Dev Update: Precipice (9/3/2026)
This week in the Precipice Dev Update, we dive into the Renaissance-inspired world of Harness. Plus, updates on the Preview Kit to help you Bring Your Own Mech to the table very soon!
Harness Chapter 1: Sparring
In the city of Premonta, amidst the rolling hills and sun-dappled ruins of the Peninsula, a tale of aspiration and duty begins. As war looms over the region, Orlondo toils in an artist’s workshop, dimly hoping to create his masterwork someday. But a commission to illustrate a fighting manual opens unexpected doors, and he will soon find himself at the heart of a clash of political ideals, an invading army, and an ancient secret that has slumbered for centuries…
Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter by Michael Gernes:
Orlondo swept his right leg back and elevated his poleaxe’s butt end above his head in his overhand grip. As he did, his foot harness’ plates softly clanked together. His stance angled the weapon’s head toward the ground, rather than levelling it up toward his opponent’s throat. But he much preferred the poise’s other advantages—defense and leverage. It interposed his weapon’s haft between his open left side and her sword. It also kept his left hand forward at hip level, ready to pivot into several strikes. There was a time he’d have been terrified for his exposed hands, but he’d learned to rely on his gauntlets to protect them.
He could just see the top of her helm. Its visor slit peered over the lip of her hand pavise, revealing a hint of brown eyes deep in shadow. She kept her swordblade angled around the shield’s edge and poised about shoulder height.
The blade’s tip quivered slightly as she shifted stance. She stood counterposed for an instant, before striding across the floor at him. One step, then another and she rammed the shield’s bottom edge onto his poleaxe’s head, momentarily holding it. With her sword now uncovered, she jabbed at his mail-gusseted left armpit. The diamond-shaped blade threatened to burst the rings and sink into him.
Read on in Chapter 1: Sparring today!
World Interview: Harness with Michael Gernes
The world of Harness is one of conflict, intrigue, and mystery. Today, you can read about how world creator Michael Gernes originated this idea! Here’s an excerpt from our interview:
Max Brooke: With its early Renaissance-inspired visuals and story of social and political evolutions around the idea of statehood, the world of Harness has a very distinctive vision. What set you down this path for your setting?
Michael Gernes: A lot of things in a blender. Probably starting way back with my college interest in the Italian Renaissance—both its art and politics. That stuck with me for a long time. And over time I got more interested generally in how the frame of reference of pre-modern people about their own society is shaped by the context of their times.
Years later I got into armored combat with the Society for Creative Anachronism. I’d always been a fan of fantasy and historical armor and their aesthetics. And I’d always been a gamer, and saw armor through that lens. But that experience of both fighting and trying to portray a historical look in my kit really transformed my earlier impressions. It got me obsessing again about historical art and costume, but especially how it can differ from our modern conceptions about it.
So all that had been rolling around in my head until we talked about this project. And I realized it might be a great opportunity to explore that in speculative fiction!
MB: Obviously, one fantastical element is the great harnesses themselves. How did you think about giant robots factoring into this world?
MG: Well, I definitely started from the supposition that giant robotic suits existed in this late-medieval world, so how did that happen? How would a world that even resembled our history have that in it? And fortunately (probably not coincidentally) a lot of the tropes of mecha fiction lend themselves to a world where the highest-end personal armor is really expensive, relatively rare, and worn by champions for some state or cause.
I felt that the basis for the mecha’s power had to be something fantastical and magical, and scarce. And probably revered. But also that the people of those societies would inevitably put their craft and art into it in an aesthetic way. Like people did in our own history with churches and religious art. And that just seemed like a good metaphor.
And that also led me to thinking about what these things would fight in a fantasy world. Probably not just each other.
Read the rest here!
Design Update: Preview Kit Components
Meanwhile, the Preview Kit materials are coming together nicely! Here, you can see a bunch of vector tokens glued and ready for varnishing. The point of the Preview Kit is to help players get the game to the table quickly during the Open Alpha. The Preview Kit doesn’t have everything you need to play Precipice (you’ll need to Bring Your Own Mech, dice, some terrain/household items plus imagination, and an opponent), but it does have all the components that can’t be easily procured.
Preview Kits will be available in limited supply starting soon. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!