Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

What kind of system did the MechWarrior RPG use anyway?

I actually did an entire breakdown of all the RPGs earlier in the thread. Here it is:

It should be noted that that rulebook has been superseded by the Chronicles of Darkness: Revised Storytelling System Rulebook, which is the most up to date ruleset.


The actual supported Battletech TTRPG game is the Mechwarrior RPG. The original RPG by FASA is simply known as the Mechwarrior RPG and there are three editions: MechWarrior: The BattleTech Role Playing Game, MechWarrior: The BattleTech Role Playing Game, Second Edition, and MechWarrior, Third Edition. Some quirks to note about the earlier editions: the First edition only goes up to the Third Succession War era while the Second Edition introduced the clans. Both of the first two editions outright expected you to be familiar with the rules of whatever the (then) most current edition of Battletech was if you wanted to do large battles and use mechs, which meant that you needed to buy yet more books and be familiar with multiple rulesets, and the First Edition was meant to be compatible with Battletroops for squad based combat. The first edition was almost entirely geared towards creating mechwarriors, in fact, to the detriment of every other potential character type and playstyle. The second edition was also criticized for allowing you to create elite mechwarriors without using any experience points. The third edition, the last edition FASA made, was an attempt to rectify all of these issues; it explicitly did not require you to be familiar with Battletech to play, you could make more than just mechwarriors, and mechwarriors could no longer be made without experience points. It used a character creation system that was identical to the one FASA original Star Trek roleplaying game employed. It was explicitly designed to fix many of Second Edition's issues. The main criticism is that its character creation is somewhat random, along with some apparent balancing issues.

After FASA lost the rights to WizKids, the latter company farmed out the rights to publish Battletech books to FanPro. It was FanPro who published the Classic Battletech RPG. This rpg is not a new edition of Mechwarrior, but is just a reprint of Third Edition, renamed so as not to be confused with WizKids other game line, Mechwarrior: Dark Age. The Battletech game itself was also renamed to Classic Battletech. The Classic Battletech RPG is basically interchangeable with Third Edition, with only the errata being different.

When Catalyst Game Labs (CGL) took over, they effectively rebooted the entire Battletech license with their Total Warfare rulebook. After that book, they released a series of core rulebooks to go along with it, one of which is A Time of War, which is essentially Mechwarrior, Fourth Edition under a new name (some fans still call it that). Its the newest version, with the newest ruleset and covering all eras up till the Jihad era (it doesn't technically cover the Dark Ages in the corebook, though that era is mentioned, and it shouldn't be hard to run a game in that era). A Time of War is extremely complex to run (character creation alone is right hard mess to follow), but it doesn't need you to be familiar with Battletech to run. you are probably better following @Corn Flakes advice and just running your own system and using the books to set the setting and design ships and mechs and such.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Yeah, ATOW really, desperately begs for a computer program to manage character creation. Much like Rolemaster, once you get OUT of CC it's not so bad, and the lifepath options can be interesting.

Unless you are having repeat sessions where the PCs are out of their Mechs, though, I'm not sure I'd bother.

 

[Corn Flakes]

God, I love Storyteller because of how fucking simple the rules are. You have this stat and this skill, you add them together, roll that many D10, anything above this number succeeds, GM says you need this many successes for your task, each roll is X amount of time.

And yet within that simple framework you can create almost anything.

That's why I suggested it, yeah. I have barely played the nWoD games, but even just a cursory flip through the core rulebook (rules for mortals, with the Big Three Vampire, Mage and Werewolf splats doing their own thing) told me that could be a very good generic system. It's very simple, but unlike other rules-lite systems it's very easy to tack on additional rules to spice things up or change the balance, as the splats themselves do.

It won't do you any good for the mech side of combat if you don't want to freeform it, but in that case you might as well just break out the tabletop rules and play BattleTech.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

What’s a good durable medium for the video games, insofar as you can tilt it a bit to spread out damage like you can with a marauder or stalker?

