Test Run - A Time of War

Over the past month, I've dipped into Catalist Game Labs' MechWarrior Destiny RPG.  A few times, I mentioned that it was more streamlined than A Time of War, the previous incarnation of the BattleTech RPG.  Today, I demonstrate the difference by creating a PC with ATOW.

Test Run - MechWarrior Destiny III - Converting a BattleMech

 Back to Catalist Game Labs' MechWarrior Destiny to try out one more subsystem, BattleMech conversion.  For this, I'll need a BattleMech,  Instead of one of the published 'Mechs, I'll use one of my own design, the PLNK-5R, or Plinker.  All the goodies after the break.

Test Run - MechWarrior Destiny

Going to try keeping this going for another week.  This time out, Catalyst Game Labs' MechWarrior Destiny, one of the BattleTech RPGs.  BattleTech is on a renaissance right now, with a popular video game, a successful Kickstarter campaign to get a new edition with new miniatures, and an extensive fandom.  And, yes, one of the RPGs.  Prior to Destiny was A Time of War, which had an extensive and involved character creation method.  Destiny kept the lifepath setup from A Time of War but simplified character creation by reducing the number of points to spend on drastically.

MechWarrior Destiny uses the Cue System, the same system used in the Valiant Universe Roleplaying Game, as seen with Nasty and Ringette.  There are differences between the games, reflecting the source material.  But the system does make character creation easier and faster.  Since this will get long, the meat will appear after the break.

Cortex+ BattleTech - Attack on New Turbinenplatz

With the third character prepared, it's time to get her involved.  Previously, Rahela and Victor, while toying with each other, stopped a lance of Word of Blake BattleMechs.  The story now switches focus to Frankie.

Cortext+ BattleTech - ComStar Technician - Commentary

Gasp!  A second commentary in as many weeks?  Sure!  Why not?

First, the past three characters show one of my approaches to creating them for both gaming and writing.  With ensemble casts, I need to keep in mind the roles I need filled.  With the BattleTech concept test, the first two characters I needed were MechWarriors.  I then had to find a way to distinguish the two.  The third character, Frankie, needed to be different from both but still needed to be useful.  Thus, a ComStar technician.  The Cortex+ rules as seen in the Firefly RPG have broad skills.  Fix covers everything from toasters to BattleMechs.  Neither Victor nor Rahela have that skill; they're better at breaking 'Mechs, not repairing them.  Frankie, thus, gets that role.

However, role doesn't lead to personality.  So, knowing I need a technician, I still have to figure out who Frankie is.  The use of distinctions in Cortex+ helps define Frankie, not just in her role but in her personality and outlook on life.  Technologist reflects her affinity towards technology.  Know It All shows she's smart but has problems not lording her intellect over others.  Wet Behind the Ears means she's relatively inexperienced; she's going to make mistakes.  Broad strokes, but the more I work with her, the more I'll get to know her.

I went through a similar process with By the Numbers.  I had a ensemble cast, with certain roles that needed to be filled.  Numbers was an idea I had already was playing with as a player character, so placing her into the hacker role was easy enough.  Charles was another idea that kept coming to mind, the troll wall of muscle.  Treehugger, though, came from the rigger archetype in the Fourth Edition Shadowrun rules, with me interpreting the character sheet's list of qualities.  Oswald started as a generic mage, then slowly morphed into being a former law enforcement detective as planning began.  Know what roles I needed meant I could begin filling in details about the plot without having to worry too much about who was filling the position.  Once writing begins, I can see how the character behaves relative to the others.

The process is different when there is just one central character.  Usually, the plot depends heavily on that character to the point where I need to know who that person is before I can figure out key scenes, including the ending.  This may have been the biggest problem with Digital Magic.  I just didn't know enough about Jackie when I started writing that the story couldn't continue because it didn't suit her.

With an ensemble or just one main character, what I do find helps is substituting my characters in the place of another in a work similar to what I'm writing.  The change of character lets me work out what that person would do in the situation.  This comes from my RPG experience more than anything else.  It's easy to say that a different character would fare better, but would the dice agree?  Take Caitlin from Unruly.  Replacing John McClane from either of the first two Die Hard movies with her changes the tone of the movie.  Caitlin doesn't have the training John does; instead, she'd be organizing her own resistance force.  Or, maybe, trying to take over Hans' gang and make it her own personal army.

