Calling all BattleTechies

[classicdrogn]

Inspired by Valles and Acyl's fun BT SIs and an email discussion, I've gotten an idea for a (much more limited) attempt at my own... but I'm a little skint on details to set things up. What I need is a list of 8-10 plausible mechs and maybe a couple of ASFs for a pirate raid on some backwater Outer Rim world that they don't expect any serious resistance from (nothing more than infantry, a few light tanks, and a ramshackle militia lance, all squished off-camera before MC would engage.) I figure I can just look them up on the internet for the rest once I have the type names and then pick a dropship or two with enough bay space for them and some cargo, and probably not even have to specify what sort of jumpship they came on if I cut it off as MC goes transatmospheric in his Mekton-tech unit. Blatant escapist power fantasy of course, but worse crimes have been committed.

For lack of a better idea I'll say time frame is 301X like theirs, since that does matter for what's available in-setting, while the raid objective would be for luxury foods/textiles/etc. produced by a barely-industrial world and the civilian electronics manufacturing that suddenly popped up a year or so before as MC went a little mad after a month or two on a world with no internet and abused his Mekton powers to goddamn ninja-build one. (Well, I say "Mekton powers," but really it's a case of being dropped off with a breadbox autofac and a Protagonist Makeover that includes a silly amount of chipped skills and AI support in the cybernetics package. Actual power-of-a-mekton is a matter of multiple stages of bootstrapping, which is conveniently just hours away from being combat effective when the pirates roll in.)

[Rajvik]

i think that Sarna.net will let you limit searches by timeframe, that said, it also depends on where in the outer rim you want to be, mechs used by pirates to raid around the Fed Suns area like around the Outworlds Alliance will be different than ones more often seen around the old Rim Worlds Republic areas where you would see more Marik style mechs

[classicdrogn]

Hm, well, which IS state most deserves to get their shit kicked in by a Von Neumann army who then proceed to uplift the fuck out of technology and general quality of life for the locals, who should hopefully not be all "Yay old boss, boo new boss" when taken as planetary populations? I've heard bad things about Draconis, despite having the coolest logo, which is the only other criterion I have to judge by. The plan is for a longish one-shot that ends as MC leaves atmo, as I said previously, but that's the kind of thing it will imply.

e: Looking at the 3025 map I found, it looks like there's a bunch of unaffiliated Periphery worlds up by the outer end of the Drac border with the Lyrans. Does that sound good?

e2: Reading about them on Sarna, it looks like 3006-3026 was about the one time in history that they actually weren't acting like a complete bag of dicks. Eh, maybe shift it on to the 3030's or so, or back to right around the turn of the millenium? I'm not married to any particular time period, just need to have one.

3e: Even better, Kerensky's deserters left in that direction, so when the Clans decide to come rolling up like Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizzaro they can smack right into my Jack/Rab/bits, Monkytrukks, and Grasshoppers.

[Rajvik]

Alright that means your gonna be looking at a lot of Lyran and Drac designs in the hands of pirates. So lots of Panthers for lights, and then look at Lyran for heavies and assaults. They'll all likely have extensive damage and not quite standard weapons or piecemeal armor.

[classicdrogn]

Okay then, I'll poke around and see what I can put together along those lines. Thanks!

(That's not to say further suggestions, even contradictory ones, aren't welcome if someone has them. Feel free to chime in any time.)

[Acyl]

Regarding which states are on your hit list, there are choices.

For big Successor State/Great Houses, the Draconis Combine (Kurita) and Capellan Confederation (Liao) are the two big illiberal polities of the period. Kurita merges the tropes of samurai stuff with Imperial Japan, the Capellans are space China+Russia, more China than Russia (and even more China down timeline).

Remember, the Capellans are outright used as the antagonists and whipping boys during this period. The Fourth Succession War is the Federated Commonwealth (Lyrans + FedSuns) kicking their shit in, and they get facerolled. The War of '39 is the FedCom trying to do the same to the Dracs, and they get repulsed.

The Caps in 3025 are the actual default target. It's only down timeline that we get the Caps kinda strong again, and generally even their eventual best leader, Sun Tzu, is portrayed with the madness and whimsy characteristic of most of his family line. Now, nutty Sun Tzu is mostly fanon and not canon, but it is what it is.

