Catalyst at Gen Con 2018

Catalyst Game Labs will be out in full force at Gen Con 2018, offering attendees never-before-seen new releases and one-of-a-kind experiences at Booth 1611 in Hall B. The Catalyst Demo Team will also be on hand to host non-stop action, including demos of Dragonfire and tons of BattleTech action.

If you want to know more about Catalyst’s plans for the coming year, and participate in a Q&A with company leadership, be sure to stop by the “What’s Up with BattleTech, Shadowrun, and Dragonfire” session, Thursday at 8 p.m. at Lucas Oil Meeting Room 7.

Before we dive into all the new games, expansions, and sourcebooks making their world debut at Gen Con, here are two things you can’t miss!

All-New Dragonfire Expansions!

Fans have been clamoring for more expansions to the smash-hit Dungeons & Dragons deckbuilding game Dragonfire, and now we’re delivering! Check out the first-ever Campaign Box for the game, as well as three new adventures and an all-new character pack to provide players with exciting new options for their campaigns.

BattleTech Boxed Sets are Back!

Two of the most hotly-anticipated BattleTech products in years will debut on the Gen Con floor: the BattleTech Beginner Box and the BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat boxed sets! They’ve been redesigned from the ground up with entirely new content including gorgeous highly-detailed miniatures.

 

AT THE BOOTH

Dragonfire:
• Demos available throughout the convention.
• Two Githyanki promo screens will be available at the booth, in limited quantities.

Catalyst Games:
• Throughout the convention, a variety of other games will be demoed: Master of Orion: Conquest, Shadowrun: Zero Day, Kittens in a Blender, I Would Fight The Dragon, and more.

BattleTech:
• Mega-sized Demo of the A Game of Armored Combat boxed set with 8″+ tall figures played on a 10’x10′ battle map — see below for a few examples!

 

 

THE GAMING HALL

The Catalyst Demo Team wants to introduce you to some of Catalyst Game Labs’ exciting, fun-filled products in the Miniatures and Casual Games Area. Here’s the schedule for the convention–note that some events require tickets or preregistration; consult the Gen Con events website for more information on availability. All events end at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

DRAGONFIRE

• Demos – All days, 10 a.m. to Midnight, every two hours. (Intermediate level)
• Gen Con Exclusive Events – All days, Noon to 2 p.m.

BATTLETECH

• BattleTech Bootcamp – All days, 10 a.m to 8 p.m., on the hour (Introductory level)
• Alpha Strike Academy – All days, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., on the hour (Introductory level)
• BattleTech Grinder – All days, 10 a.m. to Midnight. (Intermediate level)
• Solaris Melee Challenge – Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to Midnight; Finals: Saturday at 10 a.m. (Intermediate level)
• BattleTech Open – Friday, 10 a.m. (Advanced level)
• Throwback Thursday – Thursday, 10 a.m. for classic BattleTech, 6 p.m. for Alpha Strike (Advanced level)
• Bloodname Tournament – Clan Grand Melee, Thursday at 6 p.m.; Tournament, Friday at 6 p.m. (Advanced level)
• Featured Event – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Advanced level)
• Alpha Strike Turning Points – Saturday, 10 a.m. to Midnight (Advanced level)
• Alpha Strike Battle of the Superheavies – Friday, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. (Advanced level)
• Alpha Strike Wolf’s Dragoons Cadet Program – Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Advanced level)
• Masters and Minions – Saturday, 8 p.m.

PAINT AND TAKE

• All days, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. in the painting area. (No 3 p.m. session on Sunday.)

GAME DESIGNS AND ART PORTFOLIO REVIEWS

Randall N. Bills, Catalyst’s Managing Developer, will be in-booth and reviewing game designs from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Brent Evans, the Catalyst Art Director, will be in-booth specifically for review of art portfolios each day from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

ALL-NEW PRODUCTS

The following brand-new games, expansions, and books are scheduled for pre-release at Gen Con 2018!

