New project website.

So I've created a site called Ironshards as a resource for various wargaming projects I'm working on.

Right now I've only got sections up for Shattered Scepter and Stargrunt II, but I'm sure it will expand.

Right now the vast majority is still framework but I am making progress; both this blog and that site will expand rapidly as I start playing and experimenting.

Rules modifications.

In the normal rules for Stargrunt II, squad weapons-fire is resolved by rolling the Firepower die (whichever die type is closest to the combined FP score of the firing group (i.e. FP 5 would use a d6 while FP 9 uses a d10 etc.) and the Quality Die (based on range), plus a Support die if someone in the squad has a SAW/LMG they want to add to the salvo. Each individual die has to exceed the number on the Range die rolled by the defending player; the result is referred to as the Target Roll.

If even ONE of the attackers dice exceeds the Target result, the defender is either suppressed or suffers effective fire if at least TWO dice exceed this number.

Anyway, if the fire was effective, the attacker takes the combined total of his Firepower, Quality and Support (if applicable) dice and divides this number by the type of die used for the Range die (i.e if the Range die was a d6, the total is divided by 6.) This is the number of dice (type determined by weapon) the attacker gets to use when dicing off versus the defending squads armor dice (determined by armor type).

Any Impact die result higher than the corresponding Armor die result indicates a wound; if an Impact Die result is higher than (Armor Die)x2 the soldier is killed.

A wounded soldier that suffers another wound is killed.

This system is actually pretty easy once you know the various dice scores for the equipment and how to shift die type for things like range and morale¹, but the number of dice rolls can drag the game a bit.

There is a quick & dirty option in the rulebook (pages 36-37) that suggests dividing the FQ/Quality by the Armor Die type. This eliminates the need to dice off for impact-vs.-armor and speeds the process up at the expense of nullifying the point of having different small arms and emphasizes cover over distance to nullify incoming fire.

Allen Goodall of hyperbear.com proposes a different quick and dirty system that replaces Armor Dice with an Armor Rating as such:

Armor Die ________ Armor Rating ______ Example
N/A ___________________ 1 __________ Civilian
D4 ____________________ 2 __________ Basic Fatigues
D6 ____________________ 3 __________ Flak Armor
D8 ____________________ 4 __________ Combat Armor
D10 ___________________ 5 __________ Light Power Armor
D12 ___________________ 6 __________ Heavy Power Armor

(AR is modified by 1 for Soft Cover and 2 for Hard Cover; this number cannot exceed 6.)

Each Impact Die is rolled off against the AR instead of another die result. While this means that AR4 armor is impervious to archaic weapons (crossbows and muskets have an Impact of d4) and Power Armor is impervious to pistols (d6), this does make things flow a bit better.

Thus an assault rifle (d8) versus combat armor (AR 4) has a 50% chance of being ineffective, and a 50% chance of wounding. There is no chance of a kill unless another wound is scored.

Both of these optional rules cut down on the number of actual kills, which places emphasis on field medics.

What I might do is divide the combined total of the Attack Dice by the Target Roll, and treat any Impact die result equal to (AR)x2 or above as a kill.

Thus an assault rifle (d8) versus combat armor (AR 4) has a 50% chance of being ineffective, a 37.5% chance of wounding and a 12.5% chance of a kill.

I'll do some experimentation once the platoons I've ordered arrive, but I expect that this last example will speed things up and increase lethality a bit.

I'll post my findings here.

¹Jon Tuffley wrote rules for Stargrunt II and Dirtside II that are a lot easier to play than they are to explain. :)

Grab your rifle, soldier.

I've been reading up on Stargrunt II (Ground Zero Games) lately, and decided that I'll give it a shot whenever I can meet up with my usual gaming group to play.

The rules favor leadership, morale and tactics over suicidal heroism and science-fantasy elements of say, WH40K. Not that I don't enjoy a good game of Warhammer, but a solid; open-ended "hard Sci-Fi" wargame provides a nice alternative. Especially if I can tinker, modify rules and make up my own armies.

By default Stargrunt II does not use a points system. The game is centered around using scenarios which are not usually balanced on a man-per-man basis. Players commanding under-gunned forces will definitely have to make use of tactical maneuvers, terrain and whatever assets they might have to survive, let alone succeed.

If players really want a points system, they can write one, or use one of the several that have been posted to the Internet. I might do this myself, just to experiment.

