FATE - Battletech 2950 Playtest Campaign [Closed] (Inactive)

Game Master Tareth

So I was trying to make sense of the Mech character sheets. It has three stunts (pick one). Can someone explain what they do?

Also on the character sheets, typo: it has 'Refreash' instead of 'Refresh'. :)

Thanks for the typo catch.

I am guessing you mean the Aspect section of the Mech sheet. So in FATE essentially anything and everything can have an Aspect. Aspects are defined as "a phrase that describes something unique or noteworthy about whatever it’s attached to. They’re the primary way you spend and gain fate points, and they influence the story by providing an opportunity for a character to get a bonus, complicating a character’s life, or adding to another character’s roll or passive opposition."

So Aspects can be Invoked by spending a FATE point and describing in the narrative how it is relevant to whatever you're trying to do. When you Invoke an Aspect you get to do one of the following:

* Gain +2 to a FATE roll - this can be done after you roll.
* Reroll a FATE roll
* Pass a +2 benefit to another character’s roll, if it’s reasonable that the aspect you’re invoking would be able to help.
* Add +2 to any source of passive opposition, if it’s reasonable that the aspect you’re invoking could contribute to making things more difficult. You can also use this to create passive opposition at Fair (+2) if there wasn’t going to be any.

Aspects can also be Compelled. A Compel is a situation where having or being around a certain aspect means your character’s life is more dramatic or complicated. The person doing the Compel, describes how the Aspect is relevant and what the complication is then the PC getting Compelled can either
* Accept the complication and receive a fate point OR
* Pay a fate point to prevent the complication from happening

As I mentioned, everything including Extras, the environment, certainly other NPC's, etc. can have Aspects. For Mech's I've taken the liberty of generating 3 sample Aspects that would fit with each Mech. You as the player, choose one of these to make the actual Aspect for your particular machine. The other two are then dropped. This was a way to make sure everyone had an Aspect for their Mech, but we don't have to spend a bunch of extra time trying to figure them out up front. And of course these Aspects can change over the course of the game.

Sorry for the long winded explanation, hope it is helpful as we all learn the FATE system.

For the moment, it looks like we'll just be three PC's. I'll wait for Carlton to get an intro post up and then we'll dive in.

Ah, I see thanks. I was thinking Aspects had unique abilities, didn't realize they all had the same list of Invokes.

Dropping this into Discussion so I don't totally clutter Gameplay.

Nilelane: Your roll for Sensors is correct. Seems like a reasonable use of the Aspect. I'll just roll the opposing Sensors roll...[/ooc]

Sensors: 4d3 - 8 + 1 ⇒ (2, 2, 3, 1) - 8 + 1 = 1

+5 vs +2. Three shift difference in your favor so a Success with Style. You have created the Taking Cover From Prying Eyes Aspect on you and your allies along with 2 free Invokes of that Aspect. A "free invoke" meaning you (or your allies) don't have to spend a Fate point to invoke the Aspect. Once it has been invoked twice, then it will cost a Fate point.

If you want to name the Aspect something else you can, that was my best guess based on your description.

Nice, Ill write up a little something more now that I'm clear on mechanics.

So while we learn the system, I think it'll be helpful if I walk through results a little here in the Discussion tab.

Jack, so that looks like a Create an Advantage action. I could go with Active Opposition here to reflect the enemy pilots trying to get a clear shot vs. your staying under cover. Or I could just go with Passive Opposition (which is usually a base of +2 to succeed) to reflect your having to navigate the terrain to maintain proper cover. In this case both would be +2 so I'll just go with Passive Opposition.

+2 vs +2 Passive Opposition. Tie. You get a Boost. A Boost is a very temporary aspect. You get one free Invoke and then it goes away. So you gain the Boost Staying Under Cover.

I'm also assuming you are running, so you cover 3 Zones, which would drop your range from 6 to 3 against the Panther and the tanks.

Carlton: No need to roll now. You would save the stunt for when you are actually Attacked. Did you walk, run or basically stay in the same zone for a move?

