Coming Soon to Print-on-Demand: The Wars of Reaving, BattleTech Activity Book

Big news, MechWarriors!

This Friday, April 17, we’re excited to offer The Wars of Reaving in Print-on-Demand format — the first out-of-print sourcebook among many we’re planning to offer again via POD. In addition, the BattleTech Activity Book will be available in Print-on-Demand the same day, and Touring the Stars: Gulf Breeze drops on PDF. You’ll see links to all three products here, and on the official BattleTech and Catalyst Game Labs social media.

But, let’s unpack the POD announcement a little.

BattleTech fans have asked for years whether we would bring past sourcebooks back into print, leveraging modern production methods and technology. It took some doing, but we’re now planning on offering Print-on-Demand availability for out-of-print sourcebooks on a regular basis. (The next two books are already in the works!)

It’s important to understand that this Print-on-Demand process is…a process. It’s not as simple as just dumping PDFs of the entire BattleTech back catalog into the POD system. For one, there are subtle discrepancies in the original layout and paper size of the sourcebooks that need to be accounted for when they become POD products. For another, more recent sourcebooks that were originally laid out on digital programs are much easier to turn into Print-on-Demand products. So, apologies to anyone waiting for the old House sourcebooks, but they’re going to be a bigger task to tackle. (But–they are on the list!)

So, what’s the plan for upcoming POD books? While we understand how sought after some of the out-of-print volumes have become, we want to ensure that sourcebooks which become available in Print-on-Demand also synergize with the newest releases or upcoming product. As we determine priorities and set an order for POD resurrections, we’ll be looking for opportunities to dovetail POD with the new stuff in a way that makes sense for both products.

Which brings us back to The Wars of Reaving. It’s a great read and consistently cited as one of the best BattleTech sourcebooks ever produced, which would be reason enough for it to lead off the POD effort. But with the IlClan Era right around the corner, we wanted to make sure everyone had the chance to read up on a critical chapter in the history of the Clans. Plus, who knows? Wars may hold some important groundwork for other products we haven’t told you about yet…

Stop by the forums and discuss this news here!