Войны разорения - релиз состоялся. Обсуждаем)

[Siberian-troll]

Эту выкладывал Роум, ту, кажется, Шметцер или Херб, у кого что было, то и выкладывают

[Rabid Coyote]

Элементалы-парашютисты?

[Siberian-troll]

Cover art for the Wars of Reaving, by Neil Roberts

Кот выбрался из мешка, типа. Если вы понятия не имеете о чем это я, то окажите себе услугу, и не обращайте на это внимания. Так будет прикольней.

Теперь, когда все подутихло, я подумал, почему бы не написать немного о том, как я все это писал. Это мой первый сорсбук, написанный в одиночку, и думаю, вы с удовольствим проследуете со мной по этому безумному путешествию

В начале было…
Этот проект зародился где-то лет пять назад, српзу после того, как я переехал в округ Колабмия. Сюжет Джихада как раз только подбирсляся к середине, и ВизКидс все еще достаточно неплохо управлялись с их MechWarrior: Age of Destruction. Спущенная сверху (т.е от WizKids) доктрина гласила, что Кланы, те, что не перебрались еще в Сферу не тема для обсуждения. Никаких романов, никаких рассказов, никаких намеков вообще. И тем не менее, это было интригующе любопытная тема, которой, возможно, нам никогда бы не довелось рассказать.

WizKids игрались и так и этак с участью домашних кланов, бросая немеки там и сям, и крупнейший из них был в романе Ильзы Бик "Кровавый аватар". Как вообще он мог быть намеком, исходя из уст случайного гражданина, that wasn’t anyone in the universe outside of a hick town’s coroner, Я так и не понял, но... они так захотели, и так и сделали.

Так что, периодически играя кланами и выискивая все больше и больше возможностей что-нибудь написать, на тот момент я был одним из наиболее "постоянных" авторов КБТ, из тех, кого Херб считает "активом" - я поделился идеей с Рэндаллом и Хербом - почему бы однажды не написать книгу про Кланы. В то время никто даже и не собирался ее воплощать - Визкидс по прежнему были главными, они этого не хотели, но мало ли что...

И с этим на уме, я начал собирать и подбирать всю имеющуюся информацию по Домашним мирам и всему за пределами Периферии. Также я начал обмениваться мыслыми касательно Войн разорения с Рэндаллом, скорее обдумывая возможности, чем планируя что серьезное. И так и продолжалось до 2008 года, когда я сталыв помощником Разработчика Линии.

И все завертелось (здесь пропускаем, пропускаем...) И внезапно, в 2009, я получил подтверждение, что "сорсбук Война разорения" вошел в десятилетний план, разрабатываемый Каталистами. По графику, он увидел бы свет не ранее 2015 года, но это было уже что-то.

Теперь, зная, что книга точно будет, я начал прорабатывать детали. Первоначально, книгу должны были писать несколько авторов, как и со всеми другими продуктами Каталистов. Единственными исключениями, на тот момент, были Хэндбуки, среди которых я уже зацапал Куриту, на отдаленное будущее (если он вообще будет) Так что я подумал, что раз уже забежал вперед и начал подбор данных и уже просмотрел части, что достанется мне, то почему бы не набросать черновик, что возможно даст мне шанс на написание книги целиком. Гарантии, разумеется, не было, но Херб с Рэндаллом знали, как отчаянно я хотел ее написать. Очень =очень сильно.

Собрав все данные вместе, включая самые уклончивые, я начал получать общую картину происходящего, и мне она активно не понравилась - похоже, что в Домашних мирах шел свой собственный, параллельный Джихад. Я так понял, что виной тому была загруженность авторов книгами Джихада от Хотспотов, до новых ТРО, загнавшие их воображение в узкую колею. Я так же знал, что подобное никак не пройдет. Банально повторять то же самое для кучи фракцих, заранее описанных как стопроцентно чуждые для Внутренней Сферы с иным мышлением, образмо жизни и привычками?

Нет.

Я помню, как жаловался на это Полю Сжардину. Он тоже хотел для Кланов что-нибудь особенное, и раздумывал над одним интересным сюжетом для его собственной клановской фракции. Стоит заметить, что он придумал любопытный сюжет, и после долгих раздумий и некоторых изменений, он оказался ключевым для меня. И, по мере того как проходиол месяц за месяцем, я продолжал его шлифовать. На конференциях в ходе моей основной работы, я набрасывал заметки в одном из вечно носимых с собой блокнотов. В основном, запасая мелькающие в голове мысли, что уже после, за ужином и перед тем как отправиться в постель, превращал в полноценные идеи.

И внезапно я обнаружил возможность включения в книгу не одного сюжета, но трех. Обнаружил трудную и возможность попробовать сплести воедино три отдельных арки в один цельный сюжет, рассказанный в той же манере. И поскольку до вероятной книги было все также далеко, я так и продолжил жонглировать мыслями и идеями. Принялся лазить по сорсбукам, подчеркивая полезную информацию. "Что если я попробую связать это с тем? Что, если превратить этот инцидент в нечто большее?" И в то же время я стал более сдержан с информацией по кланам для ТРО и ХОТ Спотов, ведь каждый намек мне придется учитывать, и каждая обмолвка могла пустить сюжет под откос. (Кое-что все равно просочилось, а именно - некоторые даты или временные интервалы, над которыми позже пришлось работать)

И наконец-то я возвел каркас сюжета. Оставалось лишь вчерне обвесить его содержимым. Продумать ряд моментов, вроде времени событий, точек зрения, напряжения, правил, технологий, масштаба... В общем, вопросов, требующих ответа.

Но с этим я никуда не торопился... до прошлого лета.

