Savage Battletech! (#1)

Game Master Atlas2112

test?

It's Battletech, but now with rules you actually like!

Also, I should use this alias.

Checking in. Can't wait!

Dot

Max Sterling, reporting for duty!

Here is the map we will be using. You may go first.

You strap yourself in to the state-of-the-art combat simulator and the viso-dome descends before lighting up in an eerily-accurate simulation of piloting a battlemech.

Your hands go through the start-up sequence all but of their own volition, and across the battlefield a Commando bearing the crimson dragon of the Draconis Combine appears.

Remember, each square is 5 inches.

As stated in the Discussion thread, Access Denied to the map.

I assume the enemy has wandered into LRM Range.

Fire LRMs: 1d10 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 3

Alright! Our first combat! This gives me a chance to explain the complete missile fire rules. 1) Yes, the map is only 125 inches long, well withing even the short range of your Long Range Missiles. 2) Even if you had a range penalty of -2 on your roll, your mech is equipped with a Targeting array, which eliminates up to -2 in penalties. [i.e. if you had -4 to your roll, you would only have -2, etc.] Hence, there is not now, were would be, a penalty to this roll. 3) The way firing 4 things in SW goes, is you roll your appropriate trait 4 times PLUS you roll your WILD DIE one additional time. If the WILD DIE beats a normal roll, you may replace one. 4) The skill to roll for Missile Fire is Knowledge(Electronic WARFARE!). This will be opposed by the enemy's K(EW) roll, indicating a battle of wits!

tl;dr: Roll your K(EW) which is d8, four times, and roll a d6 once, taking the four highest rolls, and I'll try to beat it. =)

Next to Max's Valkyrie, a Panther materializes, it's large main weapon already primed and looking to misbehave.

Across from the Ally Cat forms a Wasp scout mech, a BattleMech so popular that it's said for every -other- type of mech produced, there exists a Wasp. Whether that's true is anyone's guess, but they remain the mainstay of just about every major house's scouting teams.

PC's are up!!!!11!!11!!1!!!

Sorry, my Gameplay window did not show *any* activity in Discussion, so I'm *way* behind in everything. Will try to cobble a character together today.

Nasty D chews on his cigar as he luxuriously sits back in the combat simulator, legs spread. He takes a long drag, the spent ash falling onto the controls. "Got better things to do than waste all damn day fighting fake bots. Let's get this over with."

I don't have LRMs, so I take it I must get closer to use my SRMs? Also, which mech on the map is mine?

still posting from my tablet. Yours is the lower right. Heh, I forgot that not everyone on the planet can recognise battlemechs on sight. =) Also, you start at range 125, which is medium range for both your missiles and cannon.

Both PCs are on the bottom. The Valkyrie is the red one, the Panther is the green one. As neither enemy has moved yet this combat, the only penalties either of you have is range. The penalty for medium range is -2, but, your targeting system negates up to -2 in penalties, so all shots right now are without penalties. Party is up, more in Discussion.

So :
Piloting is used when we go Out of Control due to taking any damage (even Shaken). Do we roll it when we just want to move our mech 9"? When else is it used? There must be some reason for the Mech Jock Edge...

K(EW) is used for shooting missiles, Notice and Stealth, and as the opposed roll against missiles (at +2 with AMCM). Anything else?

Is Shooting for lasers and particle accelerators and all other non-missile weapons? Does it have a TN of 4, with modifiers for Range, Cover, etc.? Targeting removes 2 points of penalties to the Shooting roll.

Does that about cover the combat rolls? Thanks!

Yes, that does about cover all the things. No, you don't roll Piloting for a normal move, that would be silly. =p The reason for the MechJock edge is that driving a vehicle is considered an action. (If you were behind the wheel of a car, and wanted to shoot a shotgun, that would absolutely incur a MAP, as you are doing more than the passenger next to you.) The edge negates that.

Still not entirely clear on what I'm doing, but here goes nothing.

Nasty D keeps his virtual mech put, and hits the sequence of buttons to lower the missile targeting controls. He centers the reticle on the AI bot. "Taste my virtual nitroglycerine, b~##*."

