Best Era

[rebs]

Given how often BattleTech writers recycle the same story framework over and over and over again (little guy and/or merc unit on Planet X defeats bigger guy, seasoned with generic man-pain for flavor), this feels so sadly true.

There's a lot of big factions taking down little ones all over the timeline, I'll spare us the examples. 

People like underdog stories for the fiction.  But predictable big-takes-down-small is for sourcebooks. 

That said, there are other kinds of stories too.  It's not easy.  (Edit: Don't get me wrong.  One can take a well-known bit of lore and weave a background subplot around it and completely put a new perspective on things at times.  So I don't want to limit any prospective writers out there on what can and can't be done.)

I'm not going to say this sarcastically or any other way than honestly.  Tassa Kay, ever think about submitting to Shrapnel?  You could write some of the stories that you feel should be told, you are well versed in the underdogs, too, between being an obvious Blood Spirit and Capellan fan. 

[tassa_kay]

There's a lot of big factions taking down little ones all over the timeline, I'll spare us the examples. 

People like underdog stories for the fiction.  But predictable big-takes-down-small is for sourcebooks. 

That said, there are other kinds of stories too.

That's what I was getting at; it doesn't have to be just small-vs-big or big-vs-small. But the lion's share of short stories tend to fall into the former, and it astounds me how often they get praised as much as they do because so many of them read as repetitive and don't bring anything new or interesting to the table (which is why I skip over them when I pick up Shrapnel issues). But that's just me. I fully understand that I'll forever be in the minority on this topic.

I'm not going to say this sarcastically or any other way than honestly.  Tassa Kay, ever think about submitting to Shrapnel?

I've had an idea or two, but I'm not really keen on writing for CGL. But I appreciate the thought, rebs.

[Caesar Steiner for Archon]

I'm never too concerned with seeing the same framework, because there's only like six different stories that humans have ever invented and we just recycle them forever. Short fiction is very tricky to break out of those categories given the restrictions, so I just want some characters I like and maybe a plot twist I didn't see coming.

[nova_dew]

Without looking into finances and product release stats:

I'd say Succession Wars, IlClan have been the most successful, followed by Clan Invasion and Civil war, there's a lot of people who got into the Clans and a lot of Feddies to support the products.


Worst Jihad and Dark ages, I think a lot of people had presumed BT was dead and floated away and missed the Jihad and a few people didn't like the Dark ages, but that's just BT, for the Clix players DA would be the most successful.

[SteelRaven]

I thought we were talking personal opinion and preferences. The only people who have the numbers are Fasa, WK, FanPro and CGL, our best idea of what sold is going to be clouded by ignorance of how the business/industry has changed over the decades and personal bias.

[nova_dew]

I thought we were talking personal opinion and preferences. The only people who have the numbers are Fasa, WK, FanPro and CGL, our best idea of what sold is going to be clouded by ignorance of how the business/industry has changed over the decades and personal bias.

The question was so vague it could be anything, people just assumed.