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Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






Greetings fellow wargamers,

I'm starting this thread to provide updates and information on Metalbox Games upcoming release, Godskar.

Introduction & Who we are

First thing that makes this project special is that it's designed and managed by a team of ten lifelong friends, who all share a passion for gaming. Gaming has had a huge impact on us keeping in touch over the years and we set out to try to create that bond for other folks. With that being said, we're serious about our game and our setting, but we're all about having fun and creating a silly atmosphere to make people smile (as anyone that had checked out our Youtube page knows). When we first decided to entertain the idea of creating our own game we sat down together and discussed "What do we like and what do we not like?" about the games that we play and set out to make the perfect wargame for us. Keeping a balance of easy to learn, yet interesting for continuous play and eliminating "feel bad" moments as much as possible. With all of this is mind, Godskar was born.

System and Setting

Godskar takes place in the distant future, where almost all of the factions are forced into nomadic societies due to the ever present threat of Godskars. Godskars are the result of a cataclysmic event known as "The Gathering", where the three gods of the setting destroyed each other in a violent power struggle. The result is massive cosmic storms that travels through space, blinking in and out of reality. To get caught in the path of one of these destructive forces could result in many uncertain outcomes. A world could be completely destroyed, leaving just a barren rock, or completely blink out of existence only to reappear in the wake of the Godskar several millennia later. The only constant of these storms is that they leave a material known as Skarnite in their wake. This is where out setting takes place.
Factions in our setting are generally not a war with one another outside of the passing of a Godskar, in which all bets are off. Skarnite is a priceless resource that each faction needs to harness for its survival. The godlike properties of the resource allows the factions of our setting to use it in many different ways. Just believing that Skarnite will perform a certain way, makes its effect tailored to that belief and this is what makes it so sought after.

There will be three factions at launch. Hominum Caravans (nomadic refugees of earth), The Host of Luminor (The firstborn of the galaxy and most technologically advanced), and the Mulwarp Corporation (The youngest and most destructive of the three). When designing the aesthetic of the factions we wanted them to be as unique as we could, setting them apart from each other as much as other IPs.

First hard decision we faced when designing rules, was what sized die to use? Our first thought was D6, but we wanted the "swing" to be a little larger. So we started we looked to other games that we've played and decided we really liked Warmachines swing of 2D6, so we decided to simplify it a bit with a D12, with a natural 12 being a critical hit. This offers the complexity of the roll that we desired, while allowing for a reasonably low chance to roll critical. We also didn't want to make critical hits to be too game changing, so they deal damage upon a failed defense save.
There are no "Ignore" effects, so everyone gets to use defensive and reactive abilities without another mechanic ignoring them.

There is no pregame list building in Godskar. You simply pick the hero that you'd like to field, and start playing. Instead, players build their lists as they play with the resources gathered on the battlefield. This escalation style play means that players don't have to worry about losing a lot of their units in the first turn. It also allows new players to get a handle on the units as they come out instead of being overwhelmed with abilities right from the start.

Each battle will have "Skarnite Stores" located on the battlefield. Players use these stores to collect resources and use those resources to spawn/respawn units, heroes or structures. Once a store is depleted, the store is destroyed and no further resources can be gathered from it. Players also have the option to "Overcharge" their rolls, allowing them rerolls at the cost of resources. This gets expensive quickly, so players need to be wary of how many resources they expend.

Skarnite generates an otherworldly haze that blankets the area around it, creating a mist that interferes with electronics and mapping devices. So each players forces are essentially "fighting blind" as they set up a base of operations on the battlefield. To represent this, there is a Fog of War/Sight mechanic that plays a huge role when targeting units. Essentially units are not targetable unit their within sight range of a friendly model. This makes placement and having units support each other a crucial part of the game. Pair this with a "Optimal Effect" range bands for weapons, players must really pay attention where they're placing their units. With all of this pre measuring is allowed in Godskar.

Much like real time strategy video games, players have the ability to build structure units that are a part of their army. Structures have several different roles, but the main purpose is to spawn units and grow your forces. Each player has a "Command Structure" that is where all of their resources are tracked. If a players command structure is destroyed, they lose the game.

Hero units are an integral part of a players force. They are one of the few units that a player starts with and can completely change the feel of an army. Heroes also have their own objectives that can score points in a addition to the main scenario. These are rolled for randomly at the beginning of the game and offer a few more victory points to turn the tide of battle.

