BattleTech Primer: How the Core Rulebooks Work

BattleTech is an epic, ongoing universe with a game simulating combat between various military vehicles in the thirty-first century. The kings of the battlefield are the 30-foot tall humanoid titans known as BattleMechs. However, a myriad of other military units bring additional fun to any game, from Combat Vehicles to Support Vehicles, infantry to aerospace units and more.

The current award-winning BattleTech core rulebooks take a “kitchen sink” approach, meaning they provide a vast smorgasbord of rules and options from which each player group gets to decide what they’ll use each time they play. However, even though each rulebook (and by extension, the rules it contains) has been made as easy as possible to plug into existing games, the sheer depth and scope can be intimidating.

The following Primer is designed to quickly and easily walk you through everything the BattleTech game system has to offer and how each core rulebook can be of interest to your gaming group. (Much of this information is found in various sources, but is compiled here for ease of reference.)