Pyramid Review
Interstellar Players (for Classic BattleTech)
Published by FanPro LLC
Written by Herbert A. Beas II, Randal N. Bills, Warner Doles, Chris Hartford, Ken Horner, Nick "Gunslinger" Marsala, David L. McCulloch, Paul Sjardjin, Peter Smith, Christoffer "Bones" Trossen, & Andreas Zuber
Cover by Kevin McCann
Illustrated by Dave Allsop & Klaus Scherwinski
144-page b&w softcover; $24.99
Whichever version you play -- board game, miniatures wargame, Collectible Miniatures Game, RPG, or computer game -- BattleTech is fundamentally a game about big robots, big guns, and big lasers, and then even bigger robots, even bigger guns, and even bigger lasers, all aimed at other robots with the intention of blasting them into scrap. Okay; so technically battlemechs are not robots and have pilots, but the point is that Classic BattleTech places a certain emphasis on the engagements fought between the game's varied and many factions using its "lords of the battlefield." A minor focus is placed upon the numerous factions, major and minor, and these two emphases runs throughout the majority of the supplements for the game.
All of this marks FanPro's latest release as being quite a different beast, because both emphases are, if not wholly absent, present in a much reduced capacity. Written with both Classic BattleTech and Classic BattleTech: the Roleplaying Game in mind, Interstellar Players is not a book about the wheelers and dealers of the BattleTech milieu as the title suggests. Rather, Interstellar . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 14, 2006
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