BattleTech in TS

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Dome Teams!

I can't wait for the Robinson City Reaver to wax that goddamn Shanghai Shanker!

The Portland Pummeler may be a 3:1 long shot, but the operator is a true veteran. I hear they upgraded the fist coating to diamondoid. But you didn't hear it from me, ok?

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

-- Sounds cool. I don't know why they would use fusion plants vs. cheap batteries though?

Because the original game rules say so, and because one can. The point of the exercise is not to build a viable combat machine, it's to build a BattleMech.

(I imagine that some of the wackier players still regard their walking targets as "real" war machines, just as some of the wackier paintballers and airsofties I've met reckon they have acquired real soldiering skills.)

I note that BT's aerospace fighters and dropships - with a drive specific impulse greater than lightspeed - are well out of even TL10's reach.

[Tzeentch]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Because the original game rules say so, and because one can. The point of the exercise is not to build a viable combat machine, it's to build a BattleMech.

-- That alone isn't very interesting though. It would be FARRRRRRRR easier to just use BattleTech and then drape some THS trappings around that (it's in a simulated massive multiplayer online game, or they are real robots with the BattleTech wierdness imposed by outside agencies).

-- That is, I think it's a waste of time and effort to port the BattleTech concept if you are not going to tweak it for a different setting. If you want BattleTech just use BattleTech and swap out of that "minigame" back to THS on the fly.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

-- That alone isn't very interesting though. It would be FARRRRRRRR easier to just use BattleTech and then drape some THS trappings around that (it's in a simulated massive multiplayer online game, or they are real robots with the BattleTech wierdness imposed by outside agencies).

My vision - I'm not saying this is the only or the best one - is that it's a fad among Martian millionaires, who want their giant robots to be "authentic" to the BattleTech game.

Things that PCs might get involved with, off the top of my head:

• Someone with good reflexes and military experience is needed to pilot the 'Mech.
• Someone's winning too many fights. Is he cheating? How?
• A real dangerous thing is happening, and the only hardware available to deal with it is the 'Mechs. Which aren't military-grade by any stretch of the imagination, but are still big robots with a lot of lifting ability.