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"25/28mm SF Playtest" Topic


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MajerBlundor28 Sep 2009 6:42 a.m. PST

I'm thinking about making my homegrown 25/28mm Sci-Fi "Grand Skirmish" rules available. First some background and then instructions on participating!

BACKGROUND

- a unit is an infantry team of 2-4 figures or an individual vehicle

- each side fields anything from a squad of a 2-3 teams and a leader up to a platoon of roughly 6-8 infantry teams and a vehicle or two.

- designed for 1-on-1 play and for multiple players (2-4 per side). With a reinforced platoon per side play time has clocked in at two to three hours (we haven't had a game go over three hours…vast majority have been two hours).

- during a side's turn each unit can execute two actions (Move, Attack, Recover, Special). A unit may Attack only once but may do the other actions twice if desired.

- Attack actions include Shoot, Assault, and Ready. Ready units can Shoot at an enemy unit once during the enemy's player turn after the enemy unit executes an action. (Ready also provides bonuses such as more accurate shooting.)


ITEMS REQUIRED

- Miniatures: system is designed explicitly for use with miniatures from a variety of manufacturers and includes data/TO&Es for models from GW, AT-43, etc. Guidelines are also provided to create game data for use with models from other manufacturers or kit-bashed vehicles.

- Dice: the game uses only six-sided dice and you'll need about 6-12 of them

- Markers: Deliberately VERY limited! "Ready/Fired" can use a nickel (heads/tails). "Friction Points" can use pennies (heads=1FP/tails=2FP). Vehicle/large model hit points can be tracked with a d6. Versions are also provided to be printed and cut-out.

- Terrain: the game is designed for use with either rulers/tape-measures or a mat marked in 6" squares. You can use any terrain already in your collection whether choosing rulers or squares.


INSTRUCTIONS

If you'd like to participate shoot me an e-mail at majerblundorREMOVETHISANTISPAMTEXT@gmail.com or reply here. Also, indicate if you're interested in using rulers or 6" squares (the text for both is integrated so I'm really just curious about preference).

Finally, this is a labor of love (nobody ever got rich sending out rules for free!) so I don't know when precisely I'll send out playtest copies. Sometime in the next month or so. Also, since I only have limited time to devote to this, the number of people who can participate will be limited. So first come, first serve! :-D

MB

MajerBlundor28 Sep 2009 8:55 a.m. PST

Thanks!

Did you delete the all caps text before sending?

G-mail was down last week but I've already received a few e-mails from other TMP'ers.

SheriffLee28 Sep 2009 9:27 a.m. PST

I am interested in the 25/28mm Sci-Fi "Grand Skirmish" rules.

GreatScot7229 Sep 2009 9:10 a.m. PST

I've followed and enjoyed your rules design threads and love finding new rulesets. I would love to give them a go!

MajerBlundor30 Sep 2009 8:36 a.m. PST

Thanks for all of the offers to help so far! We have about 12 people signed up and I appreciate the response. I'll try to have test copies available in the next few weeks.

A common question has been about using the rules with specific miniatures lines. So, I thought it might be helpful to explain some background here.

BACKGROUND
Over the summer my boys and I developed a background for the game tying together the most popular miniatures lines available (eg 40K, AT-43, Infinity, etc.) Besides, we own lots of troops from these!!! :-)

But instead of only translating the rules from other systems we looked at the miniatures themselves and thought about how they would perform in the context of our homegrown rules (eg that weapon looks like a missile launcher and that one looks like an energy weapon). We also considered the miniatures themselves (that looks like a robot, that a cyborg, and that a basic human trooper) and assigned stats and special abilities accordingly.

So, in our universe AT-43's Therians (and other Cyborg miniatures) are now the remnants of Earth's centralized government called TerraNet. Like the Borg they want to assimilate the rest of humanity into their technological Utopia and don't understand why everyone is resisting! (Resistance is futile after all!)

Orks (and similar alien barbarian miniatures) represent early attempts by Terra at creating bio-engineered warriors (the experiment went awry and their creations proved uncontrollably violent…). Necrons/Terminators (and similar robotic miniatures) were the earliest attempts at creating truly independent AI robot warriors. Like SkyNet that didn't work out too well. :-)

Space Marines and similar power-armor SF figures represent Terra's attempt to combine genetic engineering with advanced robotics for something approaching cyborg technology (the Therians/Cyborgs/TerraNet represent the culmination of that research.)

Imperial Guard, Red Blok, UNA, Stormtroopers, Star Wars Rebels, Near-future/Ultra-modern/modern and similar "generic Human soldiers" represent various troops deployed around the former Terran colonies (eg the IG represent the local planetary defense troops called Colonial Guard).

STATE OF THE UNIVERSE
TerraNet's research into Dark Matter/Dark Energy-based technologies has unleashed unforeseen chaos throughout human space and most of humanity isn't fond of the idea of becoming Cyborgs! Combined with pressure by alien races (Cog, Tau, etc.) fleeing before the Massive Space Bug Invasion (Alien, Tyranids, etc.) war has engulfed all of human space (think post-Roman Europe and Middle East…pockets/areas of civilization…some quite large…standing against the darkness…)

So factions within TerraNet seek to subject the others and the rest of humanity while exterminating all aliens; isolated Star Marine Expeditionary Forces and individual Star Marine Battalions are trying to survive the chaos and sometimes function like independent warlords; colonies fight with one another over resources and against the alien invasions; and of course you have rogue Necron/Robotic/Berserker/Terminator forces roaming human space as well as alien invaders such as Space Bugs, Cog/Tau, etc.

Bottom line: you get to use any miniatures and play against any miniatures! (Having little boys can liberate your thinking…and then drive you to have it all make sense!) :-)

MB

doublesix6630 Sep 2009 12:07 p.m. PST

MB did you get my email?

Xintao30 Sep 2009 1:15 p.m. PST

Email sent. Thanks

I got bounced aswell. From Yahoo. Sent email from work account.

Xin

MajerBlundor30 Sep 2009 1:45 p.m. PST

Yes, got everyone's e-mails! Thanks so much!!!

@Paul/doublesix…yes, we also use Star Wars minis with these rules (my kids collect them). For example, Stormtroopers get Armor 2 (carapace armor like IG Stormtroopers) and shorter-ranged Pulse Rifles/blasters as follows:

Blaster: RNG3 ROF3 PWR5 DAM1


Standard/generic energy pulse rifle has a longer range:

Pulse Rifle: RNG4 ROF3 PWR5 DAM1

MB

If using rulers:
Range 3 = 18"
Range 4 = 24"

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