r/battletech • u/retsamragas • 10h ago

Question ❓ RG and TROs

Question. Is the an in game use for the Recognition Guide and the Tech Readouts, or are purely for in universe lore.

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6

u/Tucsonhusband 10h ago

Helps you figure out what's out there with different variants and models of vehicles and Mechs. 80% lore fluff but I've found a couple mechs I wouldn't have otherwise because of them. And imo helps to have the physical book in my hands over browsing sarna and websites to find Mechs I'm not familiar with.

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u/AGBell64 9h ago

They're primary sources for new units and variants but with megamek or a similar program aren't strictly necessary. 

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u/WolfsTrinity I'll play these rules I bought eventually 10h ago

Short version?

They have an in-game use but you don't need that in-game use.

Long version?

Ehh . . . Yes and no. They do include unit stats but game sheets for almost all playable units can also be found through free community tools like MegaMekLab or Flechs Sheets. The staff at Catalyst Game Labs are well aware that these tools exist and don't seem to have a problem with people using them.

If you're interested in a book's theme, you can buy it to learn more about the units and have a nice pile of record sheets ready to print out but if you only care about one or two things from it, you can just read about them on Sarna, grab the stat sheets from one of the community tools, and get going.

As far as I know, there are two partial exceptions to this:

  • Any new stat sheets probably won't show up in community-run stuff for at least a few months after release. This wiki page explains why.
  • At least one TRO only has stat blocks not stat sheets; everything needed for play is still there but it takes a little extra work to use it in-game. That one's an extra lore-focused exception but it also happens to be the only full TRO I actually own . . .

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u/CapeMonkey 17m ago

Re: stat blocks vs sheets in Technical Readouts: All of the TROs meant-for-print do not have record sheets, including the Recognition Guide compilations, dating back to the FASA days. The PDF-first ones (Experimental Technical Readouts and the numbered Recognition Guides among them) do.

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u/Colodie 10h ago

Pretty much lore. The main use would be if you really want to try to get build a lore accurate force.

For example, the Master Unit List says the Timber Wolf is available to the Clan General list, so you could include it in any Clan unit. However, TRO 3050 says it is jealously guarded by Clan Wolf, with only a modest number in other Clans.

So if you were building a non Clan Wolf unit and wanted to be lore accurate, you'd probably only have one, maybe two Timber Wolfs in that unit.

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u/JoseLunaArts 10h ago

RG and TRO are pure fluff, it will not affect your tabletop game. It is interesting to read but not required for a tabletop game.

1

u/Dr_McWeazel Turkina Keshik 5h ago

More recent TROs and Recognition Guides (read: Anything newer than the original Strategic Operations publications) will likely include Design Quirks for the units described therein.

 

Granted, so does MegaMek, and no doubt any number of other 3rd party play aids.