Lorcan Nagle wrote:
Thursday

Interview with Quincy from Quincy's Tavern

Interview with Tommy Rice (The Lok/Partha Wars)

Interview with Jordan Wiseman (FASA co-founder, Adventure Forge)

Interview with Jason from XP Network

Interview with Jodi Black from Pinnacle

Interview with Chris Lowry from Piranha Games

Chris got into BattleTech from the tabletop, he recalls reading TRO 3025 in Boy Scouts.
The MechWarrior computer games were important to him growing up
He joined PGI in the MechWarrior Online days
His first narrative design was in MW5 Mercs: Legends of the Kestrel Rangers
He did narrative work on MW 5 Clans: Ghost Bear Flash Storm
Before PGI, he’d been working in videogames for about 10 years, his biggest title prior to that was Cityville on facebook. He worked on some Marvel mobile games in the pre-Disney years like Ultimate Alliance 2.
He started in PGI as a balance analyst for MWO, then worked as a system analyst, doing a lot of design around stuff like the markets in MW5, and then to narrative design with the MW5Mercs DLC
When developing MW5, they had an aim to bring things back to the beginning given how long it had been since there had been a BattleTech computer game.
While Mercs was built as a sandbox, Clans was more about the rich narrative of the BattleTech universe, getting you involved with characters from the novels and the setting overall.
They don’t work with CGL directly on story, and they tend to adapt the fiction to the game because what works in the novel or tabletop game won’t necessarily work in a video game.
Even when they directly adapt events from the novels, they work to keep it accessible to new fans
MW5 Clans: Ghost Bear Flashstorm added Elementals, and had characters such as Theodore Kurita, Aletha Kabrinski, Bjorn Jorgensson and Ulric Kerensky as characters in the narrative
They’re adding the Shadow Hawk IIc to MWO in August
MW5 Mercs: Shadow of Kerensky is a new DLC, which introduces the Clans to Mercs and progresses the story into the Clan invasion. Out in September
They’re still rendering the cinematics for Shadow of Kerensky, so there’s just promo art right now
It’s their largest expansion yet, more will be announced at Gamescon

Gothic chat with Randall Bills and Marco Mazzoni

Gothic started two and a half years ago, they were heading towards the 40th anniversary and Loren suggested doing an alternate universe.
Randall wasn’t on-board at first but over the course of an extended discussion with Loren, Ray and Aaron he came around to it.
While 40K was definitely an influence, other games in the same school of thought like Warmachine and Malifaux were part of the mix.
Given the dark nature of the setting, they decided Herb “king of the Jihad” Beas was the perfect fit to helm that side of the product
Marco wasn’t the first choice for art direction (Randall says he wasn’t familiar with Marco’s portfolio enough and admitted that if he had been, he would have been a lock-in), they looked at different options who didn’t work out. Anthony Scroggins was way too busy and they started looking at other in-house options.
Marco’s history in computer games gave him a lot of experience taking designs and changing their aesthetic. The Atlas redesign was one of the first things he did.
The next Continuum box will be Rockets and Rayguns, and the matching of art with setting is moving very well, even faster than it did with Gothic
A big question with a product with this is how far do you push, and how close to you keep to the setting. Some stuff Randall felt was really out there but Brynn said to him they just looked like pirates or Solaris Gladiators.
The abominations were designed first, and then the mechs were designed with Abominations in mind, spikes and armoured joints to protect vulnerable parts of the mechs, for example.
They followed the Harry Turtledove idea for alternate history where there’s a pivotal moment that changes things. In Gothic it’s biotech going out of control. The Abominations are engineered creatures that can be controlled, with weapons and armour grafted to their bodies.
The game is straight-up classic BattleTech, with the Abominations added. Randall described them as part infantry,part protomech, part battlearmour
Marco pulled a lot from Gothic architecture, ribbed shapes and so on, justified as protection. They had a design they described as a walking castle at one point! They had an Atlas abomination! Once Marco and Randall were happy with a design it was shared with Ray, Brent and Loren who’d give their feedback and then Marco would revise with Randall before sharing further again.
Randall said it’s been his best experience developing art for a product since OG Leviathans with Doug Chaffee.
The Gothic Product line is:
-Gothic Box set
--Rulebook
---Universe book
---Double-wide, double-sided map sheet
----One side is a gothiced up urban scene
----The other side is trench warfare
---Premium record sheets, 2 variants per mech plus abominations and blank abomination sheets
---Waterslide decals. Marco designed the mins to each have a space for a decal
---8 minis
----Phoenix Hawk
----UrbanMech
----Firestarter
----Scorpion
----Marauder
----Rifleman
----King Crab
----Atlas
-----The Atlas has five alternate heads, back tabards and bas-relief decorations to customise to your faction
---Poster-sized Map of the Human Sphere with a recognition/scale guide on the back
---Pilot cards
---Alpha Strike cards
---BSP cards for the abominations
---Counters for abominations
---Building counters
---Short story
-Salvage boxes
--Contains the 8 minis from the Gothic box
---If you pull an Atlas it will be pre-assembed as one of the five faction variants, the option parts won’t be in the box.
-C-scale Atlas
--C-Scale is the new CGL name for 1/110 scale mech minis. So the Atlas is in the same scale as the Kickstarter Mad Cat, they’re talking about doing one a year now, a mix of regular and continuum designs.
--It contains the same option parts as the regular-scale Atlas
Marco did most of the art and some of the design elements as well
Right as the box was going to print, Marco sent some front and back images of each faction Atlas and Randall insisted they be included in the universe book
Randall put his thumb on the scale to ensure the Atlas on the cover is the Kuritan version
People often say to Randall that they give some faction too much screen time. He points out that his favourite factions are the Nova Cats, Blood Spirits and Draconis Combine. Two of them are dead and one gets beat up on all the time, so you might not want your favourite faction to be his
Randall is still working on his Nova Cat novel, it’s been “a heck of a two years” between the world tour and all the games he’s been working on.
Aces has a chance to be transformative, it has a change to bring in a whole new type of player
This was Marco’s first Gencon!
Big Red: Did you do this to upstage my Gothic video? Yes. They sent out advance copies to Red, GMG and a few other streamers and bloggers and those reviews have been coming out recently.
Two years ago Randall leaked a list of upcoming minis and a lot of the deadlines have been blown. This was more due to Aces which blew the production schedule out of the water.
Randall thinks the Nightsky might be one of the most “blown up” designs, but it’s still recognisable as a Nightsky
Gothic is sitting in the warehouse, it should be out in September with the C-Scale Atlas following a little later
When will the digital copy of TRO: 3025 Commemorative edition? Physical is out in September so PDF should be too. The redesign load for that book also caused delays to the minis production schedule. Ray had the idea for the book in April and it was all hands on deck to get it done for Gencon
The Chippewa is Randall’s favourite Aerospace redesign
MSRP for 3035 Commemorative is $40, even though it’s around 250 pages.
Randall got to meet Duane Loose during the production of 3025 Commemorative, and it was one of the few things he geeked out about at this point in his career. He wrote a piece for the book about the art evolution
Are there any new rules in Gothic except for the Abominations? Just some existing advanced and experimental tech weapons like the blazers. But they might push the boundaries further next time.
What mech did Randall wish was Gothiced but wasn’t? The Puma/Adder, his son Kenyon fell in love with the mech while playing MW 5: Clans
Randall bigged up the narrative content in MW5: Clans, said that it’s essentially a BattleTech movie even as we might never get one.
Will there be more products for Gothic? Maybe. The 3D models for the abominations are built, but scale is an issue with the smallest ones, think the detail issues with the Inner Sphere BattleArmour minis. If they can solve those they’ll probably do the Abominations in plastic, and maybe a Clan plastic set.
There are some 3D printed abominations in the display cabinet
What Goth bands would the Gothic factions listen to? Randall thinks that would be fun, Marco was wearing a Skinny Puppy shirt and threw out Endless Dynasty and Sisters of Mercy as bands
Will we get tanks and aircraft? Yes
The Epona? It’s in an upcoming Hell’s Horses pack

