Thursday, December 23, 2010

Of Interest to Gamers.

Recently got a couple of emails from Andy Bryenton that might be of interest to gamers here. The first is this one:

I just thought I'd add to the already bulging overflow in your inbox (damn those 'gentlemen's pills' dealers!) with a request for some minor assistance. Oh, and the usual congratulations on an ever-growing series of post-cyber-awesome novels so sharp you can use them to peel diamonds..


As an unrepentant geek, I'm compiling a 'Codex' (a rulebook for the popular* tabletop wargame Warhammer 40k) for the Prador. My hope is to enable Warhammer players, of whom there are more than could be deemed healthy for any society, to download this resource for free and enjoy a bit of cross-franchise slaughter. There's quite a bit of crossover between your fans and players of 40k, and the need for models is easily addressed with enough sculpting putty, resin, plastic guns and superglue.

Of course it's my intent not to utterly mangle your creation in the process! So if there are any links you can think of to relevant images, rest assured that I've trawled through all your books for data about weapons, tactics, technology and limitations of the Prador in battle.

I just thought it'd be nice to tell you that relatively hard-working geeks are busy expanding your universe in a very strictly not-for-profit, just for the fans kinda way!

I won't bore you too much with details, at least until it's done. And at that point, you'll probably wonder how the hell my little crew got it so wrong...

Just rest assured that very soon, somewhere, some Space Marines are gonna get eaten.

*popular, at least, with the kind of guys who will fight for the honor of Darth Vader in a pub argument, tend to grow ill-advised goatees, and wear t-shirts which say 'You don't have to be the Kwisatz Haderach to work here but it helps'.

I supplied a little bit of info (basically graft a spider's visual turret on top of a fiddler crab. Maybe you guys here have your own ideas? Then I asked if I could publish his emails (well, not the next one, but I don't suppose he'll mind).

Go for it! I'd like to make the final codex available to everyone for free, and the more people who can participate in this bizarre little experiment the better!


Due to the way the tabletop game works (and you may have seen those strange GW stores full of tiny, spiky models), I've had to use a little artistic license in shuffling First, Second and Third Children into units like 'Heavy support', 'Basic Troops', and 'Elite warriors', which in the 'real' Kingdom they are unlikely to have. For sheer shock and awe it is my intent to make an ancient Adult available as a commander, even though from what you've written such a being would be infinitely cunning and cautious, thus unlikely to leave its sanctum. Damn thing's gonna have armor that you could crack tanks open on!

Armament is running to variants of railguns, with various nasty particle beam weapons as heavy tank-busting clout. Once again, the constraints of putting the pure idea of Prador into the framework of a 60mm model game are kind of like straining single malt through a gym sock... there may be a slight change of 'flavor'.

Pictures, I assure you, will be forthcoming!

And thanks for taking an interest in the old, obligatory 'what me and my mates did on our holidays'! If and when the modeling part of the project produces a resin-cast Prador First-Child Warrior with twin-linked Decimator railguns, I'll send you one...

What do you think about this?

4 comments:

Hitch said...

Yeah great.. the following line reveals my inner geek and I hate you all for it :p

Imagine Cormac as 'Marneus Calgar'!!! OMG!

-calms down

Bloody brilliant idea tbh, lets put it this way, i'd play.

On this subject, I so want a software based Polity game. Try to imagine Vengenace of the Blood Angels but with Golems, Crane and Cormac... go on, just try... then weep tears of joy at the possibilties.

Sorry non-gamer geeks for all those odd words above :)

vaudeviewgalor raandisisraisins said...

you could make a (Prador style head snip) 'killing' with some resin cast Warhammer type game, an aside from Game Workshop franchise if you had a diy esthetic. my buddy goes to these game conventions to teach games and knows how much of x product you can sell if you are serious about doing and ltd run.

yourself, keeping all the profit.

Ryan said...

Not much of a gamer myself but i still like the idea. I'd love to see the pictures, it always interests me to see what other people envision characters from fiction to look like

todd said...

and i am really happy to see neal is ok with this fan adaptation. BSG was just shut down on second life due to corporate fear of copyright issues. those in charge just don't seem to get: fans drive your content exposure and your sales. if no one is doing it for profit it can only help in the long run i believe.