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Baron Porkface posted:What does buying the Battletech manual get me? This blog post goes over the thinking behind it and breaks down what bits it steals from which books (and often why): https://bg.battletech.com/news/news-and-announcements/what-is-the-battlemech-manual/ Get the brand new third printing if you can (it fixes more errata and, more significantly, has an index at the back, unlike the earlier prints).
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Jun 24, 2020 04:44
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Holy poo poo, they didn't have an index until the third edition? Never change, CGL.
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Jun 24, 2020 05:58
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Yeah. I assumed all along it was going to have one after mentioning it early in the design process, and then we got close to time to press and I brought it up again and the assumption on the other end was that the book didn't need it. By then it was too late to do anything about it. Fortunately it proved to be a good enough seller (and fortunately the new line developer agreed as to the need for it) that there was the chance to reconsider.
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Jun 24, 2020 06:44
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New BattleTech novella just came out "Grey Watch Covenant" (part 1 of 3?), about the Battle of Northwind as detailed in Shattered Fortress. While the outcome it already known, I really enjoyed Shell Games which did the same thing (For the Battle of Dieron), and I enjoyed Blaine Lee Pardoe's last two books he just released, so I'm getting it. Real nice to see BattleTech have all this new fiction now.
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Jun 26, 2020 17:05
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Does Pardoe still "Stackpole" 'Mechs left right and center?
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Jun 26, 2020 17:35
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PoptartsNinja posted:Does Pardoe still "Stackpole" 'Mechs left right and center? Well, there's a part where a Mech takes two Arrow IV rounds to the chest. When the smoke clears, the top half of the mech is gone.
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Jun 26, 2020 17:43
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PoptartsNinja posted:Does Pardoe still "Stackpole" 'Mechs left right and center? I don't recall that happening at all in 'Divided We Fall' or 'Forever Faithful'. There might have been one instance in FF, but it was over so quickly as another mech got cored right behind the explodey one. May have just been an ammo explosion, now that I recall. I will say that the dialog in them both was a bit stunted, but hey, I'm not a writer. And stunted direct dialog sounds correct for Clan characters. I still need to read my copy of A Splinter of Hope/The Anvil, too bad I can't find it in PoD.
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Jun 26, 2020 21:09
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SirFozzie posted:Well, there's a part where a Mech takes two Arrow IV rounds to the chest. When the smoke clears, the top half of the mech is gone.
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Jun 26, 2020 21:27
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SirFozzie posted:Well, there's a part where a Mech takes two Arrow IV rounds to the chest. When the smoke clears, the top half of the mech is gone. That's actually consistent with the rules, unlike Stackpoling. Being destroyed by artillery is one of the two things that renders a mech unsalvageable (the other being death by ammo explosion)
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Jun 26, 2020 21:31
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PoptartsNinja posted:Does Pardoe still "Stackpole" 'Mechs left right and center? Better question is if the south rises again. That is Pardoe, right?
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Jun 26, 2020 21:41
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Stackpoling is in the rules. That section of the rules just happens to start with "this is dumb and would never happen but everyone wants it to so here", but it's definitely in there.
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Jun 26, 2020 21:42
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Strobe posted:Stackpoling is in the rules. That section of the rules just happens to start with "this is dumb and would never happen but everyone wants it to so here", but it's definitely in there. Yes they made a rule for it after Stackpole decided he didn't care that it made no sense. Like how they keep adding rules for magic because Stackpole's characters need to be special. Taerkar posted:Better question is if the south rises again. Yep, that's him. His pet character is compared over and over to Stonewall Jackson and it's some kind of propaganda coup, because the English and Germans care a shitload about the American Civil War.
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Jun 26, 2020 22:19
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I believe the TechManual had a bit in it that was a lecture/presentation where the speaker referred to 'Stackpoling' as people seeing a large flash when the fusion engine shielding was breached and assuming it meant the mech was blown up because said mech would be on the ground after their vision returned.