The Fall of Disquiet
Shortly after GenCon 2010, I was chatting with Herb during one of our semi-regular “catch-up” calls regarding the line. We usually discuss upcoming product, future plans, print schedules, writer evaluations, etc. in those calls. And the War of Reaving book (that was the working title at the time) came up.

It was now on the schedule for the beginning of 2012. The schedule had been radically changed (for a variety of reasons) and the result meant that WOR got booted to an earlier date. I admit, the initial news was very exciting. Especially when I was tenetively given full authorship, though I could pull in additional help if necessary.

My first task was to get an initial outline submitted. Fortunately I did have one in a rough form, though nowhere near our standard CGL project format. It went like this:

WOR Sourcebook Tentative Outline
TOC/How to Use this Book

Fiction

Ripples
Art: Full page before chapter
Detailing some of the events post 3061 that lay the foundation of the WOR
Sidebar: Clan exploration
Sidebar: Diamond Shark market expansion
Sidebar: Quest for an ilKhan (by Kael Pershaw)

Reaving
Covering Jan 1, 3067 – Dec 1, 3071
Art: Full page before chapter
Probably broken into Clan by Clan sections, focusing on each Clan’s actions during this four-year stretch.
Sidebar:
Sidebar: The Tanite colonies
Sidebar: The new ilKhan
Sidebar: The Hellion’s gamble

Rebellion
Covering Dec 1, 3071 – Feb 3074
Art: Full page before chapter
Clan by Clan sections, including one for ??? (at the end).
Sidebar:
Sidebar: War of Words
Sidebar:

Rending
Covering Jan 3074 – August 3075
Art: Full page before chapter
Clan by Clan sections, covering the final stages of the Homeworlds
Sidebar:
Sidebar:
Sidebar: Where do we go from here?

Rebirth
Covering August 3075 – Dec 3081
Art: Full page before chapter; Clan logos
Clan by Clan sections, but more epilogue in tone, similar to how the Clan synopsis was done in Op: Klondike SB. Focus mainly on the major adjustments to each society, plus holdings and current political tone.
Sidebar: Return home to Terra?
Sidebar:

Appendix
Personalities (optional)
New faction 1
New faction 2
Dark Caste

Rules Annex
New ProtoMechs (3 new art)
New Mechs (3 new art, one recycled):
ProtoMech Weapons/Equipment
New ‘Mech weapon/equipment (TO style):
RPG elements
Other equipment
-Half-page each; minor fluff, mostly RPG mechanics.

Record Sheets (12-13 pages)

(There was a bit more detail here but I removed it due to possible spoiling of the finished product.)

I’ll make it clear now that this in no way is even close to the final form of how things worked out. You’ll understand why as we go along.


Final proof for Khan Magnus DelVillar

The outline is more for an idea of how many words we’re looking at for the product, to get an idea of page count. That, in turn, gives us a good estimate for initial price. These are important because retailer sell sheets for coming quarters are prepared well in advance.

Speaking of which, I also had to quickly do up a BCC, or “back cover copy.” It’s what you see on the back of a book, to give you an idea of the contents. I was a little hesitant to write this, because it can lock you down if things go awry, but I did the best I could. The BCC probably looks familiar to those who saw the recent listing on Amazon:

As the Word of Blake unleashed their Jihad, one enemy of the Inner Sphere remained in the shadows, riven by internal strife and dissent. As political and military alliances among the children of Nicholas Kerensky are broken and forged, the Clans turn inward as one Clan unleashes the unthinkable upon the rest. A war that reaches deep into the bloodlines of each; none are untouched. Those who survive will not speak of it. A war of Reaving. The Clans will never be the same. Wars of Reaving details the long-sought happenings of the Clans after the results of the Great Refusal through the end of the Jihad, compiled from detailed reports culled from each of the Clans and others. Included within are personalities, equipment, units, and factions that all had a hand in the upheaval that enveloped the Homeworlds, changing them forever.

So by September 2010, I had a rough outline, several notebooks of jotted notes and ideas, my master Clan timeline built from already-published and soon-to-be published material, and a BCC. I was set to begin serious plot and story construction, including forming characters, pivotal events, and more. Things were set for a good pace…until….

I was informed at the end of September the book would now be released in summer 2011, due to another shuffle in the schedule.

Still very doable, by the way. I built several milestones to hit; first draft completed by early January, playtest/factcheck through February, editing in March, layout to begin in April. That gave me fivemonths to craft and write the book. Plenty of time…

Not.

At the same time all of this was going on, I was in negotiations with another publisher regarding my non-fiction book, Gamer’s Most Wanted. And that one nailed down a publication date of November 2011. Which meant they wanted the first draft by February 15, 2011.

I now had a roughly 100K word sourcebook to create AND half of a 50K word non-fiction book to write.

In roughly five months.

Across two major holidays AND my anniversary trip with my wife to Europe. And I work a full-time job in downtown DC.

Suddenly, things did not look rosey at all.

An easy fix would be to farm out the WOR to other authors, but I rejected that notion fairly quickly. Partly because I still wanted this project, and partly because I felt that the best voice to tell the story needed to be a consistent one; I’d already rejected the Hot Spots format of scattered reports across a theme. That worked fine for the Jihad (and I stand behind that assertion) but it would not work at all for the Clans. It didn’t fit their culture, their character.

The book had to be told in one voice, regardless of whether the time frame was from 100 years in the future (making the WOR a Historical) or in the near-aftermath (a la the FedCom Civil War sourcebook). And that meant it had to be one author to maintain cohesion.

What to do?

