Ok, this is a giant brainfart so take it for what it is. I just cobbled together what might work to play Mechwarrior in SR4 (might work, might not). This is basically mech design and combat rules.

Shadowrun 4 – Mechwarrior Conversion Rules

1. Mech Weight Classes
00-19= Ultralight Mechs
20-35= Light Mechs
36-55= Medium Mechs
56-75= Heavy Mechs
76-100= Assault Mechs
101-135= Collosal Mechs

2. Mech Base Cost
100K / Ton

3. Heat Buildup Rules
All mechs have 100 Heat
Heat buildup is calculated by the following formula:
DV+AP= Heat

Example: Firing a heavy pistol would give 6 Heat.

4. Heat Reduction Rules
Gas Vents are now Heat Sinks
Cost: As Gas Vent
Size: As Gas Vent Model (Gas Vent 3 becomes Heat Sink 3 and takes up 3 Mod Slots)

5. Elemental Armors
Daihatsu Horseman is the base shell for making an Elemental like armor

6. Recoil
Only Vehicle Class Weapons give Mechs recoil.

7. Mech Speed
00-130= Ultralight Mechs
00-110= Light Mechs
00-90= Medium Mechs
00-70= Heavy Mechs
00-50= Assault Mechs
00-30= Collosal Mechs

Speed values are not absolute and can be modified with the Similar Models rule.

8. Mech Handling
+2: Ultralight
+1: Light
+0: Medium
-1: Heavy
-2: Assault
-3: Collosal

9. Mech Acceleration
30/ 50: Ultralight
25/ 45: Light
20/ 40: Medium
15/ 30: Heavy
10 / 20: Assault
05 / 10: Collossal

9. Mech Body Values
Weight in tones equal structure value of the mech. Each point must be distributed as a body value for the following locations:
Head
Left Arm (Can be left at 0 – The Mech class have no arms)
Right Arm (Can be left at 0 – The Mech class have no arms)
Front Torso
Rear Torso
Left leg
Right Leg

Example: Light Mech at 20 tonnes
Head : 2
Left Arm: 3
Right Arm: 3
Front Torso: 3
Rear Torso: 3
Left leg: 3
Right Leg: 3

10. Mech Damage
The mech have a damage track for each body part and damage will affect performance.
Equipment and weapons mounted in damaged limbs will have performance penalties and affect dicepools. Damages to Head (cockpit) will affect Sensor tests, damages to Legs will affect movement and handling.

11. Modification Slots
A Mech have a total amount of Modification Slots equal to Tonnage.

12. Mech Armor Value
A Mech starts with an armor value equal to half tonnage to distribute. Each individual limb can be increased by X2 body value with armor Mods.

13. Weapon Mounts
Each limb can have up to BOD value of weapon mounts but have only BOD amount of Mod Slots. Weapon mounts follow the base rules from SR4 so max 1 mount per 3 BOD.

14. Weapon Size Classes
All weapon in SR4 (Arsenal) are classified as Ultralight vehicle weapons. All weapons can be increased to the corresponding size class with the following formula:
Each increased size class adds +1DV -1AP Range +10% [Weapon Level X Weapon Cost] +1 Mod slot for each size class when installing a weapon mount.

Any Mech that installs an oversized weapon (Heavy weapon on a medium mech) require an additional mod slot for that weapon mount for each size difference.

An ultralight with an assault class weapon with the corresponding weapon size would have +4 Damage -4AP and +40% range but the size for the weapon would be 6 Slots
+1 Weapon Mount
+1 Oversized Weapon
+4 Assault Class Weapon


15. Heat Reduction
A mech has a base heat reduction equal to 1/10 of its weight. A 100 ton Mech would have heat reduction of 10 for each combat turn. Heat sinks add their rating to heat reduction.

Every Colossal Class Mech gets a Thor-Shot for being a fucking stupid idea . .
3 Persons? 3 Legs? What happened to 1 Person and 4 Legs? Fragging Idiots . .

Walker mech are somehwat unfeasible as they are and adding 3 legs? 4 legs I could understand but due to the size I'd rather go with a super heavy tank.

So what are you going to do about powering these things? There are no reactors that small in Shadowrun, AFAIK. Internal combustion? I think only ultra-light to light would be feasible considering the power draw of these things.

Don't forget that they can power T-Birds in shadowrun. And Suborbitals.
These are some MIGHTY engines.

This is merel an attempt to convert Battletech to SR4 - not to actually introduce mechs in SR4 (A Horseman with X4 Mecha arms, improved BOD to 7 and 14 armor, internal weapons is enought).

What are you trying to achieve here? I mean we already have a system that is set up for Battletech, is there some where that is failing?

I want BattleRun.