Missiles, K(EW): 1d8 ⇒ 31d8 ⇒ 51d8 ⇒ 41d8 ⇒ 2

As Roger "RocketJock" Smithson (Awwww. You created an alias just me. *warm fuzzy*) climbs into the sim-chamber, he finds himself in a JR7-D Jenner (brown mech at bottem left). Considered the mainstay of the Draconis Combine scouting line, it features above-average firepower and above-average speed. It's basically all that and a Chernobyl Cherry fizzy.

Across from him forms a HSR-200-D Hussar (Black White at top). An older design largely considered a disposable scout, it shares a kinship with the Panther in that it's main armament is a laser that is WAY too big for its frame. At least that's what people on the other side of it tend to say.

First blow to House Darwin! Glory to the House of Foxwell! Also!
Whenever a PC (Also called "Wild Cards" because PCs are awesome) makes an action, you -also- get to roll a d6, called the Wild Die. (This has a game effect of evening out the stat line.) Usually, for shooting, you're only rolling once, and then the Wild Die, and you use the highest. For multiple rolls like this, you just substitute the Wild Die I shall roll it for you this time. WILD DIE!!: 1d6 ⇒ 5

*FOOM* *FOOM*

The two Short-Range Missiles from the Panther scream out toward the vile (at least, you think it's vile, since it's try to kill you) Wasp.

Inside, you can imagine a (virtual) enemy pilot's eyes getting huge and fingers flying over it's comm-board, trying to fool your missiles into thinking it's actually a fairly boring turkish delight.

One of the missiles find nothing interesting in a turkish delight and veers off, punishing evil trees for their many crimes against dwarf-kind. A last missile gets through the EM screen and CRASHES into the scout mech.

To save time, it is often useful to roll both to-hit and damage at the same time, numbering each roll, and adding relevant data (like AP value). i.e.:
Shooting with missiles!#1: 1d8 ⇒ 3
Hurting with missiles!#1 AP 20: 6d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 3, 2, 5, 5) = 19
Shooting with missiles!#2: 1d8 ⇒ 7
Hurting with missiles!#2 AP 20: 6d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3) = 15

Since one of your missiles hit (and since you probably don't want to use my abysmal rolls), go ahead and roll damage.

Missile damage AP20: 6d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 2, 1, 4, 3) = 19 Does the AP mean ... Armor Piercing?

Edit: It's important to note that SRMs fire -TWO- at a time, while LRMs fire -four- at a time. Yes, the panther has -two- SRM launchers, but firing one of these is an action. The other launcher is there mainly if one gets destroyed. Or, of course, you can always try firing both at the same time, but then -all- rolls get a Multi-Action Penalty (MAP) of -2. And, yes, AP = Armor Piercing.

Do I need to roll something else?

Alright! Our first combat! This gives me a chance to explain the complete missile fire rules...3) The way firing 4 things in SW goes, is you roll your appropriate trait 4 times PLUS you roll your WILD DIE one additional time. If the WILD DIE beats a normal roll, you may replace one. 4) The skill to roll for Missile Fire is Knowledge(Electronic WARFARE!). This will be opposed by the enemy's K(EW) roll, indicating a battle of wits!

tl;dr: Roll your K(EW) which is d8, four times, and roll a d6 once, taking the four highest rolls, and I'll try to beat it. =)

@Max, yes, this post is intended for you. =)

*WHAM!* The lone SRM slams into the vile (is it vile? We'll leave that question to the philosophers) Wasp, creating a great smoking hole in its superstructure.

The AP 20 shreds all of the armor, leaving only the base toughness of 15. Exceeding the TOU by 4 is exactly 1 wound. -EVERY- wound made on a 'mech causes a critical hit. Normally I'd like the player to roll it, but I can see how that would bog things down. For now when there's a wound, the defender can roll their own crit.

Crit!: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 3) = 5

The SRM finds a soft landing in the inner gyro, making the Wasp hard to control. It jerks about, like an epileptic Mexican jumping bean on baaaad LSD.

Wasp = 1 wound, Controls hit.

Also! EVERY time you suffer a wound, you need to make a Piloting check or fall down. AND every wound inflicts -1 to all Piloting skill rolls.

