Everyone's been putting in some great work on this game, and @Pilatus and I both wanna say thanks for sticking with us for over 100 posts. Given that most niche games fizzle out before reaching page 2, I'm really impressed and grateful that we've gotten to page 6 and are still going strong. This is legit the most fun group of players I've gotten to work with in a good long while, and again, thank you guys for dedicating your time and energy towards this hobby.
Anyway, sentimental shmaltz aside, let's get back to it!
At this point in the campaign, it'd be pretty difficult to work in another Mechwarrior. There are ways we can introduce other types of characters (tankers, aero-jocks, infantry, etc), but if you specifically want to pilot a 'Mech, it'd probably be better to hold off until Season 2.
Looking forward to reading this. Just barely started watching videos about MechWarrior/BattleTech so I'm not even going to try to join. Maybe Season Two. Maybe as a Halfling. Half kidding.
But yeah looking forward to reading and congrats for lasting so long.
Looking forward to reading this. Just barely started watching videos about MechWarrior/BattleTech so I'm not even going to try to join. Maybe Season Two. Maybe as a Halfling. Half kidding.
But yeah looking forward to reading and congrats for lasting so long.
@AndyC I'll just put my nametag down here for the time being. If things don't work out for Rasalhague RP, you can expect me to see about trying to fit in some Fourth Succession war veteran. Some kinda disgruntled FedSun, that doesn't want no business with the damn Lyrans and their Atlas scout lances
PS: Sorry for the double ping on two threads, but hey, any press is good press as they say :D
Posting the proposed rules for how combat works here.
DISPOSABLE HEROES: MECH COMBAT RULES
For the sake of consistency, we are going to use the following example for all discussion of rules:
The Griffin in hex 0609 has three enemy Mechs on the map: a Rifleman in hex 0415, a Blackjack in hex 0111, and a Locust in hex 1516. This Griffin is a GRF-1S variant, equipped with a Large Laser, two Medium Lasers, and two LRM-5 launchers. Using these rules, the Mechwarrior piloting the Griffin is going to attempt to determine the best target it can hit, then make attacks and resolve the appropriate damage and heat effects.
For the status of these Mechs, we are using the record sheets found on Flechs.
Movement Types:
There are three basic types of Movement for Battlemechs: Walking, Running, and Jumping. Each Movement Type affects your likelihood to hit and be hit, as well as how much heat your Mech generates. Unlike in regular tabletop rules, we are not including Mech facing, so 1 MP (Movement Point) allows you to move 1 hex in any direction.
Each form of movement affects your Attack Movement Modifier (AMM) and Target Movement Modifier (TMM), described in the 'Attacking' section. In short, your AMM affects how hard it is for you to hit enemies, and your TMM affects how hard it is for enemies to hit you.
Walking is the slowest form of Movement, and generates -1 to your TMM, making you easier to hit. However, it does not generate an AMM, making attacking easier, and only generates 1 point of Heat.
Running lets you move 1.5x your Walk Speed (rounding up), and generates your regular TMM. It generates +1 to your AMM, and generates 2 points of Heat.
Jumping lets you move equal to the number of Jump Jets your Mech is equipped with. These allow you to bypass obstacles, ignore elevation, and generate a -2 difficulty modifier when trying to Outflank an enemy (see "Advanced Movement"). It generates +2 to your AMM and an extra +1 to your TMM, and generates heat equal to the number of hexes you jumped.
Woods, Elevation, and other Obstacles
Moving through Rubble, Light Woods/Jungle, Depth 1 Water, or going up or down 1 level of elevation costs 1 extra point of Movement. Heavy Woods/Jungle, and Water of Depth 2 or deeper, costs an extra 2 points of Movement.
Additionally, you cannot Run or Jump if you start your turn in Water, and you cannot climb more than 2 levels of elevation at a time unless you Jump.
Sprinting: You can choose not to fire any weapons during your turn in order to move 2x your Walking Speed.
Evasive Maneuvers: You can choose not to fire any weapons during your turn in order to give enemy units Disadvantage when attacking you (rather than rolling 2d6, they will roll 3d6 and take the lowest 2.)