Between Stargrunt II and Crater (whenever I get round to that last revision) I'll even get some practical use out of the copy of "Scenarios For Wargames" (Charles Stewart Grant) I've been reading through.

While the game as written focuses on squad-to-platoon-level engagements it is possible to expand the elements used on the table. You can, for instance, play at battalion- or regiment-strength if you wish (as long as you have the table space and patience!), and it looks like it doesn't take too much extra work with the rules for it.

I've decided to start a collection of 15mm figures to help with this. Sure, I've got orks and space marines up to my ankles, but I'm not really willing to play an Apocalypse scale game at Games Workshops "28mm" scale. With 15mm, I've got a very wide selection of companies and miniature ranges to choose from (GZG alone has some great miniatures); I can field a battalion with the same table space a 40K platoon (equivalent) would take up and collecting 15mm is dirt cheap by comparison.

So I've got some work cut out for me, however, as that will still require a lot of painting, experimenting with rules and of course playing with TO&E lists for each of the armies.

Oh, and let's not forget about the battle reports once I get a few games in! Personally writing after-action reports and TO&E lists are two of my favorite aspects of wargaming.

So I'll keep posting about my progress here on /.moonfire, and let you know what I'm doing if I decide to use any alternate or house rules.

Until next time!

- Seamus

Marauder: 2107 Revised.

So I've created this website as a resource for the rewrite of this old, forgotten RPG.

I'm omitting the Breeder/genome-project-gone-horribly-wrong/horror aspect and sort of reshaping it into a "not-Appleseed" worldsetting, with a few unique elements included.

So there's a quick update. Have a look!

Rules revision.

New rulebook uploaded to the website. Here's the summary of changes:

* Revised combat to focus on modifiers to the CRT. This should speed up game-play a bit by removing a die roll from every attack.

* Every military vehicle now has a free APW/1. Upgrading this to an APW/2 costs 2 Spaces and 5 Points.

* Fragmentation Charge cost reduced to 5 Points, and only inflicts a Strength 1 hit now.

* Added articles page to the website, and included an article on cruise missiles.

Project Journal: Summary

In this post, I'm going to lay out what I've got in the works with my various projects, and what state they're currently in.

This list will be sorted by category for easy reference.

Tabletop Wargames

Crater - Core rules finished and ready for play-test. NGR list needs stats for about three more vehicles and the TO&E.

Lists for the Neo-Soviets have yet to be started, and of course other lists are quite possible down the line. Designing your own army is part of what the game is all about.

Modeling: Nine NGR missile support GEVs are painted, as are three P40 Panzer-III tanks. Three P53 Königstiger IV tanks are base-coated. Not much finished with the Neo-Soviet army yet. Since these are 1/300 scale, it really shouldn't be long, now.

Quite a lot of infantry for both still bare and not yet based.


Generic Starship Combat - Wrote these rules back when I was 15, and have since made several revisions. The latest version has yet to be playtested.

There are several fleet lists finished; some of these may need to be updated for the new rules.

Modeling: Numerous ships are painted, including most of the NGR fleet. Many more have yet to be finished.

Mechforce - Still needs to be play-tested.


Mordheim - Still working on my Reiklanders.


Shattered Scepter - Core rules not yet finished, and the army books for Chaos and Dwarves have yet to be fleshed out.

Modeling: Still experimenting with color schemes for my chaos and dwarf minis.

Warhammer 40,000 - My Ork army and the Angels of Vengeance still need a *LOT* of work. :)




Roleplaying games

Andoria Chronicles - is on the back-burner and has been dormant for some time. The difficulty is in trying to find a good system for it. I was last trying to kitbash elements of AD&D 2E with certain mechanics from the Angband Roguelike.

Marauder: 2107 - This is really just a dabbling project for when I'm killing time. The idea is to create a Second Edition for the original to flesh it out.

I'm cheerfully omitting the whole 'Breeder' aspect, though. :)

Crater Webpage updated.

While no progress has really been made with Crater since my last post, I have updated the Command Post. Here's what I've done so far:

* Added the framework for the NGR and Neo-Soviet Combine pages.

* Updated the rulebook .pdf file.

* Added a section for Battle-Reports.

