Going to change a few things regarding how I manage the Patreon account, just to keep with the times but also try to make it closer to what people actually want to see (I think).

First, I am going to tidy up some of the older posts. I won't be deleting anything that has files in it obviously, but things like long expired discount codes, random posts with no content, game update announcements from years ago, that sort of thing. 

A lot of people appreciate being able to go back through the backlog of what has been created, but it can be a little hard to actually navigate things.

Second, I am going to every now and again pick an old post from a couple of years again and repost it, but at the 1 dollar tier or free tier. Basically this will be things from 3-4 years ago, which people have forgotten about and to get them back into the public eye again.

This is also a way to get a bit more comments on things that might show up in future releases. You never know after all.

I hope these changes all make sense. If you are not already a patron, please consider throwing 5 bucks in a month at https://www.patreon.com/nordicweasel  to support new material for NWG titles, game updates and more. 

I love old games, whether on the tabletop, consoles or computer.

Sometimes it's a game that I never got around to playing but read about in a magazine or on a website (remember when we had websites? They were great, you could go to them and talk to people). 

Often it is to experience the history of the medium. I love digging into an old tabletop game and seeing where it fits in the history of miniatures gaming. 

I think in a hobby as hype driven as games, it is easy for the past to disappear. Sometimes that past is well documented but this only happens when it is something that is famous enough to become the default. There is tons of documentation about the creation of Warhammer 40.000 or Dungeons and Dragons. Much less about games that were competitors at the time like Runequest or Warzone. And when you get even slightly into the weeds, there is nothing. Do you know a single thing about the history behind the creation of the Ghostbusters RPG? Crossfire? Spacefarers? 

I was watching a video last night discussing that Youtube used to provide their own tv shows. I guess this was one of those things that just completely escaped my attention. The video mentioned a particular show, Origin, so out of curiosity, I went to look it up and found out that it no longer exists. It was only ever available on Youtube but they have completely deleted it. The channel still exists but all the videos are gone (A friend suggested probably for tax purposes). 

And a lot of tabletop games of course will go the same way. Dog eared old print copies of course will circulate but they are subject to attrition every year as a few more copies are thrown out or damaged. I don't know how many copies of Melanda were ever printed but I can't imagine it was all that many. 

Digital copies are, as we are now learning, subject to the same. Games like Beamstrike had to be rescued by a fan when the original websites vanished. Red Poppy White Feather survives only because of the Internet Archive. 

On a personal level, the first edition of the Fast and Dirty rules may be lost. There are no doubt a couple of copies out there on old hard drives, some of which sit in a landfill somewhere. At some point they will all be lost or functionally inaccessible.

One of the things that separates an interest from crass consumerism I think is a sense of its own history. Maybe that's made up, but it makes sense to me. Miniatures gaming is not box sets and kickstarters. It's something people made and were a part of. I think it's important to retain a hold of that.

This is just a quick update to let you all know where things are at.

The progress on Rogue Hammer Patrol mode has been delayed a fair bit, along with a number of other projects I had wanted to get to already (like the full version of Mystic Space and updating Fivecore Company Command).

The situation is that I managed to get behind on some large, complicated projects and have been in a perpetual state of trying to get out from under those projects, while also balancing financial obligations and it has been tough to do alongside the vagaries of life like family sickness and general tumult of being an adult.

Basically too much to do, deadlines getting mushed and not enough of me to do it all. If you have ever worked to deadlines, you have been in the same situation. And the result is pretty stressful at times, because it can feel pretty hard to claw your way out from behind. 

Of course I suppose it is also fortunate, because you only get behind if there is work to be done, so in that sense it is a positive. 

It has not been a secret that for a while now, NWG has existed in this weird middle ground where on one hand, there is too much work for one person and on the other hand, I can't support having staff. There's some light at the end of that tunnel but that will also take some time. Bringing a person up to basically be able to do the same things in the same way (the last bit is important) is almost as much work as it is to do it yourself, which has been a reason such things have had a difficult time succeeding in the past. 

Anyways, I wanted to just give a quick shout as to why I have been a bit less on the Discord and online in general. Hopefully soon things will ease up a little bit.

People love to discuss the positive effects of both miniatures gaming as well as tabletop gaming in general: Hand eye coordination (painting), patience, teamwork, maybe some social skills. Sometimes these can get exaggerated a bit but I think kids certainly all benefit from a hobby that at some point requires sitting down and reading a book :)

I think on a practical level, I definitely learned a bit of patience and it was a massive help for my language skills. But the real benefit was a realisation, namely that you could in fact just sit down and make things. 

I suspect this is one of those things that you can get from a lot of different places. Music seems obvious but while I've always loved music and I had many friends who played, I never had any interest in playing on my own. If you get into a craft at a young age, you no doubt have the same experience as well. I liked to draw as a kid and was in that middle ground of "better than the kids who didnt draw, worse than the ones who worked at it" but it was just something I liked to do for fun, I never had an interest in really bettering it.

