Palter was a pioneer in the roleplaying game industry. He founded West End Games in 1974, and was best known as the publisher of the Star Wars (D6): The Role-Playing Game (1987). He then went on to found Final Sword Productions in 2001, where he licensed back some of the West End game designs from Humanoids, which purchased the company out of bankruptcy (see “Humanoids Licenses West End Games Systems”).  His most recent projects were the Honorverse and the Emberverse which will now be produced in his memory.

Palter was somewhat of an "unsung hero" of the Star Wars brand line. In between Return of the Jedi (1983) and The Phantom Menace (1997), Star Wars was predominantly a dormant intellectual property in popular culture save a few novels by Timothy Zahn and Kevin J. Anderson, comic books by Dark Horse, and the Star Wars Insider magazine. West End Games did a great deal to expand the Star Wars universe, under Palter's direction, keeping the brand relevant to geek culture through roleplaying games until the new movies were produced in the mid- to late 90s.

 Without Palter's influence, Star Wars may have travelled a different path back to popularity.