For those of you that do not know what I speak of a time of war is the new mech warrior RPG for batletech. I have long been burnt out of anything past 3058 in canon BT universe, but I do wonder if this is any good.
Well Trothkin does anyone have this? And if so is it any good.
Strange..I thought you were part of the pre-test? Oh well, I have an early beta copy that I got for free for attempting to be part of it. I'm glad that it seems to be timeline neutral, and so we can both enjoy the game without you attempting to kill me for being all Dark Age-y. Which, I still am, BTW. In short, the game is more or less the same as ever, but I was never into anything non-clickytech(*sigh*) due to the insulting nature of the average MW player- at least the ones I encountered(with one notable exception).
No I was not. No I can not do clicky tech for a few reason. Storyline is a big Hell no for me. But I do not like collectible mini games. Which is what clicky tech is.
Now I have no issue if you like that horrid DA time line To each his own, but you will not see me ever touching it.
I wanted to know more how does it play? Over complex lifepaths like 3e or something else. MW 1 and 2 e were not great games but 3e was a mess. I could never get a group to stay interested though char gen.
We normally uses 2e or kit bashed another system. So what I am wanting to know is just how does it play? Dice pools , target numbers? or what. I really do not know anything about it.
Well, I have a final copy, and reading through that and comparing that to the relatively few MW3 supplements that I have, (I can't give a full explanation of the changes since I don't actually have MW3) I can say that the changes are as follows:
1: The system overall has been overhauled for maximum compatibility with Total Warfare.
2: In the process of maintaining compatibility, the system has gone from 2D10 to 2D6. When rolling, you're attempting to beat a target number (usually about 6 to 8 without modifiers)
3: Life Paths are still in the game, however, you are no longer required to roll for random events within those paths. There is also an optional XP only creation build.
4: SOC has been removed as an attribute.
I'll try to go through my PDF for a (somewhat) more in-depth analysis of things.
No I was not. No I can not do clicky tech for a few reason. Storyline is a big Hell no for me. But I do not like collectible mini games. Which is what clicky tech is.
Now I have no issue if you like that horrid DA time line To each his own, but you will not see me ever touching it.
I wanted to know more how does it play? Over complex lifepaths like 3e or something else. MW 1 and 2 e were not great games but 3e was a mess. I could never get a group to stay interested though char gen.
We normally uses 2e or kit bashed another system. So what I am wanting to know is just how does it play? Dice pools , target numbers? or what. I really do not know anything about it.
It seems we complement one another perfectly- I enjoyed the life paths from 3e and wished to see them in more material(although I agree sometimes there was a bit too much rolling, also I think there were one or two "traps" in there).
And oh yes, the DA heavy technical readout is out, I can't wait to pick it up.
TRO 3085 is smexy as long as you're not a Clanner. There's a lot of 'feeling' to this one, with almost everyone gearing towards the 'last war'. Much like everything in 3050 onwards was gearing towards Gauss Boating to 'Take The Fight To The Clans' (Devastator, Pillager, Gunslinger, Cerberus, Thunder Hawk... etc), 3085 is the Urban Warfare book, meaning we're seeing Snubbies, Pulse Lasers, Anti-Personnel, Flamers, MRMs and Jump Jets upside the head.
The Clan designers, meanwhile decided to go eat even more of their stupid pills than usual, leading to some downright horrible designs like the Dasher II, Dark Crow and Night Wolf. There are a few standouts like the Hells Horses' Hellstar (ooh... alliteration), but most of the new designs are mediocre or average, with the aforementioned awful designs (it takes skill to take Clan-tech and build an awful Assault 'Mech, but the designers have managed to). And that's the way I like it.
The kicker is about two dozen pages taken up entirely by something that's never had the chance to appear in a TRO - Conventional Infantry. It's awesome to get a look at some of the meanest elite infantry units to take to the field, and House Marik's "Branth" Dragon-Riders top the list for cool infantry (It's no lame moniker. They do in fact ride dragons).
And LAMs. Yes. LAMs. There's a section devoted to Land-Air 'Mechs. AND THEY ARE AWESOME.
I like the book. There's a return to old-school flawed designs (Many of the Inner Sphere 'Mech designs will get torn to pieces if caught in the open) and the return of more classic Clan design stupidity which adds flavor to the setting (much less in the way of Laser TC boats). The LAM article adds a bucket of historical credibility to older players and the infantry sections are just icing. I'm gushing about the book. It's pretty downright cool.
--------------------------------
I'm kicking the flavor of the era as well, 'cause they finally kicked the Clan "Barbarians at the Gate" Bogeyman off it's Ubermensch perch in favor of the "If it bleeds, we can kill it" of the Succession Wars. I'm slightly sad about my 'home' in the Free Worlds League, but it's probably for the best in the long run.
Jihad Hot Spots: Terra is a beautiful book as well, really. It's done from half a dozen different competing perspectives and everything is a shade of grey (covered with a nice sprinkling of atomic dust). It's a punishing race to Terra led by dozens of commanders in Stone's coalitions, and horrendous quantities of political jockeying and in-fighting between the war leaders. Like it or not, even in the face of a monstrosity, it's politics as usual in the Inner Sphere.
The Jihad is currently ranking just below the Succession Wars and Klondlike in my favored era of Battletech. Kudos to Catalyst for fixing their problems and producing two of the best 'new' eras Battletech has seen in a while.
--------------------------------
I'm an oddball with regards to Battletech. I'm a Succession War era grognard, hate the Clans with fiery passion but love Operation Klondlike and the Word of Blake Jihad.
I'm not too keen on the Jihad era technology, but I can tolerate it because I find the era interesting enough to muck around in. Mainly because they successfully made the Clans not the Clans.
As I said, oddball.
Operation Klondlike was the first BT product I have picked up in a very long time. I loved the SW era and loved the Invasion era but hated everything past 3055 with a passion. Words can not describe my hate of DA and the Jihad or how stupid I find both.
I have been a fed sun, a merc and a clanner. I just can't go past 3058, that is my 100% hard limit as far as time line goes. I have been liking the older era stuff but some of the 3039 retcons are messing up older stories and time lines big time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to the RPG now
I didn't mind the lifepaths just the amount of work it took and lack of control. Want to play a front line clan MW..good luck. I disliked it greatly. It was a long boring random generator offing you little control over anything.
Ok more things, is it anything like Shadowrun 4? A point buy like system?
Just finished reading Daughter of the Dragon, one of my not-so-favorite books. I liked the way it was written and I like the characters for the most part, I just considered Katana Tomark to be treacherous. Then again, who ain't these days, but for some reason her methodology really sticks in my craw. Oh well.