Posts by: Ray Arrastia
Handbook: House Kurita
For almost a millennium, the symbol of the Dragon has struck fear into the rest of the Inner Sphere. The fearless dedication of its warriors, the devotion of its people, and the awesome ambitions of its Coordinator: House Kurita has been more reviled than any other power. […]
One of the primary things that has struck me about the Draconis Combine is the stark divide between the two societal classes – noble and worker. While each has several subdivisions within them, the main divide is exceptionally noticeable within the Kuritan realm.
Of all the Great Houses, the Combine’s society and economy […]
Experimental Technical Readout: Republic I
The year is 3120. Under the aegis of the Republic of the Sphere, the Inner Sphere has experienced its greatest time of peace since the days of the original Star League. Raised from the ashes of the Jihad, the Republic stands for the ideals of unity and justice, but […]
Continue Reading →Historical Turning Points: Tortuga
While the Jihad raged, pirates had their way with the newborn Filtvelt Coalition. Finally, the Filtvelters had suffered too much. They launched an invasion of Tortuga Prime, to punish the pirates in their den. But the force sent to exact retribution found itself mired in a close-packed city […]
One of the biggest challenges to this particular book is trying to convey the arrogance of the Kuritas (as it’s from the perspective of a Combine historian) without sounding overdone and silly but still convey important information. The trick is to use the proper turns of phrase and word choice, which makes the entire process […]
Continue Reading →Experimental Technical Readout: Most Wanted
In the wake of the Word of Blake Jihad, the Republic of the Sphere has emerged from the ashes, promising hope and salvation to a universe ravaged by horror and warfare. But not everyone is ready to lay down their arms just yet, and some of the deadliest […]
One of the more fascinating things about this universe is the massive histories that were crafted for each of the five Great Houses. The wealth of imagination that went into fleshing out these far-flung star empires inspires me even today, despite a lot of the inconsistencies and hiccups prevalent in the older books. Part […]
Continue Reading →Strategic BattleForce is now up for Open Beta Test!
Strategic BattleForce is an expansion to the basic BattleForce ruleset as presented in Strategic Operations (SO) and the Alpha Strike combat system. Like standard BattleForce and Alpha Strike, Strategic BattleForce (SBF) abstracts regular Total Warfare units to a relative handful of stats, exchanging rules detail for […]
Continue Reading →Operational Turning Points: Widowmaker Absorption
In 2834, the feud between Clans Wolf and Widowmaker came to a head, and the resulting Trial of Refusal led to the tragic death of ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky at the hands of Clan Widowmaker. Furious at the ilKhan’s death, the Wolves took it upon themselves to hunt […]
Reflecting the Pillar of Gold
One of the more interesting sections to write with Handbook: House Kurita was that of the Pillar of Gold, or the Government arm of the Dragon. It encompasses the politics, policy, nobility, court, and of course, the ever-present Combine bureaucracy. It’s a lot of seemingly disparate parts that form […]
New BattleTech
