40k alternate rules systems

I'm an enthusiastic rules developer on my free time when I'm not designing mobile/PC/console games. My objectives are to expand the Warhammer 40k rulesets with a variety of easy-to-use modular systems that bridges competitive and narrative games in a solid yet accessible experience.

Below you'll find most of the material I have created in the form of links to the original Google Documents I keep updated. Feel free to download, copy, distribute and tweak the material for your own use. If you'd like to get in touch with me you can drop comments directly in any of the documents or reach me by commenting on the blog.

Alternating Activations for Warhammer 40k 9th edition - original article

Pillars and constraints

• Added Complexity: Players that want AA are looking for added tactical depth in the play/counter-play nature of AA, meaning that the game will be perceived as more complex and require more cognitive load from players. Any proposed rule will move the core game system away from a “beer and pretzels”, sit and relax game experience.
• Full Compatibility: The proposed system must be compatible with all codex, units and stratagem rules as much as possible, meaning that all players need to play this variant is to understand the new turn structure. No changes to datasheets or core rules outside of the turn structure will be required.
• Balance via “levelled playing field”: Balance is always a shifting concept and hard to grasp, especially if you are comparing apples to oranges. Old strategies may be invalidated by a change and new exploits will be found. What AA advocates seek for, however, is to address the powerful alpha-strike potential of certain shooting army compositions when they are able to position and shoot indiscriminately and with no reaction possible. There will always be an advantage in any system to the player who “goes first”, only simultaneous activation systems truly prevent this, but the extent of that advantage is greatly diminished in an AA system versus IGOUGO, thus the “levelled playing field” removing so much power from the initiative roll, which is a “no player agency” roll that should have less of an impact on the tactical options a player has.

Practical considerations

The proposed rules system below aims at achieving the following goals on top of the aforementioned assumptions:

• Maintain unit action density vs traditional 40k: Meaning that all units should move, fight, shoot and all other actions as many times as they would have. This is especially challenging due to the nature of the fight phase, in which players will actually have alternating activations inside of the IGOUGO structure.
• Avoid reactive movement preventing charges: one of the hardest elements to balance properly in 40k is that of melee vs shooting, and in moving to a true AA system where every player can immediately react to an opponent’s movement becomes even more apparent. In order to preserve melee armies ability to close the distance before the enemy has a chance to escape the movement aspect of a turn for the reactive player happens at the end of a turn, after shooting. This lets melee armies move and charge before the enemy reacts, but also forces shooting armies to move in and stay within charge distance after getting range to shoot their weapons.
• Lower the impact of Alpha-striking: Alpha Strikes are much less efficient since a maximum of 3 units can shoot at a single target before the target has a chance to react. This is lessened (and stays closer to current 40k balance) if the shooting army has range and can stay still, thus shooting with a few more guns before the enemy can retaliate.
• Battle book-keeping: with any AA system there will come the necessity to clutter the field with some form of book-keeping counters. It is recommended that players use colored counters to mark which units they have already “activated” in any mixed sub-phase.

Rules

• Alternating Activations for Warhammer 40k 9th edition

Universal 1v1 campaign mission structure - original article

• Progression: Provide players with a sense of progression, linking the results of each battle to the other.
• Big payouts: Decisions made on the first battle can have big impacts on the final mission.
• Balanced challenges: Winning should not snowball as a victory opens up possibilities of a great payout at a greater risk.
• Final Showdown: The final battle should feel epic and be the decisive factor. Previous victories can help, but its the final struggle that decides the campaign outcome!

Rules

• Wargaming Rebel  1v1 Mission-Based Campaign System is all you need to play!
• Campaign Sheets

Glory-seeker Mission system - original article

Simple, narrative and mechanically solid missions that appeal both to beginners and veterans alike and has built-in rubber-banding and comeback mechanics that tries to even the field without restricting competitive players from the interesting puzzles they want.

• English version 
• Base Mission Package
• Quick-reference glory charts
• Secondary Mission cards
• Brazilian Portuguese Version 
• Regras Básicas (Base Rules)
• Cartas de missão secundária (Secondary Mission cards)
• Tabela de Glórias (Glory Charts)

Open war deck adaptation for small games - original article

I love the open-war deck from GW, but I feel like it deserves adjustments both for more balanced missions, even easier set-up and better suited for small-scale demonstration games using Start Collecting forces from 450-750pts.

• Print-friendly colored mission cards

Modular Map-based Campaign system - original article

Map-based universal campaign system that accepts any number of players and is self-managing, requiring no games master.

• English Version
• Base Ruleset
• Campaign Round quick-guide

• Brazilian Portuguese Version
• Regras Básicas
• Guia Rápido de Rodada de Campanha

• Resource Folder (maps, tokens)
• Sample Maps