You've got a commerve...

I was typing a bit fast today and spelt the word 'commerce' wrong. But 'commerve' has to mean something, right? Somewhere and somewhen...

Not every vessel is commervous, but those that are laugh and cry with local space, trembling around their passengers at almost imperceptible frequencies. The passengers may be troubled by the experience at some deep level, and soak up the horror of it unbeknown for later, but they do gain immediately, and tangibly. For the sensory endings of the commerve are plugged into subrealian tissues, and feel the tension of the traumas flowing from the brutal brood worlds of the hot stars. With the forewarning of a slight twinge, the pangs of those spacetime streams may be avoided.

_

Crewbrew - crew cohesion, concentration and repair

I'm having a go at a ruleset along the lines of one from the 40K uncut? post, for fuller vehicle use.

It could be thought of as homebrew for 40K, but it's not. It's a start on a general system for adaptation to games in which vehicles are more heavily abstracted. The first part is a core mechanism for building on over time.

                                                                                                                              

Crew cohesion

Crew cohesion is a variable for any or all of low visibility, cramped confines, heat, noise, vibration, motion, rushing air, failures, confusion, bickering, incoming attacks and death.

A D6 is placed with each vehicle or vehicle unit at its first appearance, with the 6 face up. At the end of every turn, the number face up on each die is reduced by one point.

For each glancing or penetrating hit on a vehicle, the number on the relevant die rises by one, for the focus it encourages. Each death among the crew reduces it by one, for the shock of the loss and change needed. Cohesion may not rise above 6 or fall below 1.

Any cohesion check required is made for a vehicle or vehicle unit by rolling 1D6. A result equal to or below its current crew cohesion indicates success; above indicates failure.

Concentration

At the beginning of each turn a cohesion check is made for each vehicle or vehicle unit. If the result is a success, the vehicle may be used as normal. If a failure, the crew are distracted, meaning a) the controlling player decides how far each affected vehicle moves this turn, but an opposing player then decides whether and where a 45° turn is made for each, and b) any hits caused by affected vehicle weapons are rerolled this turn.

Running repairs

If a vehicle suffers damage, at the end of any turn, before the number face up on the die is reduced, the crew may attempt to repair this. To do so, a cohesion check is made. If successful, it is repaired. On a natural 6, one crew member chosen by the controlling player is killed. Whatever the result, crew cohesion is then reduced by one point.

For every unit in the controlling player force able to repair a vehicle, a modifier of one point is deducted from the roll for a running repair, regardless of relative unit locations.

                                                                                                                              

The idea then is a quick and simple system adding some options and fun. Hopefully so far it's neutral overall, with the rising chaos as cohesion falls offset by more crew activity.

There's a lot more can be done with this and I'll come back to it. All thoughts, revisions and expansions are welcome - as far as I'm concerned this is a new community project.

_

What we learnt (9)

_

More from the online game designers' workshop

A few quick links on design, following this post.

• Loquacious wraps up the Intelligent Design series at House of Paincakes.

• Amanda Heitler at Drama, Dice and Damsons has advice for anyone thinking of running play-by-post games.
  

• John Bell at The Retired Adventurer has a good list of links to resources.

• And a wild card - the latest post at TalkToYoUniverse covers point of view.

If you're a 40K player, you might want to brew up an idea from the discussion at the last post. And here's a new question to go with it - does anyone run play-by-post wargames?

Update: SandWyrm at The Back 40K talks actor count; there's a useful first comment.

_

A 40K uncut?

An open question for 40K players; it crystallised here at From the Warp. What kinds of interaction in the 41st millennium haven't been seen yet in official or homebrew rules?

It's been 25 years and a lot of editions of a lot of games. We have campaigns, strategy, big battles at two official scales, plenty of skirmishing, miniatures-free, urban ruins and various interiors, aerial and space combat, plus landings. So what's left to be added?

So far I've got vehicle compartments, warp-based interactions and fraught diplomacy.

_

Corridors of death... and life

In the wars, spores, sword; toward doors, far-gates barred.

_

Are we helping an AI learn its ABCs?

Pause for thought re commenting verification. If this new system is getting us to identify hard-to-read words - see here - we may be part of something needing more discussion.