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Jun 26, 2020 22:28
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Defiance Industries posted:That's actually consistent with the rules, unlike Stackpoling. Being destroyed by artillery is one of the two things that renders a mech unsalvageable (the other being death by ammo explosion) By that I mean the top half is totally vaporized, and the bottom half is just standing there.
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Jun 27, 2020 03:54
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SirFozzie posted:By that I mean the top half is totally vaporized, and the bottom half is just standing there.
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Jun 27, 2020 04:00
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SirFozzie posted:By that I mean the top half is totally vaporized, and the bottom half is just standing there. Hey, damage doesn't transfer from the torsos into the legs.
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Jun 27, 2020 04:14
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I keep wanting to have a scene in an upcoming book where someone ridicules the idea of anyone caring about the ACW in the year 3000, like someone getting immensely worked up over the Avar-Byzantine wars of the 7th century today.
Xotl fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Jun 28, 2020 |
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Jun 27, 2020 10:36
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Funny you should mention that, I'm working on something for Shrapnel.
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Jun 27, 2020 10:50
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Defiance Industries posted:Funny you should mention that, I'm working on something for Shrapnel. Is the ability to submit ideas to Shrapnel contingent on being a kickstarter backer? I ordered the first issue from Amazon 'cause I heard it had lots of Dark Age stories.
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Jun 27, 2020 18:22
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No, the submission guidelines are in the back of the magazine.
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Jun 27, 2020 18:37
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What's the ACW again? I'm relatively new to Battletech lore and the only thing that comes to my mind that ACW is related to is the Arctic Wolf.
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Jun 28, 2020 01:20
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Defiance Industries posted:Funny you should mention that, I'm working on something for Shrapnel. Blake bless you. I actually have a story draft lying around where a Star League crew is watching an ACW "historical drama" with fighter jets strafing trenches, but I've never finished it. I should polish it off at some point. Xotl fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Jun 28, 2020 |
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Jun 28, 2020 01:20
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Floppychop posted:What's the ACW again? I'm relatively new to Battletech lore and the only thing that comes to my mind that ACW is related to is the Arctic Wolf. The (American) Civil War. Protagonists in novels by Pardoe have a tendency to reference it despite it occurring over a millennium ago because it's what Pardoe knows.
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Jun 28, 2020 01:38
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DeepThrobble posted:The (American) Civil War. Protagonists in novels by Pardoe have a tendency to reference it despite it occurring over a millennium ago because it's what Pardoe knows. Don't forget to mention that Pardoe wants to equate Victor's side (the plot-designated virtuous heroes) with the Confederacy (who were fighting for the right to own human beings as property). Xotl posted:Blake bless you. I'm thinking the line I'm going with is "Of course, there were many nation-states on Terra before the Western Alliance started its spaceflight program, but they're not particularly relevant to us. It's not like we're talking about the Federation of Skye here." Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Jun 28, 2020 |
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Jun 28, 2020 02:09
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DeepThrobble posted:The (American) Civil War. Protagonists in novels by Pardoe have a tendency to reference it despite it occurring over a millennium ago because it's what Pardoe knows. Oh snap, yeah that makes zero sense to reference in an emotional tone 1200 years later.
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Jun 28, 2020 02:29
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There's a reason I don't enjoy Pardoe's novels as a general rule.
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Jun 28, 2020 02:59
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Defiance Industries posted:I'm thinking the line I'm going with is "Of course, there were many nation-states on Terra before the Western Alliance started its spaceflight program, but they're not particularly relevant to us. It's not like we're talking about the Federation of Skye here." Yeah, that's perfect: it's really like what anyone outside of military history instructors would be saying. America and Canada went into the Terran Hegemony, and the Hegemony was reduced to slag, so not even "muh ancient culture" people would have an investment in something so ancient.
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Jun 28, 2020 03:31
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I can see world-shattering wars like the Roman and Mongol conquests and the three World Wars being referenced in the 31st century but I honestly don't see how a minor, localized affair like the ACW would even register to anyone but a huge pre-spaceflight history nerd. I feel like if you're someone in the 31st century the Star League Civil War would be the civil war you'd be referencing if you needed to draw parallels to another civil war.