Outflank: If you are either in an adjacent hex to an enemy unit, or you and another friendly unit are on opposite sides of the enemy unit, you may attempt an Outflanking maneuver. The Target Number for this is 4 + the enemy unit's TMM. If successful, you gain Advantage when attacking this unit (rather than rolling 2d6, roll 3d6 and take the highest 2). If you beat the TN by 3 or more, any successful attacks hit the enemy's Rear armor.
THE G.A.T.O.R. RULE
In order to hit a target, the player must meet the Target Number (TN for short). The TN changes based on how fast the target is moving, how far away the target is, if there is intervening terrain, and other factors, but can be calculated using the mnemonic GATOR.
G = Gunnery Skill. Since all members of Gawain's Green Knights are combat veterans, we are going to start off with a base Gunnery skill of 3. A = Attacker Modifier. A unit's AMM is determined by what type of movement it used during its turn (Walking, Running, Jumping, or Standing Still). The AMM is 0 if the attacker uses its Walking Speed, +1 if it uses its Running Speed, +2 if it uses its Jump Jets, and -1 if it Stands Still. T = Target Movement Modifier. Different from regular tabletop rules, a unit's TMM is its Running Speed divided by 4, rounding down. The Griffin, for example, has a Running Speed of 8, so it generates a TMM of 2. You gain an extra +1 to your TMM when Jumping, -1 to your TMM when Walking, and do not generate a TMM when Standing Still. Note that you use your target's TMM when attacking, not your own. O = Other. This is any possible extra modifiers that might arise from things like partial cover, smoke clouds, or critical damage. R = Range. This is how far away the target is. A target in Close Range has a Range modifier of 0, a target in Medium Range has +2, and a target at Long Range has +4. Note that every weapon has its own range bands, so what may be Long Range for one weapon may only be Medium Range for another.
TN = Gunnery + AMM + TMM + Other + Range
Once you have determined the TN, roll 2d6 attempting to meet or beat the number.
The Griffin has a Gunnery Skill of 3, and chose to Run in the narration, giving him an AMM of 1. The Blackjack also moved during its turn, with a Running Speed of 8 generating a TMM of 2. There is no cover or any circumstantial factor to generate an Other modifier. And the Blackjack is 5 hexes away from the Griffin.
This generates a TN of 6 (3+1+2) before factoring in Range.
The Griffin's Large Laser has Short/Medium/Long range brackets of 5/10/15, the Medium Lasers have brackets of 3/6/9, and the Long Range Missiles have brackets of 7/14/21, but a Minimum Range of 6. The Blackjack is in Close Range for the Large Laser, Medium Range for the Medium Lasers, and inside Minimum for the LRMs (which generates a +1).
With Ranges calculated, the Griffin has a TN of 6 to hit with the Large Laser, 7 to hit with the LRMs, and 8 to hit with the Medium Lasers.
The Griffin has a Gunnery Skill of 3, and chose to Run in the narration, giving him an AMM of 1. The Rifleman also moved during its turn, with a Running Speed of 6 generating a TMM of 1. There is 1 hex of Light Woods generating a +1 modifier, and 1 hex of Heavy Woods generating a +2 modifier, giving an Other modifier of +3. And the Rifleman is 7 hexes away from the Griffin.
This generates a TN of 8 (3+1+1+3) before factoring in Range.
The Griffin's Large Laser has Short/Medium/Long range brackets of 5/10/15, the Medium Lasers have brackets of 3/6/9, and the Long Range Missiles have brackets of 7/14/21, but a Minimum Range of 6. The Rifleman is in Medium Range for the Large Laser, Long Range for the Medium Lasers, and Short Range for the LRMs.
With Ranges calculated, the Griffin has a TN of 8 to hit with the LRMs, 10 to hit with the Large Laser, and 12 to hit with the Medium Lasers.
The Griffin has a Gunnery Skill of 3, and chose to Run in the narration, giving him an AMM of 1. The Locust also moved during its turn, with a Running Speed of 12 generating a TMM of 3. There is no cover or any circumstantial factor to generate an Other modifier. And the Locust is 11 hexes away from the Griffin.