 

[StevieLasVegas]

Can't go wrong with the ol' reliable Shadowhawk

 

[TFT-A9]

What’s a good durable medium for the video games, insofar as you can tilt it a bit to spread out damage like you can with a marauder or stalker?

Which video game, MWO or MW5M?

For MWO, a medium that can roll/wiggle to spread damage well is going to be the Crab. The Crab's hitboxes are fantastic for that method of damage spreading.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Which video game, MWO or MW5M?

For MWO, a medium that can roll/wiggle to spread damage well is going to be the Crab. The Crab's hitboxes are fantastic for that method of damage spreading.

Both but primarily online.

 

[A. G. Peak]

I've never played BattleTech, but heard the story about Blaine Pardoe and Faith McClosky/Ace Kaller on the Blocked & Reported podcast. Here's a clip of the segment.

Faith reminds me quite a bit of rat king Steven Joel Akins / Penny Oaken / Bardfinn. Like Faith, Steven performs as a trans lesbian online, and spends most of his time hunting for wrongthink from his mother's basement. The truth is he's a middle aged man that was charged with domestic violence against his ex-wife and has abandoned his child.

 

[White Devil]

I've never played BattleTech, but heard the story about Blaine Pardoe and Faith McClosky/Ace Kaller on the Blocked & Reported podcast. Here's a clip of the segment.

View attachment 4304309

Faith reminds me quite a bit of rat king Steven Joel Akins / Penny Oaken / Bardfinn. Like Faith, Steven performs as a trans lesbian online, and spends most of his time hunting for wrongthink from his mother's basement. The truth is he's a middle aged man that was charged with domestic violence against his ex-wife and has abandoned his child.

If you're into giant stompy robots, you should give the franchise a shot. The novels are surprisingly engaging for 80s slop supporting a board game.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

If you're into giant stompy robots, you should give the franchise a shot. The novels are surprisingly engaging for 80s slop supporting a board game.

There a good source for most of the literature? I remember picking up one of the books way back and they were adequate (think it was a Clan focused one) but there's a fair amount out there I know.

I've never played BattleTech, but heard the story about Blaine Pardoe and Faith McClosky/Ace Kaller on the Blocked & Reported podcast. Here's a clip of the segment.

View attachment 4304309

Faith reminds me quite a bit of rat king Steven Joel Akins / Penny Oaken / Bardfinn. Like Faith, Steven performs as a trans lesbian online, and spends most of his time hunting for wrongthink from his mother's basement. The truth is he's a middle aged man that was charged with domestic violence against his ex-wife and has abandoned his child.

The podcast also has links to their various sources for the madness here. If nothing else I can confirm Faith No More is a fountainof insanity.

Battletech
​

Faith introduces herself

http://acekaller.blogspot.com/2020/06/finding-your-faith.html?m=1



Faith finds Battletech

http://acekaller.blogspot.com/2020/12/faith-finds-battletech-it-dawned-on-me.html?m=1



Faith is going to be a mother

http://acekaller.blogspot.com/2021/04/musings-going-forward.html?m=1



The truth about “Faith McClosky”

https://blainepardoe.wordpress.com/2021/07/08/the-truth-about-faith-mcclosky/



“Blaine Pardoe is a f****** Liar...”

https://web.archive.org/web/2021072...spot.com/2021/07/blaine-pardoe-is-f-liar.html



Ace denies being J, while surprisingly defending him for some reason

http://acekaller.blogspot.com/2021/07/no-you-dont-get-to-lie-and-inflate.html?m=1



“My Publisher Canceled Me in Favor of an Activist Who Threatened My Life”

https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/29/...-favor-of-an-activist-who-threatened-my-life/



Statement Regarding Blaine Lee Pardoe

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/ge...g-blaine-lee-pardoe/msg1853777/?boardseen#new



Faith No More

https://acekaller.blogspot.com/2022/12/faith-no-more.html



Pardoe’s response

https://blainepardoe.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/faithless/



Image credit: Getty

 

[White Devil]

There a good source for most of the literature? I remember picking up one of the books way back and they were adequate (think it was a Clan focused one) but there's a fair amount out there I know.