In the end, I had to choose. I began work on WOR, collating my timeline and notes, then writing each Clan’s story from start to finish. I cleared through four Clans…and then lost steam. It was exceptionally hard to do, because as each Clan interacted, they had to have their own perspectives on how events went. Each subsequent Clan was even more difficult, so researching and constantly reworking details increased exponentially with every new Clan section. Which meant constant reviewing and checking against prior work…and that took time. I was aiming for 4K a night; I was clearing 1500, maybe 2000 on a roll, and both time and my word counts were slipping.

At the same time, my day job’s busiest period is late October through December. My biggest projects are at this time, and it sucks a lot of mental energy. By the time I got home, all I wanted to do was eat and just be with my wife. Everything slipped and I stopped writing completely around Thanksgiving.

At that point, I had a choice to make. Gamer’s Most Wanted was an easier write (each chapter is 2,000 words), so I turned to that project instead. And WOR was pushed to the side in December after emailing Herb and Randall and telling them it wasn’t going to happen within the initial timeframe. (There’s more to this period that I’ll cover in a future post.)

Which worked out perfectly. Another project had shifted into the summer slot due to its own lag, so WOR was moved to Christmas 2011. My deadline was pushed to August.

Everything was working out…until a phone call at the end of April, 2011.

Reaving the Writing
So before we continue onward in our journey, a side trip on how this book is actually written. (This is going to end up across a couple of posts, so you’re warned.)

I decided early on that I would not be including the Nova Cats or the Wolf-in-Exiles. Somehow, because they were already cast out of the Clans, they didn’t seem appropriate here. Neither of them figured into any of the plots I’d constructed and since I’d made a conscious decision at the start to not rehash much of the Jihad material, they made little sense within the scope of the book.

Originally, my idea was to tackle each chapter in a Clan-by-Clan format. Using hard date stops, I planned on writing each Clan’s narrative from each start to stop dates. (What were those dates? December 12, 3067; November 4, 3071; December 1, 3071; July 29, 3074; December 31, 3075.) Done from the perspective of the Loremaster or a Watch Star Colonel, this would provide a skewed perspective of the main Reaving events, as well as “their side of the story” for the smaller conflicts. Sounds cool, right?

I thought so too. And while it sounds pretty cool, affording each Clan fan the chance to read their faction info straight through, it is incredibly difficult to write. I didn’t figure this out, however, until nearly two months into the process.

Medium OmniMech, Wars of Reaving

First, I had to pick apart the 44 page timeline I’d built up; more details were pinned down from 3067 through 3073, moderate detail for 3074 and 75, and nearly nothing but a few notations for 76 onwards. Going through the timeline, copying out relevant passages for each affected Clan…grew tiresome. But after two weeks, I had 14 different timelines, one for each Clan.

With the timeline pulled apart, it was also easy to see where the “holes” were within each Clan. Some, like the Scorpions, had practically zero events from early 3068 to one of the milestone points in late 3071. (Well, aside from that whole pesky Eridani thing.) Others, like the Wolves, had a huge amount of events up to a certain point, and then spun out into the Jihad. So each section would be varying in length.

Of importance this early was the rules section. And there are a lot of them, which needed to cover not just Total Warfare, but also A Time of War. I jotted down extensive notes on various new BattleTech equipment and weapons, a new OmniMech design family (three total new Omnis), and four ProtoMech designs. Also included were several ATOW-effect “weapons” in the form of chemicals and “lab experiments” that needed detailed. Rounding it off was a new anti-WarShip weapon.

I then passed the chapter on to Herb, who is much better versed in “rule-ese” than I. Plus, with new ProtoMech designs, we needed new construction rules. Herb needed to tackle those because the progeny of these Wars would see next-generation designs pop up in the next planned TRO: Prototypes.

Before I began, I also needed to examine the “when” and “why.” When would this report be taking place? 3150, just after Fortress Republic? That would make it more Historical in nature. Less “urgent.” It was the best approach, considering that in-game, no one knew of the Homeworld Clans from 3074ish onwards, so using the Republic would be an opening to allow the Inner Sphere (and the ‘universe’ at large) to learn of the happenings. Why the Republic needed to know was pretty generic: they were musing about another outside threat.

But I wasn’t really comfortable with that, partially for reasons I cannot discuss here regarding CGL’s future BattleTech plans. And partially because, to me, it cheapened the whole mystique we’d built around this time. Something so traumatic, so devastating needed to be treated with the same reverence and humiliation as the Not-Named debacle (and I’m not talking Betrayal of Ideals, either).

So that canned the after-the-Dark-Age idea. How, then, could we do it?

The best option, I believed, was to do it as a report given after the end of the Jihad, sometime around 3080. An all-purpose warning, sort of a “look, this is how badly messed up they are, let’s just not deal with them” report of the Homeworlds. Something to give evidence as to why the Inner Sphere Clans would shun their brethren, and could be repeated over and over for future leadership.

Herb and Randall liked that approach and green-lit it. The report would be tied together by one of the Spheroid Clan Loremasters. I gravitated to the Sharks, considering their reach and ease of acquiring the information necessary for such a compiled report.

Now that the “when” and “why” were answered, writing could begin.

It took about a month before I realized how difficult my original approach was going to be. Writing out the first Clan, Blood Spirit, from 3067 through 3072 was relatively easy. But as I progressed to other Clans, I found myself going back to what I’d written previously and making sure I had things correct. If one detail changed, the effect rippled through previously-written portions. And as I began a new Clan section…the effect magnified. (At one point, I had over twenty windows open on my laptop, from PDF files to specific emails to Excel lists to Word documents…it was chaos.)

It got frustrating and irritating very quickly. By mid-November, I’d had enough. About 25,000 words were written by this point; I wasn’t about to chuck them all, but they were all in the first person viewpoint. That is a very tough POV to use in a source book and if I abandoned my approach, I would either need to rewrite what I’d done or scrap it completely.

