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I've read a fannon Terran Republic Field Manual and it mentions a bit about the RWR. What I'm asking- and it's prob been asked- what's the Cannon version on who/what was the RWR? I know Amaris came from there, but that's about all.

Schism

The best source of material on the Rim World Repbulic was the old Periphery Sourcebook, the original one...

Bits and pieces can be found in other books, but I haven't seen anything in the newier books since Jihad is the current focus and only main focus of TPTB.

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

Oh, you don't have the new House Steiner Handbook, then.
That's false. The absolutely dominating focus of the writers are the new core rulebooks, as they have been throughout 2006. Writers and factcheckers are barely getting breathers between the rulebooks and new review/playtesting cycles. Chris Wheeler and I ended up as "assistant developers" of TR:VA from June to October last year because Herb, Randall, and the others were overwhelmingly focused on Total War, then Tech Manual, with side developments in Tactical Ops, so they couldn't focus on TR:VA to any extent.

The Tech Readout-Upgrades, House Handbooks (Davion and Marik) and, notably with regards to plot development, Historicals have also been consuming a lot of attention. Remember Brushfire Wars and the War of 3039?

And the in between all those, you've got one Jihad book, Hot Spots: 3070. The Jihad is far from dominating everything.

Returning to the original question:

In the new Steiner Handbook, you get a good dose of new info on the Rim Worlds Republic, including some information that was distinctly AWOL in the Periphery SBs. Key new information introduced in the Steiner Handbook includes:

1) The map of the Rim Worlds Republic
2) The fate of the Rim Worlds Republic beyond "first the SLDF overran it, then went to liberate the Terran Hegemony."

The HSHB describes in new detail what the SLDF did with the RWR after overrunning it. It also describes not just what happened to the RWR worlds (mostly annexed by the Lyrans), but also the political motivations behind the Lyran war against the RWR and General Kerensky's warning to the Lyrans about their mistreatment of what was still, legally, a SLDF member-state.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

In the first Periphery book (FASA 1629) there are indepth sections that detail the Rim Worlds Republic from its creation under Rowe post-Outer Reaches Rebellion to its end. No map though.

I would advise hunting for it as it gives a good feel for what the Periphery's original "style" was. Some of the best artwork too.

If you need a map, you can download it from classicbattletech.com in the Downloads area under the Steiner Handbook section (pretty sure it is still there - Lyran Commonwealth 2nd War I think is the name of the pdf). It is a nice map and adds a bunch of various add-on systems to make the Rim Worlds Republic look more cohesive than was implied previously, though it still includes the incorrect Terran Hegemony borders.

The second Periphery book is more (FASA 1692) geared towards post-3050 and would not be very helpful.

Field Manual Periphery (FASA 1726) IIRC has a few minor mentions, but goes further along the timeline rather than backwards.

Nice to hear the House Steiner Handbook has some useful new stuff. The thing is that there is a lot left in the Pre-Jihad eras that can recommend further extrapolation. I am glad TPTB have recognized the original eras as useful and profitable. In such research, players then have the option of further information they can use for their game universes.

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[size=85]To indeed be a god. [/size]

As I understand, the next Historicals will be much more "historical" than recent-era books that have come out lately. And Battlecorps explores the pre-Jihad periods in-depth. For example, the Proliferation serial examined the spread of the Battlemech and the fate of the Wolverines is being detailed now.

The House Handbooks are also being written from pre-Jihad perspectives (late 3067) to give them a common timeframe, to avoid the problem of the Field Manuals and "moving targets" in the setting.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

Since I don't have the main books in question (I do have #1692), does anyone have a scan/pdf/jpg of the RWR symbol that they could send me?
Schism

"Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I."

If you say so...given that we have seen more Jihad related products then anything reallys says other wise, all of the books currently out lead up to the Jihad, and gvien that just about every book currently out makes mention of the Jihad and events of it, really doesn't do well on your statement above, but hey this is just my opinion.

And if the core rules are the main focus then we should see them sooner not later...but again that's another barrel of monkey and box of worms.

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

Let me check I may have something, I am going to need a few days to dig through things. Working on moving and such.

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

If you stretch the definition of "Jihad related product," then you could say that correctly, but it's really just self-punishment if you dislike the Jihad. Technically, any Battletech product back to BattleDroids is a Jihad-related product, but that's just getting silly.

Realistically, even the latest BT products hardly mention the Jihad. Like TR:VA. It doesn't mention the Jihad once and mentions the Word of Blake in 5 of its many vehicles. Total War drops a few words on the Jihad in the intro, then spends the rest of the book on rules. The Historicals and House Handbooks (all of them - the published and unpublished) technically are "related" to the Jihad in the sense they share the same timeline, but don't mention the Jihad.

