Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Vornheim contest? Hmmm...

So Zak S         has double-dog-dared everybody to make Vornheim better.  And what notion do I have stuck in my noggin?


Why didn't we get a "Jakálla: The Complete City Kit" decades ago?  Now I've gotta make one and I promise I am not the right guy for this task.

I'm going to mow the lawn now.  Maybe a little physical exertion will make me sweat out my delusions of competence.

EDIT:  Goddamnit, now the lawnmower won't run.  I hate omens!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Stupid, stupid computer

Had a system crash.  Got things up and running at long last.  I'll get back to gaming talk when I'm less annoyed and more rested.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

War of the Mecha: Record Card

No ramblings or other incomplete thoughts today.  Just a simple little record card for War of the Mecha.  The fanciest thing about it is the freebie Spacedock Stencil font from perpetually cool dude S. John Ross.

I hope this card is reasonably complete and clear.  Any suggestions to improve it are totally welcome.

And it still works with the revised War of the Mecha. Bonus!

Bonus?  Where did that come from?  Do people even say that anymore?

Saturday, May 7, 2011

War of the Mecha Campaign Begins

Since JB was so generous as to post campaign rules for War of the Mecha, I just had to try 'em out today at HRGG.
Being my first go with the new rules I'm not sure if I got things a little muddled or if the dice were just playing their usual tricks on us.  The first mission saw half-a-dozen mecha try to break through the line held by a full company.

"It'll be a slaughter!"

"That's the spirit!"

"No.  Our slaughter."
But first a chunk of time was spent statting up the forces.  Wasn't anywhere near as bad as it would have been with Battletech, of course.  Which reminds me, I should knock together some nice record cards or maybe a full sheet for each lance.  Something with little touches to remind one of critical checks every 20 points damage and the like.
Though it wasn't pretty, it still moved along at a decent pace.  18 mecha on the table and we were done in a couple hours (or near enough).

And boy were we done.  One little Locust managed to break through.  A Crimson Hawk was cut down just one more jump away from the end-zone.  And the rest were lucky if they could make it halfway.

But who said every fight has to be a fair fight?

On with the "clean-up" phase, nobody surrendered, and the war carries on.  Another battle next week.

Oh, and JB says WotM 2.0 is imminent.  I can hardly wait.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Ich Bin Ein Vornheimer

That post title's a bit pretentious, isn't it?  And stupid.  Pretentious/Stupid.

Anyway, "Vornheim, The Complete City Kit" arrived on my doorstep today!

Everything you've read about it is true.  Including and especially the talk about changing how people make stuff for their games.  Already I'm imagining how to apply the lessons of the Vornheim Kit to the 'verse of Battletech/War of the Mecha.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Playing with War of the Mecha

Got in a game of War of the Mecha this weekend.  Two players, one lance each.  I was hoping to try the Clan Invasion expansion but that more sort of just didn't quite happen.
 
The size of the clickymechs (and the Blockhead gashapon) was dealt with by doubling the distances/speeds given in WotM.  Also, I said that a 45° turn costs 1" movement.  Dead simple rule adjustments.
I still find remarkable how a one-page game catches so much of the essential feel of the full Battletech rules.
The only quibble I have with WotM is the critical hit table.  There's a one-in-six chance of the critical hit not being a critical hit.  It's the "no soup" principle explained by another game-blogger I can't recall or track down at the moment.  There's no mechanism in WotM for losing heat sinks, so I may house rule the chart to say lose 1d4 heat sinks instead.
I lost this battle, but what of it?  I'm more worried about how easily those trees were knocked over which now that I think of it makes sense what with those giant robots rampaging about.

In future games I want to add brief and simple rules for all those clicky armoured vehicles.  Strange and startling it may sound, but first edition Critter-Tek has just what the doctor ordered.

Integrating microMechwarrior looks to be easy, too.  Instead of the Battletech conversion given in mMW, just use the usual Target Numbers from the stats.  Normally this would make hitting the target with ranged weapons way too difficult and slow the game down.  However the Target Number will be not for short range, but medium instead.  Short range gives a 2 point bonus to-hit, long range a 2 point penalty.

And from there I just have to figure what sort of campaign might go over best.  Straight up bring-n-battle slugging matches, or some light roleplaying leading into the fights.  I don't know.  Depends what I can coax the local players into doing.

Oh, and I need to make up some cardstock buildings too.  I keep forgetting those.