Mecha Mice

On the island of Searbay mousekind has reached levels of technology undreamed of, but the thousand enemies that have always existed and always will are still just beyond the wall. With the invention of the Mecha Suit mousedom has a chance to survive, and the tools to hold back the darkness of dissolution and barbarism.

Join the Corp, become the Paw.

Mecha Mice is a story telling game of heroic mice armed with the latest technology fighting a thousand enemies a thousand times larger than themselves. The game is only 8 pages long and provided in standard PDF form and in "PocketMod" PDF. You can print the PDF version on a single sheet of paper and fold it into a pocket size booklet.

Available for only $1.50 at DriveThruRPG 

I've collected a few supporting articles on the Mecha Mice blog.

Shotgun Jousting

Art by P.D. Magnus

In the far-out and dusty wild of America's heartlands two biker gangs meet for their annual drink-athon, things can get busy.

With alcohol fuelling forty ageing toughnut egos the atmosphere is often tense. Sometimes a punch will be thrown. Sometimes the punch actually hit. Sometimes others become involved and sometimes... well, lets leave those times behind a curtain of secrecy.

More often, claims of "I'm stronger than you" may cause more alcohol to be imbibed before arm wrestling starts. Sometimes someone makes a jovial remark about being tougher, braver and generally more manly than someone else, and two beers later people start doing...stupid things.

Download:

TRENCH Full of Heroes

It's the Great War. Combat roars across the globe, in the air, on and under both the land and the sea. Men are fighting hand to hand, with blades, rifles and machines.

It's amongst these massive armies that a few good men and true rise up to take the lead.  When the line is breached, when the ship is sinking, when the bombers are dropping their loads, is when heroes come to the fore. A man stands up and cheers his fellows on while leading the charge, such a man will be your character in this role playing game.

Trench Full of Heroes is a micro RPG that prints on a single sheet of paper and folds into a little booklet using the "PocketMod" system.

Available from RPGNow and DriveThruRPG for only 99c (about £0.60)

Free scenario posted at RPG-Geek (you may need to join to see the file, joining is free)

One Page Dungeon 2012

This year I entered the annual One Page Dungeon competition, alas for me I did not win. However I am proud of what I came up with.

At the time of the competition I was reading a book by Matthew Reilly, and this book was jam-packed with exciting non-stop action.  Think Indiana Jones, set to eleven.  Inspired by this book, I wanted to create a similar feel for my dungeon, and so started by drawing a trap laden map.  Then I started think about how you could overcome those traps in AD&D (1st Ed) but just couldn't see it working or being exciting. For instance if you failed the first trap, you would never get to see the later traps!

In the end I came up with not only a dungeon, but a Micro RPG that would allow you to play the game and reach most if not all of the traps even if you rolled very badly.  That was what I submitted to the competition.

The comp' is over, so now I can post the dungeon here on my own site.

Acrobats vs Mobsters

In 2010 the FBI had found itself penetrated by criminal organizations with more money than most governments. The result was an FBI unable to cope with the mob. By presidential order the FBI secretly established the "Black Squads", secret independent groups of undercover cops who only took orders from the top FBI officials.

One such squad was the "Calloni Troupe". Travelling the country as an acrobatic circus troupe, these third generation Italians are the most dedicated, close-knit, group of anti-corruption, anti-organised-crime operatives. Performing for crowds in the evenings, and fighting crime by day.

Acrobats vs Mobsters is a micro RPG that prints on a single sheet of paper and folds into a little booklet using the "PocketMod" system.

Available for only $0.99 (about £0.60) from RPGNow.com

Shikishima Heroes - micro RPG

"Shikishima Heroes" is micro RPG, that allows you to play pulp-style Naval Superheroes.

The battleship Shikishima was commissioned in 1900, but disappeared on its its first sortie with no explanation. A year later the ship reappeared. None of the crew had a memory of the lost year, nor did they know where fully an eighth of the crew had gone! Men from every section were simply missing, with no signs of foul play.

Even as the ship steamed back to port the crew realised they had been changed. Every member found themselves to have gained strange super powers.

When the Japanese people realised how changed the crew were, their joy was turned to fear, and now the Shikishima and its crew are kept at sea.

When anything unusual appears, be it super villains, giant monsters or aliens the Emperor dispatches the Shikishima.

Shikishima Heroes is a micro RPG, it is designed to printed on a single sheet of paper and folded into a little booklet using the "PocketMod" system. 