DRAGONFIRE

Campaign Box: Moonshae Storms ($29.99)

The Moonshae Storms campaign builds off An Ancient Evil Arises from the base game, as your continuing quest takes you to new lands. A brewing conflict threatens to drown the Moonshae Isles, as lycanthropes and their fomorians allies seek to change the balance of power. Will you tip the tide?

Moonshae Storms is the first Dragonfire Campaign Box. Face encounters from the all-new Mountain environment, and get fully equipped with new Market cards and Magic items! Also included are eight new Character screens, introducing the Barbarian Character class, as well as alternate human races—the Ffolk and Northlanders!

Character Pack: Heroes of the Wild ($24.99)

Character Pack: Heroes of the Wild contains thirty-two new Character screens for Dungeons & Dragons© Dragonfire™, including the Barbarian, and introducing the Sorcerer Class. Additional distinctive races are also featured, such as the Lizardfolk, Tabaxi, Kenku, and Aasimar. Other cards bring new mixes of class and race together to fill out your adventuring party the way you see fit. This pack also includes a bevy of new Market cards, as well as Subclass Features, from Forge Domain to Cavalier, War Magic to Assassin, and more!

 

Adventures: Corruption in Calimshan ($19.99)

The exotic cities and arid deserts of Calimshan hide wonders untold…and terrors unknown! Conquer new encounters, including the all-new Desert environment. In the shifting sands, claim new Magic Items and Market cards, along with Crafting Poisons, in the next chapter of the Dragonfire Adventures!

 

 

 

Adventures: Ravaging the Sword Coast ($19.99)

Your relentless enemy, the hobgoblin warlord Torog-Kaitan, has increased in power, and his new army is wreaking havoc up and down the Sword Coast! Challenge two new Encounter Decks, earn new Magic Items, and gain powerful new Market cards in the next chapter of Dragonfire Adventures!

 

 

 

 

Adventures: Sword Mountains Crypt ($19.99)

In the depths of the Sword Mountains lies a crypt of a mighty Orc Warlord that once raided Waterdeep! Conquer new encounters, including the first Difficulty 4, a Demilich! In the tainted depths, claim new Magic Items and Market cards, in the next chapter of Dragonfire Adventures!

BATTLETECH

BattleTech Beginner Box ($19.99)

The commline abuzz with pre-battle orders.
The pounding rhythm of a metal titan on the prowl.
The shifting glow of your BattleMechs’ controls spread before you.
Then the abrupt tone-lock of incoming fire wails in your cockpit as missiles, autocannon shells, and lasers fall like Thor’s hammer against your armor. Seize your ‘Mechs controls, draw its weapons into line, and unleash a hellish response!

BattleTech is the world’s greatest armored combat game, filled with a myriad of epic stories and gaming experiences to satiate any player: miniatures to RPG play, hobby painting to fiction, and beyond. The BattleTech Beginner Box is the first step on the fantastic journey and includes everything you need to get started: two high-quality miniatures, quick-start rules, a mapsheet, cards to represent your MechWarrior’s unique skills, dice, and more.

Do you have what it takes to plant the banner of victory and become a legend? Leap into the action and find out!

BattleTech: A Game Of Armored Combat ($59.99)

It is the dawn of the thirty-first century. You are a MechWarrior: master of a multi-ton, towering avatar of destruction that is the culmination of more than 3,000 years of battlefield technology development. A precious heirloom passed from parent to child across centuries, an unassailable mark of your station. Whether a soldier-of-fortune or a true-blue patriot, you drop into hot zones across a thousand worlds to expand the star-spanning empire of one of the noble Great Houses.

BattleTech is the world’s greatest armored combat game. Inside this box you’ll discover epic clashes, dynamic characters, and a myriad of gaming experiences for any type of player: miniatures to RPG play, hobby painting to fiction, and beyond.