This generates a TN of 7 (3+1+3) before factoring in Range.
The Griffin's Large Laser has Short/Medium/Long range brackets of 5/10/15, the Medium Lasers have brackets of 3/6/9, and the Long Range Missiles have brackets of 7/14/21, but a Minimum Range of 6. The Locust is in Long Range for the Large Laser, outside of Range for the Medium Lasers, and Medium Range for the LRMs.
With Ranges calculated, the Griffin has a TN of 9 to hit with the LRMs, 11 to hit with the Large Laser, and cannot hit with the Medium Lasers.
Players' Advantage:
In order to keep from completely whiffing, players are allowed one 'freebie,' to auto-hit with one of their weapons every turn (Note: you cannot use the freebie to hit with weapons that are out of range). NPCs, on the other hand, must roll with every weapon.
For each weapon that hits, roll 2d6 and consult this chart:
Since we're not factoring in unit facing, unless specified otherwise, use the Front arc (center column). Then apply the weapon's damage value to the location on the target.
Cluster Weapons (Specifically, Missiles):
Missile weapons hit in clusters, dealing different amounts of damage per each cluster. To determine how many missiles hit, roll 2d6 and compare the results to the weapon's size on this table:
Long Range Missiles hit in 'packs' of up to 5 missiles each. For example, an LRM-15 would roll 2d6 and use the '15' column. A roll of 9 would equal 12 missiles hitting, 2 packs of 5 and 1 pack of 2. The attacker would then roll hit locations 3 times, dealing 5 points of damage to the first location, 5 points to the second, and 2 to the third.
Short Range Missiles hit individually, but do 2 points of damage apiece. For example, an SRM-6 would roll 2d6 and use the '6' column. A roll of 8 equals 4 missiles hitting. The attacker would then roll hit locations 4 times, dealing 2 points of damage to each location.
Knockdown and Falling Damage:
If a Mech takes over 20 points of damage in one round, the Mechwarrior must make a Piloting Check (4 + any modifiers) to avoid falling over. The difficulty to avoid falling increases by +2 for every increment of 20 points the Mech takes in one round. If the Piloting Check fails, the Mech falls down, taking damage equal to its own Tonnage divided by 10 (rounding down). The Mechwarrior then takes 1 Wound, described below.
There are 3 ways to get a Critical Hit: rolling a 12 on an Attack Roll, rolling 'snake eyes' on the Hit Location, and dealing damage to a location where the armor has been stripped away (an attack that strips the last armor and then hits the internal structure does get a critical hit). To confirm a Critical Hit, after dealing damage to the afflicted location, the player rolls 2d6, confirming the Critical on an 8 or higher.
Rather than check each Mech's individual Critical Chart like on regular tabletop, we're using Critical Hit rules similar to those from Mechwarrior Destiny. If you get a Critical Hit, roll 1d6 and get the following effects based on the Hit Location:
Left/Right Torso: 1-2: Equipment Destroyed. The Heat Sinks, Jump Jets, or other non-weapon equipment in this Torso are destroyed. 3-4: Weapon Destroyed. The first weapon in this Torso is destroyed. 5: Internal Explosion. This Torso (and attached arm) is destroyed, and the Mechwarrior takes 1 Wound. 6: Major Ammo Explosion. The entire Mech is destroyed, and the Mechwarrior must make a Piloting Check of 7 or be killed. If the Mech does not have ammunition in this Torso, then the result is an Internal Explosion instead.
Center Torso: 1-2: Gyro Damaged. The Mechwarrior must make a Piloting check of 5 every time the Mech moves, or it will fall over. If the Mech takes a second hit to the Gyro, it is immobilized and cannot move. 3-5: Minor Engine Hit. The Mech takes a permanent +5 Heat every round, and cannot Sink Heat lower than 5. If the Mech takes a total of 3 Hits to the Engine, it is destroyed. 6: Major Engine hit. Counts as 2 Minor Engine Hits. If the Mech's Engine is destroyed after this, roll 2d6. On a roll of 10 or higher, the engine detonates, dealing 100 points of damage to all units within 5 hexes, 50 damage to all units in 10 hexes, and 25 damage to all units in 15 hexes.
