Space Hulk Quest

[wilsongrahams]

Having enjoyed a few games of Warhammer Quest recently I find I like the random event card business. Do not fear if you haven't a clue what I'm talking about as I can explain how it works. It's aimed at solo play Space hulk and a campaign version will follow later in version 2.0.

Updated as new cards are created:

The updated rules for version V1.2 are on page 4, post 70. These will be added into a download when possible.
Many thanks to DJ Silent Bob for his work on these files and cards.

For the Hulk Cards, go to Page 4, Post 71 for the updated copies.

The Event Cards are attached below:

[starlight]

With the proper forethought and planning, it could work quite well.

[azhagmorglum]

Could be quite enjoyable, and quite nasty sometimes depending on the random event. But you should have a go and present us with your work.

[goroul]

Sounds interesting, would take a lot of work but certainly interesting...

I've not played FFG Space Hulk game, any idea if that is anything like what you are proposing? If so it could provide some inspiration.

[wilsongrahams]

Goroul, please tell me what FFG Space Hulk is and I'll let you know!

Thanks for the replies anyway guys, well at the moment I'm looking at these events that could happen - namely things like the power going off and with only suit lights to use the marines ranges are cut down to 2D6 squares (dependent on the fog and mist and cordite smoke etc) until a 6 is rolled at the start of the turn when you draw another event card etc.

I'll update this thread properly once I've settled things and actually got things to say.

What would you guys think to XP for Marines that survive a mission maybe getting +1 on close combat rolls or something for being a hulk veteran because I think the marines would need it.

What are your thoughts on ammo limits for say storm bolters too? Maybe need to reload after 20 bursts or after something akin to an ammo roll from necromunda all overwatch shots are 1D6 instead due to trying to conserve ammo. Either of these would slow down the serious marine firepower you'd have from the bunching of guys this type of mission would have.

I imagine these missions would most suitably represent the marines traversing the hulk to get to their mission zone where opposition is light and there is little in the way of an objective other than get to point A.

Ooh a quick thought just occured - Event: Urgent mission update, new objective, flame the blue room. These kinda random mission objectives could work on a game like this...

[Patriarch]

Goroul, please tell me what FFG Space Hulk is and I'll let you know!

Death Angel

Got it but not played it yet - rules are up on the site.

You could use the Mission X rules - terminators low on ammo don't get sustained fire bonuses (until they find an ammo dump, or space marine graveyard or whatever).

[wilsongrahams]

Thanks Patriarch. I'd have to play it to fully realise how it plays but it doesn't look the same as what I am trying to explain.

For Warhammer Quest, each time you enter a board section you draw an event card which may be monsters attacking or a cave in etc. To go to another board section you randomly select a card which tells you which piece is next. When you enter that section you draw an event card again.

For my SH Quest, you'd not have Stealers running all the way down the board to you, but appearing at very close range. As the board sections in SH are quite small, maybe several sections could deploy at once - maybe scanner range or something - always between 6 and 12 squares from your marine depending upon the section you deploy.

Patriarch - that low ammo rule is a great idea - why create something when one already exists! Now as to how to decide when they are low on ammo - that's the hard bit as keeping track of eight storm bolters firing on overwatch would be too fiddly to be worth playing when I am aiming for a fast flowing version of the game where you don't know what you will come across next.

[Exitas-Acta-Probat]

oh thats simple, just give them a fixed number of times that they can shoot untill they run out of ammo. like the AI system.

[Dj Silent Bob]

I can't wait to see how this pans out... As I'm finding it hard to get others to play this with me. This would be perfect for solo missions. The other solo game attempts I've found out there just haven't worked properly IMO.

[wilsongrahams]

I've made a very tentative 'official' start to my work...

Space Quest.

The Space Hulk has been sighted and initial scans are promising but the structure is impervious to detailed images. Recon of this Hulk will have to be done the hard way - corridor by corridor by the Emperor's finest.

The Blood Angels deploy by boarding torpedo and Thunderhawk gunship to the outer levels unopposed. There is no power and no lifeform readings so the Terminators begin their advance into the labyrinthe using only their suit scanners and powerful lights to penetrate the foggy gloom...

Difficulty Level
You choose your own starting forces - One or two squads for hard or easy (Needs play testing). One squad may be replaced by the Librarian. Each squad deploys on a board section large enough to hold the entire unit. Randomly select a board tile (using the Hulk Deck you will have to make - one card per tile). and deploy your terminators. If you have two units, assign junctions and attach the other corridor adjacent to the first.

