The Arbitration crew has
their April 2014 podcast out. The middle segment addresses the 3250 hooplah, and I've got way more comments & questions than I'm comfortable sticking in the li'l comment box.
WRT recent products:If I know almost zero things about Dark Age, and I wanted to know
all the things about Dark Age, would the Era Digest catch me all the way up? How much WizKids stuff hasn't been covered yet?
WRT reboot:I completely missed The Great Fan Freakout. A lot of what I hear about it sounds like the same kind of misinterpretation that caused the Freakout in the first place...
- Who actually freaked out? A handful of highly visible fans, or a bunch of the recent returnees, or what?
- Did Catalyst actually recant their plans for 3250 (link please?), or merely go silent about them?
- Stuff was released as teasers? Is it still available somewhere?
- I'm still surprised that the *Jihad* didn't lead directly into a 3250-style Tech Reboot.
I don't see what establishing A New Galactic Order (First Star League, Republic, IlClan) does for the setting except to establish new super-tech ruins for players to search.
Somebody on the other forum suggested dropping BattleTech entirely and starting a brand new IP. I'd have mixed feelings, but that might be a valid option.
If Catalyst were concerned about design bloat, I imagine they'd be issuing fewer record sheets per book. (I haven't looked to see if that's the case.)
At 39:10 you say "If that is the motivation for a reboot, then that is a bad motivation." You never seem to say what "that motivation" is--please clarify?
WRT 3025/Mad Max:In practical terms, "3025" lasts however long it's sold or played. For instance, I started BattleTech in the Clan Invasion, then backtracked to 3025 after discovering 3025 products.
- Different people mean different things when they say "the Mad Max feel." Notably, people who dislike 3025 tend to think that "feel" is confined to BattleDroids, while I see many elements of that "feel" in (for instance) the Jihad period.
3025 is appealing in part because it has an easily grasped number of dominant factions, each defined by very distinctive traits, and each with plot seeds with the potential for internal and external conflict. Is any of that not desirable for a game setting?
- Marik is tech savvy and mercantile but fractious; Liao is small, shrewd, and heavily fortified; Davion is expansive and scientifically progressive, but stretched very thin; Kurita is belligerent but poor; Steiner is richly endowed but suffers humiliating military leadership. Each also has plot seeds with potential for internal and external conflict. What other kind of thing is needed to make them "interesting" or worth "rooting for"?
- Can you clarify what you mean when you say 3025's history is "bare bones basic?"
- Can you clarify what you mean by "mileage" when you say we're getting "more mileage" from Star League products? Given your reaction to FM:SLDF, I don't think you mean wordcount.
There are people who dislike what Catalyst is doing with the new eras, yet expect to like what Catalyst would do with 3025? Really?
WRT Clans:Any single Clan has approximately the same individuality as a House Brigade; taken collectively, the Clans have approximately the same individuality as a single House. (Which is to say: I think a Great House is
too big to root for.)
- I can understand if someone said that the Clans were an optional expansion to the "introductory" game, and that the introductory game has a certain primacy in BattleTech's lineup.
Whatever BattleTech's position was in 1989, it was Virtual World and the other excellent video games that really boosted its popularity. The Clans were present in those games but their specific tech, culture and plot twists were incidental to the video games' success.
- Let's see what BattleTech published 1987-1988... lots of faction books? No new TROs? Yeah, I don't know if BattleTech was in decline or not, but it wouldn't be surprising.
WRT Eras:The largest survey of BattleTech fans I've ever seen (circa 2006 maybe?) broke down like this: 3 parts preferred 3025, 2 parts preferred 3050, 1 part preferred the Jihad, and 1 part spread across assorted other eras. Every large survey I've seen since then follows this general pattern.
It seems difficult to run each era as a separate product line... I like products that make things relevant to multiple eras. TR:3058 resurrecting 'Mechs from the Fall of the Star League, for instance, or TR:3075 resurrecting Age of War designs.
