Monday, May 9, 2011

War of the Mecha (Revised Edition)



Why the revision? What's different?

Well, I started tinkering around with the original rules trying to recreate my favorite mecha (i.e. the standard mechs from the 1st edition of BattleTech game, aka "The Unseen") and found myself unable to do so. Ridiculous. And yet it only took a few slight adjustments to get it the way I wanted.

Now you should be able to recreate everything from the Locust and Stinger to the Commando and Valkyrie to the Wolverine and Griffin and Phoenix Hawk and Shadow Hawk to the Crusader and Thunderbolt. Some of the larger assault mecha are trickier, but they're definitely doable...with the exception of heavy and assault mechs that are jump capable.

But those were kind of silly anyway, right?

I could post a bunch of conversions (from BT to WotM) but what fun would that be for you all?

Okay, now that THAT's out of the way...

Folks, I am extremely busy of late. My own health has greatly improved (except that I only got three hours of sleep last night), but I've switched offices and am in a real state of transition at my regular work. Until next week, please expect posting will be light around these here parts, as the little free time I have will (I hope) be spent finishing up my various writing projects, all of which have been "back burnered" of late.

For those who are curious, here's what I'm working on:

- supplementary rule book for B/X (kind of an "Unearthed Arcana" / goody collection)
- introductory module for the B/X Companion
- still have that "Shadowrunny" type game to clean up...damn, it's only half a dozen pages shy of completion, I might as well knock it out.
- developing an idea for a 2nd high level B/X module

Finally, all this mecha talk has got my brain percolating about something else. NO, not a remake of BattleTech! But definitely mecha related. I'm still not sure the idea would be good enough to develop as a full-blown RPG...but if it's not than it's a project I don't want to start on. I'm not interested in creating any board/war games right now.

Now, if y'all don't mind, I'm going to do some dishes and hit the hay. Adios!
: )

15 comments:

  1. I really like what you've done with War of the Mecha! Nice work. :)

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  2. @ Stuart: Thanks! Hopefully, I'll have a chance to play it a bit this week!

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  3. JB, are you still planning on a B/X Companion boxed release with rulebook and module? Or maybe some type of bundle?

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  4. I played your original version of the War of the Mecha rules with a friend over the weekend. While we used a square map instead of a hex grid it worked pretty well (though we did some of it wrong despite being such simple rules, next time we'll play using all of them), and we had a lot of fun with it.

    Having since borrowed a Classic BattleTech Master Rules book, I don't really intend to play the full official version but it did let me have a look at the Vehicles and Infantry rules, and throw together a draft of my own for you:
    http://www.badongo.com/file/25393664

    I'll note that they're currently unplaytested.

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  5. Hey, JB. Nice little bit of fine tuning there. I'll see if I can herd enough cats together this weekend to give the revision a go.

    Hey, Dusk. Looks like a good addition, there. I'll try to try 'em out. Also, I know what you mean about reading simple rules wrong. I'm constantly missing and overlooking stuff. And it's not as though a table of contents or index will help you find things in a one-page game.

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  6. Someone on The Miniatures Page ask for a set of fast play Battletech rules. So I posted your download link. Hope you don't mind. And if you do...I believe you will find the noogies to be a tad on the tough side.

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  7. Cool! Thanks for the work. Battletech was the only onther RPG I gave any serious time to playing. I look forward to playing it. Put it to Kurita!

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  8. @ Alan: Possibly one or the other depending on remaining inventory.

    @ Dusk: I will check these out as soon as I get an account on "badongo."
    : )

    @ Glenn: Good.
    ; )

    @ Grat Sax: Right on...spread the love. Do you have a link to the site?

    @ Padre: You're welcome...though I always sold my merc services to Kurita myself...

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  9. www.theminiaturespage.com

    http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=230366

    is the address for the message thread upon which I posted your link.

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  10. @Glenn: I intend to use them soon too, but it'd be awesome to hear how you find them!

    @JB: You shouldn't need an account to download, though there is a waiting time.

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  11. Hey, JB & Dusk. About downloading from the badnogo site, I found I had to scroll down a bit to see the "download starts in n seconds" button.

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  12. Ok, I've made some slight alterations and clarifications- plus adding some Naval Vehicles too.

    I decided to make a MediaFire account this time around, so:
    http://www.mediafire.com/?v08wetuic3hcrcg

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  13. Rules for buildings:

    http://bugbearsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2011/12/additions-to-war-of-mecha.html

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  14. Great set of rules! As much as I like BT, the rules can be a bit of a glut, so it is nice to have a condensed version to work with.

    I also like the add-ons by other players. Although I have no interest in The Clans, I tend to use their tech for discovered Star League Era mecha.

    I know that your WoM stuff has not been updated in years, but I hope you keep-up the good work! =D

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  15. @ Malcadon:

    Thanks for the kind words. I was actually just reviewing these documents again a week ago (ran into a guy at the local game shop who expressed an interest in BT and ended up emailing him the whole shebang). I don't know if or when I'll ever return to WoM for an update/elaboration, but I doubt I'd use anything else for my BT games in the future.
    : )

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