Deploying the Hulk.
Count in squares from each Terminator up to 6 (No diagonals). If this takes you off a board section, pick another Hulk card and place that tile. This is how the map for the hulk is created - all very short range from your Terminators (May advance this up to 12 squares during play testing). Every time a marine moves a square you must recheck this distance as new sections may need placing during his action phase.
If you are unable to place any new sections due to space or because it will be impossible to allign with nearby tiles, then simply place the Imperial Aquilla tokens there to show the areas off that section are secured and you will no longer need to check for range there. I may do something with Genestealer entry points at some point later, maybe as an event but will test first. If you have a gap between two sections of say 1, 2 or 3 squares, then it may be best to select your tile and place it to bridge the gap rather than picking a random one. If so, remove the tile card from the Hulk deck and reshuffle the rest - cos you'll have looked at them! Similarly if you can't place a tile such as a room due to lack of space then pick a suitable tile that will fit. You may also want to repick a dead end etc if it is the last open ended tile on your map so that you can continue your hulk. For placing the hulk you'll have to use your common sense in how and where to position tiles and even turn them in on themselves to join other areas and close them off. Any tiles you place in this manner to bridge gaps may be ignored for rolling an event - there won't be an open end to deploy at so it'd only complicate things! You should place them only when a marine normally would place them though.
Also, if you have no tiles to bridge a gap, just place the Aquilla markers as normal and assume there has been a collapse or something that makes that section impassable.

Gameplay.
Because there aren't hordes of Genestealers alerted to the marines presence you do not use Blips in the normal manner and this is also why there are very short deployment ranges for the Marines to make things more difficult when the genestealers do appear.
Marines take their command points and action phases as normal with the exception that the timer is not used. The game continues until all the marines are dead, all the tiles deployed without a mission being rolled, or a mission is rolled for and the mission completed (Check out 12 on Events table below).

Genestealers and Events.
This is where the real difficulty in designing this will come in. For starters, genestealers will not require a seperate player and will be placed when revealed, and then in their turn charge towards the nearest marines and attempt to attack them in combat if possible in their turn.
For every board section tile you place down (Except a dead end or the 1 corridor), you must draw a card/roll on the event table (Haven't decided the best way yet). For now I'll use the roll on the table method.
2D6 roll. (Will fill this in later.)
2 - Hulk Collapse. The marine that triggered this event falls to his doom and is slain automatically!
3 - Gas pipe rupture. The marine that triggered this event has his board section hit by a Heavy Flamer! Roll for all models on this section (and the one that triggered it obviously).
4 - Pick a blip and place that number of genestealers by this board section.
5 - Pick a blip and place that number of genestealers by this board section.
6 - Pick a blip and place that number of genestealers by this board section.
7 - No event this turn.
8 - Pick a blip and place that number of genestealers by this board section.
9 - Your marines are getting low on ammunition. They may no longer gain the sustained fire bonus. The Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer are unaffected by this, having their own restrictions on ammo.
10 - Sudden lighting - sensors pick up the marines and restore lighting to this section,
also alerting any nearby aliens. Roll D3 times on this table and apply all possible results.
11 - Alien menace. The Broodlord appears to defend his patriarchal command. Place just like a normal blip off the edge of the section and enter play as normal in his turn.
12 - Recent scans have discovered something. Add the Grail room Hulk deck card to the hulk deck and reshuffle it. Roll a D6 on the following table to reveal your mission objective for this room. 1, Flame this room (or 2 bursts with Assault Cannon). 2, Recover the Grail and return to starting corridor). 3, Recover gene sample - a marine must spend two turns inactive within this room. 4, Cleanse the map - This room contains 3 blips worth of models. In addition, the whole map must be deployed and all genestealers eradicated. 5, Unassigned objective yet. 6, Unassigned objective yet.

Objective Room.
Once the card has been added to your deck you must still search and draw it as normal - your commander and Techmarines may have pisked it up but they can't get a clear enough signal to guide you to it. Do not roll for an event when this board section is finally placed - some objective specific rules may apply.
If you roll another 12 Event after already having an objective, do not add another objective, but instead place D6 blips at random open ends!

Placing Genestealers.
When an event is rolled to select a blip and place the models, the models are placed off the edge of the board as if the exit point(s) for that board section were Genestealer Entry areas. They move onto the board in their own turn and the blips themselves are never in play, but are just selective devices to determine the quantity of stealers you need.