I say this as a Capellan fan, mind, they are my first or second favourite faction (tossup between them and Lyran).

Beyond this, the Lyrans (in this period, there's a stretch where they are antagonistic), the FedSuns, are the clearer 'hero' houses, Steiner and Davion. The Free Worlds League (Marik) is ambigious, but at least on paper it is the most democratic of the major factions (but gets overrun by Blakists, and consequently does fracture into smaller states in late timeline).

So much for Great Houses, but there are minor Periphery powers. The Outworlds Alliance and Taurian Concordiat are bad candidates for a faceroll we're meant to cheer on. Outworlds are a mess, but they're meant to be space hippy, space academic, space democracy who hate 'Mechs but love fighters. Taurians are stubborn nationalists (and generally popularly used in fanfic as underdog heroes). Magistry of Canopus are decadent matriarchical space Las Vegas with THE best medical science. None of these are appealing targets for a 'they deserve it' narrative.

Who else? Oberon Confederation is shitty, but their 3000s-3050ish leader is actively trying to clean the cesspool and make it less of a bandit kingdom, to the degree of banning raids and signing treaties, investing in domestic development. The Oberons aren't actually 'bad' here, just rough.

Marian Hegemony is space Rome, which isn't bad if you're a citizen, but they have institutionalised slavery. Granted, reasonably, this is Roman slavery at worst, not depraved insert-whatever.

Circinus Federation (I may be spelling this wrong) is like Oberon, a bandit kingdom, but unlike Oberon, isn't really cleaning up - they've won diplomatic recognition but it ain't a concerted making right effort like Oberon. Good candidates to stomp.

Even smaller powers? The Deep Periphery states generally do not suck, like the Hanseatic League, and are so obscure that most BT fans aren't familiar. Aurigans are from the new BT video game, but aside from the Directorate period in the game, also good guys.

Depending on timeline, maybe Redjack Ryan is active as the king of Butte Hold and later the Greater Valkyriate - Redjack is a clear villain of the setting, even if I use him as an antihero for my stuff.

Single worlds? Von Strang's World, the Barony of Strang, are unambigiously shit - they still celebrate Amaris, the guy who killed the Star League. But that's literally a one planet state. Antallos/Port Krin near the Outworlds is also shit, pirate haven, but again, small fry.

Okay, that's your polities.

'Mechs... so really there are generic designs that can be found anywhere without lifting eyebrows, differing only in national variant of the chassis, but the base 'Mech is common. These are the old original first gen BattleTech tabletop units.

Wasp, Stinger, Locust are the dirt common designs, Wasp is the most common 'Mech in space. In the medium category, things like the Phoenix Hawk, Griffin, Shadow Hawk, Wolverine, in heavy, stuff like Crusader, Warhammer, Marauder, Thunderbolt, Archer.

You can drop those in anywhere and have them work. There are more generics like that, but you get the idea.

Anything else will be slightly region-specific. Say let's talk lights. Near Lyran space (inc. Oberon, Circinus), expect Commandos, near Suns/Davion expect Valkyrie, near Dracs expect Jenner and Panther, and near Liaos expect UrbanMech, or if later, Raven.

And then so on, up the weight chart, like say for mediums, expect Vindicator and Clint from Liao.

[classicdrogn]

Hm, well, like I say, I'm not planning on turning it into a whole big thing that actually deals with the wider galaxy, because my will to write big things has never really worked out in practise. I'm hoping that keeping the scope strictly limited will let my usual dribs and drabs of a few paragraphs at once feel like enough tangible progress to keep enthusiasm up.

Mention of the Phoenix Hawk makes me remember LAMs -they're rare and expensive and finicky in 'verse IIRC, so not likely for a pirate band to have, but might one locked in fighter form be one of their ASFs? Effective as the Von Neumann swarming ones are, swapping MC's personal ride to a variable fighter is a point of intense personal interest. Just the sight of the BT implementation would be deeply offensive and inspire an upgrade in that direction near immediately.

Oh, and while I know what I mean just throwing the names out like I have is probably a bit annoying, so some explanation for the original units I've mentioned. The whole point is to have an anime character with anime mecha using anime tropes be OP about it, with tropes and extra cheese, so... yeah.

