Travel time and time in general
Getting around in the GI Joeverse
Travel time is not the same when dealing with a good GI Joe story. People can be at one end of the Earth, but if the plot needs them to be in the Himalayas the next scene, well guess what, they’re there. “Travel time” is more of suggestion, or something you will have to deal with if the story requires you to deal with it. Battletech is very different, with recharge time calculated for every system, travel time required to reach a planet from the jump point calculated… How do you mesh those two things together?
Well, the important bit is “it depends”. If you’re playing an actual GI Joe campaign in Battletech, it will be because you want to emulate the cartoon and comics while also having nice big stompy robots to help you along. If that’s really what you want to do, “jumping” no longer really has a limited range, every ship has an LF-battery or 5 in reserve and people don’t care burning at 5g towards the nearest habitable world. Unless, of course, the plot asks for it to happen. You can’t have an ambush at a jump point if you bypass every jump points, after all. The important thing is this: everything is done in favor of the story. Battletech X GI Joe is meant to be an adventure in how silly and awesome Battletech COULD be as a true, full-blown Saturday morning cartoon.
But of course, if you want things to be fully realistic and follow the true rules of Battletech space travel and planetary travel, have at it. I’m not stopping you. It’s your games, it’s your campaigns. Tell the story you want to tell. As with everything, you should be having fun. If a game isn’t fun, it isn’t worth playing.