Victory, Lose or Draw?
If the Marines complete their mission obviously it is a victory for them. If they fail or all die then again it's obvious they lose. The odd one, is that they may get to place all tiles before they have placed the objective room in which case you could call it a draw and that they have simply been searching the area, or you can deploy the objective room last of all anyway.

Possible Problems.
It may be that Marines die very quickly with stealers deploying at such short ranges and that once they realsise there are aliens ahead may have run out of APs to go onto overwatch for that turn - in this case I'd say advance only when prepared or increase that sensor range to 12 squares. If yopu are exploring with a heavy weapon - expect him to run out of ammo very soon - these will be needed for supporting the advance, holding off in the secured sections - only new map sections will have aliens in them afterall.
The Events table needs fleshing out properly but I'm running out of time at the moment.
If Marines must recover an objective, there will be no new placement of tiles so no new events and therefore no genestealers. The way round this woul be to do the Warhammer Quest thing and roll 1D6 each turn and draw an event card on a 1 aswell as any cards for exploring the map.
I currently don't have anything added to this for gaining elite status or ammo checks but I may add this in later - and if using a single squad you may need elite status for your marines to keep them alive longer in your next games. For now I just want to concentrate on getting the basic gameplay part right for solo play (Hope it's what you want DJ Bob - I also have a hard time getting opponents).
Some blip rolls on the events table may have some proper events listed - also the table can be further expanded or if cards are to be used, new ones added all the time. Again this will evolve with testing.

Any thoughts guys? Your help will be much appreciated here especially in play testing.

[StefDa]

I will be following this with great interest. I feel this is exactly what is needed to revitalize Space Hulk!

Did you consider two very important differences from WQ to SH - stats (primarily Wounds IMO) and hallways with two rows of squares as opposed to one?

[wilsongrahams]

I will be following this with great interest. I feel this is exactly what is needed to revitalize Space Hulk!

Did you consider two very important differences from WQ to SH - stats (primarily Wounds IMO) and hallways with two rows of squares as opposed to one?

Hi, I'm glad you like what I'm trying to do.

I did consider wounds but I decided that I didn't want to mess with the gameplay too much as I still wanted the way models move and fight etc to still be the same as Space Hulk, just with the map and blips changing essentially making it random and the only similarity to Quest. With multiple wound models in Space Hulk or even making them Hard to Kill like the Broodlord or something would alter the balance too much I think, especially when the way I've written things so far the genestealers aren't an unstoppable wave and delaying the advance isn't a penalty to the marines but chance to take it steady when needed to. Not knowing the map means you will likely speed things up but being aimed towards solo play means the speed of the game is set by the one player anyway. It's just about having fun rather than getting full balance as it's geared towards the player WANTING the marines to succeed as it is.

As to wider hallways - I love playing on the Deathwing 3-wide corridors in my games but there is nothing to stop you adding these board sections into the game as you wish - albeit taking random cards would be more difficult to join them. I don't think Hulk itself needs wider corridors for this style of play though as the firepower of the marines far exceeds the need to jump past each other and defend each other. Space Hulk ot me was always more about who to send in first and having to live with that decision rather than being able to pass every time you wanted a Heavy Flamer up front.

As I mentioned before that I wanted to get a basic system up and tested first before I start with a campaign or roleplay advanced version, I may yet add wounds or diferent styles of maps into it, but having time to test when I imagine needing to play a good ten or so games between any adjustments, means this will be a while in developing into a fully rounded set of playable rules. It may be a while before you see any proper campaign rules added. I hope you will still follow all the same.

[StefDa]

I see. Do you thing the SH set has enough tiles to make it truly variable? I love the idea of SH where each mission is different. I'm itching to try it out! Now to make some cards for it...

I see your point in the wounds, I'll try it out without stats first. Stats could be a part of an advanced edition, methinks, in the future.

I am so stoked abou this!

[wilsongrahams]

I think there are plenty of tiles in Space Hulk to create a varied map every time - and one that could lead you anywhere because there are so many junctions. There are double the number of sections than Quest has even if many are shorter in length.
Because making cards before testing will only delay things longer I've bought a deck of playing cards, sprayed the number sides white and using permanent marker to draw on them. I had intended doing fancy designs for them all but that would require too much effort!
I'm glad you're 'stoked' because once I started writing the above set of rules I got really into it even more too. IT was all I could think about all day and I think I managed to iron out most of the conflicts and missing bits before anyone else read it!
Monday afternoon will be my first day with free time so I plan on playing my first few games then. I'll let you know how they go. I envisage many marines making steady retreats firing wildly every time they come across a group of stealers, just to keep the distance. The finite stealers also means the heavy weapons won't be so limited without support like in a regular game.

