MW2.MINE: A solution to the Piloting/Gunnery problem
One of the most difficult things for any RPG translation of Battletech to manage is the translation of the one unit difference in piloting and gunnery skills to a generic skill system. For example, a mechwarrior of “regular” skill level has a gunnery TN of 4, but a piloting TN of 5. How do you re-create those two different target numbers when the underlying skill levels are supposed to be the same? Both MW2 and aToW implicitly assume that a regular pilot actually has a higher skill level in Gunnery than in Piloting, which is fairly unsatisfying, and also makes it difficult to “benchmark” an average skill. MW3 just translated the 0-10 rpg skill levels to battletech skill levels more slowly for Piloting than for Gunnery which was a total hack.
I ran into the same problem in my initial post about MW2.MINE. But I think I may have a solution to the problem. The solution is to change the two linked attributes for Piloting from DEX/RFL (agility) to RFL/ITU (reaction time). I think its reasonable to argue that reaction time is a better measure of natural ability in regards to piloting and driving than is agility. After making this change, let me present once again a template for the average mechwarrior character:
| STR | 4 |
| BOD | 4 |
| DEX | 5 |
| RFL | 5 |
| INT | 3 |
| ITU | 4 |
| WIL | 4 |
| CHA | 3 |
| Name | Rank | Linked | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piloting/Mech | 2 | RFL/ITU | 5 |
| Gunnery/Mech | 2 | DEX/RFL | 4 |
| Sensor Operations | 1 | INT/ITU | 8 |
| Navigation/Ground | 1 | INT/ITU | 8 |
| Small Arms | 1 | DEX/RFL | 5 |
| Unarmed Combat | 0 | STR/DEX | 7 |
| Tactics/Land | 1 | INT/ITU | 8 |
| MedTech | 0 | INT/ITU | 9 |
As I said in the last post, the attributes for this character are at the “good” level because even the run-of-the-mill mechwarrior is the cream of the crop from a large interstellar population. But now, notice that because piloting is tied to RFL/ITU rather than DEX/RFL, I get the standard 4/5 G/P you would expect from a regular mechwarrior. I can do this and keep both skills at level 2, which is my benchmark for “regular.”
This solution is also internally consistent with the universe. Gunnery is valued more than piloting in combat, so while potential mechwarriors must have good natural ability in dexterity, reflexes, and intuition, dexterity and reflexes are going to be emphasized in potential recruits more than intuition.
There are also three other nice benefits of this approach. First, by forcing players to spread points across three attributes in order to produce a good mechwarrior, the system reduces the temptation for munchkinism. Second, it allows players a little more flexibility in the kinds of mechwarriors they create. By pumping more points into ITU rather than DEX, you can create a more recon-oriented character whose skills are more oriented toward piloting and sensor operations. Third, while RFL becomes the most important attribute for MW skills (because it is used in both piloting and gunnery), it is much less likely to be used than either DEX or ITU for all other skills, forcing players to make tradeoffs when creating characters.
I am really ecstatic that I found a solution to this vexing problem that doesn’t feel like a hack.