Piloting check!: 1d8 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4

The Wasp takes the missile hit in stride, and remains standing...currently.

K(EW): 1d8 ⇒ 21d8 ⇒ 21d8 ⇒ 41d8 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 4

If I understand *everything* correctly :
We are 20 squares away from our opponents, and there's 5" per square, so 100"? That's well within the Short range of 150 for my quad lasers.
I take it that "quad linked" means 4 shots per action? If not, use only my first roll (well, replace it with the Wild die roll, for 1 hit).

Shooting+2(quad): 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 31d10 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 31d10 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 31d10 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 61d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
I almost added +2 from Targeting, but then remembered it only removes penalties...

Since the TN for Shooting is 4, 2 of them hit :
Damage+quad: 3d10 + 4 ⇒ (5, 3, 9) + 4 = 21
Damage+quad: 3d10 + 4 ⇒ (10, 8, 7) + 4 = 29
Damage ACE!: 1d10 ⇒ 1 = 30

Atlas - in one note, you said that Medium lasers have AP 10, but not in others. Do my lasers have AP 10 or not?
Also, I didn't see you make any opposed K(EW) for the other player's missile shots to hit?

*FOOM* *FOOM* *FOOM*

The Valkyrie looses four LRMs at the opposing Commando.

Opposed K(EW) roll, TN !2: 1d8 ⇒ 4
Opposed K(EW) roll, TN !2: 1d8 ⇒ 6
Opposed K(EW) roll, TN !4: 1d8 ⇒ 1
Opposed K(EW) roll, TN !4: 1d8 ⇒ 7

The Commando succesfully fools three of the four incoming missiles, but one missiles cleverly sees through is ruse and hits!

Max, roll 6d6 damage.

Roger, for the Linked rules in SW-SciFi, a Dual linked system fires once, and adds +1 to hit and +2 to damage, while a Quad Linked system fires once, and adds +2 to hit and +4 to damage. Your d10 rolls were abysmally bad, but your wild die pulled it out, so your first (and only) shot hits. Also, yes, a Medium Lazer has AP 10.

*ZOT!* The four lazers of the Jenner fire in time and hit the opposing Hussar. Alas! 'Tis but a glancing blow and the tough frame of the mech takes no palpable damage.

6d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 2, 5, 1, 4) = 20

*BLAMMO!* The Valkyrie's missile finds a new home in the Commando's inner workings.

Crit!: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 3) = 8

Alas the missile only plows into infrastructure, and nothing more sensitive is hit.

Pilot!: 1d8 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0

The pilot can't handle it and SLAMS face-first into the ground.

Damage from Falling!!: 6d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 2, 4, 2, 1) = 11

A ground which is mushy and soft and provides a soft landing.

Commando = 1 wound. Also, my turn.

The Commando rises from the ground and CHARGES forward.

Getting up costs 2" of movement. With a Pace of 28, that leaves 26 movement left. Rounding to the nearest 5 gives us mv= 25 which is 5 squares. Map updated.

And the Commando FIRES his LAZER!
Short range, no penalty.

Shooting!: 1d8 ⇒ 8
Shooting ACE!: 1d8 ⇒ 5

A 13 is more than 4, so it will hit. Also, since it is more than 8, it inflicts 1d6 damage more.

Damage! AP10!: 3d10 + 1d6 ⇒ (3, 7, 8) + (1) = 19

The Valkyrie's toughness is 26(11). The laser pierces 10 of the armor, making it's net toughness 16. The 19 damage from the laser exceeds 16, but does not exceed it by 4, so there is no wound. HOWEVER, since it does EQUAL OR EXCEED the mech's toughness, Max needs to make a Piloting roll to avoid falling down. Basically the shot ROCKS the mech so badly that, even though it didn't damage anything too badly, he still needs to stand strong so the blow doesn't knock him over. ... Okay, I'll pause there to see if there are any more questions and then move on to the other OP4 later.

Max's first d6 in his damage roll Aced, so he should re-roll to see if he might inflict any more Wounds.

Piloting: 1d10 ⇒ 4

Max's first d6 in his damage roll Aced, so he should re-roll to see if he might inflict any more Wounds.

