BATTLETECH (TABLETOP)/MECHWARRIOR (RPG) NOTES:

There's a couple decades worth of stuff out there for both BattleTech and the Mechwarrior RPG and I'm wondering if
any experts can point me to the right edition.
What I would like is the version that best integrates the RPG with the wargame without diluting either too much.

MW 2e has some warts re: character creation.

That is, if you allow full point buy customization, min maxing can occur.
Easily remedied and if restricted to Archetypes no problem whatsoever.
MW 1e has too few skills and offers not all options, Clans are "missing".
MW 3e is an abomination and MW 4e was a bloated mess by some third grade fanficcers.

I don't remember what edition it was, but the edition of mechwarrior that introduced the Clans in it was absolute
garbage. If you weren't a clan elemental, then there was zero point in playing.

As a long-time battletech player, the 3025 era is my absolute favourite.

Once they introduced the clans, everything went to shit.
I have no problem with Star League tech, but with the clans, it's basically pointless to be Inner Sphere until the 2078
technical readout.

Oh, and the whole Jihad war and aftermath is crap.

I agree about the Clan thing; but I also think the 2e rules are the most solid.
Nothing says you can't play 3025 era with the 2e rules.

MW 3e used 2d10 and is therefore incompatible to all the wealth of Battletech games.

Also recommend MW 2e as I had a lot of fun with that.

The character creation was simple to use and had no problems with the rules.
As for MW 3e the character creation made me want to pull out my hair and it was just a pain in the ass. A case of fixing
something that was not broken.