This is a very good read if you can find it. Quite a few short stories from William Keith, Michael Stackpole, and other authors. The stories are well written and entertaining. You can often find this on ebay and get it for a relatively decent price.

I managed to find a copy of this book a few years ago and I think it is worth all the money I spent on it. It is a compilation of short stories by some Battletech novelists such as Michael A. Stackpole and William H. Keith, and also some other authors such as Bear Peters, Mark O. Green and others. The short stories are of excellent quality, especially Stackpole's, Keith's and Peters' works. With this book being published in 1988, it details the time of the Third to the Fourth Succession Wars. Artwork taken from the covers of the early Battletech novels, scenario packs, sourcebooks, blueprints, technical readouts and some original ones can be found throughout the book. All in all, this is one is as valuable as lostech if you ever want to ask Amazon.com to search for it. For those of you who have the patience for this order, you will be rewarded with stories that detail the unexpected bits of life and death in the Inner Sphere.

The ComStar field manual is a useful roleplaying resource, with the unit histories similar to those found in all of the field manuals. I find that it is somewhat less useful than the others, if only because it tries to do too much. The book wastes space explaining 4 different organizational systems (Com Star, Star League, Rasalhague, and Clan). The other manuals had more focus, whereas this apears to be an attempt to throw in every reamining non-great house faction. Can't really blame FASA for that though, as Rasalhague and the SLDF had to get something, and surely dont deserve their own manuals (yet).. overall a sold product, and worth getting eventually, although i recommend picking up some of the others first if you dont really need the ComStar info for a campaign.

I have enjoyed all of the Field Manuals to date. This one tells us more about the new Star League army and the Rasalhague military than anywhere else. Best Comstar resource since the old Comstar manual.

This field manual on Comstar is better than the older one that I do not have and I can not find. If you want to have an idea on what Comstar is doing, then, this is the field manual to have. It does try to do too much but it is very clear on what is about. Comstar is now part of the starleague.

Battletech is a well written and rich univers filled with intersting charters and wonderful places. Unfortuntly the they can't write a role playing rules system to save their life. No matter how many times they rewrite this system they seem to think that only improvment it needs is piling more and more convlouted rules on and TRYING to get the layout of the book better orgnised. Instead of making a system that promotes roleplaying and charter devlopment they make the combat system thats more complex than the map game. I can understand the reasoning of makeing a combat based system and selling it to people who play the combat only map game but if that is the case why is there so much depth and charter to the univers? I feel that the battletech univers is so in depth that you could play an entire campagin as something other than combat personal and still have a great time. The Mechwarrior rules go out of their way to prevent this. But then agin the game is called Mechwarrior so I guess I should expect to only play that, a mere mech warrior.

Mechwarrior has had three incarnations. It's had very good sales, mostly because it's part of FASA's Battletech juggernaut. However, one of the problems it's had is that while the sales are good, the number of people who actually play the Mechwarrior RPG is much smaller than you'd think. Most people use this as a reference book, or light reading (I'm one of the latter).

Many companies wouldn't care about that...they'd look at the sales numbers, throw a party, and not worry about it. But FASA does (or did...given that they're soon to be out of business). So, they retooled the Mechwarrior RPG in an attempt to make it more than just "what the 'Mech pilot does on his/her off hours", into an actual sci-fi RPG.

How'd they do? Not bad. Character creation is reminiscent vaguely of Traveller, and also of FASA's old line, Renegade Legion (which was a fun universe...check your local used bookstore!), in that your character is run through several lifepaths, depending on what they start out as. Some parts of it are confusing, in that I'm *still* trying to figure out where the bonus points go.

The system is okay, but nothing to speak of. The largest chapter, after character creation, is combat, of course. You also get equipment, example characters, a nice little vignette, and, of course, the required Big Honking Mass of Universe Information.

That, of course, is the meat and potatoes of this book. It's a great universe, and very well-developed. This is more of an introduction, though; there's so much to know you literally cannot place it in one book.

Good things: It's a neat little rpg, with a good background and okay mechanics.

Bad things: I'm still not clear on character creation, and I *still* don't know anybody who plays this.

Bottom line, it's definitely worth a look, and it's a great introduction, but it's not the best thing out there.

Ever wanted to walk around in a 100-ton death machine? Ever wanted to carry a high energy weapon in your backpack? Ever wanted to blow annoying bird aliens to tiny kibbles? With the new and improved Mechwarrior rulebook, you finally can!

This features a revised character creation and combat system, more rules, and a general enhancement on the innovative but flawed Mechwarrior, Version Two. It is also a DRASTIC improvement on Mechwarrior, First Edition. For one, your character can survive a fight without being crippled for life!