Grasshopper: A personal power armor with heavy Kamen Rider influences, MC's is actually external armor over a cyborg body, but Iron Man style versions (a little more bulky, and lacking the benefits of the cybernetics obviously) are the standard pilot suit when MC eventually recruits some minions. Optimized for melee combat and high speed movement, which means it can jump a good 100m and kick you for 32 BT damage points. (Half for non-MC version, double if using both feet. Damage scaled based on how much hurt a ton of BT Standard armor can absorb vs. Mekton Ablative armor.) MC's can also form the core of a Munkytrukk torso as a Combiner component and "repair" itself into a whole one.

Monkytrukk: Basically, classic Optimus Prime as a piloted vehicle. Various bed, cab, and trailer modules are available to let it fill APC, self-propelled artillery, cargo transport, and engineering roles. In Mekton terms, a 1/5 scale unit, if on the large end. Like the Grasshopper, MC's can form the core of a Rabbit or Krait Torso and "repair" itself into one.

Jackrabbit: A Rabbit wearing a second Rabbit as Combiner Armor. Rabbits "repair" themselves into this with salvage before decombining to duplicate.

Rabbit: basic humanoid at full mecha scale, vaguely samurai-ish with a pair of rabbit ears behind the shoulders instead of flags. Has numerous handheld or mounted weapon pod options, aside from fists, feet, and feeding tentacles.

Bit: the rabbit ears can detach and operate independently via AI and remote control. They fly via gravity warp (letting the Rabbit or Jackrabbit do so as well when the Bits are Combined) and have deconstruction and repair beams, just to make fighting a von Neumann swarm even more unfair.

And since I just decided on it, the variable fighter will be called a Krait after the snake, and probably be based on the VF-4 more than the VF-1. Or maybe a jet version of this. edit: Linked further down the page

[drakensis]

Grasshopper might not be the best name to use as there's a 'Mech with that name. Unless you specifically want to cause confusion of course.

Dropship wise, the sort of force you seem to have in mind would probably be in a Union, which carries 12 'Mechs and 2 aerospace fighters and is one of the most common dropships around.

Force distribution wise, typically at least 70% of a 'Mech force will be made up of light and medium designs. The classic lights are the Wasp, Stinger and Locust (all in at 20 tons). The Draconis Combine makes extensive use of the Panther and Jenner (both 35 tons). The Lyran Commonwealth practically invented the light 'Mech (shocking I know) with the Commando and also build the Firestarter, the archetypal anti-infantry 'Mech.

The archetypal medium 'Mech is the Phoenix Hawk (not the LAM version), although the only source of Phoenix Hawk LAMs by the 31st century is a factory in the Draconis Combine so having a damaged one in a pirate force near them isn't too implausible. The Combine don't favour medium 'Mechs much, but the Lyran Commonwealth builds the Vulcan (another anti-infantry design) and the Griffin, which is almost as common as the Phoenix Hawk. Other very common mediums are the Dervish, Shadow Hawk and Wolverine. The Griffin and the last three are at the top of the medium weight bracket and usually carry the weight of the fighting unless heavy and/or assault 'Mechs are around.

As an aside, the Lyrans build a very wide array of aerospace fighters and the Combine build some excellent ones so you're spoiled for choice in the aerospace choice. I'd recommend something generic like a Hellcat or Eagle, but a Shilone, Sholagar, Seydlitz or Lucifer would be perfectly plausible.

If you go into the heavy category, the Archer is probably the most common and built by both Lyrans and Draconians. The Combine also build the Quickdraw and Dragon, while the Lyrans also build the Warhammer, Thunderbolt and Rifleman. For assaults - very unusual for pirates - the Atlas, Banshee, Battlemaster, Stalker and Zeus are all built by the Lyrans and the Draconians build the Atlas and the Charger.

[classicdrogn]

Grasshopper might not be the best name to use as there's a 'Mech with that name. Unless you specifically want to cause confusion of course.

That's okay, I'll crush that idea of a Grasshopper Nah, not really, but Kamen Rider fan gonna Kamen Rider, you know? And that 100m jump in a human-scale unit! I suppose I could just call it the Hopper, though it would hardly be the first time there were two units with the same name. MC would mostly think of it as "my armor" anyway.

Looking up the Grasshopper battlemech, it's pretty decent. Shame about the cloak, but it's Battletech after all, you aren't allowed to have nice things.


Anyway, so, how's this sound?

