too much mechwarrior...

[big teej]

greetings members of the playground, I, have been reading far to much battle tech and mechwarrior novels the past few days

(in the past..... 3 days, I've knocked out 'test of vengence' 'illusions of victory' and am currently reading sword and fire)

I also just reinstalled mechwarrior three on my laptop


this brings me too my problem

I want to play more mechwarrior/battletech than my limited PC time allows.

so.

is anyone familiar with a battletech/mechwarrior tabletop wargame and/or RPG that is easy to pick up, and cheap, and are there any that can be readily adapted to PBP so that I can go start bugging people in the "looking for group" forums?

Something about 100 ton war machines stampedeing around kindles a childlike enthusiasm I have not felt in some time.....

I suppose thats what you get for rereading books you haven't touched in several years...

but I digress
/ramble

ready.......

GO

[RandomLunatic]

Megamek is a really excellent conversion of the boardgame for the computer.

There are RPGs for the BT universe (three editions, the last still supported by runs by several different names), but 3rd ed at least is not conducive to easy pick-up at all.

[JaxGaret]

Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction is a Clix-type tabletop game that is simple to pick up and play.

[TheThan]

Well there used to be a thread for all things battletech/mechwarrior down in the other games section. the thread is a bit old, but you could read up there.

Right now cataylst games is putting out the rules for classic battletech. Ironwind metals is currently making the miniatures for it.

There is also Mechwarrior: Dark Age. Which is a fantastic little clix game that is unfortunately not being produced anymore (wtf wizkids?).

I've got two lances worth of (1 assault, 1 medium) worth of inner sphere (lyran alliance specifically) mechs. while my brother has about the same for clan jade falcon.

[snoopy13a]

There's a Mechwarrior table-top RPG. I haven't played in years but I heard someone is producing a new edition. If not, there's always e-bay for the older editions.

Mechwarrior 2nd edition is very easy to learn and uses a skill based D6 system. It would not be too difficult to run a PbP campaign for adventures outside of the 'Mechs that are set in the Battletech universe.

The Battletech board game would probably be more cumbersome to play online (but certainly possible). You'd probably need to play it like correspondance chess with each player keeping their own copy of the map and posting each of the stages of their turn. Actually, that should work fine assuming that people will maintain interest.

Porting Mechwarrior into Battletech is easy. You just transfer your character's relevant skill (e.g. gunnery/mech and piloting/mech) over and you're done.

[Psyx]

Battletech is an ENORMOUSLY well supported wargame. I suspect that there are perhaps more novels and books printed for the setting than StarWars and 40k... maybe even combined!

The RPG spin-offs aren't bad either, but the wargame is where the meat is at.

[FelixG]

megamek

It allows you to play the boardgames (both aerospace and mech battles) vs people over the internet OR against the AI thats built into it.

The AI is decent and if you give it an equal force you will have to work to beat it.

You might also look at The Drawing Board for classic battletech to make your own mechs if you like that sort of thing :D

3E is rather hard to pick up for the RPG but at the same time i think it is one of my favorite RPG systems...Gotta love life paths!

[Emmerask]

Battletech is an ENORMOUSLY well supported wargame. I suspect that there are perhaps more novels and books printed for the setting than StarWars and 40k... maybe even combined!

The RPG spin-offs aren't bad either, but the wargame is where the meat is at.

afaik battletech has something around 120 novels/books while this is an impressive number star wars atm has 270 ^^

Battletech book/novel list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BattleTech_novels

Star Wars:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_books

[Psyx]

^Now count in the source books, too!

There's an unreasonable amount of stuff published for BT. Which is probably why they went broke!

[big teej]

hmmmm

thankyou for the quick responses everyone

I think I may try to pick up the clix wargame... depending on how much interest I can find in the local area


can anybody give me a ballpark on financial investment?

warhammer 40k is the only table top wargame I have experience with. more or less expensive than that?

[Psyx]

warhammer 40k is the only table top wargame I have experience with. more or less expensive than that?

A drug habit is cheaper than 40k.

Rulebook... $25 for a rules compendium, maybe? There may even be free 'fast play' rules kicking around somewhere.

You can then sprulge an effectively unlimited amount of money on extra books for the game, but none are required. I'd buy a few of the Technical Readouts though (or their newer versions), as these contain stats for the existing mechs in the game. Otherwise; the rules contain rules for mech design. Although... homebrew mechs are a little unbalanced at times, so using 'proper' ones gives the game a better feel.

You can play on tabletop, using normal scenery and stuff, or you can play the old fashioned way with hex maps; either printing off your own or buying them. The map sets weren't too much money... maybe $50 will buy you a few decent ones... certainly enough to cover a table.

The early game used stand-up cardboard mechs, but you can buy your own metal ones. Ral Partha made some good ones. Expect to pay a LOT less than you would for -say- GW's Titans. I still use card ones though.

http://www.classicbattletech.com/ind...ction=products

http://www.connectstores.com/ralpartha/sp_16721.html

http://ironwindmetals.com/catalog/in...p?cPath=16_190

It will cost you a LOT less than getting into a GW game. I don't really even consider my Mech stuff to be on anything like a par with my other wargames stuff as regards cost.


Edit: I know nothing about the Clix version of the game, having stuck with 'Classic'.

[Reverent-One]

hmmmm

thankyou for the quick responses everyone

I think I may try to pick up the clix wargame... depending on how much interest I can find in the local area


can anybody give me a ballpark on financial investment?

warhammer 40k is the only table top wargame I have experience with. more or less expensive than that?

Good news and bad news. The good news it that getting Mechwarrior clix should be far cheaper than WH 40k. Bad news is that part of the reason for that is because Wizkids ran the game into the ground several years ago and it's been out of production, so it'll be really tough to find the stuff short off people selling of their collections on ebay (in which case I have no idea how much they'd want for them).

[Ormagoden]

Battletech is an ENORMOUSLY well supported wargame. I suspect that there are perhaps more novels and books printed for the setting than StarWars and 40k... maybe even combined!

Non-accurate statement is not accurate.

[big teej]

wait!!!!

I missed something

whats the difference between clix and classsic