No guts, no Galaxy, Battletech

[Colonel Voss]

Fluff wise, battletech has a lot of books out there. Sadly many of them are out of print now. If you can get your hands on the Grey Death Legion stories, I think they're a great read. Also sourcebooks and most other books are (besides rules sections) based in character full of fluff. For example, the technical readouts give you the stats for the mechs, vehicles, fighters and what not, tell you about their reasoning and deployment and usually give you a few notable individuals/groups who have made a reputation with that piece of equipment. Plot advancements such as the recent Jihad and War of Reavings were presented as reports, news casts and what not. I would suggest hopping over to http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page and seeing if anything grabs your interest and then branch out from there.

As for factions there are several ways to go. The easiest and most common for those who want to write their own fluff is to make their own mercenary unit or pirate unit. The story lines focus on the larger factions duking it out, but there are plenty of hot spots and even ways for smaller units to work into the story line with no problem. In high school, my friends and I ran a story campaign with our own merc unit Deacon's Highlanders.

As for making your own large unit from planet X, that is fine too. Each world is different and most of them haven't been detailed so you can do as you like (I'm putting together a world for role playing purposes that should be quite fun). Adding detail why said unit got thrust into the big picture or what it is doing (as there are factions within the larger factions). Maybe they're allied to Duke Y who is in a skirmish with Duke Z on planet P because of some agrieved slight. If you don't like the name of planets and want to add your own, go right ahead. Over 750 worlds were lost in the Succession Wars so who is to say that another world just wasn't included in the maps that are published by Comstar. Build up what you like. Want you grunts running around with elephant guns? Not a problem. Give them halftracks and laser rifles, sure. No two worlds are the same.

As for making a larger faction, again you can do it. Battletech isn't as strict as other games and lets you explore as you like. So if you want a power that set up outside of the known factions, you can do it and flesh out their details as you like. Are they a minor power or major power. What equipment do they use? You can even build new mechs, vehicles, armor, fighters or what not to satisfy the needs of the new faction.

And of course if you like, you can go alternate universe. A faction you like got killed out, no prob, keep playing them and just change the story to match what you like. The game is meant to encourage creation and invention. Plenty of story line possibilities if you look and plenty of possibilities of where things might have gone completely differently.

[pdfitzg]

@Col Do you work for the company that makes Battletech? Very thorough writeup.

Actually I played years ago. Love the scale, game, and fluff. Even after I quit playing, I kept the books for years and especially love the tech books. Glad to hear it's still around and being supported. Totally looking forward to the new video game version. In my opinion the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise is way better than Gundam and its Japanese cousins.

As for playing... Unless I win the lottery and can retire, just don't see myself getting back into this one. If only I didn't need to sleep!

[Colonel Voss]

Nope, I don't though I am on the boards over at catalyst and have had some of the line developers post in my threads I just really do like the game. Coming back to it after more than a decade plus and being able to get into the rules was really nice. The War of Reaving is a great read and the historical on Operation Klondike really brought into focus the beginning of the fractures that lead to the Reaving.

I did forget one other fluff way to bring in a story to the game. Battletech has a role playing game as well. The rules are a bit complex but they are made to scale into the other levels of the game. So if you want, you can have a player in one of the big units role playing and developing a story within the story. It all depends on how you want to play the game

[Colonel Voss]

Took me a while but I did find the names of the books

The Grey Death Trilogy started it all and the first three books in what would become the saga are great IMO

Decision at Thunder Rift by William H. Keith, Jr. (June 1986)
Mercenary's Star by William H. Keith, Jr. (June 1987)
The Price of Glory by William H. Keith, Jr. (October 1987)
Blood of Heroes by Andrew Keith (July 1993)
Tactics of Duty by William H. Keith, Jr. (August 1995)
Operation Excalibur by William H. Keith, Jr. (August 1998)
The Dying Time by Thomas S. Gressman (January 2002)

Jade Phoenix Trilogy- very good book, combines Way of the Clan, Bloodname, and Falcon Guard. Focused on one Aidan Pryde and his legacy

[Colonel Voss]

Now that we have discussed factions and choosing the one right for you, it's time to throw it all outside and on its ear.