Koronus Expanse: Through the gateway

The Rogue Trader campaign is off to a great start. Here's a recounting of the events of 05.29.743.M41 as reported by Scribe Janus of House Yarrow.


+ + +

05.03.743 - On behalf of Honorable Captain Karvek, our seneschal Murdoch Velix met with an envoy of House Malkuth on matters of reconnoiter and news of life beyond the Great Maw of the Koronus Expanse. It seems that the revered House Malkuth had sent a tradesman beyond the Maw in order to establish commerce with one of the agri-worlds there, and their charge had not returned or sent any word of information back to House or Imperium since.

Once negotiations of compensation were complete, the Rogue Trader Dauntless by His Countenance set out.

05.27.743 - Our blessed navigator had a slight fault in interpreting our star chart, and we had ended up in a nebula. Course corrections have been made, and we should reach the entryway to the Koronus Expanse with haste.

05.29.743 - 0850. Contact with hostiles. It seems that the crew of the penal legion transport Blessed Redemption had mutinied against their Warden and Commissar, taken ship and turned her into a raider of sorts.

0910. Our honored Captain led a boarding party and assailed the transport. If I may be so bold, I was concerned for our captain, but felt that his team could set things with the heretical crew aright.

1044. Word from our venerated seneschal that the transport had been subdued. All is well.

+ + +

Combat report, Colonel Harker, personal logs. 05.29.743

Our thrice-damned sensors were scrambled by the nebula. Bloody readouts indicated that the target was a frigate! We had no indicators of it being a light cruiser!

Damn this rusted bucket. If that trader wants it, he can have it! Well, the Cap had dreams of being a pirate out in the Expanse.

So we were boarded. Forward scouts to the cargo bay engaged boarders at the airlock and were cut down. Squad Osterman reported contact at 1057 and 33% losses. March Sergeant Osterman cut down by some mad bastard with a chainaxe.

Reports indicate that shots glanced off of this man and his commander.

Reports that the bulk of the boarding party had made way for the bridge. Mad Bastard was heading for the armory. I sent forward reconnoiter to assess and neutralize.

Reports that teams sent to defend the bridge had failed. Cut down to almost a man.

Unnerving cackling and threats of "I will WEAR YOUR FACE!" echoed through the halls as the madman chased poor Farber down the corridor with that blood-soaked axe. 2nd March Sergeant Alkon said the boy was white as a warp ghost as he reached the squad. That sociopath met up with the crowd just as our pissweak 'captain' squeaked out a feeble command that we were to surrender.

I learned later that Commissar Carlisle had died in defense of the bridge.

So the crew had collective dreams of throwing off the shackles of the Imperium and raiding for plunder and profit though the Koronus Expanse... And here we are. Breathing loot for a rogue trader and his retinue. Locked up in the ship just as we were when we set off from Orestes.

Our new Master... Karr Vick, I think it is - seems to have put us in a pretty good spot, though. Maybe if I can help keep the boys in line, I can make something of myself that the Orestes Penal Legion just couldn't offer.

The history of the Space Marine Primarchs

(You'll have to click the picture for the full effect)

Originally posted by cappadocius of rpg.net:

In the beginning, the Emprah decided to make twenty Magical Clone Babies to lead his hyper-masculinized psychopathic super-warriors. The Ruinous Powers (well, mainly Tzeentch, because he's the only one who cares about this shit) said, "Oh noes! If the Emprah succeeds, he will guide Humanity through their embarrassing psychic puberty and will then be no more our playthings than the Orkz!" and then Gork pantsed him. After snapping his fingers a few dozen times, he got Khorne and Nurgle's attention, and Slaanesh wandered over from the Eldar section of the Warp, and they got together and made a giant Warp Gate and sucked all the Magical Clone Babies into it, and then, because it's Tzeentch, rather than doing the smart thing and killing the little bastards, he threw them around onto inhabited planets where they could grow up big and strong and get a culture and shit.

Then the Emprah had many hilarious adventures running around the Galaxy saving his Magical Clone Babies, and all was well until they decided to make a series where the Magical Clone Babies were all grown up and would be lost based on their own hubris. The Primarchs, as the Magical Clone Babies called themselves, all met horrible fates, and were lost a second time:

1 - Lion el'Johnson, the Dark Angel primarch, lies in enchanted slumber in the ruins of his planet, which was blow'd up by Chaos, waiting for a beautiful prince to kiss him and awaken him.