Launch Date & Models

At launch we will offer presupported STL files for players to print and play. These will be available through crowdfunding with a soft date of mid 2023. Our goal is to raise enough funds for 3D printing to invest in a SioCast machine to offer both physical and 3D printable miniatures. Godskar will be a hybrid game, allowing folks to 3D print their miniatures at a massive discount or buy the plastic cast models. Our goal is to try to make our game accessible to everyone, even those on a budget. We currently have an entire range of models that we will be posting updates about on our various social media platforms. For more updates and plans for launch you can check out our website at https://www.metalboxgames.com/ to register for our newsletter that will be available at the start of the year (2023). If your interested in following us on social media our linktree is linktr.ee/metalboxgamesofficial.

We appreciate all of the support we've received so far and look forward to the road ahead. Keep an eye out as we bring this passion project to life!

-Nick


   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






Greetings fellow wargamers! Here are a few concept pieces for Godskar. These are the heroes that will be available at release, one for each faction.

Hominum Caravans - The Hominum Caravans are the remnants of humanity after they fled earth thousands of years ago. Each caravan will be unique and will be its own faction.

The Mulwarp Corporation - A galactic corporation that focuses on resurrecting their dead deity by consuming everything in the path.

The Host of Luminor - The oldest of the galaxies species. The Host of Luminor focuses on enlightenment of the body and the mind. They are significantly more advanced than the other factions.
[Thumb - sa copy.jpg]
Adrian Reese

[Thumb - sadasfvvbh copy (1).jpg]
Condyluris

[Thumb - 2022.03.25_Moriarch_Color (23).jpg]
Moriarch

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut






Hello Nick,

I'm just going to post some unfiltered responses for whatever they are worth to you.

With that disclaimer out of the way, here are my thoughts on your hero concepts above:

Adrian Reese: Honestly I'm more into aliens than humans, but as humans go, especially female troopers, this is a great concept. Bravo for not pointlessly over-sexualizing her. I hate that. She looks like a trooper, not a pin-up, which makes sense.

Condyluris: I'm all for mech-monster-lovecraftian mash-ups, but to be frank, this design just doesn't feel like it's there yet, not gelling into something striking and unique for me at this point. If you can nail their look, this would be the faction I'd be most interested in. Take a look at the biomechanical Strain from Sedition Wars to see an excellent take on this sort of thing. I know you're not going for viral / infectious / Borg / Strain necessarily with these guys, and you shouldn't copy Studio McVey anyway, I'm just saying that they were playing around with some similar tropes and came up with truly memorable, killer designs. (Yes, and they still went out of business. It's a tough industry.) Do your own thing, but aim high.

Moriarch: This is obviously your Protoss / Eldar-type faction. I guess this is the template for noble, highly advanced, but probably-dying-out alien races that sci-fi players expect at this point? I guess I'm just a bit jaded with that trope.

On the plus side, your artist seems to be sourcing some inspiration from Thai art and dance gestures, which is plenty cool.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/12/24 04:52:03


Dakkadakka: Bringing wargamers together, one smile at a time.™ 
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






Thank you for the honest feedback!

We were pretty adamant about keeping Adrian looking like a soldier and not a pin-up. The particular caravan that she belongs to, is the most militarized faction in the game and we wanted her to resemble that.

Condyluris is meant to be lean more on the ridiculous side of things. He's a giant half tank, half lovecraft mole man. We pulled a lot of inspiration for their design from things the team and I liked as kids (Tonka, GI Joe, TMNT etc.).

With Moriarch and The Host of Luminor, they're definitely heavily inspired by the Protoss/Eldar aesthetically. However the lore, they are one of the only factions that is thriving in the galaxy. We wanted to move them away from the "dying race" theme everyone seems to go with. Instead, their advanced technology allows them to thrive in the setting and they are the only faction that still inhabits planets. Able to simply move entire planets out of harms way.

Another thing we wanted to move away from was that the entire setting is in a state of constant war. The factions in our setting trade and coexist in relative peace. Conflict arises when smaller fleets chasing the precious resource known as Skarnite, come in contact with one another.

Again, thanks for the feedback! I'll be posting more pics of playtesting, models and concepts in the near future.
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






Hello everyone!

Here's some of the models we've painted for our demo first demo army. All of these models are from the Host of Luminor faction and will be the army we take out to FLGS for demos.

Please keep in mind these are just for demo armies, so they were speed painted to get them table ready.

Enjoy!
[Thumb - PXL_20221228_030550321.jpg]

[Thumb - PXL_20221228_030414974.jpg]

[Thumb - PXL_20221228_030619808.jpg]

[Thumb - PXL_20221228_030327191.jpg]

[Thumb - PXL_20221228_031107464.jpg]

   
Made in at
Deranged Necron Destroyer





Interesting, RTS style tabletop with a supreme commander like start is a pretty unique concept.