The battletech storyline has lots of historic battles, military operations and wars. These are huge event involving hundreds of regiments and worlds. This all occurs throughout a hundred years and involves factions. As I said before, factions rise and fall in this game. 23 factions have fallen by 3090. Add in the variety of equipment and gear available, for example, Technical Readout has approximately 120 base units. That's not even including all the variants and upgrades that individual mech can be fielded as. Add in that technology has declines and surged forward so each faction can field different equipment during different time periods. I can guarantee you that even the venerable Prim, had he focused all his gaming money over his entire life, would be unable to put out everything needed to play all the factions properly.

So what is a poor gamer to do?

To quote a line developer from the game line

As this is not a WYSIWYG game, it doesn't matter what paint (if any!) your mini has covering it. Heck, out of my collection, only 10% have "canon" schemes anyway. Half the time, I don't even use the "proper" mini in a game.

Play as you want; don't let aesthetics like details derail your fun. O0

Yep, proxies are part of the game. This gives players a huge amount chances to play in the game no matter what they play and be apart of the setting throughout the years.

So while having a faction is great, playing the game is the most important part.

[Primarch]

I played a game of Battletech today, it was pretty good. The rules seemed fairly straightforward, whilst the metagame side of things (army selection, campaign system, etc) looked pretty involved. I had fun playing, though I think more experience with the game would have helped me avoid having my ass kicked quite so badly.

Oh, and one of the robots is called the Awesome Mech! Cool.

[Colonel Voss]

It was quite a good game. Could have gone either way. My Awesome and his Zeus just kept taking damage for the longest time. He knocked out two of my PPCs but the big boy just wouldn't give up the ghost until his big boy was out of ammo. They both went down in the same turn guns still blazing to the last. His last mech, the Jagermech went down swinging when my Vindicator finally decided to jump on and crush the cockpit. I think the only real mistake Prim made was that he ran a missile boat too hot and as a result, the ammo cooked off destroying his Dervish. In early tech, ammo explosions can be massively fatal to most mechs. This one thing turned the tide in my favor. It was a fun and entertaining battle.

[job]

Yeah, the Awesome is a cool mech. Mad Dogs or Vultures are still my fav.

It is certainly a good system.

[Primarch]

I'd like to thank the Colonel for a second great game of Battletech. My noble clanners turned up with 5 mechs only to find that the untrustworthy Inner Sphere scum had brought 8! Luckily for me the Clan's mechs are far superior and it wasn't long before I claimed my first kill. The game went back and forth, with the clan dishing out damage to any mech foolish enough to face them before the IS forces redressed the balance by taking out two fully functional clanners with head-shots. Have they no honour? In the end, the Inner Sphere were left with one mech standing tall amid a field of ruin, sadly for the clan that mech was a 100 tonne Atlas, one of the toughest in the game. We will have our revenge though.
The game was fantastic and full of action as both sides gave their all. The Clan assault mech, - the Daishi - racked up no less than 4 kills by itself, with a further two kills being added to the clan roll of honour thanks to the rear mounted missile launchers fitted to one of the Mad Cats. (IS pilots being far too happy to shoot you in the back). I'm looking forward to my next game.

[Colonel Voss]

The game went back and forth, with the clan dishing out damage to any mech foolish enough to face them before the IS forces redressed the balance by taking out two fully functional clanners with head-shots. Have they no honour?

Mad Cat, corner pocket

It was quite a good game and could have gone either way. I really thought I was screwed when I deployed poorly and then whiffed nearly everything my first turn. But in the end, the Atlas proved why it has been and still is the king of the battlefield.

Sadly, my awesome wasn't so Awesome this time though. Ah well, a Jenner Pilot got to salvage it after a lucky headshot by the Daishi