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Jun 28, 2020 04:19
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Xotl posted:Yeah, that's perfect: it's really like what anyone outside of military history instructors would be saying. America and Canada went into the Terran Hegemony, and the Hegemony was reduced to slag, so not even "muh ancient culture" people would have an investment in something so ancient. The only reason we're even going as far back as the Terran Alliance is that the 2nd Donegal used to be the 11th Terran Rangers and so it's specifically relevant to them; for basically everyone else in the Inner Sphere, the Outer Reaches Rebellion is basically the beginning of history. BattleMaster posted:I can see world-shattering wars like the Roman and Mongol conquests and the three World Wars being referenced in the 31st century but I honestly don't see how a minor, localized affair like the ACW would even register to anyone but a huge pre-spaceflight history nerd. Also, both Houses have already had major civil wars of their own, you'd think those would come up considering how easy the comparisons are to make. The Commonwealth had Robert Steiner, a career pilot who just wanted to fly planes and shoot Mariks, depose Margaret Olsen after a bunch of important people came to his front door and begged him to lead them. Seems like a really easy comparison to make if you're looking for historical figures that Lyrans would be familiar with to make Victor look good. They even both have a physical trait, Victor is comically short and Robert had to wear leg braces in full gravity. In the FS, it's even easier, because this poo poo has basically already happened once, and that's why regents can never take the throne. You accuse her of doing exactly what Laura Davion tried to do: she took the regency, pretended it was an emergency measure and then when the legal sovereign popped back up, just threw her hands in the air and tried to take the throne for herself. But the obvious parallel never registers with a single novel character at any point in the FCCW, because they were too busy thinking about regional conflicts on 19th century Earth.
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Jun 28, 2020 05:25
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Time to take this trend to the next level and create the Teapot Dome Scandal-class assault mech.
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Jun 28, 2020 07:24
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Jenner Clint
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Jun 28, 2020 14:52
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Xotl posted:Time to take this trend to the next level and create the Teapot Dome Scandal-class assault mech. That's what the dropships and warships are for.
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Jun 28, 2020 15:29
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Carbolic posted:Jenner I will say they at least had the restraint to not have characters explain those names themselves. Though I do think the Owens is a good name for a light mech, since there's a bit more substance to his story.
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Jun 28, 2020 18:57
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Defiance Industries posted:I will say they at least had the restraint to not have characters explain those names themselves. Though I do think the Owens is a good name for a light mech, since there's a bit more substance to his story. It isn't named after the sprinter: "The name comes from a Terran drinking song titled Gray Owens, a tune traditionally associated with cavalry units. It is interesting to note that the Draconis Combine, whose culture derives from the Oriental societies of Earth, found inspiration for the name of its new light OmniMech in a Western ditty." Some googling suggests that the song is actually called Garry Owens. There's also Rommel Patton Von Luckner ...at least these are military figures, although Von Luckner was a naval commander, who knows why he has a tank named after him. And of course Terra's Reagan SDS system because that's definitely something people in the future would commemorate.
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Jun 28, 2020 19:14
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Carbolic posted:And of course Terra's Reagan SDS system because that's definitely something people in the future would commemorate. I'm willing to give them this for two reasons: 1. It was the Terran Hegemony, and their government is on a direct line of descent from the United States 2. SDI actually WORKED in the BattleTech universe. The upgraded project based around Crippen Station saved millions of lives in the Second Soviet Civil War.
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Jun 28, 2020 19:26
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wait what's the Clint based on?
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Jun 28, 2020 19:41
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Der Waffle Mous posted:wait what's the Clint based on? The mayor of Carmel, California from 1986-88.
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Jun 28, 2020 19:43
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Der Waffle Mous posted:wait what's the Clint based on? Clint Eastwood
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Jun 28, 2020 19:43
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That guy that went off into a ravine?
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Jun 28, 2020 19:49
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The designer was really impressed with how he refused to shoot Mad Dog Tannen and built a giant robot that wasn't very good at killing to commemorate him.
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Jun 28, 2020 19:53
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