A few questions/notes/concerns:
It looks like you're doing 28mm scale, or something like it. The building you showed is also quite large. That's going to be a pain to transport to your flgs, especially if you need to deploy multiples. Table space could also become an issue.
This feels like it might work better at a smaller scale, which of course leads to loss of detail for your heroes. 15mm might be an acceptable compromise, but now I really want to see a wargame that goes all in at like 3mm scale with base building.

The fighting blind and interferes with mapping makes me think of a tile based setup, where you need to scout to even know what is in front of you.

If you do end up going sinocast, make sure you use the hard plastic variant, nobody wants soft detail on models.

I look forward to how you're planning to address the scale issue when there's an alpha release available.
   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut




The beauty of Warmachine 's 2d6 is exactly the fact it's NOT swingy, because of the bell curve of probabilities.

D12 is exactly the opposite, swingy and unpredictable, not similar.
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






Thanks for your interest! It's 28mm scale, with the structures being scaled down. It is very similar to classic RTS games where the structures are smaller than the units. We almost have our second demo faction painted an ready to go, so keep an eye out for a "How to play" demo on Youtube. Transporting your force will feel very similar to MK3 Warmachine or 1500 pts of 40k. Here is a link for our first faction preview, with the new prototype army. Note, this is if you are able to have EVERYTHING on the board at once without it being destroyed.

https://youtu.be/a-4DQ21nd78
   
Made in at
Deranged Necron Destroyer





That intro almost made me close out of the video immediately, but then again I tend not to have a sense of humor for that sort of thing.

Models look good, it'll be interesting to see how it ties into the rules. At the moment, it looks to me like the "Building" are more of just markers for what you can access, not something you have to strategically build forward to hold territory or anything.
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






I get that. We're just trying to gave good time and make some folks smile. Most of it's cringe but we're having fun.

Thank you for the kind words. We're going to be highlighting another faction next week. So keep an eye for that.

You're mostly correct on the structures. They block line of sight but are otherwise just there to spawn units to the battlefield. Players will want to defend their Command Structure, as it's an auto win if you can destroy the enemy command structure.
   
Made in ca
Fresh-Faced New User




Cyel wrote:
The beauty of Warmachine 's 2d6 is exactly the fact it's NOT swingy, because of the bell curve of probabilities.

D12 is exactly the opposite, swingy and unpredictable, not similar.


I don't think they meant they were saying they wanted the gameplay to be like Warmachine but with d12s. d12 is far easier to understand probabilities than 2d6 for most people. I interpreted their mention of 'swing' as more potential results - as in, the larger # of results than the d6, where each step is 16%. Imho, 2d6 is pretty swingy by itself (leadership tests, anyone?), and not the 'opposite' or 'swingy' to d12. It really depends on how you use it.

Imho warmachine is predictable because of all the ways you can boost your rolls.

That said, I think d10s are the best, very intuitive for people to use and understand, even if you didn't go to school for Maths.
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






Hello again fellow wargamers!

Exciting things happening in the coming months here at MetalBox games. We're going to be doing a live stream demo April 5th at one of the local FLGS to reveal the mechanics of the game for anyone interested. Playtesting has been in full swing with minor tweaks being clarified for the final ruleset. We've also opened our online store at https://www.myminifactory.com/users/MetalBoxGames and will be uploading the STLs after they're pre-supported and test printed. Almost all of the tokens have been designed and printed with the token pdf templates underway.

Updates on the cover art are coming along, the artist Ethan DeBoard has been making great progress and it looks fantastic. Go check out his other work here https://www.instagram.com/ethan_the_board/?hl=en

We appreciate all of your support up to this point! In the meantime, here are a few pictures from the latest playtest games.

- Nick
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[Thumb - PXL_20230318_160727054.jpg]

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Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






Hello fellow wargamers,

We were featured on this weeks episode of The Guardtower Games - Table Ready. We were finally able to show off the WIP rules as we get closer to release. Currently we're working on the pacing and to make sure that it escalates the way we would like and working on board crowding. We also donated a prototype "Old Law" army to be given away to a lucky winner! If you like what you see, we're working to get the STLs up on https://www.myminifactory.com/users/MetalBoxGames.

Check out the live stream at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA0187xKm3I

Cheers!

- Nick
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User






Hello all,

We've moved a lot of our playtesting and wargaming in general to Twitch and Youtube, if anyone is interested in checking it out. We have been working on the hero missions that will be played in addition to the scenario. The rulebook is finished, just working on getting it designed. We're also working on getting the concepts for the next two factions. You can check out the pre supported STL files that have been released so far on Myminfactory.

Happy wargaming!

- Nick


https://youtu.be/41Rq2C2VTKM?si=L2qDsZwjvEdJD-36

https://www.myminifactory.com/users/MetalBoxGames
   
 
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