Rex - Relative Combat System

[elThyge]

ReX – Relative Combat System

For what must be the last four years I have been working on a set of rules my own. Up till now I have done all my work in danish. Now I'm changing to english trying to broaden my audience in an effort to promote more feedback.

The idea of the project is to establish a free set of rules online, that can be used to play with 1:72 plastic soldiers, minimizing the economic threshold, if you want to try out the hobby. I do write plastic soldiers, but this should be seen more broadly as miniatures size 1:72 in plastic. The final rules will contain a hobby section, with a display of my own collection showing the result a little effort on behalf of painting can result in.

For more see: ReX – Skirmish on www.powerfist.dk.



As you can see, I am aiming for a campaign setting 1925-1945. An alternative Earth, with big naval battles of 1926 following the defeat of the Washington Naval Treaty. The result of an armsrace between the US Navy and the Royal Navy.

If you are interested in the feeling of ReX - Skirmish, you can read my first draft, back when it was called The Game. WARNING: changes are under develepmont. Some of these will have drastic impact on the game, but they will not affect the d6 engine as basis for the rules:

The Game, (ReX - Skirmish first draft)

Some links to show, which models are available in classic plastic, resin and whitemetal:
http://plasticsoldierreview.com/
http://www.cpmodelsminiatures.co.uk
http://www.valdemarminiatures.com/

My original thread in danish. Contains many more pictures of my 1:72 collection.
Game Designers Challenge (2011)/2012 - mit projekt

[elThyge]

Instead of writing much about the campaign setting I am designing for my own games, I would like to present a SUAD-team.  One of an unknown number of teams part of a reaction force under the newly formed Special Anti-unrest Department. The SAUD was formed by our local governor in response to the underfunded US military's problems with handling the escalating unrest in the United States especially on the local level.

The campaign setting is much like our own world in the period 1920-1945, but unlike our world, where humanity was only tempted by radicalism, populations worldwide turned to radical solutions creating a world of constant unrest and instability.

Read more about developing the campaign setting in Rex – the world and how to populate it. Besides writing about the setting I will also put in some comments about collecting and painting the miniatures.

Also read the next chapter on the rules in Rex – Skirmish.



I am not starting from scratch in populating the setting. These are the first 100 miniatures already done. And yes, besides weird science there will also be some paranormal elements.

[Cherno]

Your miniature collection is awesome and it's always nice to see somehow working on his or her own rulesets. There's only two question I have at the moment:

1. What's the role of Germany in this alternate history? WHAT, NO TIGERS ON THE EASTERN FRONT?!?

2. Warpigs?!?

[elThyge]

Well, the piggies where just meant to be livestock to give the setting some character. In time there will also be chickens and cows. And Warpig, who knows when a mad scientist visits Suncktersville anything can happen.

The germans are pretty important. It is one of the countries able to uphold a stabile society and investments from abroad are fleeing to the german economy. And as the world is developing right know, you will have your great battles on the Eeastern front with lots of Tigers.

[Cherno]

Okay, but are we still talking about heavy tanks here or did you have some kind of trained animal troops in mind?

[elThyge]

Nope, big tanks in huge battles. As it stands WWII will be fought on the Eastern Front.

I have updated ReX – skirmish with activation and actions.

I  have also added a quick picture guide to my painting style to the hobby section.



From this.



To this.

[Cherno]

I always preferred the more realistic smooth shading to the stark contrasts with thick shadowy lines

[elThyge]

Step one is a good method to learn which areas to highlight. And using this method you have fewer layers of color, (base and shadow are generally in seperate areas). But as I noted, this case is probably a bad example all in all as the brown shadow got to dark making the contrast to the base color to clear.

[Galland]

Looking good mister. I will take some time and go through all your stuff later today, since it looks intriguing and really interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[elThyge]

Thanks. Allways looking forward to feedback.



No post without pictures. And there will be paranormal activities in this world. 40 more to go and my skeleton horde is done.

I have posted a draft of the timeline in ReX - the world....

And there are rules update in ReX - skirmish. Now the only other thing missing is some weapon stats which will follow soon.

[elThyge]

An update: I am working on a National Guard unit for my setting. I thought this picture of the models before the highlight might be interesting. Except for the skin, these models have been painted with only three layers: Highlight base color; shadow dark areas left; Finish the base.

