Imaginary Armies II

 

Last year I made a post where I talked about making armies that don't exist, ones that I think up on commutes or while working on other projects that have to be jotted down before they disappate. Perhaps these factions could exist in games I already play, but maybe they're for game systems that don't exist either. Since these ideas don't just stop after I finish a blog post, I figured I'd post another collection of forces that could be fun, and where they might fit in the grand scheme of things. Maybe this is a series and not just a squeakquel, so I'll be adding a hashtag to keep the posts organized.

1. Twists

I had just played Rune, and was thinking about ways to implement it's dice allocation system in a CCG. I knew I wanted to have a threshold mechanic that allowed you to bank good dice, and once the bank was full/hit a total die score, it would trigger a transformation and change the way that the player avatar interfaced with the game. However, I had no theming to go along with this idea, and so I had to dig deeper. What transforms back and forth between man and monster? A werewolf would have been the obvious answer, but I was craving something pulpier and so I opted for a Jeckyll and Hyde situation. The regular human would be called an associate, and their inner monster would be called a twist.

The factions would be late 19th century street gangs vying for dominance in an aether radiation not-london, able to combine legitimate business and underhanded dealings for their consolidation of power. However, a neat trick that many in this world have is their ability to use that radiation, and unleash their twists, who are often bigger, meaner, and more powerful personas who not only have raw strength, but occasionally strange abilities with which they can push their agendas.

Forces in this game would look like a boss, a handful of associates, and a twist for each model that would be replaced when the aether surges and the situation calls for wicked doings. This roughly means a player would have fiveish models on table, and another five to swap out as game actions take place. Visually they'd take a lot of cues from the Helsing and League of extraordinary gentlemen movies, the Spoils Ccg, and folklore like springheeled jack. Essentially we'd be playing with a bunch of background actors from The Irregulars and the ogres that slightly resemble them, but with weird and slightly horrific energy crackling around them.

2. Cavity Caravan 

The illustration at the top of the post was made to say "hey, I might be quiet for a bit as I'm getting some wisdom teeth out today," but it turned out that I needed that drawing for other reasons too. I don't think that it's any secret that I loved Mad Max, and the places where it leaks into the inq28 community. I think Tor Megiddo is probably where that influence shone brightest, and helps to inform what i would do with these molar-mobiles were I to take them from concept to completion.

I think these vehicles would be done at 15mm or 6mm scale, so that sculptors could use real teeth if they wanted, but also so the games could be played on hex grids. On that note, have you ever seen equalaterally triangular bases? Because I think that could be neat for line of sight and flanking and moving into opposing hexes. The models themselves could be mini dioramas, and have tons of tiny wire details. Why do these worlds care about teeth though? Who knows, but their Mario kart/ork vehicle vibes really sing with those tooth-shaped design principles. Teeth can give you height, weapons, or shields depending on the orientation of the roots, so maybe if this world grows teeth more than it does other elements (tooth elemental yuck,) maybe it's an obvious choice for the inventors and mechanics of this place.

That said, I will probably have to sculpt my tooth wagons by hand (because of biohazard reasons) so it could be some time before this one sees the light of day. (note; I could not keep the teeth, so anything I game with will definitely be epoxy.)

3. Bloggers/Rumor-Runners

I really loved malifaux 2e for it's noncombat actions, and whats more noncombat than gossip? The spread of information/misinformation can be conflict enough, as seen by real life, and could incorperate neat relay-race like mechanics and strategies. Other factions who could thrive in this setting/vibe might be couriers independent, couriers institutional, spies international, and skateboarders. 

I think these armies would be styled to be sleek, like the characters of splatoon with like a late 90's/early 2000's alt kid vibe, probably using hats and bags and tech to denote different classes of character, or different game roles. Rules wise, I'd probably keep it somewhere between Wild in the Streets and Carnevale in complexity, and board scope defnitely within the two as well. How many models per side? 4-8 figures a side sound about right for a tight board with a lot of verticality where everyone thinks their Spiderman and that their package/message is the most important item in the world.

4. Space Bees

Ambeessadors from another world, met with hostility from modern man, return to earth to settle scores and uplift their evolutionary kin.You'd have a queen, who can either bee feral or regal, and workers who are all very fast but glass-cannon-y like dark eldar/drukhari. The force would likely have mobile hives, and be able to strategize with local earth bee populations for smokescreen manuvers so that the workers can fall back and reset. Heavy artillery could be catapults that lob hives to tarpit landbased opponents, leaving objectives open for the taking. 

Factions could be militia, military, grey invaders (Mars Attacks), bodyclaimers (Invasion of the Bodysnatchers), ambeesadors, dinosaur resettlers, and zombie horde. It'd be turnip28 scale, with maybe four units and three hq a side, with slight faction variation in number of units and also special rules.

(On the subject of force organization, its been a thing I've discovered talking to some of the older GW players, that we're all "1 HQ, 2+ CORE" pilled. With some consistency, we've expressed preference for some basic mandatory formation requirements be met, either due to nostaligia, flavor, or because it was drilled into us by their ubiquity in old 40k and WHFB. In truth, I still appreciate this structure as a secondary safeguard against the queen problem, supporting the scaffold of points values and dials of any unit's statblock.)

5. Poltergeists

What if competitive haunting were a thing? Teams of three go head to head in timed spookthroughs of "haunted" locales to keep up appearances for the world of the living, but also to entertain the deadizens with epic sports sagas. Each team would have a pusher, a terror, and a thermostat, all playing unique roles within the squad. Pushers move ordinary objects, while terrors are adept at spookery. Thermostats are special in their ability to make cold spots and manipulate electromagnetic waves. Between the three of them, most of the ghostly interactions with the living are covered, and the board and its resident fleshies can be manipulated in timed events. 

Games would come in two flavors; timed events, where teams take turns running obstacle courses, and head-to-head where teams have to manuver humans like sportsballs to get goals. The latter feels like any good sports game that could have a ton of variance (you could give different scenarios funny names like all the poker variants,) while the former would take on a Stange Aeons vibe, where the off player automates scenarios for the On-player. Head to Head mode might make for an interesting season mode, whereas timed events feel more like an Olympic level competition, but this is me talking as a sports layman who really enjoys Jelle's Marble Runs.

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And that's them. What did you think? Do you have any games or factions kicking around in your head? If so buddypal, big mood, and I hope you can make time to get them out of your skull. I hope you enjoyed this braingush, and that it sparked something in you too. Take care and stay hydrated!