28 February 2011

MechWarrior meets Pendragon meets Traveller?

  Last night, I ran a one-shot of MechWarrior First Edition.  It took me back... waaay back.  And while I was running this one-shot I was making mental notes on some things I'd like to do with a MechWarrior game.  I've made posts before on message boards about how I love the original feel of the MechWarrior universe.  The Dune-inspired post-apocalyptic neo-feudal universe where 'Mechs are the lords of the battlefield and can no longer be constructed- or at least constructed on a small-scale.

  This has given me some ideas for what I would consider "my" version of MechWarrior, or MechWarrior 1.5, as it were. 

  I want to use the 1st edition rules as a basis and I'll admit its out of nostalgia.  Let's start with that and take a look at the things I'd like to keep or modify.

  • The game uses 2d6 task resolution.  This I want to keep because it's the core of the Battletech game, with which my version of MechWarrior should remain compatible.
  • The ability scores run on a 12-point scale.  I think it's possible to keep this scale, or even to expand it to 15 a-'la Traveller for an old-school hexidecimal UPP scheme...  Hmmm...  Traveller-style systems for MechWarrior...
  • The basic system of ability scores giving a modifier to target number works for me.  The challenge here is to create a scheme by which ability scores have an effect, but not as much of an overpowering one as MechWarrior 2nd Edition had, where a character with a 6 ITN was godlike.
  • I like the HTK system, and having HTK by body location.  A Time of War has overcomplicated what should be a simplification by reducing the number of damage points a character has, then having margin of success add 1/4 point or 1/2 point to damage.  Why not just keep a larger pool of hit points and count full points?
  • I have been looking at the Battletechnology article on character creation.  It gives a variable number of CP for character creation based on the throw of 2d6-2.  This gives a range of 145-225 CP rather than the 150 CP normally alotted by the original MechWarrior RPG.  It also gives several different training possibilities with differing skill packages.  This is terribly old-school in its complex crunchiness.  I may or may not keep some of this just out of nostalgic grognardism.
  • I like having experience classes.  They give the old-school feeling of "Levelling" without really having a bunch of levels.  There's Green, Regular, Veteran and Elite.  I like that.
  • Crunchy as it is, I like giving out XP for skill use, combat damage, etc.  But I am going to alter XP rules to allow for more non-combat XP for non-combat characters.
Random thoughts...

  The MechWarrior 1e game was often criticized for not being able to do much more than make MechWarriors and pilots.  Something that crossed my mind while reading Pendragon the other night was that Pendragon is a game that makes Knights.  Only knights, pretty much. Pendragon is touted as one of the greatest genre games ever made.  So... what the heck is wrong with MechWarrior being designed to make... MechWarriors?

  Now, don't get me wrong.  I think there's a LOT more to the Battletech universe than BattleMechs.  There's so much history, culture, so many nooks and crannies in the universe to fit into that have nothing to do with 'Mechs at all.  I've run a couple of campaigns like this and they were brilliant.  The deal is, if Greg Stafford could design Pendragon to handle the Knights of the Round Table, why can't MechWarrior be designed to deal with the Knights of the Inner Sphere- IE, MechWarriors?

  Pendragon gives me some inspiration here.  Each character is assumed to be a landholding noble.  Isn't that really the feel of the original MechWarrior universe?  That MechWarriors were the landed nobility by virtue of having a BattleMech?

  So why tweak the game to assume that the characters are either these landed noble MechWarriors and Aerospace Pilots or their retinue?

  So the default character type would be a MechWarrior.  Other possibilites would be aerospace pilots, tankers, etc.  There would be a clear social like between MechWarriors/Aerospace Pilots and everyone else.  Much as knights had serjeants, I think every MechWarrior would have a small number of tankers as retainers.  And maybe some infantry.  These would be to support the 'Mech, and to guard the household when the 'Mech is away.

  Which brings me to the 'Mech being away.  Just as a Knight was required to serve his lord for a period of time per year, why not have MechWarriors required to serve a certain amount of time in active duty to their liege.  In fact, one could even take some of the household mechanics from Pendragon and even include something like "The Winter Phase" for the fortunes of the house and the household members. 

  Now, at this point, I have to mention that I've cribbed a lot from "A Song of Ice and Fire" about houses and house fortunes, etc.  I think we might look to MechWarrior 1st Edition and come up with some additional ideas for building landholds and figuring house fortunes.

