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I know I love In the Emperor's Name for playing rules-light skirmishes in the 40K universe, and I am currently pondering ways to make it a larger game. Currently it's a game of alternating activations, but actually in each phase of Movement, Shooting, Hand-to-Hand, etc., rather than a complete set of game phases with each unit.

It's rules-light, so there are easy creation rules for all sorts of fighters, any types of weapons you want to port in from 40K, infantry armor and vehicles.

Unfortunately the gameplay gets cumbersome with more than 10-12 figures per player. I want a system that's about the size of a 1500 pt WH40K 2nd edition game, where you might see a player fielding two units of Space marines, a Hero, and a Dreadnought on the field as a complete force.

I have been pondering, and I think that if each alternation activated a unit, instead of a single figure, things might actually balance out right there. There's even a bare-bones system for making vehicles, which would suffice for the types of vehicles such a small skirmish would see (like a Marine or Eldar bike/jetbike).


There have been tons of generic rulesets ever since Stargrunt And Stargrunt II in the 80's and 90's. Stargrunt II is completely free to download, but is pretty rules crunchy in that time-period's style of wargames, which I unfortunately dislike.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5686/stargrunt-ii

As said before several generic "open source" rulesets I have been meaning to check out are:

-Tomorrows War
-Gruntz
-both Scifi and Fantasy settings of Song of Blades and Heroes
etc.

The best part about generic rule systems is they don't have to be the Games Workshop-esque juggernaut. They are for people who are in it for the social aspect of gaming, as well as for the figures. The best rulesets are the ones that provide a fun game, but without overshadowing the two previous things. I love 40K for the universe and the figures. I only play 40K because it's the "familiar" option. On the other hand, I hate the tomes of rules and tedious collections of FAQ's that are required to play in my favorite sci-fi universe with the figure I love.

Thanks, I'll have to look into it!

I especially like In the Emperor's Name, as it is super rules-light, D6-based, has a super-simple formula for fighter, vehicle and weapon creation, and has a very easy system for quick gaming with points-balanced forces. Lots of the other games I really like are purely scenario-driven (a system I don't particularly like), so a simple "500 point" force is impossible with those.

Also, games without a standard "I go, You go" system are a refreshing change. Too many games of 40K result in a 10-minute wait until you can use what's now left of your force that you couldn't do anything to mitigate damage to other than armor save rolls. It's kind of draconian.

But then again I am on a rules-light kick lately. I can turn to 40K and AT-43.Confrontation: Age of Ragnarok for 80-page rulebooks. Hell, the current RPG I want to run is 16 pages, and I think ITEN is about 20..

It is much easier to make games like Gruntz, the Song of Blades titles, and Heroes and Tomorrows War, where the main rules can encompass a huge amount of different companies' figures, with rules and stats that are purposefully generic so that each gaming group can put their own thematic spin on things without changing a single rule.

 Eilif wrote:

 AegisGrimm wrote:
It is much easier to make games like Gruntz, the Song of Blades titles, and Heroes and Tomorrows War, where the main rules can encompass a huge amount of different companies' figures, with rules and stats that are purposefully generic so that each gaming group can put their own thematic spin on things without changing a single rule.

I'd forgotten about Gruntz!
http://www.gruntz.biz/
http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?products_id=92879
Currently it's aimed at 15mm, but it'd be a perfect candidate for upscaling to 28mm. It's also been extensively playtested, and has reportedly sold pretty well, so you're not looking at an untested system. It would easily handle the platoon-and-higher kind of engagements that the companies seem interested in. It's not open-source, but it has a unit creation mechanic.

Also, it's Profile-card method of force organization means that a company could simply sell a deck of cards anytime they want to release a new faction. It'd be a quick an easy way for multiple companies to get in on the action. Gruntz15mm has already parneted with several miniaitures companies,so clearly the author is open to colaboration.

I need to go look at my copy again.

I only have a basic knowledge of Gruntz. It uses a points-based army selection system, doesn't it? Also, does it scale well? As in, can the rules be used with forces that are only made of maybe two infantry units, and one or two vehicles as starting forces?

Cool. Definitely a good example of an existing open-source ruleset. Even better, it's one of the few good ones for 15mm, while tons of them are for 28mm.

Erp, you caught me! Sorry, I meant more of the latter than the former. Though the price is so crazy low for what you get, balances against the fact that you can literally use any company's 15mm figures is so cool.