Battletech

Discussion on topics that aren't specifically related to current FASA product lines or don't fit elsewhere.
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Xeen
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Battletech

Postby Xeen » Fri Jul 19, 2013 3:07 am

Could you PLEASE buy back Battletech?

Catalyst is ruining the game for me, and I seriously miss the old Fasa days. I still have my old Fasa books, and any of the Fanpro or Catalyst books I made the mistake of buying were sold to the lowest bidder. The writing style of old, and the stories of old are missed by the die hard fans.

Seriously, if you do this, I will dress like this -> :cheerleader:

HA

LouP
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Re: Battletech

Postby LouP » Fri Jul 19, 2013 11:16 am

Hello,

The people running Catalyst have far more experience with BattleTech than the current FASA Games staff. The guy in charge of BattleTech is (I believe) is Randall Bills, who worked on BattleTech at FASA back in the late 1990s.


Take Care,

Lou Prosperi
FASA Alumni, 1992 - 1998

Xeen
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Re: Battletech

Postby Xeen » Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:05 pm

They can always pick up people for that. I just do not care at all for the writing style, and the stories are lacking to me. I just miss that old FASA style.

bigity
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Re: Battletech

Postby bigity » Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:22 pm

As do I, but that style is gone forever, except maybe snips and pieces here and there.

As for BattleTech, clans ruined it for me, and I have to blame that on FASA :D

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MadCartographer
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Re: Battletech

Postby MadCartographer » Sun Dec 08, 2013 11:14 am


zayven
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Re: Battletech

Postby zayven » Sun Dec 08, 2013 7:48 pm

What's even going on with Battletech these days? Didn't they advance the timeline two or three centuries in an effort to restore the fractured, feudal feel of the original games?

I didn't come to Battletech until after the clans showed up (my first copy was 4th edition with the original 2050 techbook), but I can see why old time fans disliked them. The whole setting just felt like it was a victim of the White Wolf-inspired metaplot craze that drove many a game into the ground during the late 1990s (worst examples of this was probably when a D&D Dark Sun sourcebook was rendered completely obsolete by the events in a novel within 12 months of release). I think FASA was laying the groundwork for the "Jihad" storyline (the whole thing with the splinter with in Comstar in the wake of the war against the clans) when I stopped following the game.

To be honest, the original cancellation of Earthdawn was kind of a blessing in a weird way because it froze the game's timeline for more than a decade. I know a lot of ink has been spilled over how closely LRG's Barsaive at War book reflected FASA's original intent, but I'm just glad that we're still playing in a Barsaive where Vivane (which was the subject of one of 1st edition's best supplements) hasn't been reduced to a zombie city.

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MadCartographer
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Re: Battletech

Postby MadCartographer » Mon Dec 09, 2013 11:52 am

zayven,

for the "old fans", BTech was all about how hard it was to get a Mech, and how cheap the pilots were. Heat was a MAJOR factor, and finding a part for your damaged Mech was very difficult.

When the "new" BTech, you can run down to the nearest 7 - 11 and grab a new Mech like I can run to the nearest Starbucks. Heat is not a factor anymore....

So needless to say, Clans "ruined" BTech for me and a lot of the "old fans", Ok yes I understand that they need to keep the game going, and lets face it, Mechs sell BTech. It's just not the same game as before.

-lee

zayven
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Re: Battletech

Postby zayven » Mon Dec 09, 2013 12:24 pm

Lee,

Oh, I can certainly see in retrospect how the Clans totally altered the landscape of the setting. Quite simply, the Clan mechs were broken. A 75 ton Clan mech could outrun and outgun a 100 ton IS mech, which led to the development of similarly turbocharged (though less efficient) IS mech upgrades. Once that ball started rolling, there was just no way to stop it. When I was a teenager, the Clans seemed really cool, but that was because my introduction to Battletech was the Mechwarrior 2 computer game. By the time I learned more about the setting, though (and played the FAR superior Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, which was much more IS focused), I started to see how the introduction of the Clans had forever altered something that was pretty special. I have a similar thought whenever I have to read about technomancers or accept the existence of new corporations in recent Shadowrun editions (ugh...Horizon).

It does seem like the older material was much more invested in the idea of mechs as a cherished resource. While there were still factories, they weren't churning mechs out by the thousands like they would during the IS/Clan war. Everything in the IS got so organized once the Clans showed up. The original setting is very much Dune with giant robots. I do like the idea of mechs being scarce and that mechs are actually passed down through generations from one mechwarrior to the next. It helps to highlight the feudal nature of the setting.

Later supplements really seemed to focus on the "macro" level, always providing rules for larger engagements and orchestrating large scale conflicts that organized house armies participated in. The character level focus of the older materials does seem like something that fell to the wayside. There was always a weird disconnect with the game in that it could never decide if it was an RPG with mechs or if it was a miniatures wargame with an optional rpg element that you could throw in if you wanted to get all touchy-feely about it.

It's definitely a franchise that could use a "hard" reset much like Wizards did when they released Dark Sun for 4th edition D&D. They pretty much went back to the original box set as their primary frame of reference and ignored all of the metaplot changes that followed. Catalyst tried to do this with the Shadowrun 2050 book. I've only looked at that book briefly, though, so I don't know if it's any good or not. Someone somewhere suggested that Catalyst should do a setting sourcebook for each "era" of the game (so a 1e 2050 book, a 2e 2055 book, a 3e 2060 book, and a 4e 2070 book). That might be a good solution for Battletech if they haven't done it already. You could probably give people everything they need to play in classic 3025 era (I think that's still pre-4th Succession War) Battletech with three books (one describing the setting, one for era-specific mechs, and one for roleplaying as individuals or running mercenary company campaigns).

Then again, if the primary complaint against Catalyst is the writing style, that might not solve problems. What, exactly, is so bad about the writing in new Battletech products?

Mark
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Re: Battletech

Postby Mark » Wed Feb 12, 2014 5:04 am

I thought Battletech was great and it was my first foray into tabletop gaming when I got my first copy in 1990!

I later sold a bunch of gear just before 2000 to fund other tabletop gaming hobby but have played a little on and off since and have got the recent starter set by Catalyst, along with some of the newer rule books. Still have fond memories.


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