Quincy and Mike Richie play a board game

Interview with Rena from Renegade Studios

Interview with Steve Kenson (staff designer, former shadowrun and BattleTech writer), Troy Hewitt (Community manager),Alex Thomas (Mutants and Masterminds line developer) from Green Ronin

Interview with Rob from R. Talsorian Games

Shadowrun Developer’s game with Aaron Dykstra, Rem Alternis, Jordan Wiseman, Tom Dowd, Mike Mulvihill, Jason Hardy and RJ Thomas

Lorcan Nagle wrote:
Friday!

Good morning Gencon with B.Dave Walters, Thor Knai and Beth The Bard

Partha Wars chat with Randall, Tommy Rice, B.Dave Walters and Thor Knai


Around 2014 Josh was regularly playing X-Wing, and one of the organisers mentioned it’d be cool if they had a campaign game with a GM to play the OPFOR and Josh was thinking “who wants to play the OPFOR? Can we automate this?” A few people had played around with the concept.
He had injured his knee and was stuck not able to get around that much, looked at the various other attempts to automate and put together Heroes of the Aturi Cluster. A 17-mission campaign with automated Imperial forces and pilot improvement for the Rebel player.
From there he got a meeting with Wizkids which lead to Star Trek Alliance, a three-box trilogy using the same concepts for Attack Wing.
By that time he was working at Lynnvander and they got the rights to make Snap Ships alliance, which also has automation
During Covid, Randall and Brynn decided to take the downtime to become masters of game design. Randall stuck his neck out and just started mailing people to ask for game samples because they couldn’t trade at cons. They ended up playing over 100 minis games, one of which Alliance. He said that most automation options were meh. Like if a game says 2-4 players “and you can go to 5” you know it’s not fun with 5 players
When Randall first reached out to Lynnvander to collaborate they were already working on Snap Ships. Randall recognised something similar could be done with Alpha Strike.
Lynnvander suggested doing little packs and Randall said “no no no, that’s not what I want”
Tommy and Randall had a bunch of conversations before Josh even knew they were talking about it.
Loren had to be sold on the idea, conversely Randall had to be sold on Gothic and the Continuum boxes.
Randall talked about how he wanted box sets, new minis, campaigns set in the new settings. Loren told him to “stop asking for ponies”
The prior games Josh developed uses a bespoke movement system with templates, but Alpha Strike is more freeform. With the other games once you pick your target it’s straightforward to have an optimum move.
The Aces cards has three columns for behaviour which are decided on based on conditions, and they in turn determine target, movement and attack for the turn.
They’ve almost completely scrapped and redone the system since the open playtest during the Mercs Kickstarter campaign (which was version 4 or so). Josh has some examples of cards which changed through the various iterations.
A military friend of Josh talked about how it should be based on contact priority, this helped prevent light mechs from being baited into overextending.
At this point they had a deck that can run a mech. But they wanted a narrative box set because it’s so important to BattleTech.
Josh wasn’t aware of this when he begun but he’s fully sold on it. He’s done so much research into the setting now that he knows more than some 30+ year veterans he plays with. He started reading Warrior and the Gray Death Trilogy, and then jumped to the Dark Age and backfilled the Clan Invasion, Civil War etc.
Josh began to think about how do you have a commander in charge of the force to give the game some personality. So they made a commander deck. The Aces cards have colour-coded priority, red, yellow and blue, and the commander card shows how you determine which criteria select these priorities. The Commander also can have special rules that can override other elements of Aces.
You can swap out a different commander and it’ll play the same scenario differently.
They got a spreadsheet of all the units in the MUL and Josh searched out units on the extremes of stats to see what ones break the Aces system or come close to. Like units with TMM 0 will never want to move unless you build in an exception
Randall was hoping to have the first box out a year ago, but production issues, shipping, and life all got in the way. Randall thinks the final version is worth the wait.
Randall thinks the co-op play is very engaging and it’ll help bring players who don’t like competitive play into the universe and the game.
Chris talked about how in a one on one game, a new player is going to be intimidated if they’re facing a 30-year veteran. But if it’s co-op that veteran is a mentor instead.
The campaign book has 22 missions, and the average campaign should be 7 missions.
The campaign book has a guided tutorial to bring players through the game
They showed off the new terrain in the box - 3D hills, rivers and canyons/ditches.
Other boxes planned:
-Snowblind: Ghost Bear Civil War. Mercs get dropped onto a backwater world in the Rasalhague Dominion and end up in the middle of the conflict. -Josh described it as the path to hell being paved with good intentions.
-Wrath and Reprisal, set on the Andurien/Capellan novel, described as Mercenary’s Star in reverse. The players are garrisoning an Andurien world facing an insurgency.
-Controlled Burn. Set on the Snow Raven/Davion border, the players are fighting a holding action against the Ravens who’ve just hopped across the border. This set will use terrain and biome similar to the Fungal Crevasse map from the Alien Worlds set
For minis production, they followed the same format as the Alpha Strike box where there are two brand new mechs, but Alpha Strike does so well as a combined arms game, so they planned to put cardboard vehicle tokens in the box, and then went “no, plastic tanks” so they swapped out one new mech for two Fulcrums.
The Kraken 3 is the “chase” mini in the set. Not only does it look great but it’s also disgusting in-game.
Every box will have 8-9 minis along the same pattern
They just wrapped fiction on Snowblind
The new plastic minis for Snowblind are the Rime Otter and the Viking IIc
Scouring Sands is printing now. They were incredibly close to having copies at Gencon but it didn’t work out
It’ll hopefully be on boats by the end of August, aiming for November/Black Friday release.

