Catalyst Game Labs had a great 2009 GTS experience and the Catalyst booth was constantly busy both days. Most importantly, however, is that all of the retailers stopping at the booth asked pertinent, intelligent questions and were expressing interest not only in the staples of BattleTech and Shadowrun but showed interest for everything that Catalyst Game Labs has to offer in the coming year.

Undoubtedly it was the coming release of Catalyst Game Labs’ casual game line (comprised of board and card games) that was the star of the show. Three card games—Paparazzi, High School Drama and Merchants (a Reiner Knizia game)—will be part of that launch, each with a fun, quick play style. The unique packaging for all three designs garnered a host of attention.

At the end of the day, however, Balance of Power, Catalyst Game Labs’ first casual board game, walked away with the most buzz. Set in the Napoleonic era, it has easy to learn rules. As several self-proclaimed “board game snobs” attending stated, “the depth of play for Balance of Power is subtle but huge, with a lot of strategy and great re-playability”. And if that weren’t enough, the map is an eye-catching, beautiful piece of graphic design; perfect for snagging new players’ attention at a table.

The digital proofs of the anniversary edition of Shadowrun Fourth Edition caught a lot of attention, as did the nearly three foot panoramic illustration of Seattle for the new Shadowrun Gamemaster screen found in the Runner’s Toolkit. The coming of a new series of linked adventures, and a deluxe full-color Seattle 2072 hardcover book also generated a lot of eager comments.

The massive stack of digital proofs that was Strategic Operations elicited a lot of retailer questions, mainly from their customers: where’s the book?!  Strategic Operations—along with all of Catalyst operations—ran afoul of the closing of WizKids and ended up stuck for several months. It’s been completely unstuck and the printer is hard at work on getting this one out. Talk of the 25 Years of Art & Fiction deluxe coffee table book, along with a 25th anniversary Introduction Box Set with new cover art and high quality board-game style playing maps in place of the current paper sheets also had retailers excited.

With two supporting products out for the CthulhuTech RPG (Vade Mecum and Dark Passions) and digital proofs of Damnation View—the third release beyond the core rulebook—for retailers to flip through, the game line is continuing to pick up speed and a lot of interest.

Catalyst Game Labs was also excited to talk about our new immersive universe and all-new roleplaying game, Eclipse Phase. This transhuman conspiracy and horror setting spiked a lot of interest, especially in the more unusual roleplaying aspects that bring a unique flavor to this hard science fiction RPG.

Leviathans—an alternate history miniatures game of air fleet battles set in 1910—also had a lot of retailers excited. While there were no game mechanics to show off, a folder with a dozen concept illustrations and a box cover illustration from Doug Chaffee got high marks across the board.

Catalyst would like to extend a giant round of thanks to all those retailers that swung by the booth and kept us so busy with your interest and superb questions. We hope to see you next year (as well as any that weren’t able to make it to our booth this year)!

In the coming days Catalyst Game Labs will release more in-depth reviews and information focused on various aspects of our game lines described in short above.

Now celebrating 25 years, Catalyst Game Labs has positioned BattleTech to be easier to jump into than ever before.

It all began in 1984, as the giant anime craze began to make its way to the American market, FASA Corporation published BattleDroids (which would become BattleTech in 1985); a stand alone box set game that immersed players into a brand new, epic science fiction universe, with a fun game to back it up.

The visceral feel of metal titans storming across alien worlds, combined with the in-depth crafting of the universe and the dynamic, realistic characters created an instant success that has gone on to become one of the best selling and most recognized names in the adventure gaming industry. It has also reached far beyond that core market, spawning over a hundred novels, over a dozen computer game and computer game expansions, numerous virtual world centers, toys, comic books, a cartoon series and more.

Now, as we head fully into this anniversary year it’s back to BattleTech. The appellation of “Classic” was attached to the BattleTech name in 2002 and we’re very excited to revert to the original name that dominated gaming for so many years.