But with tabletop games, it was different. Maybe it was interest, maybe it was seeing so many different ways to do things, maybe it was because tabletop writers often explained their rationales to the reader. Design columns in White Dwarf no doubt was a big impact with the likes of Jervis Johnson, Andy Chambers and Gavin Thorpe explaining their thoughts. Later, I would flip to the back of a gaming book immediately and see if there was a "designers notes" chapter. I still put one in all my books when I can, to pay it forward to the next kid who has that same feeling. 

It made me realise that these things are not the result of an elusive and secretive process: They are things people just sat down and did and if they could do it, so could I. There WAS something magical about the process which is working on something and then seeing it "carried out" on a table. I expect computer programmers feel the same way the first time they write code and see it work on the screen.

I suppose tabletop games also had a lower barrier of entry in that you just needed a pencil and a piece of paper. But I think the exact topic is perhaps less important than having the realisation to begin with. It doesn't matter if you intend to become professional at something or even whether you are ever any good at it. It matters that we can sit down and make something on our own.

I think that is huge. 

Talk to wargamers long enough and you will hear invective hurled at the humble army list and its cousin "balanced scenarios". Today I am going to take a moment to defend the humble army list, because I think it has received more abuse than it really deserves.

What do I mean by army list? A list of units you can purchase with points values and with some degree of restrictions guiding how you build an army. If a game has a list of every weapon in the game and a points cost but does not have some control of how you create units or that you can't make an army entirely out of left-handed tank drivers, then it's not an army list in my view.

I am not going to opine on the dichotomy between scenario driven games and tournament games, other than to acknowledge that often people tend to favour one style over another. I think the army list often gets assigned much of the blame for faults of tournament style play however, and I think that is something that is a bit misguided.

So let's get into it:

Scenario play takes experience that a player may not have

The first time i sat down to try to play a Napoleonic wargame, I literally did not know what a "corps" was other than "quite a lot of guys", nor did I have any idea of how many guns said corps might have. Historical games sometimes include tables of organisation and equipment but not always (and they can be contentious in their own right for scenarios - An infantry division in ww2 does not include any tanks, but gamers howl in protest if you don't include tanks, so how many tanks should I include?)

For science fiction this applies as well. One squad of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes is cool because thats how the game was designed but an entire army of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes might break the game. An army list can helpfully limit the number of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes to something more reasonable because as a new player to the game, you may not even know the problem exists.

(Of course army lists famously don't always catch everything but this is usually a factor of it being better for the game if the army lists are more permissive than more restrictive. I think the general point stands however). 

People sometimes retort that you can just learn from scenario books (some systems don't have them) or from conventions/club games (often not available) but in the end, some percentage of players will be learning from the actual book. 

You don't have to use them

Is this controversial? I feel like it rarely gets mentioned in discussions but you can just not use the points and army lists. Heck, even the most "tourney heavy" editions of 40K have always suggested this sort of thing. If having the army list is cramping your style because you already know how to balance a scenario or you just can't be bothered to count up points, then don't do that. 

You can take the units you want to use in the scenario and then that's it. Heck, if you want you can each pick about the troops you like and then haggle it out. We did that a few times when our 40K games were starting to get REALLY experimental. I suppose there is an argument here that some players wouldn't want to not use the points system if it's offered, but I find that most of the time those players are also not really interested in playing games without points to begin with. I might be wrong about that though. 

You don't have to use the same number of points

Much of the opposition to points values tends to come from the idea that "real battles are never exactly balanced" which is true. But it does not follow that using points values means they must be either. Certainly you can give the attackers 2500 points and the rearguard 1500 points and have a go at a suitably desperate and dramatic last stand. Shoot, you might even use mismatched points totals to slightly adjust other things. One might imagine a WW2 Barbarossa campaign where the Germans have more points than their soviet counterparts in the early invasion, but the balance shifts to a Soviet advantage for the winter counter offensive. 

The funny thing is I have seen people opine on forums that "attackers need 3 to 1 superiority" but you can literally quantify that with a points system :) 

Use as a starting point

This ties back to point number 1 but the army list can always be your starting point. I find this pretty helpful when building a scenario. Let's say the scenario is going to involve a lot of dense terrain and an objective that is difficult to get to. In this case certain units (light scout type of troops) might be more useful while big, heavy tanks will be less so. However using the points values to get a decent starting point can be really helpful just to get in the ballpark of things before I start changing things up, whether I do this mechanically ("For this scenario, tanks are worth 75% of their normal cost") or just eye ball it ("Since those tanks are not as useful here, I'll give them an extra squad of infantry"). 

Pick up games are fine actually

Finally pick up games are fun. Yes, you can whip up a scenario pretty quickly on the fly, but there's something really fun about figuring out an army in advance and then going to your friends place and having a go. I don't always want that specific experience, but when I do, it's nice to have the option complete with trying out new units or a funny idea in the build. 

