cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/335733
For a long time I’ve tried to get a good RPG setting going for BT. I know there’s an already written RPG for the game but tbh I don’t really like it. For a while, I thought about making a bare-bones RPG myself that used the same base mechanics scaled down, but I found it was just too crunchy and slow. Now, I’m thinking that since the game will get very crunchy and simulated once it steps into mech combat, it can probably be narrative and story-based for the out-of-mech sequences. Since my favourite RPG is hands-down Blades in the Dark, lately, I’ve been thinking of writing a Forged in the Dark system game for battletech.
This is getting pretty niche so I’m not sure if I’ll find enough people who play BT and know FitD well, but I’m curious if anyone in here knows of an existing FitD build, or other more narrative-focused RPG, that would be easier to adapt to BT.
I think you are looking for Lancer RPG.
I second this!
I used FATE for my ‘out of the mechs’ kind of thing. Worked well. I’m not a great fan of FATE, but wanted something light weight for the mechs. Once in the mechs other than translating pilot/gunnery fate skills into battletech equilavent. Worked really well.
I know there’s an already written RPG for the game but tbh I don’t really like it. There’s two
- a time of war
- mechwarrior destiny
both are quite different from each other, which one do you not like?
For specifically FitD, have you looked at scum & villainy? It’s star wars but you might find a treasure trove of stuff to use there.
I don’t recall which one, I think atow? It’s been a while. In general though, I have a feeling anything officially battletech is going to lean way too far into crunch, but I’d be happy to be wrong.
I haven’t looked at S&V, but BT has a much more hard sci-fi feel than SW… I’m assumed it wouldn’t be a great fit. How much does scum and villainy lean on the “space fantasy” angle?
I can warmly recommend Mechwarrior Destiny. Very narrative, rules-light and cinematic. Features from FitD can be implemented without troubles (I’ve seen Actual plays doing it.)
I myself never played S&V, but I suspect it’s pretty star-wars-y. Coriolis is surprisingly hard-scifi.
But really take a look at destiny.
Thanks, amusingly someone just posted an unrelated thread about it on the BT community so I got the one-two hit. I’ll see what I can find tonight
Let me know what you think.
I’m partial to ORE Mecha, which is free. You’ll need a lot of d10s.
Is this the ORE Mecha you were referring to?
Thanks, regardless of whether this works for BT it looks like a fun game to check out.
You could probably use the premier FitD mech action game Beam Saber as a good base for out-of-mech rules.
