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[Brother Tyler]

While I've been working on the rulebook (still finalizing a few bits of rules, as you can see be current discussions), it occurred to me that something we might want to cover is advice/guidance on how to use the rules we're developing in the project for custom missions/campaigns.

For those that have been following the terrain/battlefield objects discussion, my intent has been to create a range of terrain and battlefield objects that players can use in their own missions (or in updating missions from older editions of the game). For example, I'd originally forgotten about the autofire weapons that appeared in the Last Stand campaign of the 1st edition. Luckily, someone pointed out the oversight and autofire weapons have been incorporated (expanded and updated!). As I went through the process of creating a new version of the autofire weapons, it occurred to me that what we haven't really covered so far is advice on how to create missions and campaigns. We've created rules that players can use for characters, weapons, and terrain/battlefield objects, but we haven't really synthesized everything with the core issue - creating new missions.

I'm starting to repeat myself. Sorry.

Now I don't claim to be an expert on the game. Nor do I have a monopoly on good/interesting/different ideas on how to create missions. My experience has shown me that there are plenty of people out there who have useful input.

So I'm looking for input from other fans of the Space Hulk game.

Areas I'd like to cover include (but aren't limited to):

• Achieving balance in missions (this is a very difficult task!)
• Campaign development (storylines, progression, etc.)
• Alternate setting ideas (i.e., fighting Space Hulk battles in locations other than space hulks - aboard ships, within hives, within underground complexes, etc.)
• Anything else we can think of

Two other things I'm considering adding are playing without tiles (which relates to many players using third party models for spaceships/hulks) and alternate terminator models (i.e., how to adapt your regular WH40K Terminators to Space Hulk). One note on the playing without tiles issue - this forces an adjustment to the area effect weapons, but not much else (or rather, nothing else has occurred to me). This is minor, though.

One limitation - we're sticking to the (Chaos) Space Marine Terminators versus Genestealers, and we're not developing special rules for different Chapters/Legions/warbands/whatever. The key concept of Indomitus is to expand the options available while preserving the basic balance of the published game as much as possible.

Note that all of this is intended to be included in the basic Indomitus rulebook, though I expect that to be a living document that will be updated as necessary. It will definitely be available as a pdf that you will be able to download and print (or just view on your eReader or tablet or whatever).

[Brother Tyler]

Status update:

The issues I've covered above are currently placeholders that I'd really like to include, but for which I have no real content (yet).

I've got the rulebook mostly drafted, pending finalization of a few things (ongoing discussions you can see for the power lance and terrain). I've also received permission from a number of members to use pictures of their miniatures in the rulebook. So I've got the basic rulebook drafted up, minus the pictures, filler content (lore boxes and what-not), the minor rules finalizations, and the outstanding content identified above. I have a template document drafted and will have the finished document available in both a "lite" version (black and white/grayscale) and a "deluxe" version (full color) for download (hopefully the "lite" version is relatively smaller than the "deluxe" version in terms of file size, otherwise I'll just change the names to "grayscale" and "full color"). If the outstanding content isn't fleshed out, I might remove it for now and save it for later, or for another rulebook. I have conceived of a possible "advanced" rules that will include a few additional tidbits, so the mission/campaign development and modeling pieces might work therein (and they complement at least one of the advanced rules I'm considering).

On the other hand, if anyone has feedback they'd like to provide so that we can build the outstanding content, it would be most welcome. See the post above for the general areas, and also add in modeling (both miniatures and Space Hulk terrain).

Keep in mind that the Indomitus Rulebook will be a living document, so we can always update it later.

+EDIT+

I completely forgot to mention the fact that I'm also working on the artwork for the counters/markers. These images will be included in the rulebook (e.g., the graphic of the autofire weapon counter will be part of the autofire weapon rules entry so that players can immediately correlate rules to markers) and will also be available separately as downloadable files (so that players can print all of the markers they'll need for games).

Truth be told, this is really what is consuming my time right now with regards to this project, with the outstanding articles planned for work once I've completed the graphics.

Edited by Brother Tyler, 21 January 2014 - 12:00 PM.