During the November-December-January stretch, I abandoned WOR. I had to; my other book needed completed. It was a welcome respite and allowed me to rethink the entire WOR concept.

At the end of February, I tried again. The material I’d written before would be salvaged; most of it would be changed to the standard source book viewpoint we use, that of third person (limited). It would be written in summary form, as if Diamond Shark Watch analysts had spent years pouring over data to construct a timeline and then summarize it. Using insertions by the Shark Loremaster, I could slip in additional detail, opinion, and asides. And a multitude of sidebars could be used to flesh out larger issues, such as a primer on Clan economics or a rundown of how the Dark Caste operated.

So I began again.

Using my master timeline as a guide, I began to reconstruct the narrative. Early on, I realized that this would allow me to also “cover” the gaps in time of some of the Clans. The problem was, I had several opposing voices going on in the completed Clan sections I had done. Initially, I simply used a sectional break to change the voice, though still altering the point of view from first to third. It worked, though progress was still slow.

About the end of March I completed the merging process. I’d also filled in the remainder of the Clan information for the first section, which detailed 3067 through the Tamar attack in 3070.

Then I read it.

It was bad.

Disjointed, incoherent, jumbled. The voice didn’t work. Discouraging, yes – but fixable. However, I would basically need to restart again.

Окончание следует...

[KolbunD]

Final proof for Khan Magnus DelVillar

ааааааа, сцуко, это же Вин Дизель!!! Они увековечили его не только на Аллее славы, но и в БТ!!!

[Siberian-troll]

А кто-нибудь заметил, что у Элема не СРМ в заплечных пусковых, а что-то мелкое на 8-9 дырок?

[KolbunD]

А кто-нибудь заметил, что у Элема не СРМ в заплечных пусковых, а что-то мелкое на 8-9 дырок?

лично я стараюсь этим не загоняться, сам знаешь сколько "они" ляпов выделывают при прорисовке картинок ...

[acefalcon]

Могут быть клантековые RL. Такие есть, и в условиях большой заварушки ими могли начать и элементалов вооружать

[Siberian-troll]

Судя по тексту, с 3072 года Духов больше нет....

[KolbunD]

Судя по тексту, с 3072 года Духов больше нет....

Как-то даже жаль их. Сидели себе тихо, о своем думали пару веков, а тут бац и нет. Хотя предпосылки к их уничтожению били еще до Джихада, но все равно жаль

[Andos]

Предположу что теперь есть глубоко-периферийная фракция "бывшие Духи Крови". Со всем наследством.

[Маленький Скорпион]

Предположу что теперь есть глубоко-периферийная фракция "бывшие Духи Крови"

...в лице няшной Мии со всем её няшечками ^^

[Siberian-troll]

Showdown; photo by "Psycho"

The Culling
And so I did. In early April I began once more from the beginning. I salvaged a decent bit of the last attempt, forming several long-form sidebars that retained their own voice and brought some color to the narrative. By and large, if you read a section and wondered if there was more to that nugget, there would be a sidebar nearby that obliged.

This attempt, my third, was much smoother. By the end of the month, I had racked up all of chapter four (about 23K) and half of chapter 5 (at the time, about 10K). Chapter 10, the rules, had already gone through initial playtesting and then on to Paul, who filled in additional fluff based on cryptic conversations with me.


Chapter art, Rules; Chris Lewis

At this point, another tangent: the timeline. The foundation of this document was the various Clan information we’d stuck into the Master Jihad timeline, a document that, at last count, had nearly 140 pages. It included various data and plot points I’d gotten approved over the last few years; stripping anything Clan-related from that master gave me my own Reaving timeline. From there, I began to modify as needed, marking entries that were unchangeable due to already being published. The rest was up for play, including several entries Herb and I had tagged a few years back as “apocryphal” because they were data points meant to connect to the vague direction WizKids had given us. With WK no longer in the picture, I tossed a few, modified others, and kept the rest.

I knew that as I wrote the book-now called “The Wars of Reaving” due to the insane amount of combat violence scattered through these fifteen years-I would craft more data to make the story more interesting. You just can’t plot out every last detail in a timeline; some of it flows from the storytelling process. So I did not share my timeline-in-progress with any of the other writers (save Herb, Randall, and Paul) because they wouldn’t need it. I monitored the few Clan stuff being done (such as TRO:3085) to make sure no contradictions developed, but by and large played it close to my vest.

This did cause a problem in one aspect: the canon games for Origins and GenCon. Because of my initial planning, I thought I would have the bulk of the book completed by the turn of the year, which is when Mike “Southpaw” Miller would need information on the games. Because I wasn’t constructing the games as I had in the relative past, Mike would use his stellar crew to come up with the details; all he needed was the conflict and opponents.

Well, by January with hardly any of the book sketched out past 3072, that was a difficult problem. Because of the way I write – creating on the fly – I didn’t feel completely comfortable doing that. But I knew they needed time, and a lot of it since the canon games take months of effort to properly design (I should know). So I zipped through the timeline, found several possible scenario settings, and gave them to Mike. If they ended up not meshing, well, that’s the way it would be. The games wouldn’t have any effect on the book at this point.

The greatest side effect of keeping the timeline from the rest of the stable was the surprise factor. The fewer people knew, the less they could leak. We have, to no one’s surprise, a few writers who like to what I call “over-hint” stuff. (Hey, I’ve done it, too.) This wasn’t a Blake Documents project – people knew that WOR would be published at some point – but I really wanted these details kept under wraps. (For those who don’t get the reference, back in 2009 a select core of writers slammed together Jihad Secrets: Blake Documents in roughly two months, dropping the entire book at GenCon. We’d kept the entire project secret – under threat of firing – so that we could pull off the surprise. No one expected it or saw it coming.)

