More Photos of My Battletech Collection

As promised (or threatened), and in keeping with the Harebrained's current Backer Mission weekly mission, I decided on taking another round of photos of my Battletech collection. I received good feedback with the first round and that wasn't all of my collection. So, I took a few more and here they are!

The picture above is the one I mentioned in my previous post -- my physical Battletech reference center. The bottom two shelves are almost Battletech or related to Battletech. The only rulebook I'm currently missing in physical form is Strategic Operations, which I hope to pick up someday. The blue and white binders on the bottom shelf hold the original House Davion handbook (Blue binder) and TRO:3026 (White binder). The  Black binder has some of my home-grown Battlemech designs. The top shelf has my TROs, while the one below that has the first four Battlecorps anthologies and the New Battletech Novel, Embers of War.

A few of the older books are only a few more readthroughs from being in binders themselves. So, this picture is going to be a lot different this time next year.....

Now, probably my most unusual piece of Battletech memorabilia. An actual, honest-to- goodness rejection letter for Battlecorps.

These days, all submissions are sent via email to a single Email address. But in the early days, submissions were actual sent via real mail. And rejections were also sent the same way. At the time, I was just starting out, mailing stories and hoping to be noticed.

This is before Jason Schmitzer assumed the role of Battlecorps editor -- the letter is from some guy named Loren Coleman (The one that doesn't hunt Bigfoots -- or is that Bigfeet?).  So, why hang onto it?

In part, pride --- there's a hand-written note from Loren (I'm assuming it's Loren's handwriting), explaining why the story I sent in was rejected and encouraging me to continue writing. I also keep it pinned to my corkboard as a reminder that I'm only as good as my last story. Twenty-plus Battlecorps stories later, it still reminds me that I'm not a perfect writer.

 I've been to a few conventions in my time, but this was one of the few tangible pieces evidence that I've played the game. The con was 20 years ago, and I don't remember much about it beyond having a great time.

I've been to two Origins, both times before it settled in Columbus, Ohio. I've never been to Gencon, but hope to do so one day. It's just a matter of having enough money that isn't earmarked for bills in the same place at the same time. Maybe one day....

I showed a photo of the BattleteMech blueprints in my previous post, so here's another one -- the poster that came with the Battltech ID stat cards. I still have the cards --- they're in a binder on a shelf, safe from harm. (I think....)

As a Battlecorps writer, I find that having Battletech memorabilia in sight of my writing space helps keep me in the Battletech mindset. My physical references are a couple of feet away, a rejection letter in view to remind me that I can still write bad stories, and the MechWarrior minis watching me as I write.

I do have an electronic database of Battletech products, and sometimes it's quicker to look it up in a pdf than in physical form. But sometimes, it's more useful to hold a sourcebook in my hands, or a MechWarrior mini. Brainstoring ideas is like that --- reading through a sourcebook, or holding a mini to generate ideas for stories or scenes.

I put it down to age and the fact I'm old-fashioned....

Here's another poster I have, rolled up in the closet, held open by my Battlecorps print anthologies. Yes, the Warhammer is unseen, but the poster is pre-unseen/reseen/newseen and was the cover of the original Fourth Successor War Atlas (vol. 1 -- and I do have both physical volumes)

While it looks like we're finally getting new images for the unseens, I will still call the Robotech models by their Battletech names. Chalk another thing up to old age....

Here is another shot from my "trophy hall" showing a couple of my other battlecorps story covers.

Why have a trophy hall? It's a reminder of what I've accomplished so far. Some might think it's an ego stroke (One of the reasons why I keep the rejection letter mentioned above tacked to my corkboard -- to counter the ego when it gets overblown.) It reminds me every time I go through the hall about what I've done so far.

I only have about half the Battlecorps story covers up, and nothing on the sourcebook projects, Space is a limiting factor, as it's a small hall and there's four doorways leaving to and from the hallway, limiting wall space.

I've finally have the process work out about how to do the formatting and how to display them, but the project at the moment is a low priority. It's going to take both time and money to really do it up right -- and there's a lot that can go up. If I ever get a chance and get it done, I'll take pictures and post there here.

And my last photo -- a shot of my gaming stuff in general. You can see the Battletech and Battleforce boxes, the Battlech boards  on the right, and there's a few more Battletech posters upper center-left.

There are a number of games there -- Star Fleet Battles, Renegade Legion, D&D (1st edition, I think), and Star Wars RPG. The white books are my collection of Ospray Military books (Mostly the Campaign series) and a small collection of Doc Savage and The Shadow novels. The binders have assorted stuff, some home-made, some not.