A Game of Armored Combat includes everything you need to start tossing dice and moving miniatures on your gaming table. Do you have what it takes to plan the banner of victory and become a legend? Leap into the action and find out!

BattleTech: Shattered Fortress ($29.99)

In 3146, the Republic of the Sphere hangs by a tenuous thread. The last fragments of Devlin Stone’s dream to shepherd humankind toward a more prosperous future hide behind the impenetrable defenses of Fortress Republic. As the interstellar communications blackout rages, the ambitious Great Houses vie for military dominance, and the bloodthirsty Clans strive to find a weakness in the Fortress’s armor on their path to conquering Terra and claiming the coveted title of ilClan. When the Wall comes down, will the Inner Sphere plunge even further into the abyss of interstellar war, or will this herald the dawning of a new age?

Shattered Fortress chronicles the twilight of BattleTech’s Dark Age, as nations are thrown into turmoil and predators circle the broken remnants of the Republic of the Sphere. This volume provides a year-by-year look at pivotal turning points in the history of the Inner Sphere, offers a peek behind the curtain of Fortress Republic, and reveals the fateful decisions that will ultimately decide the future of mankind.

BattleTech: A Splinter of Hope/The Anvil, Novella Omnibus ($7.99)

Jump into your BattleMech cockpit, fire up your fusion engine, and charge into the fray with two all-new BattleTech novellas from Philip A. Lee and BattleTech veteran Blaine Lee Pardoe.

A Splinter of Hope: Violent expansion of the Capellan Confederation and the Draconis Combine has cost recently crowned First Prince Julian Davion both his mentor and countless Federated Suns worlds. To rally his people, he funnels the fires of justice into an ambitious yet risky campaign to retake a vital system: New Syrtis, the occupied capital of the Capellan March. However, the Capellan people have fought dearly for their prize and will do anything in their power to hold onto it. Will Julian’s gamble preserve the future of the Federated Suns, or is the invasion doomed before it even begins?

The Anvil: Khan Malvina Hazen of Clan Jade Falcon is known throughout the Inner Sphere as a merciless, bloodthirsty tyrant. The next target for her scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners tactics is the Lyran Commonwealth world of Coventry: a persistent stain on the Jade Falcons’ history. But not all Falcons follow Malvina’s lead. Ordered to take Coventry at any cost, Galaxy Commander Stephanie Chistu wishes to see her Clan victorious, but no victory is worth the Jade Falcons losing their very soul. To stand up to tyranny and find an honorable path forward for her Clan, she must balance the razor’s edge between duty and honor—or die trying.

SHADOWRUN

Shadowrun: Kill Code ($49.99)

The Matrix is unknowable because it is infinite. There is always one more corner behind which things can hide, one more hole where secrets can be buried. Your job isn’t to know everything about the Matrix—it’s to know more than the people you are hunting. Or who are hunting you.

Kill Code will help give Sixth World hackers the edge they need to stay alive and get ahead. From a guide to Matrix basics and operations to more ways to build ace deckers to dozens of new options for technomancers, the book can help everyone who tries to make their living on the Matrix, providing something to give them an edge when riding the Matrix’s datastreams. They’ll also learn about who their opposition might be—and how they might be attacked. The Matrix is full of kill codes waiting to be executed. Just as with the Sixth World’s many firearms, your job is to make sure they’re pointed in the right direction when they go off.

Kill Code is an advanced Matrix sourcebook for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

Shadowrun: Street Lethal ($49.99)

Street fighting is only chaotic for amateurs. When you’re a pro, when you know what you’re doing, you’re precise. You know what your opponents might do, and you know ten different ways to respond. The options give you strength. They give you power. They make you dangerous enough that the smart ones on the street will know at a glance that they shouldn’t test you. The dumb ones will suffer.

