- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Controversial gaming opinion: video games are good.
What are controversial gaming opinions you have?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I am reminded of Battletech, here. There's all sorts of bad designs and all sorts of much better designs, but almost every implementation of Battletech, certainly in video game form, has made changing your 'mech loadouts extremely easy.
And that optimization loop is the core of the franchise, at this point.
And that optimization loop is the core of the franchise, at this point.
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- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Battletech is a great example because like, using eg Mech Commander as an example I'm personally familiar with there's a few weapons that are just kinda plain bad, such as the light autocannon, but most weapons make sense to field on some mechs- but many combinations of weapons will, yes, correctly use the available space, and, yes, use only 'good' weapons, but then they'll be too split between roles or otherwise poorly suited to the mech you put them on and be just kinda bad even though no single choice you made of weapon to include was bad, maybe not even for the mech you loaded them onto.
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Its just something no GM ever did because playing those rules vis nuts and bolts is not FUN and players liked customisation too much for GM to ignore the advice not to allow customisation.
80s era scenarios where your mech had certain flaws/advantages due to the mech design such as Your PPC was never repaired properly, get +1 hear and +1 to hit roll remained via the Design quirks traits and etc, all of which ultimately sought to reduce the amount of bookkeeping having more unique mechs/units will mean and the game is better for it...
To a certain extent
Crunching the numbers to force Mechwarriors into Company Store Syndrome is STILL the unique bit about playing as a mercenary, whether you using Battletech, MechWarrior or other bastardisation of ruleset you use to simulate a merc unit
IOW, my controversial opinion is a good MechWarrior merc campaign should always force one scenario of book keeping, the "un fun" part of the game to expose players to the horrors of bankruptcy and what they do to survive.
Technically, in the MechWarrior RPG game, custom designing your mech was supposed to be very hard.
Its just something no GM ever did because playing those rules vis nuts and bolts is not FUN and players liked customisation too much for GM to ignore the advice not to allow customisation.
80s era scenarios where your mech had certain flaws/advantages due to the mech design such as Your PPC was never repaired properly, get +1 hear and +1 to hit roll remained via the Design quirks traits and etc, all of which ultimately sought to reduce the amount of bookkeeping having more unique mechs/units will mean and the game is better for it...
To a certain extent
Crunching the numbers to force Mechwarriors into Company Store Syndrome is STILL the unique bit about playing as a mercenary, whether you using Battletech, MechWarrior or other bastardisation of ruleset you use to simulate a merc unit
IOW, my controversial opinion is a good MechWarrior merc campaign should always force one scenario of book keeping, the "un fun" part of the game to expose players to the horrors of bankruptcy and what they do to survive.
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gyrobot
One China One Nation/Weeping for Concord
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's not an unpopular opinion though, it's even written in the lore that being a Merc is a terrible career choice and people like Spectre are outliers. You are more likely to be like Darrin who was living paycheque to paycheque trying to not only stay solvent but not get killed by directorate thugs who haven't forgot your role in aiding in Arano's failed escape
Morganite
Happiness is a large book.
- Location
- Dynamis - Firefly Alley
But that lore is boring, so everyone ignores it, because mercenaries are Cool and that's what matters.
Or at least, I have a very hard time imagining it not being thus.
-Morgan.
- Location
- Los Angeles
I mean, not really? Yeah there's small units struggling to get by but there's also loads of units where working there is a steady job as part of a large military organization. Like, even when the setting started, all the example mercenary unit were a regiment strong or more.
"Being [X] is terrible and is not allowed to be fun. Also [X] is the only real type of character you get to play" generally results in people either creating new types of characters that aren't X or simply ignoring the mandate to suck, when it comes to RPGs.
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Being a merc in BTech is the easiest way to create Your Dudes without tying yourself to a single faction so of course a bunch of people are gonna do it.
