Khael

Re: New to HERO. Need a little guidance about Mechs. Thanks for the advice, people. The info is very useful, if disjointed. Once I get my feet wet you can expect to see a complete compilation of battletech weapons from me, each with its own descriptor so that I and you can print it out and plug it in to our designs as needed. Surely there are enough posts about BT to justify that. I also have another question, very BT specific. Do you more esperienced players think that using a variable power pool would work to represent the clan mechs' modular weapon systems or should I look to something else?

Working on a gritty Mechwarrior game. Starting the process of translating all of the 'Mechs in to HERO and came upon this quandary. When do you use Advantages such as AP and Penetrating as opposed to higher damage dice? If, for instance, the Madcat clobbers an opposing 'mech the damage done could be represented by either high dice for a higher overall penetration of the target's defenses or an advantage to cut through them. The issue comes into play when you hit a smaller more vulnerable target with that same weapon. Surely a weapon that can sheer through inches of steel and fibrous armor would splat a human victim into the afterlife. It seems to me that higher damage would suit. But that can't always be the case. What are the two aforementioned advantages for? Do you use them to represent something with incredible penetration yet little visual damage, such as a laser? Why have both?

Hello all. Wet-behind-the-ears rookie here. Looking to run a Mechwarrior game within 6 months. That is time-line to at least get into the groove of playing and, more importantly, designing stuff... I know about the copious material out there for specific mech design, but I am hoping for an expert to give me a little guidance on mechs and such themselves in the generic. What cost? Is there a ratio of tonnage to points? If so, do you use mech cost? Active Points? Real Points? Given HERO's internal logic, I feel certain that a ratio is in there somewhere... Also, if said expert has posted some solid general guidelines for Mechwarrior conversion I would be eternally grateful for a link or two or ten. PS. First post! Huzzah!