What exactly is the status of the Battletech line nowadays? In days of yore we had FASA who produced Battletech - big clunky robots with frickin' lasers going at each other and Mechwarrior which was the RPG for the game world. Then however they decided to mostly shut down shop and this is where my knowledge is hazy at best.

As I understand it FASA have licensed Fanpro Germany, who have in turn licensed Fanpro LLC in the US to produce the English language Classic Battletech books. These are set following exactly after the old FASA books right? So where does Dark Ages fit in to this, and are there any other currently produced versions floating about out there? Also whatever happened to the MechWarrior RPG part of it, did anyone carry that on or is it dead? Thanks.

FanPro does Classic BattleTech in English; it's not being translated into German right now. FanPro just released Total Warfare, a new core rulebook for CBT, with updated rules and tons of stuff -- it's a 312 page full color sexy beast of a book. They're following that up with TechManual, the book explaining how to build 'Mechs and all kinds of other units, and all sorts of other sourcebooks such as the ones in the current Jihad plotline and Housebooks for the major houses -- Marik, Davion, etc.

WizKids is doing MechWarrior: Age of Destruction [formerly MechWarrior: Dark Ages], which is set in the future of Classic BattleTech.

The MechWarrior RPG has been OOP for awhile, and FanPro has been planning to reprint it as The Classic BattleTech RPG. One of the six core books in the revised series that starts with Total Warfare will also be a RPG.

There's also a ton of free intro stuff based on the current rules set available at http://www.classicbattletech.com/leap

Couldn't have said it better myself.


I will add, however, a brief explanation of where Mechwarrior:DarkAges/Age of Destruction fits in.


At the time FASA shut down to avoid a lawsuit, The Clan invasionof the Inner Sphere was pretty much wrapped up. Clans had invated, taken a lot of turf, and then major Inner Sphere novel characters rallied, learned, and figured out how to fight the Clans on their own terms. After several novels worth of development, the invasion was halted. The leader of the Inner Sphere against the Clans was Victor Steiner Davion. He returns home to find his home turf, the Federated Commonwealth having been usurped by his sister.

Initially he tries to let it go peacefully, but eventually jumps into an already brewing civil war. The FedCom Civil War lasts from 3062-3067. Towards the end of 3067, Victor's forces win the day, and the Federated Commonwealth becomes 2 separate states.

In November 3067 there's a big conference for the newly formed Star League which is sort of a United Nations, but for the whole Inner Sphere. Several parties vote to end the Star League, now that the Clan Threat is ended, and one member-to-be the Word of Blake, get pissed off and nuke the city where the conference is held.

This launches the thing called the Jihad wherein the Word of Blake uses a combination of Nukes, Chemical Weapons, Bio Weapons, Space-Naval barrages, Mercenary forces, and even its own military to pretty much attack everyone in the inner-sphere.

Long standing household name characters in Battletech die like fruit flies. The capitol world of just about every major faction gets either nuked, bombarded, or invaded.

From 3067-3073, the Word of Blake pretty much beat the living crap out of anyone they want to by violating the "rules of war" at will and whim.

That's as far as the Canon material goes so far. It's still in development.

Some 70 years AFTER the Jihad ends and the inner-sphere is pacified under the influence of a new faction - The Republic of the Sphere - Mechwarrior:DarkAge/Age of Destruction picks up with new developments and stuff.

Classic Battletech is still following the development from 3073-3130, while MWDA/MWAoD pick up around 3130 and develop the plot like so.

Also, there's the parts that are "battles in history" where in those fights that happened no where other then in fluff get expanded and written about in detail. For those who don't like the Dark Age stuff. Like me.

The Lawsuit was vs. the makers of EXO Squad for copying some of their imagery. Harmony Gold launched a counter-lawsuit and FASA didn't have the capital to wage an extended legal battle.

Hopefully I can have complete details for you in the near future, as I'm talking with some of the FanPro guys about it to clarify things before I pass 'em on.

