------------------------------------------------------------------------ BattleTech Trading Card Game Q&As Craig Janssen email: daili@gate.net WWW: http://www.gate.net/~daili/rpgtcg.htm The following is an interview with the BattleTech Design Team through Ron Richardson, the product line manager. BattleTech Trading Card Game (BT TCG) is based on the BattleTech product line put out by FASA. I also included some other answers from Ron at the end. More information can be found in the updated BT TCG FAQ at the Wizards WWW site http://www.wizards.com or on rec.games.trading-cards.misc A special thank you goes to the BattleTech-L crew! Thank you for your questions and support! In other news, I will be the official BT NetRep by the time this is printed and hopefully be more on the ball :-) 1. Can you give an overview of BattleTech history and game as it relates to the new BT TCG? (outline BT and FASA's history settings) The TCG is set during the storyline of the Blood of Kerensky trilogy by Mike Stackpole. That is, the TCG covers the time period from approximately 3050 through 3052. 2. Can you give some history on the key players included with BattleTech TCG development? Different versions of the game have been in design and development for nearly two years, and have been worked on by people at WotC (Glenn Elliott, James Ernest) and FASA (Bryan Nystul). Work on the final version of the game, which was designed by Richard Garfield, began in earnest this spring. Charlie Catino led the development team, which consisted of William Jockusch and Glenn Elliott. Warren Wyman and George Lowe added considerable BattleTech experience to the group and helped keep the game true to FASA's universe. Roger Coad directed the art and graphic design, and served as liaison with FASA's art department. Ron Richardson is the Product Manager and was our primary contact with FASA. Rich Fukutaki is leading strategic brand marketing planning with Ron Richardson. Casey Brebberman is the leading the tactical marketing efforts focusing on advertising, promotions, and editorial placements. J.D. Wilker is the lead customer service representative responsible for customer feedback and input. There were many more people who contributed to the BattleTech TCG, but I'm afraid to list any for fear of leaving others out. 3. There seems to be some confusion on how units will be handled. Can you explain how units will be dealt with? The BattleMech is the primary unit in the game. Because of this, a rather large number of the cards in the TCG represent BattleMechs. You can sort of think of them as a cross between a V:tES Vampire and a M:tG creature. 4. Will expansions correspond to different tech reports used in the BattleTech product line? Though it is likely that expansions would appear to correspond to the different Technical Readouts that FASA has published, that's not actually how we do the design work. In fact, most of the 'Mechs from 3055 and 3058 are already designed and ready to go - we just had to draw the line somewhere for the initial release. Stackpole's novels just seemed like an excellent starting period for the game, so that's what we went with. 5. Will counters or dice be needed for the BT TCG? If so, explain why. Yes, you will need both counters and a single six-sided die to play the game. The six-sided die provides an element of randomness to certain combat cards to make the conflict mechanic feel more like BattleTech, and the counters are used to track damage. You can easily play the game without a six-sided die (just don't play with the cards that require one), but we felt that the realism provided by using counters to track damage was well worth any potential down side. 6. How will winning be determined? (Explain the winning conditions). see below 7. Will "life" be used like Magic for BT? Or will something else be used? If so, what? The object of the game is to run your opponent out of cards. Your deck represents all of the assets you have available for waging war. Once you have depleted all of your assets, you are no longer able to fight effectively, and so the battle is over. Each point of damage you take forces you to discard one card from the top of your deck. When you are forced to discard a card and cannot, you lose. 8. How long are games expected to last? As with any game, your first few games take longer as you learn to play. Once you are familiar with the game, however, games should take about 20-30 minutes. 9. Will the BT TCG be adaptable to multiplayer games or just one on one? If multiplayer is in the plans, please indicate when those rules will be available. Yes, the BattleTech TCG will be adaptable to multiplayer games, but we have no plans at this time to introduce those rules ourselves. We prefer to design games for two players and allow the players to develop multi-player variants. 10. Will the BT TCG lend itself well to tournaments? If so, what future plans do you have for tournaments and how well do you think the game will lend itself in tournament environments. Definitely. The rulebook contains the Universe Rules which will be used for all WotC or FASA sponsored BattleTech tournaments. When using the Universe Rules, players must confine their decks to a single house or clan which limits the resources they have at their disposal. More Q&A: Q. Will BT be playable out of the box as like say Netrunner or more like Magic which is not so playable straight out of the box? A. BT will be playable straigt out of the box, but like Magic, you'll want to do some optimization for serious, competative play. Q. Will there be Deck Restrictions? A. The base rules don't restrict deck size. That'll happen in the tournament rules when they come out. Just like Magic. Q. What does a normal or average mech card look like? A. All Mech cards have the same graphic design. The art in a verticaly oriented box, surrounded by a grey border with card and flavor stats down the left hand side so you can read them as the cards are fanned in your hand. Q. Do Command Posts lose efficiency as they take damage? A. None of the cards performance is affected by damage taken, until it's destroyed that is. Q. When can we expect to see a downloadable version of the rules? A. On line rules will be posted by the end of Nov. and perhaps sooner.