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Monday, August 15, 2011

And it begins again...

As Friar is done with his story arc its time to start a new story. I plan on using a variation of Friar's Logistic system as its much faster and easier to run than previous systems, and the variations are intended to cover the quirks of specific eras. Yes, there are several different eras we can run in.

A) Star League era, specifically the Reunification War. There are two variations for this era, either playing as Star League forces or the Periphery forces. If we run as Star League forces, then you will play rather elite warriors fighting to unify the human race and fighting against unwashed hordes of under-trained forces. Playing as Periphery forces would be a game of under equipped, freedom fighters against tyrannical enemies.
**If you are familiar with Firefly/Serenity, this war is very similar to the war that the Browncoats lost - so do you want to be an Alliance soldier or a Browncoat? **

B) Founding of the Clans, Operation Klondike. This is a favorite of Brian, and works well for competitive play as different factions try to show up each other while fighting off their enemies. There will be advanced tech but a large chunk of the forces used will be limited or irregular forces like armed industrial mechs or converted vehicles.

C) Succession Wars. This is the original setting/era for Battletech, with the least available goodies. Repairing units is much more difficult as humanity did a good job of blowing up everything that can make replacement parts, and a technical support crew is as necessary for the long term as any warrior or unit. Pilots will somewhat tied to the units they own, so musical mech pilots is NOT an option.

D) Davion Civil War - nothing like a brutal civil war to drum up battles, though in a long running human tradition mercs are viewed as party crashers. Many weapon systems gained their baptism of fire in this era, as Inner Sphere technology tends to reach parity with the Clans.

E) Jihad era - when religious nuts decide to declare war on everyone, battle becomes a fact of life. As warfare spreads all over the known realm of mankind, the human tradition of finding new and interesting ways to harm each other results in another burst of technological development.

Regardless of which era we play in there are several caveats.
- I will be enforcing time periods, so some mechs, vehicles and weapons will only be available after certain years. Each mission will take place roughly 1d3 weeks after the last game.
- Each player will have to pick a faction their force is from, and this includes mercenary and pirate forces. Each faction will change the units easily purchased and give a bonus to represent what they are good at, like House Steiner having impressive mech production facilities, resulting in a small decrease in mech costs and access to more of the heavy and assault chassis.
- In some eras, technical support becomes much much more critical than usual, specifically the Succession Wars and Operation Klondike. Many of the battles in this era will end when one side signals defeat and withdraws. These are eras when units are hard to replace and a victory that results in a large number of casualties will destroy a force more thoroughly than any weapon strike.
- Do NOT expect all units or technologies to be available - I plan to hold to time periods and availability.

So I need votes on what era you are interested in playing most.

2 comments:

  1. After debating it with myself for awhile, I guess out of this list I'm most interested in playing as Periphery units during the Star League Reunification era. It allows more toys than 3025 Succession Wars era, but still requires real skills with heat management and avoiding ammo hits, etc.

    --Friar

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  2. I think the Reunification War era would be an interesting change.

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