OK, here's what I believe to be an accurate depicting of what happened to FASA:

Link Doccuments:
A. Defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings or for summary judgment (denied)
B. Harmony Gold's Motion To Exclude Evidence In Support Of FASA's Motion For Judgment On The Pleadings, And For A Protective Order (Basically, HG inadvertently disclosed to FASA documents it claims were subject to attorney-client privilege and tried to get them back. This motion was denied.)
C. Fasa v. Playmates

According to document A, FASA in fact never had a license from HG to use the Robotech images. HG had an exclusive license from Tatsunoko Production Company Ltd to use the Macross designs in the US. FASA claimed to have received a license from Twentieth Century Imports, which allegedly got the rights to images and plastic models of the Macross designs from Tatsunoko. (Presumably, this is the origin of the plastic 'Mechs that came in Battledroids.)

After FASA went after Playmates for copyright infringement (in the case Joskney linked to), HG and Playmates (which was a licensee of HG) went after FASA, this after several years of cease and desist orders from HG to FASA. They even tried to get their case folded into FASA v Playmates but that was denied and they refiled.

During the HG v FASA action, FASA tried to claim that their rights to the Macross designs were excluded from the HG/Tatsunoko deal because plastic model kits of those designs produced and sold in Japan were excluded and that's where FASA claims their rights derive from through TCI. The court rejected that argument because HG did not base their action on the Japanese model kits but on their exclusive US rights to the Macross designs. And FASA also failed to demonstrate to the court the rights they allegedly got from TCI.

So, given these documents (which are, unfortunately, incomplete; I'd love to track down the complete court files) it appears the sequence of events was something like this:
1. HG licenses the Macross designs from Tatsunoko in January 1984
2. Weisman and Babcock get the idea for Battledroids in late Jan/early Feb 1984 after viewing TCI model kits at a trade show
3. FASA licenses several designs from TCI
4. Beginning in January 1985, HG sends cease and desist letters to FASA which are ignored (because FASA believes they have a proper license)
5. In Dec 1991, FASA begins working with Playmates to bring a giant robot toy line (and, eventually, a cartoon) based on BattleTech to market
6. In May 1992, Playmates met with a Japanese company which said they would not be interested in toys based on BattleTech because they used designs already marketed in Japan under the Macross name.
7. Playmates ended their relationship with FASA and begins working on Exo-Squad instead.
8. In 1994, FASA sues Playmates for alleged copyright infringement of BattleTech and loses
9. In 1995, HG and Playmates sue FASA for copyright infringement and win

So, basically, FASA screwed themselves by not properly investigating the licensing of the Macross designs before making a deal with Twentieth Century Imports. If they had, they could possibly have licensed the designs from Harmony Gold and we'd still have the Unseen.


There's also some good info at the Wikipedia site.


<edit: most of this info has been compiled by Roosterboy, site mainenence guy for classicbattletech.com>

So, originally you claim that FASA shut themselves down "to avoid a lawsuit". When asked for clarification, you point to legal actions which happened in 1996 or earlier. FASA didn't close up shop as a publisihg company and go into the business of licensing their IP properties to other companies until January of 2001. Forgive me, but I fail to see the chain of cause and effect that ties the one to the other, over that 5 year gulf of time. Care to elaborate some more?

Admittedly, part of it is my own murkiness on the subject, It had initially been explained to me that FASA shut down to avoid the lawsuite.

When I dug on it, it turns out they didn't avoid the lawsuit and got sued and lost pretty bad.

As the guys on CBT.com are explaining it, FASA simply ran out of capital and had to close down - effectively going bankrupt slowly for a few years after having lost so much capital due to the lawsuits.

Ah, but if they were hemoraging capital right and left due to legal settlements from '96 forward, how could they have afforded to buy Ral Partha in '98? I'm not saying that they had money coming out the wazoo, but I don't think that it was entirely a downward spiral from the Harmony Gold lawsuit all the way to the end in 2001, to the point that you could point to the legal troubles as a smoking gun.

The second half of the 90s was a time of flux for the whole RPG industry, owing in part to the hit in sales caused by the Collectable Card Game Glut, erosion of the audience as more and more gamers turned to console and computer gaming for the majority of their entertainment dollars, and the numerous mergers and buyouts as the successful companies jockied around to try to stay successful.

In the end, there were a number of factors that lead to FASA closing up shop, and they're all of some importance.

Players of BattleTech ("Classic" or otherwise) might be interested in MegaMek, a free Java implementation of the game.