Where Shall The Imperial Capital Be?

Star Tours Corsucant; Disney

SandWyrm here. Canageek had an interesting comment to the post on our universe's setting that we ought to consider.

Our New Logo

SandWyrm here. I knocked this out today. What do you think?

Odds And Ends

Painting Stuff Still Life; Limone_02

SandWyrm here. I've done some re-organizing and just want to update everyone on the changes.

The Scale Of War: Part 1 - Basic Measures

Eriochrome here. I want to talk about the scale of the battlefield that we'll typically be fighting on in terms of real-world measurements of weapon ranges, etc.

Imagining A New Kind Of Chaos: Part II

I'm going to wrap up my thoughts on the galactic setting, as we've already hashed out a lot of the background I'd intended to cover in the comments to Part 1.

Are The Bugs The Highest Life Form?

With all of the Rampant-Free-Will vs. Unity-In-Oppression of the universe we're creating, I'd like to start a discussion about the only race that may be able to transcend all of this and turn out to really be the most 'advanced' faction of all.

Imagining A New Kind Of Chaos: Part 1

SandWyrm here. Before we get too deep into creating the innermost details of our Human Empire, I think I need to describe my ideas for the race that will be their antitheses in our universe. If the Empire represents order, purity, faith, obedience, oppression, and unity; then this race represents disorder, decadence, impurity, rebellion, freedom, and fierce individuality. The two civilizations are paired, as neither would be what they are without the ongoing influence of the other. Neither is truly evil, yet neither is truly good either.

Fluff Start: Let's Look At The Galaxy

Andreas Cellarius; Map of the Constellations of the Northern Hemishpere; 1708

SandWyrm here. This week I'm going to put out a series of posts that lay down my thoughts on what the skeleton of our game's fluff should be. My intention here is to inspire everyone with original ideas we haven't seen before in a game world. So that we can build a game universe that isn't just comparable to the one in 40K, but which is even more compelling. Then I'll hand everything over to the Fluff Marshal (and his team), who will fill in what's missing, give flesh to the bones, and take all of these ideas to the next level. Where we can hang various factions and armies off of them.

Who Wants To Be Our Fluff Marshal?

SandWyrm here. I'm busy writing the game rules, so it's time to share some responsibility and get a parallel development track going. I have the outline of a setting for our game in my head, which I will be posting sometime this coming week. But I'm going to need someone to take that skeleton, make it their own, and then hit it out of the park.

Think about it. It's a big responsibility.

First Strokes: Models And Units

Science is Measurement; Henry Stacy Marks; 1879

SandWyrm here. I've just finished bashing out some more rules. All this stuff seems so basic until you get into it and realize this or that needs more clarification than we're used to. :)

Welcome To Our New Members! Plus Other Stuff...

Gateway to the West; by David Wright

Sandwyrm here, It looks like we picked up 4 new members over the last week. Welcome! We're a remarkably civil group in our discussions, so please feel free to dive in at any time and contribute your opinions.

There's a few other things I wanted to update everyone on so we're on the same page.

Sportsmanship And Dice: Take 2

Soldiers Playing Dice; Michelangelo Cerquozzi

SandWyrm here. Taking all of the feedback from both here and The Back 40K into account, here's a revised set of rules. Instead of being up front in the 'How To Play' section, they've been moved to the back of the book in a 'Sportsmanship' section that won't be the first thing that new players see. I've also softened some of the language and removed the unenforceable rules.

First Strokes: Rolling Dice

The Dice Players; La Tour; 1650

SandWyrm here. I've spent most of the day writing rules about dice. I thought that I'd get through it quickly, as most games spend a page or less on this. But it ended up requiring 4 pages to address properly. The first half of this is pretty straightforward how-to-roll stuff. The second half is the juicy bit where I talk about anti-cheating restrictions. Because really, any game that wants to encourage competitive play should address these issues clearly in the rules.

First Strokes: Unit Characteristics

John Mulcaster Carrick - The Recruiting Sargeant 1862

I've now begun the task of writing up the rules. Which so far consist of a 'What Is M42?' intro section and the following introduction to the various unit characteristics I'm thinking of using. I figure that the best way of not disappearing during the writing process is to keep everyone updated as I go along and invite comment on what I'm doing. My current plan is to finish up an introductory section that's roughly analogous to the first 8 pages of 40K's rules. I'll then post a PDF before moving on to the formal description of the turn sequence.

Reworking Vehicle Damage

SandWyrm here. I've got some thoughts on how to re-work vehicle damage.

How To De-Value Melta Through Game Mechanics

SandWyrm here; Jon asked a good question about melta-reliance in the comments to my last post that I think deserves a proper answer.

Shall We Resume The M42 Project?

'New Start' by Fawn McNeil

Howdy! SandWyrm here. It's been not quite 6 months since I last posted anything here on M42. Is the project dead? I've never thought so. Rather, I considered it to be in a state of hibernation as I learned the rules of another game that has taken 40K's same basic structure and made massive improvements to it.