That kind of discussion much appreciated, and interesting. I was wondering how the walk/run stats translate into number of zones covered. Thanks.

The latest version of the mech sheets should have Walk, Run, and Jump stats expressed in a number of Movement Points (MP). Assuming solid, open ground it takes 2 MP to cross a zone.

This is another break from the regular FATE rules which usually operate under a simple move = 1 Zone. But that seemed a little too simplistic for Battletech and really nerfed light and medium mechs compared to the heavies or even mech within the same class. So I'm trying to find a better balance without making things over complicated.

Off course adding terrain will generate more opportunities for Piloting rolls or require more MP.

I'm trying to reel them in, make myself easy Pickens so I'll walk toward them one zone, that will keep everyone else close and I can always jump back.

The latest version of the mech sheets should have Walk, Run, and Jump stats expressed in a number of Movement Points (MP). Assuming solid, open ground it takes 2 MP to cross a zone.

Okay, yeah, I was looking for this. Alright now I know it.

I'm trying to reel them in, make myself easy Pickens so I'll walk toward them one zone, that will keep everyone else close and I can always jump back.

I am doing this as well. I will walk forward one zone, putting me (and Carlton) at range 5. Then the Panther has to walk up to shoot at us at eXtreme range. Then when the two of us run forward, that puts us into range of our weapons also! MUHAHAHAHA!

I have a growing sense of unease about how heat works, and how it's more/less for certain classes of mech.

Like, take the Jenner. Five weapons, all of which make 2 heat. Heat capacity 4, cooldown of 2.

The cooldown of 2 means that after firing 3 of my 5 weapons (assuming I don't move) That six heat puts me at max heat (of 4, after 2 cool down) meaning my cool down only lets me fire one weapon per turn.

Hrmmmmmm.

In the base game, the stock 10 heat sinks were too much for light mechs, and too little for heavies. But the heavier they were, the more tonnage they had for heat sinks. Giving light mechs no heat capacity can greatly limit their effectiveness.
So too, the Panther does have heat sinks, but that one mod now doubles its heat sinking capability, relative to all its peers.

I'm still willing to give it a go, I'm just bringing this up as a thing to watch going forward.

Yep, that's one thing I'm looking to find out. It could be we'll need to increase the base Heat Reduction or Stress by one or two points across the board. Or bring weapon heat ratings down. I definitely want Heat to be a factor, it's a core part of the narrative. But I don't want it to be overly limiting either. A balance between being able to Alpha Strike every round or being shutdown or cooked almost all of the time.

Also remember, the Jenner currently has the Stunt where you can spend a FP to get +2 Heat Reduction for a round. It might not be enough and maybe spending FP's for Heat is less useful or interesting, but again, I'm trying to see where the best overall balance might be.

I'm sure there will be adjustments. I also just noticed a typo on the Panther sheet. That PPC should do 6 heat, not 4. Which is one reason I gave it a Heat Sink instead of additional armor. It needs that extra reduction and stress to be able to function.

But hey, this is why it is a play test. :)

Just a headsup: weds-sat I typically work super long days (14ish hours including commute) so they're my slower/lighter posting days. Should get the defense post up sometime today or tonight depending on what I've got going on when I take a dinner break lol.

I still need to fix my profile too, but right now focused on keeping things moving. I dig the strong narrative aspect of FATE, just still have to read a lot to know what I'm doing =P

Carlton: No worries. Thanks for the schedule heads up.

Okay here's the rules explanation for Jack's Defend and Attack.

Defend vs the Hovertank: +3 vs +0. 3 Shift difference so a Success with Style. As the Defender this gives Jack a Boost vs the Attacker. So Jack has a single use Boost vs the Edgar.

Hovertank Defend vs SRM's: 3 vs 1. The tank wins that exchange with a +2 Shift in its favor. No damage taken.

