Named Pilots and Edge for Hot Spots Draconis Reach

One of the more interesting changes for Hot Spots Draconis Reach is the way Pilots are handled. If you're familiar with ACES, a lot of this will sound familiar, but if you're new, buckle up, we're diving into Named Pilots, and Edge.  

Named Pilots 

Every mercenary command has rank and file people to operate their machines, but Named Pilots are your feature characters within the unit who have better than average skills and exceptional abilities. Every Mercenary Command starts with 2 named pilots during unit creation, but you can purchase more with Support Points between contracts.  

Every mechwarrior starts out at a base Gunnery of 4, Piloting of 5. Named Pilots start the same way, but you can improve them by spending points earned during scenarios to improve their skills. As mentioned previously in my article on getting started, you can purchase 150 points of upgrades for each of your Named Pilots according to the chart below.  

Upgrades are balanced with a handicapping system. As shown on the chart below, every upgrade gives your opponent additional BSP to compensate for the skill imbalance between the two forces. It's not a perfect solution, but in theory it does provide a boost to the lower rated player. (Compare scores between the two commands, the lower score gets the BSP). Below is the chart for upgrades.  

At the end of each track, the player can allocate up to 200 of their earned Support Points from the track to their named pilots, which is spent on improvements to skill and purchasing Edge tokens and Edge abilities. SP allocated this way is split evenly between all Named Pilots assigned to that track. (Note, SP allocated this way has to immediately be applied to an area of improvement, even if it doesn't tick over to the next threshold)

Edge

Edge is a classic part of BattleTech. It's the little bit extra that allows truly great mechwarriors to accomplish the impossible. Mechanically, each of your named pilots starts with 1 edge token and you can spend earned sp to purchase more.  

Edge can be spent to do the following four things.  

Add 1 to an attack roll (only once per roll) you can choose to apply 

Reroll Motive System damage (if an attack forces you to roll motive system damage, you can force them to Reroll the result. You have to accept the results of the Reroll, even if they are worse)

Reroll Critical Hit (if you roll a critical hit, you can spend an edge token to reroll the location.)

Activate an edge ability (spend tokens equal to its cost).

Below are the edge abilities listed in this book, though I suspect future iterations will potentially add more options.  

And that's our look at Named Pilots and Edge for Hot Spots Draconis Reach. Remember, the book goes live on May 13th. We'll catch you next time with a look at Sponsors and how they interact with Mercenaries in Draconis Reach.  

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