News — FASA

I make no bones about being an unabashed David Deitrick lover, both as a person and as an artist, so it really makes me angry that his art no-longer appears in science fiction publications.  Maybe we've moved past his style, as it seems when last years Battletech Kickstarter refused to allow him to provide artwork (along with Holloway, so thanks much Catalyst!) when the video game was set pre-clans, right in the wheelhouse of his work at FASA during the 80s.  Whatever the case, I've still managed to get David to do some work in Battletech over the years, so...

I’ve got to admit, some of my favorite writing comes from the early years of FASA’s Battletech game. I’ve always been intrigued by the alternate future timeline, and there were so many great supplements to game pre-clans. There was also a massive amount of great artwork featuring Tim Bradstreet, Jeff Laubenstein, David Deitrick, and of course Jim Holloway.I tend to view this period, roughly 1985-1991 as Holloway’s golden age, and although his skills never deteriorated like some artists, his passion waned and I think that took the shine off of most of his artwork. That is certainly not the case...

I have to say, at one time during my early college years I was a Shadowrun junkie. The game was so cutting edge at the time, so ‘real’, and yet so far-fetched, I just couldn’t help but buy everything I could get my hands on. I remember my roommate at the time, Jason, who was a non-gamer, pick up the 1st Edition Core book, read some of it, and then said ‘This game is on this side of cool’. For a pre-med student, that was pretty high praise, and I absolutely agreed with him. One of the first supplements I...

On this fine Monday I’m going to take a look at FASA’s Shadowrun Adventure, Bottled Demon. Produced for Shadowrun 1st Edition in 1990, this module was written by James D. Long and art directed by Dana Knutson. I was always taken with the cover by artist John Zeleznik. To me, it looked much like the woman was the demon, but after many years with the image I would now determine her to be some kind of African-Indian shaman who has unleashed the power of a nefarious idol. The texturing of the image, and the nakedness covered only by the turn...

The Galtor Campaign is one of perhaps a dozen scenario driven supplements for Battletech released in the late 1980s. All of them were quality works, as was the practice of FASA in that day and age, but I found Galtor to be my favorite because it was one of the few FASA products other than Star Trek that we got to see a David Deitrick painted cover.Deitrick’s work on this supplement makes this product sing in a fashion that only he was capable of for the Battletech product line. Sure, Jim Holloway had several stunning covers, but if you really...