Jumpship: Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film (probably an Invader with one S-7A Bus space-only shuttle and the other Small Craft bay converted for cargo or quarters.)

Cargo/infantry dropship: Danais
Small craft:
K-1 DropShuttle
Mk-VII Landing Craft

Other:
4x Large Transport lorries
4x infantry platoons

Typically, one platoon (the heaviest equipped) is tasked to guard their landing site, one or two to suppress locals depending on how much ongoing resistance there is, and the other(s) to loot and load/unload the lorries carrying it back to the dropships. The small craft give this group air support and the ability to rapidly deploy or retrieve the looting parties and lorries.


Battlemech dropship: Union
Attack lance:
CGR-1A1 Charger
DRG-1N Dragon (lance commander)
2x GRF-1S Griffin

Fire (Command?) lance:
ARC-2R Archer
PNT-8Z Panther (lance commander due to the better comm gear)
2x PNT-9R Panther

Recon lance:
2x FS9-H Firestarter

2x empty bays for salvaged/captured mechs or other loot

ASFs:
PXH-1K Phoenix Hawk LAM (Air and AirMech modes only, the torso folding joint for Mech mode is jammed)
SL-21 Sholagar

With the caveat that I've very little knowledge of BT let alone having played it, this actually looks like a decent small company for the era to me, after poking through the Sarna pages for a bit. Or, well, it would be if they were in good condition, figure everything is down 5-10% on armor and has at least one weapon downchecked or replaced with something only vaguely similar to the normal loadout.

[Acyl]

If you're dropping Grasshopper as a name since it's a battlemech, same applies for the Jackrabbit.

Jackrabbit was a 'Mech design used by Stefan Amaris' forces, aka the worst villain in history, the man who killed the Star League, etc. The name is verboten everywhere in the BT setting except Von Strang's World. To the extent that when the Jackrabbit was retooled and put back into production in canon, they had to call it something else - the Nexus.

Having said that, could be funny to see people running in fear at the NAME of Jackrabbit, before even seeing the bunny ears.

Note that a LAM stuck in one mode is straight up an inferior fighter than a real fighter. Wasted tonnage and smaller fuel capacity, plus no external hardpoints for bombs. It may well be that the LAM isn't stuck, but badly cannibalised and refitted into a better aerofighter at the semi-intentional cost of transformation.

Note that small craft are very undervalued in BattleTech, largely shuttles aren't used or carried, they do exist, but aren't a huge feature of the setting. There's a reason there are very few canon small spacecraft below the DropShip size. Where other settings may use a shuttle, BT would often just use a Leopard or maybe Fury DropShip.

Danais is a good choice. It is a bit of retroactive handwaving to explain the Grey Death's ships, which are literally in the earliest novels, said to be similar to the Union but not actually Union. The Danais never got named until later, but SHOULD be common.

The usual way a mixed BT 'Mech company is divided up is:

1) Command Lance
2) Fire Lance (or Attack Lance)
3) Recon Lance

Command Lance is fairly general and could be either just whatever accompanies the leader, but in many units may have a long range inclination (particularly if they have an attack lance, not fire lance).

Fire Lance could be long range, or could be some sort of mixed range or even short range attack group.

Recon Lance is the lighter, speedier units.

From what I can see, your groupings are completely fine, it's just the terminology that might be different, and might be used by the pirates in dialogue.

I see no mention here regarding JumpShips. Probably worth noting the Invader is overwhelmingly the most common FTL ship in setting, but whatever the opposition uses to arrive in system could easily be a Merchant or whatever.

[classicdrogn]

Hm, well, "Rabbit" was for the speed they replicate, "Jackrabbit" was a play on "jacketed rabbit" but if it's really that much of a taboo I can just use "Jacket Rabbit" or "Double Rabbit" or something. "Mama Rabbit?" Maybe "Doublejump"

The first iteration of Grasshopper is created basically first thing without outside contact and is literally designed to look like a humanoid grasshopper, like a Kamen Rider as I say, but the Rabbits are intentionally styled like a vaguely cute bunny-knight to try to defuse "robot army of doom!" tropes (not that this has much effect when seen in action, mind you) so giving the enhanced version a threatening name is counterproductive.

