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Anyone know of, or can propose, scenarios that have the feel of a video game?

For example, one player has a single elite unit that is tasked with a set number of tasks/objectives to complete,
while the opponent controls a set number of "recycling" chaff units and is trying to stop them?
Maybe the "enemy" could drop in a beefy HQ in a later turn as a final "Boss battle"?

Something like Space Hulk, but adapted to 8E rules.
I just started playing Space Marine for the first time and I kinda want to play that on the table-top, but with a unit of Terminators.

Any thoughts?
Oh and I have no interest in Kill Team right now, so that isn't an option I am thinking of.

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I would recommend multiplying health and damage totals, as well as getting rid of the idea of saving throws altogether for the sake of speed.

For instance, an Ork Boy hits on 3+ and wounds on 4+ against the captain. That nets out to 1/3 chance. So, when the Orks attack the captain, maybe roll one dice per attack, with 5+ dealing damage to the Captain.

Then you could decide how hard each model hits, and how much health the captain has.

Maybe Ork Boyz have 3 attacks and deal 5 damage per successful hit. And the captain has 100 health. You would also want to give the player numerous chances to regain health as the level goes on. You could add a second layer of armor that would be lootable as well, like in Doom. So 100/100 50/50 when heading into the boss fight.

You'd also want a range of CP based abilities that could be used in your specific scenario. Maybe allow CP to be gained as things happen? Maybe track EXP on a character sheet, and allow it to be spent to increase stats?

Well...first step is to not use 40K as a starting point...at all. Outside of maybe stat lines and weapon entries...you're waaaaay better off starting with Kill Team, Necromunda or an entirely different base game.

My buddies and I are working on a Terminator-based game (ala Space Hulk but more open-ended), but we've ditched the entirety of 40K in the process. Making it custom.

Unfortunately, Kill Team is probably the best place to springboard from in terms of this type of mission. Especially since you can always port anything you want from 40k over into Kill Team (weapon / unit statlines are the same) as long as you don't need points values for it (and narrative scenarios like these seem like they wouldn't). Little things like being able to make your guys Specialists or the Flesh Wound system make the whole 'hardened squad of dudes' a lil' more robust--especially if you just decline to use Specialists for the chaff and don't give them the benefit of Flesh Wounds. You might be able to rip some of the rules from Kill Team and apply them to a normal 40k termie squad to capture that 40k 'feel'.

As far as using normal 40k rules to do this sort of thing... it really feels like it's trying to reinvent Kill Team without being Kill Team, unless going all-out on system overhaul is what you're after, in which case I'd recommend trying to port the Deathwatch RPG into a tabletop game. Another options is to find the old Movie Marine document and try and update that to 8th.

A sub-1000pt game of 40k with sequential objectives might work: you have to take Ob 1, hold it for X turns or kill all enemies within Y" of it, then that makes Ob 2 unlock further up the board and so on. You could get creative with what unlocks objectives.

Trying to use normal 40k as the base for this seems a bit dicey if you're only looking to use a squad of terminators. 2+/5+ and 2 wounds is beefy compared to chaff, but a spot of really bad luck can cripple the squad during a routine firefight in a manner that usually only happens during a horrible blunder in a video game. You might consider instead using HQs in terminator armour and allowing them to buy terminator heavy weapons to simulate an actual squad. Maybe even remove the 'only shoot closest guy' rule or group them into a squad that is targetted as a unit, depending on what you're going for.

As far as scenarios go, you could always do Last Stand from the DoW2 game.

Definitely #1: increase wound pools and or make sure they have a medic character of some sort to heal their way through the map or objective heal packs and or reinforcement points (drop pods fall and you get some extra dudes) kinda like dow.

as for the rule set. probably the more skirmish games like kill teams would be better otherwise you are going to have turns where characters get horrifically focus fired to death. something will need to be done so that the enemy cant overwhelm you with chaff. (make sure the number of enemy models is never more than x to the elite guys but during ever "hero" phase type thing you get to refill from certain spots)

If I use Kill Team rules, it would be more like the 7E version, but no specialist rules. So, basically, buy a unit but each model acts separately.
I like the medic idea, especially since Termies could have an Apothecary.

I want to use the basic structure of 40K, but build the game around specific units.
For the "Hero/Playable character", it would be 5 Terminators as such:
TH/SS termie,
Lightning claw Termie
Cyclone ML Termie,
Assault cannon Termie
Apothecary (character)

All act "independently" but as the Apothacary would be needed to "heal" dead Termies, they'd pretty much just stay near them.
When any Terminator loses it's last wound, instead of removing it, you lay it on it's side. At the end of the Termie players movement phases, the Apothecary can heal 1 Terminator (and only 1)

If all 5 Terminators die, they lose.

The enemy units would start with chaff like Cultists or Chaos Space Marines that "recycle" until the Terminators achieve the 1st goal.
The game would progress like this, adding more or more powerful enemies at each "level"
Culminating in a final Boss battle against a (non-winged) Daemon Prince.