Hovertank vs Laser: 5 vs 1. +4 shifts. That is another Success with Style. With Attacks you have the option to reduce the damage by one to gain another Boost. (For ease, I'd probably just allow a second Free Invoke of the Defend Boost.)

Hovertank Damage: 4 shifts plus 1 for the Medium Laser Weapon Rating. Total of 5 damage. That blows through its 3 Armor Stress and into the internal structure knocking out its SRM.

Ack! I just realized no more ammo right away! I'm assuming we at least deployed with a full load?

I would also presume that.

Yeah, during the aforementioned UM Crescent Hawks mission, I found out just how little ammo UM's have for their only weapon. As little a move as just swapping it out for a large laser makes so much sense. One could take out the ineffective small laser and either half a ton of armor or a jump jet to put on another ton of ammo, but the LL move makes so much sense.

Or a PPC. But given that its supposed to be a city-fighter, that doesn't make much sense. (Same thing for the Panther. It's nickname is "Alley Cat" because it's supposed to be so good at city fighting, but how can you be with a min-range weapon like a PPC? Those guys in early 80's FASA must've had some -good- drugs. =-p)

Heh, it was the early 80's, everyone Just Said No to drugs. Especially stompy robot game designers. I'm certain of it. ;)

But that is one of my biggest annoyances with all of the more recent Mechwarrior/BT video games. They lock you into ballistic/energy/missile slots for each mech so you can't swap that AC out for an LL. It probably makes sense from an overall game balance, but it's less fun for us Mech Mechanics who like to find that sweet spot of efficiency and power.

Anywho, rules explanation.

Carlton Defended vs the Panther. +6 vs +3. That's a Success with Style awarding the Defender with a Boost. Based on your narrative I gave you a Hidden Among the Buildings boost.

Jack went ahead and did his attack for the top of the next round. Nilelane still has an Action this round and actually I think Carlton still has an Action for this round as well. The Defend was a reaction to the Attack.

Thanks, meant to ask last night: wasn't sure if I was up, how initiative was tracked, or how many actions could be taken a turn.

Carlton, go ahead and take your shot. Ten shots should be okay in this system. You can see with one good shot I already half killed one guy and your AC 10 is more powerful than my stuff. If this goes past 5 rounds I'll be surprised.

I agree. I think combat will go much faster in most cases and for now I won't totally nerf your ammo supply, because that would make it harder to test drive the rules. :)

Nilelane: So usually in FATE it is just one Action plus a move per round. But you also get to Defend against any Attacks as a reaction.

As for Initiative, your Sensors roll kind of set the stage there. Sensors was the skill I imagined using to establish initiative. But I'm really wary of doing round by round initiative because with PbP, that's just so slow. If you all want, we can do a contest of Sensors skills to determine team initiative each round. Definitely want to avoid individual initiative but team my be doable. Thoughts?

I have no problem doing init once and then keeping it in pbp.

Sorry guys busy week, will get something up soon.

Are Actions in fate just any kind of roll? Like, I couldn't do a sensors roll and attack in the same round for example?

edit: sorry, I keep looking on the FATE site instead of your document. You've explained it already!

Heh...no worries. And hey, it's a minor miracle if I've explained it better than the FATE site. :)

But yes, it is one Action per turn and that Action may include moving to a new zone plus a skill roll that is Attacking, Creating an Advantage or attempting to Overcome something. There is also the Defend action, but that usually occurs as a reaction to an Attack.

Rule update:

Nilelane's attack (with an assist from some pretty bad Defend rolls) does a whole lot of damage and Takes Out the damaged hovertank. Note that the SRM4 Attack at +4 vs +1 would have allowed a Boost, but since the enemy was Taken Out it isn't relevant. We could make defensive Boosts able to be used beyond the initial Attacker, but that might be more to track and the enemies would be able to do the same.

Nilelane and Jack both need to Defend. Carlton, still has an Action this turn.

Im watching this 90s Battletech cartoon heavily inebriated and its one of the best decisions I've made all weekend.

