What if Palladium books made Battletech?

[gaby]

What if Palladium books made Battletech?
How different do you think things will things be?

What would you changed in Battletech if you could?

[Spinachcat]

I've played a Battletech RPG years ago where the GM used the Robotech rules and mashed it up with Rifts vehicles. Personally, I prefer the Hero Games' Robot Warriors RPG for my mecha RPG needs, but the Battletech via Palladium was fine.

BTW, anyone who likes using minis for RIFTS should check out the HeroClix Battletech minis via eBay. GREAT STUFF if you like plastic prepaints that can be accidentally dropped off tables. Are they are gorgeous as ubersculpted lead or plastic? Nope, but I can get the prepainted Battletech minis for $3 each off eBay and I never worry if they get knocked over or fall during gameplay.

[Dunia]

Not to be a nay-sayer or in any way badmouthing PB and its people, but I seriously doubt that PB would be able to do anything good for the Battletech game and universe.

Battletech was my first board/tabletop miniature game I was sucked into by an ex-bf and I loved it for all the fiction and atmosphere as well as the multitudes of books published, of which almost all were so fantastic to read.

We used to run a battletech/mechwarrior combo where we led a merc company and it was awesome. So this game is so close to my heart that I would like someone as busy as Kevin touch it with a 10-foot pole. PB and Kevin would not be able to keep up with another miniature game and it would not only ruin Battletech, it would ruin all the multiple projects he is always working on and the fans would be even more upset when he must prioritize one line or one book. Now I am not saying that Kevin and PB are bad, it is just with all their projects, i honestly believe that adding a new big project like BT, would impare all the lines and gather even more unhappy and frustrated fans.

[Jefffar]

It would have made the legal issues between FASA and Harmony Gold radically different.

I'd expect Battletech to wind up more Rifts-like and with a far less systematic approach to building mechs

[Forar]

If PB made Battletech?

I suspect we'd still be waiting for the clan invasion to kick off.

[Sir Dellis]

I love PB, but I'm glad that PB does not do anything with Battletech. I've played BT almost as long as I've played Palladium games...since high school in the late 80s, I graduated in 1990. Battletech is an awesome universe and PB does tend to be a bit slow on certain things. FASA did a great job until they no longer could.

[Sureshot]

I'm not sure they could do a good job. As well they would have to revise and update the damage and range values of most weapons. As most of them are somewhat underpowered and lack range compared to their Battletech counterparts imo.

[glitterboy2098]

When discussing things guys, keep in mind this is a 'what if', not a serious proposal.

Batlletech is still around and better than ever. When FASA closed its doors, the good people at Catalyst Game Labs LLC obtained the licence (under Topps who bought it)
Catalyst is run by a mix of the people who created the game for FASA and new blood who had been contributors in the later days of FASA.

http://bg.battletech.com/

[gaby]

I Want people to tell me What they think Palladium books would do,if they made Battletech,like How different will the Inner sphere,s powers be?
Or the MechWarrior Occ?

[rosco60559]

like many here battletech has a big spot in my heart, been playing it since the late 80's/early 90's. honestly I played batteltech long before really getting into pb's games. given pb's history and they might have done an ok job but it would not be as cool as it is now if battletech survived under pb at all. pb can barely get the rifters out on time along with 3-5 book of their wish list. like many of the games pb says they support a new book every 3-10 years if that and battletech would go under lost in the games that could have been. sure the legal stuff could have ended differently but the normal be from pb would do too much harm to a game that needed a actual constant flow of new material. fasa did great with it till they disappeared for a while, fanpro picked up the torch and now catalyst has it and battletech keeps chugging a long.

so I guess the short answer in the what if, battletech would come out, and fade away due to lack of support under the pb flag. for further reference look at how rrt is doing, things are looking really rough for it. not sure if it'll make it. wave 2 would certainly help with a few balance issues and the ton of cooler figs everyone really wanted like the monster or super valks.

[Jefffar]

I think some people are making the mistake of looking at Palladium as it is now and forgetting the dynamic business that it was back in the 80s and 90s. Back then, while there certainly were still product delays, there was a considerable product volume coming out. Most of those years saw a new book every one to two months, plus other products like miniatures, GM screens, novelizations and calendars.