It’s partially because over the last decade, BattleTech has been effectively “spoiled” because of the advanced Dark Age plotline. Everyone’s gotten used to where the story’s at because they know where it’s going. In the universe’s heyday, part of the allure of the setting was discovering the stories and plots through the novels. You didn’t know what was coming.



I call this the “ComStar Victor” effect.

It’s a term I coined personally – I’ve never used it outside my own notes and writing – because it encapsulates one moment in time of my BattleTech experience through these last 27 years. At the end of Prince of Havoc, there is a very tense scene where it looks as if Katherine Steiner is about to be elected First Lord of the Second Star League, completing her rampage to power. In a moment that caught me off guard, Victor reveals himself as both the new Precentor Martial, and takes his tie-breaking vote and cuts his sister’s grab for power off at the knees.

That moment-which occurred for me at around 2 a.m. in the morning because I simply had to finish the book-was the “ComStar Victor” moment.

WOR gave us the opportunity to bring that back.

(I’ll go more into the whole “marketing” angle of the book in a future post.)

Okay, back to the writing process…

About mid-April I was deep into writing Chapter 5 when I sketched out a plot string; I do this periodically so I can keep it in mind as I work a different angle and come back later. And suddenly realized, when flipping through one of our latest product PDFs, that I’d missed something that had gone into said publication. Because it was now “out there” and mine was “in progress,” I had to adjust.

The problem was…it completely threw a major wrench into what I’d been writing between chapters 4 and 5. (The item in question was that Horse Loremaster Amirault was apparently alive in 3084…and I’d structured a detailed plot centered around him, with his death the catalyst for a big change in chapter 9.) And so, YET ANOTHER rewrite. Not as extensive as the last one, but when pulling out a busted plot, it tends to create collateral damage. And took more time. Which, at least for the next week or so, I thought I had enough of.

And then came that phone call…

(To be continued…)

[Darth Val]

Весло галеры средь мрака и льдин иль винт рассекает море,
У волн, у времени голос один: горе слабейшему, горе.
- Редьярд Киплинг

Тролль, а откуда эта цитата ???
я полдня убил. но не смог найти оригинал

[Siberian-troll]

Видел в качестве эпиграфа в одном из романов. В оригинале не помню, хотя и читал.
В инете конкретно этого двустишия навалом, но приписки нет.
Глянул здесь http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/k ... g_ind.html и тоже не нашел.

Хотя любопытные кусочки есть.
Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back --
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

[Diamond]

Chapter art, Rules; Chris Lewis - что вообще нарисовано?

[Siberian-troll]

Наверное, АТМ-12 на испытаниях, хотя кто его знает. Выйдет, узнаем.
Пока ясно, что картинка будет среди инфы по новому оружию.

[Siberian-troll]

Khan Amanda Carrol

Back to the Phone Call…
In mid-April, right around Easter I believe, I got a phone call on a Friday night. Herb dove straight in: “So, where are you at with the Reaving text?”

“One full chapter, part of another. Going’s been slow due to various plot and perspective issues.”

“Well, kick it into high gear. Project’s been shuffled…”

“Again?!”

“You’ve got until mid-May; we need it to hit layout by the end of the month.”

“…”

“Still with me here?”

There was more to the conversation after that, but the bottom line was this: WOR needed completed five months before the previously adjusted deadline. The book was being moved to an early fall release date to fill in the gap left by Jihad: Reckoning. That book had slipped due to other issues and the production hole needed filled. WOR was next on the table after Historical: Reunification War, which was slated for the convention season along with a TRO. (The convention season runs June through early September, in case you were wondering. This covers Origins, GenCon, and Dragon*Con.)

After that call, I needed a damage assessment and the prognosis was not good. At all. I was only roughly 40K into what was outlined as a 120K book; not quite halfway, and roughly four weeks to the new deadline.

Fortunately, I’d finally settled the book’s voice, plots, and pattern. Now I needed to simply write it.


Partial image from the intro art for Trials of Possession

First, however, a new outline was necessary so that art could begin generation. You’ll notice how the timeline below differs from the previous one I posted in Part I; this one is closer to the final but still isn’t the final form

WOR Sourcebook Outline (Revised)
00 Title Page (Art)

01 TOC/How to Use this Book

02 Fiction – Descent into Madness (working) (3,500)
Art: Full page before chapter
Image of last scene of story, centered around main event in Dec 3071

03 Trials of Position (~10,000)
Art: Full page before chapter
Detailing some of the events post 3061 that lay the foundation of the Wars, including the Babylon Diets, the Burrock Absorption, and the doings of the Hell’s Horses and Ice Hellions.
Necessary sidebar: The Economics of Enclaves

04 Trials of Possession (~20,000)
Covering Dec 1, 3067 – Dec 31, 3070
Art: Full page before chapter
Progression of the Clans through the Scouring of Tamar.

05 Trials of Reaving (~20,000)
Covering Feb 3071 – Dec 3071
Art: Full page before chapter
From the revelations of Diamond Shark and Snow Raven activities to the overturning of the Great Refusal, the Clans elect an ilKhan and make a stunning announcement with catastrophic fallout.

06 Trials of Chalcas (~20,000)
Covering Jan 3072 – Dec 3072
Art: Full page before chapter
The fallout of the Grand Council’s antics, both at home and in the Inner Sphere.

07 Trials of Annihilation (~15,000)
Covering Jan 3073 – Dec 3074
Art: Full page before chapter.
The Clans deal with the various events enacted by internal and external forces, from Clan Coyote to the Tanite worlds.