Second, I am taking some liberties with the BattleTech setting.  While I am trying to keep to the source books as much as possible, my interpretation may not be the same as anyone else's despite referring to the same books.  Traveller players have two acronyms for this - OTU, or Original Traveller Universe, and IMTU, In My Traveller Universe.  The OTU is the Third Imperium as seen in the various books released over five editions and at least three licensed spin-offs of the RPG.  Due to the sheer size of the Third Imperium, there are a number of valid interpretations of the setting.  The Universal World Profiles are shorthand descriptions of the planets, encompassing a wide variety into an eight character string.  How a world looks in play depends very much on the GM, and two worlds with Government Code 4, Representative Democracy, could have vastly different ways of electing a representative, from a parliamentary system to a tiered system where each level elects a rep to go up to the next level.  Similarily, the culture of a planet also depends on the GM and players; while there are details about Regina in the Spinward Marches Sector, the details about Sorel in the same sector aren't as defined.

Thus, I have a Lyran pilot on a world that is, in 3067, held by the Federated Suns with a Capellan peacekeeping force made up of a Canopian unit.  My interpretation placed a Lyran force on the world at the end of the FedCom Civil War, still evacuating the planet because space travel isn't easy to coordinate.  The Capellans have the peacekeeping force there because the nation's  Chancellor not only is the First Lord of the revived Star League but is also looking to reclaim the world, using the Trinity Alliance with the Canopians and the Taurans to hide his ambition.  I may be pushing the interpretation, but I can point out each element if needed.

Finally, all this is an exercise to see if Cortex+ can be hacked for another setting.  Originally, I was adapting the Firefly RPG for Traveller.  The catch there is that there may not be enough of a difference to be a proper test.  It's been said that Firefly was based on a campaign Joss Whedon ran in university, and speculation is that the game was Traveller*.  It's easy enough to find the links.  In terms of prior careers, Mal and Zoe were in the Army, Wash was a Scout, complete with faded Hawaiian shirt, Kayleigh was a Merchant, Simon was a Doctor, either from Classic Traveller Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium or from the core MegaTraveller rules, Inara was either a Noble, from the same books as Simon, or from the Other career in the original rules, Book was either an Agent from Supplement 4 or the Other career, and Jayne used the Mercenary character generation.  If true, than testing a hack for Traveller wouldn't be as robust as possible.  Adding giant death machines, treating them as ships?  That does test the system, and the system can handle it.  The 'Mech battle featuring Rahela and Victor showed that it is possible, though placing a d12 into any attribute may be too much.

For what was meant to be a simple test, the result became far more involved than expected.  I wasn't planning on having micro-fiction, but the characters insisted.  There's no guarantee that the story will continue, but now that I've started it, it's going to be something that I return to.

Tomorrow, introducing the third character for this extended example.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, Transformers.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, The Good...


* The other possible game is /Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game/ from West End Games, modified for a custom setting with River using modification of the Force rules.  The archetypes in the game cover the same range of characters as /Firefly/ has.

Cortext+ BattleTech - ComStar Technician

With two MechWarriors built - Rahela and Victor - and involved in a plotline of sorts, it's time to flesh out the core cast a little.  Right now, I see two more characters needed, one a ComStar employee, the other the commander of the Word of Blake forces.  The latter, though, is the opposition, thus effectively an NPC and doesn't need to be introduced just yet.  The ComStar employee, though, does need an intro and, thus, a character sheet for future reference.

Commentary Returns! Rahela and Victor!

Last week, I staged an encounter between two characters created to try hacking the Firefly RPG for the BattleTech setting.  It went turn by turn, but there was a hint of a plot there.  In fact, I have a rough idea of where I'm going.

Most of the background comes out of BattleTech canon, though the various sourcebooks published by FASA and Catalyst Game Labs.  The specific books I referenced are A Time of War, the official BattleTech RPG; Handbook House Liao, covering the Capellan Confederation; Handbook Major Periphery States, for the Magistracy of Canopus info; 1st Somerset Strikers for the Axman's stats, Technical Readout 2750 for the Hussar's, and Technical Readout 3025 for the Hunchback's.  When I write fanfic, I do my research*.

The example battle serves as the teaser for the unnamed series.  Two MechWarriors from different backgrounds, one a noble from a Periphery state, the other a career soldier from a major House, must now team up to deal with a bigger threat than each other.  Both are professionals and don't have a reason to dislike each other.  The Word of Blake invasion throws things into disarray.

The fight, which took paragraphs to resolve, doesn't really cover that much time.  There are liberties taken.  Rahela's laser can't really penetrate armour that well, but Cortex+, Firefly's core mechanics, run more on narrative than numbers.  The Blakist mooks in their Hunchbacks were expendables.  The scene is the pre-credits teaser, a burst of action to introduce two of the main characters and set up the story to follow.  BattleMechs made of explodium works for the narrative, though I did try to make the destruction believable.  Head shots in BattleTech are dangerous, especially with the heavier weapons.

