My painting has stalled a little but I've prepped and basecoated ~30 orcs and ~30 dark elves so momentum is still happening.
Space Wizards & Bolt Action
Been a little sidetracked - my son wanted a "wizards vs mechs" 15mm so I've been working on rules that are very simple/familiar/40K-ish (he learnt to wargame via MESBG) so I can tack on a magic system without bogging things. My homebrew looked surprisingly like Bolt Action, so much as I may end up merely adapting it for sci fi.
A few thoughts in this 40k-a-like game: I bounced off it hard, as the 24" maximum rifle range looks stupid (fine for 15mm though!) and Chain of Command is just so much better.
However.... I was looking though CoC with a view to using it with some of my 15mm WW2 (as part of my individual basing vs FoW debate) and.... Chain of Command is surprisingly dense.
Every paragraph has exceptions "you can do x, except when y". Typically of TFL, there are lots of ways to roll dice. Each page has little side-rules. It's like a quirky homebrew made by mates who all were along for the ride. You gotta read it through a few times unless you do have some mates to teach you.
It is a better game than Bolt Action? Certainly. They've really gone for the feel of the game over... pretty much everything else. Universal mechanics, ease of use, etc. Is Bolt Action much more accessible and straightforward? Also yes. It does a good job of "40K-plus" with orders and pinning adding an extra dimension while being more straightforward to play. You can pick it up, skim it, and instantly know what's going on, and probably eyeball the units in their familiar mechanics and know how they will perform.
But... isn't there Space Bolt Action already? Yep. Beyond the Gates of Antares (what a mouthful!) swaps to d10s and adds a lot more chrome. Funnily enough I prefer Bolt Action - I like a simple game where I can add my own chrome. Is BtGoA better than 40K? Probably. As a generic ruleset it would be pretty decent. It's got complexity without being too over-complicated, although it needs a good edit and it could still be simplified. Unfortunately it's tied to the shitty minis and I'd rather play GW rules then be forced to paint a single one of them. (Pretty much my opinion for all Warlord/Mantic rules; Deadzone > Killteam, Dreadball > Bloodbowl, BtGoA > 40K... ...the games, mechanically, are better - but I couldn't give a stuff about their generic universes or meh minis).
Melee and Other Stuff
As my 15mm sci fi homebrew is a thinly disguised old RPG (also based on a desert world, where the wizards "defile" an area and suck out the magic, making an AoE where troops are debuffed and magic is difficult to re-cast... ....to give you a hint). I've been experimenting with converting RPGs, at the same time musing about how melee can be better.
Digging through my rules cupboard, Ronin and En Garde are too dense and involved. I don't want extra tracking. I don't want a kinda resource management minigame. I think the best balanced "melee +" rules are more like Bushido - you just hide which dice are assigned to attack and what are assigned to defend in your hand, so you can surprise/bluff your opponent. Basically some type of dice pool that is not tracked.
I've experimented with d12Finity in how players can assign dice rolls to cancel out opponent hits i.e. a Tyranid has 3 attacks and may chose to put aside 1 to cancel an attack from a hapless Tau; or sequencing of attacks i.e. you roll 7 and 3 vs a 5, 4. The 7 could be used to cancel lower strikes or just do damage. The 4 or 5 might get the same choice - to cancel the 3 or just attack.
In an experimental ruleset (not Middlehiem's d10+stat which was originally a Skyrim-meets-my-Warmachine models) ....which takes place in a dark forest where using magic gains you corruption..... (you see I do like RPGs for ideas I just hate the actual rules - bonus points if you can guess this one too) I'm simply doing some sort of "attack stance" "balanced stance" "defence stance."
Q1:40K/Necromunda's Best Psychic Rules
This is an audience question. As I'm adapting 40K stats for d12Finity - which was the most detailed 40K psychic rules? .....I mean proper rules, not some sort of 10th ed keyword nonsense. I think my 40K rulebooks are either 2nd (cards?) or 5th (kinda bland, can't recall) but I'm sure I can source a pdf from the internet *cough.* I don't care about balance, etc - just what gives the most interesting selection of cool spells etc for all the factions.
Q2:A RPG that would make a great wargame...
I quite enjoy reading RPGs as long as I don't have to actually play them (like I energetically analyse/test boardgames but assiduously avoid boardgame nights) so this is another audience question.
Are there any RPGs that you think would make an amazing wargame.... ....and has readily available minis?
Or could be adopted easily without too many bespoke critters etc? I.e. I like norse fantasy but I find it hard to obtain draugr (well, affordable ones), ditto Greek hydras and harpies. But they at least have minis (or STLs) available. Talking about unavailable minis....
Sailboats and Other Stuff
....Another distraction is my new 4.5m Nacra catamaran which has eaten up lots of weekend time. As my last sailing days were as a teen, figuring out rigging took 2hrs... ....not 30mins. Which I predicted beforehand to my wife, so you can't claim I was overconfident.
Obviously, not only am I ferretting around for my 1:3000 sailing ships, I also want to make a modern sailing wargame (a la Waterworld - maybe hydrofoiling little boats like a foil moth, but with a GPMG mounted on it; or maybe ice yachts set in alternate WW1 like this. Problem is models. Even STLs are not exactly thick on the ground....
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