Silver Sunburst Pilot (1996)
From gamemaster to in-the-game
Back in High School, I participated in precisely one night of playing Battletech. My D&D Dungeon Master was also a Battletech player, and loved collecting, altering and painting miniatures, so I was invariably roped in to an overnight game.
Battletech is a much more complicated game than Dungeons & Dragons, so between trying to explain it (I think I went through the rulebook ahead of time) and playing it with a small group, it was a dicey proposition, and while it wasn’t a disaster by any stretch, it didn’t necessarily leave me wanting more, which is why it was last time I tried. Not that I was so put off as to never try again, but between two D&D campaigns (my High School one, and one I DM’d separately with friends), I wasn’t tempted to pick up another game of this sort.
A few years later, when I was asked to contribute to the Battletech card game, it certainly wasn’t out of being a huge fan of the game but more because I was at least passing familiar with it that it felt fun to work on. Also, as mentioned elsewhere, I grew up loving and drawing Transformers when I was younger, so giant robots were in my wheelhouse.