I have discovered a small problem with my setup.  Zurich, which was a Capellan world in 3025, wound up in the hands of the Federated Suns after the Federated Commonwealth Civil War.  I could do some handwaving - the Lyran forces are just waiting for a JumpShip to arrive to take them back home while Sun Tsu Liao, Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation and First Lord of the Second Star League, could have suggested a Canopian unit to act as peacekeepers during the transition.  The Chancellor may also be looking at regaining the world; Zurich had a weapons factory, at least in 3025.  The problems of playing in someone else's extensive sandbox.

Mechically, the battle could have been more interesting.  I could have had Rahela and Victor go for more plot points, breaking up the handfuls of eight-sided dice used in some rolls.  However, I let things go organically.  Choices were made on the situation, not  for demonstration.  I did try to use the different distinctions and brought in some of the triggers.  However, as proof of concept, the 'Mech battle worked, at least when treating the opposition as just extras.  I should try another battle later with at least one opponent being a major NPC, built like Rahela and Victor.

Tomorrow, introducing the third character for this extended example.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, the problems with adapting toys.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, Transformers.


* More research than I did for last year's NaNoWriMo project.

Cortex+ BattleTech - MechWarriors Are Go!

After creating a second MechWarrior last week, the next question is how would the Firefly RPG handle a 'Mech battle?  To find out, I'll use Rahela and Victor to demonstrate.  You may want to place the character sheets in their own tabs to follow along.

The Setup
With Rahela from a Periphery state and Victor from the Lyran Alliance, normally they wouldn't cross paths.  The Capellan Confederation lies in between, but therein lies the solution.  The Capellans have a treaty with the Magistracy of Canopus and the Taurian Concordat that allows for peacekeeping forces from the two Periphery states to serve in the former Chaos March region.  Said region saw forces from both sides of the Federated Commonwealth Civil War pass through.  Choosing a random planet that has Lyran forces still in garrison that House Liao wants to reclaim isn't a problem.  Placing a Canopian unit on planet lets me create instant conflict between the characters, though both sides have orders to not start a war.

To add to the fun, the year is 3067, months after the second Star League disbands.  The Major Houses would have gone back to their state of cold wars with each other, but one faction took the disbanding hard.  The Word of Blake, who splintered away from ComStar after the Clan Invasion, was never the most stable bunch.  When ComStar made the decision to shun the mysticism of centuries of being the technological leaders of the Inner Sphere, the more faithful broke away, following the religious aspects instead.  The Word was hoping to get a seat in the second Star League and, well, having their religious goal thwarted sent them off the deep end, leading to the Jihad.

Cortext+ BattleTech - Lyran Scout

Going back a bit, I hacked the Firefly RPG for use as a BattleTech RPG.  The result was Baronessa Rahela Dalca, a young MechWarrior from the Magistracy of Canopus.  This time around, I want to create a character from one of the major Houses in the setting, House Steiner.  The core concept is that the character is he is a career MechWarrior in the Lyran Armed Forces, an officer, but without the noble connections Rahela has.

Since the distinction will be needed, I'll add it here for easy reference.  The MechWarrior distinction was created with the guidelines found in the Firefly core rules and represents the basic training a Mech pilot should have.  As a reminder, Drive covers driving anything on the ground, from skateboards and motorcycles to hovertanks and BattleMechs.  Operate refers to using most electronic systems, from handheld tablets to starship navigation systems.  Shoot covers firing anything, from longbows to long-range missile (LRM) racks.

MechWarrior d8
*    Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
      Born in the Pilot's Seat:  Spend 1PP to step up or double your 'Mech's Engine attribute for your next roll.
      Alpha Strike:  Take a Heat Exhaustion d8 complication to step up or double your 'Mech's Systems attribute when firing a weapon.

Highlighted Skills: Drive, Operate Shoot

This time around, I'll go step by step, though I may just gloss over the full approach.

King Arthur, MechWarrior

Since writing the analysis of BattleTech: The Animated Series (also over at Psycho Drive-In with illustrations), I've been poking at the current BattleTech RPG, A Time of War.  The core mechanic is simple enough - roll 2d6, add skill level and attribute modifiers against a set target number - but character creation takes time.  The game also is focused at the character level, whether the PC is a MechWarrior outside his walking tank or a merchant operating a DropShip throught the Successor States.  Given the background of the game, though, it struck me that BattleTech could use a King Arthur, Pendragon approach.

Pendragon allows players to not only play a knight in the time of King Arthur, but to also build the knight's family and holdings.  The Great Pendragon Campaign is set up to follow the events as chronicled by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, placing the player knights at the major events.  The game becomes generational; as one knight dies, the player creates the deceased's heir to continue.  The main drawback of The Great Pendragon Campaign is that players can feel railroaded at times, staying close to the book.  A fictionalized version, though, would allow a campaign to flow where it wanted, and this is where BattleTech comes in.