  I'm ruminating on possible projects around this.  MechWarrior 1st Edition sourcebooks, maybe.  Or maybe start with an article a'la Battletechnology covering governing a landhold.  I can take a look at Pendragon and it's sourcebook Lordly Domains, plus the Song of Ice and Fire rules, and see what we've got going on to adapt.  I think it would be awesome to come up with something retro, but useful...

One Semester Down...

  Well, that was a quick eight weeks.  And a challenging one.  COLL 100 Foundations of Online Learning and HIST 300 Research Methods in History are under my belt, leaving me 61 hours to complete my degree.  I have 35 credits I can't use which represent a significant amount of time and tuition I used a decade ago that aren't doing me any good right now.  Kinda frustrating.  Oh, well.

  These two classes I've just completed were eye-opening for me.  They really showed me it's time to kick in the spurs and get back to serious academics.  These classes aren't the walk in the park I thought going back to college would be.  I did a lot of reasearch and writing in the last eight weeks, and I'm proud of my paper on the history of the roleplaying hobby and all the hours of reading and researching that went into it.  Oh, and the $100+ of old books I purchased to help in that endeavor.

  My next classes up for bids are MILH201 Introduction to Military History and ANTH100 Introduction to Anthropology.  I'm looking quite forward to both of them.  This will be my first course specific to my major.  Huzzah.

  I get a week off.  Then it's back to the books.  Things are going quite swimmingly.

09 February 2011

Time, time time... See what's become of me...

  Time does get away from me.  At this point, I'm past the mid-term in my 8-week semester.  I'm on the downhill rolling toward the two research papers I have to write for my final exams.  One is on the use of gaming in education, the other is on the history of the D&D game.  Both topics I have quite a bit of interest in, but it's been over a decade since I have had to write a scholarly work.  I'm trying very hard to get back into the swing of things academically.  Mary being back in school makes things interesting around the house, as she requires a LOT more homework and tutoring to overcome her learning disability, and I end up spending a lot more time doing some of the housework I took for granted before she started school.  I was always the cook of the family, and helped with laundry - but now things are totally flopped since I want to give her the maximum amount of study time and support I can.

  The result is one tired Old Dragoon.  I get home, I cook, clean up, work on laundry, homework... I am really missing downtime.  The two games I'm actively running are sandwiched in there, and the only thing that saves them is that the AD&D game is by design bog-standard fantasy not requiring extremely deep thought, and the Royal Dragoon Guards game is always bubbling and simmering in the back of my head.  This last I have found to be an interesting malady that many members of the RDG suffer.  Leftenants Dencourt and Eversole are always talking to me and to each other about the game, same with Sergeant Major Doyle - although he and I do also talk about The Dresden Files as well.  The DF game will be making an appearance sometime soon, when we can all find time.

  Ah, so many games, so little time.  I have found myself lately experiencing a wave of nostalgia (imagine that) and a renewed love for the old TSR games on my shelf.  Star Frontiers.  Top Secret/S.I.  Gangbusters.  D&D BECMI or Moldvay/Cook.  Hell, even Indiana Jones, which I have threatened to run as a one-shot with the Raiders of the Lost Ark module.  I am thinking of taking the time to do a blog entry here on TOD about each of those games in turn, wnd what I like about each of them.  If I can find the time to do so, I will most certainly begin the project soon.

  Speaking of projects I'd like to get around to, Catalyst Game Labs keeps vexing me by their failure to release Interstellar Operations, and their fixation on moving past their recently-released Era Report: 3052 rather than covering the Succession Wars or anything of interest to the original Battletech set.  I very much want to get back into the idea I had years ago and do a Mechwarrior RPG Boxed Set, basically, MechWarrior 2nd Edition as I would have done it.  Mad Max/Dune with 'Mechs and all.  Firmly set in an idealized and further explained version of the Third Succession War that detailed *how* the neo-feudal society with MechWarriors works.  Fill in some of the gaping logic holes in the way the military works, maybe do some thematic nerfing of tanks etc. to make sure there's a good reason 'Mechs are Lords of the Battlefield...  Oh, this is a pet project I would so love to to...  But time...  Time...

  I have to go back to work on my research papers now.  Just wanted all your readers out there (that's right, both of you) to know I was still here, still writing.

Until next time - Excelsior!
(Apologies to Stan Lee)