Available for only $0.99 (about £0.60) from RPGNow.com

An audio/written review appears in the Game of Whits podcast/blog.

Rules for the Conduct of the War-Game on a Map

This short book was published in 1896. I've converted an old paper copy of the rules into a modern ePUB format.


In 1896 the British Government published this paper which formalised the adoption of War-gaming in the Empire forces. The rules closely follow those created in 1812 by Reiswitz under the German name of “Kreigsspiel”.

These rules describe and give guidance on how a group of officers can use small blocks laid out on a large-scale map to represent various troops, and then issue orders to those troops. It further describes how those blocks move and how the umpires act as both judges and messengers.

Buy the ePUB from LuLu or get a copy at Wargame Vault

Modern(ish) Armor Rules

These rules came about after deciding to buy some Ultra Modern 1/285th scale models of modern tanks. I couldn't find any simple quick play rules so after referring to Gulf war anecdotes and of course Janes recognition guides I came up with these. They are simple to use and rely on the common D6. Suggestions for additional simple straight forward rule additions are gratefully accepted. (These rules were previously published by Wargrid.)

Anglo-Zulu wargame rules

A few years ago I was inspired to refight (in miniature of course) the battle of Rorkes Drift, the fight featured in the film 1964 film Zulu.

I crafted the terrain, the buildings, painted the miniatures and produced a set of rules to play by. The rules below are the final result. These rules have been used at least five times to refight this battle without a complaint, so I think they are pretty solid. Try them out and let me know what you think .

Robot Warfare

I had a bunch of 3" plastic Robots that needed a framework of rules in order to have a BATTLE!( Yeah I wanted to play something simple and fun with No1. son.

Fortunately for me, I also own a couple of sets of Heroscape which gives me a bunch of plastic terrain hexes to play on, so all I needed was a set of rules. Scouring the net revealed many many sets of sci fi rules and of course there was also Battletech, not all of these were far too complex.

The end result was that I threw together my Robot Wars ruleset.  It's really simple and will make the hardened Grarnard cringe, but it worked great with my son and thats what I wanted.

I have stuffed the rules into a PDF file and stored this on my Sky Drive, thanks Microsoft!

WWII Ship Wargame Rules

A while ago during a boring time I thought up the idea of making wargame models out of some spare wood I had lying around.  The image on the left was the first I made.  made from 3/4" planking, some dowel and of course glue is a model of HMS Hood, a two foot long model.

Having made a model or two I switched into wargamer mode and started looking around for a set of rules suitable for playing with these big models on the back lawn.  I didn't find any, so ended up writing my own set.  In these rules the big guns can reach up to 20 feet!

Although I could manage the rules the statistics of the various ships was way beyond my research capabilities!  That was soon solved by Rich Satore who kindly allowed me to "rip off" his ship stats from his rules set Sea Krieg. The Sea Krieg rules are for table top play and are quite excellent.

However for my rules, I've put them into a PDF and stored them on my Sky Drive. Thanks Microsoft.

Vietnam Skirmish Rules

This is a set of wargame rules for playing a middling size skirmish set in the American/Vietnam war.  The rules were written for use with 20mm metal minis and have been used in that role a number of times.

As well as the figures and terrain, you will also need to supply some standard dice, a measuring stick, lots of tiddley winks and some crunched up balls of paper!

The rules feature the use of supressing fire which will pin all but the bravest of warriors. In game terms, supressing fire reduces the ability of the supressed to interfere with your plans.

Also included are some rules for handling vehicles and artillery fire, although these features are not expected be the focus of the game. In play each player will easily be able to handle 20-30 figures.

The rules are in a PDF file and stored on my Sky Drive, thanks Microsoft!

Brigade Commander

The inspiration and model for this rules set has come from two very fine existing published rules sets.

The first “De Bellis Antiquitatis“ is a simple yet wonderful quick-play focused mode that models warfare in the ancient world.

The second set “Chef de Battailon” is an exceedingly detailed set of Napoleonic rules with each commander controling a single battalion. In this set, the player is constantly faced by the nightmare of moving troops around terrain while under fire.

Both sets are excellent at what they do, but as the main designer of these rules I wanted the detail of “Chef” and the speed of “De Bellis”. Much play testing and tinkering has resulted in the set of rules you now hold.

The rules are written up in a PDF which is stored on my windows Sky Drive ( Thankyou Microsoft! )