A Role Playing Games Blog
A Time of War – Beta release
If you are interested in the Battletech roleplaying game “A Time of War”, Catalyst Game Labs has a special offer for you.
They have released the upcoming game as a beta release for just $10 at RPGNow. The current available PDF is 402 pages long and is of course not 100% complete yet. The index is still missing, but the book itself is looking pretty good.
If you are unsure if this new game is for you, you should check out the quickstart rules that have been released quite some time ago. In my humble opinion it looks much better than Mechwarrior 3rd Edition and it should be compatible with the rest of the core game series.
Interested players will be able to playtest the game and post any issues they encounter at a special thread a the Classic Battletech forums. The designers of the Battletech RPG are also looking for more adventure seeds like the one presented on pages 347-348 in the book. So, if you have a great idea, you can post them here and if you’re lucky and your seed is accepted, you will even be mentioned in the credits of the final release.
The final release of the PDF will set you back $25 and all people who purchased the beta release will of course get a free update. So, if you are interested in the upcoming Battletech RPG, you should consider this offer.
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#2 written by Stargazer 2 years ago
From what I've seen so far ToW doesn't look that bad. I especially like the character creation system. But of course, your mileage may vary.
But I think your best guess is probably to use Mechwarrior 1st or 2nd Edition. From what I remember those systems were pretty easy and close to the boardgame rules.
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From what I'm reading, there is complaining about the "balancing" aspects of characters (that you can be a rich Inner Sphere Mechwarrior, but you can't survive a fight [glass jaw] or your mech is always Light) and it seems that Clans again take up the biggest chunk of the issues.
Me, I'm a pre-3050 kinda guy. Give me the end of the Third Succession War or right before the Fourth and I'm a happy camper.
I was reading a thread on the Catalyst Forums for a "character build" and ye gods, it's like Traveller all over again. That's … ridiculous to me.
I wish I could have enough time to sit down and grok Savage Worlds – someone mentioned that SW would make a great MW-style RPG.
.-= Chgowiz´s last blog ..Bits and pieces =-. -
Agreed. I am thinking that when I finally sit down with ToW with some time to chargen, I'm going to approach it from a 3025 perspective and see if I can make it work. Character builds like this scare me, frankly, because I get bored too easily. Give me 3d6, 6 stats, 3d6x10 money and I'm good!
.-= Chgowiz´s last blog ..Bits and pieces =-. -
Time, and really, why reinvent it if ToW will work (somehow) or I can step back to MW2 or MW1. Settembrini recommends MW2, which I've added to my "find it cheap!" list.
Edited to add – I should say that what I really want is transparency from moving from the cockpit (or vehicle) to the RPG and back is what I'm looking for. An S&W hybrid could work, but if MW1 or 2 can do the trick easily, I'd rather do that.
.-= Chgowiz´s last blog ..Bits and pieces =-.
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We have quite the thread going!
I vaguely remember MW1.
I was going to list a series of questions, but I think I'm going to do it on my blog… and I want to give some love to some lonely MW blogs out there.
.-= Chgowiz´s last blog ..Bits and pieces =-. -
I guess I am guilty of a little post-necromancy, but my demon familiar (google) has brought up surprisingly few links for any of the Mechwarrior RPGs, and I have recently set myself the tasks of getting reacquainted with the universe, and charting out a campaign which balances the roleplaying opportunities with the wargaming opportunities.
The first task seems to be the same as what you were discussing with Chgowiz: which version of the rpg to use. I will blog about my reactions to the 3rd Edition and Time of War, and the progress of the campaign design, but I am curious if you have had further reactions to ToW since last you commented on this thread… a year ago.
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I'm starting to sit down and really think about which MW I want to use – and you know I'm all about rules light. My goal is to find a version of MW that is easy to switch from the boardgame to the RPG and back. So far, my quick glance through ToW doesn't lend me to think that's true. It feels heavy, and a lot of comments make it sound like it's not so good. We'll see. I still need some actual game time, it's been 25 years since I really jumped into MW.
.-= Chgowiz´s last blog ..Bits and pieces =-.