[StefDa]

I think there are plenty of tiles in Space Hulk to create a varied map every time - and one that could lead you anywhere because there are so many junctions. There are double the number of sections than Quest has even if many are shorter in length.
Because making cards before testing will only delay things longer I've bought a deck of playing cards, sprayed the number sides white and using permanent marker to draw on them. I had intended doing fancy designs for them all but that would require too much effort!
I'm glad you're 'stoked' because once I started writing the above set of rules I got really into it even more too. IT was all I could think about all day and I think I managed to iron out most of the conflicts and missing bits before anyone else read it!
Monday afternoon will be my first day with free time so I plan on playing my first few games then. I'll let you know how they go. I envisage many marines making steady retreats firing wildly every time they come across a group of stealers, just to keep the distance. The finite stealers also means the heavy weapons won't be so limited without support like in a regular game.

I must admit I haven't looked at anything but the miniatures for nearly a year - I may not remember the number/shape of the tiles, so I will take your word for it since I am nowhere near my SH box.

The only thing bugging me with Space Hulk is that the games are always the same - one of these ten missions, with the entire map and objectives planned ahead. For me, that kills a bit of the game, meaning it is only fun for a limited amount of time.

I think your idea for the cards is great, actually .I also wanted to do some fancy stuff, but I might as well have a monkey do it, I'm sure the result would be better. I will go get a deck of playing cards today and do the same, then I might be able to test this thing out on Tuesday, maybe even before if I am lucky, though I doubt it.

If I can get a SH game in on Tuesday, could I use the rules you have written? Seeing as you will do some playtesting on Monday, it would be perfect if I could do some on Tuesday with any amendments you will have made.

[wilsongrahams]

The only thing bugging me with Space Hulk is that the games are always the same - one of these ten missions, with the entire map and objectives planned ahead. For me, that kills a bit of the game, meaning it is only fun for a limited amount of time.

If I can get a SH game in on Tuesday, could I use the rules you have written? Seeing as you will do some playtesting on Monday, it would be perfect if I could do some on Tuesday with any amendments you will have made.

I am quite lucky that I have all the 2nd edition missions and all the White Dwarf missions to use aswell, plus the two other Deathwing ones that never made 3rd Ed.
Some of these help with variety but I too wanted something more... random and unknown, I guess.

Feel free to use these rules - that's why they're posted here after all, so that others can try them out, and also help me test things.
I'll post up any amendments straight after my games so you will have the evening before to try out any changes.
I expect the scanner range thing, and the frequency genestealers will be the only real changes this early on.

[StefDa]

Wow, is there any way to get a hold of those old missions?

Here is a little summin'-summin' for those of you out there who share our passion. This is the way I spent my Saturday night. Oh, and Transformers: War for Cybertron online, being on a Conquest team with players without a sense of team spirit.

Anyway, without further ado I present; a list of the tile contents of Space Hulk 3rd Edition.

For this list, 'entry point' is a single square which lies beyond the normal spaces of the room - effectively the doorway, and will be discounted for the purpose of measuring the size of rooms. This way, all the rooms are square and easier to handle.

+ 3x3 rooms with four entry points.: 4
+ Dead ends with no squares: 4
+ Dead ends with one square each: 2
+ Hallway pieces:
- One square: 2
- Two squares: 8
- Three squares: 6
- Four squares: 4
- Five squares: 4
+ Plus-junctions: 8
+ T-junctions: 8
+ Corners: 6
+ 3x3 rooms, two entry points on adjacent sides: 4 (tech room/tomb room/Machine altar/random stuff)
+ 3x3 rooms, two entry points across from each other: 1 (Librarium?)
+ 3x3 room, one entry point: 1 (throne room)
+ 3x4 room, one entry point: 1 ('Unknown Life Forms')

I hope I got it right, I wrote it down one late night a few nights ago.

[wilsongrahams]

Wow, is there any way to get a hold of those old missions?

Anyway, without further ado I present; a list of the tile contents of Space Hulk 3rd Edition.

