GURPS: Battletech Gothic

I like these sorts of spin-off, alternate-universe, and one-off games. For one, I am not so beholden to decades of Battletech lore, and I can make most of the universe up myself. This gives me freedom and latitude when telling stories here that the official universe just does not have. I can play in this universe with a box-set mech-combat game, and use GURPS for the role-playing game, and nobody will care. This is what GURPS does best: take a random idea and turn it into Random Idea: The RPG!

Battletech Gothic is on the table today.

Some called this game "discount Warhammer 40K" and that is sort of inane. You can not like the idea, but it is cool to see new, imaginative, different stuff from companies from time to time, and see them take creative risks. Even as a "discount 40K," this is a cool world. I love the look, feel, and style of this entire set. Warhammer 40K does not own the grimdark future, style, look, or feel. This is also a fun starting point for Battletech that isn't the full universe with hundreds of mechs and factions to deal with, nor will it ever get that deep and complex. It also has room to add your own lore and aesthetics to!

And I know, the Battletech community is split over this, with many so deep in timelines and lore that they lose the universal language of the game. There have been spin-off games in this universe before, and I hope they continue the Gothic line.

I like Battletech Gothic. As a one-off alternate-universe game with a limited set of mechs, it is fun.

Battletech Gothic Universe Primer, p. 63.

I love the mechs, and the entire vibe of bio-tech horrors meets battle-tech was a game my brother and I played back in the 1980s and 1990s, with an alternate Clan invasion by bio-engineered aliens. We had a story going where the clans that fled the galaxy bioengineered themselves to the point of mutation, merging with alien DNA "from beyond" and becoming hyper-violent bio-tech killers. It was a cool story, fit our idea of the Clans at the time, and it was cool to see the traditional houses fighting real aliens rather than "just more humans in mechs."

So, yeah, we were doing BTG back in the 1990s. I like the story here. It hits home for me.

Plus, I can play really interesting stories with GURPS. We have an entire GURPS Bio-Tech book that is perfect for this setting! That, plus GURPS Horror, and a touch of Ultra Tech, and we have ourselves a complete BT Gothic RPG. I have the conversions for GURPS skills to BT on my conversions page, so the wargame rules can stay as-is.

Given that there are no magic elements in the BTG universe, the game being a one-off could mean I could do whatever I want with the setting. While bio-tech should be the power source, there is nothing stopping me from weaving the dark powers of elder space demons and gods through the setting to whisper in the darkness, provide evil divine rituals, and summon forth terrors from beyond time and space. Keeping arcane magic out of the setting and only including a divine power source may be an interesting twist that provides a much-needed mystery and spooky horror, much like Cthulhu, with corruption mechanics and dark incantations to summon horrors. Perhaps there is a "purity of the light" which is humanity's defense against the night, and we allow light-based divine powers to shine.

Doing this weakens the entire "bio-tech brings on corruption and insanity," and the setting becomes more of a "bio-tech opens the door to evil forces."

A better alternative would be to use psionic powers as the game's power system, and this would meld with the bio-tech theme a little better without introducing too many mystical elements. This is a bit more plausible if you keep it mysterious and strange, like the mind is being twisted and warped in ways that no one understands, and powers manifest that are special and rare. Bio-tech plus psionics is a stronger combination and does not introduce godlike elements. Plus, psionics go with science fiction like peanut butter and chocolate, and are one of the best power systems for the genre.

Psionics could introduce a wrinkle into mech fights, since those powers could get through tons of armor easier than weapon fire could. How you approach this will affect the power of the mind, and potentially unbalance the wargame side of the game. You could say there is shielding, or the strong electromagnetic forces interfere (negative modifier) with psionic attacks going into a mech at the pilot. This should be seriously balanced as it may render the entire mech game inconsequential to a powerful psionic, but those wielders of such power may be so rare that it is a special case (and thus, cool).

This is the classic "adept on foot stops a mech cold" movie scene, and that should not be taken away from a player if the moment calls for it, and the attack was successful. Use your judgment, the rule of cool, and don't let it get out of hand. That said, mech weapons are likely lethal to a psionic on foot, so one lucky hit or area-of-effect weapon, and the question will be moot in a cloud of red mist.

Horror will also be a part of the setting! This is the easiest part to forget, but bio-horrors mutating innocents afflicted with the virulent mutagen will force horror rolls in viewers, and there will be insanity and corruption spread by these forces. Normal humans could morph into monsters in a few minutes, but the process may take days as they slowly go insane and grow horns and claws.

There will be a lot of misinformation, fear, mystery, and "dark powers" floating about in these "space dark ages," and the horror rules should be used to spread a sense of fear and a lack of understanding of what they are "really" dealing with.

Horror becomes more important once you introduce mystical and magical elements. Horror and science work in a 1950's "what has science done" sort of way, but the metaphysical, the afterlife, and the nature of the human soul cut much deeper. If the nature of abominations is Satan, witchcraft, black magic, and the actual rise of Hell upon the universe, then Horror will strike much harder in the hearts of players.

The bio-tech and mutations should be created by mad science, and there should be a fear of "what have we unleashed?" The entire "Gothic" aesthetic and worldview from the Dark Ages should be incorporated, and one of the best ways to do so is to sidestep 40 K's influence and go straight to the historical source. We have an excellent guide with GURPS Middle Ages I, and the idea of adopting the chivalric titles, the aesthetic, the power of the church, and even "withccraft" is a cool idea.

This is one of the things that would make me lean more towards magic than psionics, having actual space witches present in the setting with dark, evil powers. This also pushes the idea that the abominations are beasts from actual Hell, leaning more on quasi-religious Doom tropes than adopting the entire "mad science and psionics" theme, which can also feel overdone and Saturday-morning cartoonish.

Having abominations side with witches and warlocks, even though they could crush them physically, is such a cool trope that it is worth using, and it makes that other side much more "evil" and "servants of chaos and discord." The idea of space knights and inquisitors rooting out witches and evil within the masses of poorly-educated space peasants who work in Gothic factories is such cool "RP fodder" that it is worth using. Secretive underground cults corrupting the people and nobility are cool ideas, especially when brought into the Battletech universe.

Back in the day, Battletech had a strong medieval theme of knights and warhorses, nobles and houses, and lately it feels more like Call of Duty meets Soldier of Fortune than it did in its original chivalric roots.

I do like going with the idea of nobility, titles, a strong Church, heraldry, and the power of witchcraft and demons being the "great unknown." Purity of faith, body, and mind becomes a defining feature of knights and the warrior class, while giving in to base desires and power will lead a man down the road to Hell. Draw upon the stories and tales from the Bible. Ignore 40K and "out 40K" them.

Adding witchcraft to BTG changes the game. It makes the abominations more magical creatures pulled from Hell and beyond. I suppose you have two choices here:

• Bio-Tech + Psionics
• Bio-Tech + Magic

The settings art and feeling are more the "mutants and mayhem" sort of vibe, which aligns well with Bio-Tech + Psionics. My gut feeling is don't do magic, and do psionics. Leave "demons" and other mythical beings as whispered mysteries, or things twisted minds pretend to be.

Bio-Tech and Psionics, it is then.

Both will use GURPS Middle Ages I for the "look and feel" and to pull civilizational facets from. It is so easy to fall back into Mechwarrior norms, but keeping the setting tech level high, while the "everyday life" tech level is far lower, may give you the contrast you need to make the setting work. There should be a conflict between the destitute, poor, indentured life of peasants and the house nobles, knights, and the other "warrior elite."

Battletech Gothic Universe Primer, p. 54.

I would almost paint everyday life as something out of 1984, where the average person needs to go to a "broadcast center" to watch TV communally, and the difference between rich and poor is very stark. Most days would be spent working on farms and in factories, with long periods of forced labor, and entertainment would be either communal broadcasts or live sporting events. Most of the population would be growing food in fields or hydroponic centers. Huge factories would churn out the machines of war, choking the skies with smoke. Thousands of laborers would come in and go in massive, around-the-clock shifts to keep the industry of war cranking along. Strip mining, oil rigs, deep mining, forestry, salt mining, and other massive resource mining operations would scour the land.

Take the Industrial Age grit and grease, the strip mining and expansionism of the Railroad Era, the myth and fear of the Middle Ages, the savagery of World War I, the hopelessness of Orwell, the creatures of Lovecraft, and blend that with Battletech. Add to that, plenty of mutations and strange deformities among the population, and morphed races of new kin, and you have an interesting "Battletech Mutants" setting that would work well.

That description above is far different from the 40K aesthetic, which has really morphed into something else these days. The 40K world tends to be more "World of Warcraft"- like and self-referential these days, reflecting the modern world, while grounding Battletech Gothic in a sense of history would give it a unique identity and feeling. Cranking BTG back to historical reality would give it a leg up on what 40K had morphed into, and honestly, leave 40K to be 40K; it is fine as is and has plenty of fans.

Battletech Gothic Universe Primer, p. 24.

BTG can be something different and special.

GURPS Middle Ages I and the Bible are your "holy shield" against the idea being called "discount 40K," since you are going back to the source era and material, drawing on the stuff that 40K ripped off. Don't copy, but go back to the source code and rebuild. This is why history is so important, and we should not rely on "cultural recycling" to base our ideas upon. They don't own the history, look, or aesthetic. They just put giant plastic shoulder pads on it and made it smell like model glue. I love you, 40K, but you are not the be-all and end-all on the idea.

This is a fun universe, small enough and limited enough to not overwhelm a conversion, compatible with a translation layer between GURPS skills and the wargame, and with plenty of room to create my own lore. I can add psionics and mutant races to the setting, like dragon and serpent people. I can flavor the world as a mix of Braveheart, Mad Max, OG TNMT, and 1984. I can have mutant mayhem-style characters and personal battles, adding mutant powers like personal armor, tails, horns, and other powers to my GURPS character builds.

Yes, this is not Battletech.

But it doesn't have to be to have potential.

It's fun.

It is strange.

It is off-putting.

But most of the cool things I first encountered were all of those things.