Army lists are fun to guide collecting and painting

Lastly army lists serve a pretty good purpose in giving you some direction in what to paint and collect. Especially if you are poorly organised (me) and poorly disciplined (also me) it can be very easy to end up buying, building and painting a bunch of units that do not really add up to a playable game in the end. An army list is a ready made check list of things to get and paint which will inevitably guide you towards a playable force on the table. I've even talked to people who don't really play 40K but who use the codex to figure out what units they'd like to paint next. 

Of course army lists do not solve every problem, nor do they avoid having some problems of their own but I think we are, broadly, better off with them than without them. Discuss in the comments.

A round up of assorted questions people sometimes want to know. Some have been answered before but its been a while.

How did Paranoia come about?

The overlords had a license for the board game and wanted to get more out of it by also doing a miniatures game. I got the offer and jumped on the opportunity since it was something that did not really exist and how often do you get a chance like that? 

Some of the original folks provided feedback on it, which was cool. I think they understood that the requirements between an RPG and a miniatures game are pretty different, so they were happy letting us do our own thing.

How did Forgotten Ruin come about?

This was a project that Chris Birch over at Modiphius asked about, I had no experience with the books but the basic idea sounded fun, so I took it on. I crawled through the first book as quickly as possible and then set about figuring out how to do that as a tabletop game. 

This was something the creator of the books was happy to just let us do more or less freely, so I had a pretty free hand to do whatever I wanted to do with it. 

How did Planetfall come about?

Some sort of "planetary" game had been discussed basically since we first agreed to do Parsecs. The exact pitch was mine, they did have some suggestions though (calamities and the pre campaign missions were their ideas, my execution).

The basic structure did not change an awful lot during development though, it was always more or less going to look like what it ended up as.

How much input does Modiphius have on the rules?

They give feedback on everything, usually pretty small stuff really. A lot of it is things like avoiding too many dice types or whatever. It is more so for a licensed item like Paranoia, because then there are things we have to (or cannot do) and you have to showcase the game world. 

Are there other writers on 5X books?

No. Everything is written by me. NOW there are passages that the hard working editor will do. For example if we are missing a few lines to make a page work, he will write a couple of lines of fluffery and send it to me to okay. Its a lot easier than having to send it to me, me sending back the lines and then it turns out its still 4 words too short. 

How is the art decided?

I provide an outline for what the art vibe should be (Hard space opera, keep the swords to a minimum, no warcraft dudes) and then the artist goes and does their things. Usually Ill get asked to provide some ideas for say 10 scenes. "3 soldiers moving through the snow, rifles at the ready while something watches from the forest". Chris Birch usually does a lot of this as well, since he is a more visual thinker than I am. 

When the art comes in, I get to complain about it but usually I like to let the artist really give their own feeling as well. There are one or two instances where a piece of art meant going back in and adding something to the rulebook :) 

Will you do any indie 5X games again?

Unlikely. It suits me pretty well that 5X is the "glossy" book series and then I do different projects on my own. I do have an idea for a warband campaign game that would have similar vibes but different rules, but we will see. 

The one exception is probably an update to 5P Gang War as a Patreon goodie. 

Will you ever use another die type in 5X?

Probably not if I am honest. The one exception would be if I get to do a "Advanced Parsecs" / "Combat RPG" book in the style of Inquisitor and those, in which case I'd probably move to D10s. 

Are there more Leagues and Parsecs games planned?

I am working on a Leagues stand alone currently. Nothing planned for Parsecs right now, but we have discussed at least one game there as well that we both really want to do.

I have also suggested some things that they are interested in, but which we have not decided to act on yet. 

Are there more licensed 5X games planned?

Yes, all kinds of stuff. I am not sure I can say anything concrete here but there's a lot of excitement I am waiting to tell people about :)  

Will there be an eventual 4th edition Parsecs and Leagues?

Some day yes. We have had some discussions about what that could look like, but it is not really nailed down at the moment. Nothing concrete yet. I kind of go back and forth myself on exactly what I would want to do with it, beyond the obvious stuff like fixing unclear areas and so on.

Should I tell you about my wish list games/items/expansions?

You can. If its spaceships, I already know because it is the most common request by a mile.

If it's a licensed property, even if it is an obvious one, I can't do anything about that since I am not the one who have to open the pocket book to buy the license. Even if Modiphius already has the license that may not cover a new game type. You can ask them though :) 

Rogue Hammer Patrol Mode

Coming to a wartorn something something near you, Rogue Hammer Patrol Mode is the “Warband mode” for Rogue Hammer.

It will be a cooperative game where the players are each commanding small teams of troops and adventurers, fighting against environmental hazards. Also playable solo of course.

I suppose you could say its a scifi dungeon crawler of sorts but not set in a dungeon or if you remember the venerable Space Crusade board game, a bit inspired by that.

