gral
Well-known member
My guess is, at least for some that are gloating, that the humiliation is the point.
Battletech Blaine Pardoe, Battletech Author Cancelled For Conservative Political Belief
- Thread starter Husky_Khan
- Start date
There are so many free rules out there for so many things. I mean good god, Dirtside II for Battletech scale (although Battlemechs tend to die messily at the hands of well, everything bigger than a shoulder-fired LAW). Stargrunt II can be used for smaller engagements, there's also Full Thrust for the larger Aerotech fights. And that are three rules all available for free!
Fan Development of Full Thrust - FULL THRUST: PROJECT CONTINUUM
Ground Zero Games Rules Page - Rules - Ground Zero Games
Fan Development of Full Thrust - FULL THRUST: PROJECT CONTINUUM
Ground Zero Games Rules Page - Rules - Ground Zero Games
Lord Sovereign
The resident Britbong
The struggle session is always fun until you become the centre of it. Communists have never been the best at thinking ahead.
AnimalNoodles
Well-known member
I heartily endorse full thrust, stargrunt and dirtside.
FUDGE and "good" don't belong in the same sentence together. -.-
RIFTs as a separate, independent system is no longer in print. Rifts as a setting sourcebook for other systems is around, specifically Savage Worlds. Which is a good system, but they've long ago bent the knee to the SJWs if their Facebooks posts are any indication.
Typhonis
Well-known member
Egad....don't make me use any Palladium system...please.
That was a really good podcast. I usually don't watch Razorfist/Rageaholic because I don't like his commentary/video style of constantly faux shouting into the microphone.
But his podcast/interview style is far more palatable.
I'm annoyed we never got Blaine Pardoe to expand on why he thinks the Charger is the worst mech in Battletech though, Sad.
And the video starts at 4:45 in.
Doomsought
Well-known member
I've tried as well, they shoehorn various concepts in a ruleset designed to simulate sword-fights. It doesn't work well.
Honestly, the act of cancelling bothers me far more than who is getting cancelled. So while this is despicable on CGL's part, and spits into the face of someone who's diligently added to their IP for close to forty years, the larger part of me probably would just be as annoyed if it hit someone from "the other side" (the smaller part of me would admittedly beam with Schadenfreude about how it must feel if the shoe's suddenly on the other foot for once).
As for CGL and Battletech, I've never played the tabletop. My financial investment in the IP consists of one book from the nineties (which, I think, was three novellas?), Mechwarrior 4 (the original), HBS's Battletech game, and Mechwarrior 5. No sourcebooks, no miniatures, no further novels. I've mainly enjoyed it through free content, like quests and many an excellent fanfic. The universe interests me. The official narrative? Less so.
It's also not really going to infringe on my enjoyment of the IP, for the simple reason that I don't give a damn about anything post-Jihad. I'm solidly interested in the pre-Jihad universe. Everything past that temper tantrum? Really not my cup of tea.
Thing is, at least in my opinion, the people creating the game/setting wrote themselves into multiple consecutive corners, and I feel they always ended up finding the wrong exit.
Like, the Clans. Never been that much of a fan, but as a narrative tool they worked. They were the proverbial flash in a pan - and then way overstayed their welcome. The setup of "genetically enhanced super warriors with advanced technology and alien tactics rampage across the Inner Sphere, coming from an unexpected attack vector" was great.
But the post-Tukayyid universe for them shouldn't have been to persist as parts of the IS, but rather the panicked realization that they had hundreds of hostile worlds to govern and garrison, nowhere near a fraction of the troops to do so, absolutely no ideological foothold with their new populations, and all their doors left wide open to be exploited by COIN, hard, by even the most incompetent IS agencies around. Faced by constant brushfires, incursions, insurrections and widespread civil disobedience, forced into ever more draconian measures, the Crusader clans should have withered away or grinded down to a point where they either faced absorption into their host populations, outright destruction (as the IS powers would naturally use every chance to pounce on them), or - and this I would have liked the most - be forced to retreat back into staging areas like the Elysian Fields, for example. So some clans would end up going back to Clan space (likely facing absorption by their rivals there) while others would loot the everloving crap out of their occupation zones, set up shop in the worlds near them like the Elysian Fields, and actually try and figure out how to beat the IS at their own game (in turn becoming something else than the original clans). That'd leave the former occupation zones in a nice balkanized state similar to the CC after Hanse's wedding gift.
