Thought I answered previous to this but it looks like it never took.  But with a schedule chance from days to nights for the wife and COVID with a co-worker exiling me to ten days of homebound work it's been a mess.  Sorry for any delay.

Not sure how late into the evening it is in game.  If it is late and the place is on lock down then I would assume we'd bed down for the night.  If we aren't on lock down, is anyone proposing any activity after dark?  If we are thinking about sleeping, would we presumably keep watch even in the Commission House?  Outsiders are likely under suspicion and they've got us all in one place.

Basically looking at the group for suggestions of next steps.

It was dinner timish just before Lucio the Bastard showed up to make his informal inquiry into our "reasons for being here".  So, it's sometime just after dinnerish now.  Not much more to be done tonight (unless people want to slip off and skulk about after dark).

Exactly, it's evening time. If you wanna go skulking, there will be some challenges to avoid guards but I'm not saying no, but know that there may be dire consequences should you fail.

Lemme know what you wanna do, if you wanna bunk down or similar I'll go ahead and skip forward.

Not going to push my luck…tonight ;-D

I’m good with the crashing till next day.

Ditto.

It should go without saying (but in case it doesn't) Rdetra has been trying to keep people inside and out of trouble... so let's crash.

Finally finished moving, will throw a post up tomorrow.

Forgot to post, my attention and free time got caught up in playing Mechwarrior, sorry. Updating now.

Good game.

Have way too many hours in on that game and the Battletech game.  Far easier to run the newer Mecharrior game up in the years though than the slightly older Battletech game.

Hah, my IRL group is talking about doing Battletech... to which I responded, "Well why not cut right to the terrible 'choice paralysis' and play Star Fleet Battles?" (my group always grumbles about how many ship choices there are in SFB)

The problem I have with Battletech (tabletop miniatures) is I'm more interested in building mechs than fighting with them...

It’s a bit easier if you confine yourself to 3025 and ‘official’ variants from the tech readout.  Though even if you allow design work as long as you stick to 3025 choice paralysis is mitigated.

I understand the building them.  Lots of the characters I’ve made for the RPG in the various editions had some level of modding skill and a handful right out design capabilities even if they didn’t have manufacturing facilities…except for one, technically two as the second was a legacy game picking up one to two generations later depending on how old or young the initial PC’s were.  Course that one could have led to paralysis but it worked out okay.

I've been trying to get into the tabletop part of it, got the Beginner Box from Catalyst, but when I went to buy the larger A Game of Armoured Combat, it was sold out and has been since. I like the simple gameplay of the beginner box but it seems like a whole lot paperwork both in listbuilding and keeping track of things ingame (heat, damage, ammo, all that). This is mostly because I've kept to FFG's games with cards and tokens, which makes things a lot easier to keep track of.

Real big on the setting of BT though, trying to engross myself further. Biggest issue is, as mention, recognizing each god damn Mech haha

You can use tokens and such to keep track, you don't have to write it down on paper just because the rules presume such.  Like, red tokens would work well for tracking heat, or actually (I'm not sure of the tabletop rules) using blue tokens might be better.  Each mech would have a pile of blue tokens and every time they take Heat they discard one, cooling replenishes their pile, and when they run out, do whatever is necessary for the Heat rules.  You can even use different colours to mean different "stages", for example in GURPS I use light green and dark green tokens for Fatigue, they get 1/3rd dark and 2/3rds light and deplete light green first.  When they start spending dark green, they have very visible reminder that they are at half Move, Dodge, and Strength.

Also when I'm running a post-apoc "resources are important" game, I give people tokens for certain resources, ammo, ammo reloads, Fatigue, day's rations, etc, so they can visibly see their resources dwindling... it makes it more visceral than just tracking it on paper.

