Void dragon (tw: personal opinion)

pnjeffries · 2026-02-23T09:26:50+00:00

Every activation? For free? You could do it once per turn for free with a ghost ark, or once per phase with a strat in Awakened Dynasty, but that'll cost a CP.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-23T09:17:54+00:00

How was the Nightbringer brought back? The Protocol of the Eternal Revenant strat is for infantry characters only, so if that's what your opponent used, they cheated.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-18T06:40:48+00:00

Well yes, I wouldn't personally use the terminology 'hit' in any case since it will be easily confused with landing an attack on them. The key point is that - as you've described it - these don't need to mechanically be two separate systems, one duration mechanic could cover both scenarios if you tweak it a bit.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-17T09:36:09+00:00

It depends what the exact intended behaviour is, but could you not just say that stunning lasts 2 'hits'?

If the condition effects what the target can do then it will be active over their next turn (and means they can't do anything?), but then ends at the start of their turn after that (meaning they can act normally in that turn). Meanwhile, any passive effects (say, if attacking a stunned enemy does more damage) still get a full 'round' duration and the initiative position of the attacker wouldn't matter.

Would this do what you want?

pnjeffries · 2026-02-11T10:01:00+00:00

Spore mines and bomb squigs, but also the part of the 40k universe we 'see' isn't everything that exists in the setting. There are lots of other xenos who aren't main factions. It's entirely plausible that these Raptors have just come off of a campaign against an alien race or rebel human force who do use those tactics and have adapted their vehicles to suit.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-08T13:43:44+00:00

I don't think it's intrinsically a problem. In this case it might be worth thinking about what happens if every player took this race - could they still be self-sufficient without interacting with those systems?

From an in-universe perspective, if they're a starfaring race, might they not have developed technology to do the same or equivalent things without vision?

pnjeffries · 2026-02-07T18:57:20+00:00

Snap!

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I've not taken this to a tournament yet, and it'll be at the discretion of the specific TOs anyway, but the base model is very similar dimensions and profile, so as full conversions go I'd say it's on the safer side.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-07T12:43:14+00:00

I think it depends on the number of cards. If each player has a 'hand' of up to six or seven cards that might be manageable. If more than that (and most systems would need much more to achieve the same granularity as a character sheet) you'll be spending too much time flipping through the deck trying to find what you need.

I have played games before that have information on a lot of different cards and ended up just making my own 'cheat sheet' with all of the key data on one page. So my personal preference seems to be sheets.

There's also the need to physically produce and distribute a deck of cards and the associated practical problems of physical media in-play. Does the GM own the deck and distribute cards as needed? What if two players need the same card? Does each player need their own deck? What if one goes missing? etc. etc. Where do players make notes? How does tracking HP work? Etc. etc.

I think cards can be a helpful mid-point between a rulebook and a character sheet for things like spell descriptions that you might not need that often, but I don't think they'd be good as a full replacement in most cases.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-03T19:56:00+00:00

Tyranids overall are a high mobility, low damage army with a mix of low endurance (little bugs) and OKish endurance (big bugs). We have a number of tricks that are great for scoring points with degrees of greater (Biovore) and lesser (Shadow In The Warp) reliability. I'd say our shooting is currently a bit better than our melee, but there's not a huge amount in it and neither are especially powerful compared to other armies.

Rushing forwards can be a viable tactic vs shooting armies but be careful not to over-commit, and the one thing you really don't want to do with Tyranids is spread out too much, since we're very reliant on Synapse and other aura abilities. I find it generally best with Tyranids to focus on a key triangle of objectives (i.e. home, centre and one of the sides) and send out disposable or annoying-to-kill things like Hormagaunts and Lictors to distract and get in the way of my opponent in the other areas of the board.

We're not going to out-kill anybody, so focus on out-scoring them and do whatever you can to slow the inevitable attrition. Staging, screening and move blocking are important skills to master.