Gothic Aces playthrough with B.Dave Walters, Mike Ciaravella. Jesse Kay (Mech7 GM), Paul Clarkson (Focht’s Network director), Chris Lowry and Josh Derksen
Objective is that there are two disabled Maxim hovertanks, the players have to get base to base with the maxims with no enemy also in base-to-base, pick up cargo and then retreat off-board
The players controlled the Gothic mechs, Josh and Jesse used the Aces decks to control the Mech7
Mike shouted out the Demo Team - over 150 agents working the con (they planned for around 100), and mentioned Focht’s Network, Wolfnet and CamoSpecs Online, all of which are affiliated groups to the Demo Team now
Some of the player mechs were new variants, notably the Phoenix Hawk with a sword, SRM rack and four medium lasers
The game was a narrow victory for the players - both sides secured an objective, but they players got more kills


Quincy and Mike Richie play a board game

Industry pros panel with Loren Coleman, Mike Webb (Wizkids), Paul Alexander Butler (Owner of Games and Stuff, co-owner of Free RPG day), John Ritter (former Kickstarter, runs consulting company called Very Creative Name), Meredith Placko (former CEO Steve Jackson Games, CEO of Turbo Dork paints and accessories)

Interview with Chris Birch (owner) and Ben (Lead writer and design director) at Modiphius

Interview with Suzanne Sheldon, “master of fireworks”, essentially head of marketing at Restoration Games