I have every novel up to the Dark Age trash in e-book format I don't mind uploading somewhere.

 

[Bass_Ackdwars]

I have every novel up to the Dark Age trash in e-book format I don't mind uploading somewhere.

That or even just a list of the titles worth reading would be much appreciated by lorelets like myself. I'm at that point in Battletech lore like any other subject of study where you understand how much you do not understand.

 

[Hatchetman]

@ Takayuki Yagamai
For MW5 I always liked the Kintaro. Just an SRM boat with maybe one LRM5 for the copters.

 

[Moja Zemlja]

Both but primarily online.

The Crab as said is probably the best medium for being able to just wiggle to spread the damage but there are plenty with good enough twist speed to be good at twisting damage off, the Assassin, Vulcan and Wolverine all twist off damage superbly

 

[BlackDragoons]

So the Conjurer from MW4 is now canonized as the Hellcat (Hellhound II)

 

[Corn Flakes]

So the Conjurer from MW4 is now canonized as the Hellcat (Hellhound II)

Well, as far as canon immigrants go that's pretty tame. Conservative, even. Sure, it's stupid overgunned for a 50-tonner but that's ClanTech for ya. I'd take one of those on my Bear Trinary.

 

[Snekposter]

Can't go wrong with the ol' reliable Shadowhawk

I think its my fave 55-tonner. Mobile, nice hardpoint choices, jump jets, even looks good unlike the Wolverine.

So the Conjurer from MW4 is now canonized as the Hellcat (Hellhound II)

Jesus, a 300 XXL?

If you're into giant stompy robots, you should give the franchise a shot. The novels are surprisingly engaging for 80s slop supporting a board game.

The Stackpole stuff is good, his treatment of fusion reactors aside.

 

[Gender Fluids BLEVE]

That or even just a list of the titles worth reading would be much appreciated by lorelets like myself. I'm at that point in Battletech lore like any other subject of study where you understand how much you do not understand.

I would start with the Warrior trilogy from Stackpole (En Garde, Riposte, Coupe). There's a book set before those that gives some minor details that help you understand the major events of this trilogy (The Sword and the Dragon), however it's really not necessary so don't sweat it if you don't want to bother with it; the books explain themselves pretty well. I would also recommend Wolves on the Border. These books are all happening in roughly the same time period (from immediately prior to and then throughout the Fourth Succession War). After that, there are three more Stackpole books that are pretty core to the timeline, the Blood of Kerensky trilogy (Lethal Heritage, Blood Legacy, Lost Destiny). Now you're up to the Clan Invasion. Those are pretty much the books that ought to get the setting firmly established for you, and they're all decent quality. From here, branch out according to your particular interests. If you find that you actually like Wolf's Dragoons and enjoyed Wolves on the Border, Charette wrote a sequel to it set post-Invasion called Wolf Pack.
If you find you want to read ok books about The Absolute Worst Fucking Merc Regiment, Holy Shit, read up on the Gray Death Legion, starting with Decision At Thunder Rift. Like a lot of author pet regiments, they get a trilogy set before the invasion and then some more books after. I enjoyed them when I was a kid but they're pretty rough in retrospect.
Once you're ready to move the timeline forward from the Clan Invasion, you can start on Exodus Road; be warned, however, that here is the point where quality starts becoming... highly variable.

 

[BlackDragoons]

I have every novel up to the Dark Age trash in e-book format I don't mind uploading somewhere.

That or even just a list of the titles worth reading would be much appreciated by lorelets like myself. I'm at that point in Battletech lore like any other subject of study where you understand how much you do not understand.

The Rebrand.ly/CranstonSnord trove is back up and running at full power. Up to date with the majority of Battletech Splatbooks as well as novels. Still working on getting all the Legendary PDFs posted as well.

 

[Bassomatic]

Got the new book, a new Thor (yes the OG Thor) config T ERPPC, streak LRM15 and protomech 8. WAT why? Did this need to be a thing let alone canon?