A typical army will be 6 units (generally) split between 3 characters and 3 teams of 3 figures each (though they could also be a single stand with multiple figures). 

As you play your units will become stronger and you will unlock cool new options, but you will also have to fight stronger opposition. 

This will all be drawn from the “Rogue Hammer Universe” which includes a lot of familiar faces.

The core game engine will be Rogue Hammer, adjusted for the smaller scale and will be a stand alone game.

Hoping to include a handful of scenarios as well as procedural table setup. 

I am gathering up initial funding through a Weaselfunder. 

For those who have not been involved in one before, you make a donation through Paypal to help the game get made. Then when the game releases, usually about 3 months later, you get that money discounted towards the cost of the game. Folks donating 20+ dollars also receive their name in the book when I add some fluff text.
Easy peasy. 

Donations are done to nordicweaselgames@icloud.com through Paypal. 

Victorian Scifi using the Squad Hammer engine. Do I need to say more?

Well, maybe a little. Venusian Hammer provides rules for regular infantry and heavy weapons, walking fighting machines, combat balloons and giant bugs / dinosaurs, all powered by the simple Squad Hammer system (2D6 rolls to hit, unit based damage, limited activations per turn). 

All in a concise and clever little package. The rules are being released without a ton of frills, the idea being to expand over time in response to what people end up wanting out of it whether that is more rules, more units, more scenarios, background information or something different. 

This really is a game for the kitbashers and people who enjoy creating unique looking armies.

You can pick up the rules at https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/553245/venusian-hammer-victorian-scifi-wargaming 

If you had donated prior to release, email me and I will get a discount code sorted out BUT that will take me a couple of days so please be patient :)

A lot of things can get in the way of a project. Burn out, lack of resources, realising that you got started wrong, lack of research, life catastrophes,  a topic that does not warrant the page count.

And sometimes its Lancelot the cat trying his hardest to prevent you from typing

Planetfall is now available for pre order! 

https://modiphius.net/en-us/products/five-parsecs-from-home-planetfall

You get the PDF with your preorder immediately, then print books are expected to ship in February with the stand alone PDF being available then too. We will be using the time before then to iron out any bugs that escaped us in proof reading. 

Make sure to check the correct Modiphius store for your region.

This is probably the biggest game I have done, so definitely excited (and nervous) to hear what people think.

A few questions to pre-empt here:

This is all developed by me. Additional parts were added based on input from Modiphius (the intro missions and adding a bit more story definition), though all the actual design was me. 

There are four types of opposition: "Tactical enemies" include the usual K'Erin, pirates etc. You probably already have suitable minis here. "Sleepers" are robot sentinels that guard the world. The Slynn are reptilian psionic aliens. Finally alien wildlife. If you know how you got to create your own enemy table in Deep Below, it works the same way here (because this is where the idea originated). 

The campaign includes both base building and research. Its not specifically based on any one thing, but if you imagine something like the old Alpha Centauri computer game, you are not that far off.

Upgrade paths include experience points, genetic augmentations and new tech. 

The player characters now have classes with Troopers, Scientists and Scouts all having different weapon allowances and unique advantages. 

There is a clearly defined end game with multiple victory conditions.

You CAN lose though it's not super likely. 

A map is required.

Combat has been modified a little from base 5P: Armour saves dont cause a stun (and you do not "stun out", big monsters use Kill Points (similar to Tactics) and a hit that rolls equal to Toughness now knocks you Sprawling. You can also provide Aid to another character giving them a bonus. 

An optional random factor is added to enemy AI movements. 

There are more mission types than before (quite a few actually) and they are more specific. 

Characters can be brought over from another campaign or you can create them from scratch. 

A quick update as we move towards the end of the new year.

Victorian scifi is moving along. Most of the units are done by now. Im trying to decide whether to let people at it with just the core rules and units in an early version or to wait until scenarios are done. I may do the former, so we can get more eyeballs and thoughts earlier in the process.

SLAM and Mystic Space updates are coming, though I would expect the major updates to be after the holidays, it just ends up being a bit too crowded. The next update for each is likely to be a bit more "stuff". I know some people have asked for some sort of space magic/psionics system. 

It looks like a big licensed property will be in the cards in the new year through Modiphius. Something I don't think people would have guessed, so look forward to that. 

As always the list of "possible future projects" is very long. I am hesitant to share too much because people tend to assume it means something other than what it is but some possibilities include a "cooperative competitive space dungeon crawl game" (think Space Crusade or Siege of the Citadel for those who remember), a fantasy campaign game inspired by "Horse girl" fantasy like the Valdemar novels, Napoleonic Squad Hammer. 

https://modiphius.net/en-us/collections/paranoia-five-clones-from-alpha-complex/products/paranoia-five-clones-from-alpha-complex-book 

New book on preorder :)

(along with some rather nice official Paranoia minis I must say)

The game covers principally "co op" and GM play but there are some solo notes in there as well. Setup rules, blasting traitors in the back and being eaten by dinosaurs in Alpha Complex. There will be an FAQ later on.