We could make defensive Boosts able to be used beyond the initial Attacker, but that might be more to track and the enemies would be able to do the same.

Is that how FATE goes normally? Let's keep that for now and see how it goes. If it becomes too much to track we can always dump it.

Oooo. Ep 2 of Hired STeel is out!

I have a growing sense of unease about how heat works, and how it's more/less for certain classes of mech.

Like, take the Jenner. Five weapons, all of which make 2 heat. Heat capacity 4, cooldown of 2.

The cooldown of 2 means that after firing 3 of my 5 weapons (assuming I don't move) That six heat puts me at max heat (of 4, after 2 cool down) meaning my cool down only lets me fire one weapon per turn.

Okay, yes, after 2 rounds of firing just 2 weapons, I'm at max heat. I'm down to just firing one weapon a round unless I somehow take a break.

In regular FATE is it normal/assumed to leave a battle with Consequences?

Isn't that the next step beyond max heat, rolling d12 for random IS tickboxes (Jenner has 16 to work through)? Taking one more shot might just mean your sensors work at -2 and needs repairing if I am understanding right.

Nilelane: I wouldn't say it is assumed you would end with Consequences. In regular FATE, consequences take much longer to heal because they create a new Aspect (ie. Broken Arm, Severe Head Wound, Constant Nightmares) that is permanent until healed or overcome in some way. Whereas stress is simply recovered as soon as the encounter is over.

For our Mech version, armor stress is easily recovered as long as you have a bit of down time for repairs. IS damage requires actual Tech rolls and repair/replacement parts for any destroyed damaged items and can also result in new aspects or quirks on the mech so very similar to Consequences.

Round Explanation:

Nilalane Defends vs the PPC: +3 vs +2 So a successful Defend. No damage.

Jack Defends vs the Medium Laser: +5 vs +2. A Success with Style Defend leading to the Boost Slowed You Down.

Edgar Defends vs Med Laser: +3 vs +2. A successful Defend. No damage.

Edgar Defends vs SRM4: +3 vs +3. A tie. No damage, but Attacker gets a Boost. Got the Enemy Pinned Down.

Don't forget you can use rounds where you need to drop heat to Create an Advantage. So they aren't wasted rounds like they might have been in regular BT. Getting a free +2 on your next Attack can be pretty potent in FATE at least from what I've seen so far. That's what I'll be doing with the Panther as he is at 5 Heat already.

That success with style first thing was a much bigger deal than I realized, together with decent rolls making up for lacking skill selections in Gunnery and Piloting.

I like the idea of cycling shots with Create an Advantage, I'll try that if combat continues much further to see how it works.

Sorry, I need to play catchup. After making that comment about my schedule my employer suddenly and radically changed it so I've been struggling all around. Get a post up sometime in the next 24 hours.

Rules summary...

Resnick Defends vs Carlton's AC10: +5 vs +0. Defend Success with Style. Resnick gets the Boost Obscured in a Cloud of Debris

Resnick then tries to Create an Advantage putting himself in some cover. A lousy roll forces the spending of a GM Fate Point to Invoke the Pillars of Stone aspect and get a reroll.

Create an Advantage using Piloting: +2 vs Passive Opposition +2. Tie. Resnick gets a Boost instead A Bit More Cover

The Edgar runs and also tries to Create an Advantage. Piloting +3 vs +2 passive opposition. Success. Gains the Aspect High Tailing it Outta Here with 1 Free Invoke.

I think I got the zones correct. Nilelane stepped forward 1 Zone. Then Jack moved up 1 zone. Carlton would have moved up 1 Zone to fire at the Panther. This put Nilelane 2 zones from the Edgar and 4 from the Panther. Jack and Carlton 1 zone from the Edgar 3 from the Panther. The Panther walks back 1 and the Edgar runs 3. So both enemies are in zone 5 for Nilelane, Zone 4 for Jack and Carlton at the beginning of the round.

The Panther was at 5 Heat, flushes 4. So back at 1.