08 Trials of Surkairede (~15,000)
Covering Jan 3075 – Dec 3076
Art: Full page before chapter.
The Trial of the Coyotes, the Hell’s Horses Refusal, and the pronouncement of death of a Clan. Clearing out the Dark Caste. *End of initial Shark Watch report.*

09 Founder’s Future (~9,000)
In-universe addendum, covering 3076 – 3082
Art: Full page before chapter.
Setting is during the Council of the Six Clans.
Factional overview of the remaining Clan factions. Short briefs detailing actions since 3076 until the last Horse Watch transmission in 3082.

Synopsis
Homeworld factions (7 total)
Council of Six Clans (6 total)

Appendix (~8,000)
Art: Full page before chapter; Map of remaining Clan Homeworlds
Chart: Political balance tables (3067, 3075, 3085)
Personalities
Major players [500 each]
15 leaders/players
Minor players [300 each]
8 leaders/players

Rules Annex (9,000) – Paul S.
Art: Full page before chapter
New Units
4 ProtoMechs, including new PM types: Glider, Assault, Quad
New PM construction and game rules
New PM weapons, armor, equipment

3 OmniMechs; 2 new w/ 2 variants each
New BattleMech weapons, equipment

1 anti-WarShip weapon

20 new ATOW-effect ‘weapons’/experimental offerings

Record Sheets

Total words ~120,000 = 224 pages(ish)

The ‘new’ outline was submitted to get Brent and his art guys on task (up to now, only the cover had been assigned and completed, back in the fall of 2010). And that’s when my nose met the grindstone.

(To be continued…)

[Siberian-troll]

Rules, Rules, Rules
One of the first things that needed to be completed for the book was the Rules Annex. Fortunately, I’d tackled it first in September 2010 and handed off the relevant chapter information to Paul, who eagerly tore into the challenge of making all of these things work.

Because of the (at the time) generic time period of the book, I had to figure out early on what exactly we wanted to showcase in the book. New “toys,” of course, sells BattleTech books. As such, having a Rules Annex was required. But there was a fundamental difference with this Annex over similar sections in other books.

Practically nothing that debuted here would find traction or usage beyond the Wars of Reaving.

That’s right: all of the units here, with minor exceptions, would only be useable here. They wouldn’t move on or slip into the Dark Age era. Like the Word of Blake Celestials, they had their purpose, and that was for Reaving.

Now, a caveat: the fundamental design philosophy – namely that of a new weight class of ProtoMech, as well as two additional types – would be carried forward. But only in limited numbers of designs; Herb would include a couple of them into the (at the time) coming TRO: Prototypes.

Everything else – weapons, equipment, RPG stuff – would begin and end in this book.



It’s a risk, for certain. But in order to tell this story properly, I really needed these items to be detailed. It was highly important, because as the reader will see once the book is out in the future, they’re partially the key for the “success” of one of the story arcs.

With that thought in mind, and after extensive discussion with Herb, I sketched out what I wanted to do. I wrote nominal rules for most of these but would rely on Paul and our playtesters to firm them up.

Now, I’m not going to divulge the full list here, but to give you a taste of what’s coming, here’s a generalized outline of this particular section:

First, ProtoMech equipment. The two most obvious additions were the two “prototype” designs I’d included in Interstellar Players 2: Jihad Conspiracies. Both the Extended Jump Jet system and the Magnetic Clamp system were both pretty useful and I saw no reason they shouldn’t be included. The extended jump range also gave birth to the idea potential of a ProtoLAM, which morphed into the final “Glider” design. The MCS was, to me, an obvious necessity as it made the heavier Protos more versatile in mixed Stars. Plus, the imaginary visual of seeing a Roc hanging off the front and back of an Ursus was just too amusing to NOT include it.

Another piece of equipment came after a long discussion about Quad ProtoMechs. (Actually, a few things came from that discussion: we wanted to use them, but we had to figure out how to make them “work” in the universe.) A Quad Melee system would be a simple extension of the ProtoMech melee system, allowing such modifications such as tails, spikes, and such to be more than just decorative.

There were two armors I came up with as well, though ultimately I discarded one because it was just a bit too “magical” in operation. Based on a throwaway line in an older Clan book about “memory buildings,” memory armor would have allowed a ProtoMech to regain 1-2 points of armor in a location. But I couldn’t necessarily work it out to a point that didn’t make it either game-breaking or too reliant on nanotechnology (which is a big no-no for the setting). So memory armor died on the first pass. Paul gave a valiant effort to codify it, but I was never truly comfortable with it.

The second armor, however…well, let’s just say it’s quite electrifying.

Of course, you can’t leave the ProtoMech equipment section without a new weapon. While ultimately neither Paul nor I could get a solid ATM ProtoMech version to work, we settled for a ‘lesser’ version that would be rushed into production. Limited effectiveness, but it still packed a punch.

At this point, after designing these fun toys, it’s easy to see that you have to have ProtoMech designs that utilize them. All four of the designs in WOR utilized either a new weight, type, and/or equipment. Because construction rules are my weakest, I handed off a rough sketch of my concepts over to Herb, who proceeded to create not just the construction and usage rules, but also four great designs that would find their way into usage within the Wars. Two of them would be first-generation designs for those that show up later in Prototypes.

(So yes, there will be construction and usage rules for Superheavy (aka “assault”), Glider, and Quad ProtoMechs in the Wars of Reaving.)

http://benhrome.files.wordpress.com/201 ... =425&h=550
saKhan Constans Cluff (J. Adams)
Now we move on to what most players want: BattleMechs and their accessories.

