…there was a boy with a desire to play with big metal robots. Then he discovered that those Robots had leaders, who controlled whole armies, and an addiction was born.In 1990, I purchased Succession Wars and was immediately aware that I would rarely take a ‘Mech onto the field again, I was born to lead armies of the things, not mess around in the mud with the lower ranks. Not long afterwards, or maybe it was, it’s a way back now, I got my hands on the Mechwarrior 2nd Ed. And then Objective Raids, now I had factories and unit listings, soon followed by the old House Books and the way was open to creating a universe with great detail.
That’s when I hit a wall. Having never designed a game before, the systems I created were either too simple for my ultimate desires, or too complicated for effective use. The lack of a computer also greatly hindered my progress. The computer issue was eventually remedied and following this I self taught myself how to use Excel, which gradually showed me a way to present large amounts of data in a way that would not overwhelm players. Eventually, over version after version of the rules, and many play tests, I got close to what I was looking for, all about the time I started writing The Other Option.
This was when I advertised for players, who quickly shot about a dozen holes in rules, all for the greater good, but which sent me back to the drawing board. The year of 3024 in the game was one of both 12 players and one GM learning the rules quickly and adapting to changes as they were needed. By the dawn of 3025, the rules were rewritten, to conform with 3024’s play testing, and as they stand are fairly well balanced between detail and playability, especially if you have a co-GM who is willing to be both a whipping boy, as well as very honest and blunt when it comes time to pull the GM’s head in. There are several political leaders that could use advisors of that calibre, as they are invaluable, and Jason has been very much so.
Then, after trying to decide if I should build a website for the story/game, with my complete lack of skills in that department, Josh emails me and says “Would you like me to fulfill all your dreams?” There is only one answer to that.
So here we are, starting the site, based on Josh’s amazing work and all the material that 2 years of in universe story telling and game time have produced.
Trace Coburn / A solid and very thorough reveiw, most of which I heartily agree with. Hopefully it’ll prompt more readers/BT players to buy the book and keep the game/universe alive. [Nitpick mode: in the Art section you’ve used ‘objective’ (from an impartial standpoint) when I think you meant ‘subjective’ (a matter of personal interpretation).]