8 replies to this topic

[Der Zivilist]

Hey all,

In looking forward to playing MWO, I remembered that once upon a time, I used to own some tabletop stuff, as well as a thick MechWarrior RPG book. As of this writing, I consider these things lostech, so I can't tell you exactly what they were named... but, if I invest some research effort, I can probably rediscover them. Somewhere in a box on a dusty shelf...

(Here's an amusing, albeit unrelated anecdote from back then)

Spoiler

When I bought a boxed set for the first time, I was fairly excited. I had never owned a game like this before, and it even came with printed maps and plastic miniatures! ...Or so it said on the box. You can imagine my disappointment when, upon opening the box, I discovered that there was no such thing as the advertised plastic miniatures. Instead, it offered cut-out paper tokens.

Young and idealistic (i.e. clueless) as I was, I took the included feedback postcard, a thing that was common back then with many board games. You know, the kind of thing that promised you to win stuff if you sent it in, but really only attempted to farm your postal address for marketing purposes. On this feedback card, I voiced my displeasure with the lack of plastic miniatures, and, well, demanded some to be sent to me because they were advertised on the box, after all.

Two weeks later, a package arrived from the publisher. Awesome, I thought. They actually read my feedback card, and sent me my missing miniatures!

...Nnnnnope. Inside the package, a letter informed me that congratulations, the feedback card I had sent in had actually won a raffle, which I hadn't even realized I would be entering, and included in the box was my prize: a shiny new Solaris VII box set! (At least, I think that was what I won... it's been over a decade.)

However, despite my card apparently being drawn and handled by some human being (at the very least my address must have been retrieved), no mention whatsoever was made on the actual feedback I submitted. It might as well have gone completely unread.

And you know what I discovered when I opened the prize box set?

That's right: it came with cut-out paper tokens.

Now the thing is, I never got to play much - largely because I had nobody else to play with. Since then, well over 10 years have passed, and I now am part of a group of nerdy people who regularly play various tabletop games over the internet. I had completely forgotten about BattleTech, but hey - what better time is there to rediscover an old passion than now?

I looked around a bit, and found this thing called MegaMek which I am sure you all know. It should handle online play well enough.

Which leads me to the actual question I have.

I do (probably) own the relevant rulebooks, but my online friends in all likelyhood do not. This would not be an issue if we sat around a table and they could use my books, but being spread out across four different countries on two different continents, we have no such luxury. This means that while they can install the MegaMek client, they won't actually have any resources to help them choose and customize a mech, create a pilot, and play the game.

Are there any online resources that cover the very basic mechanics and tables? I know Wizards of the Coast allowed this to be done in form of so-called d20 SRDs ("system reference documents") for the different variants fo the d20 system, basically declaring a bare-bones collection of all necessary core mechanics freeware - without any flavor texts, artwork, editorial texts and scenario material that would be included in the books. Some other companies have allowed or outright provided similar things. As an example of what I mean, here's the D&D 3.5e version.

Does such a thing exist for BattleTech?

I have looked at the free quickstart PDFs you can get on the official site, but those seem to be not only incomplete (after all, they're meant to be short and simple), but actually seem part of a different ruleset (what I have is all classic material). So they do not help in this case.

Edited by Der Zivilist, 21 June 2012 - 06:30 AM.

[Skylarr]

I have heard you can find all the rules book on PDF on the internet for free. But, you are doing it at your own risk.

[Neovenator]

Here is a link to Catalyst Game Labs quick start rules for the Battletech game: http://bg.battletech...Start-Rules.pdf

It has all the basic rules for playing the boardgame and should be everything you need to know to get started.

[Der Zivilist]

@ Skylarr: That would not surprise me, but I'd like to avoid using illegal means.

@ Neovenator: As I mentioned, I already grabbed that. Unfortunately, while it is enough to move a mech over a map and have it shoot, it's not enough to play in MegaMek, which uses the full suite of (classic!) rules. Or to do anything beyond moving a mech over a map and having it shoot.

Edited by Der Zivilist, 21 June 2012 - 07:53 AM.

[Neovenator]

I find MegaMek to be fairly simple as it handles pretty much everything beyond moving your mech and choosing a target, I don't think you need much beyond the Introductory rules.

Sarna.net has loads of Battletech information (on th universe ans such) but I don't beleive they have the rules for actual gameplay available. Unfortunately I don't beleiv you have a ton of options for what you are looking for online. You can buy Total Warfare (the latest rules for the game) for like $15 from Battlecorps.com battleshop or drivethrurpg or older versions of the rules for like $10.

If you are looking for a free option I think your choices are scanning/copying your own rules or looking at what may be available via less legal means.

[JackCrow]

That's a good story.

I have found that the online support for this game to be just OK, but woefully behind the times. Steve Jackson is relaunching OGRE and it will have an iOS app that is basically an OGRE record sheet that you can score with.

Good luck finding something like that for BT. The game of 31st century combat is barely in the 21st century. Of course I still love it, but it sure could use some innovations so the player can spend less energy bookkeeping and more energy playing.

Megamek sounds great.

[Maurice]

Tri amazon. com you should get all you need there to play

[Der Zivilist]

It's not I who needs to get the material... It's those four other guys And I'm not sure I can convince all of them to shell out for a boxed set.

Oh well, it was worth asking in any case. Thanks for your replies.

I've rediscovered my boxes, by the way. One is labeled something like "4th edition basic set" (in German), one is a CityTech set, and one is indeed (as I remembered) a Solaris VII set. I have not yet found the RPG book, but it's gotta be here somewhere.

EDIT: Good lord, this stuff is marked with a '97 copyright. This is freaky.

EDIT 2: Also found the book now. 210 pages, fullsize A4, a '95 print.

Edited by Der Zivilist, 21 June 2012 - 01:38 PM.

[Czechu_NS]

Guys, check the DriveThruRPG store for some nice sales at the moment! Battletech e-books and other products too. Total Warfare, Battletech 25 Years of Art and Fiction and Battletech RPG have some really good prices!