Touring the Stars (series)

Development
The Touring The Stars series—often abbreviated to TtS—is one of five e-book only product series announced by Catalyst Game Labs on 24 Jul 2015. The other four series announced were
 * Milestones, focusing on putting players on the front lines of key Inner Sphere events of the late Dark Age and beyond,
 * OpFor, a publication series dedicated to detailed small, specialized units of lance, Star or Level I size with more character and less randomness than randomly-generated opponents,
 * Spotlight On, a series dedicated to providing a detailed look at specific units within the BattleTech universe, and
 * Gladiator Gazette, close looks at individuals, equipment and locations associated with the various game worlds such as Solaris VII.

Overview
"Touring the Stars It’s a whistle-stop tour of the universe! Every system and planet where mankind treads in the BattleTech universe has a story, for those with the drive to explore it. Take a tour of the stars humanity now calls home, experience awesome new worlds, immerse yourself in the local civilization, and prepare to do battle in exotic locales. From the peripheral Butte Hold to the game world Noisiel, to lost worlds like Jardine - join us on the tour!"

- Catalyst Game Labs, Upcoming Releases Announcement, 24 Jul 2015

Beginning with Touring the Stars: Lone Star, each Touring the Stars publication has followed a similar format. Priced at $2.99 each, a Touring the Stars volume consists of a colour cover depicting an orbital view of the subject planet, a short history section, a small number of RPG tracks tailored to the planet, a rules annex detailing optional rules for games and scenarios set on the planet, a colour world map and a hexed Battleforce 2 map. Each volume averages between 15 and 19 pages in total.