Just a few quick updates:

Rogue Hammer version 175 is out, adding the completed Space Dwarf army list so go have fun.

EKPS 104 adds 3 new unit types for scenarios under the heading of "fantastical folk" (sprites, ghouls and tomb guardians) and adds a bit of detail to shooting from towers and walls.

As always updated versions are available in your Wargame Vault library.

The "unit list" for Victorian Scifi is coming together more.

For regular infantry, there will be 6 types: Conscripts, Regulars, Repeating Rifles, Guards regiments, Naval infantry and Skirmishers.

For heavy weapons there will be 3 types: Multi Barrel Guns, Crank Guns (think Gatlings etc) and Field Guns (regular artillery pieces). 

This should let you use most heavy weapon figures out there on the market. If your army of choice doesn't have a readily available option on the market, buy a weapon model and just swap in a few artillery crew figures from your regular army, so you can have a Prussian gatling gun or whatever. The rules assume 2 or 3 crew figures per gun, but they can be based as part of the gun if you like. 

Of course I imagine people will also be kit bashing some contraptions to use. 

With version 174, Rogue Hammer now has a completed Kill Bot army list (based on the 3e Necron codex with one or two extra units added) and a completed Hired Guns army list (mercenary troops that can be hired on by most armies.

These include updated special rules as well as unit upgrades.

You can find Rogue Hammer at https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/418767/Rogue-Hammer-Gothic-scifi-miniatures-gaming?manufacturers_id=5701 

An update of an old post:

Instead of a rules Q&A, I wanted to do a round-up of various questions I get that are in a more general or personal sense:

How can I get a hold of you?

Email is always best: nordicweaselgames@icloud.com 

You are welcome to ping me on discord or bluesky, but I am not reachable through any other means. 

If you don't reply, do you hate me?

Honestly, I get so much email I often get lost in it. If you have not heard from me in a few days, just try again.

Can I ask you to look at my <insert game material here>?

I am happy to do so but I must warn that I don't have a ton of free time, so please be armed with patience. I am happy to do in-depth reviews to help clean up rules though these days I must insist on some sort of compensation for doing so.

Can I ask you about something regarding game design or game publishing?

Always happy to help with that.

Can I show you my hack combining one of your games with another game?

Always happy to see what people come up with but I probably can't give really detailed feedback.

Will you ever make a hack of your rules to use another setting?

Probably not. I think that is something best left to fans. 

Can I recommend a book, band, show etc. that is like the ones you list as inspirations?

By all means!

Can I send you a copy of my game because I'd like you to have it?

That would be very kind. 

Will you come to this convention?

I'd like to do some convention stuff this or next year and am happy to do seminars or Q&As. 

Will you endorse my group/movement/hashtag?

Probably not. Even if I agree with you.

Will you join my online community?

I never find enough time to actually do justice to those, so I usually do not.

I am looking forward to September being "update month" with the first big updates to Mystic Space and SLAM as well as getting two more army lists "done" for Rogue Hammer.

There will also be an announcement about an RPG project. 

You can spend forever trying to find a reliable source of armour ratings for tanks, then figuring out how much to adjust for sloping and weak points etc.

I don't have that time and the books I have on hand giver very vague and general armour values. 

For History Dad, I basically decided to just rely on the ratings given in the Steel Panthers World War 2 computer game (freely downloadable). Their vehicle stats are pretty well researched and correspond to roughly 1 point of armour per 10mm (with some additions for sloping). 

So the HD combat rules were built to just use those, so if you want to look up a tank that isn't on the tables yet, you can do so.

Gun ratings come from the same place, using the penetration at point blank range (since even a 6x4 foot gaming table is still only going to represent 3-400 metres of distance: Basically knife fight distance for tanks). 

If you have not checked in on Rogue Hammer in a while, make sure to do so.

The first four army lists (Imperial Legion, Star Knights, Free Traders and Imperial Personalties) are now finished, meaning they have their own upgrades, psionic abilities (where needed) and have been touched up with how they work.

This does not mean they are never going to be updated. Unit tweaks are of course always possible and new units can be added (particularly to the Personalities list) but it means they are basically at a step where I am happy with how they look. 

I am hoping to "finish up" an army list every couple days, which will also mean fleshing out the lists that don't have enough units (or any units, making it somewhat of a difficult to use army list :) )

Now it needs to be said that the points values are perhaps a wide eyed estimate at best. I do not have a count yet, but I would guess we are well past 200 units and counting and with each army list aiming to have 15 possible upgrades (5 for squads, 5 for individuals, 5 for vehicles) it is basically inevitable that some of them will not make sense. That can all be solved by a nice email to my inbox, so I can work on things :)

Do note that things must be seen in context: The same upgrade may be worth more to one army than another, so bear that in mind.

