8 hours ago, Grimmerling said:

Why not the ECM and Targeting Array from Star Wars? There's no need to reinvent the wheel, is there?

C3: Extra success/2 advantages is quite powerful; how about the Togruta's Pack Instinct and/or upgrading leadership when using formations (AoR GM Kit).

All things considered, I do not quite like the set success/failure, advantage/threat modifications; I prefer boost/setback, for what it's worth.

This is why i run it by the community. I did not chisel it in stone, just running thoughts off the community to see what everyone thinks and don't mind boost or setback as you can always throw alot of boost or setback dice into a pool of dice.

Seeing how no one has said anything about my two write-ups on the Griffin and the Warhammer, I take it everyone likes what I have done to them as I am in the middle of creating blank Vehicle/Mech cards that can be printed and are the regular size index cards so will be posting them soon as I create them as pdf for printing. Actually started introducing them in my Star Wars game this past week-end, quite cool mixing two maybe even three game settings in one.

Mech combat:

Anyone considering the inclusion of classic BT hit locations?

Just using the plain Star Wars defense/armor/wounds seems too generic to me. I want to be able to hit that Wasp in the leg with my AC20 and blow it's leg off. Preferably without adding too much complexity

Wound Thresholds per Locations? (Head, CT, LT, RT, LA, RA, LL, RL) No Rear Arcs (give Boosts/Upgrade for attacking from behind).

Could be clunky per rules, but would be effective at creating the idea of Mech Locations. Would just need to tweak Crit Chart.

The issue becomes are you trying to make Battletech in Genesys or are you trying to make Genesys work for Battletech? What does Genesys do that works for Battletech? What does Genesys NEED to make Battletech work?

have been thinking maybe the ht threshold could be divided by 7 parts to allow for the hit location chart or else could just transfer the actual points over and change them to ht threshold. Would look into this and post for others to see and respond with their opinions....

17 hours ago, ApocalypseZero said:

Wound Thresholds per Locations? (Head, CT, LT, RT, LA, RA, LL, RL) No Rear Arcs (give Boosts/Upgrade for attacking from behind).

Could be clunky per rules, but would be effective at creating the idea of Mech Locations. Would just need to tweak Crit Chart.

The issue becomes are you trying to make Battletech in Genesys or are you trying to make Genesys work for Battletech? What does Genesys do that works for Battletech? What does Genesys NEED to make Battletech work?

Preferably a system that allows for both character and mech combat.

Just porting over to BT rules fro mech combat is going to be clunky - the rules were OK for a minis game back in the day, but for a RPG not so much.

But maybe I'm overthinking it. Could be a good crit table could emulate hit locations to some extent.

Must think on this some.

20 hours ago, ApocalypseZero said:

What does Genesys do that works for Battletech?

having Mech combat in your RPG which reflects what we love from the books (Gray death trilogy). How much i love the tabletop game. Combat never was like in the books. With genesys this will work.

I would stay away from hit location. Could be solved with setback or higher difficulty. And we all know what happend to that Locust leg when a AC20 hits. :-)

I guess what could happen if using hit locations is on the mech sheet have the advantage/triumph marking next to those locations so when successes are achieved the player could decide where they hit with what they have left to spend. Like torse(s) locations could have advantages, arms would have advantages, legs could have a triumph with advantages and the head could be straight up 2 triumph...

Okay, here is an update to the two mechs and what does everyone think about these updates:

GRF-1N Griffin:

Silhouette: 3 Max Speed: 3 Defense: 0 Armor: 3 Handling: 0

Control skill: Piloting/Mech Complement: 1

Passengers: 0 Emcumbrance Capacity: 10

Price/Rarity: 4,864,107/4

HT Threshold:

(2) Triumphs---Head---12

(2) advantages--- R or L Torso---23

(1) Triumph/ (3) advantages--- C. Torso---38

(3) Advantages--- R or L Arm--- 23

(3) Advantages--- R or L Leg--- 31

Weapons:

(1) PPC---(Firing Forward Arc; Damage: 10, Critical: 3; Range: Extreme)

** Note: Firing at Short Range, Upgrade up to 2 Difficulty Dice as this weapon

is not made for firing at short range. **

(1) LRM-10 (Firing Forward Arc; Damage: 5; Critical: 3; Range: Long)

** Note: (3) Advantages to add 5 additional Missiles. **

WHM-6L Warhammer:

Sil: 5 Max Speed: 3 Defense: 1 Armor: 3 Handling: -1

Control Skill: Piloting/Mech Complement: 1 Passengers: 0

Emcumbrance Capacity: 10 Price/Rarity: 6,031,884/5

HT Threshold:

(2) Triumphs--- Head---12

(2) Advantages--- R or L Torso---29

(1) Triumphs/(3) advantages---C Torso---44

(3) Advantages --- R or L Arms---31

(3) Advantages --- R or L Legs---30

Weapons:

