 06:15
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Isn't a good chunk of the third Aiden Pryde book about showing how his time pretending to be a freebirth changed him into a better, nicer falcon by having him not just immediately raze a town that's resisting occupation but instead sit down and talk to them about how they should be honored by the clan's decision to break up their families and ship them off to other planets as slave labor? Which obviously doesn't work so they all have to die anyways.Saint Celestine posted:drat. poo poo got dark in the battletech universe. I haven't read most of this stuff after the civil war, and it seems pretty bonkers. Things get real stupid after the fedcom civil war. It was the early aughts, so we got edgy nonsense like limbless WoB cyborgs believing that they were whatever monstrous creature their protemechs were supposed to be and trying to eat people.
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Feb 15, 2024 09:15
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Canned Bovines posted:Things get real stupid after the fedcom civil war. It was the early aughts, so we got edgy nonsense like limbless WoB cyborgs believing that they were whatever monstrous creature their protemechs were supposed to be and trying to eat people. Necromo Nightmare was from 2013 so it came a long time after all the normal edgy stuff that happened during the Jihad
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Feb 15, 2024 12:40
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PoptartsNinja posted:Victor and Kai are much harder to defend despite them both being the living embodiments of the opposite ends of the Dunning-Kruger Effect spectrum. In Victor's case that was unintentional and in Kai's case it's uninteresting. Kai's story arc has a great though unintentional payoff when you get to Wars of the Republic Era, in that he just gives in to the bloodrage and becomes an unstoppable killing machine in a tragic way. I first read WotRE before I'd read any BoK books and didn't think much of it. Re-reading it after BoK makes it quite sad. quote:I have far more mixed feelings about LotJP than I do about any of Phelan's appearances. The first book is so incredibly creepy in mostly good ways, depicting the ways in which Clan society sends its dregs (Joanna) to indoctrinate what would otherwise be normal children and turn them into unrepentant murderers. It's so incredibly hostile to Clan warrior society in a way I really respect... and then Book 2 and Book 3 turn that on their heads and are bizarrely pro-Clan in a way that sort-of ruins the whole trilogy by turning it into a celebration of the life and "heroic last stand" of a brainwashed child soldier who heroically orders the deaths of an entire city of civilians without the slightest hesitation. It also can be kept in mind the Jade Falcons take most Clan creepiness and turns it up to 11. Most Clans don't do pureblood sibkos for instance. quote:'Mech vs. Elemental isn't a fair fight for the Elemental. Elemental vs. Mechwarrior isn't a fair fight for the Mechwarrior. Augmented Pilot vs. anyone else is the same, the Pilot is expected to win a fight where they can use their fighter and lose any fight where they can't. There is the option of the fighter who wins the coin toss to choose a venue that's more fair or sporting. I know in Trials of Grievance or Refusal, there's an effort made to 'level' the playing field, like giving an Elemental and Mechwarrior electro-whips to beat each other with. But in a bloodname contest, no one wants to fight fair. Phelan did beat that Elemental in zero-G, not Aidan. Aleks Hazen did a similar stunt in DA. Holybat posted:There was a pretty bad MWDA novel that had the revelation that the antagonist character was conceived from her mother being raped by a Clansman. I remember people making GBS threads their pants on the official forums with the "how dare you writer, Clans don't rape" and here we are forgetting Joanna and three quarters the goddamn first book of the JFT lol 99% that was a Mechwarrior mini-series or BattleTech novel, not a MWDA. Unless it was written by Ilsa Bick. The only rape that occurred in the MWDA was Ilsa Bick's psychopathic Bounty Hunter and Caleb Davion. DeepThrobble posted:The same book also has Vlad's Wolves, the only ones still on the Crusader traditionalist bandwagon in the Dark Age outside of the Falcons, conquer Arcturus and leave the civilians alone because they figured out that bullshit doesn't work and just causes problems. Then after the Wolves left the Falcons rolled up and decided aggressive rationing of medicine and mass murder of peaceful protestors was a good way to compel compliance, with millions subsequently dying. The Wolves and their treatment of their Inner Sphere holdings is inconsistent as hell in order to give the Wolves more plot armor. I swear there were earlier publications about the Wolves trying to enforce the Clan way and having problems because of it, but then later fiction tried to justify their rapid planet-hopping actually working by saying "Oh yeah they don't actually force conformity, unlike those Falcons." I'm really, REALLY hoping IlKhan's Eyes Only puts the Wolves in an incredibly f-ed up position on Terra, with angry civilians bouyed by tons of murderous Ghost Knights. And then a recorded clip of Alaric and Chance murdering Stone gets broadcasted on Wolf television. Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 15, 2024 15:50
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BattleMaster posted:Necromo Nightmare was from 2013 so it came a long time after all the normal edgy stuff that happened during the Jihad IIRC Necromo Nightmare was also released on an April Fools' Day or Halloween or something so it's not like the writer wasn't self-aware. Edit: it was Halloween and the writer was Herb Sidesaddle Cavalry fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 15, 2024 16:42
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Canned Bovines posted:Things get real stupid after the fedcom civil war. It was the early aughts, so we got edgy nonsense like limbless WoB cyborgs believing that they were whatever monstrous creature their protemechs were supposed to be and trying to eat people. The civil war was WAY stupider than a self-aware Halloween-themed scenario pack, it requires everyone to have failed middle school civics.