Yet, through authorial fiat, somehow they thrive and start beating the IS nations at their game without actually adressing their own inherent weaknesses.
This whole official post-Republic, post-Jihad, Clan-centered near era does absolutely nothing for me. And it's probably amplified by the fact that some factions sound like they were named by a ten year old playing DnD for the first time. I mean, the Scorpion Empire? The Wolf Empire? *snorts* It's not helped that to bring it about some of the more interesting, not fully explored factions of the setting were all dissolved.
So, no, I'm happy with the old stuff. I simply don't need CGL or who ever might hold the IP in the future to enjoy the setting. I can just make it up myself. Or enjoy others doing so. @LordSunhawk has been doing a massive Deep Periphery quest for ages now. Drakensis and dozens of others write fanfiction just as good or even better (and more interesting) than the official stuff. You don't need official products as well. MattPlog for example creates Battletech art for custom 'mechs, vehicles and ships by the bucketload. Don't like the official stuff? Band together, get creatives on board, do your own stuff. Wanna illustrate your original worlds and star systems? I can write and illustrate you one of those "Touring the stars" supplements as well. Battlemats to play your battles on? No need to rely on official stuff there either; pretty sure there's enough out there on DriveThruRPG or other places than can be used. Hell, I threw this together the other evening in about three hours (and it's not even finished), and most of that spent creating and/or finding textures.
TL;DR: you don't need to support a publisher to support an IP you like. By the power of the internet you can do it/have others do it for you without throwing money towards people that despise you.
As for CGL and Battletech, I've never played the tabletop. My financial investment in the IP consists of one book from the nineties (which, I think, was three novellas?), Mechwarrior 4 (the original), HBS's Battletech game, and Mechwarrior 5. No sourcebooks, no miniatures, no further novels. I've mainly enjoyed it through free content, like quests and many an excellent fanfic. The universe interests me. The official narrative? Less so.
It's also not really going to infringe on my enjoyment of the IP, for the simple reason that I don't give a damn about anything post-Jihad. I'm solidly interested in the pre-Jihad universe. Everything past that temper tantrum? Really not my cup of tea.
Thing is, at least in my opinion, the people creating the game/setting wrote themselves into multiple consecutive corners, and I feel they always ended up finding the wrong exit.
Like, the Clans. Never been that much of a fan, but as a narrative tool they worked. They were the proverbial flash in a pan - and then way overstayed their welcome. The setup of "genetically enhanced super warriors with advanced technology and alien tactics rampage across the Inner Sphere, coming from an unexpected attack vector" was great.
But the post-Tukayyid universe for them shouldn't have been to persist as parts of the IS, but rather the panicked realization that they had hundreds of hostile worlds to govern and garrison, nowhere near a fraction of the troops to do so, absolutely no ideological foothold with their new populations, and all their doors left wide open to be exploited by COIN, hard, by even the most incompetent IS agencies around. Faced by constant brushfires, incursions, insurrections and widespread civil disobedience, forced into ever more draconian measures, the Crusader clans should have withered away or grinded down to a point where they either faced absorption into their host populations, outright destruction (as the IS powers would naturally use every chance to pounce on them), or - and this I would have liked the most - be forced to retreat back into staging areas like the Elysian Fields, for example. So some clans would end up going back to Clan space (likely facing absorption by their rivals there) while others would loot the everloving crap out of their occupation zones, set up shop in the worlds near them like the Elysian Fields, and actually try and figure out how to beat the IS at their own game (in turn becoming something else than the original clans). That'd leave the former occupation zones in a nice balkanized state similar to the CC after Hanse's wedding gift.
Yet, through authorial fiat, somehow they thrive and start beating the IS nations at their game without actually adressing their own inherent weaknesses.