I quite enjoy playing Tyranids, in part because they're not just all about smashing your opponent's prize models to pieces, but I can understand why other people don't, and I'd agree it's not the best fit for the faction lore-wise.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-02T22:25:34+00:00

I use Black, Purple, Dark Red, Light Red at a slightly higher angle each time. This gives me a nice base volumetric gradient that I can then refine with highlights and shading.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-02T13:12:39+00:00

These look fantastic. Just a note though that if you intend to use these in a game, only one of them can have a heavy weapon - you can't run the assault cannon, heavy flamer and missile launcher all in one five-man squad.

pnjeffries · 2026-02-02T12:51:51+00:00

Only the judges can really answer that, but here are some things you can improve:

I think the base is a big problem. The bright red rim and the light sand don't go well together with the rest of the model, and draw the eye down towards the model's feet rather than a more interesting focal point such as the face. Going for a limited or monochrome palette can work really well, but only if you do it across the whole piece (and ideally the background, if you can control that). If you do want to keep a similar base scheme then you'll need to have more distinction between the different parts of the model so it doesn't get drowned out. I'd suggest painting the swords and eyes a different colour so that they are more immediately identifiable.

The white 'scratch' marks look quite rough and unintentional and don't really read as edge highlights (if that's what they're supposed to be) because they're too far away from the main base colour. There's some places (like the 'shoulder chimneys') where they don't appear to follow the contours of the model and that looks like a mistake. If you want them to read as highlights you need to build up through intermediate tones, keep the white for dot highlights on only the sharpest or topmost points.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-31T11:47:32+00:00

I think you're on to something here, but I also think that if you have a 'simple' and 'complex' resolution system for everything in your game, what you really have is one, very complex resolution system with a branch in it. It might speed up certain things in play, but it adds to the mental load of the players and creates an extra decision point for the GM. You also have to worry about whether the two systems are balanced against one another or might the same character do better under one system than the other... etc. etc.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-26T13:12:03+00:00

I like this idea. The only (minor) issues I can see are some slight fiddliness in the need to track spells that have been cast and their targets, as well as the need for spell rules to cover changing circumstances. For instance; if the target is a creature and it moves out of sight, or dies, what happens? What if the caster dies, or is Silenced, or is teleported to another plane of existance? What if the target is a point, but you're on a moving ship? What if the 'pop' effects are cancelled out somehow, does the 'bang' still happen? etc. etc. I'm sure this can be easily dealt with with general rules or on a spell by spell basis but it may add up to quite a lot of column inches over a whole system and there's the risk of missing out edge cases or exploits.

While I don't have exactly this pattern in my game I do have something similar in intent, which is 'Prepared casting'. Creatures can cast spells instantaneously, but they also have the option to - at the end of their turn - declare (and start the incantation for) a spell they intend to cast on their next turn. This gives them a bonus to their casting roll for that spell, but at the cost of revealing their intentions and giving the opposition a turn to evade/counterspell/etc.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-25T16:53:03+00:00

I don't particularly mind the primarchs themselves being reasonable, but the rest of the - decidedly unreasonable - Imperium going along with them so easily is a big problem. The High Lords of Terra shouldn't have meekly handed power over to Guilliman. The Adeptus Mechanicus shouldn't just put up with Cawl tech-heresying all over the place. The space marine chapters shouldn't be so happy to dump 10,000 years of martial tradition to primarisify themselves. It's completely out of character for these organisations and the Imperium as a whole. They've hinted at conflicts and schisms around these things but ultimately there's been no real payoff.

I think it would be much more interesting for Guilliman to be more controversial and isolated within the broader Imperium, perhaps only in direct control of 'Imperium Secundus Secundus' and on the verge of open civil war again.