Fiction panel with John Helfers, Michael Ciaravella, Michael Stackpole, Phil Lee, Bryan Young
BattleTech is 41 years old. Why did you want to start writing, and what keeps bringing you back
Mike Stackpole: It was the mid-late 80s when he started, Dragonlance had just shown that RPG tie-in fiction worked and everyone was trying to catch up. He shared samples of his then-unpublished novel to FASA, they sent him some BattleTech material and asked him to write a trilogy in nine months. He said “of course”. He was still shopping around his first novel so this was his first work under contract. The setting excited him, the political setup especially interested him due to his history degree.
Bryan: He approached John to write Shadowrun and was told they were full up, how about BattleTech? He’d been introduced to BattleTech via the SNES game in the 90s, so it was familiar enough to him. He got more into it as he began reading the material. He loves the challenge of writing in the shared universe, finding spaces to tell stories that interest and compel him while furthering or not hindering the goals of the developers.
Phil had been writing original fiction for many years, he always wanted to be a published author. He decided to take a shot writing BattleTech fiction, submitted to Battlecorps and Jason Schemtzer published it. He sent in another one which got picked up as well. 18 months later Jason asked him to help with editing, he recognised that Phil had a good eye for storytelling. Phil ended up editing Herb and Ben’s sourcebook material as well in short order.
Mike Ciaravella had a similar story. He sent in a bunch of stories that were rejected, “started buying John dinners” and ended up with a duology. John joked that it was Jason Schmetzer who was rejecting him, put the blame where it’s due! The Warrior Trilogy was his entry point, he loved the mix of politics and drama and action.
John was introduced to Loren via Jean Rabie. BattleCorps still existed at that point, he ended up proofreading but the work he ended up closer to editing. Loren called him up asking how much his fee would be to edit a Shadowrun anthology, and it ballooned since then.
What’s coming up in the BattleTech universe?
Catastrophe Unlimited, the third novella in Stackpole’s HBS BattleTech tie-in books is out electronically now. Print compilation after the 4th is out
The Longest Day, Jason Schmetzer Battlecorps serial based on a battle in the Clan invasion is just out
The Longest Road, upcoming Jason Hansa story about a Dark Age character John didn’t want to spoil. It picks them up after a long pause and gives them sort of a coda.
An all-Gothic Shrapnel special
Outfoxed, a full-length Fox Patrol novel, out before the holiday season
Silent Assets, the first Silent Reapers novel by Daniel Isberner has been translated from German and is out in December
Next year they’re moving to six novels a year
Wars of Reaving Trilogy finishing up soon
Ghosts of Timkovichi by Bryan Young, taking the Ghost Dogs into the Hinterlands out next year
Snow Raven novel by Mike Ciaravella “when he finishes it”
4-part Ghost Bear novella series by Bryan Young adding detail to their civil war due out between late 2025 and early 2026
Graphic novel scripts are in, they discussed the art with Eldon Cowgur at the con
What’s been keeping Phil going on the Free Worlds League books
He fell into writing the FWL while writing a sourcebook, he forgets which one. Everyone was pitching to write for different factions and he was the only one to pick the League, so he got them by default. When they were developing Shattered Fortress, there were plot points he felt would make good novellas. As he thought about it more they needed novel length, he went to John and asked about expanding the scope and he agreed. He likes how the League is a dysfunctional family, and the Inner Sphere in miniature.
Bryan’s got a few lines going - Fox Patrol, the Clans, the Graphic novel, what’s been inspiring him and catching his attention?
He really likes exploring different corners of the universe. Like he never thought the Fox Patrol would explode as they did. Exploring the Sudeten Falcons as they fight for survival and adapting has been really satisfying as he doesn’t feel there’s been a lot of fiction about how the Clans changed over their century in the Inner Sphere. He feels the cultural change elements are real science fiction and he hopes that people enjoy reading as much as he enjoys writing it
What continues to inspire Mike Stackploe?
When he wrote the Warrior trilogy, everything was still entropic and they realised that had to change if they wanted the game to last. They worked that into the trilogy and then 20-year update, when they had the first writer’s summit. Since then the game’s had a bit of Stackpole’s DNA in it and it makes it very special to him. He’s got a lot of landscape to play on and room to explore characters. When you’re writing novels, everything you’re doing is trying to break a character and there’s so many characters to apply pressure to. Some of them will succeed and some will implode in interesting ways
How has being at the helm of BattleTech during the renaissance for John?
In the mid-late 2000s fiction was at its lowest point, John believed writers were doing full novels on-spec when Loren wanted to start bringing the story forward. The first step of this was A Bonfire of Worlds, it was very amphibious, got most of what they wanted and gave them a way forward. John wanted to start doing original stories which the fans loves, and when they got Legends on the go it gave them the financial base to bring the backlist up to date and move forward on a regular basis. It’s been challenging and humbling at the same time.
To Mike Ciaravella, how does he feel bringing the story forward
He’d been recommended the BattleTech novels back in the day for the politics and Space Opera elements, not even the Mechs. He talked about how Bryan creates amazing characters but he prefers to show the whole scheme from different perspectives, and taking characters who’ve laid fallow for a bit, He feels it’s very humbling to be able to bring pivotal characters forward
Mike Stackpole: The setting, writers and audience have matured to the point that we can do an awful lot in the setting. When they were starting out there was no place for units that are small and fun. It’s fascinating for him how the new writers who’ve come up with the universe looking to explore more. He feels pressure now to push things further because he can’t let these whippersnappers show him up
John: Some elements of the FASA era were a little one-dimensional, such as humour. He’s always wanted to bring that forward and loves how there’s a lot of funny stuff in Shrapnel, like the Ace Darwin stories, the wry comedy of the Death Kangaroos, or some elements of Fox Patrol’s found family being earnest, engaging and amusing all at the same time. It’s not just military SF any more, it’s the human condition
Mike Stackpole: It’s moving from military science fiction to science fiction. We can have stories not focusing on grand political stuff, more how people are dealing with things, satire and “all that fun stuff”
Mike Ciraravella: And we’ve got stuff like the cookbook, the romance novel, The Art of War and they’re selling very well. The fanbase has inspired them
John: This is why we’re all excited for the graphic novel. There’s been comics before. He’s read some of them… they’re interesting. This is an attempt to do BattleTech the graphic storytelling the right way. BattleTech deserves it and is built for it and he thinks it’s going to be terrific and hopefully pay off in a big way and lead to more bigger things.
What message do you want to give to prospective writers and fans?
John, he loves to interact with fans, and say thank you for playing the game, for reading the fiction, for keeping it going.
Phil: It’s humbling how often people come up to him and say they love Shrapnel. They’re doing an all-Gothic issue in October. Next year issue 25 will be double-sized
Bryan: One of the big things is fundamentals. Learn how to tell a good story and part of that is reading good stories. Take classes, find a community that will help you tell a good story. Talk to writers, get excited about storytelling. And Shrapnel has the open door for submitting stuff. People don’t realise how rare it is that franchises as big as BattleTech to have an open door like Shrapnel
Mike Stackpole: Writing is something you have to do. You have to sit down and write, and you have to read critically. Take notes, break it apart, see what someone else is doing. If you read Shrapnel and if you like three and dislike two stories say, figure out what you like and dislike in each one. Figure out how to do things to make people like or hate characters. Approach it as a job you want.
Mike Ciaravella: If you want to write, write. You can have the best of intentions but you need to write. Also keep the faith, it’s easy to get distracted but if you love what you do, you can keep focus and get inspired.
John: Everyone around the table has surprised him at least once. At least one story in each issue of Shrapnel surprises him. He loves that the question of “how many times can you write big stompy robots” has yet to be answered.

Shadowrun Anarchy 2.0 playthrough with Rem Alternis, B. Dave Walters, Thor Knai, Tommy Rice, Tyler Buckner (director of crowdfunding for Rem Alternis Productions, and Amber (Georgia film worker, art director for the geek forge, played Shadowrun on Gencon TV with Rem in the past)

Lorcan Nagle wrote:
Episode 57.