This whole official post-Republic, post-Jihad, Clan-centered near era does absolutely nothing for me. And it's probably amplified by the fact that some factions sound like they were named by a ten year old playing DnD for the first time. I mean, the Scorpion Empire? The Wolf Empire? *snorts* It's not helped that to bring it about some of the more interesting, not fully explored factions of the setting were all dissolved.
So, no, I'm happy with the old stuff. I simply don't need CGL or who ever might hold the IP in the future to enjoy the setting. I can just make it up myself. Or enjoy others doing so. @LordSunhawk has been doing a massive Deep Periphery quest for ages now. Drakensis and dozens of others write fanfiction just as good or even better (and more interesting) than the official stuff. You don't need official products as well. MattPlog for example creates Battletech art for custom 'mechs, vehicles and ships by the bucketload. Don't like the official stuff? Band together, get creatives on board, do your own stuff. Wanna illustrate your original worlds and star systems? I can write and illustrate you one of those "Touring the stars" supplements as well. Battlemats to play your battles on? No need to rely on official stuff there either; pretty sure there's enough out there on DriveThruRPG or other places than can be used. Hell, I threw this together the other evening in about three hours (and it's not even finished), and most of that spent creating and/or finding textures.
TL;DR: you don't need to support a publisher to support an IP you like. By the power of the internet you can do it/have others do it for you without throwing money towards people that despise you.
Last edited:
TheRejectionist
TheRejectionist
So, I am glad I joined a Telegram STL group for BattleTech. I am not gonna give money to turncoat Judases.
Blaine Pardoe was on the Archcast with noted WHITE SUPREMACIST Arch Warhammer.
Haven't watched it yet but a link all the same.
Haven't watched it yet but a link all the same.
And this ladies and gents is why canceling in the end, won't work.
The Faithless Saga moves into a new chapter.
blainepardoe.wordpress.com
Regardless of all that, it appears Blaine Pardoe is keeping busy. He's writing his Blue Dawn political thriller series with five books.
His more near future SciFi focused project involving giant stompy robots is as follows:
He's also working with Baen on new projects as well.
He also has his True Crime projects he does and a weekly author interview series as well.
Faithless
My online stalker, J**** now admits that the persona that he used to wage his campaign against me, Faith McClosky, was a complete fake. I was on vacation when this went down, I was inundated with e…
blainepardoe.wordpress.com
Regardless of all that, it appears Blaine Pardoe is keeping busy. He's writing his Blue Dawn political thriller series with five books.
His more near future SciFi focused project involving giant stompy robots is as follows:
Blaine Pardoe said:
He's also working with Baen on new projects as well.
Blaine Pardoe said:
He also has his True Crime projects he does and a weekly author interview series as well.
Blasterbot
Well-known member
The splash down series looks really interesting. good to see that he is still writing good books though.
Blaine Pardoe released another update.
blainepardoe.wordpress.com
He's continuing with his Blue Dawn political thriller series (apparently five books in) and has also written plenty for Land & Sea/Splashdown as well. He finished Book Five of that already but it still has to go through editing and a bunch of post writing stuff. This is notable to me because the second book hasn't even been released yet, though it will be soon.
What is most interesting tidbit wise is this:
Sadly one franchise has been eliminated already.
Sorry Heavy Gear fans.
A Quick Round of Updates
A little sneak peak of the Rhino Class ASHUR rig… Welcome to a writer’s life. Blue Dawn Stuff Today I finished book five of the Blue Dawn series – Patrons of Fear. First draft is at 12…
blainepardoe.wordpress.com
He's continuing with his Blue Dawn political thriller series (apparently five books in) and has also written plenty for Land & Sea/Splashdown as well. He finished Book Five of that already but it still has to go through editing and a bunch of post writing stuff. This is notable to me because the second book hasn't even been released yet, though it will be soon.
What is most interesting tidbit wise is this:
Blaine Pardoe said:
Sadly one franchise has been eliminated already.
Sorry Heavy Gear fans.
It's good to hear that he's doing well.