Arms: 1-3: Actuators Damaged. The target takes a permanent +1 difficulty to all attacks made with weapons in that arm. If the target takes 3 Actuator hits, the arm is disabled. 4-5: Weapon Destroyed. The first weapon in this Arm is destroyed. 6: Limb Blown Off. The Arm is destroyed completely.
Legs: 1-3: Actuators Damaged. The target takes a permanent +1 difficulty to all Piloting checks related to movement. If the target takes 2 Actuator hits, the leg is disabled, reducing the Mech's movement speed by half. A third Actuator hit destroys the Leg. 4-5: Equipment Destroyed. All Heat Sinks, Jump Jets, or Weapons in this Leg are destroyed. 6:Limb Blown Off. The Leg is destroyed completely.
Head: 1-3: Sensors Damaged. The Mechwarrior takes a permanent +2 difficulty to all attacks. 4-5: Life Support Damaged. At the end of each turn, the Mechwarrior must roll 2d6 and succeed on a 6 or higher, or pass out for 1 turn. 6: Cockpit Destroyed: The Mechwarrior is killed instantly. Player's Advantage: Unless the player has given explicit permission to kill off their PC, the character manages to eject in the nick of time, but is still out of combat.
A Mech isn't just a robot; there's a person in there, one who can be hurt and even killed if things go sour. Every time a Mech takes a hit to the Head, falls down due to a failed Piloting Check, or suffers an Internal Explosion, the Mechwarrior takes 1 Wound.
Every time a Mechwarrior takes a Wound, all Skill checks suffer a +1 difficulty, and the Mechwarrior must roll 2d6 to remain conscious, needing a 3 for the first Wound but going up by +2 for each subsequent Wound.
A Mechwarrior who takes 5 Wounds is killed (or, if the player does not consent for their PC to die, is too wounded to continue and must take time to recuperate)
Melee attacks can only be made when in an adjacent hex to an enemy unit. For narrative purposes, these can be described as punching, kicking, clubbing, using improvised weapons like trees or discarded Mech limbs, etc. For 'rules' purposes, they are divided up into attack Strength (Fast or Strong), Angle (High or Low) and Death From Above.
To perform a melee attack, the Target Number is your Piloting Skill (default 4) + your AMM + the enemy's TMM + Strength. If successful, damage is dealt and allocated depending on what type of attack you are trying to perform.
Fast Attacks generate 1 Heat apiece and a difficulty modifier of -1, and deal damage equal to 10% of your Mech's Tonnage (rounding down), and can be made twice per turn. Strong attacks generate 3 Heat and a difficulty modifier of +0, and deal damage equal to 20% of your Mech's Tonnage (rounding down), and can be made once per turn. Death from Above attacks can only be made when using Jump Jets, generate a difficulty modifier of +1, and can only be made if you choose not to fire any weapons during this turn.
Enemies hit with a Strong attack must make a Piloting check to remain standing, and attackers that miss with a Strong attack must do the same.
All damage is broken into groups of 5.
For attacks to the High Angle, roll 1d6 to determine Hit Location: 1: Right Arm 2: Right Torso 3: Center Torso 4: Left Torso 5: Left Arm 6: Head
For attacks to the Low Angle, roll 1d6 to determine Hit Location: 1-3: Right Leg 4-6: Left Leg
For Death from Above Attacks, your Mech takes damage equal to a Fast Attack to its Low Angle, and deal double damage equal to a Strong Attack to the enemy's High Angle. If you miss with a Death from Above attack, you do not deal damage to the enemy, but you still take Fast/Low damage. Both mechs must make a Piloting check +2 to remain standing if the attack hits, but only the attacker must make a Piloting check if the attack misses.
The Griffin Walks 5 hexes towards the Blackjack and throws two punches at the Blackjack. The Griffin's Mechwarrior has a Piloting Skill of 4, Walking does not generate an AMM, and the Blackjack pilot generated a TMM of 2. The two Fast Attacks generate a difficulty modifier of -1, so the Griffin must meet or beat a 5.