It has been a long time since I have talked about Planetfall, as it slowly makes its way through editing and layout. 

So this is a quick run down of key features. I will try to do a more in depth post going into some of the information later.

*The gist of the campaign is that you are landing on an unexplored world to exploit its resources and make your colony self sufficient and successful.

*It features a planetary map. 

*Your characters this time are Unity agents and can be soldiers, scouts or scientists. You can also bring over Five Parsecs characters of course. Each class has its own special abilities and gear is usable by particular classes.

*Enemy lifeforms are randomly generated, allowing you to fill out your own unique planetary encounter table. This will be modified over the course of play.

*You also encounter a strange new hostile alien species. 

*Missions include sweeping for resources, exploring alien ruins and taking the fight to the enemy. There are 12 scenarios (if I counted right).

*Scientific research will unlock new tech, items and upgrades.

*You build a base with facilities that improve your capabilities.

*In addition to new tech, you can also get augmentations for your soldiers and find alien artifacts.

*There is an end game with multiple possible outcomes for your colony. Along the way you will achieve milestones that push the campaign to the next step, unlocking options and increasing challenges. It is self paced to an extent. 

*Fluff nerds will get some new information about Unity and its various efforts across the galaxy. 

*You also get a bit of fiction from yours truly. 

Gamers have no shortage of ideas. Some of them are good ideas. Some of them are workable ideas. The intersection between good and workable is the stuff that might make it into a book some day.

The main difference between a professional (hah!) and a hobbyist I suspect is in evaluating the workable bit, not the good bit. 

One thing to be wary of is to get too carried away with an idea that sounds appealing, but which ultimately you will lose interest in. Not everything is inspiring enough to sustain you through a 20 page game, let alone a 100 page one. Are you going to try to build a hobby empire out of it like the Brutality guy, 2 Hour Wargames or Song of X&Y? It's gotta be an idea you can sustain interest in for months and years.

I use a notepad program to track ideas. If I think of something that could be fun as a project, it goes on the list. You can use anything, I use a little app called Tot which I use only for this purpose and nothing else. But you can just use a document on your computer desktop or a piece of paper and a magnet on the fridge. For me personally, keeping it separately helps compartmentalise a bit mentally. 

Every Sunday I sit down and look back over the list. I sometimes add a qualifier to an entry like "maybe" if I am starting to wonder if its a good idea or if I have changed my mind about some aspect (this SHOULD be a Renegade Scout expansion!). If I am no longer enthused, I delete it. 

It currently had 56 entries on it for consideration. They are not sorted in any kind of order.  The last 5 (you were gonna ask) are:

A skirmish game OR scenario booklet for "Snap haner" (Danish guerillas fighting the Swedes in the 1600s), some sort of Arthurian mythology game (probably a warband game?), an urban fantasy skirmish game with vampires and werewolves and all that, some sort of campaign game based around a space ark seeking a new world and a game or scenario booklet about partisan warfare in WW2 Norway.

This also went out by email through the Wargame Vault but not everyone receives messages there.

If you have purchased Mystic Space, I would like your thoughts on a few questions. Email to nordicweaselgames@icloud.com if you would be so good

- Have you had a chance to play the game yet? If so, what did you feel about the rules? What rules worked really well and which ones were difficult to use or understand?

-are there parts of the rules that are hard to understand and need explaining better?

- From the factions which seems the most exciting and which do you feel could use some more flavour?

- If you are intending on building an army for Mystic Space, what figure range are you planning on using?

- What do you hope to see in the full version and in the future for Mystic Space?

- How interested are you in other spin-off games in the same world? 

It should not be too much longer before the preorders for the Five Leagues Compendium go up (next week?) 

This will combine the first two expansions (which is already a monstrous amount of gaming goodness) as well as a stand alone game titled Deep Below.

Deep Below is a Five Leagues spin off (similar to how Bug Hunt is a Five Parsecs spin off), focused on exploring and fighting within a cavernous underworld. 

The rules feature:

The same combat system you are used to, allowing you to get up and running quickly and even transfer characters back and forth.

Character origins: Adventurer Humans, Derzkan, Windspite Dwarfs, Weaslings and Grey Elfs

A new magic approach (runes)

Randomly generated (and thus unique) enemies to fight.

A new type of mission with exploration and unpredictable encounters in huge underworld caves.

A bit of base building on the side as the settlement you are defending expands over time.

New magic goodies to find.

It is playable 100% on its own as its own experience or as a way to link up with the main Five Leagues game. 

Those of you who have been with me for a while know that 15mm science fiction is near and dear to my heart.

The scene went from a curiosity to a hugely supported contender with multiple manufacturers making excellent figures. It was also supported at the time by games like Gruntz, Stargrunt 2 and, if I may say so, FAD.

However many years on, I think things have gotten a little quiet, so it is time for me to stir the campfire a little bit again.

