Battletechnology Magazine

This post is a day late, but I've been doing some major cleaning over the last couple of days, and trying to think of a subject to base this post around....

While clearing out a tote, I came across a copy of Battletechnology, and I suddenly had a subject! I couldn't stop and write this post right then and there, but had to finish cleaning the tote out.

In case you didn't know, Battletechnology was a magazine devoted to Battletech in the late eighties to mid-nineties. It ran for twenty-one issues, and was written in the style as if the magazine was being written in the Thirty-first Century. It had new 'Mechs, stories, alternate rules, scenarios, and news items related to what was happening in the universe.

The first half of the series were admittedly better quality, as there were people involved with FASA involved with the magazine. But over time, the quality dropped and it quietly died. Sadly, the magazine, which had been considered cannon at one point, was ruled not to be by later line developers.

So, why did I get a bout of nostalgia when I saw the magazine? Because the magazine in question was one of two Battletechnologys that had something I co-wrote in it, my first two writing credits for Battletech. My friend Rob and myself were fully involved in designing and creating out own units, and we’d read and discuss each issue when it came out.

After several issues, Rob and I decided to take the magazine’s request for material and run with it.. The first thing we submitted was the UM-90 SurbanMech, a full tech readout about a modified UrbanMech. It was a thrill to see it in print in issue #18, and we decided to go bigger. We sent in a story, 'Mech readout, and a scenario, all which were published in Issue #21 — the last issue. The Mech from that issue lives on, as the Rattlesnake.

It took me almost twenty years to get something else in Battletech published, but I will always look back on those two issues as the start of my Battletech writing career.

(Cover images taken from Sarna.net's Battletech wiki)

Craig