The Gaming Den

This is a question that is adressed at people that have played those games in the past :
What are the essential mechanics and aspects of the game, the ones that should absolutely not be overlooked in creating a wargame-type RPG involving Battlemechs ?

I am quite new to both those genres, but I have quite a good idea of what I'm aiming for. Nevertheless, I still wish to consult with "the base" to see if there was anything I had forgotten in my system's skeleton.

I've played more than my share of big robot fightin' games...one thing that separates these games from, say, D&D is wild variability in the damage. Every shot needs a chance to hit, or to miss.
And every hit needs to have at least a remote chance of doing nothing, or causing a thermonuclear explosion.

At least, for me, that seems to be a unifying aspect of the robot games I've played more than a few times.

HOnestly,

The problem with the old mechwarrior game (the rpg that was associated with battletech) was that rpg characters were uber compared to what pilots for the wargame were.

At character creation you could create pilots who outperformed the wargames elite veterans easily. Whats more, it was hard NOT to make a character who was at least as good as an expert level pilot.

This results in the mech combat being boring. There is no differance between your player playing a grizzled veteran and the one trying to play the hot shot rookie. They both end up being able to turn whole armies to rubble. Without just saying that your players cannot max out the combat skills for piloting/gunning mechs your players will end up to good for the mech combat.

However, for people who generally liked 2e shadowrun mechwarrior was basically the same game without magic or the matrix.

Honeslty, Heavy Gear is a better game than mechwarrior/battletech however, again player pilots end up to good to make the game worth playing in the mechs. I would also suggest playing with a smaller party. Maybe no more than 3 players and you the dm.

The other issue you need to be up front about is how often you want the players to spend the session in their battlebots or without them. If the whole adventure can happen in your mech then consider that basically no skill except pilot/coms (in Heavy Gear)/gunnery will have value.

Also, make sure players are all allowed to spend similar amounts on their mech. If they cannot then players with better mechs will dominate. Remember that these mech will be more than magic items, they are basically a second character.

To actually create a game?

Mech customizability is a big deal - you have to be able to tweak designs like you were a car junkie with a massive budget.

You need to decide if its anime-style robots or Mechwarrior robots: basically, are the mechs trundling and firing massive cannons at each other or are they kicking each other in the face, running around and firing massive cannons. Ground-based or space-based?

You need to decide how prevalent the 3rd dimension is in fighting, and WHY people are in mechs rather than jets or tanks, and why you're just not using a forward observer and artillery from a few miles out to blast mechs to pieces. Good luck with that one.

Deciding a general tech level is important and will set a lot of tone.

Indeed, the idea of people fighting in big fusion-engine robots, generally with weapon accuracy and range so low that every fight turns into mud wrestling, is hideously stupid on its face. I don't think there IS a coherent reason to explain why big robot fighting would make any realistic sense.

But, it's still fun to fight in big robots.

Idea: A ridiculously misguided code of honor, which prevents people from fighting any other way.

Another scenario for close-range mecha is one in which a disproportionately strong ECM technology renders all non-manual targeting useless.

I'm reminded that Mekton Zeta has extensive rules on melee weapons and melee combat... and ranged weapons that fire accurately dozens of kilometers, sensors that can target over thousands of kilometers, and upper speeds of tens of thousands of kilometers per hour.