With that in mind, I am pleased to announce the alpha test of SLAM-15:

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/526734/SLAM15%22%20rel=%22/includes/ajax/tooltip_request_handler.php?products_id=526734

A set of rules written specifically to take advantage of, and be suitable for, 15mm figures. This means capturing a bit of a "hard scifi/hard space opera" vibe in the rules (since this is the most common figures available), ensuring the rules match what people usually want to use in their armies (multiple vehicles, multiple infantry squads based individually) and making sure the game is not excessively fiddly and that any tracking can be done either using simple markers (activations) or dice (vehicle damage).

It is intended for pick up games though it should not be too difficult to solo two-fisted. 

The alpha version of the rules feature everything needed to play, including sample troop profiles and weapons with points values. Buyers will also get a discount on the final version. 

A few questions after the Alpha release that I figured everyone could benefit from the answer to:

Q: Is Mystic Space based on <insert media here>

A: We tried to be pretty original, but it obviously has heavy vibes from other space fantasy, particularly scifi  Anime and Manga. There's definitely a bit of Macross in there. 

Mechanically I tried to be "theme first". I did not intentionally borrow any mechanics from anywhere but if you have played a lot of miniatures games you will be able to tell how ideas travel from game to game. I did want things to mostly be fairly conventional this time around.

Q: Who wrote what portions?

A: Rules and the main setting chapter were all me. The faction write ups are mostly my wife. I tweaked them a little and I think I wrote one and a half of them. I did write the military snippets. We had wanted to do a project together for ages and this was the perfect opportunity. Plus as more of an RPG player, she'd bring a different perspective.

Q: Do you have any plans for a Mystic Space RPG?

A: The thought has arisen, though there are other things to do first. I wanted the setting to be detailed enough that people could improvise it and test the waters so to speak.

Q: When STLs start being available, will they be added to the book?

A: Yes, though there are some things to consider when doing that. Probably after we are out of alpha. 

If you are checking back in, we have had quite a few things happening:

The first is the release of Elf, Knyghte, Pyke and Sworde, the second edition of the KPS skirmish rules and fully updated with fantasy content. This will be supported with updates and cool stuff as we move forward, becoming one of the "core" NWG game titles. 

You can pick up a copy here:

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/520073/Elf-Knyghte-Pyke-Sworde?src=hottest 

We also released the alpha version of Mystic Space, our new space fantasy game, complete with army lists and an exciting setting. You can pick that up here. 

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/521390/Mystic-Space-Alpha-version?src=hottest

Buyers of the alpha will get a discount when the final game is released.

And of course if you are into Squad Hammer but wishes it was a bit more grim and or dark, you can check out Rogue Hammer here 

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/418767/Rogue-Hammer-Gothic-scifi-miniatures-gaming 

This has seen a ton of updates and now has profiles for a ton of units from all across old school 40K and is now beginning to feature units from other scifi worlds and even inspired by history. The rules are also constantly being updated, improved and tidied up. 

So please dig and have fun :)

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/521390/Mystic-Space-Alpha-version

The future begins here.

Welcome to Mystic Space!

What is Mystic Space?

It is a brand new space fantasy game from Nordic Weasel Games.

Featuring great heroes, stonking combat walkers, magical spells and an array of high tech weapons, Mystic Space is set in a remote galaxy where the Star-Born civilisations are collapsing into galaxy wide conflict as each of 8 factions struggle to impose their will on the future.

It is NOT a grimdark world. Its a world of bright colours, cool heroes and exciting adventure, taking as much inspiration and vibes from video games and anime than it does from classic science fiction and comic books.

Mystic Space includes:

-Easy and pretty quick game rules with a unique take on unit movement (measure for the squad leader, then deploy the unit around them)

-Core dice mechanic is 1D10 + character attribute. A 10 or higher is a success. 

-Alternating activations with the ability for heroes to activate alongside a squad by taking command of it.

-Fortune points allowing each player 3 rerolls in a game. 

-Weapons include area weapons that cover a blast radius , bolt weapons that blast through units and chain weapons that arc between targets. 

-Spell casting system for some Heroes with 8 spells in the alpha version.

-Vehicle combat rules. All vehicles in Mystic Space are walkers. 

-8 factions to play, each of which is detailed with history and personality. 

All factions use the same army list to pick from but each has 3 special abilities that set them apart. 

-Army list with 26 units to pick from. 

-7 scenarios, each of which calculates victory in different ways. Perfect for pick up play.

-Extensive background information on life in the Mystic Space universe. 

* * *

A typical army is 20-30 figures with a couple of vehicles. Anything from 15mm and up will work (but as long as you base individually, you can use smaller scales if you are determined). A typical gaming table should be about 3x3 feet across.

* * *

Most importantly (perhaps) the Mystic Space license!

The Fan License allows you to create and distribute fan art, fan fiction, game scenarios, army building apps etc.

