BattleTech: How to Create a Campaign Setting

Battletech Campaign Operations provides a very robust and detailed framework for building out a setting for your BattleTech games to occur in.

While it may be INTERESTING to know the escape velocity of a given uninhabited planet in the solar system you have generated, clearly the focus for me is on the BattleMechs themselves. As someone not particularly steeped in BT background knowledge I’m quite happy to roll up a Mercenary Company, and I think this is likely where most people will find themselves.

Step One: ‘Mechs

Find your way to the Battletech Random Assignment and Rarity Doc and poke around the eras, houses and locations to see the kinds of mechs you might be interested in:

For me, this was p43 for Mercenary Company ‘Mechs in 3028-3050. I rolled up mechs available for purchase using the ratios of of 4:5:6 for light, medium, heavy/assault at the top of the table on p14 of Campaign Operations.

Step Two: Solar System

Campaign Operations p98-121 covers creation of the solar system, planets (including such fun as atmospheric pressure, moons, etc.) and p121-132 covers colonies, their history and tech level , population, etc. This may seem like a left-hand turn but there are cost modifiers/etc. which will affect Mech purchases later on.

There is a LOT of detail here – atmospheric pressure and composition, orbital slots, moon size and distribution, star type, colony history and political systems, etc.

There is one section of Battletech: Strategic Operations which may be prudent p258-259 covers the transit time of ships, the relevant equations are not priviledged information and are included below:

Transit Time (seconds) = 2 * sqrt ( Acceleration (m/s/s) / Distance (m))
Acceleration is at 1G, so is 9.8m/s/s

In my own example setting, the three major planets are

Step Three: Mech Company

Campaign Operations p8-p29 covers the purchase cost of mechs, ships, support personnel and pilots, modified by the Solar System setup – the cost implications of a single DropShip, let alone JumpShip or WarShip are staggering – but hopefully you have a few habitable planets as well as asteroid bases to fight over so it’s basically neccesary.

At this point you will need to refer to Technical Readouts to determine fuel requirements (DropShips and Mechs are nuclear, so no cost – just petrochemical/etc. to worry about) and ammo capacity and type. You can work backwards from the Record Sheets if you have them (and you will, to play the tabletop game), by counting 1 ton per slot on the ‘Mech.

Step Four: Get Earning!

Your mech company will have monthly costs even if you’re not going out and making money – spare parts, peacetime ammo usage, etc. – so it’s down to you to bring in the green. Campaign Operations has a framework for Contracts on P32 which will set you on the right track.

Things Not Covered

There’s various references to Battletech: Tactical Operations (which is a human-scale type RPG sourcebook) for some things like the impact of caustic atmosphere on a given technology level of infantry, etc. but which is way beyond the scope of my interest.

Vehicles are covered in RAT and in Campaign Operations, but I’ve no major interest in Total Warfare rules required to use them at this point so I have assumed my Merc Company won’t be using them!