(2) PPC: (Firing Forward Arc; Damage: 10, Critical: 3; Range: Extreme)

*Linked*

** Note: If Firing at Short Range, upgrade up to 2 difficulty dice for firing at Short Range**

(2) Medium Lasers (Firing Forward Arc; Damage: 5; Critical: 2; Range: Long) *Linked*

(2) Small Lasers (Firing Forward Arc; Damage: 3; Critical: 2; Range: Medium) *Linked*

(2) Flamer (firing Forward Arc; Damage; 1; Critical: 2; Range: Short) *Linked*

SRM-6 (Firing Forward Arc; Damage; 4; Critical: 2; Range: Medium)

*Limited Ammo*

** Can use (2) Advantages to Activate 2 missiles up to max 6 missiles**

So what does everyone think of this write-up? Please comment....

@gilbur

the mech write up are for my taste a little bit to detailed. i like it more simple and very few stats. But tastes are different and i have some comment on your design.

Why the huge range in siluette? 5 for a warhammer? I would only put mechs in 2 different Sil categories.

As you GRF and WAR have the same speed and armor. why has the WAR defense1 and not the GRF. the Griffin is the more agile Mech and has jumpjets.

As for the speed i am thinking that would be more of an advantage for the light mechs that have a masc system installed that would get bonus on their speed and would either add more difficulty or upgrade the difficulty on the hit just like i have 10 mechs completely written up for my star wars game tonight and the hawks have jump jets with grants a pilot hard check but also grants upgrade to hit them as for the silhouettes yes i do see 4 levels as your assaults need more room for their heavy artillery and this is why i run it by the community to see what everyone thinks on these write ups...

Just to let everyone know, I am in the process of transferring the Mechs over as soon as I convert a group of them, I will post them. Meanwhile, we can still talk about them since this is the biggest part of the conversion, I am using the examples of the Griffin and Warhammer so if you have any other questions let me know...

If you want to include System Strain, you could do half of Hull Threshold as the System Strain. Just reading over the Vehicle rules, I realized there was NO System Strain added but since I included the outer and internal damages. This is just an idea. What does everyone else think?

Hello there! I'm a long time lurker of the starwars boards and been I've been running a battletech game for about two months now.

I would be happy to share any of the stuff I've made for it and balancing issues that were discovered while running it. Its all on paper at my apartment so I won't be able to share for a while unfortunately.

As for the HT my table has found 10 to 15 to be good for medium and lights, 20 to 25+ for heavies, and 30+ for assaults. SS was normally about 2/3s to 3/4s of the total HT.

I'll try to put up my weapon list and generic chassis when I get back!

On 12/23/2017 at 8:29 PM, GiantDad219 said:

Hello there! I'm a long time lurker of the starwars boards and been I've been running a battletech game for about two months now.

I would be happy to share any of the stuff I've made for it and balancing issues that were discovered while running it. Its all on paper at my apartment so I won't be able to share for a while unfortunately.

As for the HT my table has found 10 to 15 to be good for medium and lights, 20 to 25+ for heavies, and 30+ for assaults. SS was normally about 2/3s to 3/4s of the total HT.

I'll try to put up my weapon list and generic chassis when I get back!

You must have downgraded the weapons quite a bit then like around the damage of personal weapons. I do know there is a 10 point difference between personal and vehicle weapons but this is why I post my stuff to see what everyone thinks and i have gotten some opinions about stuff, you are the first one to talk about the mechs though.

I would not mind seeing your stuff though on battletech when you get a chance...

Bumped, since the holidays are now over hoping to have my conversions complete later this year...

On ‎12‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 5:59 PM, gilbur said:

Here are some additional things that can be installed on the Battlemechs, They can be called qualities for the Mechs, look them over and let me know what you think of them:

Active Probe: This would grant Boost dice to find hidden Mechs.

Anti-Missile System: This would grant Setback dice for attacking with Missile systems like the (LRM, SRM, and other systems).

<my snip>

These sort of upgrades would fit perfectly as attachments in my opinion.

Question on your silhouettes. You have the Griffin at Silh. 3 for a Medium and the Warhammer at Silh. 5 for a Heavy. Did you mean 4 for the Warhammer? Or was the Griffin going to be 4 and you were saving Silh. 3 for a Light/Scout mech?

Have you had thoughts of implementing heat management? This was a major deal in the original game mechanics. Perhaps threats when firing heat-causing weapons (or being hit by heat-causing weapons such as Flamethrower with the Heat quality) could cause Strain (heat). Then, a Maneuver or Action to vent Strain, but only that caused by Heat? You could also add the Heat Sink attachment that reduces Strain caused by Heat (only).

17 hours ago, Sturn said:

These sort of upgrades would fit perfectly as attachments in my opinion.

