DragonMech Battles: Designer Diary #2
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:45 am
Or “DragonMech Battles is not Battletech”
It seems like DragonMech Battles was barely announced before it was being compared to Battletech. It’s a natural comparison on the surface. They’re both tabletop battle games involving giant mechs stomping around shooting at each other. While we would certainly love for DragonMech Battles to enjoy the popularity and longevity of Battletech, DragonMech Battles is not Battletech.
One of the first things Matt and I did when we started this project was to turn to the classic Battletech rules for inspiration. We examined the rules and each decided what we do and don’t like about them. We were very impressed with how they fit every rule you need in 48 pages. We loved that with the quick start rules you could basically just open up the box and start playing. We liked the cool visual mech schematic sheets, but didn’t like the level of bookkeeping and chart consulting during play. We weren’t fans of the idea that a battle could end suddenly on the basis of the dice alone (I’m talking about ammo explosions and pilot kills…while certainly realistic, we feel it takes away from the fun of the game).
This isn’t to say we’ve designed a “perfect” game with no bookkeeping, no dice rolling, and no chart consulting, but we’ve striven to have as little as possible while still having a dynamic battle game. We’ve kept the idea of having an easy-to-learn basic game and adding rules to it to form the advanced game. Luck of the dice will still have an effect on the outcome of the battle, but there will be no instant victories.
Design philosophy aside, the mechs of DragonMech and the mechs of Battletech are just so different that we need a lot of new rules. The settings are vastly different as well. The obvious dissimilarity is that DragonMech includes magic, but it also has cool fantasy tech, boarding parties, and lunar dragons (which will be in the game!). Battletech mechs are sleek perfections of future technology, while DragonMech mechs are clunky steam-driven contraptions. A DragonMech mech cannot change facing instantly as many times as it likes. That alone alters the tactics a significant amount.
DragonMech mechs are also different from Battletech mechs in another important way: they have to be crewed by more than one person. You need crew members to stoke the furnace and feed the boiler, you need someone to pilot the mech, gunners to fire the weapons, and coglayers to make sure everything runs smoothly. If you start losing your crew, you have to make choices about which parts of the mech will function fully and which won’t. There is a path to victory that doesn’t involve shooting your opponent; your crew can be used to form boarding parties and kill your enemy’s crew or disable their mech from the inside.
The tactical challenges and opportunities provided by the DragonMech setting gives players more options than Battletech, both in mech design and in game play. And speaking of choices, we’re designing the rules so players have more choices there too. But that’s a subject for another column.
It seems like DragonMech Battles was barely announced before it was being compared to Battletech. It’s a natural comparison on the surface. They’re both tabletop battle games involving giant mechs stomping around shooting at each other. While we would certainly love for DragonMech Battles to enjoy the popularity and longevity of Battletech, DragonMech Battles is not Battletech.
One of the first things Matt and I did when we started this project was to turn to the classic Battletech rules for inspiration. We examined the rules and each decided what we do and don’t like about them. We were very impressed with how they fit every rule you need in 48 pages. We loved that with the quick start rules you could basically just open up the box and start playing. We liked the cool visual mech schematic sheets, but didn’t like the level of bookkeeping and chart consulting during play. We weren’t fans of the idea that a battle could end suddenly on the basis of the dice alone (I’m talking about ammo explosions and pilot kills…while certainly realistic, we feel it takes away from the fun of the game).
This isn’t to say we’ve designed a “perfect” game with no bookkeeping, no dice rolling, and no chart consulting, but we’ve striven to have as little as possible while still having a dynamic battle game. We’ve kept the idea of having an easy-to-learn basic game and adding rules to it to form the advanced game. Luck of the dice will still have an effect on the outcome of the battle, but there will be no instant victories.
Design philosophy aside, the mechs of DragonMech and the mechs of Battletech are just so different that we need a lot of new rules. The settings are vastly different as well. The obvious dissimilarity is that DragonMech includes magic, but it also has cool fantasy tech, boarding parties, and lunar dragons (which will be in the game!). Battletech mechs are sleek perfections of future technology, while DragonMech mechs are clunky steam-driven contraptions. A DragonMech mech cannot change facing instantly as many times as it likes. That alone alters the tactics a significant amount.
DragonMech mechs are also different from Battletech mechs in another important way: they have to be crewed by more than one person. You need crew members to stoke the furnace and feed the boiler, you need someone to pilot the mech, gunners to fire the weapons, and coglayers to make sure everything runs smoothly. If you start losing your crew, you have to make choices about which parts of the mech will function fully and which won’t. There is a path to victory that doesn’t involve shooting your opponent; your crew can be used to form boarding parties and kill your enemy’s crew or disable their mech from the inside.
The tactical challenges and opportunities provided by the DragonMech setting gives players more options than Battletech, both in mech design and in game play. And speaking of choices, we’re designing the rules so players have more choices there too. But that’s a subject for another column.