Timestamps:
Intro with Randall and Michael CiaravellaBattleTech game with Bryan Young, Mike Stackpole, Jason Hansa and Big RedStart of Encounters playthrough with Bryan young, Russell Zimmerman, James Kirtley and Brent EvansPart 2 of the Encounters game (the stream died)Fiction discussion with Bryan Young and John HelfersDiscussion about making a successful and endearing game with Ray Arrastia, Brent Evans, and Bryn BillsCGL Directors Q&A with Loren Coleman, Randall Bills, Brent Evans and Ray ArrastiaStuff from the intro session with Randall and Michael Ciaravella:
-Randall half-joked that he's been banned from posting to Instagram because he keeps posting things he shouldn't like the Urbie LAM
-Shipping has been even more nightmarish recently. The Star League Command Lance, 40th Anniversary box sets and UrbanMech LAM took 8 weeks to get shipped and they basically missed being at Adepticon by about a week. All Kickstarter products are apparently on the water right now and they're still tentatively good for June.
-On the Wars of Reaving and Celestials forcepacks, this is part of an attempt to have some support for eras outside the ilClan. The Jihad specifically was cited as one they have little intention to return to outside of fiction, but they did want to do era-specific minis too
-The kickstarter dice have been printed in massive numbers and they're setup to reprint in short order, the intention is to keep them in print
-"Some stuff that you guys are going to love" is coming for the Aurigan Reach.
-Work is progressing on the Brush Wars books, Randall doesn't have all the details though.
-There will be an update for late backers getting digital rewards soon.
From the Bryan and John chat:
-Without Question will be the Battle of Sudeten from the Jade Falcons' perspective and then is "uncharted territory with the Falcons charting their own path and Jiyi holding on for dear life. Alexis might be in over her head and not ready for the rigors of command" Slated for May 15th release
-Voidbreaker follows up on what happened to Tucker Harwell. Where he went and how he got into the hands of everyone he ends up in the hands of. A BattleTech take on a spy thriller/escapade. The idea came out of the last writer's summit, Ray said to Bryan that they need to figure out a plot point and they spent some time staring at the map to do it and Bryan thought "this would be a great spy thriller". Bryan likened it to a Sea Fox James Bond novel. Currently due out Q1 2025
-There's another Ghost Dogs novella on the way. It'll be about them fighting the Marians in the Free Worlds League
-Bryan wrote a short story for Hot Spots: Hinterlands
-Spotlight on: Fox Patrol is in fact check right now. Bryan wrote the biography sections and came up with the scenarios, which Josh Perian then worked into playable material.
-Bryan would love to write the Terran Falcons and their identity crisis. This will at least be touched on in Mike Ciaravella's Alaric novel
-In the chat, Craig Reed said he's still working on In the Shadow of the Dragon
-John talked a bit about the upcoming Tales of the Bounty Hunter anthology, the last story will be in the ilClan era
-They are still addressing the Shrapnel slushpile backlog. Phil and John will be discussing it at the con, they might just add more slush readers as they only have one right now. John apologised for the delay.
-Phil Lee had finished his editing pass on Letter of the Law (the follow-up to Hunting Season), it's going to John for editing soon and they're looking at Q3 2024 for release.
From the chat with Ray, Brent, Bryn and Mike:
-When asked about the hurdles to making a new aerospace game, Ray said the first one is that they would not be relying on an existing system, they need a ground-up game that is fun and engaging. After that is making it work within BattleTech as a setting.
-On balancing metrics for forcepacks, it's more gut choice, working around a shortlist of what will go into a box but it's always themed around the formation special rules. Logistics and the restrictions around what they can put in (like the repose, reprint, variant, new mini paradigm of the Merc forcepacks)
-Someone asked about the Hexpacks returning - no, the skyrocketing cost of cardboard made them too expensive. Also, Ray feels using the old map art hurt them the same way using the old designs hurt the prior lance packs
-They're considering putting more counter sheets into the map packs
-Liao and Marik Combat Manuals are planned, but way down the list
-A big part of CGL using Kickstarter as a marketing tool is to try and figure out how big to make print runs. It also lets them do things that would never work as commercial products like the Precentor Martial version of Universe
-They will redo the Solaris maps. It'll be more than just a redo of the art, they want to do it justice. It'd be a big project and they don't have a schedule for it yet.
-Why redo the vehicle rules but not ’Mech ones? Because ’Mechs are the core of the setting and other elements would be out of balance or take too much focus away from ’Mechs
-The Remembrance book might not get a general print release but may get a PDF at some point
-they confirmed the premium mini is the Vulture Prime
-The Raven Alliance will probably just get a Combat Manual entry as part of the PDF update to the general Clan Combat Manual. But there will be more material for them in upcoming sourcebooks and fiction.
-If you want to pitch a game to CGL, reach out to them before a con and they will make time to meet you.
-What makes it hard to do LAMs properly? They're too fast on the tabletop and it makes them hard to keep balanced. Ray said it feels like they're not really fitting how LAMs work in the fiction too.
-Interest in tournament formats is effecting product development and organised play is becoming more important.
