Wednesday, April 28, 2010

B/X BattleTech

No, no...I am just kidding around.

That's not to say I wasn't thinking about it earlier this week! However, considering the original BattleTech rules were shorter than B/X why would I try to out stream-line an already stream-lined game...of course, I could do a B/X version of MechWarrior.

No, no! Seriously, I'm just joking!

Instead, though, I figure it's about time I threw my gentle readers a bone in the form of yet another one-page micro-game, this one totally inspired by the original FASA BattleTech. It is called WAR OF THE MECHA and you can download the .pdf from MediaFire right here.

See, don't say I never give you people anything!

[by the way:War of the Mecha is a table-top war game, which means it will require some props...i.e. tokens or miniatures or counters...to play out the game. It does not have a fancy watermark like Clockwork or the Chronicles of Mutation because, frankly, I could not find a non-copyrighted mecha illustration on the web that didn't suck. If anyone wants to gift me with one, I will update the document for everyone's benefit and enjoyment]

And you thought BattleTech required three huge volumes to play!
; )

11 comments:

  1. Very cool. I'll have to use this in conjunction with Chgowiz's Micro-Mechwarrior someday.

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  2. Right on!

    You know, I never did get a copy of Chgowiz's Micro-MW. Damn...another reason I wish that guy's blog was still around!
    : (

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  3. Just found this... very cool. I really like the idea of cutting the rules down to size like this. Nice work.

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  4. @ Stu: Thanks! Yes...all sorts of goodies hidden in the dross of my archived posts!

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  5. I ran a couple games of War of the Mecha today. It's a good balance of tactical decision making without getting bogged down in lower-left-torso type of details. Fun was had by all, so thanks for making and sharing this.

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  6. @ Glenn: Right on! I also did a follow-up with info including info on "clan" mechs under this post:

    http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-first-published-supplement.html

    Check it out if you haven't already!
    : )

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  7. I found "Clan Invasion" the same day. Good stuff. The players were chomping at the bit to use clan mecha (bless their munchkiny little hearts) but I'm holding off til the next session for that flavour of mayhem.

    I'm hoping to get a campaign of this going, mixed with Chgowiz's microMechwarrior.

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  8. Cool...if I remember correctly, it was Chgo's microMW that got me interested in doing these in the first place. Though I don't think I bothered to make mine compatible with his (I just liked the idea of a simpler BT).

    Please keep me posted on how it works with the Clan and whether or not you find any major problems with it.
    : )

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  9. Sadly, I didn't get to try out the Clan rules this time around. The Clan players had other things to do. But we did have a lance-on-lance battle using clicky-minis. It was a good game, even though I lost :)

    A rule I missed last week was the critical-hit-each-20-points rule. Not that I got much use out of it. I'm good at rolling 1's when I don't want to. I think I wasted three or four criticals that way. In fact, I'll house rule that critical chart so that 1's mean the loss of 1d4 heat sinks.

    But that's a mere trifling matter. The game is good. If only I could figure out a campaign system of equal brevity and elegance.

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  10. @ Glenn: Man, you made me want to play the thing myself! Perhaps, we'll do a one-off at the game shop next week!

    I'm not sure what you mean by a "campaign system." The game does include rules for developing characters (their "skills") and acquiring salvage. Are you talking about running a "war campaign," or something...like a planetary assault? I suppose I could whip up a third page of rules for you, if I knew what exactly you were looking for.
    ; )

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  11. You're right, "campaign system" was a bit vague. What I have in mind is a bit nebulous yet. I want to pick bits from the scenario generators in 1st ed. Mechwarrior, the original Mercenaries Handbook, the supplement First Strike, and "Mecha!" from Seventh Street Games and mix 'em with big scale wargames like Succession Wars and Diplomacy and whatever else I can lay hands on and boil it all down to something that will accommodate the unpredictability of player attendance.

    Probably I'll just rein in my galloping ambitions and keep things at the let's-you-and-him-fight pick-up game level. A campaign can grow out of roleplaying through microMechWarrior.

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