25 Years of Art & Fiction
As part of the 25th year celebration, Catalyst Game Labs is publishing BattleTech: 25 Years of Art and Fiction. An over-sized, full-color deluxe book, filled with a huge retrospective of 25 years worth of art. Additionally, we’ve got something extra special planned. We’ve selected over a dozen “premier” illustrations that cover the gamut of style, subject matter, time period and artists. Authors are then generating in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand words of new, original fiction to mesh with those illustrations. All the seminal BattleTech novelists are involved: Thurston, Charrette, Milan, Gressman, Coleman, Keith, Long, Pardoe, and Stackpole, as well as some new authors. A comprehensive universe timeline as well as detailed bibliography of all published material for BattleTech by FASA/FanPro/WizKids/Catalyst rounds out this fantastic product.

Novels
Appropriate for this anniversary year, Catalyst Game Labs will also be launching a full novel publishing program this fall, including brand new novels—such as A Bonfire of Worlds by Steven Mohan, Jr. and Shadows of Faith by Loren L. Coleman—as well as anniversary omnibus editions of some of the quintessential BattleTech novels, such as the Warrior Trilogy by Michael Stackpole.

BattleCorps.com—the official website for new, canon online fiction—has begun previewing A Bonfire of Worlds for free to BattleCorps members. A chapter will post every two weeks until the entire book is available.

Additionally, BattleCorps.com is further preparing the community for the return of print novels for BattleTech. The universe has a rich tradition of supporting novel publications, with over a hundred print novels produced across more than two decades. However, much of that rich history has been out of print for long years. BattleCorps.com is changing that in a big way! Just published is the novel Path of Glory by Randall N. Bills (originally published in 2000) in Electronic Advance Reader Copy (EARC) format. While these EARC publications can be purchased through the BattleShop by anyone, they’re free to BattleCorps members.

BattleCorps.com will publish one new EARC each month to the future; an entire, original print BattleTech novel, now available once more. Furthermore, BattleCorps.com members will decide in what order those novels will be published. Sample chapters from five novels are available for preview by anyone: Wolf Pack by Robert Charrette, Illusions of Victory by Loren Coleman, Natural Selection by Michael Stackpole, Highlander’s Gambit by Blaine Pardoe and Double-Blind by Loren Coleman. A poll for members is now available and the results of that pole will be tallied to determine publication order of the next five EARC novels. Once that selection of five novels has been released, the next series of novel choices will be posted for membership voting.

And More…
A host of other anniversary books and supporting books are planned, including a 25^th Anniversary Edition of the Introductory Box Set…more than just a reprint.

Stay tuned to www.classicbattletech.com for more information!

LAKE STEVENS, Wash., December 15 – Catalyst Game Labs, LLC, and Pinata Games have announced that they will form a strategic alliance contingent on the Catalyst group’s purchase of the currently dormant WizKids properties.

“By combining our efforts, we can deliver high-quality products that will satisfy retailers, fans and licensors alike,” said Loren Coleman, majority Catalyst owner. “As successful licensors of Shadowrun and BattleTech, [Catalyst] understands the essence of those brands and will continue to produce high-quality products for them.”

“The Pinata team brings a different, unique skill set to the table, having worked extensively on all of WizKids’ brands over the last two years. With our efforts combined, we have a wide range of hobby business expertise that covers the gamut of licensed-and-non-licensed properties across a wide spectrum of formats- RPGs, TCGs, CMGs, and more.”

Should Catalyst purchase WizKids’ properties from The Topps Company, Pinata will begin as operator for the HeroClix brand immediately.

“After a few short conversations with Catalyst, it was apparent that a strategic alliance would benefit all parties involved,” said Jake Theis, Pinata Games’ CSO. “We believe that this relationship will allow us to restart the HeroClix business quickly. I saw that HeroClix returned to the top of the ICV2 Hobby Fall CMG sales list, and I know that with the economy in its current state, retailers don’t want any delays getting the business back up and running.”

The proposed alliance between the two companies would allow for Pinata and Catalyst to release new games both together and independently.