I'm sorry, but we finally got some momentum built up here, so we're gonna chock that up to 'learning experience' and a 'bug in the sim' and just drive on. Remember, it's a training sim!

The Valkyrie deftly manages to stay upright, if just barely.

Gotta go work 12 hours now. Update more later.

Blargh. I forgot one of the most important things I wanted to try out. After your turn, it would be great if everyone could put how far they moved, or just the resulting modifier, in a note at the end. Hence, for the Commando we can put movement mod = -2 indicating that all direct fire is at a -2 to hit.

The Hussar BURSTS forward 30" and fires it's rather large laser at the Jenner.

Shoot!: 1d8 ⇒ 3

Just barely missing!

The Wasp DASHES forward 30' and looses a brace of short SRMs at Darwin in his Commando!

Missile!: 1d8 ⇒ 6
Missile!: 1d8 ⇒ 2

But they fail to lock on.

At the same time the Wasp tries to fight with his damaged controls.
Pilot!: 1d8 - 2 ⇒ (2) - 2 = 0

The Wasp SLAMS to the ground, it's hurt gyro unable to keep it upright.

Falling hurts!: 6d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 4, 2, 3, 4) = 15

But again the ground is gentle to land on.

Hussar mv mod = -3
Wasp mv mod = -3

Party is up!

Atlas - in the future, in your attacks could you please refer to us by our character names, not the names of our vehicle types? Thanks!
Also, why did the Wasp have to make a Piloting roll if all he did was move and fire?

More missiles!
K(EW): 1d8 ⇒ 41d8 ⇒ 51d8 ⇒ 51d8 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 4

Piloting: 1d10 ⇒ 2
Move 36.
mv mod -6

Who are you shooting at?

Same one I shot before.

"Taste missile, AI goon!" Darwin smashes his big fat fist on the keypad and sends two more missiles at The Wasp (TM).

Missiles: 1d8 ⇒ 41d8 ⇒ 5
Wild Crazy Die: 1d6 ⇒ 6

More missiles!

[dice=K(EW)]1d8;1d8;1d8;1d8;1d6

Max's missiles fall for the classic "hey look a distraction!" line from the Commando's AMCM and miss fully.

"Taste missile, AI goon!" Darwin smashes his big fat fist on the keypad and sends two more missiles at The Wasp (TM).

[dice=Missiles]1d8; 1d8
[dice=Wild Crazy Die]1d6

Darwin, don't forget that when you roll a die and it rolls its MAX (like your d6 that rolled a 6) you get to roll it -again-.

By sheer wacky luck (Darwin would call it skill, if you dared to ask him) one of the Panther's SRMs hones in on The Wasp and ASPLODES!!

Darwin, gonna need a damage roll. Again, feel free to roll damage automatically when you see that one of your missiles will hit. Remember, ALL of the AI mechs, for this scenario, have a MDTN of 6. So every missile roll that is a 6 or better is gonna hit.

Atlas - in the future, in your attacks could you please refer to us by our character names, not the names of our vehicle types? Thanks!

Huh? You don't subsume your own personality for the technical capabilities of the vehicle you currently pilot? Huh, weird. Well if that's the kink you're into I guess so. =) Also, you wanna give us an action this round?

Wild Crazy Die Redux: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Smash em AP20: 6d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 1, 4, 5, 4) = 22

6d6 per missile that hits, right?

Gonna try missiles this time, because there's more of them per action :

K(EW) & Wild: 1d10 ⇒ 41d10 ⇒ 71d10 ⇒ 101d10 ⇒ 81d6 ⇒ 6 = 4 hits, 2 with Raises!
Not re-rolling the d10 beacuse it's already a Raise...and I'm not going to be rolling any more d10's.

Damage: 6d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3) = 23
Damage ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 4 = 27
Damage: 6d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 3, 6, 5, 5) = 23
Damage ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Damage ACE! ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 5 = 34
Damage+Raise: 6d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (4, 6, 4, 3, 2, 2) + (1) = 22
Damage ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 2 = 24
Damage+Raise: 6d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 5, 5, 1, 1) + (4) = 20 = 20

AP 20 all around!