In this article, on a modified history of the computer, Freeman Dyson's son tells us:

In 2005 I visited Google's headquarters, and was utterly floored by what I saw. "We are not scanning all those books to be read by people. We are scanning them to be read by an AI," an engineer whispered to me.

It makes perfect sense, if we want to make the fictions real. But do we? And which AI? How soon? Whose vassal will it be - or is it? What do we all owe to a lifeform like this, and - getting back to the mundane - what does it mean for our use of the verification?

At novums we get a reminder of where this could be going re Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question", but that's one of the more optimistic views, and the literature has others.

_

40K OSR? (16)

So far, so good then - it's been less than two weeks since the last full 40K OSR? update.

Possible definitions for 'OSR' here and Colonel Kane's logo to the right. If you use it, consider giving him the credit and adding Tales from the Maelstrom to your blogroll as an exemplar.

• Another PSA to begin: Warhammer 39,999 is back - note the new address.

• Stealthy Stealth is working on a Tau Fandex in posts at Creative Twilight.

• Plague Marine at A Plague Spreads is after suggestions for a new fandex.

• If you missed the mention here, Rended Press found some 40K fanzines.

• Big Jim has 1, 2, 3 characters and house rules for the BAO at Adventures in Wargaming, as well as news of Killzone Evolution and more details...

• ... while Brian at A Gentleman's Ones talks about Killzone team-building.

• Neil Gilstrap has a useful approach at The 11th Company BLOG to the discussions of RAI vs. RAW, as does Nurglitch in this post from last month.

• John Bell has more material up at The Retired Adventurer for using Stars Without Number to run the 40K universe, Eldar and DE, Orks and Kroot.

• Gotthammer has Gazetter #3 up at Collegia Titanica, and advice for GMs.

• Kenzie's blog has another 1, 2 more write-ups for the Dark Heresy campaign.

• At Warpstone Flux jabberjabber paints a map tile forest and river, and that reminds me Kraggi's brother is doing ME / PE maps on commission.

• Nurglitch has more thoughts on a combat card-based Adeptus Titanicus...

• ... and the first Spikey Bits post has an ad mech force with Epic walkers.

• Krisken at Scratchbuild 40K has 1, 2 posts so far on a DIY rhino chassis...

• ... and again at Spikey Bits, reposted to BoLS, there's a possible driver.

• Old School Terminator at Dark Future Games honours the many tervigons.

• AJ's gaming world has some converted IG heavy weapon team carriages.

• Rictus posted on sculpting various Nurgly textures at Miniature Wargame Conversions and had more on the 3D printed walls at Recalcitrant Daze.

• Staying close, Cameron at Rust and the city has more on a Nurgle dread...

• ... and Bix at The Veil's Edge makes a press mould, with advice from Ron.

• A big reveal were Mantic's Veer-myn - possible counts-as Hrud - for the board game Grim Cargo by Jake Thornton; it's like GW alternate history.

• Apocalypse 40K has 1, 2 posts on a scratchbuilt Ork thunderhawk, more on the Eldar super-heavy flyer and lots of possible alternatives, including speeders and turrets, a weapons platform and some large resin wings.

• ... while big_d over at The Hogs of War reports on a true-scale marine kit.

• Mad Robot Miniatures updated on the sci-fi greatcoats in development.

• Volomir's near-/not-Rogue Trader cover diorama won official recognition.

• Noel at TheOrky15mm SciFi reminisces about Gorkamorka and shows a converted Ork bike, and also has a few photos of a range of Ork bits.

• CrimsonTurkey at DUKE'S INFERNO builds a bits gang for Necromunda.

• For nostalgia and maybe technical interest, Spikey Bits also posted pics of an old blister pack and the contents of the second edition boxed game.

• Mike at Santa Cruz Warhammer showed some old GW branded items.

• Last time I missed 1, 2 updates at Confessions... on the DoW generator.

• Staying with terrain, if the FW interiors set you off, big_d at The Hogs of War also has two alternatives, assuming you won't build like Brian or Hudson.

• This time round Hudson has a WIP diorama using new Space Hulk minis.

• CounterFett has another 1, 2 pics from Space Crusade at All Things Fett. 

As always, feel free to leave links to anything you think I've missed, even your own work.

Update: Look at what Jeff just posted, but only if you're not easily provoked, and don't mind a bit of strong language - it's Lasfodder, an RPG set in the world of Rogue Trader.

_

Rogue Space - Item availability and pricing

Rules for shopping. They're designed as part of the Rogue Space project, but could be adapted.

What's Rogue Space? A free, compact, rules-light, modular RPG from Fenway5, which a few bloggers are expanding with ready-made systems and content. The key links are in the post footer and my original review is here.

Given Rogue Space is rules light, this is simple and fast too. The idea is to allow a GM to draw up a master equipment list for the campaign with just one price listed for each item, but have that price vary according to location, and suggest supply and demand.

                                                                                                                              

Reference cost: Each item introduced to the campaign is given a reference cost by the GM. This should be the average minimum cost in a location where it is very common.

Rarity: The GM gives each item a Rating for its rarity in a given location or region, or the whole campaign. Rarity is measured on the WARE scale, for another RS-style acronym.

W  =  1  =  Widespread  =  A large quantity widely used and easily accessible.
A   =  2  =  Appropriate  =  A reasonable quantity used by or accessible to many.
R   =  4  =  Rare              =  A small quantity used by or accessible to specific groups.
E    =  8  =  Exceptional  =  A tiny quantity, or unique item; difficult to acquire and hold.

Example: A keyring reactor may be Appropriate on a technically advanced world, but Rare on the frontier. A fertile soil Widespread there may be Exceptional on an orbital.

Starting equipment: Core starting characters begin with any number of Widespread items, up to 1d3 Appropriate items and up to 1d2-1 Rare, i.e. W / 1d3 A / 1d2-1 R.

Finding supplies: More acronyms - the two basic approaches to finding supplies are What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) and Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO).

Using WYSIWYG, 2D6 is rolled and the Aquiring Attribute added. The GM may wish to apply a modifier based on the nature of the search or centre. The result is compared to the WARE scale. For each Rating equalled or exceeded, one item type of that Rating is available. For each multiple by which a Rating is exceeded, one extra type is found. The number is also the number of each type. Player and GM alternate selecting these types.

Example: A result of 6 exceeds the Widespread Rating (1) by 5, the Appropriate (2) by 4 and the Rare (4) by 2 and so turns up six items of six different Widespread types, three items of three Appropriate types and one item of a Rare, i.e. 46 items of 10 types.

Using GIGO, one item of any type and Rarity may be found by means of a successful Aquiring test. The type sought must be specified in advance of the roll and the target number is the rarity Rating. The GM may wish to apply a modifier based on the nature of the search or centre. For each multiple by which the target number is exceeded, one extra item is found. The GM may allow consolation items to be found using WYSIWYG.

Example: If the target number is 4, a result of 9 exceeds it by 5, turning up two items.

Pricing: To find the price, roll a number of D6s equal to the number of items of that type currently available and discard all but the lowest result; multiply by the reference cost.

Example: A reactor keyring has a reference cost of 50 CR. If three are available, three dice are rolled, for a 5, 4 and 2. The 2 is used: each item costs 2 x 50 CR, i.e. 100 CR. 

                                                                                                                              

If Fenway5 is happy, I'll add this to the batch I'm sending for the RS quarterly. I'm now working on some trading rules which build on this framework, also potentially universal.

Rogue Space downloads - Rogue Space news

Rogue Space at Hereticwerks - Rogue Space at Swords & Stitchery - Rogue Space at the Expanse

_

Goodbye, Mr Blofeld

Many of us know space debris exists. There's a lot of it, and even flakes of paint do damage at high speeds. But is this the optimal solution?

Sending up a disposable satellite, with all the cost launching objects involves, to catch it up, grab hold of it and bring it down to burn up? Could there be more efficient options?

I'd bet we could think of a few more to look at. Even if ground-based lasers might have nefarious uses and send pieces further out, why not nudge the junk say, or set it on a downward course using gravity, or attach tiny thrusters, or repel it with the hunter's thrusters and even use the reaction to help the hunter transfer to the next piece?

This gets me tinkering more with micro-G rules, like the Derelict set. Why do so few games use set-ups like this or have even basic rules for playing in these conditions?

No future today?

There's a thought-provoking post on sci-fi, nostalgia and technology at Ambling Along the Aqueduct, which also ties into the recent interest in zines. On the subject, I've linked to that big list below the blogrolls. For more laws, Old School Heretic has a useful list.

_

Table - Failed dungeons

It seems strange the word 'dungeon' is used as often as it is for a roleplaying adventure site, given it's rarely actually a dungeon at all. But that's beyond the scope of this post.

This is a D36 list of reasons for a site not working out or even existing. I'm hoping jasons at the enjoyable The Dungeon Dozen hasn't already written a table on the same theme.

1. Unbuilt: 1) conceptually unobtainable; 2) just a dream, hallucination or fantasy; 3) successfully foreseen and terminated at source; 4) all supplications rejected; 5) creator suffering self-doubt; 6) sketched on back of envelope, but then sent
2. Unvisited: 1) wording of rumour alienates most or all adventurers; 2) local NPCs not consulted by creator and withholding recognition; 3) disguised too cunningly; 4) ahead of its time; 5) buried in sandbox; 6) DM has that strange glint in eye...
3. Inaccessible: 1) non-existent pocket universe; 2) built out from within, entrance never added; 3) arcane means of entry lost or forgotten early on in development; 4) not at scale of landscape; 5) too few dimensions; 6) statted for wrong system
4. Unbalanced: 1) unexpected evolution of one or more occupants; 2) emptied by surprisingly effective trap; 3) entirely filled by fast-spreading mould; 4) grew to encompass all of reality; 5) trapped in temporal loop; 6) cleared by playtesters
5. Repurposed: 1) creator rethought alignment; 2) creation not having any of that; 3) revolution launched by occupants; 4) repossessed by backers and put to more profitable use; 5) domineering collaborator, aggressive editor and/or proofreader with ulterior motives; 6) exploited by malwayre infection from external netwyrk
6. Destroyed: 1) mortar or equivalent lost in unanticipated interaction; 2) collapsed under weight of treasure; 3) consumed by magical chain reaction; 4) demolished by higher authority for breach of terms; 5) killed creator's grandfather; 6) victim of generational change, hoping for old school renaissance with little fresh thinking

_

Lure of pixel skies

Troll and Flame has a link for a deal on D&D-themed video games, and Lasgunpacker mentioned the site has some free games too. It does, including Lure of the Temptress from '92 and Beneath a Steel Sky from '94, two classic adventures with a great mood.

Remembering the impression particular games made graphically, I started thinking how useful screenshots could be in roleplaying, and the variety there is. The trick would be getting to the screens, unless there's a way to technically and legally unpack them.

With enough screens you could even use a tabletop system to play the video game, or explore alternative paths through it, or the wider game world, and bring in extra screens from other games too. It might better reach those inner spaces out among the pixels.

For a sense of the potential then, and the inspiration, and the pleasure of the journey, here are playthroughs for those two, Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky.

_

At the Sea of Unease...

Sector V3 is now up on the local maps page at Strange New World, which is the sector I'll be filling. I'll be posting as I go. Here's a warm-up.

Prospector Report IV/a/i  Inland sea, rich in unknown compounds. Initial orbital observations indicated complex organic coverage; ATVs sent. The third crew reported a symbiotic algal mat thick enough over large areas to suspend fully-loaded buggies, and a submerged network of gas pockets, passages and chambers. Extreme climatic dynamism. Still no word from the second crew. The ravings of the first make no sense to any of us...

If you want one of the unused sectors, pretty much everything you need is at this post.
_

The same old different new

A quick list of goings-on from the top blogroll themed around renewal and rediscovery.

• In an Expanse-friendly double-whammy, the delving mwschmeer at Rended Press has a long list not just of zines, but zines on 40K and Warhammer.

• Hopeful Monster Creations have put their first release out, Sean Robson's indie board game Megadungeon!, inspired by the old TSR microgames.
  

• Former GW designer Andy Hoare has been updating the narrative skirmish game Get the Girl, Kill the Baddies and any and all feedback is welcome.

• Sidney Roundwood and TOOFatLardies are designing for the Dark Ages - here and here - and going deep, with 1, 2, 3 reports reflecting the histories, and rules for goading; Arlequin has yet more insight for gaming the period.

• Stuart at Strange Magic has a simple approach to converting D&D monsters to player characters, Hereticwerks have a set of weird beings for Swords & Wizardry and S. P. at How to Succeed... has more adapted to fourth.

• And sad news to finish - Rustfoot has posted its last, but the blog is still up.

_

They're in our heads

Inspired by this post at The Secret Sun and the return to the Empyre, a 140-character horror story for Flash Fearsday. C'nor has a superb tale here which might also tie in.

They. They hide beyond sight, in the dark. They control what I know, control me. They. Violence reveals them, but never their secrets.

My lobes, synapses, neurons. Me?

_

Rogue Space - Empyric Citiʒant

More material for the Rogue Space project. This time it's a new player character for games in the Empyre setting, the everyman Empyric Citiʒant.

The 'ʒ' is pronounced the same way as the 'g' in 'genre', to load the word with more meanings and reflect the ideas in the background.

                                                                                                                              

Empyric Citiʒant

In the deadly war of words known as the Uncivil Discourse, the Interlocutors call upon the Citiʒants of manifold Empyric worlds, for 'ʒantries can be convinced to take up any cause in relevant numbers if the promotional campaign is glitzy enough. On every front the Pleople speak, and do not mince their words; they mince their enemy - themselves.

A Citiʒant may not be the equal of an Innergrounder, or have access to the same level of weaponry, but the individual does have a degree of specialist knowledge or ability either drummed in, programmed or literally embodied from an early age, if not before.

Attributes: To use a point pool, divide 2 points among the Attributes. To determine Attributes randomly, roll 1d6 for each Attribute on the following modified points table.

Roll        1    2    3    4    5    6

ATR #    -1   -1    0  +1  +1  +2

Archetype: Any ordinarily available, but with the starting Hit Points total reduced by 1. 

Career: A Citiʒant has a socio-economic role represented by one word; this may be two or more words at the discretion of the GM. Each word is created by the player and/or GM, or generated by rolling 3D6 once on each table, combining the two elements.

 3) trepi-; 4) Who-; 5) preter-; 6) No-; 7) yoro-; 8) credu-; 9) ricto-; 10) ware-; 11) meteo-;
 12) putro-; 13) manu-; 14) loco-; 15) gyro-; 16) munito-; 17) macro-; 18) astro-

 3) -nik; 4) -dude; 5) -nut; 6) -dule; 7) -droll; 8) -monger; 9) -node; 10) -klep; 11) -crat;
 12) -goon; 13) -lug; 14) -mech; 15) -werk; 16) -path; 17) -list; 18) -lect

Each word is interpreted by the player(s) and/or GM and assigned two areas of ability, one area of ability per element. If one of the areas may be useful when the character takes an action, the player may reroll one die; if both areas, both may be rerolled.

Example: A putrocrat is an administrator in waste disposal. Dealing with red tape or navigating a sewer, one may be rerolled; searching a database for cycler plans, both.

Equipment: Widespread / 1d6 Appropriate / 1 Rare. Starting weapons have a Range and Damage one Rating lower than normal, e.g. Range M, Damage V becomes Range S, Damage L. A Range of S drops to 0, and a Damage of S drops to LOL, i.e. 1D6-1.

                                                                                                                              

I'm planning an Empyric equipment list, which is why there's a division into a range of rarities. As ever, all thoughts are welcome, and for more material follow the links below.

Rogue Space downloads - Rogue Space news

Rogue Space at Hereticwerks - Rogue Space at Swords & Stitchery - Rogue Space at the Expanse

_

Hi, robots (01001000011010010010000001110010 0110111101100010011011110111010001110011)

Lots of discussion of the new verifying system for comments. If it's so bad, maybe it's meant to be, to get us all turning it off and commenting more?

That makes sense, to get discussion, and repeat visits, and more info from us - you can monetise that - and more ad views, with it all encouraging bloggers to post more often, for yet more info.

Canageek has a very persuasive interpretation in the 12th comment here at Tim's. Who knows - maybe someone can earn on the spam itself?

I've heard the case for lowering shields. To some extent I'm with Tim - if you really are a robot, I want you to check in. But why not wait - in case it is what we're meant to do? What's good news for one of the biggest companies isn't necessarily good for us all.

Also, the amount of spam might go up now if so many people are switching it off. Then again, maybe it's time to ask what's so bad about spam anyway - most is obvious, and spotting the rest is good mental exercise. I'd likely go the route here at Rended Press.

_

GW, big IP, names and myth

Four things linked by the theme of IP ownership.

First, BoLS yesterday linked to this discussion at reddit in which apparently verified high-profile ex-GW staff members talk about inner workings; pricing policy, release and retail are all covered.

The Empyre

Some background for the human Empyre. This is the setting I'm using for Rogue Space materials, the naval and space combat game, and one more project that's on the way.

*          *          *          *          *

Fine weather! Set out your criteria and let's do this thing.

WHIRR: brief, hysteria, stymies_

Cowabunga>>>

                                                                                                                              

KINDLY NOTE: The history of Whomanity is still mysterious. Stone remembers little, the paper has all now crumbled and the Electrotonic systems were a flicker in the dark. The majority of our Noledge comes from the sole cryogenic burial facility to survive the Meltdown, and the hacked memories of its Generous occupants. That we might No.

WATCH IT: This material is Lobal.

Amazing Stories still

Strange Horizons just posted a link to a link, to which I link, to The Pulp Magazines Project, which has put the first six issues of Amazing Stories online. This is material that shaped our world, and very likely still does, directly or not, for good, ill or indifferent.

_

Appendix OSR (1)

I caught up with the latest articles at Orion's Arm today. There's one on attention economics and another on money in post-scarcity economies.

We're not post scarcity on Earth yet - not all of us anyway - but the tabletop gaming community as represented online, when online at least, does to some degree resemble that kind of society.

So what do we do with all the potential we have?

Even if we don't get a wider discussion going just yet, it can't hurt to build up a useful reading list.

_

Opening - sound - trail

The owl follows you with unblinking eyes as you crunch across the snow away from the oak, into the undergrowth of the space between the trees.

Tearing your gaze away, you scan the treeline for an alternative route, in among the drifts and hollows below the canopy. Pushing through a clump of ferns, you set off a skittering somewhere beneath frosted fronds. You freeze.

It comes again, now off to the left, movement over crusted ice, amid close-woven stems.

Light glitters over the landscape. You stand, listen. And beyond, past the oak, you see another trail. Narrow, but somehow grander, it climbs to a ribbon of sky. The owl stares.

Attempt to find the hidden creature   Blog One

Wait, listening and observing   Blog One

Take the game trail   Blog One

Head down to the clearing   Blog One   Blog Two

Follow the trail beyond the oak   Blog One   Blog Two

_

Not quite not a Valentine's Day gaming post

I wasn't going to jump on any kind of Valentine's Day gaming bandwagon, but being as there isn't one, maybe I'll balance things out by posting on the theme anyway, and put forward a idea or two on showing in-game relationships mechanically.

The first is just an adaption of a simple system I posted last year, for identifying acquaintances.

The basic mechanism is a roll using a die with any number of faces. When creating a new character, each player rolls this die. The result represents their nature, interests or needs in a given area, whether they are fully aware of these or not, in interpersonal relationships for the sake of the post. The higher the number, the more specific they are.

B's team can't stretch to an A Team, but there's still...

MacGyver? He never had this, and not in a place like this.

_

Keeping track of tracks

If you're using those hunting rules I posted last week, you might be finding it difficult to mark the tracks using only dice unless you have a lot of a given colour or size, especially with large forces.

So here are some counters just in case you don't have any that are suitable. I followed the pattern of the earlier sets, but switched the edging colour to one that should look reasonable over various colours of landscape, whether sand, mud, grass or snow. Feel free to download and print them.
_

40K OSR? (15)

Another flood of 40K OSR? links. I let them build again, but I'd like to get this weekly to fortnightly.

Various definitions of 'OSR' are here and Colonel Kane's logo is to the right. If you use it, consider giving him the credit and adding Tales from the Maelstrom to your roll as a fine example - since the last time they've posted on Rogue Trooper.

And away we go then - just don't look down...

• First a PSA: Inquisitork is moving blog, to The Maddening Words of C M Forde.

• A Night Lords playtest codex developed via TCP was announced at Galaxy in Flames, the blog now renamed Big Jim's Hobby Adventures.

• Chaos Gerbil released his Codex: Lost and the Damned Fandex v4.

• Tabletop Fix announced an Inquisitor sourcebook from Dark Magenta.

• Rules Man Bryssling has an unfinished post from Rules Manufactorum on rules design for tournaments and a reworking of Necron flayed ones.

• Kraggi at The Varcan Cluster posted the 36-entry events table for the campaign as well as parts 7 and 8 of the rules and pics of 1, 2 maps.

• The campaign is underway at Terminus Omega, with 1, 2 parts of an IG v. Harlequin battle report, details of a solo approach and throne agents.

• Thor's final versions of the King of the Hill, Search and Destroy and Target Priority missions were posted at Creative Twilight, along with updated versions of The Long Haul and Attack and Defend.

• At Warpstone Flux the current army list challenge uses a fiery scenario.

• Nurglitch is looking at a card-based approach to Adeptus Titanicus.

• Naftka at Faeit 212 reports the sixth edition leak is real and part of a plan.

• There's a celebration of 25 years of Rogue Trader at Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, and thanks to Dave G at Wargaming Tradecraft for the link.

• Not so far back, Stillfrosty at White Scars has the Movie Marines rules.

• Also re old rules, HoP has links for 'flash 40K' via Dracus' Journal.

• Gotthammer at Collegia Titanica has the second Koronus Gazetter.

• Kenzie's blog has 1, 2, 3 more write-ups for the Dark Heresy campaign.

• Miniature-wise the big news was Mantic's human Corporation range, ideal for counts as IG, and the Privateer Press Colossals, possible knights.

• Eldar Addict has some dangerous-looking Dark Eldar grotesques in 1, 2 parts so far based on this approach by Lucky No. 5 at Eye of Terror.

• Warhammer in Progress has an unusual Ork trukk build, the Grot Rod, and a work in progress on the wider Ork army, with all kinds of conversions.

• Unite All Action has an old, bits-heavy feral Ork warboss conversion.

• Ron at From the Warp sculpts detail to get a fuller Mk. 6 power armour, and has an Eldar corsair based on Forge World's, modelled and painted.

• Hungry Ghosts has the Chaos Squat bikers on parade in 1, 2 parts.

• Cameron at Rust and the city is building a spectacular Imperial renegade force and looking for some advice on going with counts as Grey Knights.

• Laughing Ferret is working on a scary counts as genestealer cult.

• Mordian7th finished a whirlwind built the good old White Dwarf way and now has a Magnus the Red as well, with possible rules in the post.

• At Spiky Rat Pack izeColt is part-sculpting a mutie and companion.

• Apocalypse 40K linked to work on a scratchbuilt Eldar superheavy flier and a Nightwing and mentions the Necron-like Cyber Bike and Orc Gruberwagen from Puppets War and Chaos pauldrons from Kromlech.

• On the subject of alternatives, specifically Ork buggies, Whelp Slayer likes the Mantic Raptor; thanks to Miniature Musings of a Bear for the link.

• Old School Terminator at Dark Future Games has some uses for the new Mantis Tank from Blight Wheel Miniatures, with the measurements here.

• Imaginary Life shows off some 28mm bits good for cultists and marines.

• An alternative to buying new of course is refurbishing old, and Sign of the Aquila is doing that with a marine dreadnought in 1, 1.5 parts so far.

• There are sci-fi interiors at Hudson, for a Space Hulk, BFG and 40K mix.

• Hogs of War posted a work in progress on a set of large fortress walls.

• Vitor at Aurelius Legion finished the ventilator, inspired by Necromundicon.

• At Confessions... dwez painted the modular plug and the second man-made hill, and posted 1, 2, 3 updates on the plasma generator.

• Goblin Mini-Mart has some work in progress Necromunda scrap wastes. 

• Redscorps has research station terrain, with a weathered stormraven.
  

• On the 3D printing front, Apocalypse 40K also has a shout-out for a pioneer.

• Rictus at Recalcitrant Daze looks at using 3D printing for defensive walls in 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 5a, 6 parts, as well as building elements in 1, 2 parts so far.

• How 3D printing might change things is suggested by this story at TGN.

• CounterFett has 1, 2, 3, 4 more pics from Space Crusade at All Things Fett. 

In case you haven't read it yet and you have an interest, I'll also plug my recent post on ownership of IP. It's closely linked to the essence of this and possibly 3D printing most.

As ever, if you think I've missed anything, even your work, drop a link in the comments.

Update: Here's the first, a link to a series of posts at The Retired Adventurer on using Stars Without Number to run games set in the 40K universe; the introduction is here.

_