Street Lethal contains the data, tools, and options players need to maximize their characters’ combat skills. With briefings on the security techniques of major corporations, information on major mercenary groups and their operations, and a whole truckload of firearms options, this book has all runners need to make sure they’re the ones left standing at the end of a fight.

Street Lethal is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, though much of the information on corporate security and other opponents could also be used in Shadowrun: Anarchy.

Shadowrun: Crossfire: Prime Runner Edition ($59.99)

The shadows of the Sixth World have every kind of danger you can imagine. Ultra-violent gangers, flesh-eating ghouls, mages that summon spirits from toxic waste, backstabbing corporate raiders, hard-nosed police officers, and even dragons. You don’t have much—mainly your guts, your wits, and your friends. But maybe that’s enough. Between you and your teammates, you can sling spells, hack the Matrix, talk a tiger out of his stripes, and bring down a charging ork from a hundred yards away. Will that be enough to face down the worst the mean streets can throw at you? You’re about to find out.

Shadowrun: Crossfire is a deck-building game set in one of the most popular game settings of all time. Crossing cyberpunk with fantasy and plunging players into a world dominated by ruthless megacorporations. Crossfire gives players the chance to dive into the world’s shadows and see if they can survive. The Prime Runner Edition adds new upgrades to make the game even better—with more missions, improved rules, and new character screens, this is the best version of Crossfire ever!

Featuring fast, cooperative game play and stacks of dangerous obstacles and opponents to overcome. Shadowrun: Crossfire will launch you into nonstop action. You’ll even have the chance to get stronger the more you play, tackling harder and harder obstacles as you become more dangerous. Leap into the shadows for deck-building adventure like you’ve never experienced!

Shadowrun: Crossfire: Prime Runner Refit Kit ($24.99)

If you have a Shadowrun: Crossfire set, you might have seen the update to the game called the Shadowrun: Crossfire: Prime Runner Edition, and maybe you’re thinking that it would be good to be able to get something that has only the changed materials—the updated rules, the changed cards, the new missions—so that you’d have all the benefits of the latest edition without having to buy everything again.

You’re right—it would be good! So here it is! The Prime Runner Refit Kit brings all the changes of the Prime Runner Edition to your Crossfire game, including updated rules, adjusted character stats, newly designed character screens, more missions, and a full range of upgrade stickers, including the set from the High Caliber Ops expansion. With this kit, your game will be ready to roll with any Crossfire game out there!

Note: The Prime Runner Refit Kit is for use only with the first edition of Shadowrun Crossfire. If you don’t have Shadowrun: Crossfire or if you have the Crossfire: Prime Runner Edition, you do not need this Refit Kit!

TABLETOP

Master of Orion: To The Stars, Fiction Anthology ($7.99)

The Master of Orion game lets players take their place as one of thirteen different races of the galaxy, each seeking to carve out their own empire from the stars. Now, Catalyst Game Labs and Wargaming.net are pleased to present the first anthology set in the Master of Orion universe.

Ranging from one end of the galaxy to the other, these original stories explore the galactic politics, alien planets, and outlaw bases of the Master of Orion universe. A Sakkra ship duels with a mysterious Meklar vessel near the Race Track, the most dangerous area in space. The leader of a Gnolam merchant empire family discovers that danger can come from any direction—even right next to him. A cargo ship crew stranded by pirates must accept an offer of help from an unlikely source. And a special operations team sets a trap to capture the wily creature that has led them on a chase halfway across the galaxy.

Featuring sixteen stories by Michael A. Stackpole, Jody Lynn Nye, Aaron Rosenberg, Jean Rabe, Robert E. Vardeman, Jane Lindskold, and many others, To the Stars explores the races, planets, and secrets of the Master of Orion universe like never before. So ready your fleet, take stock of your planets, and prepare to embark on adventures that will take you to the stars and beyond!

RESTOCKS

The following game re-stocks are scheduled for availability at Gen Con 2018!