Move 32 = -3 to be hit

Yes, Darwin, that is correct! That leaves the Wasp with only it's base Toughness of 15. 4 more than that is 19, which is one wound, so it would take damage of 23 to make two wounds. So close!

The AP of the SRM SLICES through the Wasp and rocks it to the core.

Piloting!: 1d8 - 2 ⇒ (4) - 2 = 2

The Wasp pilot can't handle the shock and FALLS to the ground!

Damage!: 6d6 ⇒ (6, 4, 6, 2, 2, 4) = 24
Damage ACE ACE!: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8
Damage ACE!!!: 1d6 ⇒ 4 = 36

The ground is equally unforgiving and the chassis CRACKS in half. The scout mech lays still.

First kill to Darwin!

Roger, please note:

Edit: It's important to note that SRMs fire -TWO- at a time, while LRMs fire -four- at a time. Yes, the panther has -two- SRM launchers, but firing one of these is an action. The other launcher is there mainly if one gets destroyed. Or, of course, you can always try firing both at the same time, but then -all- rolls get a Multi-Action Penalty (MAP) of -2. And, yes, AP = Armor Piercing.

One of your first two rolls hits, but your wild die missed, so I'll take your first damage roll. It's okay, we're all learning here, I probably should have been more clear on the difference between mechs that have LRMs (like the Valkyrie) and can fire 4 lighter missiles, and the Jenner, that can fire two of the heavier SRMs. Mind you, I wouldn't worry about it because....

The heavy SRM from Roger's Jenner SLAMS into the Hussar, causing massive trauma in the...

Crit!: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 5) = 7

...chassis, failing to find anything squishy, but still leaving a large smoking hole in the chest.

Piloting!: 1d8 - 2 ⇒ (8) - 2 = 6

But the skilled AI pilot manages to stay on his feet!

Hussar = 2 wounds.

"What was that cadet Sterling? Did you just say that anything that ain't missiles ain't drek?"

Uh-oh. Commander Gauis, who is overseeing your Sim training, seems to have over-heard your statement.

"Cadet, this was supposed to be a training exercise, but I can see that you gonna need some extra training. Here we go."

The Commando continues to stalk the Valkyrie, and fires its laser.

Shooting!: 1d8 ⇒ 2

And misses horribly.

Just then the Hussar ignores the mech that just sent a missile into its chest and also turns on Maximillian in the scout-hunter.

Shooting!: 1d8 ⇒ 7

It's Heavy laser barely manages to follow the rapid-moving Valkyrie.

Your movement penalty of 3 made the to-hit number 7.

Heavy Laser Damage! AP15!: 4d10 ⇒ (4, 6, 3, 2) = 15

Which glances off Maximillian's thick armor.

Well that didn't go as I planned. Party up.

Miisiles: 1d12 ⇒ 71d12 ⇒ 81d12 ⇒ 11d12 ⇒ 111d6 ⇒ 61d6 ⇒ 4
damage: 6d6 ⇒ (2, 1, 6, 4, 5, 4) = 226d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 2, 6, 4, 2) = 166d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 5, 6, 1, 1) = 207d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 3, 1, 6, 4, 5) = 24 Plus damage aces?

Max - as soon as you see an Aced die in one of your rolls, you should *immediately* re-roll that die one more time (before making a different roll), and add it to the result.
So when you saw (2, 1, 6, 4, 5, 4) on your first roll, you should have rolled another, single, d6 and added it to the 22.
Another option is when you Preview and see an Ace in the roll, just add that die to the original roll, so you would have changed the 6d6 to a 7d6.
And why was your last roll 7d6?

K(EW) & Wild: 1d10 ⇒ 61d10 ⇒ 31d6 ⇒ 1

Damage: 6d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 1, 4, 5, 1) = 20
Damage ACE!: 1d6 ⇒ 1 = 21 (AP 10)

Particle Accelerator: 1d10 ⇒ 3 What is the range penalty here? Weapon line reads 'Medium Particle Accelerator 100/200/400 4d8+2 AP 10'

Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Damage AP10: 4d8 + 2 ⇒ (4, 8, 3, 1) + 2 = 18