Nilelane, Jack, and Carlton are all up.

Are zones like concentric circles emanating from my character?

Basically yes. Trying to just use them for ranging purposes at this point.

I am totally open to other ideas or systems for tracking distance and terrain features without resorting to hexes/squares and maps.

We could resort to my favorite, askii:
.
.
.
.

Z1|Z2|Z3|Z4|Z5|Z6|
P_|__|E_|JC|N_|__|

I don't have anything better than the Zones concept, seems fine I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing any subtleties.

For ammo tracking is it 1 tick box per missile or 1 tick box per weapon fire? Like would I mark 4 boxes for firing the SRM 4 once, or just one? Thanks, enjoying the game.

Nilelane: Ammo tracking is one per weapon fire, so you only tick one box.

As for the Zones, as long as they are working we can stick with it. And while ASCII is ever useful, I hoping to type less in the long run. ;)

I may just run a simple google sheet to help me keep track, as that also might help tracking all the Defend and other Boosts. Along with noting Aspects within a specific zone once we end up with forests, big buildings, etc.

Glad you're enjoying it.

Well, the good thing about the ascii us that you can just copy and paste the previous, and update as needed. I suspect it would be less typing than having to type a full synopsis at the end of each round, which it seems would be needed. But, yes, a google sheet would work well too.

Carlton? My brother of POWER. It seems the bandits wanna break off. Shall we too run away and indulge them?

While most commonly associated with BattleMechs, most modern military vehicles feature a BattleROM system to record all the visual and sensor information the pilot has access to, from what he sees to pilot and 'Mech condition, communication logs and so on. BattleROM information can be reviewed as simple visual and audio data,[1] but when plugged into a suitable simulator the information as well as the full monitor and instrument output can be played back and displayed exactly as the pilot saw it.[2] Some of the data that is collected can be disabled by the pilot/operator.[citation needed]

Along with simple playback of video and sensor information, information detailing the personal software, audio, display and control configurations chosen by the MechWarrior can be also extracted from the BattleROM computer onto a datachip, a useful means of allowing MechWarriors to quickly reestablish their preferred cockpit and control setup when transferring to a new 'Mech.[3] The BattleROM also includes a complete diagnostic record of the 'Mech to assist techs in maintaining the design and any modifications made to it[2], to the point of even allowing a 'Mech to be reverse engineered and reconstructed virtually from scratch given suitably advanced technical know-how, as seen in Clan Wolf's replication of the Wolfhound.[4]

The armored BattleROM recorder is located in the cockpit and is proof again nearly any catastrophe, from an ammo explosion to a failed orbital drop.

So, sounds like we might be able to get the info onto a datachip and see what Resnick's crew was doing leading up to encountering us? In the form of something like an interactive hologram?

Does Jack have the technological know how to do this, if inclined?

Sounds like Carlton is going to let the bandits run? Jack I would assume you won't pursue in that case?

Bringing that first brief skirmish to a close, sounds like I need to adjust the Heat rules a little bit. I'm thinking about bumping up the base heat by 2 for all mech classes. So a Light would have 6 Heat Stress to begin with. An alpha strike with a Jenner is still tough heat wise, but it could also be a kill against another Light and possibly even a low tonnage medium depending on skill rolls. (Four successful med laser attacks is a minimum of 12 shifts of damage.)

I could bump Heat Reduction instead which might allow for more flexibility as you get rid of heat a lot faster.

But I'm hesitant to increase both at this stage.

Any other initial thoughts, concerns, changes, things you like? Do you all want to continue?

Definitely want to continue, having a blast. Eager for some out of mech shenanigans as well, but probably the only one.

I think one little skirmish isn't enough to get a good feel for how heat is working. Need more data. We weren't even really fighting another mech.

Plus with the narrative focused structure that FATE is, I think its ok that there's a mechanic that allows FATE point regen. Regaining FATE points (which happens if you leave a conflict with consequences as I understand) is an easy option with the rules as they currently are. Nilelane could've fired once more if I really wanted to get a FATE point back. I like having that option.