I adopted your terminology for the lances - basically, they apply in the same order you listed them, with the overall leader taking the Dragon. Sorting the units by speed just seemed like the most obvious starting point for squads that would be sticking together, but it ended up looking pretty decent in general though the Charger is quite lightly armed compared to its lancemates. I suppose it gets to play the Tank role with its heavy armor? (in MMO terms, I mean) Though thinking about it, given that I'm establishing one of the Panthers as having superior comm gear, perhaps the overall commander should be that guy, with the heavier, brawler-type group being "Attack Lance?"

The LAM is indeed strictly worse than a normal fighter when jammed in one form, but they have hopes of repairing it "someday, after a really good score." Never let it be said that just because they're raping, murdering thugs pirates can't also be naively optimistic.

The Small Craft I mainly listed because the cargo dropper has bays for them, and they make sense for the role. If they're usually ignored in setting for whatever baffling reason... well, beggars can't be choosers and a pirate band isn't going to ditch them when they've got a good load of weapons along with a fair bit of lifting capacity, while not needing another docking ring on the jumpship like adding a Leopard. (Though the K-1 apparently CAN use one if it's desirable for some reason.)

As for the pirates' jumpship, I didn't worry about it because I'm specifically not planning anything beyond the designated end of the one-shot. BT is way too big a setting to swallow whole before something else catches my attention. An Invader is fine, though as long as it's got two working docking collars to have delivered the pirate's dropships, that's all the detail required.

[Acyl]

BattleTech as a setting treats dishonoured or taboo 'Mech designs and names pretty seriously, so... Jackrabbit is a tainted name in setting, simply. How seriously it's seen would vary, but it doesn't have the harmless connotation you feel it would. And, regardless, the Grasshopper name clash applies. Admittedly you, as the SI, wouldn't know that, so you could still ignore the issue.

The stock Charger is not heavily armoured. Essentially the stock introtech design spends most of its tonnage on the engine due to how engine capacity is calculated, leaving nothing for weapons, and not much for armour. It has equal armour to that Dragon, which is only really moderate at best in absolute terms and low for an assault... only benefit a stock Charger has is that the weight buffs its melee damage. For something of the same speed+armor, there are mediums and heavies which do that and carry better guns. It is considered a lousy mech for a reason.

Scrapper or brute, not tank, since effectively the Dragon is almost as durable (Charger would still have stronger skeleton beneath armour).

Hm...ah, yeah. You've made a minor miscalc in the manifest, I think... the Danais has two small craft bays, you have listed two shuttles and two fighters, for a total of four subcraft...there are only two berths. A small craft bay in the BattleTech context means a bay that takes a non-DropShip space vessel under 200 tons, including shuttles, gunships, and yes, LAMs and aerospace fighters.

Canonically the signature Danais droppers in novels, the Gray Death Legion's ones, they carry a pair of fighters in those bays.

It is possible for a cargo ship to carry a shuttle, aerospace fighter, or air breathing jet as cargo and not in a small craft bay, but this means the fighter or whatever cannot be easily launched and retrieved, it would need to be craned, winched, forklifted out or something, or some other kind of ad hoc flying out of a cargo ramp sort of move.

There is no canon deck plan for the Danais, but there is for the Union which the Danais is said to super closely resemble, and the main bay loading doors for the Union don't open straight into a cavernous space, they are doors at the base of the ship for use when grounded, leading into a big spiral ramp that winds round the base of the DropShip on the inside, leading up to the main bay. Therefore if this is so for the Danais, it's a bit of a bitch but not impossible to land a fighter in the cargo bay, I guess. Just stupidly byzantine.

There is a general lack of mention of shuttles in BT. No real explanation or reason, logically it SHOULD be more of a thing, but it's generally overlooked.

[classicdrogn]

Notes taken on the Charger. As for the ASFs, they're carried on the Union, not the Danais.

RE "Jackrabbit," given that they mainly exist as part of the von Neumann cycle, I suppose the double-Rabbit doesn't really need a name of it's own... Would just "Rabbit" still suffer the same pall? I could go with BN-1E Bunny, thus making the doubled up version a Bun-Bun...

