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Hey all,

I've been working on a scifi/dieselpunk survival horror skirmish wargame, and I'm looking for beta testers. Anyone interested?

Google Word Doc

PDF of the same

There's an included feedback form, or you can email me what you think at winslows010@gmail.com. I'll also do my best to answer any questions you might have in the thread as well! Thanks!

I haven't playtested it, but looking at the rules for Exposure you're doing way too much work for what should be a very simple and uninteractive question: Does the cold hurt anyone?

At the moment, every turn you have to:
- Roll to see if the storm gets stronger or weaker.
- You and your opponent roll 1-6 dice each.
- You and your opponent roll more dice for any sixes.
- You and your opponent pair up these Exposure dice against each other. (Why?)
- You and your opponent roll 2-9 dice for your first model.
- You and your opponent roll more dice for any sixes.
- You and your opponent pair up these Resistance dice with your opponent's Exposure dice, and deal damage accordingly.
- You and your opponent repeat this process for every model on the board.

Here's how I'd do it:
- One of you rolls a Sustained Fire die and adds it to the storm strength. On a "Jam" the storm strength is reduced by one next turn, and on a "3" the storm strength is increased by one next turn.
- Roll a D3 per model and add it to their Resistance + Heat. - If the SFD+Storm is higher than their D3+Resistance+Heat, they take a single point of damage. If they're wet*, they instead take a point of damage per point by which they lost.

Using your quick-play lists as an example, every turn yours requires 31-41 dice rolls, plus exploding dice, in eight different groups that must be compared to one another. Mine requires 7 dice rolls, and you only have to compare them to a flat number (whatever you rolled for SFD+Storm), not an entire array of Exposure dice.

* Edit:
And in case it isn't obvious, being Wet and having Heat would be mutually exclusive - getting soaked extinguishes fires, and access to a fire would dry you off.

 AlexHolker wrote:
I haven't playtested it, but looking at the rules for Exposure you're doing way too much work for what should be a very simple and uninteractive question: Does the cold hurt anyone?

Actually the process currently is:

1) Roll to see if storm increases/decreases
2) Roll the 1-6 Exposure dice, and make pairs out of those rolls (Only do this once)
3) Each enemy model rolls their Resistance, and makes pairs out of that.
4) Compare the model's Resistance roll to the Exposure roll, and apply damage (If any). Do this for each enemy model
5) Your opponent repeats the above, but for your units.

However, the point still stands that this is a metric ton of rolls. I'm not a huge fan of using a non-D6 or introducing a Wet modifier, but I really like the idea of comparing an Exposure roll to a flat value instead of rolling for each model every turn.

What about something like this:

You roll the Exposure the same way (# of dice equal to Storm Intensity, dice can explode), and sum the dice. This is then compared to the enemy Resistance values:

Old Resist New Resist 2 12 3 14 4 16 5 18 6 20

If the Exposure roll total beats the Resist value of the model, model takes 1 damage (Untyped).

That sound better?

 darkPrince010 wrote:
Actually the process currently is:

No, it's not. I'm quoting your own rules here:

Both the Exposure dice as well as the Resist dice can Explode.

This immediately adds another step to the process, since you can't make pairs until after you've done a second round of rolling for the exploding sixes.

However, the point still stands that this is a metric ton of rolls. I'm not a huge fan of using a non-D6 or introducing a Wet modifier, but I really like the idea of comparing an Exposure roll to a flat value instead of rolling for each model every turn.

Using a D6 is probably fine. Using multiple D6 is bad. Using multiple, exploding D6 is even worse. It's an environmental hazard, and as such it should be of a reasonably predictable strength. A Strength 1 storm shouldn't suddenly flare up and annihilate everyone because you kept rolling sixes.

And if you're going to devote an entire phase of the game to exposure to the elements, it should feel like how exposure to the elements works. Recognising being wet as a state and not merely a location does that, and can be achieved with no rolls whatsoever.

What about something like this:

You roll the Exposure the same way (# of dice equal to Storm Intensity, dice can explode), and sum the dice. This is then compared to the enemy Resistance values:

Old Resist New Resist 2 12 3 14 4 16 5 18 6 20

If the Exposure roll total beats the Resist value of the model, model takes 1 damage (Untyped).

That sound better?

- Both sides should use approximately the same Exposure value. Player 1 should not have 2 Exposure while Player 2 has 21 Exposure. Separate rolls of nD6 + exploding sixes fails this test.
- By using a constant value on the Resist side instead of on the Exposure side, you're knocking hit points off the player's entire army with one roll. Roll a 17 and every Nomad takes a point of damage.

 AlexHolker wrote:

Using a D6 is probably fine. Using multiple D6 is bad. Using multiple, exploding D6 is even worse. It's an environmental hazard, and as such it should be of a reasonably predictable strength. A Strength 1 storm shouldn't suddenly flare up and annihilate everyone because you kept rolling sixes.

It won't. It'll just be that if the total Exposure roll beats the Resist value, the model takes 1 damage, regardless of if the roll beats the Resist by 1 or 100.

And if you're going to devote an entire phase of the game to exposure to the elements, it should feel like how exposure to the elements works. Recognising being wet as a state and not merely a location does that, and can be achieved with no rolls whatsoever.

I understand, but I feel that adding "wet" as a modifying state does not jive at all with the feel I want to get across. The setting is a subzero ice planet for all intents and purposes on the tabletop. A model that is wet simply becomes more frozen and cold. Some things, like Heat tokens, allow a model to be less-cold, but for the most part the focus is on whether a model is freezing (and dying from it) or not

- Both sides should use approximately the same Exposure value. Player 1 should not have 2 Exposure while Player 2 has 21 Exposure. Separate rolls of nD6 + exploding sixes fails this test.
- By using a constant value on the Resist side instead of on the Exposure side, you're knocking hit points off the player's entire army with one roll. Roll a 17 and every Nomad takes a point of damage.

Updated to v0.3:

Major changes from 0.2 to 0.3:
-Resist now works completely differently, as a flat value the Exposure is rolled against. Heat/Terrain modify this value
-Points rebalancing due to mathematical error. Overall, Harvesters got more expensive and Spiremen got cheaper