This is made of Win.

Shadowrunning in the Battletech universe...Hmmm.

Exchange Megacorps and dragons with Noble Houses/Clans and Battlemechs.

The Clans can be like the Tir Tangiere

Crossover anyone?

Where are these "colossal" 'Mechs coming from? Never heard of 'em.

fragging stupid dumb idea from the MechWarrior DarkAge/AgeOfDestruction crap they churned out . .
125t with 3 legs and 3 persons inside, One tech, one Pilot, one gunner.

Oh. Never played any of that; Classic BattleTech for me, thank you very much.

...I know I'm going to hate the answer, but I have to ask: why three legs? Having a crew rather than a single pilot actually makes sense, but why three legs?

His argument is incontrovertible.

There are Mechwarrior RPG rules, they might cover some areas you haven't thought of.

Cheers
CC

No idea. I can fathom a stable platform on 4 legs but 3 seems odd - unless the pilots name is Link and the Mechs name is Triforce.

3 legs makes sense if mechs can breed...

Hot Locust-on-Atlas action?

Mechwarrior 3rd is pretty awesome.

Probably because they needed something DIFFERENT . . not something that was proven to work . .

3 legs....wow.

I miss Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. It was a simpler time. It was a better time.

still rightfully regarded to be the best MW Title.

Before the dark times... Before, the Empire!

Well, Mechwarrior online is on the way and Mechwarrior Tactics - hopefully they will keep me occupied until they create mechwarrior the MMO.

Mechwarrior Online IS The MMO.
And Multiplayer Battletech 3025 WAS kinda an MMO before that term existed.
Mechwarrior Tactics is only MegaMek with fancy graphics.

I really liked MW2-GBL myself.

Mech Commander for me.

But yeah... Just use MW 3rd, it is great. MW2nd is even better, providing you've got a GM with a set of balls who'll tell his players to take a walk when they try to abuse the system.

Doesn't shadowrun have large-scale fusion reactors?

I seem to recall some mention of it powering the Arcology.


Also, frankly, everyone who wants Battlerun needs to go read the april fools joke mission Best Ever: an eighth world adventure, like, right now

You are correct, Shutdown states the Arcology runs on a few fusion reactors housed in the lowest basement. Considering theres more than one and they all fit on one floor I assume they are pretty small(as far as reactors go).

Don't Battlemechs run off of fission plants though?

Fusion. Always has been. It's why "Stackpoling", or when a Mech gets hit so hard it 'nukes off', doesn't make much sense.

It is just a very small reactor, is all.

So I just pulled up the timelines from the wiki.

SCIRE had fusion.
Scire construction started in 2040.
This means that reactors were tested and working before construction began.
Renraku has had 30 years to improve those designs.
Renraku is a japanese company.
Japanese people love their robots.

Therefore.....
I think my group is going to have some very unexpected runs dealing with the company that everyone loves to hate.

For what its worth, though, Battlemech's aren't really Shadowrun's style.
If they make anything, its probably going to be like a Metal Gear. A walking, unkillable nuke-capable tank that slips by loopholes in everyone's treaties.
The more likely scenario for developing vehicle-sized fusion plants, though, is for them to start making really awesome tanks, boats, LAV's, t-birds and other cars that can benefit from a really high power:weight ratio.

Wouldn't Fusion Generators run on Hydrogen and, thus, make a really nice boom?

fusion requires high heat and pressure to continue . .
if one of these two falls off rapidly(for example by a big hole being blown into it) it simply snuffs out like a flame without oxygen . .

Well, if I remember correctly fusion reactors use magnetic fields to offset the extreme heat generated inside the reactor - a well placed hit that either breaches the reactor or shorts out the magnetic fields will release a LOT of heat at a VERY rapid pace...add ammunition and other fuels to that mix and yea, BOOM goes the mech.

it's a gas explosion, basically, not a nuclear reaction explosion though . . that is the main point of contention with the stackpoling mechs in the neckbeard/grognard corner^^

I'm surprised no one has posted this yet. BattleRun!

As far as i remember the Stackpoling debate; its is called that in the FIRST because Michael A Stackpole didn't understand how fusion worked, got it wrong, and just wanted lots of explosions in his books.

That's like why its called Stackpoling, and I seem to recall talk that the newest ruleset actually has an optional rule named after him that changes mechs into walking bombs. It may involve an altered heat scale, or something. I don't really play, so its all second hand.

If you get 3 or more reactor hits in one round, then you roll 2d6. if you roll 10 or higher, you go huge fragging boom.
i think it's something like engine rating divided by 5 in the same hex, engine rating divided by 10 in the adjacent hexes and engine rating divided by 20 in the next hex.
or something like that anyway . .