Members' Homebrewed Tabletop Games

Imperium

Richard Cowen:

   A few years ago, Games Workshop released the Inquisitor narrative skirmish wargame, which went into new depths of the Warhammer 40,000 setting. It wasn't quite a roleplaying game, but it was almost there. I started fiddling about with a few ideas, brought in some more from the 1st Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and started playtesting at LURPS.

   Working to my favourite quote from George Orwell's 1984, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever", the ethos of Imperium is that the PCs are disposable citizens of the Imperium, the bloodiest, cruellest, yet most vital, regime in human history. Another strong source of inspiration was the range of novels produced by Games Workshop's publishing wing, the Black Library, particularly the Gaunt's Ghosts and Eisenhorn series of novels by Dan Abnett.

   The intention was to create a pretty complete roleplaying game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I think I did pretty well, although at the time of writing, the emphasis is firmly on playing humans, abhumans (ogryns, ratlings, squats and beastmen) and subhumans (mutants), rather than aliens. PC types range from the more obvious military -  Imperial Guard, Space Marines (with rules for bio-implantation), Planetary Defence Forces, Imperial Navy, Adeptus Arbites etc. - through freelance bounty hunters, hive gangers and mercenaries, to Inquisitors, sanctioned psykers, academics, politicians, nobles and, of course, the many brands of scum that live at the lowest end of Imperial society. Almost every human-manufactured weapon and piece of armour from the setting is available in the armoury, along with all kinds of other pieces of equipment.

   There's also a full psychic system, adapted from the Inquisitor system, but with considerable additions and tweaks.

   The game is available for free download from here, and can be viewed online here.

Inferno

Pete Brunton:

   After 10 long years of development hell, Inferno 4th Edition finally debuted at LURPS.

   In the course of one campaign the playtesters saved a planet from destruction, pissed off several empires, killed a major demon, killed their undead employer, broke the time stream, met a dragon, and accidentally stole a space station.

   As you might guess from all this, the setting for Inferno is a rather wacky mix of science fiction and fantasy, and carries shades of Fading Suns, Warhammer 40,000, Star Wars, Shadowrun, Space 1889, Dune, and pretty much every other SF-Fantasy out there. The system usually involves chucking a bunch of six sided dice around (the only kind used in the game, none of this D4, D8, D10 crap).

   The rulebooks are now available for download here. Just look for the Roleplaying section.

   In the coming years I will continue to test and refine both the setting and system for Inferno, and I have high hopes for the game's future.

Smog & Mirrors

Richard Cowen:

   Smog & Mirrors is the working title for a game that I originally started writing so that I could use my ideas from the Imperium system in a way that would a) make me money, and b) not get me sued into oblivion by Games Workshop's highly trained attack lawyers. Over time, the system's evolved so there's not much left that looks like Imperium.

   The system is based on a D100 roll-under stat+skill system, and the combat system has managed to eradicate hit points and experience points entirely (something I'm rather proud of, in a geeky sort of way). The magic system's made up of customisable spells (inspired by the power creation system in Godlike), and has a nice level of risk to it - madness, mutation, the usual - and the more powerful a thaumist gets, the less human he becomes.

   PC types include humans, uruks (high elves, but they've arguably got more in common with the archetypical orcs, really), and ophidians (a breed of reptiles that inhabit the equatorial regions). It's also possible to play three types of undead (revenants, liches and vampires) as well.

   The Smog & Mirrors setting is a fantasy world caught up in its equivalent of World War One, with a dash of the Dark Ages thrown into the cultural mix. Two great alliances have been pounding at one another with artillery, machine guns, aeroplanes, tanks and magic for over seven years, and are bogged down in a devastating stalemate. On one side, the kingdom of Brigantia, with the Frankish republic and the people's collectives of Tchielsovo and Hso Chan form the Appalian Union, while on the other, the Goethian Empire, the principality of Ostbergenland and the Empire of Nihon are signatories to the Kirchefluss Accord.

   Meanwhile, off to the west, the neutral Commonwealth of Vinland is dealing with the problems of alcohol prohibition, seceded provinces, rising ethnic tensions and extreme nationalist and collectivist political parties waging war in the streets. To the south, the colonies of Terra Nova are trying to avoid getting involved in the war, while simultaneously keeping the unruly natives calm.

   In the middle of this world gone mad, privateers (read as mercenaries, adventurers or other wandering sociopaths) earn what money then can, while simultaneously (and in most cases, accidentally) being on the front line of a parallel conflict with the cultists of the Dragon, depraved lunatics taking advantage of the chaos of total war to bring their alien deity into the mortal realm.

   Influences include the Call of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies, Godlike and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay roleplaying games, the Saving Private Ryan and Indiana Jones films, the Band of Brothers television series, the First World War In Colour, Nazis: A Warning From History and War of the Century documentaries, and the Harry Turtledove's The Great War, American Empire and Return Engagement series of alternate history novels.

   Smog & Mirrors is still in the development stages at the time of writing, so no complete rules or background are available online, although I occasionally post bits and pieces at the Design Journal, and if you ask nicely I might let you have a copy of the game as it stands.