I find that these models without highlight works as fine on the tabletop as with highlights. Personally though, because of the small size models, I like to give them some sharp edges improving the detail visibility from a distance.

On rules I will soon write about the reaction die, show some weapon stats and present my first draft of rules for hand grenades.

[elThyge]

Well, I wanted to work some more on presenting the rules and paint more plastic civilians, but then these 20mm beuaties from C-P Models arrived on my working table. I just had to paint them here and now. Hope to put on the finishing touches tonight.

[elThyge]

Well, I did finish the mad scientists on schedule, but I forgot to post an update. I simply got lost in the work on rules and in painting more miniatures.





By lightly repeating the steps of laying shadows and finishing base color I hope to have achieved a smoother crossing between the colors asked for by Cherno.



The last four miniatures are form top left: The Doctor, The Manager, The Piano Teacher and the Pig Farmer. All main characters in Grindhouse Theatre Amusements new special import from Denmark: Monopoly on Death. A small setting I plan to use for playtesting the Hero Gaming capabilities of ReX and perhaps the platform for many more GTA productions.

I have updated the rules section with: [http://www.powerfist.dk/forum/index.php?topic=61211.msg799673#msg799673]Reaction die, rewrite of the close combat rules and weapon stats[/url]. I have now defined the style in which to write up the rules: each rule with a seperat attached comment. This way I should be able to just copy paste the rules into a downloadable document.

Here are the comments for the updates.

The Reaction Die

I have omitted shooting as triggering a reaction. It may limit the use of OW, but it is a clear choice I have made. If shot upon in a combat situation I believe most soldiers will be too confused to establish shooter and get a shot in. And then it allows for a U&D to special soldiers making shooting upon them triggering activation. If either you choose to play with shooting as a trigger or limit it to a U&D, the reactive model should always get his shots in last after suffering consequences of being fired upon. Which again leeds to a superhero U&D precipitating the shooter and get the shot in first.

Close Combat rewrite

I wanted to make close combat simple, but I am not sure if I achieved to keep it simple. At first I omitted the +1 charge bonus often seen in games. But in the first test game, the players seemed to need better odds before charging into close combat. To compensate I have put in the out of balance for a botched strike. Putting in the out of balance penalty also allows for a superhero U&D, sure feet: allways keeps balance. Other U&D could be based on allways strikes first and allways recieves a +1 to strike. Though not all that simple the new rules should  allow for more cinematic combat between two heroes.

Weapon stats

All the above U&Ds can be ignored and still provide a fun game. The idea behind the weapon U&D is to distinguish the weapons beside just range. This allows for exceptions to the limits opening many possibilities to describe exactly the weapon you plan to use e.g. a mad scientists lightning canon.

[elThyge]

I have updated the rules with the first draft for use of hand grenades.

Comments

Usually grenades are often omitted, giving a killer function or as in the latest WH40K I know a simple advantage in close combat. I wanted to emphasize the stunning abilities rather than killing effect. Create a system representing the effort to flush out or suppress a force in a fortified position preparing a close combat charge. Combined with the limiting of LOS on reactions it should be possible to get close enough through an uncovered area.

I hope to also have covered the basics for dramatic uses of grenades in close quarter fighting.

I am pleased at finally figuring out a good reason for the hand grenade throwing poses that is in most of the classic boxes with plastic soldiers.

Warning: This rule has not been play tested. When I have play tested the rules in a true gentleman manner, I might write some more precise definitions on tomitting LOS.




I also found a practical use for miniatures in static poses.

Coming up: more deadly update to close combat and special LOS rules for use in a dusk till dawn, Vietnam or WW1 gas attack setting. Presently working on rules for indirect fire and minefields.

[elThyge]

Decorations are popping up in the shops so I have started on a little fun project. This year I am going to send my fist Jule card ever. It will be based on a miniature theme.

It has been a long process since I started working on ReX, I had almost forgotten the first lines I wrote about the project. The rules would have its focus on storytelling and friends having fun. Simplicity came second as part of having fun. This tuesday a little more than four years since the basic idea of ReX I have arranged a playtest of the present rules. I hope there will be a lot of fun and storytelling so I can finally begin compiling the rules and present them as "finished" to the public in the sense of playablity.