Tales From The Periphery – Details, episodes & analysis

In which Mike catches up with UK BattleTech-er and games developer Tom Lovewell (and finally figures out they probably met a lot longer ago than he originally thought!).

Useful links:

• Alpha Strike Matched Play rules
• The Sheffield Boardgames podcast (also on Apple, Spotify, Podbean)
• Kobold's Cave Hobbies and Games, Stroud
• Cotswold BattleTech Game Day

In which Mike interviews BattleTech author Craig A. Reed Jr...

...in a conversation that covers most of the last century-and-a-half of the history of the Inner Sphere, as well as some sound advice on how to get started writing for Shrapnel and BattleTech, and a brief sidebar on the mighty Leeds United (MOT!).

Useful links:

• The site's Events page;
• Craig's Sarna page and list of works;
• Out today (Monday 15th July 2024)! - Craig's new novel "In The Shadow Of The Dragon" on the Catalyst store (as EPUB and Kindle files), DriveThruFiction (EPUB) and Amazon UK (Kindle and print editions).
• "Icons of War", Craig's first novella - if you don't have it in the recent Humble Bundle, it's available from Catalyst, DriveThruFiction (EPUB and Kindle) and Amazon UK (Kindle, paperback and audiobook)
• The "Elements of Treason" trilogy is also available as e-books - see Craig's list of works on Sarna, above, for those and the rest of his works.

Please note: Amazon links in the above are affiliate links from which I make a small percentage should you buy from them.

In which Mike is late.

Profuse apologise for the lateness of this episode, especially to interviewees Ed and Kendall. The interview was actually mostly recorded at the English Nationals (at the end of May), and the rest of the episode in the first week in June, before UK Games Expo. Unfortunately since then (as well as being away in Shetland for a week) I've mostly been fighting with Anglian Water's insurers and repairers, who have... let's be frank, not been as timely as they might. Most of our ground floor still has no carpet.

But, here we are - as I comment at the end, please consider this a historical document from the end of May/beginning of June. And look out for more episodes to come a lot closer on the heels of this one.

Useful links:

• The BattleTech UK Facebook group.
• Bryan Young's "Without Question" as physical and digital novel.
• The second Pride anthology, "Queer Tales From The Periphery" (hrm, that title looks familiar :D).
• The Shrapnel submissions page
• Alpha Strike Matched Play rules

In which Mike, in no particular order, gets flooded, rebuilds the web server, visits the English Nationals, has fun, sells used 'Mechs...

...and just happens to get to interview Randall and Bryn Bills!

Useful links:

• The Events and Directory pages on here.
• The UK BattleTech Discord

In which Mike does a bit of shopping, plays a few games, visits a wargames show.

Useful links

• The Events and Directory pages on here.
• The UK BattleTech Discord
• Salute Wargames Show
• The Boardgames Geek page on Encounters: BattleTech
• Jon Hodgson's Backgrounds books at Handiwork Games
• Geek Villan's fleece mats
• Uncertain Scenery's webpage and Discord.
• TabletopGaming issue 90 (sadly, only half my article is free :D)

In which Mike and Stuart Marsh discuss running games at clubs, stores and shows, community building, and decide to leave 3D printing to a future episode.

Useful links

• The Events and Directory pages on here.
• The UK BattleTech Discord.
• Stuart's blog, Facebook page and Youtube channel
• How to play BattleTech parts 1 and 2
• The UK SouthEast Discord
• Salute Wargames Show (tomorrow as of the date of posting!)

In which MIke gets all nostalgic for 1990's multi-user BattleTech technology, command-line terminals and online rôle-play.

Useful links:

• The Events and Directory pages on here.
• The UK BattleTech Discord.
• Stuart Marsh's blog (with Bad Moon Mercenaries events)
• Sarna's archive directory for BattleTech 3056 MUSE
  • It turns out I was mistaken, and Sarna doesn't (yet) have an entry for BT 3056, but it does have one for 3025.

Note: I mostly edited this podcast using the AI features of the paid version of Riverside.FM. I have to say it is much quicker than picking out 'erm' as a waveform in Audacity, but I'm not 100% happy with its ability to detect silences and match words to audio. You may find a few bits of this a little glitchy, for which I apologise. I'll probably go back to Audacity for serious editing going forward, but Riverside is excellent for multi-participant recording and large-scale edits with the aid of its transcript feature, so I will continue to use it for that going forward.

In which Mike and guest Andy Dickinson of Leeds Wargames Club attempt to remember when they first met, discuss LAMs, Camospecs, running clubs and shows, as well as upcoming events including Adepticon and the English Nationals. And digress a lot :D

Useful links:

• Camospecs submissions FAQ
• The English Nationals
• The Events and Directory pages on here

I've just upgraded to a paid version of Riverside.FM for my podcasting, so hopefully audio recording, editing and cleanup should be better and less work going forward!

In which Mike attempts to explain The Plan, and runs through some news and upcoming events.

Useful links from the episode:

• All the regular events can be found on the Directory page.
• The upcoming events are on the Events page.
• The UK BattleTech Discord invite link is https://discord.gg/8Qe2fFHEEv - this shouldn't expire.

In which Mike looks at the various new releases coming out, and talks to Sam Hall of Enfield Gamers about their upcoming WolfNet 350 Alpha Strike tournament.

[Note: apologies for the audio quality of Sam's voice in places - it came through fine on my headphones but appears to have recorded (through no fault of Sam's) with some annoying digital artefacts. I did my best to clean it up with the tools at my disposal, but sadly it's not perfect (and in some cases the tools were making it worse!). However, as this is an episode with a bit of a time crunch, I've chosen to let it go so as to get the content out.]

Useful links:

• WolfNet 350 rules and resource page
• Enfield Gamers' Wolfnet 350 event page for this coming Saturday October 12th 2024.
• The Of 'Mechs and Men podcast
• Dual SRM-4 pod STL file for the MAD-SD. You'll need to scale this to 75%, then take a razor saw to a MAD-3R's AC-5 :D
• Kromlech Legionary left arm with sword for the Clanbuster Black Knight conversion.

And a couple of photos of stuff I've been working on: