40K OSR? (11)

Time at last for a proper 40K OSR? update.

It still feels fairly quiet, but with things slowly picking up again. The change of season might be part of it, but I get the impression the sense of crisis and arrival of sixth edition is bringing out more expressions of what we each feel is the essence, more reflections on past and future.

Hopefully there'll updates more often because of it, but you can still find the most recent posts and links using the 40K OSR? search label.

So then, the usual intro - what is a 40K OSR? There are some potential definitions here.

As ever, if you identify with the concept, especially if you're putting out new ideas, feel free to use Colonel Kane's logo, at the top of this post. If you do, consider crediting him and adding Tales from the Maelstrom to your roll. It's real 40K magic, and if proof were needed of that, have a good read of the thoughtful interview with Rick Priestley.

• The biggest development of the past few days has to be the arrival of The M42 Project, SandWyrm's move to write a 40K equivalent, one that's good for competitive gaming, but with rules true to the setting and free expansion.

• As mentioned here, there's also renewed purpose at Rules Manufactorum, with a lot of homebrew - the Bullfrog All-Terrain Vehicle, and hints for creating vehicles and monstrous creatures, as well as Shawn Abreu's Dark Apostle and Necron Recombinants and a Battle Company list.

• Tied in with current design, Imaginary Wars Blog has a post on perceived problems, and also a cautious optimism re the direction of White Dwarf.

• Von at GAME OVER has a proper 40K OSR-labelled post on getting the Imperial Guard and Blood Axes back together, with a proposed mini mashup.

• Auberon at Digital Waaagh! has more Ork madboyz updated to fifth edition, this time phobiaks, as well as a ponder on the squig attack arm.

• Into modelling, Brian over at A Gentleman's Ones has a harlequin troupe converted by Thatguyjames, and reveals a Killzone update is on the way.

• Brian of course also completed those amazing tables for the Heroes of Armageddon charity project, which also referenced older material and featured one-off conversion wonders like the Golgotha super heavy tank.

• Re that, Hudson has the modelling of his Ecclesiarch super heavy done.

• Rictus at Recalcitrant Daze has a slightly smaller engineseer chimera, and had a feature on his Ork vehicles at Bell of Lost Souls recently too.

• On to 2D art, Tears of Envy has the Confrontation art by John Blanche, with comments from Blanche himself, as well as a piece which doesn't seem to have made it in; there's much more Blanche at gothic punk.

• While we're on the subject, Dave G at Wargaming Tradecraft does an excellent job covering unofficial artwork in his weekly updates.

• My homebrew offerings this time are the Wasteland Settlers troop type, Survivors upgrade and Parley special rule, all for Heroes of Armageddon, as well as the Orkosystem Spotta Squig and the living objectives idea.

Three wild cards too. The first two are linked, one being this overview at Dropship Horizon of 15mm power armoured troops, even more worthy of a look if M42 will be easily compatible, as SandWyrm suggests. There's a similar post at In space no one can hear you sculpt, here, looking at developing a design for Khurasan Miniatures.

The third comes via Stargazer's World, which has a link to a supplement for Barbarians of the Aftermath called Barbarians of the Future, inspired by the 40K universe.

This is still far shorter than I imagined it would be. What have I missed? Go right ahead and leave any relevant suggestions in the comments, even links to your own posts.

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