Meanwhile the CommercialLicense allows you to create and sell miniatures for Mystic Space. This is particularly aimed at STL creators and lets you create and sell miniatures for the various units and factions in Mystic Space. AND you get both licenses when you buy the game. 

* * *

Mystic Space is intended to be a living rules system: Not only will we make updates, tweak points values and clarify rules based on player feedback, but over time we are also intending to advance the time line, introducing events (which might then result in new spells, weapons or units being added to the game).

Mystic Space is a “conventional” player versus player game however solo tools is a possibility in the future and we are planning on a cooperative/solo game using the same mechanics and setting in the near future.

* * *

Best of all, this is the alpha test: The rulebook is basically complete but a few extra bits are missing and it does not have art work yet. It is 124 pages of gaming goodness however.

By buying the Alpha version, you get to help influence the game at this early stage with feedback and suggestions and when the full version is released you will get a discount code for what you already paid.

If you have kept an eye on your Wargame Vault notifications you will notice that Rogue Hammer is getting updated pretty quickly.

What I am doing is I have a big list of the various armies to cover and each day I try to tackle one part (infantry or vehicles) of one army for one edition. So today was the Squat infantry for Rogue Trader for example.

The for sure plan at this point is to cover the following:

Rogue Trader armies that had army lists.

2nd edition codices

3rd edition codices (possibly only Tau and Necrons)

Any units and army lists from the RT and 2e era White Dwarf

Any units and army lists from the era Citadel Journal

Selected vehicles from Space Marine 1st edition.

Now this does not mean every single unit will receive a Rogue Hammer equivalent. Some units may be merged together, others may be split. But all will be considered. The priority is to make it all fit into Rogue Hammer.

Likewise, it is important to note that this is creating the units in Rogue Hammer. They may feel different, have different abilities etc. Think of it as a parallel universe where GW never released those dreadful paint pots that dried out in 2 weeks. 

After that there are many options that MIGHT happen. They include:

Army lists to use ww1 and ww2 armies.

Army lists for other "old" wargames like Void, Warzone and Vor (in particular). 

Some television and film units, mostly for scenario fodder. 

I guess this would be the "Rogue Hammer Expanded Universe". We will see and it will depend on what the fans want ultimately. The priority is the 40K stuff. 

Folks, we have arrived.

Elf Knyghte Pyke & Sworde is here! NWG’s long awaited fantasy mass skirmish wargame rules.

Based on the original KPS rules, this version adds:

6 Power Sources that your characters can draw upon (Divinity, Leadership, Expertise, Might, Luck, Sorcery)

4 Paths of Magic with 8 spells each.

15 fantasy peoples.

22 monsters to use in scenarios. 

26 magical items.

As well as all the features of the original game including campaign guidelines and scenario suggestions.
AND new material like battlefield events.

The game is playable with any single based fantasy figures usually organised in units of 3 or 6 figures. 
AND while the new book is full of cool fantasy stuff, you can of course still play out historical battles with players having used the rules for everything from vikings to romans to Japanese pike and shot skirmishes. 

The rules also include a license to publish your own scenarios and campaigns using EKPS rules. 

You can grab the rules from the link below. 

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/520073/Elf-Knyghte-Pyke-Sworde 
As always there will be some updates coming as the inevitable errors are caught, so hold off a week or so before printing your copy.

If you had donated money to getting the game done a few months back, please EMAIL me at nordicweaselgames@icloud.com with the amount and I will have a discount code created for you. 

There are some features that ended up having to be cut for now. I will still add solo guidelines to the book. I also intend to add more spells, creatures etc. but at some point I had to decide to get this out there so players can actually begin using it.

I have been working with Chris Nicole to bring back his original Slammer scifi miniatures rules and you can now grab the "Legacy" edition which is the original document in PDF format. Pay What You Want so please give generously (but responsibly!)

Response and feedback will be used to both tidy up and improve this version, but also work up a new, cool edition for a new generation to enjoy.

From the WGV page:

"The Slammer rules are usable for a range of Hollywood-inspired science fiction skirmish action, complete with big heroes, cool space troopers and bug eyed aliens.

Featuring a clever reaction table, the morale and well being of your troops will affect what actions they can perform each turn but gameplay still moves quite quickly.

A starting game can play well with a handful of characters on each side, while you can easily play with a platoon once you understand how the game works.

The rulebook currently clocks in at under 40 pages, giving all the basic stuff needed to play a game without a lot of waffling about. You are here to shoot bug eyed monsters right?"

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/519467/Slammer-Legacy-Edition

Rogue Hammer receives a big update, both touching up a lot of rules wordings but also bringing a rename from Imperial Army to Imperial Legion AND it should now have all of the Imperial guard units from Rogue Trader. Im sure I missed one.

The goal is to work through the army lists now covering each army in turn to bring them up to "RT" standards before moving on to 2e and then finally the 3e books. Along the way there will be decisions to make so as you should expect, not everything will translate exactly or 1-to-1.