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I want to make my own miniature skirmish game, named "Perished Lands" (post-apocalypse SciFi)
After trying testing combined FoW/40k rules I decided, that few separate models and rules like Necromunda will be more handy
So, my question is - is there any good free rules, similar to Necromunda?
With possibility to use rules in commercial products, not just home play

If you are interested in such projects I am developping also a Post Apo Sci Fi game in an universe of my own :

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/639125.page

The rules will be soon translated in English (I have an old version translated by myself bur the rules have known many changes since this version)

On my opinion my advice from my experience is to make your own rules, it is not difficult at all but you need to test a lot your game and thus find a good team of testers, like I am trying to do for the moment.

test a lot your game and thus find a good team of testers, like I am trying to do for the moment

That's why I want some already tested and reliable core rules.

Deadzone may not be free, but it's the closest modern equivalent to Necromunda I have seen.

Necromunda was heavily influenced by Judge Dredd. The Mongoose/Warlord Judge Dredd game is good (but costs money).

Similarly, SuperSystem is fantastic for this type of game and it has an incredibly flexible design system. The game is a superhero game on the surface, but it is so open that it can be used for any sci-fi setting and there are other sets of Goalsystem rules out there for specific settings (such as Blasters and Bulkheads). The rules are cheap at $11.

Star Mogul is fun. It was a professionally produced game but the company went out of business and the guy who bought the rights made the rules available for free.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/235173426/Star-Mogul#scribd
http://www.scribd.com/doc/235173425/Star-Mogul-Distant-Worlds#scribd
http://www.scribd.com/doc/235173427/Star-Mogul-Alien-Evolution#scribd

You probably won't find many great free rules that the author will let you use free commercially. Free rules does not equal free commercial use. However, they may be willing to work with you in some capacity to license or profit share based on their rules. This is actually pretty common in the wargaming world.

Current free systems that might be worth contacting the author:

-Star Mogul is free, but I don't think the rules are available for open commercial use. Contact Johnny borg for details.

-Warengine: This was the basis for the "shockforce " game in the mid 90's and has been available for free for some time since. A 3rd edition is being created and it might be a good option for modification into a necro-ish ruleset. You can contact the author Aaron Overton via the "Warengine" yahoo group.

Current for-sale systems that might be good candidates:

-The "Goalsystem" is a good possibility. They have worked with several authors to make many different ruies with their system. The just/nearly released "Ghosts of Heife" is a not-Blade-Runner gang combat goal-system game already, but there might be room for another.

-Song of Blades and Heroes doesn't have a necro-ish system yet. The author Andrea has done well taking the core rules into many different settings by partnering with other authors.

-In The Emperor's name: This free ruleset was taken by it's author Craig Cartmell to Osprey to develop "In Her Magesty's name" as a for-sale product. ITEN is a great generic sci-fi skirmish engine and perhaps craig would be willing to work with you.

Whatever you decide, as part of your rules-writing-education I'd recommend at least reading something based on Goalsystem as well as Song of Blades and Heroes, Warengine and In the Emperor's Name. 4 very nice examples of rules that are a bit different than the FoW/40k style of writing, but still very fast moving and playable systems.

 Freakazoitt wrote:
I want to make my own miniature skirmish game, named "Perished Lands" (post-apocalypse SciFi)
After trying testing combined FoW/40k rules I decided, that few separate models and rules like Necromunda will be more handy
So, my question is - is there any good free rules, similar to Necromunda?
With possibility to use rules in commercial products, not just home play

Try this, it has been fleshed out a fair bit:
ITEN: In the Emeror's Name
http://iten-game.org/

Aside from those already mentioned:

Urban War
http://www.urbanwarthegame.com/support-downloads-english.php

Ares
http://www.mj12games.com/ares/

Infinity
Mercs
Combat Zone
In Her Majesty's Name (plus a few more from Osprey Publishing)
Wreck Age

And then the Necromunda/LotR spin offs:

Mordheim
Legends of the Old West
Legends of the High Seas
Gorkamorka

Of them all I think Ares is the most elegant as a skirmish game through its abstraction. Not a lot of Chrome on it, plenty of polish though. No campaign system either.

Just to add one more system that is free and worth looking at, but not free-to-use.

Nuclear Renaissance by Ramshackle games. Similar vibe to necro, but more of a mad-max'ish vibe. Very flexible though. We've used it for post apoc and sci-fi games.

 Freakazoitt wrote:
I want to make my own miniature skirmish game, named "Perished Lands" (post-apocalypse SciFi)
After trying testing combined FoW/40k rules I decided, that few separate models and rules like Necromunda will be more handy
So, my question is - is there any good free rules, similar to Necromunda?
With possibility to use rules in commercial products, not just home play

I'm more interested in skirmish games than massive battles myself - I like the individuality of models so it's always a bonus if I can play with rules that take subtle differences into account. Btw I presume you're aware that you can download the Necromaunda rules for free from GW? Since they've ceased to support their specialist games they don't care too much if anyone wants to make use of the rules.

Necromunda is no longer available from GW. They took all of the Specialist Games stuff off the site quite a while ago. There is a Necromunda Community Edition floating around which is quite good and worth taking a look at.

Yaktribe has the
-"New Community Edition",
-"Living Rulebook Edition" (aka underhive)
-"Original Rulebook Edition"
as well as just about everything else you could ever want for the game. I believe there are a few other sites that have roughly the same collection of documents, though Yak is the only place that has the NCE and various other fan docs.

The great thing about Necromunda is that in the last few years of the game's active support, Almost every game rulebook and document was released as a free PDF to the public. Though I'm sure GW still holds the copyright, they've made no effort to stifle the distribution of these documents now that they no longer have them on the website.

There's enough free Necromunda material out there to keep a gaming group going for years.

I don't think you guys are reading the original post...

I think some of us are. He's looking for free-to-use rules. I'm saying that's not likely to happen. Instead, here's some good rules author's you could partner with.

Give the rules for Dark Age a try, they work very well for warband level skirmish games

Their website is here:
http://www.dark-age.com/

Mr. Black, the games' spokesperson (and I believe creator) is also very active in the forum community there and here on Dakka. He should be able to answer any of your questions about the game, system and licensing