Overall, this is a great roleplaying game, and also a fair introduction to people who have never roleplayed before. However, it does lack some important background material, nessecitating the purchase of some of the Battletech novels or sourcebooks.

Sure some of the new SR3 books have bits and pieces of inforamtion about the Tir in them, but this book has it all. If you are playing a campaign in the Seattle area, I really don't know how you can play without involving the Tir into the game.

Tir Tairngire is the sourcebook with _the_ lowdown on just what happens in the former state of Oregon. Politics, Economy, History, it's all there. Just when you thought it was safe to wave the humanis flag Tir Tairngire lets everyone in the awakened world that the keeb's are here and here to stay. Another quality Shadowrun product from the late great Nigel D. Findley.

Several of the characters from Rice's earlier 'Damned If We Do' return in his second RPG-based 'Renegade Legion' book. This time they're fighting cardboard-cutout villains at the icy south pole of a war-torn planet. The narrative moves at a fairly decent pace, and the story manages to avoid descending into mere gun-fondling; however, the dice can clearly be heard rolling in the background of some action sequences, and the action is occasionally a bit difficult to follow. A degree of familiarity with the RPG background is also assumed. Fans of Battletech novels and David Drake's earlier works will enjoy this one, though it probably wouldn't be suitable for a 'first Mil-SF' book. The content is about a PG-13 level.

The book sets itself up like a typical location sourcebook, but there are some differences.

First, the first 60 pages are an adventre entitled peacekeeper. While the adventure isn't too bad, that's not what I was looking for when I got the book.

The remaining sections give info about four Native Nations. While adequate the information is a bit sketchy.

So basically, if you have no preconceived notions about this book, it's worth a read. But if you just want info about the NAN's, you're gonna have to get this and NAN volume II.

At least, in that FASA has charted out the Battletech universe for a while. Why? If you look in the Field Manual series (go ahead, check out FedSuns and Lyrans, I'll wait...), you'll notice they include new technology. Most of this new tech was included in MaxTech, except for the Lyran new stuff.

Basically, this is, as they say, an official house rules book for Battletech. They add in a bevy of alternate rules, new accessories (Light Gauss Rifle, Medium-Range Missiles), and new systems (gasoline-powered AgroMechs, anyone?).

It's a pretty decent book. Most of the new equipment is experimental, and not that useful, but could be fun for short-term use. They also include a nifty Battle Value Calculator, and give ratings to each and every published 'Mech and vehicle as of printing. There are also nifty tables listing every single thing you could possibly put on a 'Mech you're building, which is also helpful.

If you play Battletech, this is a useful purchase. It's not a must-have, but I'd recommend it.

The book had tons of new rules for myself since I invent systems, weapons, and forces nightly (like multi-launch gauss rocket systems and anti-g) this started it all for me ( got before the BT MRules book).

A plethora of rules add on to expand your game. Take as much or as little of it on as you want. Admittedly, if you used every rule in it your turns might never end. highs: the rules for artillery make them conform more closely to real world. the expanded terrain is cool, and the modifiers for movement over 10 is included! Lows: the modifiers for the movement of the fastest units can make them quite literally impossible to hit.

The 2750 readout gave us a number of new vehicles, aerospace fighters, warships and personal equipment to use, but what we really wanted was MECHS!!! This readout gave us a tiny 20 new designs. I was disappointed with the brief descriptions given, the non-existance of varients and the poor choices of design. They should have included some info on Star League spec. 3025 mechs too. The art work was okay and the layout was familiar.

This book was a very good book for reference to the 2750 time era. It gave a good background of what was going on for the intro of the book, and the Mech designs were good. I especially enjoyed the Mechs such as the King Crab and the Highlander. With examples like those, it is easy to comprehend how much technology was lost when Alexander Kerensky left the Inner Sphere.

A good book which showed off the advanced 'mechs available to the SLDF and the lostech they mounted. A bit overshadowed now days by the fact that most of the new and rare weapons are standard and that most of the 2750 'mechs which didn't appear in TR 3050 are in the revised 3025, but getting this book and the original TR 3025 is a better deal for the amount of 'mechs. Also features Star League vehicles, Dropships and Warships, though most are vastly different when they appear in TR 3057

This sourcebook describes the United Kingdom of the Shadowrun Universe, with its misteries and dangers. It presents all info in the Shadowland Style, with some hilarious comments, and has the same high-quality graphics as all Fasa Products. The book also presents rules for druids and new totems. The catch is, it was one of the first sourcebooks, written for SR1. So, most of the rules presented don't fit in with SR3 or even SR2, and probably have been incorporated into the game. And the History section lacks some ten years (it stops around 2050). Anyway, it's a good book if you intend to run the UK, but be aware that some hard updating work needs to be done.