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[machinery]

Hi, I've been introduced to silent death by an ususpecting member of the battletech forums. I'm a long time fan of battletech but I must admit that the aerospace part of the rules are awfully done. I was impressed by the elegance and fluidity of SD rules so I did not hesitate in ordering a next milllenium boxed set.
The only con I see with SD is that the background is poorly developed and a too bland for may taste, but I suppose I can use SD to do the aerospace part of battletech.

[csadn]

Hi, I've been introduced to silent death by an ususpecting member of the battletech forums. I'm a long time fan of battletech but I must admit that the aerospace part of the rules are awfully done.

Having played both: The real problem with _BT_'s rules is the attempt to use Vector-Based Movement. To be blunt, there is only one proper way to do VBM, and that is the method used in GDW's _Traveller_ system (draw a line showing what you did the last turn; select a point within a circle equal to the unit's thrust value centered on the far end of that line; draw a new line connecting the unit's start point with its new end point; repeat). As _SD_ does not use "normal" physics, it doesn't have this problem. :) (I've tried _SD_ with VBM -- suddenly the "elegance and fluidity of _SD_" vanishes.)

[wargame_insomniac]

Hi

I never played Battletech when it first came out but got into the collectable Mechwarrior clixgame. I realised that there was a wealth ofbackground detail around Battletech-a bit like realising that the Silmarillion background story lay behind Lord of the Rings.

I started reading more of Battletech background online and in novels.

The background for Silent Death is ok. Where it loses out to Battletech is that in Battletech they have continued releasing new material. By contrast many of SD Housebooks have failed to see light of day with a long gap between House Colos and ODD II books.

Cheers

James

[machinery]

The background for Silent Death is ok. Where it loses out to Battletech is that in Battletech they have continued releasing new material. By contrast many of SD Housebooks have failed to see light of day with a long gap between House Colos and ODD II books.

Yes, you're partly right, there are a lot more BT books published every year than SD. But it's not entirely a matter of quantity, I've been into BT for the last 2 decades and from the very first book the BT Universe was better fleshed out than SD, in my opinion. However, it wouldn't hurt SD if ICE does something more with the franchise than sitting atop of it. I suppose there's too much effort put in developing the ancient and clumsy Rolemaster.

[Masherking]

One thing SD background has over
BT is that at least it taps into lots of
different cultures to flesh out it's
background. To many games go the
route of "space Europe or space japan"

SD gives us " Space Hawaii",
"space Africa" and " space Indians"
though the background is little bland
I do admire that try for something
a little different.