Yeah, no pursuit.

As far as heat goes:

1: Yeah, what we need to look at is Cooldown, because that's the real factor in what happens. (As we saw, a lot of shots just weren't doing anything due to defense. Hence, we can see that most combats will probably be longer affairs, and this is as the game intended.)

(A heat meter of 4 seemed fine as a base. I think in the base game you start to see trouble around 7.)

The game rules, convoluted mess that they were, had a kind of symmetry to it. The base heat of ten heat sinks = 1 PPC or just more than 3 medium lasers. Thus, a Panther that has additional heat sinks could keep firing it's PPC, and walk, just fine. (If it jumped AND fired it could get into trouble tho.) So too, a Jenner, without additional sinks, could fire 3 lasers, and move, and be okay, but an Alpha strike would get it in trouble.
But for most light mechs, heat isn't really an issue, simply because there just isn't room for too many guns. =)

Is this the same basic concept you want to keep? Hence a cooldown of 6 seems recommended. That's 1 PPC or 3 medium lasers.

Oh also in case that makes heat more complicated, a way to simplify heat is to see if there really needs to be different base values for different weight classes.

Thanks for the feedback both of you. I think I'll split the difference between no change and the 6 Reduction and make it a standard 4 Heat Reduction as a base.

Here's my thinking. In our version Walking costs 0 Heat, so that is already a reduction over base BT. I agree on the Med. Laser to PPC heat ratio, but taking potential damage into consideration, 2 lasers equals 1 PPC in base BT. Now the PPC has longer range, but is actually a bit nerfed at short ranges, so that's kind of a wash. So I'm thinking with HR set at 4, that allows a Walk and 2 Med. Lasers to fire with 0 potential heat build up. It could fire the third laser for 2 rounds and then need to cool off or fire all four once and be at max heat but no damage. In similar fashion a mech could walk and fire a PPC for two rounds and then need to cool down for a round. With a heat sink it could walk and fire every round, but it looses either armor or a weapon slot for that additional heat sink. A pretty fair trade.

And again, those cool down rounds aren't lost rounds in FATE like they would be in regular BT. You can spend the round creating an advantage to set up the attack or better defense for following rounds. We saw a bit of that with Nilelane's Sensor action. Having those free Invokes looks to be pretty powerful.

I'll keep the available Heat Stress growing with class for now. We'll see how that goes when some mediums come into play. But I think having the additional stress combined with the increase in reduction should make it so you can still fire a decent suite of weapons without overheating or being overpowered. But we will see.

As for out of mech...that'll be coming up shortly and is the other big reason I wanted to try this with FATE so things were pretty seamless regardless of being in or out of mech. :)

So for now, everyone can bump their base Heat Reduction to 4.

I'll get a wrap up post for this encounter posted tomorrow. (Dang time change put me behind all day today.) And we'll move along from there.

Just out of curiosity, which BattleTech rules are you guys referencing? It seems there were 3 editions, then a major rewrite for 4th called Time of War?

So many editions and rule sets. :)

I've been using Total War as my reference for weapon charts. But I've only been using a fraction of the weapons listed there. Partly to keep things simpler for trying this out and partly because most of those other weapons/system would be Lostech in 2950.

I've pulled from Technical Readout 3039 for mech stats. The 'classic' mechs are based on the Project Phoenix section of TRO3039. 'Classic' being those mechs that were part of the original boxed set from back in the mid '80's when the rules were like 40 pages verses 300. ;)

Time of War is the RPG version of the rules which would be a good reference for personal equipment and some background info. Although I should note, we are playing in a time period about 125 years prior to the base for Time of War. I think it is set around 3075 at least according to the map of the inner sphere at the beginning of the book. We are at 2950. So some equipment, tech, or stellar states listed there may not be present in our time period. However, you all know I'm not usually super worried about keeping things "canon pure" so long as we don't lose the overall 'feel'.