12th August, 2025
Guest: Loren Coleman, CGL owner and CEO

-Gothic was the best-selling BattleTech box set at GenCon ever
--Loren reiterated that they were aware that not everyone would be interested in the box and that’s fine
--They thought it would do well enough, and are pleasantly surprised with the reaction
--They brought 600 boxes and packed up about 6. About 10 copies were gifted to reviewers so sales were around 580.
--Gothic salvage boxes were sold out by Friday
--The C-scale Gothic Atlas was gone by Saturday afternoon (C-scale stands for “Century”)
--Gothic’s release date is October 1st
3-rd Star League Battle Group and Emplacements force packs, one sold out, the other either sold out or came close to, they’re very happy with how they sold.
-This was the best GenCon for CGL, they sold 20% over their prior best
-Rem is editing the GenCon streams at present, uploading one segment per day except for Tuesday Newsday VOD upload and Tuesdays
-Two fiction panels
-Demo team events went very well. Might be the biggest yet, Loren needs to confirm with Mike. Loren’s Masters and Minions game was the last to finish up, they eked out a win at 1AM. The Masters won handily this year, usually it’s closer.
-Stream Feedback from chat
--Worked way better than 2023
--Happy to see them chatting with Pinnacle
--Surprised not to see Fanroll - Loren acknowledged they should have included them and showed off the Shadowrun bullet and BattleTech missile dice. Fanroll will be offering the dice to hobby stores
--Audio balancing could take some tweaking
--Seemed light on BattleTech content - BattleTech had one hour less than Shadowrun this year. But aside from Aces and Gothic there wasn’t a ton to show off for BattleTech right now. Loren talked about how Aces is going to be a major part of BattleTech for the next year.
--Most of Quincy’s interview was silent - Rem knows and wasn’t happy about it
--Shame CGL peeps couldn’t make it to the Mech 7 game (it was scheduled opposite Masters and Minions)
Mech7 series 2 has been filmed, will be releasing in the autumn
-Upcoming shows: Pax West (sharing part of a booth on the skybridge, Loren thinks it’s just sales there and some demos elsewhere), NOVA, Essen, Gamehole Con, maybe Pax Australia, then Pax Unplugged.
-What scale is the 100mm minis? 100mm. Their plan is to do 1-2 per year for a few years, hopefully one each year will be from the newest Continuum setting.
-The next Continuum box is Rockets and Rayguns, hopefully out next year.
-Any update on release of the digital version of TRO 3025 commemorative edition? Loren isn’t sure. Physical release date is currently September 9th, expect digital a week or two before that.
-ETA on EU distribution? Mercs product is in reprint right now and will be sent to European distributors, Gothic is shipping soon, Aces will be shipping in a week, it’ll take 5-6 weeks to get to warehouses from then, Street date is in November. Emplacements and 3rd Star League coming soon.
-When will swag like velcro patches be available on the webstore? Very soon, they’re planning a store update very soon to add a lot of merch items. Now that Gen Con is in the rear-view mirror, they’re planning to do some weekly batches.
-Does CGL plan to go back to DragonCon? They’d love to, but DragonCon has a wait list, they were in for a year but the slot was taken away from them. They need someone at DragonCon to work with them to get a long-term plan.
-Den of Wolves updates? Loren was working on it at the weekend. He and Stackpole’s schedules diverged and while they could work on the early stuff separately they really need to work together to finish it. They’re hoping to have him go up to Loren for a month to get them finished.
-How did fiction do at Gencon? It did great, lots of empty shelves by the end of the weekend. Hungry Like The Wolf sold very well, to the point they’re doing another romance novel
-Update on release on Emplacements and third Star League Battle Group? Expect them early to mid September.
-When will this year’s B&N exclusive (21st Centauri Lancers) be released, are there plans to keep the agreement going? Loren’s pretty sure they’re planning it for Q4, and they’d love to expand the relationship
-Thoughts on producing Abominations minis? It’s begun. The Abominations have been so popular they’re going to do a single forcepack.
-Will there be Steiner, Marik and Liao forcepacks and Combat Manuals? Yes, they’re committing to doing the great houses at least. Unfortunately faction-specific stuff sales less and less after you get the big ones out. The Clans will probably get a single Force Manual.
-Did Hungry like the Wolf sell out at Gencon? They had four copies on the shelf the last time Loren looked, unsure if they sold out. They intend to have a romance novel be out for Valentine’s Day every year for at least a few years, and they've gotten feedback (from men and women) that they should be steamier
-When will BFM City/Lunar come out? Not sure right now. It was on-sale at Gencon but unsure when it’s going to general release.
-Are the Celestials still scheduled for 2026? Loren’s not sure. It, the Society and the Ares have been pushed back to some degree.
When will Force Manual Mercs be out? It’s at the printer, unsure where it’s at in the schedule. Rem says it’s currently listed for November

 Miguelsan wrote:
I have 0 interest on the alternate settings but having different imagery for mechs is good. I just hope Catalyst doesn't use the same mechs than Gothic

M.

Lorcan Nagle wrote:
Episode 58
19th August 2015
Guest: Randall!



News

Battletech
-Gothic is in transit to the CGL warehouse. Hoping for an October 1st release.
-The C-scale Atlas was flown into GenCon, expecting it to be out a month or two after Gothic.
-They had more copies of Gothic on sale at GenCon than any other BattleTech box in CGL’s history and came in a hair’s breath of selling out.
-Aces Scouring Sands is slated for a November release
-Randall got some copies of Scouring Sands in while Eric from Penny Arcade and Tommy Rice were over with him the other day to look at My Hero Academia and Partha Wars, he gave Eric one box so it might show up on their streams soon
-Randall is beyond excited for Aces because the co-op and solo mode has potential to massively increase the number of BattleTech players
-TRO: 3025 Commemorative Edition should be out in October. Ray had the crazy idea that they could do the book and have it out 1,000 years before the in-universe book.
-Randall got to meet Duane Loose during development of the book.
-There’s an addendum in the back of the book, including a long essay by Loose on the art and process
-Tentative release dates
--November
---Force Manual Mercenaries
--December
---House Kurita Ranger Lance
---House Kurita Command Lance
-People have asked if Gothic interrupted the production schedule. It didn’t, they created a separate production pipeline for it. Aces and 3025 Commemorative Edition blew up the regular schedule but it’s getting back on track. The first Clan Wolf forcepack is just about ready to head into production.
-The second Aces box is well into development. Playtesting is done, most of the writing is done, 3D rendering should be finished by October. Hopefully out by summer next year.
-In Randall’s mind, the Abominations forcepack were always going to happen.
-Anthony insisted that he had to do art for the anime continuum box, and they’re working to ensure his work on other projects doesn’t fall behind as a result.
Q&A
-How long before we get an Urbie or Gothic Atlas as an inflatable Hallow’een decoration? Randall wouldn’t be surprised if it happens, it just needs someone in the company to champion it.
-Aerospace news? No news on a kickstarter, but they’re continuing development on Aerospace. A big part of why Randall was excited to do 3025 Commemorative edition was to get the fighters redesigned. They’ll hopefully doing an open beta in October/November
-Will the Jade Hawk’s wings be poseable in the 21st Centauri Lancers box? Yes, they’re on a separate sprue and can be cut out and friction fit or glued in
-Will Ming the Merciless be the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation in Rockets and Rayguns? Randall laughed and confirmed Herb would be working on the setting.
-In the UK on Amazon, I can’t do PoD versions of novels between Falcon Guard and Embers of War. It’s a time consuming process and getting new fiction to PoD takes precedence.
-Top 3 BattleTech novels you’d recommend, Top 3 non-BattleTech novels? BattleTech: Heir to the Dragon, Double Blind, Highlander’s Gambit are probably great standalone. starting points. Non-Battletech: Dune, Mistborn, Revelation Space
-Catalyst Con? Someday it’ll happen, but we gotta get there
-BFM release updates? City/Lunar should be on the website (it’s not), they got the ice side of the planned ice/fire BFM, hopefully that will be out for Adepticon
-Update on the Force Manual ilclan updates? Hopefully be entering layout soon.
-Will the other continuum boxes have the slightly larger minis? Yes, to facilitate the increased detail they’re going with for these minis.
-Star League Battle Star release date? It’s probably on the water, should be out October-November.
-Will any Aces boxes have more than 2 new mechs? The plan is 2 brand new models per box, and the remaining be variants. They’re still going to be pushing the limits and get some fan-favourite variants into the games
-Will we be able to purchase additional Gothic decals? Was the C-Scale Atlas meant to come with a decal sheet? No plans at present, and the larger decals on that sheet should work with the Atlas