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Its possible that you need to up buff the DP a little though as 5 terminators with the equipment they have could probably punk a bog standard one pretty quickly.

ether large pool of wounds or some flavor of rewritten table (maybe one that gets strong af as he loses brackets to make it like the stages in a boss fight)

Play it with one side using HQ models/entires vs. the normal troopers. Should have video game crunch.

 Desubot wrote:
Its possible that you need to up buff the DP a little though as 5 terminators with the equipment they have could probably punk a bog standard one pretty quickly.

ether large pool of wounds or some flavor of rewritten table (maybe one that gets strong af as he loses brackets to make it like the stages in a boss fight)

I'm starting to think the Cyclone ML and Assualt cannon should be for certain "levels" in which they can pick them up. I have plenty of ammo crates and barrels they can be hidden with.
But for most "levels" I think Stormbolters should be the default.
For the boss-fight, I could also throw in some cultists for the Termies to have to chew through before the DP drops in. Use the Character rules, it shouldn't be too hard for the DP to be a challenge.

I also had an idea for some lesser Daemons to randomly pop out of dead cultists. Each time a Cultists dies, a random lesser Daemon appears within 3" of it on a 4+
I might do the same with CSM and Possessed, although maybe only on a 5+

I can do several scenarios like "Escape" in which the 5 Termies need to go from 1 table edge to the other on a 2x2 table and are not allowed to Advance. This "level" should probably involve the Assault cannon
Or "Annihilation" in which the Termies start in the center of the table and must kill all targets by a certain turn. Starting with 1 unit of 5 cultists and a unit of 3 CSM with an Autocannon coming in off a table edge and adding a unit every turn until the Terminators have either killed all models or are overwhelmed.
My son is actually pretty excited about this and were plan on trying out some test games this weekend.

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https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/764762.page#10175886
Moving this over to the Proposed Rules section

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Have you seen the wild battle report on YouTube where a handful of loyalist Marines takes on huge hordes of Chaos worshippers? It was pretty neat since they fielded every loyalist and Chaos Marine as a Captain, while the hordes of Cultists kept their same profiles. It is worth a shot, I think it is on the Mountain Miniatures Games channel, and it may be up your alley.

Check out Movie Marines vs chaos as NH gunsmith said...
https://youtu.be/7xtShchLaBM

Or check out MWG Deathwatch: Tyrus narrative campaign.

I'll have to check that out when I get home after work

The kill team rule set is horrible. I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. If you spend literally 10 minutes you'll come up with something better than kill team. It's dumb. They tried to create layers of protection for units to improve durability, but you're still subject to dice. Meaning, sometimes you're faced hard core in seconds. Other times your guys just won't die. It's not cinematic to struggle in a slapfight until someone is unlucky.

SkylarkR6 wrote:
Check out Movie Marines vs chaos as NH gunsmith said...
https://youtu.be/7xtShchLaBM

Or check out MWG Deathwatch: Tyrus narrative campaign.

That was a really long video, but it did give me the idea for an optional 2 player mode:

Replace the 5 Terminator unit with 2 Terminator Captains, each controlled by a different player
Each player may equip their Captain in the same way as any of the 5 Terminators
Replace ---The Mission Before Death--- with the following stratagem:
---Extra Life – 2CP---
Each time one of the Captains is removed as a casualty, they may spend 2CPs to arrive at the end of their next movement phase with full wounds restored. They may not arrive within 9” of any enemy unit. If both Terminators are ever removed in the same turn, the mission is over and they lose regardless of how Command points they may have left.

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Play Space Hulk. Or Deathwatch: Overkill. Both different and fantastic games.

Well, back to the drawing board.
My son and I tried the first level of this scenario and the Terminators didn't take a single wound and killed all enemies.

I think I'm going to scale this down and as suggested, use a Single Captain instead
I'm also going to just make it a single game rather than separate "levels" and have no turn limit. Each "level" will simply be new enemies arriving from reserves.
The 2 Player mode would add a second Captain and more enemies.

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I tried to make something like this back in 6th. It was very difficult. Now I would look to maybe kill team rules for additional durability. I havent played it, but as I understand it, if you take a wound, it isn't game over, you can just be stunned like the old vehicle damage tables. Increasing wound level, as well as a kill team style FnP system may help.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Play Space Hulk.

I was wondering about Space Hulk myself. I know that was rereleased not long ago, so it shouldn't be too expensive to find. I know there are video games based around Space Hulk, so that's what made me wonder.

SG

EDIT: I may have been wrong. I honestly thought Space Hulk was rereleased not long ago (a year to 18 months), but I could be completely wrong. Maybe I just saw someone painting their Space Hulk terrain.

Might be interesting to dig up the 4e rulebook, that version of Kill Team had some interesting semi-automated rules for how the "goons" functioned.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Play Space Hulk. Or Deathwatch: Overkill. Both different and fantastic games.

Exactly. Overkill is just what the OP is looking for. 4 assassins with limited secondary abilities have to sneak, maneuver, and fight their way through chaff Chaos Cultists until they finally fight the final Chaos Sorceror boss. Take the rules of that game, tweak it a bit so it reflects 4 unique marines, and there you go.