Question on your silhouettes. You have the Griffin at Silh. 3 for a Medium and the Warhammer at Silh. 5 for a Heavy. Did you mean 4 for the Warhammer? Or was the Griffin going to be 4 and you were saving Silh. 3 for a Light/Scout mech?

Have you had thoughts of implementing heat management? This was a major deal in the original game mechanics. Perhaps threats when firing heat-causing weapons (or being hit by heat-causing weapons such as Flamethrower with the Heat quality) could cause Strain (heat). Then, a Maneuver or Action to vent Strain, but only that caused by Heat? You could also add the Heat Sink attachment that reduces Strain caused by Heat (only).

For silhouettes i am going light is silhouette 3, medium is 4, heavy should be 5 and assault is silhouette 6 this is just ideas as the bigger the mech the more armaments they would have. As for your heat i oroginally was not worried about but do know that the heat buildup was part of the game will look into this and toss around seeing how i can implement this into the conversion.

Silhouette 5 is are hundreds of meters long. Heck, Silhouette 4 are usually for ships/combat walkers 20-50 meters long.

If going by standard NDS size ranges for Silhouettes, no mech should be bigger than Silhouette 4.

Silhouette 6 is a Dropship at least , if not a Jumpship.

Now, if you want to use your own size ranges for Silhouettes, then go for it.

I could possibly see silhouettes 3 and 4 for the mechs. Silhouette 3 for light and medium mechs and silhouette 4 for the heavy and assault mechs. I will change this for my future stuff since i am playing around with the mechs in my star wars game now.

Have you considered looking at the Alpha Strike (link is the entry on BoardgameGeek) version of the BT rules as a basis for your Genesys conversion?

I haven’t played any form of BT in quite a while, but it seems the simpler AS version would be more easily adaptable. ESP. With regards to Heat, Grouping Weapons, etc...

2 hours ago, TCArknight said:

Have you considered looking at the Alpha Strike (link is the entry on BoardgameGeek) version of the BT rules as a basis for your Genesys conversion?

I haven’t played any form of BT in quite a while, but it seems the simpler AS version would be more easily adaptable. ESP. With regards to Heat, Grouping Weapons, etc...

I look over the alpha strike rules and thought it lost quite a bit from the actual game but might just download the rules. Just to see what actual changes they made to the game. I am always open for suggestions. Thanks for that idea though.

Now after looking over alpha strike rules the only way to use those rules i would have to downgrade the armor for the weapons in the book to be used. That is the only difference i see between alpha strike and classic rules unless someone seen something I am missing.

All righty.

On a previous post I said I would share what I have been using to run my battletech game using the star wars system. However due to the cluttered nature of my notes and poor handwriting (Curse you Table Saw), I'll put the main ideas and breakthroughs here.

The general goal of my modification to the Star Wars system, and now Genesys, was to reproduce the feel of Battletech, while leaving as much of the starwars/genesys mechanics as intact as possible.

Parts that I considered important to the battletech "feel"

• Battlemech Supremacy
• Four distinct classifications of Battlemechs
• Three basic Weapon types (energy, ballistic, missile)
• Heat system
• Mech customization

Guidelines I tried to follow during mod creation

• K.I.S.S. principle
• Use existing mechanics where applicable
• Combat should last 2-4 rounds
• A combat round is 1-5 minutes long

Battlemech Supremacy is the idea that the most powerful and versatile units on the battlefield are battlemechs. This leads into other units, such as tanks, ships, aircraft, and mechanized infantry, being powered down so that they are only better in niche scenarios. Most scenarios will have non-battlemech units acting as minions.

The classification of Battlemechs are done by tonnage. Light 20-35 tons, Medium 40-55 tons, Heavy 60-75 tons, Assault 80-100 tons.

Guideline Light Mech: Speed 4, Handling 0, Silhouette 3, Armor 2, Hull 10, Strain 8, 20 tons

Guideline Medium Mech: Speed 3, Handling -1, Silhouette 3, Armor 3, Hull 15, Strain 12, 40 tons

Guideline Heavy Mech: Speed 2, Handling -2, Silhouette 3, Armor 4, Hull 20, Strain 16, 60 tons

Guideline Assault Mech: Speed 2, Handling -3, Silhouette 3, Armor 4, Hull 25, Strain 20, 80 tons

The above guidelines are what I used for playtesting the various weapon systems and combat scenes. I use them now to determine whether a mech's base stats are possibly too strong.

Important. Due to other mechs normally not having a speed of 4, usually only light mechs or the faster mediums can utilize Gain the Advantage. This means that only sufficiently skilled mechpilots with Full Throttle can push the heavier classes to their full potential.

That's all i can put now sadly. I'll add more in later.

Putting this on the backburner for now, as with runebound coming out soon, that will help me with dragonstar conversion, so going to concentrate on my other conversion and also there are others working on mech/ mecha conversions.