Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - The Battletech Dynasty: Chapt. 5 - The Invasion, 3050-3056

Abe Sargent · 10-22-2011, 04:39 PM

Alright, let’s talk. There are a few BattleTech products that really pissed off fans when published. I can think of four off the top of my head – Unbound, Far Country, Wars of Reaving and Living Legends.

Unbound was an adventure that took place on Solaris VII in 3053 and introduces a ton of new technology to the games, including new missiles, center torso cockpits, and tons of new weapons. This wasn’t what a lot of fans wanted. But the obvious hunger that a lot of people had for this book’s technology forced a lot of later product to include these sorts of things in them.

Far Country was a novel where Drac forces crash land on a planet in an unknown place after a jump failure. They find that another Drc force crash landed there in the same circumstances more than 500 years ago, and that the plane had an intelligent bird like species that could talk, communicate, fight and more. The whole point of BattleTech was that this was a universe with no intelligent alien life. There are alien creatures, planets, diseases and more, but not intelligent species. We are our own heroes ad our own villains. Far Country felt off.

The Wars of Reaving was released in August of this year and details a severe time in the Clan Homeworlds. It’s a recently released book, so no spoilers – but wow. Because this one book has a severe amount of change all in one source, some feel that it overstepped the bounds of the clans and pushed too much. Perhaps. I think it created a situation of realistic severity and then backed away from the obvious conclusion in order to not have as much overhaul as possible.

The final book that I think did not resonate with a lot of fans was Living Legends. It takes place any time between 3052 and 3058 in a remote system in the Draconis Combine called Schwartz. In this, something happens that, while technically possible within the scientific context of the universe, just feels off. It’s Far Country in adventure form. No other source or book has ever referred to the events in here again. It just wasn’t popular with the fans, so no one talked about it. It’s 100% canonical, but has no impact beyond the story itself. I guess we just assume that one of the ending where everything is destroyed and killed is the one that actually happens, but even still, this event should be mentioned everywhere.

I have a few adventures in the queue for later chapters in our adventure, but I haven’t run any of the ones in the 3050’s so far. Adventures tend to focus on one of a few things – one unit’s battles and history or a major campaign in one place. I have adventures for Luthien and Tukkayid, but we weren’t at either major battle of the Clan Invasion. I was already doing this contract deep in Jaguar space, and then, 3/4s of the way through, it hit me that this fits here, for us. It makes sense in this run through.

So, what happens when we spin Living Legends a bit? But what if you aren’t working for ComStar as a mercenary group, but for the Combine? What if the events that occurred, whenever I wanted to place them, happened to have a third group in Schwartz in addition to ComStar operatives and Jaguars? What would be the result?

Say hello to Living Legends…

10-22-2011, 04:39 PM	#299
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	Alright, let’s talk. There are a few BattleTech products that really pissed off fans when published. I can think of four off the top of my head – Unbound, Far Country, Wars of Reaving and Living Legends. Unbound was an adventure that took place on Solaris VII in 3053 and introduces a ton of new technology to the games, including new missiles, center torso cockpits, and tons of new weapons. This wasn’t what a lot of fans wanted. But the obvious hunger that a lot of people had for this book’s technology forced a lot of later product to include these sorts of things in them. Far Country was a novel where Drac forces crash land on a planet in an unknown place after a jump failure. They find that another Drc force crash landed there in the same circumstances more than 500 years ago, and that the plane had an intelligent bird like species that could talk, communicate, fight and more. The whole point of BattleTech was that this was a universe with no intelligent alien life. There are alien creatures, planets, diseases and more, but not intelligent species. We are our own heroes ad our own villains. Far Country felt off. The Wars of Reaving was released in August of this year and details a severe time in the Clan Homeworlds. It’s a recently released book, so no spoilers – but wow. Because this one book has a severe amount of change all in one source, some feel that it overstepped the bounds of the clans and pushed too much. Perhaps. I think it created a situation of realistic severity and then backed away from the obvious conclusion in order to not have as much overhaul as possible. The final book that I think did not resonate with a lot of fans was Living Legends. It takes place any time between 3052 and 3058 in a remote system in the Draconis Combine called Schwartz. In this, something happens that, while technically possible within the scientific context of the universe, just feels off. It’s Far Country in adventure form. No other source or book has ever referred to the events in here again. It just wasn’t popular with the fans, so no one talked about it. It’s 100% canonical, but has no impact beyond the story itself. I guess we just assume that one of the ending where everything is destroyed and killed is the one that actually happens, but even still, this event should be mentioned everywhere. I have a few adventures in the queue for later chapters in our adventure, but I haven’t run any of the ones in the 3050’s so far. Adventures tend to focus on one of a few things – one unit’s battles and history or a major campaign in one place. I have adventures for Luthien and Tukkayid, but we weren’t at either major battle of the Clan Invasion. I was already doing this contract deep in Jaguar space, and then, 3/4s of the way through, it hit me that this fits here, for us. It makes sense in this run through. So, what happens when we spin Living Legends a bit? But what if you aren’t working for ComStar as a mercenary group, but for the Combine? What if the events that occurred, whenever I wanted to place them, happened to have a third group in Schwartz in addition to ComStar operatives and Jaguars? What would be the result? Say hello to Living Legends… __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 10-22-2011 at 04:59 PM.