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Hey guys!
Sooooo - I have a games night coming up and I was thinking of how to get everyone to play 40k in a quick and fun way. Then it came to me - make it a first person shooter on a tabletop. Each player gets to choose one space marine or chaos space marine and fight it out on the board, complete with tokens for weapon pick ups, spawn points controlled by dice rolls and kill limits.
I was thinking I might make some character types such as scout (start with sniper, moves faster around the board), terminator (more armour but can't run), space marine (balanced) and maybe an assault build.

Basically I was thinking you can shoot with anything after.moving, even heavy weapons but you may get some penalties to the to hit.

So my question is, while I nut this out, what sort or rules / mechanics would you like to see in a game like this? I'd be very interested to see what everyone comes up with. Should vehicles be included? Grenades? liitex ammo? Etc.

Let me know!

This sounds a lot like Frag, a game b y Steve Jackson games. Which is funny, because the character pawns look VERY much like Space Marines, to the point where I am going to paint some to become the new player pieces.

But all that aside, I think it could be fun! You could also do it fo other races and stuff too, really make each race feel unique in this setting. (Ironic this is posted when GW is making a 40k FPS due out next year). I'd dig it! I'd like to hear some final rules once you finish!

If a character has grenades, they could use them, but their range should be based perhaps on model strength, or just a flat range, though could scatter D6 inches. You could make pick ups like Flakk armor which gives an extra wound, but vanishes after use.

If you did Vehicles, I'd do it similar to how other games do it, where 1 or 2 are placed on the map, but are basic vehicles that can be hurt easily (basically, the weakest each codex has to offer so they can actually be destroyed easier). Ammo could be used (Frag does it, and does it well actually).

Each faction could get new, unique rules. Special rules per 'class'. I'd play it!

Edit: I'd recommend a small board though if its going to be singular models per player on the board. Free For Alls could be fun too. Also, some races might be at a slight disadvantage, since this obviously is going to favor shooty more than anything (Like the current rules). So non shooty dudes will fall easily. Marines will undoubtedly dominate a game like this.

little skirmish style games in this vein are what GW should be pushing. It gets people into the hobby, even if they only buy one model. I know 'One Model' turned into something like 3000 points across 3 armies for me very quickly.

For rules ideas, the first thing I can think of is that cover rules would have to be re-worked so that it was actually relevant like in most FPS games. And while you're at it, making terrain in general relevant wouldn't hurt Battlefiled 40k or actual 40k at all.

Also, any type of class system isn't exactly necessary, no? you could pull units out of codicies, and use those as the base of the game. Then, make up little kill streak rules and attach a point cost to them. So for instance, a care package costs 15 points, and you get to put a token on the board via deep strike when you make, say 3 wounds. This way, if someone wants to take something like a centurion devastator, they can, but they get comparatively fewer in game rewards. The same bonus could cost differently based on how easy you make it to get. Say you get a care package for 15 points, and it drops after 3 wounds, but if I pay more points, say 20 points now, I can get the same benefit for causing one wound.

I know anyone starting their 40k collection wouldn't likely have centurions to throw around, but I like this idea a lot.

This is actually a really good idea.

But I do agree that it would be quite heavily 'marine' based. Others would work, such as Tau, Necrons to a point (minus the WBB, which is OP in this scenario), Guard etc, but Loyalist vs Chaos would be the safest option


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You could even go as far as having Orks or Tyranids as some sort of 'Zombies' game mode, with an additional player controlling enough Nids/Orks to equal the total of all the 'players' * 1.5