It’s been a long, long haul to get here…and there’s still a ton of work to do on this project…however, we’ve hit a new, huge milestone today…the Open Beta Test for Interstellar Operations begins today!

I’ve added an “Interstellar Operations Open Beta Test” section to the downloads page. Copying and pasting that text here to clarify what this is all about and what it means.

In Interstellar Operations, players are staged up to the final scale of play (above Tactical Operations and Strategic Operations), where they can assume the roles of a House Lord or Clan Khan and dominate the galaxy. Interstellar Operations rules represent months in the BattleTech universe, the time frame for conquering numerous star systems. Interstellar Operations is currently under development, with no release date set yet. However, part of that development is to release every section in an Open Beta Playtest that will allow players to use the rules and provide feedback. The first PDF is found below…more PDFs will be adding in the coming weeks and months. Note that these PDFs are NOT final; they have no art, “p. XX”s exist, and so on. They are provided in a clear, pre-final form for use, but the final layout with art and additional corrections (as determined by the playtest) will be different. Once you’ve had a chance to fully digest the rules and put them to use, feel free to visit the forums at bg.battletech.com, specifically, the “Catalyst Asks You!” section. For each PDF there will be two threads. The first will be the “errata” thread; a “no discussion” thread where all you’re doing is providing specific feedback on the document as is; i.e. “This rule doesn’t work and here’s why” thread. The second will be the “discussion” thread, where players can discuss the rules, request insight into why rules were done a certain way, provide a wish list of additional content, and so on. More rules covering each thread can be found in those threads. The online names of all players that participate in these threads will be collated and included in the final book (no other recompense will be involved).

So there you go. The first PDF is currently live: Interstellar Operations Open Beta Test: Solar System Generation. Additionally, the two associated threads are live: Interstellar Operations Open Beta Test: Solar System Generation: Discussion AND Interstellar Operations Open Beta Test: Solar System Generation: Errata.

As I said, we’ve still got months of hard work to finally wrap this book up and do it in a way that makes it the coolest rulebook of its type ever done for BattleTech…look forward to working with the community at a level we’ve never before tried…and a huge thanks in advanced for your enthusiasm and expertise!

Randall