The Mechwarrior rolls a 4 and an 8, missing the first punch but hitting with the second. The Griffin weighs 55 tons, and the Mechwarrior rolls a 4 on the Hit Location, meaning the Blackjack takes 5 points of damage to the Left Torso.
The Griffin runs towards the Blackjack and attempts to knock it down with a sweeping kick to the legs. The Griffin's Mechwarrior has a Piloting skill of 4 and generated +0 AMM from Running, the Blackjack has a TMM of 2, and a Strong attack generates a difficulty modifier of +1. In order to hit, the Griffin must meet or beat a 7.
The Mechwarrior rolls a 9, successfully hitting. The Griffin weighs 55 tons, and rolls a 5 on the Hit Location, meaning the Blackjack takes 11 points of damage to the Left Leg. The Blackjack must then roll a Piloting check of 4 or higher to remain standing.
The Griffin fires up its Jump Jets to land on the Blackjack in a Death from Above attack. The Griffin's Mechwarrior has a Piloting skill of 4 and generates a TMM of +2 for Jumping, and the Blackjack has a TMM of 2. The Death from Above Attack generates a difficulty modifier of +1, so the Griffin must meet or beat a 9.
In a stroke of good luck, the Griffin rolls a 10. The Griffin weighs 55 tons, so it deals 5 points of Fast damage to itself, and a whopping 22 points of damage to the Blackjack. The Griffin rolls a 3 on the Low Angle Hit Location for itself, dealing 5 points to its own Right Leg. The damage to the Blackjack is broken up into 4 groups of 5 and 1 group of 2. The Griffin Mechwarrior rolls a 1, 3, 3 again, 2, and 6, dealing 5 points of damage to the Blackjack's Right Arm, 10 points to the Center Torso, 5 points to the Right Torso, and 2 points to the Head (this gives the Blackjack's Mechwarrior 1 Wound).
After the damage is dealt, the Blackjack pilot rolls a 6 to remain conscious after taking a Wound, then both Mechwarriors need to roll Piloting checks to remain standing. The Griffin needs to roll a 6 (Piloting 4 + 2 for DFA), but the Blackjack needs to roll a 7 (Piloting 4 + 2 for DFA +1 Wound). The Griffin pilot rolls an 8 and remains standing, but the Blackjack rolls a 6 and falls, taking an additional 4 points of damage for falling, and giving the Mechwarrior a second Wound.
Generating and Sinking Heat
Moving and using weapons continually generates Heat. The more actions you take per turn, the more Heat your 'Mech must dissipate.
Walking: 1 Heat Running: 2 Heat Jump Jets: equal to number of hexes you Jumped Fast Melee Attack: 1 Heat Strong Melee Attack: 3 Heat Weapon: equal to the weapon's Heat value Hit by a Flamer or Inferno warhead: 1d6 Heat End turn in a Fire or Lava hex: 2d6 Heat
After all of your actions are taken, at the end of your turn add up the total Heat that your Mech generated, then subtract the number of Heat Sinks. Any leftover Heat you have, as well as any Heat given to you by external effects like Flamers or Fire hexes, carries over to the start of your next turn, and applies possible effects.
At the start of your next turn, apply the following effects based on the amount of excess Heat you have:
“.......wish to express our condolences with Espians who had relatives or friends in the township of Keahi. We again assure all loyal citizens that we strongly condemn this attack on our citizens. Military reports indicate evidence that the despicable foreign insurgents known as “The Green Knights” were responsible for this attack. We wish to express to all Espians to pray and hold a moment of 10 seconds of silence in memory of those in Keahi.
In other news, all planetary and systems-wide communciators and hyperpulse arrays on Espia will be under state control. All civilians in posession of a military-spec communicator is advised to surrender their device to their local sector administrator. In response to the attack on Keahi, new measures will be imposed in order to secure a safe and prosperous Espia for all.
Thank you for your attention and long live the New People’s Democratic Republic of Espia.
As always,we encourage all loyal espians to report any known collaborators of the Free People’s Army or Gawain’s Green Knights. Reports will be subject to monetary reward depending on the information provided. “ ….”