My take in balancing the differing statements is that being a mercenary in BTech can net you a high amount of pay, especially if you join one of the more respectable companies and take jobs from the setting's fat cats, however those profits are frequently balanced out by the high time and cost investments of maintaining (frequently cantankerous) equipment and sourcing personnel and that despite the pay, being a merc in BTech is soulless and emotionally draining work as it means your career is highly likely to consist of grinding, glory-free drudgework punctuated by committing actual warcrimes.
My take in balancing the differing statements is that being a mercenary in BTech can net you a high amount of pay, especially if you join one of the more respectable companies and take jobs from the setting's fat cats, however those profits are frequently balanced out by the high time and cost investments of maintaining (frequently cantankerous) equipment and sourcing personnel and that despite the pay, being a merc in BTech is soulless and emotionally draining work as it means your career is highly likely to consist of grinding, glory-free drudgework punctuated by committing actual warcrimes.
Getting mercenary rates for glory-free drudge work is what you might call a good time - it means you are being paid to not get shot at.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Historically, times where geopolitics was trapped in anywhere near the level of constant frozen conflict punctuated by major 'hot wars' that we see in the Inner Sphere, there were usually plenty of mercenaries sloshing around anyway, for fairly consistent reasons. Even if "being a mercenary" was objectively not a sanity-making or happiness-making job, plenty of fighting men fell into it anyway.
Battletech mercenaries need a lot of capital, though. I mean, presumably you do have pure infantry units, but a lot have armor and mech elements, and sometimes aerospace too.
It's not just a bunch of fighting people with no other livelihood, because selling off one mech could set a person up for life.
- Location
- Spain
That's if the pilot owns his own mech, which seems like a big ask.
No, somebody owns the mech and is choosing to use it this way instead of cashing out. Whether the owner is the one in the cockpit or not.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Yes, but weapons are always valuable. The trick is that 'mechs are so valuable, valuable enough to set someone up for life, precisely because the buyer has a use in mind for them.
Which means that so long as there are 'mechs, and men willing to pay 10% the cost of a 'mech to hire a pilot to crew that 'mech through the upcoming campaign, there will be an unending stream of people damaged, desperate, opportunistic, or glory-hungry enough to climb into those cockpits.
Selling the 'mech in order to secure a lifelong retirement benefit for oneself merely moves the problem that creates so many mercenaries without solving the problem.
But the employer of the pilot is the problem. Why are they playing the mercenary game if it is a bad game and they have the option of cashing out of it?
(Note, AFAIK, one of the most typical BT campaigns is running a mercenary company. Not just being the talent in one.)
I'd probably put it down to a mix of not wanting to lose the status of being a mech-warrior/mercenary and hoping that they manage to make it.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
A variety of answers will apply:
1) Because they are simply capitalists making a profit by charging for the services of their mercenary company, who do not personally risk their lives (much).
2) Because they are one of the large number of experienced combat commanders who do not manage to maintain a permanent posting in the militaries of the Great Houses. This may happen either due to internal politics or due to the "boom-bust" patters of the Great Houses preditably having to keep upscaling and downscaling their militaries anywayl.Unsurprisingly, sofe of them decide to go into independent business as a "colonel-for-hire" or some such, possibly with various other investors and backers to help amass their startup (heavily armed) capital.
3)
But either they are idiots wasting their money, or it is not, as specifically premised, a bad business.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
A business can be bad for a variety of reasons, not all of which involve low average profit margins. And average profit margins can be low even as a surprising variety of people think they have reason (some of them correctly) why they may be able to buck the trend and profit highly.
The Rulebook itself states that you shouldn't focus on the logistics and math crunching too much, simplifying it for the purpose of fun.
Well, I disagree.
The 75 C bills needed to purchase rations. 25 C bills needed to buy POL. Or, but first you need to source a supplier AND negotiate. Roll the dice vis availability and your ability to scrounge supplies from the market. Subject your players to the indignity of converting CASH and the huge cut taken when converted over to local currency (each house has its own currency yes, but planetary nobles often has their own coins minted too, albeit, 4th Edt removed this as the IS centralised post 3050. )
Its not fun. Its tedious as heck. But screwing it up and going into The Company Store Syndrome or worse IS a huge excellent RPG experience each player should get at least ONCE in their lifetimes.