 

Dragonfire: Character Pack: Heroes of the Sword Coast ($24.99)

Character Pack: Heroes of the Sword Coast contains thirty-two additional Character screens, introducing the Druid, Bard, Ranger and Warlock Classes into Dungeons & Dragons© Dragonfire™. Additional races are also featured, including Rock Gnome, Tiefling, Lightfoot Halfling, and Gold Dwarf. Other screens bring Classes, genders, and races together in a broad variety to fill out a sweeping range of adventuring parties. Finally, the pack includes dozens of sticker sheets, as well as twenty-seven new Market cards.

 

 

Dragonfire: Adventures: Shadows Over Dragonspear Castle ($19.99)

Evil awaits in the catacombs surrounding Dragonspear Castle. Challenge two new Encounter Decks, and discover new Magic Items and Market cads in the first chapter of the Dragonfire Adventures!

 

 

 

Dragonfire: Adventures: Chaos in the Trollclaws ($19.99)

Chaos brews in the Trollclaws as gnolls, orcs, and goblins clash in conflicts that endanger the countryside. Face new Encounters and claim new Magic Items and Market cards in the second chapter of the Dragonfire Adventures!

 

 

Dragonfire: Treasure Hoard: Wondrous Treasures ($19.99)

Wondrous Treasures contains fifty-two Magic Items cards to expand your Dungeons & Dragons© Dragonfire™ experience. From armor to weapons, figurines of power to staffs: a host of great new game play fun can be yours. Unlock the keys to adding these to your deck as you complete more adventures and build the legend of your character!

BattleTech: Total Warfare ($39.99)

It is the 31st century, a time of endless wars that rage across human-occupied space. As star empires clash, these epic wars are won and lost by BattleMechs, 30-foot-tall humanoid metal titans bristling with lasers, autocannons and dozens of other lethal weapons; enough firepower to level entire city blocks. Your elite force of MechWarriors drives these juggernauts into battle, proudly holding your faction’s flag high, intent on expanding the power and glory of your realm. At their beck and call are the support units of armored vehicles, power armored infantry, aerospace fighters and more, wielded by a MechWarrior’s skillful command to aid him in ultimate victory. Will they become legends, or forgotten casualties? Only your skill and luck will determine their fate!

The product of more than twenty years of gaming experience, Total Warfare presents the rules of the BattleTech game system as never before. For the first time, all the rules for various units that have a direct impact on the deadly battlefields of the thirty-first century appear in a unified rules set: from BattleMechs to ProtoMechs, Combat Vehicles to Support Vehicles, infantry to aerospace fighters and DropShips. Interwoven and meticulously updated, Total Warfare provides the most detailed and comprehensive rules set published to date for BattleTech–the perfect companion for standard tournament play.

Total Warfare is the single-source rulebook for people who play BattleTech. It is not intended to teach new players the game, but rather to serve as a reference work for people who know the game, while introducing more technologies and expansive rules than appear in the basic box set. The introductory game in the BattleTech line is the BattleTech Introductory Box Set. New players should pick up that product before diving into this one. Construction rules for the various units presented in Total Warfare can be found in BattleTech TechManual.

Note: To celebrate the release of the BattleTech Beginner Box and BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat boxed sets, the release of Harebrained Schemes’ BATTLETECH, as well as Piranha Games hotly-anticipated MechWarrior 5, new printings of the core BattleTech rulebooks are coming, with the first, Total Warfare, now available! As each are reprinted, they’ll feature fully-updated errata and receive a vintage cover to celebrate the wonderful history of the BattleTech universe!

BattleTech: Legacy, Anthology ($11.95)

A Draconis Combine warrior struggles with immoral orders in the First Succession War. A House Davion MechWarrior participates in a risky heist as part of Operation Guerrero. A history buff battles the Word of Blake during the Liberation of Terra. What do these MechWarriors have in common? Each one pilots the same BattleMech, a survivor that has been repaired and rebuilt countless times throughout its long and bloody 300-year lifespan.

