Carrots & Colossi
and the impending DOOMED
Welcome. Please pick up your complimentary carrot on the way in. You’ll need it later.
This Week’s post talks about some of the design behind project codename TITANIC BASTIONMECHS, especially in comparison to the two flavours of Battletech currently available.
In short, for a Mech game I think I'd rather have somewhat complex mechs in a very clean system than simple mechs in a somewhat messy system.
I’ve tested the game out this week on a larger scale, a handful of Mechs on each side with supporting infantry and vehicles. I even used the prosaic random scenario generator I threw in there, and I’m pleased to say it was pretty fun!
Checked off some pretty important points for me:
Two big Mechs slugged it out in a duel of sorts, both getting much hotter than they should have. The pyrrhic victor was left too hot to do much on the following turn, then got blasted to pieces by artillery as a scout mech dashed in to spot for them.
Another stomped a tank to bits before blasting the rest of the squad apart in one turn. I like seeing combined arms in there, but I also want Mechs to feel dominant when they get to bring their power to bear against the Auxiliary Units.
Lastly, a desperate Mech got both of its weapons blown off so jump-jetted onto their attacker in a daring/petty sacrifice.
All while running nice and quickly once I had a couple of turns under my belt. In particular I’m starting to love card initiative for keeping things constantly moving. Deciding which unit to activate next is an interesting tactical decision, but taking it away just makes things feel so slick. Once a unit is done you just draw a card to see which one is going next. I strongly recommend trying it out if you haven’t already.
It’s spurred me on to paint the rest of my 6mm scale stuff to see if it can handle an even larger battle.
Much like Project 10 I feel like this is probably just a game for me, but you never know where these things will end up.
Elsewhere there was a little news item that might be interesting for anybody that’s been following The Doomed (formerly GRIMLITE).
Very glad I can stop worrying about leaking this! Hopefully there’ll be more details from Osprey as we get closer to release in April.
There’s actually one really cool detail that wasn’t mentioned in the article, but sharp detectives might notice an exciting name associated with the book on some of the preorder pages that are cropping up… I couldn’t possibly give any more hints.
Coming Soon
So those on Patreon will know that this week I’ve tried out a radical idea of writing about RPGs instead of miniature mech games. Wild, I know. In particular I’ve been thinking about the different approaches to encouraging players to explore your world. Of course, this means it’s old man storytime again.
I remember first playing Link to the Past and looking at the printed map. There's a place called "The Swamp Ruins", which I thought sounded pretty cool, so I decided to go and see what was there as soon as I was released into the open world. The journey took me past archers in the long grass and some annoying crows. The ruin itself isn't even a dungeon, just a room with a sliding block puzzle, then a lever room that lets you drain the surrounding lake, revealing a heart piece. All in all it's one of the least interesting parts of the world in that game.
But I remember the experience clearly 30 years later because I chose to go there and I found some interesting stuff on the way.
So it got me thinking about incentives again, which made me post the image below as a joke. Still, I genuinely feel like there’s something to take away from it.
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