Battletech: Beginner Box, part 2

It feels strange to think wargames like Battletech are more accessible than most tabletop roleplaying games. When you look at the page count of the main rulebooks, we have:

• Battletech Beginner Box - 12-page rulebook
• Battletech: a Game of Armored Combat - 56-page rulebook
• Battletech: Clan Invasion - 32-page rulebook

That is 100 pages total of rules for the core "mainstream support" version of the game, with all options (and a few record sheets). You go to tabletop dungeon games, and you are talking 400-600 pages for the player's manuals and over 1000 for the core books of the game. Like Pathfinder 1e (and 2e is getting there), some games are thousands of pages spread across many "collectors market" books.

Granted, the core rules of more tabletop RPGs are probably less than those 100 pages of Battletech core rules, but the bloat in dungeon games in both fluff and options is orders of magnitude larger than an average wargame. To get down below 100 pages for a set of dungeon rules, you need to play B/X, and I see why people do. If you like B/X, I feel Battletech is an excellent next step for tabletop gaming since it shares that "core simplicity" model while being endlessly expandable with imagination.

And Battletech is more of a tactical game than your typical dungeon game, except for something like Dungeon Fantasy or D&D 4E. Being more in that wargame mold, Dungeon Fantasy has a pretty low page count, an incredible accomplishment.

You can expand Battletech with esoteric rulebooks for the edge-case situations and battle styles, VTOL, spacecraft, and other "non-core" battles - but I don't see even all those options books taking more than a half-shelf of space. Still, the core rules of the 56-page core game and 32-page Clan expansion are the heart of the game since the beginner rules are a cut-down subset and not used for much more than learning, so those 12 pages really don't count once you start playing.

Most of the space taken by Battletech is figure storage.

And since the core rules do not have that dungeon game bloat, you can keep the entire game in your head with minimal reference. Another great thing about Battletech is determining the "challenge level" of battles is trivially easy. In contrast, in most of today's dungeon games, you get into complex formulas, CR levels, XP allotments, or rankings. Pick some pilots, set an overall tonnage limit, and start picking mechs.

And suppose I use a simple 2d6 system like Cepheus Deluxe as my RPG. In that case, I can have a whole wargame-plus-RPG experience with minimal rule memorization and page count and simple core skill mechanics compatible across both games. I don't need a mech system for Cepheus since I am here to play Battletech. Nor do I need characters that take up pages of record sheets; since Cepheus is a Traveller-like system, I can do a 3x5 index card for each pilot and generate a character in less than 5 to 10 minutes. If I want to get out of a mech, make some survival skills rolls, and fight an alien monster on foot, the system is there and works (and stays out of the way).

These two games are the peanut butter and chocolate of my collection. Simple. Taste good together. And always fun.