OBT Forum
General BattleTech => General Discussion => Topic started by: Red Pins on September 12, 2017, 04:35:35 PM
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I've been laid up with a knee injury, and CGL has - irritated me. So, I'm considering what it would take to MAKE a intro box set, with fan-produced content only, to see if I can start some interest locally.
I'd include a copy of the free online introductory rules, Worktroll's Army reports, and a sheet of the mech icons from MegaMek. I'm a little hung up on the hex maps, given that I wouldn't want to just copy standard maps. I suppose I could supply a blank hex sheet suitable for photocopy, with a card explaining how to draw on your own map.
There are plenty of online resources, from Sarna to fan-produced TROs, that would provide a basic TRO for the cost to print, while binding is a simple matter of a drill and jobber bit to fit a ring binder (or use page protectors if you're rich - and it could hold a record sheet between TRO pages).
I could even provide a "introductory" TRO of a dozen sheets, from one of the fan TROs.
Thoughts, opinions?
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Have a look at what Ulisses Spiele (the German rights owner) did with their "starter box" - albeit very pricey (50 Euros). The cardboard cutouts are a brilliant touch, except they wussed on a mix of colour & line art for the images.
(Oh, and using 20-odd year old Citytech 2 plastic minis, which must have been mouldering in a bunker somewhere ... not new production)
On a less formal note, printing the free QSRs here (http://bg.battletech.com/new-to-the-board-game/) are a good start. Add to them the other things you're mentioning, and you'd have a good intro pack.
And yes, feel free to use the Intro Rules. The trick is to print the PDF in booklet form, both sides - they come out as handy-dandy A5 booklets.
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Total budget for this project (an individual box); $0 (But I can dream.)
Some of it will have to be printed, but if I go back to work (not for a while) I have a print allowance and admission to the general photocopy account. The big thing will be time, and convincing the owners to let me put something on the rack by the door.
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True fact - in 2000, when I heard FASA was shutting down, I used the crude internet resources of the day to grab hold of all PDF copies of FASA product I could lay my hands on. I was working for a government department, who had industrial-level printers and enormous quantities of used ring binders.
I ended up divesting myself of them around the time I became an 'official' volunteer, to a friend of my son's who was interested. Shortly after that, the local game distributor (MilSims) ended up stopping carrying BT books, and liquidated their stock for peanuts, and I now have about 90% official in dead tree.
So the answer is obvious - get a job with the government! :0