2 - He was deleted from Imperial Records, probably because he said the Emperor's pauldrons looked "a little big. Don't you think you might want to tone it down a little there, Liberace?"

3 - Fulgrim was corrupted horribly by a Daemon Weapon and because The Emprah was too busy to teach any of his sons the powerful psychic shields he'd spent the last 38,000 years perfecting, fell to Chaos.

4 - Perturabo showed great inherent talent at trench warfare and defensive siege warfare. So his dad made him do that shit over and over and over again, I guess in the hopes that he'd get a Trench Warfare scholarship or something, until Perturabo grew to hate his dad, and he rebelled and fell in with Chaos.

5 - Jaghatai Khan rode his motorcycle into the Dark Eldar part of the Webway, and being kind of one of those weekend-biker types with the pretty bike and $2000 leather jacket, was kidnapped by real bikers and was never seen again.

6 - Leman Russ was a hard-drinking asshole and took a bunch of his favorite drinking buddies into the Eye of Terror and, being drunk 24-7, almost certainly promptly drove them into a planet. Being an asshole, they weren't wearing their seatbelts. No one misses him.

7 - Rogal Dorn is one of the only Primarchs to die heroically. Unfortunately, his Space Marine lackeys are creepy bastards who keep his hands in a drawer and carve their names into the bones.

8 - Konrad Curze was Batman. Tormented by nightmares his whole life, and coming from a planet that was basically Arkham Asylum, Konrad was snubbed by most of his brothers, outright laughed at when he asked for help getting his planet back under control, and eventually committed suicide by cop.

9 - Sanguinus got his ass shived by Horus. It's all right though, because he was a filthy mutant.

10 - Ferrus Manus was the guy who was ultimately responsible for Fulgrim's fall to Chaos. Fulgrim came to him and said, "Hey, our brother Horus is a little concerned that Dad's gone a little woo-woo, and he's going to make a bit of a war by way of intervention, because it's the only language dad understands." and, at the time, Fulgrim actually believed this. But Ferrus Manus freaked out and said, "NOOOOO! THAT CAN'T BE TRUE! OUR FATHER IS AWESOME!" and attacked Fulgrim. Fulgrim, being more of a badass than Ferrus Manus could ever be, chopped off his head. He was sad then, and the Daemon Weapon he had said, "I can make you not sad anymore." and Fulgrim, not knowing a goddamn thing about Chaos or Daemons, said, "Okay." and the Daemon burned out Fulgrim's soul and took over.

11 - We're fairly certain that Magical Clone Baby #11 was a girl, and so the Emprah never looked too hard for her.

12 - Angron kept getting treated like a bitch by his father, who also went out of his way to not only betray every value Angron held dearly but also to forbid him to raise his own Space Marine kids the way Angron himself was raised. Angron finally got sick of that shit, and joined Horus' Intervention.

13 - Roboute Gulliaman was a kiss-up and a brown-noser to his Father, but treated every other one of his brothers like some sort of half-witted fuck-up. Finally, Daemon Fulgrim couldn't put up with any more of that shit and stabbed his brother in the neck. Good riddance.

14 - The Emprah stole the only thing Mortarion ever cared about, so when Horus declared he was having an intervention for his father's massive assholery, Mortarion joined up tout suite. Then Nurgle held him hostage in the Warp until he and his Space Marine legions agreed to worship Nurgle in exchange for not dying of horrible diseases. Mortarion never really got to have that intervention.

15 - Magnus the Red had one shtick - he was really, really good at Warp Sorcery. So, of course, the Emprah forbids him from doing it. When Magnus finds out that Horus was not only going to have an intervention, but planned on beating their dad up, Magnus, being a good son, used Warp Sorcery to get a message to the Emprah as quickly as possible. Magnus barely got two words out before his dad flipped his shit and sent Leman Russ out to drag Magnus back to his room on Terra and ground him. Magnus was understandably put out, and joined Team Chaos, while the Emprah never found out about Horus' plans until Horus started dropping orbital fucking bombs on his house.