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Feb 15, 2024 18:27
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Defiance Industries posted:The civil war was WAY stupider than a self-aware Halloween-themed scenario pack, it requires everyone to have failed middle school civics. I hate to tell you this DI, but uhhh... that's the vast majority of students anywhere generally. When I teach I still have students struggle to name all three branches, just one year after Government. All those drat C-phones instaGraham-Marik.
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Feb 15, 2024 19:04
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:I hate to tell you this DI, but uhhh... that's the vast majority of students anywhere generally. When I teach I still have students struggle to name all three branches, just one year after Government. No offense to your teaching because I'm sure it's a fine institution, but we're talking about graduates of ostensibly the best educational institution in existence here. And people who are in the line of succession and therefore have a vested interest in understanding how it works, because it could materially benefit them.
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Feb 15, 2024 19:20
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If anything, the FCCW could've used more instances of people misunderstanding everything and making the situation worse by accident.
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Feb 15, 2024 19:30
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The FCCW is stupid, yes, but it's the standard idiot ball hot potato sort of stupid. The WoB is where a lot of the grimdark stupid comes in. Although there was a decent amount of it back in the early GDL books now that I think about it. Like Comstar framing the legion for the murder of twelve million people because they want the landhold on Helm.
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Feb 15, 2024 19:44
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Defiance Industries posted:No offense to your teaching because I'm sure it's a fine institution, but we're talking about graduates of ostensibly the best educational institution in existence here. And people who are in the line of succession and therefore have a vested interest in understanding how it works, because it could materially benefit them.
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Feb 15, 2024 19:52
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PoptartsNinja posted:If anything, the FCCW could've used more instances of people misunderstanding everything and making the situation worse by accident. Every era needs more Alexander Haseks. He's just delightful.
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Feb 15, 2024 20:10
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lilljonas posted:Ahem. It's also allowed to title your book "Adjective Noun". Far Country
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Feb 16, 2024 01:20
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Defiance Industries posted:The civil war was WAY stupider than a self-aware Halloween-themed scenario pack, it requires everyone to have failed middle school civics. Civics was pulled from the curriculum after Vietnam. It was replaced by something called "Social Studies" which broadens its focus too widely to help students understand our own government.
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Feb 16, 2024 02:36
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Kesper North posted:Civics was pulled from the curriculum after Vietnam. It was replaced by something called "Social Studies" which broadens its focus too widely to help students understand our own government. I took a course on U.S. government well after Vietnam (a war that ended when my parents were still in school), don't know what to tell you.
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Feb 16, 2024 03:04
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:99% that was a Mechwarrior mini-series or BattleTech novel, not a MWDA. Unless it was written by Ilsa Bick. The only rape that occurred in the MWDA was Ilsa Bick's psychopathic Bounty Hunter and Caleb Davion. well here's the 1%. it was a MWDA book, Ruins of Power.
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Feb 16, 2024 03:14
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Kesper North posted:Civics was pulled from the curriculum after Vietnam. It was replaced by something called "Social Studies" which broadens its focus too widely to help students understand our own government.
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Feb 16, 2024 03:23
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Guys I almost lived the dream tonight, brought a 005 King Crab and hit with 38 out of 40 pellets with the LB-Xs It was beautiful
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Feb 16, 2024 03:29
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Arquinsiel posted:I feel like you're over-estimating how complex the US government is. And how obscure the rules that everyone ignores are. It's the loving Federated Suns, they only have like five laws.
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Feb 16, 2024 03:38
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I always got a kick out of "political crisis" of the Fedsuns half of the FCCW. Like, the First Prince has to serve a military term. Katherine didn't. OK, ineligible to hold the office but she's in power now because ?????
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Feb 16, 2024 03:44
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FrostyPox posted:Guys I almost lived the dream tonight, brought a 005 King Crab and hit with 38 out of 40 pellets with the LB-Xs Did you have fun rolling 76d6 or were you on Megamek
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Feb 16, 2024 03:49
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Holybat posted:I always got a kick out of "political crisis" of the Fedsuns half of the FCCW. Like, the First Prince has to serve a military term. Katherine didn't. OK, ineligible to hold the office but she's in power now because ????? Because the guy that we are supposed to believe is a super principled and ultra respectable guy, Jackson Davion, apparently just doesn't care about the law. He just put his hands up and said oh well. But then at the end of the war he gets fed up with her and resigns and that is somehow a major turning point.
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Feb 16, 2024 03:52
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Defiance Industries posted:I took a course on U.S. government well after Vietnam (a war that ended when my parents were still in school), don't know what to tell you. Yeah, the big thing is that there is no federal curriculum so whether or not students took social students, government, or civics would have been at best at the state level and more likely was left up to individual school districts.