I'm keeping "Grasshopper" as the PA name, though: MC doesn't even know if he's on a currently inhabited world when he makes it, let alone that it's BT, and being taken from before I got the idea for this project and started looking wouldn't know there was a Grasshopper battlemech even if he did.

e: WRT the lack of mention of shuttles, well, the game (and the IC) are very much focused on big stompy robots doing stompy robot things, and aside from scooting a Light or Medium (up to 50 tons for teh K-1, 65 for the Mk VII) into the bay on its back they're generally too small to have anything directly to do with stompy robots. Dropships on the other hand are designed for getting the stompy robots to the stompin' party, so they're what all the cool kids want. The K-1 isn't that impressive, I'll grant, though it's got enough space for a couple 20t trucks, a crowd of troops to collect loot and load it into them, and a few tons of other souvenirs or captives, but the Mk-VII is surprisingly capable, especially for being 50t lighter than the K-1. It's basically a super-long-range ASF that's also designed to carry two squads worth of passengers and drop off an MBT when it gets to the operational area.

[classicdrogn]

I made a non-color-clash animation of the jet-powered J7W2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT-NIrFHkAo

[classicdrogn]

Granted this is Mekton rather than BT and, uh, probably not relevant to the prospective story even so, but lots of board members here are tabletop gamers, so... While acknowledging that most probably don't have a solid grasp of the game to say whether it matches up with existing MZ+ psi powers, does this seem like a reasonable thing for general psi-fi purposes, given that the RAW Retrocognition uses the exact same time scale, and 5pp/level is the same as Teleportation? It's not something to use in combat as a rule, but very flavorful for your ancient mentor type, and useful but not hopefully overwhelming at just one or two skill ranks for a PC to keep them alive when wounded, trapped, or spaced until they can be rescued or treated.

e: Or as noted elsewhere, to save their sanity and consumables while making a long trip on autopilot or via tansfer orbit, or with a device to apply it to the entire vessel to turn any box with a rocket on one end into an interstellar slowboat, if the need is really that great. If they have the Levitation psi-skill as well, even the rocket is optional.


New Psi Power: Stasis (can be amplified by an Esper Lens)
Cost to activate: Varies (1-5 Psi Points per level)
Category: Body (resisted by BOD)

Description: The ability to slow the normal biological processes and supplement them with psychic energy to reduce or eliminate the need for food, water, and air, entering an ageless state of suspended animation. More critically, this also includes the ability to avoid physical degradation or going mad from isolation and boredom, and to safely recover from this state whether it ends normally or is interrupted.

Level Effects:
1: Effect lasts for 6 hours
2: Effect lasts for 1 day
3: Effect lasts for 1 week
4: Effect lasts for 1 month
5: Effect lasts for 1 year
6: Effect lasts for 3 years
7: Effect lasts for 10 years
8: Effect lasts for 33 years
9: Effect lasts for 100 years
10: Effect lasts for 1000 years

Range: Self only, or passengers inside a vehicle with an appropriately scaled ESPer Lens, or up to five other characters who are in contact with the device or the psychic using it for a 1/10 scale Lens.

Special Rules: As with other Psi powers that affect the esper themselves, the activation roll must be made against the user's own BODY score to see if they can correctly channel the energy and use it to control and augment their systems.

Level of Stasis:
* 1 PP/level: The user can survive indefinitely on one light meal (a sandwich or a bowl of rice, etc.) and one glass of water per time period Stasis is activated, and resists heatstroke or frostbite.
* 2 PP/level: The user can survive indefinitely on air alone while Stasis is activated, and is immune to environmental heat and cold (but not smoke inhalation or direct exposure to coals, or suffocation if frozen in a block of ice.)
* 3 PP/level: The user can survive even in vacuum and high levels of radiation, at the heart of a volcano or at the bottom of the deepest sea, even falling naked from orbit if they have a way to slow down before hitting the ground. Being tossed into a star might still be a bit tricky to come back from without at least a critical success on the activation check, though.