Sometimes it's actually more work than just tracking it on paper (which I also do as GM), but it also has more of an impact.  The players are far more cautious when their individual grey ammo and black reload piles are running low than they were when tracking it on paper.  They don't waste as many shots and are less ready to just roll in guns blazing and run out of ammo, which they would do frequently, or more accurately, they didn't keep track well, so when I told them they were out of ammo and they thought they had more, it was a shock to certain Players.  Now the only difficulty is obscuring how much the Absent-Minded doctor type has, since by the rules he sometimes just forgets to reload or even bring his spare ammo along - I kinda solved it by keeping track for him on paper, he has a random pile of ammo (as long as no one else checks his loadout) and I just adjust it occasionally when dramatic to keep the Player guessing.  If the character double checks in a downtime moment, I adjust it to be accurate... for awhile.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:46, Fri 10 Sept 2021.

Yeah clear plastic paper protectors and dry erase markers got a whole lot of use for us.

Rdetra is right though you could use tokens easily for your ammo bearing weapons outside machineguns which would need a different sort of token because of the factor of ten difference unless the GM was also doing custom builds and allows half or even quarter ton loads.  Even then a quarter ton is 50 shots or 25 out of the usual 2MG loaded mechs.  Most actual mech combat lasts 10 rounds, maybe 15 before one side or the other disengages since the goal is almost never fight till your mech is a smoldering wreck.  Back to tokens...a pile you take away from would kinda work.  Start with blue tokens representing heat sinks and when you run out you start gaining red ones showing your overheat level.

Recognizing mechs is all just a matter of playing enough.  The later in time you go the harder it is to recognize a mech by silhouette/image alone as they put out more and more mechs.

Keeping track of all of it online like a BT game played here is easier cause each post you make is a reference point.  The problem with PbP BT games is how slow they play.  When everyone are fast posters and the stars align I've seen two rounds in a week.  Average is one a week so your average game of 10 rounds will last you two and a half months of real time.  For lots of people that is way too long as you often have a full spread of how much the players like the combat on one end to the RP on the other.

Battletech tabletop games though PBP huh... That's something. Hadn't even thought of that.

Like I said though, from what little I've played, it's fun. Saw a local FLGS stock up one Heavy Gear Blitz which also looked fun but I have a limited space to play atm. Very much smaller apartment than I am used to. Hopefully the next one will be bigger.

Don't worry about waiting on me, I'll leave the talking to people with social skills and just make with the suspicious glances.

I have a hectic week coming up. I'm going to have to be offline through to next weekend, but things should normalize after that. Ilaria will let Milko do all the talking on this one :)

OMG!  We're all going to die!  Err...

I mean yes, that is an eminently wise suggestion.  Maybe Rdetra will surreptitiously ease those bolts back into the Trailblazer... just, you know, I mean, in case a bunch of mutants spontaneously show up out of the blue for no reason...

In reply to Ilaria Dellemontagne (msg # 93):

See you when you get back, good luck with your week.

I'm back. Thanks for understanding. I'm likely to have another few such weeks in the coming months but I'll try to give plenty of warning.

Terribly sorry. Post will come tomorrow.

I'm working on updating with a post but at the moment, there's gonna be some time before the adventure as it is continues on properly. Do y'all want to play out the day and then timeskip a few days in-game? As far as story goes, there will not be a lot going on in Lucatore besides whatever projects you might be up to.

Lemme know your thoughts.

Weiland is going to mostly stay out of sight.  Not in a hide from everyone I'm guilty way but a not rock the boat sort of out of sight except at where we are all staying.  He'll make one quiet visit to the grave two or three days later but again otherwise just be quiet helpful to Dana if she needs it.

I'm all for skipping days until the next important point.

Does this mean I have a montage video of me and my new companions from the bar, cruising the strip, spraying our names on the side of a Mammoth, and pranking a Pregnostic with a whoopie cushion.  Which of course Weiland will come and claim so he can sell it only to be chased by the ticked off Pregnostic.  What can the theme song be...? A pop cover redo of Eagles "One of These Nights".