Now, the Merc Supplements, Hotspots, and recent Tech Readout-Upgrades certainly spend time on the Jihad, but they don't constitute a majority of recent products or writing time.
Spurious point. All Roman and Neolithic histories lead up to World War 2. That doesn't mean all Roman and Neolithic histories are focused on World War 2. Similarly, the Historicals and House Handbooks do lead up to the Jihad, but they do not focus on the Jihad.
No, it's not your opinion. "and gvien that just about every book currently out makes mention of the Jihad and events of it" meets the definition of a statement of fact, and it's a false fact. My prior post was about the amount of writing effort spent on the Jihad. The fact that books mention the Jihad, or indirectly lead up to the Jihad by sharing the same timeline, does nothing to show that most of current writing focuses on the Jihad.

What you need to prove your point is a thorough analysis of emails and writer forum traffic on the writing of new books to see how often the Jihad comes up. With access to that data, I can tell you this: the Jihad occupies very little writing time except on the one intensely Jihad-related product, Hotspots: 3072.

There's something that baffles me about you, Karagin. You don't like the Jihad but you seem to like to punish yourself by twisting the facts into the worse possible light: all new BT books are entirely focused on the Jihad (false), most effort goes into forwarding the Jihad storyline (false), and all new books are all about the Jihad (false).

You could sit back and sigh in relief that the new House Handbooks don't address the Jihad at all. You could relax and enjoy the Jihad-free Historicals and TRVA. You could be happy that the new rulebooks burp a mention of the Jihad in their intro then hurry on to 300 pages of rules without mentioning the Jihad again - 14 sentences in Total War on 7 pages mention the Jihad, while 307 other pages do not. And you could be thoroughly pleased that the upcoming Historicals and Handbooks will continue to ignore the Jihad. There'd just be handful of books to avoid if you really wanted to avoid the Jihad.

But, no, you indulge in disasterbation about how the Jihad is dominating everything and ruin your own Battletech fun. That's bizarre. I mean, worse yet, your recent statements on CBT.com were just a picture of self-punishment. You thought that it was sad that a feature of Battletech (artillery recoil on rail cars of all things) needed mathematical explanation, but you play a game where the core of the game, giant humanoid brawling robots, need elaborate mathematical justification to explain why 'mechs don't get stuck in the mud due to high ground pressure, or why mechs don't topple from weapons recoil, or why their weapons have such short ranges. It's like you're a glutton for punishment out to ruin your own gaming experience.

Don't do that. Learn to look at the glass as half full and stuff. The Jihad is far from dominating recent publications. It gets mentioned here and there, but it's not a big part of most publications.
You are seeing them faster than would've happened otherwise. Had they continued at the originally planned rate of writer effort allocation, other books like TR:VA and House Davion Handbook would've slowed all the rule books into 2007.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

http://www.battletech.at/israum/rimworlds.php

The symbol is House Amaris. The page is in German but the map is all wrong - they mistakenly used a Rim Collection circa-3060s for House Amaris of pre-2786.

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[size=85]To indeed be a god. [/size]

Do you know what book it came from? I flipped through FM:Periphery and Periphery 1st Edition this morning to no luck.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

Cray we know you support the current storyline that's fine. And we all know that I don't.

And given that all the books currently out make some mention either in their intro to the troubled time aka the Jihad does indeed make them supportive of the current storyline.

As for the rest of your ranting well it's not needed nor does it have anything to do with my point.

But again you are right and the current storyline must do well or we have no Battletech because without the WoB Jihad there would be nothing...

So how about letting folks have their opinions and you have yours and we all are better for it...

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

Nice site...looks like some one took the b&w picture from the SL book that shows the Amaris solider with the sunglasses and jacket with the House Amaris logo on it and colored it in. Nice job on that.

Now it would be really nice if we could get a fully canon sourcebook on Amaris and his military and production set etc...

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

You're certainly entitled to voice an opinion, just like I'm entitled to give rebuttals when you state erroneous facts. As an example:
Except they do not all mention the Jihad or "troubled time." When you actually open the House Handbooks and Historicals, you'll note that the in-character introductions and writing predate the Jihad. (See pg5-8 and pg9 HSHB; pg5-7 and pg9 HMHB.) The in-character writing style remains vigorously pre-Jihad throughout those books.

You're just wrong when you say "all the books currently out" make some reference to the Jihad, obliquely or directly. You should take heart in that - it means the Jihad isn't everywhere.
Needed? No, it's not needed that I help you out of your self-punishing loop of spoiling your own BT fun. You're certainly entitled to inflate the Jihad into a BT-dominating theme if you want to ruin the game for yourself.

In the mean time, I hope other people who dislike the Jihad note how minimal of an appearance the Jihad puts into recent books: none in the House Steiner Handbook, none in the House Marik Handbook, none in Tech Readout: Vehicle Annex, a handful of sentences in the 314-page Total Warfare rulebook, none in Historicals: Brushfire Wars, none in Historicals: War of 3039, none in Interstellar Players, and none in the pending House Davion Handbook.
The House Handbook series will encompass a Periphery book, which will treat the Rim Worlds Republic like the other major Periphery nations.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

So anyway moving back to the topic, we really need a souce book devoted to Amaris. I think that would give some intersting points and offer more insight into the SL and the Inner Sphere as whole.

