10 replies to this topic

[DrBunji]

So me and some friends were thinking about getting into the Battletech RPGs, but once we got a hold of "A Time of War" we noticed there were zero rules for mech combat in it; are we completely missing something here?

[Surtr]

I believe you are just supposed to play a game of battletech. And I thought there were some special rules from the RPG that carried over, like bonuses and skills and such.

[Viper69]

Mechwarrior is the TT RPG of Battletech which is the miniatures bsaed fighting. Mechwarrior is like D&D where you develop your merc and or pilot and get contracts.

[FLAKPANZER]

There are rules in A Time of War to convert your characters skills over to the tabletop Battletech game.
As Surtr mentioned, Mech combat uses Battletech.

[SteelWarrior]

yea you need to pick up the Battletech - Total War core rulebook.

[Skylarr]

I play MechWarrior. You will need both A Time of War and Total War. Just use the Rules in A Time Of War to get your base number for your pilot. It adds allot of flavor and instead of only doing Mech Combat you can fill in your time between engagements by getting yourself in trouble with the local authorities.

I would advise using some of the optional rules to help your character last longer, because, out of Mech action can be VERY deadly. Being very deadly will turn some people off.

Quote

LETHALITY REDUCTION
As presented, these personal combat rules can rack up casualties quickly, or render player characters unable to take part in a fast-paced adventure thanks to extensive injuries. To mitigate this, gamemasters can opt to reduce the deadliness of personal combat by using one or both of the methods described below. If applied, however, the rule must be applied to all characters in the game, including friendly and hostile NPCs, as well as any creatures the characters may encounter.

Increased Damage Capacity
Under standard rules, a character receives a number of standard damage capacity points equal to 2 times his BOD score, and a number of Fatigue points equal to 2 times his WIL score. With the Increased Damage Capacity rule, the GM may use a multiplier of 3 or 4 for both damage capacities instead, essentially boosting both damage capacity values by 50% and 100% respectively. As this is intended to boost character survivability, any damage the characters sustain in gameplay will not be affected or modified in any way, and Injury and Fatigue Modifiers will remain based on their existing rules.

Increased Armor Effectiveness
A more indirect method of handling lethality is to address the issue of personal armor. Under standard gameplay, any standard damage that the character receives after armor reduction presuming the armor has sufficient BAR to do so) is applied as normal standard damage. To boost armor effectiveness, gamemasters opting for this lethality-reducing rule would translate any standard damage that penetrates personal armor into Fatigue damage instead. (Fatigue-inducing attacks remain unchanged.) Remember, however, that this eff ect only occurs when an attack is made that penetrates the character’s personal armor. If the AP of the attack is equal to or greater than the armor’s BAR, it penetrates without effect and remains lethal.

A Time Of War page 192

[Narcissistic Martyr]

I seem to remember a d20 mechwarrior RPG that had rules for mech fighting as well. I can't remember any more than that though, it's been... 5-6 years now I guess since I played it and the books were borrowed. Had a lot of fun in that campaign as a hard drinking bar room brawl loving pilot of the much maligned Charger on a backwards outpost world.

[Steinar Bergstol]

A Time of War is a decent RPG. I'm running a campaign in it (set in 3025) for my own tabletop group. It is, however, exceedingly deadly for people used to games like D&D or the like. Getting shot is a _baaaaaaad_ thing so the optional damage capacity rules mentione earlier in this thread might be a good idea, depending on the preferences of your group. As you've probably also noticed already character generation is... time consuming.

If memory serves the rules for converting the skills to Battletech numbers are fairly simple. If memory serves your BT skill in gunnery and piloting equals the base difficulty number for the skill (which normally is somewhere from 8 to 10 I believe) and then you subtract your skillnumber from this to get the BT skill level.

[gilliam]

AToW was made with integration between scales in mind, so you just use the regular rules for mech combat in Total Warfare (as well as any advanced rules from Tactical Operations, if you feel up to it).
The only RPG specific rules are pilot damage (table on 217 for RPG scale damage instead of the standard 6 pilot hits then dead in TW), artillery using its own skill rather than gunnery and some special pilot abilities (starting page 219).

On a side note, if you like AToW, you should pick up the Companion as well. Lots of neat stuff in there, though most of it is out of cockpit stuff (there's a few pages of new special pilot abilities, but that's not enough to justify a purchase alone if you just want to do mech fights)

[Fiona Marshe]

I still use MW2nd and its great fun; if you use Individual Initiative and Simple/Basic/Complex action rules, the whole game changes and even 'mech combat can be extremely vicious.

Eg. With MW2, Battletech and Maximum Tech, it is possible to unleash 4! AC20 rounds using Rapid Fire Autocannons and a Complex Action.

[Uller Phrost]

MechWarrior is the RPG. I GMed a MechWarrior 3rd ed(nothing like D&D) campaign for several years. Charactor creating is more like Traveller then D&D. you make the charactor by picking house/clan then picking a childhood then young adult-high school-acadamy/tech school - tours of duty... Your charactor could be mid 30s missing a few body parts have a few enemys and mental issues but own his mech. Solaris or a hiring hall is the best place to start your group of disfunctional players out.



must Books
Solaris VII
Mechwarrior 3rd
good to get
Lost tech
any of the House books.


The house books were published between Mechwarrior 2nd ed and 3rd ed so not all houses have LIFE PATHS. used be on old old Solaris website 2000 some threads that had made life paths. I recall a Nadine B... made a good Lyran path but lost it years ago.


Our campaign was ex Com Guard/Raselhuage after Tukayyid with a few Draks and Stieners. made the Blakist look like choir boys