I know that no one besides me reads this thing. But allow me to flatter myself. Hell, no one else does.
That said, the posts to this blog are going to undergo a bit of convulsion in the next week. See, I am going to get to the end of the Interludes, tease them, tweak them, and then repost the entire bunch, one after the other. They will be in order, but these comments probably won't make any sense.
I am still planning to write about our monthly game. Chris Snider, the local FanPro Commando, doesn't seem too interested in having me post his GameStorm report here. I will do what I can to talk him into an expurgated version of what he will send to FanPro, I guess. He just doesn't seem all that interested in getting the word out, but what the hell, right? I get what I get.
Ta. Post a comment or something. This place has echoes, and it gives me the jibblies.
Steve
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Font Sizes Being a Pain..
For anyone actually reading this, I apologise for the shifting font sizes. I really haven't been successful with the text editor - it appears to be wonky as hell. And I don't have time to go in, pull apart the HTML, and fix it that way.
I will figure something out, eventually.
Steve
I will figure something out, eventually.
Steve
Friday, March 10, 2006
The First Post of this Blog
Wow. How refreshingly original.
But this *is* the first post.
Okay. This blog is going to be about Battletech, and anything else ancillary, like the rest of my life. But the posts will mostly be about Classic Battletech.
Warning: There will be what is generally referred to as 'fan fiction', or fanfic, in here. I personally don't care for ninety percent of Classic Battletech fanfiction - most of it is so poorly written, it makes me squirm with embarrassment. Worse, it makes me want to sit down, critique the offending POS, and send it off to the author with an offer to proofread and edit any of his future work.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not anal-retentive. I like taking a healthy dump as much as the next guy. As for being a sort of verbal 'neat freak', one look at my garage would disabuse anyone of that notion. But some - no, most of what I read in the fanfic sections is pure wish-fulfillment, fantasies generated by frustrated gamers who just can't get past the original games egomaniacal bent. Again, don't get me wrong.
I like revenge fantasies as much as the next guy, but power corrupts, ya know? Even fantasy power. And one of the most annoying aspects - not the worst, because the corruption is the worst - one of the most annoying aspects is that revenge fantasies tend to - well, repeat themselves. Over and over and over. So much of fanfic writing - hell, many of the original paperbacks written for the Battletech game - are about rampaging egos smashing into each other over intersteller distances for what amounts to chickenshit.
"My honor, my tradition, my religeous faith." Meanwhile, the little guy gets the crap stomped out of him, while Our Hero strides about fearlessly in his Battlemech, perpetuating the Clan/Inner Sphere version of the Royal Hissyfit. What about the little guy's family, his hopes and dreams? Or does not being a Archon mean you don't really count?
With all that said, I am going to post occasional fan fiction. But with an important difference. I will actually attempt to tell a story you will want to read.
But I am getting ahead of things. Off to write a bit of the story.
Oh. What's it about? Well, I noticed that Ironwind Metals is actually manufacturing miniatures for the Forestrymech. My first thought was "What the hell for? They don't even get use in the game for which they were originally designed! (Mechwarrior: Dark Age)".
Then I asked myself "what possible concantenation of circumstances could result in some poor bastard actually piloting one of these things into battle?"
That's when I began to put some serious thought into the following questions:
"WHY would anyone pilot something like this into battle? What possible advantages, outside of combat tables skewed in its favor, could persuade someone to play it? If Battlemechs truly existed, if there were such things as small fusion reactors and manufactured muscle fibres, and a plausible explanation for how they worked, what would a Battlemech's real-world advantages be?"
It occured to me that I knew enough of the game by now, I could actually write a scenario which addressed such an encounter. It had to be common, because there are a lot of miniatures out there, waiting to be played. It had to be believeable, because something has to replace the ego boost you normally got from piloting REAL battlemechs, and you weren't going to be beating up any large tanks with this thing. And finally, it had to be about something or someone for whom the average gamer or reader might, conceiveably, give a damn.
And of course, such a scenario requires a little written introduction, a snippet of writing which explains the scenario, and (if the writer knows what he is doing) get the reader's blood moving a bit at the same time.
And now I am up to at least three or four pages of introduction. At least as long as the planned scenario, and likely to get longer. Alas and alack, the tail may end up wagging the dog. But then, that's for you to decide.
Regards,
Steve
But this *is* the first post.
Okay. This blog is going to be about Battletech, and anything else ancillary, like the rest of my life. But the posts will mostly be about Classic Battletech.
Warning: There will be what is generally referred to as 'fan fiction', or fanfic, in here. I personally don't care for ninety percent of Classic Battletech fanfiction - most of it is so poorly written, it makes me squirm with embarrassment. Worse, it makes me want to sit down, critique the offending POS, and send it off to the author with an offer to proofread and edit any of his future work.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not anal-retentive. I like taking a healthy dump as much as the next guy. As for being a sort of verbal 'neat freak', one look at my garage would disabuse anyone of that notion. But some - no, most of what I read in the fanfic sections is pure wish-fulfillment, fantasies generated by frustrated gamers who just can't get past the original games egomaniacal bent. Again, don't get me wrong.
I like revenge fantasies as much as the next guy, but power corrupts, ya know? Even fantasy power. And one of the most annoying aspects - not the worst, because the corruption is the worst - one of the most annoying aspects is that revenge fantasies tend to - well, repeat themselves. Over and over and over. So much of fanfic writing - hell, many of the original paperbacks written for the Battletech game - are about rampaging egos smashing into each other over intersteller distances for what amounts to chickenshit.
"My honor, my tradition, my religeous faith." Meanwhile, the little guy gets the crap stomped out of him, while Our Hero strides about fearlessly in his Battlemech, perpetuating the Clan/Inner Sphere version of the Royal Hissyfit. What about the little guy's family, his hopes and dreams? Or does not being a Archon mean you don't really count?
With all that said, I am going to post occasional fan fiction. But with an important difference. I will actually attempt to tell a story you will want to read.
But I am getting ahead of things. Off to write a bit of the story.
Oh. What's it about? Well, I noticed that Ironwind Metals is actually manufacturing miniatures for the Forestrymech. My first thought was "What the hell for? They don't even get use in the game for which they were originally designed! (Mechwarrior: Dark Age)".
Then I asked myself "what possible concantenation of circumstances could result in some poor bastard actually piloting one of these things into battle?"
That's when I began to put some serious thought into the following questions:
"WHY would anyone pilot something like this into battle? What possible advantages, outside of combat tables skewed in its favor, could persuade someone to play it? If Battlemechs truly existed, if there were such things as small fusion reactors and manufactured muscle fibres, and a plausible explanation for how they worked, what would a Battlemech's real-world advantages be?"
It occured to me that I knew enough of the game by now, I could actually write a scenario which addressed such an encounter. It had to be common, because there are a lot of miniatures out there, waiting to be played. It had to be believeable, because something has to replace the ego boost you normally got from piloting REAL battlemechs, and you weren't going to be beating up any large tanks with this thing. And finally, it had to be about something or someone for whom the average gamer or reader might, conceiveably, give a damn.
And of course, such a scenario requires a little written introduction, a snippet of writing which explains the scenario, and (if the writer knows what he is doing) get the reader's blood moving a bit at the same time.
And now I am up to at least three or four pages of introduction. At least as long as the planned scenario, and likely to get longer. Alas and alack, the tail may end up wagging the dog. But then, that's for you to decide.
Regards,
Steve
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