Wars of the Palatine started as an excuse to try and make a simplified BattleTech. The thought was that it was ridiculous to try and compete directly with BattleTech (and Alpha Strike), so a new setting would be necessary, distinct enough to not be a direct competitor.
The release of MechWarrior Destiny cemented the idea that there was no space for another similar game system in the BattleTech universe, and the beginning of Wars of the Palatine as a setting was set, a fantasy “mecha” game based around the breakup of the Carolingian Empire. The setting was developed further as an attempt to pitch (the setting only) to Catalyst Game Labs.
The computer game began as an experiment with seeing what AI could do. Could it take a tabletop game and code a computer game from it? The answer was both yes and this game needs a lot more work. But the computer game also enabled a lot more playtesting, and the system evolved significantly, taking cues from Battle Brothers and Battle of Wesnoth along with some basic concepts from BattleTech.
The Wars of the Palatine rulebook flips this back, writing the game’s rules as if it were a tabletop game. The playtesting is still all being done on the computer game’s implementation, so I expect there are areas of the rulebook that are still overly “computer”, but it’s also a good manual for the computer game.
Download the Rulebook
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