How come people like Jade Falcons? A lot of people seem to really identify with them...
Why are you guys into Jade Falcons?
It was 60% Stackpole 40% Thurston.
I hate Stackpoles writing, when he applies fiat to a hero its in your face with a double helping of smugness. I chose House Liao as my first faction when I started Battletech in the 80's, because they were underdogs. When we had personal campaigns most chose a heavy or assault company or premium mechs, at the time clans didn't exist. My personal company was light-medium militia, and more light than medium. I wasn't interested in gaining 'weight' I was happy to fight over scraps in Locusts.
Anyway I digress, along came
Lethal Heritage, about six months after I started regularly playing again. I quickly learned to hate Phelan, because the smug little git had no flaws, a smart answer to anything and anything opposing him might as well pack up and go home, because he will win and smile when he does so. Stackpole isn't that great a plot writer either, he makes his heroes look smart by making his enemies completely stupid whenever they oppose the heroes directly.
Phelan isn't the only culprit, there are arguments to say Allard Jnr and Prince Victor are worse, but Victor had humanising flaws, he also lost once in a while, and Allard did heroic stuff but didnt generally mess around in high politics.
Phelan on the other hand spammed the win button like a kiddie on a console, to ub3r pow3r and became a Khan.
It wasnt the Wolves fault I hated them, I rather like Wolves as animals, more so than Falcons, never really been a bird fan.
Two years passed and I picked up
Way of the Clans, and loved the Jade Falcons from the first page. I was re-introduced to them from their perspective, and saw it from the sibko up. Which is the way to be introduced the the clans. They are too needlessly brutal for my liking to be honest, but this is a game background and brutality is fine, so I set that aside. Yet they knew loyalty and sense of purpose, and other virtues I admire and they knew compassion, even if it was buried deep.
Most of all they had heroes, but those heroes had flaws.
I have never had a single moments problem with Aidan Pryde's fiat, even though it technically went over the top as Tukkayid. Tukkayid was fine because Aidan paid the ultimate price. Everything up to then was Aidan the underdog, and Horse would be an underdog all his years because he was a freebirth. Marthe had guilt issues, Joanna just had Issues. They were likable heroes, followable heroes, heroes I could root for.
If Phelan defended the Prezno plain extraction site, I just know he would escape without a scratch with a cocksure smile and having killed twice as many Com Guard, and he would have a smug one liner to toss off when boarding the dropship that the universe would remould itself around and make true and wise.
It was the writing of ther six intro books to the clans that made me a Jade Falcon.
Everything else, the clan its fluff its choices and histories is why I stayed faction loyal long enough that I will always be Jade Falcon. Its odd then that I normally play 3025, and one of my mates who collects Jade Falcons plays them, and I oppose him. To my knowledge I have only twice played clans on the tabletop, both as Wolf opfor to my Jade Falcon playing buddy.
He is also a Jade Falcon because of the novels, I lent my set to him. But only he went as far as to collect them, I still like playing 3025 though.