BattleTech has several eras of play, from the end of the Star League through the Succession Wars, to the Clan Invasion and the Jihad.  Most of the eras have huge events happening at the upper levels of the major Houses, from the machinations of Stefan the Usurper to the wedding of Prince Hanse Davion to Archon-Designate Melissa Steiner.  The details, though, are left up to players to fill out, through either the wargame, as 'Mechs throw down on a distant planet, or the RPG, as PCs connive their way through the echelons.  A Pendragon-like campaign can start in any era and continue on its own way, not necessarily bound by canon.  If a GM doesn't mind players conspiring to take over a major House like Steiner, the sky's the limit!

The catch, as always, is keeping what makes Pendragon Pendragon and what makes BattleTech BattleTech.  Pendragon has Passions, beliefs that drive a player knight, whether it's the love of family or the hate of an enemy.  BattleTech setting books and fiction show similar Passions at work.  Citizens of the Lyran Alliance and the Draconis Combine along the path of the Clan invasion could easily have Hate (Clans), just as citizens of the Taurian Concordat can have Hate (Federated Suns)*.  Skills in Pendragon have their equivalence in a more advanced era.  Battle becomes Tactics, Horsemanship maps to Pilot/BattleMech or Pilot/Aerospace, and weapon skills can be expanded to include Firearms and Gunnery.

A typical King Arthur, MechWarrior** campaign would follow minor Houses of a Successor State, though a challenging game may have players as the heads of the major Houses and the larger Periphery nations.  Having players all be from one Successor prevents immediate in-fighting, though political maneuvering should be expected.  The idea, at least for the typical campaign, is to have players work together to benefit their Successor State while still trying to gain political and military capital of their own, building up manors on worlds to protect themselves from invaders, marauders***, and bandits.  The GM can still have key events happen, but the immediate impact on the players' plans should be minimal.  Of course, if a FedSun PC has Hate (Steiner) and the wedding between Hanse and Melissa happens, that's a role-playing opportunity waiting to be exploited.

A key part of Pendragon character creation is the effect of previous generations on a player knight.  Events that occurred to the knight's father and grandfather have an impact on the knight himself, leading to passions and personality traits.  The GM and players will have to work out the details of what happened before, but that will depend greatly on the chosen era and Successor State.  A King Arthur, MechWarrior campaign will feel closest to Pendragon if set in the Federated Suns, which is similar enough to England with French and American influences.  However, a campaign in the Draconis Combine will allow for samurai and one set in the Marian Hegemony will have a more Roman feel.  It's all dependent of GM and players.

The mechanics used may not matter at this point.  Converting Pendragon for MechWarrior houses requires adding and updating skills to reflect the setting.  Converting A Time of War will need some work to reflect the Passions.  Adding the Passions as Compulsions at various levels may work, though, but the more extreme levels may not work well.  A character I played in a Pendragon campaign, Sir Tanicus of Newton, had Hate (Saxons) at 19, meaning to invoke it, I had to roll 19 or less on a d20.  That level of Hate could be a Compulsion worth -4 Trait Points, which leads to a -7 on rolls around Saxons.****  The third option here is to use a different ruleset, one that can meld the needs of both approaches.  As this is still high level planning, I'm not worrying about the rules right now.  Players could use one set of mechanics for role-playing and switch to the BattleTech rules to fight battles.

For players who want to explore the nightlife of Solaris VII while fighting in the broadcast games, the above thoughts may not be useful.  For those who want to explore the nature of power in the 31st Century or who want to build up a dynasty to challenge the ruling Houses, this may be the way to go.


* Citizens of the Federated Suns along the border with the Concordat might have Indifference (Taurians).  "Who are these guys and what's their deal?"
** For lack of a better name here.
*** Which may include MAD-3R Marauders.
**** Sir Tanicus managed to roll a 19 exactly when facing some nasty Saxon berserkers, which increased his Hate (Saxons).  The berserkers died on the lance of Sir Tanicus; he out-hated them.

Cortext+ BattleTech - A MechWarrior Detailed

Not long ago, I blogged about converting BattleMechs into Cortex+ as seen with the Firefly RPG.  I mentioned a sample character, a Magistracy of Canopus MechWarrior with an antique Hussar 'Mech.  I present now, that character.

Cortex+ Conversion - BattleTech/MechWarrior

A week or two ago, a friend was trying to figure out a tabletop RPG system that would work for the BattleTech setting with a quicker, less involved creation system than the official A Time of War rules.  A Time of War has some great information in it, but character creation gets involved, with players spending 5000 points in a lifepath-style* generation system.  He wanted something more streamlined.  We've discussed using the Pendragon system for the BattleTech setting, having each character be the head of a minor House with the goal being to build up holdings while playing The Great BattleTech Campaign.  This time around, though, he wanted something for when players weren't in their 'Mechs.  His plan was to use the wargame for 'Mech-on-'Mech battles and something else for other nefarious deeds.