Kashiwa BattleTech Workshop

By chance, I received a question asking where to search for BattleTech goods in Japan. While researching that, I stumbled upon a monthly BattleTech event in Chiba at hobby shop Miniature Forest and immediately jumped at the opportunity to play.

Background

But first, some personal history. As I’ve written about before, I was really into BattleTech as a teen, devouring the novels and sourcebooks. Despite having the third edition box set, Aerotech, and BattleSpace, I actually only played once or twice. When I moved to Japan, I decided to let it all go and either sold or donated it. While dormant, my interest continued to linger, so I dove right in when the HBS BattleTech game was released. It also prompted me to later back the Clan Invasion kickstarter. Its arrival was during the Covid pandemic, so there it stayed on my shelf.

Kashiwa BattleTech Workshop

3D terrain map for the grinder game I was in. — Grinder game map.

Now on to the event! The shop owner created a name card for me that doubles as a point card. The cost was just the shop fee (¥1,500), with the event itself being free. Roughly fourteen people participated across three tables. The table I was at was a grinder game with the other players teaching me how to play. The other two tables escalated in complexity.

Continue reading Kashiwa BattleTech Workshop

RPG Dragon Magazine

Following the look at Warlock magazine, we’ll go back to August 1994 and take a look at volume 2 of RPG Dragon (RPGドラゴン). Released as a bimonthly supplementary magazine to the monthly Dragon Magazine (ドラゴンマガジン), it sold for 800 yen at the time. I ordered it from Suruga-ya along with another magazine with a supplement about Magicalogia. Based on the insert advertising RPG Dragon, the main magazine sold for 600 Yen.

What caught my eye, was the list of games it focused on: Sword World, Battletech and Mechwarrior, Shadowrun, Monster Maker, Dragon Half, and Paradise Fleet, among others.

The page direction follows the traditional style of right to left, while modern game magazines are usually left to right. There’s a lot of content, and the order of it tends to be mixed, so rather than showcase in page order, I’ll list it by category. Continue reading RPG Dragon Magazine

Understanding BattleTech

After years away from the world of BattleTech, Harebrained Schemes’ new BattleTech PC game has sucked me back into the 31st century. As a kid I was a huge fan of BattleTech and devoured its novels. But despite having the base game, AeroTech, and BattleSpace, I only played a few games of it. One of the things I longed for was a double blind game, and the new game has finally given me it.

So how does this relate to analog games you might ask? Well, the original tabletop game was also released in Japan and was translated by Group SNE, the makers of Sword World. It had its own revised mech designs and some of the novels were translated, but it didn’t seem to take off as much as one might have expected.

Fantasy File Guides

I have have a soft spot for old Fantasy File Fujimi Dragon Books. Riding the TRPG renaissance of the early nineties, Continue reading Understanding BattleTech