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Feb 16, 2024 04:07
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Atlas Hugged posted:Yeah, the big thing is that there is no federal curriculum so whether or not students took social students, government, or civics would have been at best at the state level and more likely was left up to individual school districts. Yeah, only reason I got a US govt/civics course in junior high was because I was enrolled in a DOD school then. when my family moved to Utah the junior highs and high schools here didn't have those courses, it was the incredibly broad social studies thing. 
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Feb 16, 2024 04:18
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FrostyPox posted:Guys I almost lived the dream tonight, brought a 005 King Crab and hit with 38 out of 40 pellets with the LB-Xs
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Feb 16, 2024 04:34
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Defiance Industries posted:I took a course on U.S. government well after Vietnam (a war that ended when my parents were still in school), don't know what to tell you. Then you're lucky to have lived where you lived! Atlas Hugged posted:Yeah, the big thing is that there is no federal curriculum so whether or not students took social students, government, or civics would have been at best at the state level and more likely was left up to individual school districts. This. Holybat posted:Yeah, only reason I got a US govt/civics course in junior high was because I was enrolled in a DOD school then. when my family moved to Utah the junior highs and high schools here didn't have those courses, it was the incredibly broad social studies thing. And that. Arquinsiel posted:I feel like you're over-estimating how complex the US government is. I know you're underestimating how many students don't give a gently caress about government to the degree necessary to even understand its simplicity  See also: number of students mentioned above who are just flat out unaware of the existence of the executive, judiciary and legislature as seperate entities, let alone why they exist, how power falls between them, and why it even matters.
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Feb 16, 2024 08:03
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FrostyPox posted:Guys I almost lived the dream tonight, brought a 005 King Crab and hit with 38 out of 40 pellets with the LB-Xs Okay, now that you've done that, go replace that -005 with two Swallow Attack WiGEs and let me know how the next fight goes. (I am about to do this in approximately 32 hours)
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Feb 16, 2024 10:37
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Kesper North posted:I know you're underestimating how many students don't give a gently caress about government to the degree necessary to even understand its simplicity
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Feb 16, 2024 14:49
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Holybat posted:well here's the 1%. it was a MWDA book, Ruins of Power. Ah, the one novel I never finished. Arquinsiel posted:
As one historian aptly said (though I forget which) "Americans really could care less about history/civics because America is so big why would they have to care about anything other than themselves?" There's also the factor in declining rates of Americans participating in civic-minded organizations like local charities, boy/girl scouts, etc. A point in favor of Neo space-feudalism.
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Feb 16, 2024 15:04
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:A point in favor of Neo space-feudalism. what the gently caress
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Feb 16, 2024 18:58
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The original conceit of the setting was that people didn't really care what their government did, which Joe is saying lines up with reality.
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Feb 16, 2024 20:06
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that's a very small point
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Feb 16, 2024 22:00
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FrostyPox posted:Guys I almost lived the dream tonight, brought a 005 King Crab and hit with 38 out of 40 pellets with the LB-Xs Does anyone house-rule LB-X clusters? From my perspective the utility of the Giant Mech Shotguns was always limited by the fact that I would have to roll an unreasonable amount of dice on any successful hit, and I am very, very lazy.
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Feb 16, 2024 22:04
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I roll that out with an app if everyone at the table is comfortable with me doing so, and encourage them to do the same.
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Feb 16, 2024 22:16
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I recommend pulling out a tube of d12s and saying “try my gamer dice they speed things way up” and then refusing to understand why everyone is mad
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Feb 16, 2024 22:26
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RE: Neo-space feudalism, I was listening to Yanis Varouvakis's latest book talk and his case that Amazon's business model is a new form of "technofeudalism" focused on rent-seeking over profit in a way that he argues abandons capitalism altogether for a desire to control entire markets. Maybe not what we expected space feudalism to look like, but I think that would be a more interesting angle to focus Battletech: less focus on profit but possessions of corporate aristocracy etc. Another thing I've been pondering: paint. How do so many people get thousands of tons of paint to cover their giant robots in cute color schemes? Subscriber model access to the Vallejo Paints Memory Core? Even then are there paint factories on every planet? Without it you're conceivably stuck with what people most commonly painted barns with: linseed oil, lime, skim milk, rust, and if you're rich, blood. So white mechs or red mechs are the cheapest to paint unless you wanna spring for fancy pigments. Maybe bare corrosion-proof space-metal too. I like the idea of a unit mixing new paint from the soil of local planet for a vernacular paint job every time they jump planets.
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Feb 16, 2024 22:56
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The Muffinlord posted:Does anyone house-rule LB-X clusters? From my perspective the utility of the Giant Mech Shotguns was always limited by the fact that I would have to roll an unreasonable amount of dice on any successful hit, and I am very, very lazy. I've seen people that have those clear plastic organizers for stuff like screws or fishing tackle. They put 20 pairs of mini 2d6 and just shake the entire box. Just read out from 1 to whatever number you need for any cluster attacks.
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Feb 16, 2024 22:57
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Revvik posted:I roll that out with an app if everyone at the table is comfortable with me doing so, and encourage them to do the same. what app do you use for this?
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Feb 16, 2024 23:29
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Ivan Prisypkin posted:
I thought about the time and effort it would take to repaint a mech in the field but never the amount of paint. That's wild
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Feb 16, 2024 23:43
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