Battletech MU* Bridge -- You're On Yer Way

MUSE stands for

Multi- User Simulated Environment

Which has its basis in MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons).

Battletech MUSEs first came about in the early 1990s, with Battletech 3026, which served as a mostly role-playing MUSE.

A couple of years later, several coders undertook the project of hardcoding the Battletech system and slapping the MUSE layer on top of it. The result of that first endeavor was Battletech 3056, which became immediately popular.

Having joined in the Draconis Combine faction (it appeared to be the most potentially dangerous faction to be in, I found the combat system in Battletech to be intriguing. Unlike the normal board game, combat was continuous (not turn-based) and tactics played almost as important a role as strategy.

Pretty soon, with the help of other MIT friends, we became so good at fighting in these text-based virtual "Battlemechs" that we formed a unit in the Draconis Combine called the Draconis Elite Strike Team. In doing so, we developed elite strike tactics which was passed along to other DEST members mostly through word of mouth, but also through the DEST handbook.

As time passed, we were called upon to contribute more work to the Draconis Combine. The principle result of that is the first volume of The Otiasho Chronicles.

Over the summer of 1995, I devoted myself to the construction of a web site geared towards helping people improve their combat, as well as get into the spirit of being a 'mechwarrior. The bridge lies here, and the word awaits you

By the 31st century, humanity has spread to thousands of worlds, while a handful of powerful empires wage continual war for the right to rule the stars.

Foremost among the weapons used in that struggle are BattleMechs. Loaded with autocannons, missile launchers, lasers, and charged-particle beam weapons, these fusion-powered war machines of articulated armor stand upward of ten meters high.

Piloting them are MechWarriors, the best, most intensively trained men and women available. Like the armored knights of an earlier age, MechWarriors are popular heroes, and their exploits are the stuff of legends.