16 - Horus was the Emprah's favorite and put in charge of his other brothers. Then the Emprah decided that sharing any sort of information with his son and commander-in-chief would be stupid, and stopped talking to him, locking himself up in the garage, working on a way to hijack the Webway. Out in the wilderness, Horus got infected with a little bit of Chaos, which made him a little crazy, and the Ruinous Powers were able to convince him that his dad's suspicious behavior was a sign that he'd betrayed everything he'd brought Horus up to believe, and then they possessed his ass (Not even the Emprah's favorite is allowed to learn about psychic shielding, apparently!) and started killing bitches.

17 - Lorgar was brought up in a strict religious environment. The Emprah hated religion. Rather than explain this to Lorgar and use some of that logic and science to give Lorgar some perspective, he gives him 10,000 superhuman killing machines and tells him to go conquer in his name. Then, when Lorgar, rather understandaby, takes his time to thoroughly pacify a planet and make them ultimately loyal to his dad, the Emprah reams him out for "all this religion bullshit" and for "taking too damn long. Your brothers Roboute and Leman have conquered, like, a hundred more planets than you. Each!" So, when a offer came along to worship some gods that LIKED being worshiped and didn't care how long it took you to conquer the universe, Lorgar took the offer.

18 - Vulkan was the token black Magical Clone Baby. When that asshole Roboute took over the Primarchs and laid out all sorts of quotas and laws that basically screwed over the brothers, Vulkan said, "Fuck this shit." and disappeared forever.

19 - Corax was insecure and didn't have many space marines of his own. So, he tried making a bunch of his own, but they were ugly monster-mutants, and since The Emprah and his brothers Roboute and Leman were massive racists and hated mutants, he ended up having to kill them. Then he sulked in his room for a year, before driving into the Eye of Terror, and probably getting hit by the planet Leman Russ drove into and knocked out of orbit.

20 - Alpharius and Omegon were twins, and the youngest Magical Clone Babies. Their older brother Roboute mocked them for not having conquered as many worlds as he had, even though he'd been at it for 200 years before the Emprah even found him. But even then, he tried to be nice, until some wacky alien masons told him that Horus needed to succeed at his intervention, or the Emprah would start covering everything with skulls and bad Latin and flying aborted fetuses. Well, the twins were having none of that shit, so they joined Horus. Whereupon, Roboute killed one of them, and the other one was never seen again.

A sad story, of a dysfunctional family. It'd make a kick-ass anime. But that's the story of why the Primarchs were lost. Both times.

The NGR: in progress

I've started writing the "stock" army list for the New German Republic. If I can think of a half-decent back-story, I'll post it here.

Crater: the fledgling days

So I've written up a quick little 1:300 scale sci-fi armor rules set, borrowing from Dirtside II (Ground Zero Games) and OGRE Miniatures (Steve Jackson Games).

I still have yet to playtest it, but I'm in the process of painting up two armies. I'm using some Future Wars and Dirtside minis from GZG, and the Neo-Soviet line from Brigade Models at the moment.

The things that I like about Dirtside II are the vehicle design rules and the versatility, but I couldn't really work up enthusiasm for the chit-based damage system. I've seen house rules online that try to work around it, but they all seem more complex than they have to be.

So I decided to write up a hybrid rule set, with a strict K.I.S.S. mindset.

To me, the most boring aspect of most games is the IGOUGO system. John Q. moves all of his units, then Bill moves all of his, then John gets to blast the Hell out of Bill's stuff before he can even react. You can't really compensate for this mechanic. I've seen numerous rule sets try*, and I've seen even more players rabidly gnawing their dice in frustration as a result.

So in Crater, players take turns activating formations, until all units have either moved, fired, set to overwatch or designated targets for bombardment. Once all units have made their actions and all hits from the Activation phase are marked, the players take turns resolving them in the same order.

I liked the morale rules from Dirtside and I considered just using the default Combat Resolution Table from Steve Jackson, but I wanted targeting system and unit training quality to factor into the game as well. My solution was to add the ever-ubiquitous To-Hit roll to the mix.

I decided to use a simple attack strength/armor ratio, borrowing the CRT with a slight adjustment to account for the "To-Hit roll" element.

Anyway, I've got a skeletal website set up for the project, with a link to the rough draft of the rulebook. Once I've got some playtesting done the site will have more meat added to it.

I will also post battle reports and pictures of my finished miniatures here on this blog.

* Little additional rules that try to make the action seem simultaneous. It never works. Playing Battletech for example, had the infamous "I blew your 'Mechs leg off, but that doesn't take effect until the end of the turn" anachronism.