The seventy-ton GHR-5H Grasshopper can outmaneuver and outlast some of the most fearsome enemy ’Mechs, making it an invaluable asset to battlefield commanders. Even an incapacitated Grasshopper will be rebuilt to fight another day, with a new pilot at its controls, because MechWarriors can be replaced, but ’Mechs cannot.

In BattleTech: Legacy, thirteen all-new stories chronicle the fortunes and tragedies of a single ’Mech across several tumultuous points in its wide-ranging combat history. Veteran BattleTech authors Kevin Killiany and Craig A. Reed, Jr. bookend this exciting collection, while other familiar names and new blood explore important moments in this ’Mech’s history of constant, unmitigated warfare that leaves no corner of the Inner Sphere untouched.

BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident, Novel ($11.95)

The battlefields of the 31st century are ruled by the BattleMech; twelve-meter-tall, 100-ton bipedal engines of pure destruction. Piloted by MechWarriors, commanded by neo-feudal officers, owned by national governments and band of mercenaries, these ’Mechs make every other ground combat vehicle obsolete.
This is the warfare of fusion-powered giants.
This is BattleTech.

Allegra Greene is no stranger to the military; her father is a general, after all. But when she enters the Nellus Military Academy, she finds far more than she expected. She finds a group of friends that will keep her going, challenging training, and instructors that push her to the edge and beyond.

Unfortunately, that’s not all she finds, and soon the endemic politics and warfare of the Inner Sphere reach the Nellus Academy. When their spaceship is hijacked and crash-lands on a remote moon, Allegra and her friends find themselves in a life-or-death struggle just to survive!

Shadowrun GM Screen, with new art ($19.99)

Every shadowrunner knows the value of good information. The right fact, the perfect piece of data, can be the difference between success and failure on a run, between life and death. And in the right hands, information can be more than valuable-it can be powerful.

The Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen provides a collection of useful tables from Shadowrun, Fifth Edition for ease of reference in game play. With range tables, action lists, combat modifiers, social modifiers, and more, this is a critical game aid to make your Shadowrun games faster and more fun. And to provide that all-important secrecy so that the players don’t know what you’re up to. This screen is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

Shadowrun: Sprawl Stories, Vol. 1, Anthology ($11.95)

The Sixth World is a dangerous place, and nowhere is that more obvious than in Seattle, the so-called Emerald City. Surrounding its neon-drenched heart is kilometer after kilometer of Sprawl, where millions of people scratch out a living among hazardous, slowly decaying neighborhoods and even more dangerous neighbors.

Sprawl Stories contains four Shadowrun novellas that explore Seattle through the eyes of the people who live there every day. A burned-out mage detective tackles a missing person case that threatens to spiral beyond his control. A reporter goes on the ride-along of her life with a high-octane DocWagon team, and uncovers a conspiracy on live trideo. A young ex-wageslave is caught between powerful forces while investigating his uncle’s death. And a shaman must deal with a serious injury that threatens his very way of life—but not before taking vengeance on those who double-crossed him.

So take a walk on the true wild side of the Seattle Sprawl. If you’re good—and lucky—you might even come back out in one piece…

MISCELLANEOUS

If you think that list of books/games is awesome, we’ve got even more stuff for you to check out, including new t-shirts, enamel pins, dice and more!

The following additional items are planned to be available in the Catalyst area:

• All-new energy drinks to keep you sharp during long gaming sessions!
• Shadowrun Q-workshop dice
• BattleTech Q-workshop dice
• BattleTech acrylic and aluminum dice
• BattleTech and Shadowrun patches
• Old and new BattleTech and Shadowrun T-shirts
• Old and new BattleTech and Shadowrun lapel pins and keychains (right)
• Two BattleTech miniatures, the Wasp and the Valkyrie, in very limited quantities only at the Catalyst booth!