For this list, 'entry point' is a single square which lies beyond the normal spaces of the room - effectively the doorway, and will be discounted for the purpose of measuring the size of rooms. This way, all the rooms are square and easier to handle.

+ 3x3 rooms with four entry points.: 4
+ Dead ends with no squares: 4
+ Dead ends with one square each: 2
+ Hallway pieces:
- One square: 2
- Two squares: 8
- Three squares: 6
- Four squares: 4
- Five squares: 4
+ Plus-junctions: 8
+ T-junctions: 8
+ Corners: 6
+ 3x3 rooms, two entry points on adjacent sides: 4 (tech room/tomb room/Machine altar/random stuff)
+ 3x3 rooms, two entry points across from each other: 1 (Librarium?)
+ 3x3 room, one entry point: 1 (throne room)
+ 3x4 room, one entry point: 1 ('Unknown Life Forms')

I hope I got it right, I wrote it down one late night a few nights ago.

Hi, unfortunately I don't know of anywhere online that has them, but ebay the 2nd ed missions book and you should have the 12 extras that were in that. As for white dwarf missions - I have used the 3d tileset editor thing to draw up the maps but haven't yet got round to putting in all the text for the forces and objectives. I'll have to do this and let you know when I do.

As for the contents - they seem about right apart from "+ 3x3 rooms with four entry points.: 4" which there are only 1 of not 4.

I do have three sets of 3rd ed space hulk so I have the luxury of making extra cards and having more available corridors or rooms or whatever I feel like having in the random deck.

Two days til testing... Once the first few test sessions have been finished I'll neaten up the woridng on some rules and put it all in the first post for this thread I think... And then it'll be onto the advanced rules which I've already been looking into (mainly reading Warhammer Quest's monster charts...).

[wilsongrahams]

Hey, welcome to Warseer by the way.

Thanks for doing these - I had actually started a version in a word document myself but was going to wait to publish it here til I'd got some testing done and edited any bits that needed doing. Also those cards will be very useful - I can print and glue them onto cards rather than using my extremely temporary ones! At some point I'll probably design a back to them like the Warhammer Quest Dungeaon cards. As for quantity of the tiles I'll give them a proper check later.

As for events - see my notes below.

Right then guys, I've managed to get two (yeah I know not many) games in today using this system.

First change - six squares is far too short. I did this for the first game and if a marine got a three blip appear six squares away, he had one turn to kill all three or he was dead. For the second game, after a couple turns I had concluded this was too short and started playing at 12 squares for the rest of the game and this seemed better for the gameplay, but seemed that you were placing a lot of cards all the time and therefore a lot of rolls on the events table so there were absolute hordes of stealers running at you if picked a few cross junctions!

I haven't yet solved this, as it meant I lost every marine (using one squad these games) very early on. I did actually get an objective the turn before I lost my last member.

First thoughts are that I should have a MINIMUM scanner range and tile placement for 6 squares but each time one is placed, maybe roll a D6 and on a 4+ pick an extra tile too, but then only roll once on the event table to have the enemy start a little further away.

For my next game I'll check this.

Concerning events - I rolled an awful lot of genestealers and then promptly picked all the 3 blips in the deck so it seemed, and whilst this was scary and stressful, and that it suited a cleanse type game where the marines are just securing an area, it lacked the urgency or proper mission feel Space Hulk has.

I have decided that maybe a card deck for events would be better, and that you don't roll for when to recieve an objective, but that there would be several objective cards to be slotted into the deck at random, and that they can include any tile, but maybe have a turn limit to achieve that objective before you continue on in your game. This would fit a campaign version of this game a lot more. The other advantage to this is that a few bad rolls won't get you loads of hulk collapses or even none at all, as once through the deck will guarantee you as many as the number of cards you put in! This also means it is a lot more flexible in the events you have because you can choose what is in the deck to begin with, and how many 'no event' cards are in there etc - which using the table I seemed to roll two or three in two games!

I will stick to the table for the moment until I've played a few more games to get the range right for deploying or rolling on the tabke, and I will then try out an alternative card deck (this will also give me time to make one!).

Any thoughts or comments welcome as always.

If you do give this set of rules a try, using the 12 square range for now probably best, be prepared for a scary time with lots of stealers - at one point I had over twenty stealers in play!

[StefDa]

What about, say, eight to nine squares? Enough that the Marine won't get swarmed instantly, but still enough for the Stealers to get to the Marine on the second turn.