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

Thank you so much. Planning something for my victims... er, I mean my players.

Schism

more than likely this will be in Historicals: Liberation of Terra Volumes 1 & 2

its been stated that these books will mave much in common with the NAIS 4th Succession War Volume 1 & 2

That is good to know but at the same time a book that covers them in detail would be better.

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

The image is a redraw from the artwork in the Star League Manual - page 94. Amaris has the symbol on his chest. The colours I am unsure of. I am not altogether sure who the first person was that redrew the symbol. Rather interesting that the symbol looks like a Diamond Shark - always wondered about that aspect.

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[size=85]To indeed be a god. [/size]

No prob.

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[size=85]To indeed be a god. [/size]

not gonna happen...

A Book Each for the Big Five, a Single Book for the Also Rans... but i don't see any extra coverage for dead houses & clans...

granted... I woudl love to see House Boooks per Era... say

a book for each of the houses of the Diapora
a book for each of the houses of the Age of War
a book for each of the houses of the Star League
a book for each of the houses & Clans of the Succession Wars & What ever the clans call that time period

but the ammount of resources necessary would make it prohibitive

its gonna take a few years to cover the 14 years of the ComStar Insurgency at two focoused books a year

with them also Revising the House Books and Field Manuals into a single book per faction or general body and updating them to just before the ComStar Insurgency and Updating, Bug Fixing, and Broadening Examples in the 6 Core books in addition to finishing thhe steps that they have made in obliterating the last of the 1994 Atrocities will take their efforts for quite a while

That'd be cool.

Though I have a few bones to pick about the 4th War Vol. 1 & 2. I won't go into them here, but the format was nice.

The format of the 3039 book was solid, but I really did not like the Ronin Wars section of the Brush Wars book (the rest of the book was excellent) - it is a nitpick, but the quotes/classroom thing is irritating.

Also, the 3039 maps needed (IMHO) to be made seperate. As all the troop movements seem to run about two months in length, it might have been possible to make 4 smaller maps with only the movements/battles of that specific period. It might have been possible to keep them all on the same page by trimming out a little of the borders - just like the Revolt/Andurien Wars maps.

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[size=85]To indeed be a god. [/size]

Right if you say so.

I think we can all wait and see what TPTB do or don't do.

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

No, it probably won't happen, but Karagin's right: it'd be nice to have a detailed book on the Rim Worlds Republic.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

if its not going to happen, wouldnt it be cool to have any information on a website? or does it already exist?

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typos and spelling-mistakes are property of the finder. english is not my mother-tongue.

Yes, it'd be cool.
No. That's one of the issues with an Amaris SB - it doesn't have the huge wealth of information behind it that the Inner Sphere Houses do.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

i guess there are files that give the facts about everything in the BT universe somewhere, just to give authors the opportunity to write there storys so they fit into the already existing storys.

everything thats there would be interesting for such a website.(maybe excluding the"future" of the BT universe)

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typos and spelling-mistakes are property of the finder. english is not my mother-tongue.

No. Just the same books (and .pdfs) as everyone else has, plus a few outlines from the developers for upcoming plots.

When the writers sit down and fill out massive files of information, the amount of work involved means they usually want to get it published so there's a return on that effort. They don't sit on giant pile of secret information and dole it out in bits. The only secret stuff is the drafts that are moving through the writing/reviewing path and will end up in player hands at a later date.

Hence my prior post about the dearth of information on the Rim Worlds Republic. The reason that you didn't see a map of the RWR until the House Steiner Handbook is because it didn't exist before then (or it would've been present in earlier Periphery books.) Such information gaps let writers get creative and fact checker sweat bullets.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

then someone should collect all that information, at least from older publications that no longer are available

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typos and spelling-mistakes are property of the finder. english is not my mother-tongue.

The older publications are quite available. When Amazon.com, Battlecorps, your local gaming store, and other online sources don't have it, you can find virtually any BT book on eBay for reasonable prices. Only the Star League SB gets over the top in prices, I've heard. eBay certainly helped me fill the gaps in my collection.

Battlecorps and CBT.com offer quite a few of the old books, like the House SBs, free in .pdf format.

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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

"Woo, that was bracing! They don't like it when you shoot at them. I worked that out myself." --Mal, Firefly

"Going bonkers from EI or DNI is pushing it. I mean how many Crusaders or Super Wobbies are sane to begin with...." --RockJock01

i can see that, again, you barely bothered to read past the first line

Perkins,

I read your posting and as I said, let's wait and see what actually happens.

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Karagin-

Darkness is a friend of mine. Sometimes I have to beat it back, or it would overwhelm me. Shirley Meier

[url]http://karagin12.livejournal.com/[/url]

The Wookiee, he's not wearing any pants!

[img]http://www.heavymetalpro.com/countries/mil-army.gif[/img]

[coughs]

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"He closes his eyes and remembers the night splattered with brightness, the sudden flare of erupting fuel, the mad chase as, supersonic, he bobbed and weaved among the hills and valleys of the Ozarks, the laws on his tail, burning for home …"