THE BOX SET



Let’s go through this loot!

The miniatures are some of the Inner Sphere’s most famous machines. You’ll find classic designs with Gothic’s signature twist. The box includes the stout UrbanMech, the blazing Firestarter, the four-legged Scorpion, the iconic Phoenix Hawk, the sniping Rifleman, the hunched Marauder, the clawed King Crab, and of course the brutal Atlas. All of these ’Mechs have designs that are reminiscent of their original look, and are easy to tell apart from each other. The Atlas is on a whole different level though!

We’ve designed several different head and bas-relief options for your Atlas! There is a set for each Great Realm, and it is easy to fit each one in place. It is even possible to paint all of the options and swap them going into every game! Each one is tailored to the culture of its Great Realm, such as the kabuto head for the Realm of the Blood Dragon and the spangenhelm of the Realm of Blood and Steel.

Also included in the box is CGL’s first-ever decal sheet! Including icons of various sizes for each of the Great Realms, Privateers, and the Marauder States, this is a great way to customize your models and expand your Gothic forces with other ’Mech miniatures.

The rulebook included is our largest yet for a box set! It has all of the rules needed to pick up the core game of BattleTech, much like A Game of Armored Combat, but also expands on them to include rules for Abominations and unique rules found exclusively in this box set. Alongside that is the universe primer, an extensive booklet to help you explore the Human Sphere and learn how you want to interact with it! It is already available digitally here. You can dive even deeper into the universe with Herbert A. Beas II’s novella, Reclamation and Rise. There is plenty to comb through in this box set!

The included record sheets are a great way for you to pick up and start playing! They are dry-eraseable and are easily reusable with just the swipe of a terrycloth. The included pilot cards offer unique pilots for your ’Mechs, while the Alpha Strike cards enable you to take new ’Mech variants into your games of Alpha Strike! Battlefield Support cards provide easy-to-learn-and-use rules and stats to introduce Abominations into the game as well.

And we can’t forget about the gameplay pieces! Included in the box are two punchboards, chock full of ’Mech standees, terrain, and of course Abominations! You can easily use these boards to expand your games and even change the layout of the battlefield. What’s more, you also get a full-color, two-sided mapsheet. One side depicts what will likely become a city ruin once your battle starts, while the other features a true battlefield, with everything from ’Mech-sized trenches to artillery craters! And to make this all easier to use, we’ve included a heavy-stock reference sheet, similar to what you would find in A Game of Armored Combat, so you can check all of your numbers at a glance!

Phew. That was a lot, wasn’t it? We aren’t quite done yet though! Let’s move on to everyone’s favorite: SALVAGE BOXES!

SALVAGE BOXES

f you’ve been collecting BattleTech for a while, you know what these are, but if you haven’t I’ll give you a little explanation!

Salvage Boxes are randomized blind boxes. We have produced several themed Salvage Boxes in the past like the Clan Invasion and Battlefield Support series to name a few. We have also seen Salvage Boxes containing one specific unit, such as the Shilone or the Blood Asp. Most Salvage Boxes offer models seen in other packs (not including the specific-unit Salvage Boxes), so you can easily grab your favorite ’Mech or vehicle in those specific boxes, or you could take a chance and get a fun, new mini that you didn’t expect!

The BattleTech Gothic Salvage Boxes feature the eight BattleMechs found in the core box set. But there is a twist! With the multi-part Atlas, we had some fun and made sure that each Atlas came with just a single faction head, so rather than eight different possibilities, you can potentially find twelve different miniatures!

These are a great way to share your love of Gothic with friends and maybe even introduce them to the game. You could even use the included model and cards to have a pick-up game with random units. Or maybe you just want to add a Gothic-themed model to your collection. There are several possibilities here and they offer a fun way to expand your tabletop horizons!

THE C-SCALE ATLAS

Now here’s the magnum opus!



When we launched the BattleTech: Mercenaries Kickstarter campaign, our production partner Liya International wanted to try something new for us. We worked with them to make something truly unique: a four-inch tall Timber Wolf (Mad Cat)! This mega-sized model, while not generally usable in games of BattleTech or Alpha Strike, was well detailed and offered a fun painting project and display piece for any BattleTech fan!

Thanks to that success, we are continuing the line with the Gothic-flavored Atlas! As it is crafted to be a similar scale to the Timber Wolf at 100 millimeters (roughly four inches), this is a fine sequel to that awesome project. You can thank Randall Bills for the fun naming on this one, as “C” is the Roman numeral for “100”.

This massive miniature includes everything to make your unique Atlas! With all five head and bas-relief options included at this large scale, you can easily pick out each and every detail. This statuette will be a miniature painter’s dream!

So there you have it: that’s everything coming for BattleTech Gothic! Team Catalyst is excited to get Gothic to you soon, especially with how loved it was at Gen Con this year!