Chronology
Touring the Stars: Lone Star - Published 10 Feb 2016. ''Cold, desolate, long-abandoned and looted of any treasures centuries ago, Lone Star was once a crown jewel of the Terran Hegemony and bold achievement of terraforming. In Touring the Stars: Lone Star, players learn about Volgadon and the "Pond Cities" and their disparate and fabulous architectures, discover why Lone Star was a major agriculture and manufacturing center for the Terran Hegemony...and read how the horrors of the Amaris Civil War and the First Succession War set this once-great world onto the path towards oblivion.'' Touring the Stars: Benet III - Published 27 Feb 2016. ''The mineral-rich planet Benet III served as a place of industry, a base for military forces and as a home to a hearty, stubborn populace — a people who survived the Succession Wars, the FedCom Civil War and the Jihad, only to be all but wiped out by the fickle planet itself. In Touring the Stars: Benet III, players learn about the planet's constant volcanic and seismic activity, as well as the infamous "Death Mists" that eventually led to the disastrous end of Benet III.'' Touring the Stars: Bone-Norman - Published 11 Mar 2016. ''A stark world on the fringes of the Inner Sphere, Bone-Norman’s desolate, haunting geography can spook even the most experienced warrior. A sleepy backwater planet for most of its history, Bone Norman vaulted to the front lines of the Clan Invasion and Jihad. In Touring the Stars: Bone-Norman, players learn about the planet’s interesting flora and fauna, as well as the mysterious Föhnkrankheit, or “wind sickness” brought on by the planet’s unique geography.'' Touring the Stars: Bob - Published 01 Apr 2016. ''It is a shadow world of dark woods and darker rivers, and so was it named - Dunklewälderdunkleflüsseschattenwelt. Alien predators roam the land, seas and air, named for creatures of folklore, while survivors of the once proud settlements eke out an meager existence. Dunklewälderdunkleflüsseschattenwelt suffered during the Succession Wars as many planets of the Inner Sphere did, but as detailed in Touring the Stars: Bob, the beginning of the end was unwittingly initiated by a vote to change the planet's name...'' Touring the Stars: Manassas - Published 14 Apr 2016. ''The victim of a devastating cosmic impact and war, Manassas is still one of the Inner Sphere’s safest planets, except for the so-called “Dead Zones” dotting the world. In Touring the Stars: Manassas, players will learn about the famed Manassas Run, an annual world-spanning treasure hunt for valuable LosTech where anything goes and the prize of becoming Run Champion is all that matters.'' Touring the Stars: Brownsville - Published 13 May 2016. ''Now a lifeless, dead planet, Brownsville was once a vibrant and discreet supplier of atmospheric processors and inexpensive water filters before the Amaris Coup. But political and diplomatic mistakes would turn the unassuming planet into another casualty of the Star League Civil War and early Succession Wars. Brownsville’s demise sealed the fate of dozens of other worlds.'' Touring the Stars: Promised Land - Published 01 Jun 2016. ''Promised Land was not exactly as the colonization brochures described, but was settled nevertheless. A chance encounter during the early Star League saved the planet from abandonment, and the struggling colony remained. Long a border waystation between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League, Promised Land’s history is the story of overcoming the challenges of this strange world and thriving in its unique environment.'' Touring the Stars: Inglesmond - Published 20 Jun 2016. ''A curious, albeit devastated, survivor of the First Succession War, Inglesmond was once a shining jewel of the Terran Hegemony. Though Inglesmond is now a planetary nature preserve in the Republic of the Sphere, it could easily be reinhabited and once again rejoin the Inner Sphere. Learn about the planet’s unique climate and equatorial-spanning ice belt, tribal survivor communities and salvage operations gone awry.'' Touring the Stars: McEvedy's Folly - Published 02 Jul 2016. ''McEvedy's Folly—a world where mad science ran rampant. In the grip of an ice age in the final years of the Star League, the planet once known as "Project SAGITARIUS UMBRELLA" was of little interest to anyone, save for brilliant xenobiologist Alpheus McEvedy. Under the aegis of terraforming, McEvedy played god with the primitive fauna, using them as vehicles to recreate long extinct species from across the Inner Sphere—as well as other rumored abominations. McEvedy and his team were eventually abandoned as the Star League fell, and the planet was lost for centuries—while only the legend of McEvedy's Folly remained.'' Touring the Stars: Butte Hold - Published 26 Jul 2016. ''Butte Hold is a harsh and unforgiving world home to criminals and rogues that has long been a haven for outlaws. Drawn by rumors of hidden Throline Desert caves caches filled with looted valuables, the world became infamous for being the home of Redjack Ryan and his dreaded capital of Raider’s Roost.'' Touring the Stars: Ionus - Published 02 Sep 2016. ''An introverted, self-contained world of modest technology, Ionus was originally a poor candidate for human colonization. However, recovery of the Helm Memory Core brought new importance to Ionus as the Free Worlds League’s premier WarShip producer. A lucky survivor of the Word’s Jihad, today Ionus’s advanced shipyards remain a tempting target for any world-be conqueror.'' Touring the Stars: Tyrfing - Published 30 Sep 2016. ''Once an exotic and beautiful planet known for its large, naturally-occurring crystalline formations, Tyrfing was a provincial capital for the defunct Terran Hegemony. Savaged by the Star League Civil War, Tyrfing was damaged beyond repair by a five-way battle between all of the Great Houses during the early Succession Wars. Descending into a dangerous, mutated, feral wasteland, Tyrfing fell off the map. Left to rot, the world is still home to primitive human cultures struggling to survive their deadly world.'' Touring the Stars: Noisiel - Published 31 Oct 2016. ''You are cordially invited to visit the greatest festival world in all of Lyran space: Noisiel! Come for the pastoral atmosphere, share the local flavor, and test your skills in the galactically renowned Noisiel Summer Games! Experience the sportsmanship, the finesse, and the wonder as military technology meets friendly competition! Thrill to the spectacle of baseball, football, hockey, rugby, and even chess on the scale of titans!'' Touring the Stars: Iron Land - Published 24 Feb 2017. ''Billed as a lost world paradise for thrill seekers and wannabe explorers, Iron Land has a dark history seldom spoken of, as those who know of it either never live to tell the tale, or live to profit from it. The dark history of this tortured world both resonates with, and haunts those drawn to it from across the stars. Iron Land is a planet where you can check out any time you like, but never leave.'' Touring the Stars: Old Kentucky - Published 28 Mar 2017. ''When the first waves of explorers and settlers departed Terra for the great black ocean, not all looked to the future—some longed for the traditional values of the past. One such group made their new home on Old Kentucky, a world near the heart of humanity which has persevered through centuries of abandonment, conflict and conquest. Touring the Stars: Old Kentucky details this hot, rugged