Remember the “Pariah” in TRO:3075? That was a joint-creation between Paul and myself a few years back, when the rough idea of what the Wars would encompass was known but little else. We’d argued to get one “Homeworld” design into that publication, partially as a teaser (the last until WOR would be published) and partially as a test. Considering the subsequent reaction, the test was wildly successful.

Back then we’d already coined the Pariah‘s “true” name. When setting about with WOR proper, I wanted a family-series of OmniMechs similar to what the Blakists did with their Celestial series. Working off the characteristics of one of the major WOR players, I sketched out two additional designs that would complement the Pariah. Initially called the “Incandescent” and the “Quasar” (names that were subsequently changed, by the way, and have no bearing in the book at all), I bounced them off Paul for his design ideas.

See, the stats of the Pariah were all his doing. Normally, when creating BattleMech units, we as authors tend to shy away from optmizing designs. But with what we knew the Pariah stood for and what it would be doing, optimizing it was exactly what we wanted. So Paul created several exceptionally nasty versions for TRO:3075. I simply wrote up the fluff.

And he continued the trend with the “Incandescent ” and “Quasar.” A light and assault ‘Mech, respectively, the two designs could not be any more different than tomatoes and bowling balls. Yet combined with the Pariah, they were all complimentary. And very, very deadly.

Paul crafted about 6 variants for each; I cut them down to 2 for the book and saved the others for a planned PDF Supplemental idea I had on the side. This was partially because it would also increase the record sheet count by a factor of 3, something that would inflate the book’s page count and cost but not necessarily the value.

And what’s new ‘Mechs without toys to use on them?

In my initial design phase, I had ideas for two new pieces of equipment, along with two new ammunition loads. Actually, the ammo would be for the improved missile system I’d included; the last bit of equipment was…well, I’m not going to spoil that one. It’s not a weapon in the standard sense of the word, but it makes for one deadly force when used by someone versed in networked warfare.

There wasn’t much I really wanted to do with WarShip units; already powerful in their own right, adding something more to them would unbalance that end of the game. (That didn’t stop me from hinting at a possible new defensive system in the book, however…it then died in a misjump.) But I did need a way to neuter their threat in key spots, so Paul crafted an excellent work-up of how to deploy a particular tactic. It relies mostly on the GM to work out effectively; we calculated that if we actually put down all of the RPG rolls needed, it was well over a hundred. I’m sure enterprising individuals out there will figure something out for that particular effect; we’ll just rely on good gamemastering.

And finally, we can’t forget A Time of War, can we? Aside from RPG effects of the Major and Minor Personalities, I included another rough idea that we needed to flesh out: the Synaptic Project. Paul came through, crafting a set of RPG rules for our Molecular War, MV Therapy, and standard enhancement chemicals. Limited usage, but very effective.

All of these rules, in near-final form (save the fluff, which needed to wait until the main writing was completed), hit our playtesters’ inboxes in February 2011. After some reworking by Herb and Paul, Chapter 10 – the Rules Annex was ready for editing before I’d even finished Chapters 4 and 5



Crunch Time
So the gauntlet was thrown; the challenge set. I now had two-thirds of a sourcebook to finish, and roughly six weeks to do it. I would need to average about 6,000 words a night, 7 days a week, in order to make it happen. Knowing that on a good night, I could slam home 5,000 words, it was a possibility but I knew that I may end up needing to cut a whole section to make the deadline. While it wouldn’t do, I could accept it. I had to; I have an intense need to maintain a solid work-life balance.

For the first couple of weeks, things rolled pretty smoothly. I continued to mesh my incomplete sections together, knitting Chapter 5 to 99% completion. By mid April, I had both Chapters 4 and 5 completed, though I needed to insert specific units and names. (Factoid: to save time on researching, which can derail momentum, I use a placeholder notation such as [CLUSTER] or [NAME], then return during my second review and fill in that information.) I then began a second read-through, looking for point of view and tense errors.


Partial art from full page chapter intro; by Plog

It was at this point that I realized I was missing one crucial resource; a complete listing of Clan units and commanders. Now, back in September 2010, I’d had our factcheckers compile a full list of Khans and Loremasters for each Clan, including any date notations of death or position change. I also had a detailed spreadsheet given to me by our resident Keeper of Strategy and Maps, Øystein. That spreadsheet had a list of the ‘dead’ Inner Sphere Clan units and WarShip lists, to assist in helping me sort out who got to survive and who got crushed in my developing story. (And as an aside, my continued apologies to Øystein for failing to fully adhere to his amazing resources; at times I either misread his entries or forgot to look them up, resulting in a few round-and-rounds to clear up lingering errors.) And all through this time, I had the author of Objectives:Clans and Field Report:Clans asking me for continued input, something I could not give until I had determined things myself.

See, while I had sketched out the plots and directions of each Clan, I did not do that for every single unit. That would be both mind-numbing and utterly useless. I’d mentioned before that I tend to follow a free-flow approach to writing BattleTech, and by not having those constraints really allowed me to focus on driving the story by using whatever came to mind or made sense as it developed. I’m continually amazed how some fans think we plot out the destinies of each individual unit (or even every single pilot – true story!) and then construct the main plot from that. It’s pure absurdity and the reality is that it’s the exact opposite.

At this point I had to halt and regroup. I printed off the massive TO&E list from Field Manual: Updates, made a full list of every Clan’s WarShip navy, and began my second pass once again. This time, I started to adjust my Clan rosters and, as needed, started to insert units in appropriate places. Not every hole got plugged at this point; I wanted my playtesters and factcheckers to have a little fun and left some slots ‘open.’