Level of Activity:
* Meditation: By default the user must stay still and concentrate entirely on using this power, and will be roused from it immediately if they stop or are interrupted. The only other Psionic Skill that may be used is Danger Sense, as it is automatic, or Chronoperception if that optional skill is also allowed. Over very long periods this may involve becoming encased in a cocoon of ectoplasm or silk, or a thin wooden or rocky shell. While being struck or attacked will normally end the effect, using it in conjunction with Resist Torture/Drugs will provide a bonus equal to the level Stasis was activated at.
* Light: For +1 PP/level the user retains enough awareness of the world around them to engage in conversation, listen to music, do paperwork, move at 1/2 their normal speed, or similar light activity, or use Mind and Will based Psionic Skills such as Astral Projection or Emotion Scan. Any physical or time-sensitive activity that requires a skill check suffers a penalty of the level Stasis was activated at x2, due to the distraction and dreamlike mental disconnection from events happening around the character. However, this acts as a bonus to the Resist Torture/Drugs skill.
* Moderate: For +2 PP/level the user can engage in everyday activities such as operating a vehicle, public speaking or performances, Athletics or performing repairs, or using any other Psionic Skills. Performing a non-Psionic combat action (including Parry or Dodge) or being struck will still end the Stasis effect (unless it's being used in conjunction with Resist Torture/Drugs as above) but the user can flee and make the normal, automatic Evasion checks freely. Physical or time-sensitive activities that require a skill check do so at a penalty equal to the level Stasis was activated at.

In all cases, the character will still heal naturally at the normal rate, and will not suffer from blood loss (though open wounds will continue to bleed until they heal enough) infection, or poisons.

Esper Lens: A mecha with an Esper Lens can extend the effect to itself and any other crew or passengers it carries. Battery powerplants will maintain a constant charge, Combustion powerplants, GES, Thrusters, and Boosterpacks will operate but consume no fuel, Tires and bearings will not wear out from use, etc. Even if operated by a different character than the psychic, engaging in non-Psionic combat actions such as firing weapons, violent maneuvers, or being hit by an enemy's attack will still force the effect to end unless the psychic passes a Stun/Shock roll vs. 10+Stasis level for EACH such action, and all characters affected by Stasis take the appropriate skill check penalty listed above. Activating Reactive Shields or intercepting an attack with them is fine though, as long as no damage carries through to the mecha itself. If the check is passed, the weapons won't even expend any ammunition or Turns In Use, but neither will one with a Charge Time ever be ready.

[classicdrogn]

Well, after borrowing a copy of the Battletech Compendium and looking things over a bit, I've reached a few conclusions:

1) Comparing it to Mekton by damage per ton of armor drastically underestimates the BT side, to the point that three Mekton character hit points would equal one BT damage point. Obviously, this is not anywhere near accurate. Comparing them by weapon damage and applying a scaling factor to make them fit against the standard MZ weapons list puts them at about 15-18 hits per BT damage point, versus 25h per Mekton Kill. This is still enough to kill any but the toughest normal humans in a single blow, so probably good enough, though doubling the hp-relative value of both sides is a possibility. It does mean that even Standard BT armor has five or six times the damage sponge per ton, but (most) Mekton armor lasts for multiple hits where BT burns away 1:1 with damage hitting it, so hopefully that should even out overall. Being closer to parity makes for a more interesting conflict anyway.

In that light, the pirates' LAM will probably be able to use AirMech mode as well as Aerospace, which on the VF-1 probably means the complicated double joint and sliding plate to switch the central torso between "long" and "tall" is stuck in long mode, and/or the bits that let the hips swing down to the nose of the jet from being in the middle.

2) it is really not obvious what tech is invented, stolen, lost, found, or hidden at what time in-continuity, like at all. Everything seems to be written on the assumption that you'll be playing during the Clans invasion with anything available if you've got the (fixed and universal amounts of) cash, decades later than the time period that the recent fics have drawn interest to. I'm sure someone has compiled a listing of this somewhere, but I have no idea where to even begin to look.

3) this setting is way too complicated to come at cold and get a grip on. I knew I wasn't going to want to try to deal with the wider universe, but damn, son. Valles and Acyl, you must be old hands at the game, because you make it look easy. Aiming to keep it short and contained on the one planet is only barely warding off my sense of drowning in details. I've actually been trying to construct it around that "perfect 6000 word pulp action outline" one of our members posted in the Writer's Tools thread recently, but eh, we'll see.

4) I still don't want to play the actual BT wargame. The system and several of its arbitrary limitations are frustrating just to read about...

Aside from that, I've also been poking my Mekton books and build spreadsheet, and great stars have I found more entries to add to the MTS Abuse Catalog. Not that I'll let that stop me from using them this time, but after getting the fun out of them they're definitely getting submitted. Also, my Bunnies multiply even faster than expected, which is another reason to toughen the BT side interpretation up.

