Battlemech Manual Ideas

Randall (All Hail Randall) is developing his new Battlemech Manual project with fan input, and he wants to know what we the fans think are critical rules/information/ideas that 95% of Battletech Players use 95% of the time.  He’s also wanting to make this a book that’s clocking in at right about 200 pages, which is a lot of information to cram into a tiny space, so let’s take a look at the deep thoughts involved in creating basically a shortform version of how to play battletech (that focuses on the battlemechs).

 

Things that i think are essential for battletech:

•  Explanation of the game turn (by phase).
• Full explanation of the movement rules (and how they interact with the normal terrain found in Total Warfare).
• Full Explanation of the Shooting rules (and how they interact with the normal terrain found in Total Warfare).
• Full Explanation of the Physical Attacks rules (and how they interact with the normal terrain found in Total Warfare)  
• Full Explanation of how Heat works, and how it interacts with the other systems on a battlemech.
• Full Explanation of how the Record sheet works and what all the bits of information mean

 

Things that i think would be good to include for Battletech:

 

• All of the Advanced Technology up through the end of the Jihad era (at least in terms of game rules).  
• Special Pilot Abilities
• Scenario rules for about six different scenarios (the basic missions from the Chaos Campaign work admirably)
• An explanation of Battle Value for balancing scenarios and to give players an idea of how to construct forces with some semblance of balance
• A campaign framework (Again, looking at you Chaos Campaign) to link scenarios in a narratively fun way.  

 

Honestly, i think that a 200 page book like this should focus completely on the kings of the battlefield and there are bunch of optional or situational rules that players can discover as the move deeper into the battletech universe.