So, that's about it. I doubt there's much left that I haven't taken a picture of relating to Battletech, so this should be it. If you haven't taken photos of your stuff, do so, and tweet it, using the hashtag #myBTstuff.

Take care,

Craig

A few photos of my Battletech stuff

For the second weekly "Bonus Backer Missions" for the Battletech Kickstarter, Harebrain schemes wants BT fans to tweet photos of their Battletech collection (using the hashtag, #myBTstuff). As someone who is a writer and fan of the gaming universe, I have a large collection of Battletech stuff. So, I took a few photos and here is some of my collection.

The above picture is some of the smaller stuff I have, a few faction dice some pins I've collected at conventions, and three custom-made buttons I've had for.....maybe 20-25 years? A long time in any case.

Of course, I have my novel collection. It's almost complete, but I can't find a couple of them for some reason, ones I know I had at one time. There's another ten or so BT novels on the shelf above, but they're outnumbered by my Doc Savage and Doctor Who novels. I also have the first four Battlecorps anthologies and the new Battletech novel Embers of War on another shelf, one that is closer to me than these are.

I also have two shelves' worth of source and rule books shelved right next to the computer, but the pictures for them didn't turn out so great, so for now, I'll leave them out of the photo spread.

I have these hanging up in my room. The middle one is the original BattleMaster, with the Loki on the left and the Vulture on the right. At the extreme left, you can just see the Thor blueprint.

I should have them in frames, but we had a lamanator, and that was cheaper and the time. Wouldn't had done it  today, but this was a long, LONG time ago, when the game was maybe a third of it's age. I have the rest of the blueprints in my closet -- the lack of wall space is the only reason why they are not up.

This is my own "trophy hall", displaying the title pages of some of the stories I've done for Battlecorps, except for the one in the upper left-hand corner. That's one of my two issues of Battletechnology Issue #21, special to me because it contains mine and my late friend, Rob Madson's, first real contribution to the Battletech Universe (The SurbanMech design in Issue #18 was also ours, but it was only a design). The Rattlesnake 'Mech, the story Snakedance, and the scenario, Snake, Rattle and Roll.

I've never played MechWarrior ClickTech game, but I did collect the figures, and put the BattleMechs from the boosters I bought on display. I have about 40-50 of them on display.

The large Axman in the back there is the only thing I ever bought that's connected from the Battletech cartoon series. I still have everything except for one of the soft "missiles" for the left launcher. It still works, but it stays up there most of the time, keeping Grimlock there from chowing down on the other 'Mechs.... :)

The second part of my figures collection is on my computer table, just about the monitor I'm using right now. I really didn't know the stats for any of these until I saw them in the Dark-Age TROs. Every so often, when I'm writing, I take one of the pieces and play around with it , seeing if I can gleam something about it that I can put into a story.

I also have other things I have't taken photos of. Maybe if the mood strikes me, I'll haul out the camera again and take a few more pictures.  This isn't my entire collection of BT stuff. Sadly, most of the stuff I've gotten in the last few years has been PDF files and writer copies of products I've written for, and the last non-paper product I bought was the minis inside the older starter set several years ago. But while my collection is nowhere near Randall's or Jordan's, it's still a good collection.

So, if you have some BT stuff, take a picture of it and tweet it, using #myBTstuff and #Battletech. I plan to do the same thing when I finish this blog post -- I'll tweet it.

Well, back to work and keep funding the kickstarter, if you can!

Later!

Craig

Update on the Battletech Kickstarter and my writings

As I write this, the Battletech Kickstarter has passed $1.4 Million with over 20,000 backers with thirty-one days left to go. All I can say is will done Harebrain!

Personally, I'm surprised at the number of people who have already supported the kickstarter. Battletech has been around for over thirty years, and a lot of people think it's a dead game. Folks, it isn't and this kickstarter result is proof of that.

Another Battlecorps writer and myself were discussing this and, to be honest, we're a little disappointed that the only author involved in the kickstarter is Michael Stackpole. But then again, this is Michael Stackpole were talking about -- the author of the two most important Battletech trilogies in the Battletech Universe (Warrior and Children of Kerensky), and has written best-selling Star Wars novels! While I may have twenty-plus Batlecorps stories, I'm (very) small potatoes. Thanks to the "Backer Mission" system Harebrain has with the kick starter, Stackpole will write two original Battletech E-novellas If enough backer missions are completed, he could write as many as four, or if a certain level is reached, a full Battletech novel will replace the four novellas.

Which means I have to keep at it. My current Battlecorps projects are two stories I need to finish rewriting/revising. I also need to finish first draft of several other stories, and see what story ideas I can gleam for the latest round of Battletech products. And that doesn't include my other writing.

So, keep going Harebrain and I'll do the same!

Craig