GKU INTERNAL COMMS BOARD
ADMINISTRATOR ANNOUNCEMENT: “ Functionality has now been restored to the official in-real-time chat system. Please remember to thank all fellow members of your unit for lending their assistance since the attack. Additionally, Lyons has given me permission to begin deleting system messages containing ‘sightings’ of General Kerensky (haha, laugh all u want. u know how much frequency rate you guys are taking up. the first few were funny. this shit could break our entire network. we have been getting comm lag in the milliseconds cause of this bs. imagine if I have to explain to the Colonel that our network infrastructure was done because of cat vids.)
>ACCESSING Private chat GKU IRC PG 81 out of 81
[12:53:45] Keren-stan: noooooooo, my kerensky picsscssssss ; ( [12:54:44] LosTechnician2999: fuckin finally. we want to use this place for actual strategy [12:54:54]Keren-stan: pls, u guys just use this place to bitch about the colonel and the mechwarriors [12:55:15]brbgonnacbill: can i bitch [12:55:25]brbgonnacbill: u guys know how much high-comp endosteel it costs to outfit 6 mechwarriors [12:55:35]brbgonnacbill: especially when we don’t HAVE ANY MONEY [12:55:55]LosTechnician2999: speak for yourself, i have to repair them [13:10:22]lit50calibro:speak for yourself, i have to load them [13:20:22]gun4hire385: wellll, spk fr urself cuz i don’t want to get stepped on by them [14:10:22]wordofblakeydoo: wait, what was this about cat pics.
> ACCESSING COMSTAR FREQUENCY 3.4189/O/4.19017
>,,,,,BYPASSING ENCYRPTION
CF-D.1241 - we lost alonso this week
CF-D.1356 - shit
CF-D.894 - fuck
CF-D.950 - good. fuck alonso.
CF.D. 950 - so, who wanna get first pick of his storage locker?
CF-D.1356: wtf
CF.D.950 HAS BEEN REVOKED OF SYSTEM PRIVELEGES
CF-D.1241 - it’s those blue dipshits again
CF-D.1241 - fucking a.i correctionsof
CF-D.1356 - you mean those green dipshits
CF-D.1241 - look, i don’t care whether they’re red, pink or fucking purple. command is on my ass about it.
CF-D.1356: i mean, they just got really lucky. we got the numbers advantage plus, we got their primary command base
CF-D.1241 - i had to explain face to face with CK and fire witch why we are losing
CF-D.1241 - to a mercenary unit
CF-D.1241 - with 7mechs
CF-D.1241 - 7
CF-D.1241 - get me
CF-D.950 - aff
CF-D.950 - did u hear about the plan command gave us about frying that village?
CF-D.1241 - yeah, pretty fucked up
CF-D.1241 - but i get first pick of the basements. those backwater shitholes always have something juicy in them.
“.....May 5th, 3032
I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. I hear it in my dreams. The sound of actuators shifting, that mechanical drone of 15 foot tall metallic giants, those fucking footsteps. I tried to request command to move me back to artillery. I see them in the buildings. I see them in the smoke. I see them in my sleep.
I can hardly tell what side we’re fighting on anymore. One moment we’re legitimate revolutionaries, the next day we’re insurgents. I think I shot one of my cell members from five months ago. He was fighting for another group of people calling themselves the free people’s movement. We all have the same names but we keep moving in different directions.
I can’t tell if I’m going mad. I can only take hope that there’s someone else more crazier than us out there in Espia.
“ …. loss at Nui Awa was regrettable but for ever swordsman soul we lost, we spilt three times the blood of every infidel. This day will be remembered. One day, we will bathe in the blood and tears of our capitalist oppresors and languish in the lamentations of their consorts and children.”
“ Remember, my fellow disciples. It is not simply enough to kill the capitalist to save the downtrodden. Th downtrodden must learn. They must recompense for their failure to heed the teachings of the Celestial Throne. Our hand must be wise and unrelenting. We must subject them to torture so their very spirits will become malleable enough to accept our teachings.”
“To impress upon our new recruits the fervor of our mission, we will be broadcasting the torture of captured Aqua Vitae corporate board members for the next eight hours. Savor their screams. Use it to fuel your hate and you will be gueranteed a seat in the heavens.”