From: kgnome@cs.concordia.ca (MATIS stephane)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: BTECH: After GenCON92 Report ... sorta
Date: 7 Sep 92 18:56:36 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec


Hello Folks!

	I'm finally recuparated from the GENCON92 events ... I had
caught a nasty cold with fever, placing me into "sleepy-coma" for 4-5
days.

	Anyhow, here goes some of the famous "scoops" from your trully.

1st, TSR of course had the largest booth. But this was ridiculeous! We
called them "Fortress TSR" for a good reason!!!!

2nd, FASA had the second largest booth, and display. A large Shadowrun 2
mural took a lot space and gave them some muscle vs TSR.

FASA didn't have as many things ready for the show as they wanted-it...
mostly due to printer "errors" of political kind. I wont point fingers,
but my favorite FASA artist revealed that Gary Gygax's new game hurt
FASA more than you know ... it prevented them from printing Shadowrun
2nd Ed, 3rd Ed Btech ... etc ...

Well, by now you should know that TR3055 Record sheets, McArrons Armored
Cav and Jade Falcon are shipping. I'm not too pleased with BIG Mac,
considered a waste of Bandwith... with little info, your milage may
vary.

TR3055 Record sheets are the only thing I missed picking up ... dum move
on my part, As MercHandbook 2nd Edition is on it's final leg ... with
the deadline on October 1st.

The best FASA product for Btech was the Japanease Edition of the game !

I culled quite a few copies of this ... and let me tell you ! WOW!

The designs are marvelous ... and the counters inside are simply
stupendous ! Their carboard ... with color front and rear in beatifull
quality. FASA will have a hard time eaqualling this!

The Japanease, for many reasons, have re-designed the "looks" of every
'Mech. Some of them have apeared in Solaris VII under othe names, but
these babies are much more than that. The design are by the famed artist
Kawamori (Sensei). { Yes, I consider thi man to be a "Master", even if
he doesn't like the designation ...}

If you can bribe someone to pick-up a copy ... do IT!

Look for a review in upcoming Mecha*Press ... issue 5 or 6. BTW, 4 just
got back from the printer ... should be going world-wide distribution
soon!

Finally, your's trully met all the faces behind the names .. : Charette,
Stackpole, Long, Pardoe and many more. In fact, we had lunch together,
and they discussed the "future" of Btech, leaving out juicy details,
since I was the only one without a signed non-disclosure form.

Mine is coming in the mail, ... with a copy of the new Grey Death Legion
... wich shouldn't hit stores for a while ...

BTW, ROC already carries the Decision at Thunder Rift. The next two
covers ( for Mercenary Star & Price of Glory ) are going to be by Boris
... why ... ? ... I don't know ... 

The new novel is .... upcoming ... while details behind the unit are
going to be inside Merc Handbook 2nd Edition. Yeah!

So ... where is BTECH going to ?.... well , I can't reveal much ... but
there is something the Mechforce UK guys have termed the "King Arthur
Plotline" and then there is what I call the "Dragon's Breath". Other
tidbits, such as "Not-Named Clan" are in consideration ... with Pardoe
agitating in the background.

Nothing against Mr Pardoe, but even in person I didn't get to like him.
He received massive criticisim form all of the other writers for
Bloodright. 

Success stories are tempered by less successful events. Mecha*Press
didn;t get Sam Lewis to give us a shot at the BattleTechnology contract.
In fact, we were going to ask for both BTECH and SHADOWRUN as magazines.
FASA has put the licenses for both these on ice for 1 year.

We won't wait that long ... as I'm already cooking up and head-hunting
for Battle*Press, our new mag that will cover gaming, from table-top to
RPG. Looking forward ...

In the final days ... we headed to Chicago ... and had a "Press" tour of
Virtual Worlds new, 2nd Generation cockpits. They are increadible! If
you can convince some local outfit to foot the bill for the most amazing
entertainment center available, go for it! It's about 1.5 milion. 

Well worth the price ... the Japanease say : "It's better then riding a
cow!"

Eh ..!?

That's all for now ...

Upcoming releases : BattleSpace (Capital WarShip in BTECH), Secret
Services (A compenduim of all the Secret Service Groups in the IS),
Comstar (By Blaine and art by Laubenstein), Merc Handbook 2nd Edition
(working title ... by your trully), BattleTech 3rd Edition (Nice and
clean, I have a preview copy... not necessary, but great introduction),
...

Planned releases : Aerotech 2nd Edition ( A COMPLETE revised system),
Mechwarrior's Guide to Real Life ( Check out the Anarchist Guide to Real
Life for Shadowrun to see the meaning), House Rules ( ?... Unknown. If
you guys want a compilation of the best "house" rules form around the
world ?... published by either FASA (not likley) or Mechforce.)

Anything else ?.... I don't remember ... If you have questions,
requests and such ... leave me E-mail and I'll see what I can do.

Finally, let me say that Ianus, the parent company of Mecha*Press, has
spun off a Game Division, know as Dream Pod 9, and that their first
offering at GenCon92, was a great success. It's titled "Night's Edge"
and it's by Justin Schmid. It's an alternate reality sourcebook for
CYBERPUNK. R. Talsorian has given Dream Pod 9 a blanket license on
Cyberpunk and Mekton. Look for some neat stuff from our way. 

As for Mekton... I never liked it as much a BTECH, BUT ... with the
upcoming Technical Guide... wow .... all I can say.

As for the friendliness factor ... It was great to talk to such guys as
Steve Jackson, Bob Charette, Mike Stackpole, Tom Dowd, Mike Pondsmith,
and a number of the smaller outfits ... that have surprisingly cool
stuff.

I'd also like to say that Jim Long, president of Mechforce USA, is a
real nide guy! Hope to work with them more. Mechforce UK guys were damm
friendly as well, and their home-grown stuff form BTECH, like Clan Force
is worth seing.

All in All ... Great GenCon92... see you in '93 perhaps ?


Roll!       ___      +---------------------------------------------------+
Over!   __ ( . )      From        : Stephane I. Matis
      _/__\(___)      Internet    : kgnome@cs.concordia.ca
    / /\\[==]//\ \    Working for : Monenco Systems Group 
   /_/  |THOR|  \_\   Working  at : Newfoundland Offshore Contractors 
  [00] _//==\\_ [00]  Writing for : Mecha*Press and FASA's BattleTech
      / _/--\_ \      		    Dream Pod 9
     |__|    |__|     "It Just Works... " - Steve Paul Jobs, CEO NeXT
     (__]    [__)     "Clam Warships are landing on Toycod !" - Anonymous
    [_=_]    [_=_]   +---------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.games.board