Battletech: Piloting Skill Rolls 101 - Learn and Love them...
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Piloting skill rolls can be intimidating to new players but they don't have to be. Let's talk about them and go through some examples.
If you want to support this and other efforts, the best way to support the channel is through KoFi.
ko-fi.com/mech...
Thank you for watching!
#Battletech #Tabletop #Rules #CatalystGameLabs #MechFrog
This one may stretch the concept of love...
Why do we always hurt the ones we hit?
@@tomarmadiyer2698 Human nature.
The lesson is far simpler: just put those seatbelts on : P
Most don't understand the miracle of bipedal movement. Even human beings struggle against the eternal foe: GRAVITY.
So much technology is employed on Battlemechs to keep the thing upright.
The machine is designed to be at a balance point, with the myomer musculature used to ever slightly change the posture of the machine to fall in a particular way to allow movement.
The massive gyros in the Battlemechs also assist in keeping it upright, but it is an amateur in comparison to us human beings. One of the functions of the neurohelmet is to monitor one of the tiniest of natural sensors humans have in their skull - the cochlear. So impressive is the cochlear as a sensor, that it handles the function of hearing AND human balance.
Battlemech gyros offer a measure of brute strength stability from spinning up metal rings, but it needs the human inner-ear to correct the balance when needed.
As I've related before, we move muscles in bipedal movement to effect a controlled fall. Walking, running: these are cycles of falls and corrections caught by musculature, employed nearly unconsciously by the Mechwarrior and regular humans, to move.
Mechs are always falling, but it then is up to the dexterity and skill of the warrior to ensure that their falls are controlled.
20+ tons of tippy metal isn't a fun ride down from telephone-pole heights to zero.
Everything, everywhere, in a perpetual fight against gravity.
Thanks for these short easy to follow videos. Really help clear things up for new players.
Glad I can help.
Pilgrimage: I remember my first game of BT using megamek. My pilot got hit by an ac. Failed a PSR. Fallen down into the river. The cockpit cracked. Then the pilot failed a roll and drowned in the mech. Good times xD I was instantly in love with the tabletop game.
I'm pretty new to Battletech and I play with even newer players, so that means I typically forget or ignore piloting rolls. I'd like to add it all though. ALL THE RULES!
I think that for newer players, you could dip your toes in the water and just do a standard roll instead of adding the modifiers. Then when they're used to doing it, and knowing when, you add the extra numbers.
Nice video! I appreciate the examples, they make it easier to follow along.
Glad you like them!
You don't know the joy of a PSR until you've run, tripped, and slid into a building, collapsing it onto your light and crushing a leg.
Sounds like fun to me.
Or skidded into a building and leaving an arm with a Large Laser embedded into its side. My poor Wolfhound...
@@Finwolven Good lord, that is worse! A wolfie without its large is in a poor state.
I love piloting skill rolls... making the opposition roll them
Of course!
Nice video as always ^^
Thanks 😋
Heat buildup can force PSR to not shutdown. Also, melee attacks use Piloting instead of Gunnery. This works well with TSM since heat penalizes movement and Gunnery but not Piloting.
Solid clarification
Shutdown avoidance is not PSR, it's just a flat roll from the heat gauge. You don't add pilot skill to it.
Just a few a days ago, took a pilot with piloting 0 and gunnery 3. Just a quick 3K game with a single mech. Took the 3055 Marauder. Got shot up pretty good, last opponent had great weapons, a head hit that took out one bubble of sensors. Lost the initiative and went and hid behind a building to try to get me next turn. Four spaces away... DFA... Four to hit... Crunched the last 2 points on the cockpit. Had killed someone else with a kick 1 level below me and hit the cockpit for 15 damage. I now have a new healthy respect for piloting skill. Want to try out the berserker next.
Hah, that sounds like quite the battle.
So this morning this popped up because of RUclips's algorithms.
I dont play the Tabletop Battletech game much so Piloting Skill rolls arent something Ive done since 2018. I dont really like them because Piloting skill checks are a Risk Check. If you run over certain terrain, take a check. Oddly Paved Roads are slippery terrain? Death From Above(Jumping on enemies) also requires a roll.
Battletech on the tabletop is one of the most risky Wargames with no guarantees. Accuracy modifiers can easily stack so its impossible to hit enemies in Medium or Long Range.
In the Mechwarrior games there are no Piloting checks. Those are Run and Gun games. The Battletech 2018 game did everything but skipped Piloing checks. Instead units has a Stability Meter that would go up and when it reached the maximum you would 100% fall down. Certain actions or terrain types could reduce or increase the rate of Stability Damage taken.
I love everything about Battletech except the actual Tabletop Game rules. I like other wargames better, less risky, such as in Warhammer 40,000 where you can get your accuracy to 83% on a (2-6) on a d6 die compared to Battletech where you can reach 0% Accuracy fairly easily.
All hail the YT Algo... Have you tried the Alphastrike ruleset?
chaotic thought/suggestion, put silly messages on the bottom side of the base where it's only seen when you lay the mech down. Examples: I've fallen and can't get up, something went wrong, I stubbed my toe, so that's what this button does, what was that, oh my back.
Possible...
Hello Frog.
This must be a 'new' way of doing rolls. And, might I add, an 'unfair' one.
'Back in the day', we did things a tad differently. To take your 'four rolls' needed example: 4+1+1+1=7.
You state that four rolls are needed, all at 7+ for success.
Now, the way we used to do it was, One Roll for base skill, Next roll with first modifier, Next roll with next additional modifier, and the final roll with all modifiers... This would result in rolls of: 4, 5, 6, and finally 7, 'pass' and NOT fall.
There is some variation to the 'old' system. All modifiers to the basic roll, that happen due to a single source of damage (opposing Mech), And then another roll, caused by any other source of damage (like a 2nd Mech joining the fight). Only actuator modifiers are carried over to the new incoming damage spawned roll(s).
I'm just going by what the MechManual says and how I've always played it.
The FAQ part in the BT Manual states exactly this part: the original ruleset was formulated in abwaybyou could easy misread it. I was one of those too :-)
😉👍👏
It’s a miracle that mechs survive getting out of bed in the morning.
The way my knee actuators crack when I get up, I sympathize.
Go Urbie!
Figured I would throw the Urbiefans a bone. Don't expect it often.
@@MechanicalFrogThey're natural sprinters: Very dangerous over _short_ distances. Some day, I'll manage to do a charge attack with an Urbie. After that, I'll just hang my neurohelmet and retire.
PSC for falling and melee I think could be simplified for gameplay versus realism.
Yes I think there is room for some streamlining in the PSRs.
A ton of math in Battletech is counterintuitive:
- Terrain modifiers make it more difficult for the attacker in all situations whereas the effect would be inverse in real life. For example, infantry should nullify or even benefit from any terrain cover in the target hex when making a close combat attack against a vehicle or mech.
- Overloading the English word of "falling" to mean both "topple over" and "lose elevation" has some repercussions. If you skid off a cliff, you will pay one extra level of fall damage, because the formula has a built-in +1 that assumes you went from standing to prone. The same is true for splitting falling damage due to water surface.
Just turn your brain off and keep on rolling 😄
Ah, piloting skills... the unique hazard of BattleTech across wargaming.
Cold hard truth.
UrbanMechs are always coming out of nowhere and kicking me in the a#$.
I knew someone out there would appreciate it.
It's that 2-hex jump, it's surprisingly surprising!
I love the piloting skill , because it's hilarious to see 40k refugees think it's good to skimp on piloting as they min max their force and watch them fail at everything besides shooting .
"So you're saying my Dire Wolf just faceplanted and my pilot died?"
Yes.