Now..balancing this tedious task so the campaign still remains fun is hard as heck, esp if you get a genius OCD person who tallies up everything perfectly and make it go black. But despite the advice and everyone saying ""This is Battletech, not accountancy ", I really say you should expose players to it ONCE. Just once and then have fun with the death spiral. It make for a memorable campaign.
I don't want to get too off topic but essentially, it's not so much mercs is a bad capitalism choice as in everything else is WORSE. Merchants gain and lose fortunes from currency depreciation or making the wrong cash conversion.
Any service industry you run risk getting used and underpaid for the war effort , or none at all if you in Kurita/Capellan space.
Ditto to manufacturing and resource extraction.
With the MRBC /equivalent, at least you likely to get paid (if you don't do black non board certified contracts anyway).
And the demand for soldiers will always be there, even if it's a trading corp buying security to protect against corporate sabotage.
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I don't know if I'd successfully be that person, but I would definitely be there for an 'artillery and accountancy' game. Crunching spreadsheets between sessions? Yes.
Your negotiations with the Quartermaster fails to yield you any Defiance Medium lasers or Holly SRMs. You do find a GM medium laser though, do you want to hire more astech to assist in modifying and installing it as a replacement ?
Also, you can't refuse said laser and it has been charged to your corporate account by the Davions along with a finder fees.
Due to the extra shifts you ordered to install said medium laser, your base exceeded the utility bill by "....."
There's an explicit 5% of your payment goes to such auxillary bills tacked on in Mercenaries FM, where you just auto deduct the money paid to cover such costs as food, water, POL,utilities, tarriffs and customs duties.
One of my horror ideas was to force players to list their equipment and submit a request for a custom permit
No, it's not a medium laser, it's an Intek ..........
In case anyone wondering how I run it. Essentially after a campaign, the merc unit picks up an easy gig. Go to Outlands or some other out of the way, unimportant region of space, do training mission N perform security combined. Its low paying as designed , you get combat clause bonuses and salvage rights but that's how they also dickered the pay to be lower, esp since you got Full independent command.
Those familiar with the lore can see that with these kind of terms, the Davions are trying to pull a TCS trap on you. You land on the planet but oops, military designated docks can't take your cargo, you have to move thru private. That cost money to unload and store your gear. And paperwork. Make a mistake, custom inspector fines you ...base housing isn't available, oops, you got to rent housing. Then arrange transport to your base. That cost more. N because it's off base, only lunch and dinner is indented for you. N sometimes "mistakes" by the QM meant there's no food for you too.
Rinse and repeat , over and over. The players get exposed to the horrors of Btech economy and paying above market rates to get their neccesities and how it sink their profits. That means you can either do maintenance or repairs, you can't do both, which expose players to why you field damaged mechs. Or have poorly functional mechs.
Once they got that taste, you then let loose the players and see what PCs do against NPCs. Seduce the baron daughter, find blackmail material against an official, bribe the customs officer, browbeat someone into storing your stuff for free.
And if PCs goes too far, introduce consequences and the MRB
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This isn't gribbly accounting, it's obnoxious gamemastering.
But it IS an accurate representation of the lore . spare parts is sparse and soldiers go to war in half functional mechs in 3020 due to reasons like this. Hell, the astech part isn't even me, it's part of the game mechanics. Storage and electricity fees are also part of the game, it's just handwaved away with FM mercs going 5% of your contract pays for everything with employer paying everything else.
I'm not going to deny that it's needs an expert GM who knows their players so as to provide a memorable campaign, as opposed to obnoxious game mastering. Hence why it's an unpopular opinion. Its a "great" idea in theory, but it's difficult as hell to run well.