BattleTech: A Band of Misfits

[ReedeThe23rd]

The year is 3025, and the ramp up to the 4th Succession War is in full swing. Great houses are getting into increasingly long border skirmishes, pirate activity is on the rise, and its a profitable time to be a mercenary.

Enter one such mercenary band. A minor company operating out of the heart of the Inner Sphere named Marley's Misfits. Made up of whatever pilots, crew and tech could be scaped together, operating whatever BattleMechs and vehicles they can get their hands on, the rising tension is being seen by their commander, one Marley Swanson, as their time to make enough cash and a name for themselves to hit the big leagues.

So yeah, there's your pitch. I'm looking for anyone and everyone interested in driving a big stompy robot, a heavy metal tank, or a fast flying aircraft as we wheel and deal with the nations of the Inner Sphere and try to make a living.

[Zoldyck]

Definitely interested, especially if we're killing Capellans!

[Pilatus]

I have been out of the game for a while, but I'll nibble.

[Letter Bee]

Is it possible to play someone not morally dubious?

[ReedeThe23rd]

@Letter BeeNot... particularly? Its a setting about war between a half dozen different nation states all varying shades of autocratic and the mercenaries caught up in the middle of it all. There's no guarantee a "morally right" mercenary job is actually that. Now I'm not going to be giving us missions about killing civilians or anything similar, but its a setting and game about war as a business, there's really no way to avoid everything morally questionable.

[Letter Bee]

@Letter BeeNot... particularly? Its a setting about war between a half dozen different nation states all varying shades of autocratic and the mercenaries caught up in the middle of it all. There's no guarantee a "morally right" mercenary job is actually that. Now I'm not going to be giving us missions about killing civilians or anything similar, but its a setting and game about war as a business, there's really no way to avoid everything morally questionable.

@ReedeThe23rd

Understandable, so I'll probably not join, then; sorry about that.

[ReedeThe23rd]

@Letter Bee I understand, hopefully no hard feelings

[Letter Bee]

@Letter Bee I understand, hopefully no hard feelings

@ReedeThe23rd

Don't worry about it.

[Rhona W]

I'm kind of interested; I have a fair bit of knowledge of Battletech, although most of it's quite out of date; I used to be interested in the novels back in the early-to-mid 90's, and I've dipped my toes in here and there. Certainly familiar enough with the 3025-era, and with various merc companies.
Though, similar question in a vein to Letter Bee'. While I'm aware that we're playing mercenaries (tbh, one of the best ways to get a rounded experience of the Battletech setting), will we be in a more 'Wolf's Dragoons' or other more honorable mercenary company mold, like most of the ones in the fiction, rather than being a bunch of ragtag scumbags? Because ehh... a lot of games on the forum tend to be more of the latter, and it would be a nice change to see more of the former.

[Pilatus]

I'm kind of interested; I have a fair bit of knowledge of Battletech, although most of it's quite out of date; I used to be interested in the novels back in the early-to-mid 90's, and I've dipped my toes in here and there. Certainly familiar enough with the 3025-era, and with various merc companies.
Though, similar question in a vein to Letter Bee'. While I'm aware that we're playing mercenaries (tbh, one of the best ways to get a rounded experience of the Battletech setting), will we be in a more 'Wolf's Dragoons' or other more honorable mercenary company mold, like most of the ones in the fiction, rather than being a bunch of ragtag scumbags? Because ehh... a lot of games on the forum tend to be more of the latter, and it would be a nice change to see more of the former.

@Silverwind Blade

I'm kinda in the same boat. Haven't played the actual game in years.

I really have no preference as far as the pilots being lawful or borderline vigilante. Would be interesting to have a mix of both taking on the merc role for their own reasons. How the group gets along under various scenarios would be the best part of this type of game.

[AndyC]

I'm interested. I've been a big Battletech fan for ages, and I've wanted to see a game really take off for quite some time.

[Abstract Proxy]

My knowledge of BattleTech is a bit spotty, but I like what I've read so far.

So I am interested.

[Theyra]

Tempted to join and I have play some of the Battletech game.

[ReedeThe23rd]

@Silverwind Blade As I said, I'm not intending on missions to be dumb stuff like "Go into this heavily populated area to just destroy buildings" or similar, won't even be a "We're rejecting this job because of the risk to civilians and non-combatants", those kinds of jobs just won't be mentioned. We'll be fighting combatants, and we won't be doing work for pirate organizations. I'm not intending on our role in missions to have any serious or dramatic consequences either beyond "And then the people we worked for put their flag over the planet." I want most of the focus to just be on a group of mercenaries plying their trade. The more morally dubious content of the setting beyond "We're playing people who get paid to fight in wars." isn't really stuff I have any interest in touching.

[Fading Memory]

Howdy. I have an interest in this as well- at least, I think I do! I've only really experienced the setting through Mechwarrior Online and briefly playing the XCOM style Battletech game- but I enjoyed my experience with Mechwarrior immensely and this has definitely caught my eye for now. The only reason I'm tentative rather than whole-hog in my interest is due to a strain of time I'm in lately.

[ReedeThe23rd]

Well, guess tomorrow will be spent cranking out an OOC thread for this thing given the amount of interest. So those interested can look forward to that.

[Pilatus]

Thinking about an engineer/tech type character similar to Naomi from the Expanse to keep the mechs in service. Got a few ideas.

[Rhona W]

snip

@ReedeThe23rd

Sounds perfect to me, I'm in. I might be a bit off and on due to real-world things - and I'm away on holiday next week - but I'm definitely onboard, even if I have to play catch-up.

[AndyC]

What's the general tech level for these mercs? Are we playing more "authentic" 3025, where Mechs are considered extremely rare and they're mostly held together by duct tape and wishful thinking, or are we playing it more like the Harebrained Schemes Battletech, where we have access to top-of-the-line custom machines? Or somewhere in between?

[ReedeThe23rd]

@AndyC My plan is roughly somewhere between. Pretty much if a Mech, 'Vee, ASF, or VTOL existed in 3025(minus House-exclusive designs like the Raven), its on the table in its Standard configuration, but if you want a custom variation, there'd need to be some tradeoff. Like if you wanted to, say, swap out the Large Laser on a mech with a PPC, I'd let you do it, but you'd need to drops some armor tonage, or heatsinks, or etc.