The site appears to be back up now.
And yes, at the very basic level, all these settings involve mechs. Lancer would probably be closer in theme to Evangelion, if you wanted to run it that way. Battletech would be a crunchy cousin, due to its roots as a war game.
I would like an excuse to buy Battletech, but just can't do it when I could play Lancer instead. Can anyone convince me I'm wrong?
Of the responses so far, this one brought me the most joy.
We call this cocktail hour.
How did you come to play a gelatinous cube? What do the other players play?
This is excellent. Most of the answers here are what game to play, in other words, what mechanics can be used to force the horror feeling. This is purely about narrative, which can apply to any system. Thank you for sharing.
I'm mostly in the same boat as you. I have tried several times to get into Critical Role since everyone raves about it, plus a few others. It's not for me. I suppose it's because I don't have any emotional connection with the actual play where I would have that investment with my own game. I will say that I did enjoy Dungeons & Daddies though, but that show is more like listening to a comedy podcast about fantasy rather than an actual play.
I haven't played in person seriously for many years. We're starting a new in-person group here soon, so I'm going to have to figure something out. I have a boatload of 3 ring binders so I will probably do the clear sleeve thing like you do, Mike. And then promptly pull them all out to spread around the table because I am a loose-leaf person at heart.
I go to try out different systems or to play systems my regular group doesn't play. Also, to remind myself why I have a regular group and how fortunate I am that they are mostly sane and adjusted people.
I really enjoyed the D&D 3rd Edition days, with the popcorn of d20-based games. Star Wars d20, d20 Modern, and the Sword & Sorcery Ravenloft were all great fun. The best part is that it was super easy to get your group to try new things, because the mechanics were all similar, if not exactly the same. People like to hate on D&D, but it's consistently been a great base to start from and inspiration for a multitude of other games.
Everyone's situation will be different of course, but here is mine.
I have a long-standing gaming group with 2 buddies from high school and have been playing with them since the 90's. The 3 of us are the core of the group. Over the years, other players have come and gone. For those players, we invited them to our regular group after first playing with them in one shots or short campaigns ran for new players or similar. If we have a seat open (our group is usually 6-7 including whoever is GM), we will invite them if they are good people. In the 30 years we've been playing together, we've never had a problem. The only reason people tend to fall out of the group has been people moving or having kids.
Yes, original Battletech was simulating large scale mech warfare with collectible minis (let's face it though, most people just liked to paint and have them). The Battletech RPG (to my understanding) is that flavor adapted to a TTRPG.
If you like mechs and video gaming, I encourage you to check out the MechWarrior series. It is the video game adaptation of Battletech.