Retrospective: Battledroids

If you were a fan of GDW's Traveller in the early 1980s, as I was, chances are good that you were familiar with the publications of a small Chicago-based licensee, FASA (which originally stood for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration"). Starting in 1980, FASA published more than two dozen products to support Traveller, many of them being or including starship deckplans. Much of their output was the work of the tireless Keith Brothers, whose "Sky Raiders" trilogy of adventures remains one of the high points of FASA's time as a GDW licensee. Lots of old Traveller hands thus have very fond memories of FASA and its contributions to their favorite science fiction RPG.

The combination of my affection for its Traveller products and its publication of Star Trek in 1982 ensured that I kept my eye on FASA, despite my loyalty to TSR Hobbies. Sometime in 1984, I took notice of an announcement that the company was producing a miniatures-based "game of armored combat" set a millennium in the future called Battledroids. I distinctly recall being intrigued by the cover art, which featured a giant robotic war machine striding into battle. You have to remember that this was a year or so before Robotech aired on TV screens in North America, so I wasn't all that familiar with the idea of a walking tank outside of the AT-ATs in The Empire Strikes Back. Consequently, I was quite taken with the premise of Battledroids and hoped to check it out once it was released.

Unfortunately for me, I never saw the game at any of my local hobby shops and soon forgot about it. It wasn't until several years later, when I started college that I again encountered Battledroids, though by this time FASA had changed its name to Battletech, the name by which it is known nowadays. What grabbed my attention at this time wasn't the game itself. Rather, it was a huge map I saw hanging on the wall of a game store that depicted the Inner Sphere, the interstellar setting of Battletech. I'm a sucker for maps, as many gamers are, and this one, filled as it was with literally hundreds of named star systems, was immensely attractive to me. Equally appealing were the illustrations (by David Dietrick) of soldiers and mercenaries from the Battletech setting. The variety of their uniforms impressed me greatly; those illustrations suggested that the Inner Sphere had a history and a culture (or cultures) and I wanted to learn more about it.

I did eventually get to see the original Battledroids game, which was very simple. The rules were contained in a 32-page booklet that covered basic, advanced, and expert play. I remember thinking this was an interesting way to present the game, since it allowed a newcomer to play a simple version of it almost immediately upon opening the box. The later sections added to that simple version by introducing layers of complexity. The other thing I recall liking about the rules were the record sheets for the battledroids. They had a diagram of each droid that included little checkboxes to keep track of damage. I won't claim this was an inspired design or that no one had ever done it before, but I thought it simultaneously both elegant and immersive. 

The game also included map sheets, cardboard markers and tokens, and two plastic battledroid figurines, along with dice. Those little plastic models, as terrible as they were, demonstrated to me the possibilities of this game. The thought of an entire tabletop battlefield filled with these little war machines captured my imagination and I looked forward to the inevitable release of metal versions from Ral Partha. Though I owned a few science fiction miniatures, they never evoked much from my imagination, I'm sorry to say. I saw great potential in the battledroids, though.

The rulebook provided an overview of the setting of Battledroids, talking about the collapse of the United Star League and the Dark Age of the Succession Wars that followed. The term "Dark Age" is no hyperbole; the five successor states of the League have lost the ability to make new battledroids, making them immensely valuable – and their pilots (or droidwarriors, as they were called) celebrated. Battles are fought over resources to maintain and repair the existing battledroids and the rulebook provides information on the nature of this warfare in the 30th century. I don't know that any of this holds up to much scrutiny but there's no question that I found it all quite compelling at the time.

Even now, I find the idea of the Battletech setting very attractive, even if I'm not sure I fully embrace it enough to enjoy it uncritically. The fact that Battletech today still exists is proof, though, that FASA succeeded in creating something imaginatively enduring. And to think it all began with a couple of little plastic figures and some cardboard cut-outs. Not bad!