BattleTech

nice so pretty recent so you mentioned that it's three to five years so what what was it that brought you to the hubby what what was it that made you want to dive in So oddly

enough, when I was in high school decades ago, I loved Battletech and we had those little, we had the standees because you couldn't get the metal miniatures, which probably were lead at the time, you know? And then one day I was walking through a Barnes and Noble and I saw the box and I was like, oh my gosh, those are plastic miniatures.

I can actually paint those again.

So before I took the dive into that, I actually went back took craft paint, like heavy acrylic paint, and took out a horrified box set and all those little monster miniatures that came in the board game.

And how did you get onto those paints? Was it trial and error or were you kind of YouTubing? Like, how did you find them?

So I started with the Vallejo paints because really that's what was by me at the store to get.

And then when I started to go out there and game with some of the Battletech guys, they started talking about how they enjoyed using Monument and this hobby.

So then I picked up one or two bottles and that's how I started doing it.

Things don't have a specific weapon skill, or the stats are just movement.

So it's like 2d6, a bit like Battletech.

where you're aiming to hold more than six.

You need anywhere between seven and 11, and 12 is a crud.

Okay, but do you read for fun?

I have played Battletech.

Yeah, but you didn't answer my question.

You read for fun.

You have been a busy man.

I tend to like staying busy, and what better way to stay busy than in the Battletech universe?

So my set of notes here has five shorts, three novellas with a fourth coming out, something for the Battletech Gothic Collection, and a full-length novel.

Have I missed anything? You

know, maybe? I don't know.

It was bizarre, especially since I didn't really know what I was working with, and especially since I thought I was only doing one story.

Gothic was something that I'd known about for a long time, When we had our first, when I went to my first Kerensky con, which was sort of the sort of very, you know, private-ish con for the big Kickstarter backers for the Mercenaries Kickstarter, Randall Bills had sort of pulled people into a room.

a few at a time maybe three years ago or so and showed everyone sort of the art for Battletech Gothic and this was sort of the first I'd heard about it and he pulled Mike Stackpole and I back into this room and as part of these because Mike and I were sort of two of the guests that they brought for this con and our our minds kind of went spinning trying to figure out like wow what are they are they really doing this and we sort of

Right.

No, like, that's the thing that I'm not a fan of with, like, say, Battletech and stuff like that.

And, you know, when we play stuff in the Battletech universe, we play... first strike uh and sorry alpha strike we play alpha strike and alpha strike is you can play it on a you know a hex map if you want to but you generally don't have to but you don't have to do anything honestly you can play regular battle tech on not a hex map but pretty much everybody seems to but i i feel like the people who are like more interested in something like alpha strike are like yeah let's just play this normal like it's a regular miniature game and not a hex game And I feel like the people that mostly like to play regular battle tech generally would be also very happy playing a hex game like ASL and other stuff like that.

And I'm not as interested in doing that.

So, but you're right.