"Playtesters wanted: Thrackdown (free post-apoc skirmish)" Topic

Hi all,

I'm Chris, the designer of Thrackdown, a free post-apocalyptic miniatures skirmish game that recently entered Open Alpha, and I'm looking for playtesters.

So far most of the testing has happened at my local club, with me standing beside the table explaining things. What I need now are players who can pick it up cold, because that's the only real way to find out whether the rules work on their own.

The game in brief

Thrackdown is a two-player D6 game for 28-32mm miniatures, so you can use whatever you already own. It uses small warbands, alternating activations, Nerve and a shared Momentum resource, with an emphasis on dense terrain. Most actions resolve on a single D6, so play moves quickly, but there's still plenty of tactical depth.

It's also built to create the moments you remember long after the game: the ganger who throws a Molotov and sets himself alight, the combat monster who should flatten everyone on paper but keeps getting knocked flat by an unarmed novice, or the sniper who climbs to the best perch on the table, only for the barrel to fall off as he pulls the trigger.

Getting started

Your first game needs just four miniatures a side. The Quickstart Pack includes six ready-to-play warbands and the Loot & Scoot scenario, so there's no list building before your first battle. A three-game introduction then gradually adds faction rules, equipment, full warband building and campaign play.

The Open Alpha includes:

• Quickstart rules and six ready-to-play warbands
• Three introductory scenarios
• Complete rules for six factions
• A Starter Armoury with 25 weapons
• A free online Warband Builder and Battle Companion
• Campaign and post-battle rules (still being tested)

Everything is free to download here: thrackdown.com/play

What I'd most like to know

• Was the first game clear without anyone explaining it?
• How well did the three-game introduction teach the game?
• What felt confusing, slow, too powerful or too weak?
• What turned out to be unexpectedly enjoyable?

Battle reports and feedback in this thread would be very welcome, and I'm happy to answer rules questions here. There's also a Thrackdown Discord, linked from the website, for rules questions and sharing warbands.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear what happens when your carefully considered plan goes completely sideways.

Thanks so much!

In the process of reading, I am unfortunately working on my phone. I would like to print some parts out at the local library, but the files aren't 'print friendly' so it will be slow going.

Best wishes!

Doug

Hi Doug, thanks for flagging that. I'd actually created a print-friendly version to save on ink when taking copies along to the local club, but somehow never thought to upload it!

I've now sorted that, and you can find a link at the top of the page to the print-friendly Quickstart Guide on:
thrackdown.com/play
Hopefully that makes things a bit easier to work through.
Cheers,
Chris

THAT wasn't expected.

Thanks for your quick response!

I suppose I am now in it. Fortunately for you, I am well qualified for the 'hard of thinking' shakedown.

Doug

Apologies, I should be replying with a completed review and on the site, but a quick question: how do YOU track hit points?

Neither tokens nor space on the sheets are suggested, and with three and four common, could be challenging.

Mind, I may be missing something…

Doug

Hey Doug, cheers for the question.

The way I've been tracking Hit Points and Nerve is with two different coloured tokens. Usually red for wounds taken, so HP that's been lost, and yellow (or whatever's to hand) for Nerve. Those are the two main things that tend to need tracking during a game.

We've been trying a few different approaches in our gaming group, from putting the tokens next to the fighter on the table to keeping them on a printed fighter card or sheet off to the side. So far, keeping them on the fighter card seems to work better, especially once fighters start getting into melee and would otherwise bring a small pile of tokens with them. We did like the look of them on the table, although it could get cluttered with tokens fast in some games.

There's also a digital option. The Warband Builder has an inbuilt game tracker, so anyone who prefers using their phone can have that open during the game and tap to track remaining HP and other status effects, as well as XP, enemies taken down/out and if you have activated that fighter this turn. Although I hadn't added Nerve to the Game Tracker. It might still be in the future but it naturally felt that is one thing that would remain on or beside the table.

You haven't missed anything though. I probably need to make the tracking options a bit clearer in the rules/Quickstart material.

Chris

Haven't gotten to actually moving figs yet, so accept it being more engagement for me than in a while.

I'll give a go later.

Thanks!

Doug