BattleTech Gothic is a stand-alone entry in the BattleTech alternate universe series, Continuum. Continuum imagines the setting of BattleTech if some key elements were different from the core timeline of the more than forty-year-old universe. Using this series, we can all explore new and interesting takes on the Inner Sphere and beyond!

You can expect Gothic to become available on October 1, 2025, just in time for Halloween! Just don’t forget to dress up (paint) your models to play with them that day!

Lorcan Nagle wrote:
Episode 58
26th August 2015
Guest: Tony Bruno from Black Book Editions, Anarchy 2.0 developer



News
-BattleTech
--Out now
---Strength of the Pack part 1
--September 9th
---3rd Star League Battle Group
---Battlefield Support: Emplacements
--Early october
---TRO 3025 commemorative edition
---Gothic
---Gothic Salvage box
---21st Centauri Lancers Command Lance(B&N Exclusive)
--October
---Art of food (reprint)
---Encounters: BattleTech (reprint)
--November
---C-Scale Gothic Atlas

Q&A
-Mercs wave 4 fulfillment? The US warehouse is waiting on some paperwork (either a signature or invoice), and that represents about half of the outstanding backers. There are some GSPR-related delays around moving merch to regional hubs. Once that’s resolved they can inventory to resolve shortages. There are about 80 people who still need shipping quotes, and they’re also looking at costs on direct shipping instead of going through a hub.
-Any chance of an updated roadmap for 2025-2026? It’s getting there. Rem is meeting with Talon on Fridays tracking what’s on each ship and planning based on that. They’re pretty sure they have 2025 mapped out, and are working on 2026 now.

Lorcan Nagle wrote:
Episode 60
2nd September 2015
Guest: Jared from Chessex



News:
-BattleTech
--New Releases
---Out now
----Strength of the Pack 2
----Scream (free short story for September)
---September 9th
----Third star league battlegroup
----Battlefield support: emplacements
---September 13th
----Shrapnel 22
---October
----TRO 3025 commemorative edition
----Gothic
----Gothic salvage boxes
----21st Centauri Lancers Command Lance (B&N Exclusive)
----Art of food (reprint)
---November
----C-Scale Gothic Atlas
----Force Manual: Mercenaries
----Aces: Scouring Sands
----Possibly some Battlemats
---December
----House Kurita Ranger Lance
----House Kurita Command LAnce
-Events
--CGL were at Nova Open and PAX West this past weekend. Nova went great, Pax was a bit slow but they were in a different location.
--Alliance Open house, a retailer show this week
--Gamehole con in October. Rem will be running her first game of MechWarrior Destiny. All her GMed games have already sold out. RJ Thomas and Jason Hardy are running sessions as well.
--Irish BattleTech nationals. September 13th in the Dublin Airport Carlton. There’s a hotel discount if you want to stay over.


Q&A:
-Any news on regional hubs? Talon talked about it recently, Rem’s not sure if the contracts have been signed but they have a part-time sales person who’s working solely on international sales. The Leviathans regional hubs are part of these plans
-Is an update for Mercs coming soon? There’s a meeting tomorrow with the new fulfillment people, Tyler will be at that and will fill Rem in
-Does Rem want to play BattleTech on Wednesday while she’s in town? Yes!

Our developers are hard at work on the next core rulebook for BattleTech, which will replace both Total Warfare and BattleMech Manual. Slated for release in late summer 2026, our developers have taken a long look at the lessons learned from the past 20 years of BattleTech gameplay and created a series of proposed rules changes and updates. These updates are intended to emphasize the classic BattleTech experience while smoothing out some of the game’s known issues and building on the easy-to-use rulebook presentation so successful in BattleMech Manual.

Over the next few months, we’ll roll out four planned playtest packages for your testing and feedback, with each round running for about six weeks. A special fifth package will run alongside these, offering a look at Battlefield Support rules for Aerospace units. Downloads of each package will be made available below when the round starts. Package details and round start and end dates are listed below:

Package 1: Survivability Rules (Starts September 9, 2025, ends October 13, 2025)
Package 2: Mobility Rules (Starts September 29, 2025, ends November 10, 2025)
Package 3: Gear (Starts October 27, 2025, ends December 8, 2025)
Package 4: Missions (Starts November 24, 2025, ends January 5, 2026)
Package 5: Battlefield Support: Aerospace (Starts TBD, ends January 5, 2026)

[Note: the Battlefield Support: Aerospace rules are a larger set of playtest rules than the other packages, so we’re offering more time for testing.]

Lorcan Nagle wrote:
Episode 61
9th September 2025
Guests: Aaron Cahall, BattleTech Assistant Line Developer and Keith Hahn, BattleTech Developer



News:
-CGL were at Alliance trade fair last week. They had some good discussions, they showed off Aces. Good feedback on the board game division
-BattleTech
--Out now
---First Strike: BattleCorps Anthology 2 reissue is out
---Scream by Tom Leveen (September free fiction)
--September
---3rd Star League Battlegroup
---Emplacements
--October
---3025 commemorative edition
---Gothic
---Gothic Salvage box
---21st centauri Lancers (B&N Exclusive)
--November
---C-Scale Gothic Atlas
---Force Manual Mercenaries
--December
---House Kurita Ranger lance
---House Kurita Command Lance