Once I’d passed through both chapters, they went to the PT/FT groups for their input. Normally, we upload everything all at once so that the entire book can be matched back and forth, but with this I wanted not just our standard error-checking, but also reactions. If the reactions to the budding plots were too negative (as in, “this isn’t possible due to their culture!” or whatnot), I wanted to be able to adjust with minimal disruption in the future sections.

So, an example of what the factcheckers got:

The Blood Spirit’s [CLUSTER] landed on Paxon on 20 December and declared a batchall for the Coyote’s newly-acquired [CLAN] enclave. Eager to add the [OMNIMECH] and [PROTOMECH] factories to their holdings, the Blood Spirits accepted the Coyote’s defensive bid along the [NAME] River Valley. The Coyotes fared poorly from the start, underestimating how effective the Spirits’ [CLUSTER] were in the rocky terrain. After losing almost half of their force in the first two hours, the Coyotes’ Forty-ninth Battle Cluster withdrew along the valley, coming close to the Diamond Shark city, [NAME]. The Blood Spirits, sensing victory, moved to cut the Coyote forces off and stumbled into a massed Shark civilian encampment. The temporary facilities, which were holding most of the Shark enclave’s lower castes for loading onto nearby DropShips, were quickly overrun and trampled before the Spirit ProtoMechs could extract themselves.

The Sharks, incensed by the wanton loss of civilian life [over 600 civilians were killed before the Spirits managed to withdraw –SK], launched a savage counterattack into the Blood Spirit line. However, the Shark’s repositioning of [CLUSTER] left their nearby [SITE] unprotected; it had been recently opened so the Clan could transport the material back to the Inner Sphere. Star Colonel [NAME] realized the opportunity before the Clan and quickly seized it, claiming it for the Coyotes—and to provide ready-made isorla to rebuild from the brutal losses sustained so far.


Khan Stanislov N'Buta

The Blood Spirits’ Scarlet Guards landed on Paxon on 20 December and declared a batchal for the Coyotes’ newly-acquired Wolf enclave. Eager to add the Dire Wolf and Gorgon factories to their holdings, the Blood Spirits accepted the Coyotes’ defensive bid along the Susquehanna River Valley. The Coyotes fared poorly from the start, underestimating how effective the Spirits’ Scarlet Guards were in the rocky terrain. After losing almost half of their force in the first two hours, the Coyotes’ Forty-ninth Battle Cluster withdrew along the valley, coming close to the Diamond Shark city, Thermopolis. The Blood Spirits, sensing victory, moved to cut the Coyote forces off and stumbled into a massed Shark civilian encampment. The temporary facilities, which were holding most of the Shark enclave’s lower castes for loading onto nearby DropShips, were quickly overrun and trampled before the Spirit ProtoMechs could extract themselves.

The Sharks, incensed by the wanton loss of civilian life [over 600 civilians were killed before the Spirits managed to withdraw –SK], launched a savage counterattack into the Blood Spirit line. However, the Sharks’ repositioning of the Eighty-third Combined Strike Cluster left their nearby firebase unprotected; the Clan was removing what it could for transport back to the Inner Sphere. Star Colonel Daniel Levien realized the opportunity before the Clan and quickly seized it, claiming it for the Coyotes and acquiring ready-made isorla to rebuild from the brutal losses sustained so far.

I expected the worst in commentary from our playtest/factcheck apparatus; they can be (and we want them to be but without crossing lines in etiquette and decorum) brutally honest. I was very pleased that reaction was mostly positive; I felt confident I could proceed forward, building on the story foundation I’d laid out. (Paul was the harshest critic, actually, and thankfully so – he managed to catch a couple of misinterpretations I had regarding the more esoteric points of Clan culture.)

The problem that was coming up, however, was that I was steadily falling behind. While I was still managing at least 4,000 words a night and now writing on Sundays – normally a day of rest for my wife and I – the pace was slowing. As I pulled the story past the enforced “blackout” between the Inner Sphere and the Homeworlds, the research became much less and the writing more open, but there was still a lot to go.

By mid-May, I had delivered Chapters 4 through 8 to the factcheckers and playtesters; with Chapter 10 (rules) already completed, I still had Chapter 2,3, and 9 to finish. A weekend marathon looked inevitable, as we had friends flying in from Germany at the end of the month; their visit and our own mini-vacation to North Carolina would take me out of pocket for the last 10 days of May.

With a to-print date of June 1, the book was not going to be ready for GenCon and late for a fall release. And then I got an email that dealt the book yet another blow – no record sheets, either; the new ProtoMech versions required new record sheet templates and with our layout guys slammed with other work to get out for GenCon, both TRO:Prototypes and WOR would not have record sheets to go with them.

That effectively ripped another 15 pages from the book, unless I came up with something to replace them. And with the new deadline already slipping…it was not looking good. At all.

Добавлено спустя 41 минуту 2 секунды:
The Wars of Reaving
http://classicbattletech.com/index.php? ... ull&id=363
Status : Coming Soon
Product # : CAT 35306
ISBN # : 978-1-934857-85-4
MSRP : 34.99 USD

[Родривар Тихера]

Khan Stanislov N'Buta

Блин, вроде как основатель родовой линии Н'Бута имеет африканские корни? - а тут ну совершенно наша родная рязанская рожа - я даж пару похожих пацанов встречал по жизни! Или это "рюсски негр", потомок "русского матроса Максимки"(С)?

The Wars of Reaving
http://classicbattletech.com/index.php? ... ull&id=363
Status : Coming Soon
Product # : CAT 35306
ISBN # : 978-1-934857-85-4
MSRP : 34.99 USD

А когда оно на бумаге выйдет, не известно?

[Rabid Coyote]

Кстати,а что слышно насчет филд репорта Кланы? Июль ведь на дворе.