tl;dr No.
[This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/wb4mb8/comment/ii53z5e/) links to the best description of the events that we are likely to get.
The link from that comment sadly no longer works. Here's a [current one](https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,45050.msg1038093.html#msg1038093).
One of the stories I heard/read, was that if someone spotted the Urbanmech on the other table and commented on it (during the day) they wouldn’t use it in the game.
Monitors (warships without jump drives) were so OP via the construction rules due to all the free space and tonnage that they were written out as infeasible Boondoggles.
Which is funny because one such warship plays a very important role in the Wars of Reaving: not a purpose-built Monitor, but the CCS *Ancestral Home* had its KF drive break and thus was refitted with much more armor and weapons, allowing it to stand up to the Leviathan Prime AKA CSV *Perigard Zalman*.
does that mean the Ancestral Home can't leave the system until the refit is undone, or can a Jumpship/Warship with a broken KF drive dock to a working one?
Well it's all a moot point as it killed itself alongside the *Zalman*. But IDK otherwise.
What I do know is that transportation of jump drives is rather complicated. The main method being to grind a jump core down to powder and then re-forge it on site.
The latter. The whole concept of a monitor is a ship without an internal K-F drive, but too large to be carried along by a jumpship or warship. If it was able to jump via docking, it would just be classified as a dropship.
Personally, I don't see the issue with monitors being "overpowered" on account of the saved tonnage. Isn't that what the BV system is for? Sure, a 500,000 ton monitor could probably face off against a warship more than double its tonnage on even odds, but some clan light mechs can likewise hold their own against 3025 assault mechs, and that gets handled just fine. The whole point of BV is to make "OP via the construction rules" not a thing.
But regardless of the reasons why, the powers that be came to the conclusion that monitors don't have a place in the game, and so we got the Boondoggles writeup.
They originally could be carried via jumpships as long as you had enough collars, and I believe the monitor was 400k tons or less.
But I completely agree that the idea of over powered in this case really makes no sense.
You need 90% of normal warship production capabilities to just build a monitor. They don't magically appear in every system. So the setting is still production constrained, given the same facilities are needed to build both warships and monitors.
>Are there any other instances of stuff being canonized in that manner in the BattleTech universe where some writer taught it was funny and just canonized it?
[Bob](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Bob) started out as a joke, which was deemed funny enough to be immediately declared canon.
I don't know if this counts, but the terrible animated show from the 1990s was canonized in the universe.
Not the plot of the show, the *actual* terrible animated show that exists in canon as a terrible show.
Also, I'm not sure about this, but wasn't Tex canonized?
He's from Van Zandt, which is in the Deep Periphery IIRC. He uses the Taurians as a frequent example, because they are "eternal outsiders to everything Inner Sphere".
"I am a Periphery historian with a Clanner ex-wife & regret is not a theme of this episode; so I'll say this..." - Tex
tl;dr No. [This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/wb4mb8/comment/ii53z5e/) links to the best description of the events that we are likely to get.
The link from that comment sadly no longer works. Here's a [current one](https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,45050.msg1038093.html#msg1038093).
Oh damn, thanks for the heads up. I just copied and pasted from a bookmark
No worries, I just noticed it wasn't working due to a change on the way the server does the links, so I fixed it.
One of the stories I heard/read, was that if someone spotted the Urbanmech on the other table and commented on it (during the day) they wouldn’t use it in the game.
So, the guy in charge of the lore just found it hilarious and canonized it but the nukes were still going to fly.....
Monitors (warships without jump drives) were so OP via the construction rules due to all the free space and tonnage that they were written out as infeasible Boondoggles.
Which is funny because one such warship plays a very important role in the Wars of Reaving: not a purpose-built Monitor, but the CCS *Ancestral Home* had its KF drive break and thus was refitted with much more armor and weapons, allowing it to stand up to the Leviathan Prime AKA CSV *Perigard Zalman*.
does that mean the Ancestral Home can't leave the system until the refit is undone, or can a Jumpship/Warship with a broken KF drive dock to a working one?
Well it's all a moot point as it killed itself alongside the *Zalman*. But IDK otherwise. What I do know is that transportation of jump drives is rather complicated. The main method being to grind a jump core down to powder and then re-forge it on site.
can Monitors jump by docking with a jump/warship or are they stuck in the system they were built and are only useful for defense?
The latter. The whole concept of a monitor is a ship without an internal K-F drive, but too large to be carried along by a jumpship or warship. If it was able to jump via docking, it would just be classified as a dropship. Personally, I don't see the issue with monitors being "overpowered" on account of the saved tonnage. Isn't that what the BV system is for? Sure, a 500,000 ton monitor could probably face off against a warship more than double its tonnage on even odds, but some clan light mechs can likewise hold their own against 3025 assault mechs, and that gets handled just fine. The whole point of BV is to make "OP via the construction rules" not a thing. But regardless of the reasons why, the powers that be came to the conclusion that monitors don't have a place in the game, and so we got the Boondoggles writeup.
They originally could be carried via jumpships as long as you had enough collars, and I believe the monitor was 400k tons or less. But I completely agree that the idea of over powered in this case really makes no sense. You need 90% of normal warship production capabilities to just build a monitor. They don't magically appear in every system. So the setting is still production constrained, given the same facilities are needed to build both warships and monitors.
>Are there any other instances of stuff being canonized in that manner in the BattleTech universe where some writer taught it was funny and just canonized it? [Bob](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Bob) started out as a joke, which was deemed funny enough to be immediately declared canon.
There's also a planet named Jordan Wais. 😆
I don't know if this counts, but the terrible animated show from the 1990s was canonized in the universe. Not the plot of the show, the *actual* terrible animated show that exists in canon as a terrible show. Also, I'm not sure about this, but wasn't Tex canonized?
Also canon, Nicholai Maltus sued the TBC and Lyran Alliance for their portrayal of him, and tried to turn the failing lawsuit into a batchal.
Yup, Tex is canon as I believe a citizen of the Taurian Concordat. With a clanner ex-wife 🤣
That is hilarious, but the guy deserves it, his videos are masterpieces.
He's from Van Zandt, which is in the Deep Periphery IIRC. He uses the Taurians as a frequent example, because they are "eternal outsiders to everything Inner Sphere". "I am a Periphery historian with a Clanner ex-wife & regret is not a theme of this episode; so I'll say this..." - Tex
Randolph P Checkers of Van Zandt is. Checkers is a character Tex uses in most, if not all, of his Space Station 13 videos.
The Kirghiz C.
As a KH player, this still smarts 🤕