-Why are the logos all over the place on the spine? It was too hard to keep them lined up because of the vaguaries of printing so they stopped trying.
-Will the UrbanMech IIc be getting plastic soon? No plans yet. Will the Albatross be in a Marik pack? It's one of Ray's favourites and it nearly made a pack recently but lost out at the end.
-Will the Clan Protectorate be in the FWL or Clan ilClan update for their respective Combat Manuals? This is being determined soon
-Does WotC still own the card game? They own the rules.
-Will we see Clan Vehicle minis? Yes, they're on the schedule they put out.
-When asked if they'd do BattleTech in TableTop Sim, it's been discussed but it'd be a lot of effort when MegaMek is already out there as a competing product.
-Favourite Light Mech? Bryn: Jenner. Brent: Wulfen, Dola, Gunsmith, Rokurokubi, Ray: Locust
-Why not better coordinate the release of products like minis and books? They've tried and it's very hard to get it to line up for various reasons.
-If you have 12 months to get a dream product out, what would it be? Bryn: Get Leviathans done and then move on to the rest of the factions and consider a card game that was pitched. Ray: Aerospace, then Solaris (or just take more time for the current products). Brent: Facilitate an explosion of merc-centric products to help facilitate new players.
-Is there anything in Total Warfare that should be streamlined? Ray: Total Warfare should be the BattleMech Manual. Bryn: Vehicles and Aerotech as per the BSP rules. Brent: Evolving the record sheets, add colour, especially to the heat scale, an RPG element, layout tweaks
-They considered doing fiction where the Black Thorns explicitly die.
-There will be Combat Engineers options in an upcoming RPG product and the BSP rules
-There are plans to release pre-made campaigns, no further details.
-There's a 3025 map in the Universe book that shows the Aurigan Coalition
From the Directors' Q&A
-Favourite obscure characters: Brent's is Tara Bishop, Loren's is Agent Curatis, Randall had a few, mostly the stronger but not typical female characters.
-Products they wanted to do but couldn't - most products they wanted to do happened eventually, like the old Clan box set eventually became Clan Invasion, the Combat Manuals was another example of a thing who's time probably has come.
-Marik and Cappelan forcepacks will come eventually. Randall noted at this point that the planned forcepack list is subject to change if a cool idea comes up and bumps the line
-Aces is going to start moving full steam ahead, hurdles have been cleared but no further details for now. Randall says maybe an update in two months
-European Shipping Hub is "further along than it's ever been". The biggest roadblock right now is VAT
-the Locust/Wasp/Stinger box idea is still being worked out, as they have 2 mechs to a mold and there's no guarantee that the Locust and Wasp are on the same mold, for example. So they need to figure out what to do with the other minis that would be coming out of the mold. Likely there wouldn't be any scope for reposes or variants.
-There was a point last year where they thought the Kickstarter would be shipping around December, and Barnes and Noble ordered Encounters based on that idea. So when Encounters came in they saw a B&N order on the system and didn't cross-check to see if the street date had changed and it's out there now. But there's no real way to fix the problem and B&N acted in good faith so they have to live with it.
-The Celestials are the ’Mechs Randall wants out in plastic the most. He also has a soft spot for the Blood Kite though he has no idea if it'll ever appear.
-They still owe Loren a plastic Solitaire, Randall says they have it lined up somewhere.
-People should be getting warnings to lock in their address for the Kickstarter and we should be getting shipping charges soon.
-Kickstarter swag will be hitting the CGL store, but there are logistical issues around storage and picking (it's an obscene number of SKUs) which are being worked through.
-They're working on reprints of older books. They had to destroy three copies of Shadowrun 1st edition in order to scan it in different ways to get the text and art properly.
-Someone suggested a farmland map pack, and they guys loved it and it became a whole discussion.
-Randall is hoping to hit the East Coast as part of his tour, Ray and Aaron may do some appearances in his stead.
-Den of Wolves is still in progress, it's about 2/3 done on both Loren and Stackpole's side and they're going to have a chat to coordinate the ending.
-Force Manual Kurita is at the Printers, hopefully releasing late 2nd quarter/3rd quarter.
-BattleTech: COMMAND development stalled for a while but it back on track now. They'll be playing it on-stream over the weekend.
-Vehicles they would have added to the Kickstarter if they could? Randall: the Fulcrum or more VTOLs; Loren was happy with what they got in; Ray: Striker.
-There will be a map-scale Leopard DropShip in the future
-An IndustrialMech forcepack has been discussed
-Loren cannot comment on a DropShip carry case
-Silly forcepacks they'd like to do. Randall: Does the LAM not count? Ray: Critter-Tek
-The JES Missile carriers are on the list to do in plastic at some point.
-Someone suggested a pack of scatter terrain like cars, they liked it
-Someone asked about doing a third ComStar forcepack with the rest of the 2750 mechs, and they liked that idea too.
-They're looking at doing a booth at PAX Australia
-Loren was asked what was the biggest thing he wasn't allowed to talk about, and he talked about the Commander's Case, a grab and go box with space for a company of ’Mechs, some books, dice, record sheets and the like. Should be out for Gencon. This is the case we saw in some photos and that one video from KerenskyKon.