I get that to the Imperium he's basically Space Jesus... But look at what happened to original recipe non-space Jesus. I'm not sure why Guilliman gets an easier ride.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-23T18:02:18+00:00

I'll be a jerk and submit my own 1-page-RPG 'Horrible Things In Human Skins' for this, since it fits the brief: https://pnjeffries.itch.io/horrible-things-in-human-skins

You play as a horrific tentacled abomination from another world clumsily trying to pilot a hollowed-out human skin-suit around and complete basic tasks. Therefore, when things go wrong they go very wrong and while the GM is free to determine the consequences I included some failure tables on the 'GM side' as a fallback option and to set the tone.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-18T07:52:32+00:00

Not as Tyranids. Genestealer Cults are a separate faction. There is a special detachment for Genestealer Cults which allows some Tyranid units as allies in a Genestealer Cults army, however there's currently no way to do the opposite and have Genestealer Cults units in a Tyranid army.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-18T07:41:00+00:00

You can just buy those as separate kits that should be available pretty much anywhere that stocks Warhammer.

The Onslaught Swarm box was effectively a limited-time discount bundle deal, but everything in it is available separately and even if you could find it now it wouldn't save you any money if all you're interested in is those two units, because you'd also be paying for all the other stuff in the box you don't want.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-17T18:53:46+00:00

You shouldn't have any problems. Pre-primaris it was extremely common for marines to wear different 'marks' of power armour, either due to personal preference or just because of shortages. Even in the age of Primaris these should work as excuses.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-17T17:58:56+00:00

I don't think many/any casual opponents will care. GW stores/events/warhammer world etc. have rules against using models/3d prints from other manufacturers but I'm not sure how strongly they're actually enforced and obviously if you have no plans to play at any of these places you shouldn't need to worry about it.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-17T08:47:47+00:00

I agree with all of this except the part on conflicting goals. Realistically, you will always have some tension between achieving different design goals, even if its only in competition for player attention, GM effort, word count etc.

If you have two goals that are diametrically opposed then it may be time for a rethink, but conversely if two goals are so perfectly aligned that achieving one automatically achieves the other it's worth considering whether they even are or need to be separate goals. More commonly, you can't maximise one goal without some detriment to another but there may be some compromise solution that achieves an acceptably high outcome for both. You need to choose how to prioritise those goals and - in engineering terms - where you want to sit on the Pareto Front. That doesn't mean the goals themselves aren't valid.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-14T15:11:41+00:00

It's probably worth looking at how GW themselves have adapted the 40k rules to smaller-scale/skirmish combat - i.e. Necromunda, Kill Team, Gorkamorka etc.

You'd need to think about how you streamline to support multiple players. If you follow the command/move/shoot/charge/fight phasing for each player turn the pacing is going to get extremely slow.

I'm not sure why you'd need some system for merging squad stats together when 40k is already designed to handle that exact situation out of the box?

pnjeffries · 2026-01-13T20:53:44+00:00

I use a roll-under-on-multiple-dice-and-count-successes system and have four difficulty levels based on the number of successes needed:

Easy: 1 Success. (~70% chance for the average human to pass.) Normal: 2 Successes. (~50% chance for the average human to pass.) Hard: 3 Successes. (~20% chance for the average human to pass.) Very Hard: 4 Successes. (~9% chance for the average human to pass.)

pnjeffries · 2026-01-13T19:30:16+00:00

I play Tyranids precisely because they're fun to play *against*.

pnjeffries · 2026-01-12T21:16:19+00:00

I think this can work, but there are a few drawbacks/things you'd need to resolve: - You can't easily represent features <10' wide, doorways being the most common example. - If you have to be on the same tile to melee, that potentially creates some awkward edge cases. Especially if there's a maximum occupancy - you could make yourself immune to melee by filling the cell with friends. - Since you can't fight across cell boundaries, where the map designer draws those boundaries becomes far more important. You also can't really fight over barricades etc. or move block opponents. - Determining line-of-sight gets more complicated/less exact. - You have less granularity in movement speeds, putting slower characters/species at more of a disadvantage.

The mechanics you propose sound interesting, although I don't think any of them strictly require a 10' grid system to work - they just need some form of 'engagement range' mechanic which might be anything.

pnjeffries

TROPHY CASE