The slump started in earnest with the fiscal problems that came after somewhere over half a million dollars were embezzled out of the company. After that we saw years with only one or two books and some product lines going unsupported for years.

If Palladium had gotten the Battletech game at the start instead of FASA, they certainly could have put enough product out to make a go of it. Battletech would have been a very different game and I don't know if it would have been as popular as it was the way Palladium would have done it, but there would have been enough product there.

[Summersnow]

The slump started in earnest with the fiscal problems that came after somewhere over half a million dollars were embezzled out of the company.

Wait, is this the big announcement for Wave 2 of RRT? They had half a million embezzled and that's why they aren't doing anything or showing any progress?

[Jefffar]

The slump started in earnest with the fiscal problems that came after somewhere over half a million dollars were embezzled out of the company.

Wait, is this the big announcement for Wave 2 of RRT? They had half a million embezzled and that's why they aren't doing anything or showing any progress?

No, that was what happened back in 2005(ish). Palladium hasn't been the same since.

My point is the pre-embezlement Palladium would have easily produced enough books to support Battletech as opposed to the very low volume of products they currently produce.

[glitterboy2098]

thing is though.. i'm note sure battletech-as-done-by-PB would have been as popular as battletech-done-by-FASA.. while Fasa wasn't really a big believer in eratta, and had some odd moments storyline wise.. they did tend to be more consistent in both rules and setting/story compared to palladium. even looking at pre-Crisis palladium, palladium's approach to meta-setting and meta-plot is a lot less systematic than FASA had, and palladium never showed much capability to tie their settings/story to non-game products like FASA did with the Battletech Novels. and for all it's headscratcher moments when they forgot some small or obscure part of their continuity, FASA's ability to plan far ahead of their current storyline point and work foreshadowing elements into their products was much better than palladium could do.
after all, the Clans and clan invasion, along with the return of star league level tech, was part of FASA's plan for the game pretty much since they put pen to paper to make the 2nd edition in 1985.. even though the Clans themselves wouldn't arrive until 1990! and FASA was sticking (at the time) obscure references to the clans in the whole time.. the most notable being the Wolf's Dragoon's use of clan terminology and custom in the novels, long before the clans showed up.

similarlly the more recent "Word of Blake Jihad" that fell to Catalyst Games to detail, had been on the books (accordign to the catalysrt dev's, many of who worked for fasa back then) since the 1990's as the "end point" for the FASA timeline plan.. the events FASA had between the end of the lcan invasion all the way up to the end of the fedcom civil war were supposed to lead up to this major conflict, though they never detailed it specifically before they closed their doors. the mechwarrior Dark Age game, done by the original developers of battletech for FASA, dropped some hints about it but jumped ahead, establishing a new section of timeline that stretched all the way up to the 3140's, although it was not nearly as well detailed due to how the various rights to spin off products got spread around.

one of the big reasons catalyst Games is holding off the release of post-3145 materials now that they've caught the timeline up to the MWDA game's setting, is because after 3150.. the FASA/wizkids timeline plan ends. totally empty slate for them to work with, no preexisting "gotta do this" notes.
so they're taking their time to plan out the next 200 years or so of battletech setting history.. including where they want the factions to go, the weapons to develop, etc.

Palladium has never shown that ability to plan that far ahead and stick to the plan. but ultimately it's that consistent and ongoing universe, that made battletech and it's various spinoffs a success.


palladium's strengths seem to lie more in creativity and flexibility.. using rifts for example, they made references to various things in older works which eventually were grabbed and expanded on, like madhaven, england, germany, etc.. but it is also fairly obvious that for a lot of it the result we got wasn't planned out that far ahead, but was instead PB and later it's freelancers grabbing unused idea hooks put in for Gm's to use, and running with it, often down paths not imagined by PB when it made those references. and Palladium's games manage to be more creative and include way more concepts, tropes, and genra's into a single setting than anything FASA ever tried (short of Shadowrun.. and even then, shadowrun can't boast nearly the diversity of concepts that any of PB's games have managed to include)