world, its proud history, and its native "sasquatch" primates.'' Touring the Stars: Mizar - Published April 9th, 2017. ''The two thousand worlds of human space often claim to have some incredible beauty spot that is unrivaled by any other world. Some worlds claim to be the most beautiful entire world known to humanity. Statistically, one has to be correct, and that world is Mizar. This freakish accident of planetology has thrilled tourists, earned a title as champion party planet, and avoided most wars for centuries until the Word of Blake arrived.'' Touring the Stars: Wynn's Roost - Published September 30th, 2017. ''While the Outworlds Alliance shrunk on ComStar's maps for two hundred years, not all of disappearing worlds died. The "Outworlds Wastes" also included secessionists, would-be pocket imperial capitals, abandoned worlds, pirate havens, pirates' victims, and imagined sanctuaries from the bloody Succession Wars. Wynn's Roost was one such world, alternately seceding from the defenseless Outworlds, attempting to build an interstellar nation, being abandoned by collapsing civilization, and suffering pirates' depredations. The sulfurous world has outlasted its pirate tormentors, rebuilt its industrial base, and hosts a growing population that is now reaching out to the stars. It is a glimpse of the potential of the modern Periphery.'' Touring the Stars: Stotzing - Published September 10th, 2018. ''The Star League’s terraforming technology brought life to worlds struggling to survive, and wrought miracles on landscapes thought uninhabitable. But Stotzing is proof that even miracles can be undone by human hands, and not all those who seek to repair them are angels...'' Touring the Stars: Regis Roost - Published October 26th, 2018. ''Ringers and Roosters. Two separate cultures living very different lives, one in the rings of the verdant planet of Regis Roost, the other at the bottom of that world’s gravity well. Two separate governing philosophies, one as an extended family with corporate laws, and the other a pseudo-democracy subverted for decades by external interests. Two very different civilizations living on one world in the Taurian Concordat—what could possibly go wrong?'' Touring the Stars: Hall - Published November 9th, 2018. ''War has ravaged nearly all of the Inner Sphere’s core planets, and Hall is no exception. Caught between the conquests of empires and the ambitions of warlords, the world’s history is as harsh as its unforgiving deserts, howling canyons and shifting sands. Hall has been at the crossroads of some of mankind’s most brutal wars, conflicts which have left centuries of secrets ready to snare the unready and tempt the unwise.'' Touring the Stars: Tortuga Prime - Published December 7th, 2018. ''On the pirate haven of Tortuga Prime, alliances can shift and power can exchange hands at a moment’s notice. An interstellar kleptocracy, Tortuga Prime’s only rule is simple: take what you need, and try to keep it. Will you further the centuries-old cycle of needless death and destruction—or put a stop to it once and for all?'' Touring the Stars: Sherwood - Published January 4th, 2019. ''Founded with ecological sustainability in mind, the colonization of Sherwood seemed like a failure as soon as it began. But thanks to the strict control of a strong central government and a well-educated population, Sherwood pushed through the privations of the Star League era and became the "Green Gem" of the Outback.'' Touring the Stars: Herotitus - Published February 2nd, 2019. From oppressive occupation by pirates to religious domination by various sects, Herotitus knows what it means to suffer. New hope for the future is growing, thanks to the stability and protection from the resource-rich world’s deadly, unique native wildlife offered by the narrowed eye of the Fronc Reaches and their Colonial Marshals. But criminal elements remain in hiding, desperate to return to power, threatening the precarious peace.'' Touring the Stars: Gulf Breeze - Published April 17, 2020. From pirates to profiteers, and corrupt Mining Consortiums in between, Gulf Breeze has a thousand different ways to kill even veteran spacers. But with great danger comes great opportunity and Gulf Breeze has it by the metric ton. If you can survive the resource-rich world’s deadly and unique planetary challenges or avoid being spaced from a Wheeler station, a fortune awaits.'' Touring the Stars: Rigil Kentarus - Published May 2, 2020. Terra’s closest if not first colony, the binary planets of Rigil Kentarus and Riken Minor are just 4.3 light-years from Terra. Rigil Kentarus was settled by a mélange of Terran Alliance member-nations, some of which still leave their mark on the world (“Little America”), while others were wiped out by the Succession Wars, Jihad, and reconstruction. The twin worlds only recovered in the Republic of the Sphere, but generations-old refugee camps nurse hatred for the current government.'' Touring the Stars: Jardine - Published May 29, 2020. Once a world of vibrant forests and exotic wildlife, Jardine’s loss in the early Succession Wars nearly erased it entirely from the annals of history. Rediscovered on the eve of the Word of Blake Jihad, its centuries-long isolation revealed one of the greatest secrets in ComStar's dark past: the Hidden Worlds! Scoured by its own Guardians, the birthworld of the Manei Domini now lies under the shroud of endless smoke, its ruins a mute testament to the legacy of its fallen masters.'' Touring the Stars: Kaumberg - Published July 24, 2020. Nestled in the wide frontiers of Lyran space, Kaumberg is a pastoral world known mostly for its woodlands and little else. But just below the mundane surface lies a world of political intrigue, its fortunes and falls tied inextricably to those of the Commonwealth to whom its rulers serve. Collective masters of one of the region’s strongest independent defense forces, the barons of Kaumberg stand ever-ready to protect their world and its neighbors from any Periphery threat that comes their way—but only as long as their own internal intrigues don’t get in the way.'' Touring the Stars: Braunschweig - Published August 21, 2020. Braunschweig is one of the jewels of the Hanseatic League. Combining pristine nature with highly developed cities, from orbit the world appears to be a paradise. On the ground, however, the luster tarnishes significantly. The natural abundance is rife with deadly native life, and civilization is stratified between the ultra-wealthy and the serfs who labor under their lash. Braunschweig is in fact a world of contrasts, where natural beauty meets industrial sterility, and luxurious comfort clashes with penurious servitude.'' Touring the Stars: Valencia - Published August 21, 2020. Among the isolated Castilian worlds is Valencia: a distant planet of turbulent, short seasons, and eerie purple-black foliage. Fresh water was abundant, terrestrial crops and animals thrived, and native plants and sea life were edible. The only thing that could disrupt this unusual paradise was, of course, humanity. Small conflicts among the first settlers, the Castilians, disrupted the peace of Valencia. And then invaders — the “Umayyads” — attacked with never-before-seen giant, bipedal robots. A neighboring league of interstellar merchants, the Hansa, never allowed the Castilians and Umayyad invaders to find peace. The arrival of Clan Goliath Scorpion settled their conflict, and gave Valencia a central place in the Scorpions’ new Imperio.''