[ECSNorway]

The easiest damage comparison to do for other games is to consider that a single burst from a BT machine gun does 2 damage to battlemech armor... or kills 2d6 unarmored infantry.

[classicdrogn]

Sounds about right then, since you'd expect most of the rounds to miss against a single target. I do think 50h per K is the way to go, though, making 1 BT damage point 30h, where human torso hits range from 8-18h, depending on build.

[drakensis]

The current ruleset has dates for when various techs were developed but that's a huge set of rules because, like the Compendium (there have been 2) they're compiling a lot of rules.

For the 3015 era you're basically dealing with the original base game technology. My recommended rulebook for that era is the 4th edition, which is an easy 48 pages aimed at new players and only includes hardware as available in the early 31st century. Here's a link to a pdf copy: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1daSl6_5...sp=sharing

Setting knowledge is extensive, yes - over 1000 years of game history over 30 years of publication history. The original five setting books have been around as free pdfs for years (legally), 150+ pages each and covering each of the Successor States from the top down as of 3015, including history, government, military, society, economics... and they don't come close to detailing everything so there's a lot of room to work in fresh details. I don't have a link handy for them or anything more concise either.

[classicdrogn]

Thanks, that's much easier to go through than a giant flippin' hardcover. Not that I don't appreciate hardbound game books, because I certainly do, but it is a bit hard to juggle in my lap while poking at my computer, since there's barely room for the keyboard and mouse let alone anything so last-century as physical papers and books

[drakensis]

These should work for the 3025 sourcebooks. No images, but all the text.

http://cf.sarna.net/docs/products/house_...t_only.pdf
http://cf.sarna.net/docs/products/house_...t_only.pdf
http://cf.sarna.net/docs/products/house_...t_only.pdf
http://cf.sarna.net/docs/products/house_...davion.pdf
http://cf.sarna.net/docs/products/house_...t_only.pdf

[Norgarth]

As far as the Grasshopper name confusion goes, don't worry about it, Canon BT has reused names as well.

There's:
Centurion (Mech or ASF)
Scorpion (Mech or Tank)
Banshee (Mech or ASF)
Vulcan (Mech or ASF)
Behemoth (Vehicle or dropship)
Fox (armored vehicle or warship)
Lightning (ASF or tank)
Puma (Tank or Mech)
Buccaneer (Mech or Dropship)
Striker (mech or tank)
and so on

[classicdrogn]

Heh, well, FASA art, man. I think I can live without it As for MC and the power armor, well, fiddling with them ended up acting like one of those slingshot orbits and sent me careening over to an entirely different project, namely my pure-except-house-rules-Mekton Invasion Terra Dungeon Crawl, which is fun to write despite being the kind of marginal quality, game-mechanic laden munchkinry that makes it unlikely to see the light of day. As in, not only can you "hear the dice rolling" I report the results directly, if inside what would be spoiler tags if it did get posted to a bbcode-using board...

Not to worry though, this bunny is still hopping, it's just been overtaken for the moment by it's older sibling. Still, any amount of prose writing achieved is progress at this point.

[classicdrogn]

MageOhki joining the party over on QQ has drawn my attention back to this somewhat, but not beyond the point of getting ideas circulating around. Better than nothing I suppose, but it's still not words on a page. I do keep getting the mental image of MC's personal mecha-scale ride getting into a grapple with one of the pirates, then popping out of the cockpit and Rider Kicking its head off, but that's the kind of thing you have to work up to in a combat sequence, not use right out of the gate. Various tactical tricks using the BN-1 Bunny's ability to combine into or split in two from a BN-2BN BunBun are also ghosting about, but not solid enough to nail down yet. It's something that should be very strange to BT locals, though, as it's not at all within the paradigm they're used to aside from things like the Mk. VII small craft carrying a tank in its vehicle bay. Which isn't the same at all, really.

[classicdrogn]

I had a sudden thought just now - just how much is known about the Clan deserters' colony worlds? If there's a place that needs a Von Neumann swarm backed superheroic Ally of Justice it's there, judging by what I've gathered of how they treated the population of conquered planets during/after invading the inner sphere. Of course, that would also negate essentially all of the material above and likely require a longer treatment to cover properly, but in terms of lodging boots in the assholes which most deserve them...