Discussion:
-Keith has been working on the replacement for Total Warfare (which turns 20 next year!) and the Battlemech Manual
-There’s a link to the an open playtest for two rules changes and are looking for feedback
-This is not BattleTech 2.0.
-There will be five playtest packages, four will be in six-week increments, with a fifth working alongside the lot
-Playtest one is survivability, each one will be themed
-A lot of the rules changes will be minor, others will be bigger. And people usually remember the big changes, like say Total Warfare changing the partial cover rules.
-They’re not putting every rule out for open beta, just the major ones. They’re asking people to test the packages together. Some of the other packets will be smaller or bigger.
-The first set will be looking at where you hit and the severity of ammo explosions. They’re pretty sure they’ll be good. But it’s one thing to discuss it for a while, another for small playtest runs, but thousands of games in an open playtest is different. And if the rules don’t work out, they’ll drop the rules.
-Feedback is done via a feedback form.
-There is a discussion forum on the playtest site, it’s not for collecting playtest reports but to specifically discuss. Keith is only going to be monitoring the forum for this topic, he isn’t going to trawl social media
-A lot of the rules changes are to reduce the “feels bad” moments in the game
-One of the rules they’re testing is limiting ammo explosions. A lot of people want them to be even more powerful and keith feels the game self-selects for players who are OK with turn one deaths. In this case the explosion rules will still have explosions be bad, but not necessarily fatal.
-Aaron talked about how a balanced scenario can be slow grind to a loss after an early kill thanks to a floating crit.
-The other rules change is the removal of the side hit tables. At present you can still hit the other side while presenting one side. Under the new rule you can only hit the facing side
-This rule change allows for more player choice, it rewards both the attacker and defender situationally to either concentrate or defend a damaged side
-Aaron feels it will bring terrain and movement more to the fore
-The primary concern is that it might become too easy to take out a side of a target, especially with Inner Sphere XL engines.
-Aaron talked about how very few people have the side tables memorised and having to look them up slows the game down. It might add detail but it isn’t necessarily adding fun
-Keith talked about how there needs to be a good core of gameplay. They can’t just simplify things for the case of it, especially when BattleTech hold a unique place in the gaming space. BattleTech is pretty much built on exceptions and that’s a big part of the fun.
-The next playtest package is based around mobility, piloting skill rolls and maneuverability. They want to see how it all plays out as a whole rather than one or two rules.
-After that, tech changes. One thing they want to do is minimise record sheet changes, there’s maybe 30 that will be altered as a result of the changes. They cited the Watchdog EW system as an example of gear that is pointless so they wanted to make it useful. Baseline weapon stats won’t be changing because they’re on a record sheet. Most of the changes will be alterations to the rules that are in the book rather than on the sheet.
-Aaron stressed the lack of record sheet changes, they’re keeping the soul of the game intact.
-After gear is missions, scenario play that’s era and faction agnostic.
-Alongside everything else is BSP aerotech, which is an abstract combat system for aircraft and adds a bit more flavour to the support cards for bombing and strikes
-There was something of a back and forth between Keith and Randall, where Keith wanted to reward players for taking aerospace, and Randall wanted to make sure it fit the idiom of the setting.
-Keith mentioned wanting to have AAA units like the Rifleman to have a specific role in these rules.
-They’re also working on a full aerotech game.
-Just like how the BFS Vehicle and infantry rules don’t get rid of the combat vehicle and full infantry rules, BFS: Aerospace won’t replace AeroTech.
-Keith brought up the concept of active development of the rules. FASA did a new core rulebook every 3-5 years. By comparison Total Warfare has been in print longer than FASA existed. It’s essentially been in active development that whole time via errata, which is less than ideal. Part of the push for a new core book is to centralise the changes so everyone’s working off the same page. Not everyone downloads errata.
-Aaron noted that a lot of the cautious opinion has been people who say part of why they like BattleTech is because the rules never change. But the rules have changed, while the product, Total Warfare has remained the same. If two players have two different printings of Total Warfare some rules will be different. Over the FASA and Fanpro years the core book changed name and presentation, added Revised to the cover in the case of Master Rules so everyone knows there’s some level of change, and they’re going to try and go back to that.

Q&A:
-Can we get era/tech level added to BSP cards? That’s more a Layout issue but it might be something to go to MUL 2. Aaron talked about some of the contents of MUL 2, and it looks great. If you click into a unit it tells you what TRO it’s in, what forcepacks it’s in and IWM links
-Is there any thought to making neoprenes of the maps in the box sets? It’s come up, it seems like it could happen when they change the box contents. It’s more of a Ray question
-Any plans to let combat vehicles get CASE II? This phase of the playtest is mech rules, they haven’t tackled combat vehicles yet, so maybe?
-What’s the most exciting thing about reworking BattleTech? Keith: getting to do it! He’s been making notes since 2018 on the basis that he’s the errata guy so he assumed he’d be involved, and then he was asked to head it up. Of course, he’s also worried about being the guy who killed BattleTech. Aaron: needing it to be ready for Gencon next year! (Rem noted that this is their intention but things can change. Aaron said it definitely wouldn’t happen if they were going from a standing start now)
-Will the Ammo explosion rules change the BV of CASE? BV revision is still being worked on, but it needs to wait for a finalisation of the rules.
-Will BSP AeroTech have asset cards and minis, or will it just be tokens? A bit in between, they’ll have asset cards but because of the speed involved dogfighting is going to be abstract
-Any chance of a dice core BattleTech RPG? There’s been some preliminary work on an RPG but the BattleTech revision is the prime focus for the near future.

 Albertorius wrote:
So... changes to the ammo explosion rules? Which limits the damage from ammo explosions to 20, less with CASE and CASE II.

...why? Was there any kind of traction against the idea that explodey stuff inside a mech's body feths it up, other than the MG ammo? I... feel like most people kinda understood that...

-One of the rules they’re testing is limiting ammo explosions. A lot of people want them to be even more powerful and keith feels the game self-selects for players who are OK with turn one deaths. In this case the explosion rules will still have explosions be bad, but not necessarily fatal.

Bob Lorgar wrote:
Great question. As an exclusively 3025 player, I never had a problem with the ammo explosion rules, except for the fact that there were some mechs which were highly disadvantaged because they were practically walking bombs asking to be killed by one. But that's a fault of the particular mech design rather than the ammo rules.

At the end of the day, the possibility that any mech can one-shot any enemy mech is a feature, not a bug. It means there's always a chance to win no matter how grim things look.

 Ghaz wrote:
It sounds like he would rather have the player's tactical actions have more of an impact on the game rather than a lucky dice rolls for the hit and an ammo explosion being the deciding factor in who wins. the game. The results of the playtest will be a way for the players to give feedback on if this change will need to be tweaked or not.

 BrookM wrote:
Have Locust, will trade for something less lethal.. ?

Bob Lorgar wrote:
except for the fact that there were some mechs which were highly disadvantaged because they were practically walking bombs asking to be killed by one.