Our Overall Development Goals

V. Puzirkov. Black Sea Marines.

Ok, so let's talk about what our overall goals should be during the development of this game. Basically, how will be measure the success of the design compared to 40K?

Wrap Up: Our Underlying Assumptions

Star Wars Concept. Ralph McQuarrie

Ok, so it looks like we have a consensus on the following as the most basic elements of 40K that we wish to keep as the foundation our game:

And What Of The Chaos Marines?

Daemon Knights. Ketai Kotaki

So... If we intend to go more elite with the 'Good' Knights/Marines, making them fewer in number and more heroic than in 40K, then what should be the general direction of the Chaos Traitors? How do we convey their villainy and power? Slaves? Smaller numbers of actual Marines? All ideas are welcome.

-SandWyrm 

How Can We Make Marines More Real?

Captain America And Superman, by Alex Ross

The discussions so far are all going swimmingly; but I'm sensing an undercurrent that needs to be addressed. That being the question: "How are we going to make marines real?" Because I think the answer to that question will inform many of the high-level choices that we make about our game.

Taking Turns: I Go, You Go?

Thirsty Work, by Mike Shaughnessy

There seems to be a fair bit of support for the idea of breaking up the standard 40K turn structure a bit into some version of "I Go, You Go". While I was initially sour on this concept, I've come around to liking it quite a bit. Because I think that it potentially solves a lot of problems. Let's go through the advantages that I see...

Setting An Agenda For Our Discussions

Watchwood has asked that I post some sort of list of design subjects that we'll be discussing and when. Here's a preliminary list based on my own design notes...

The First Broad Strokes Of A New 40K

G. Korzhev. During the War

So we want to make a new 28mm Sci-Fi wargame. Where do we start? Well, I think we start as an artist, with a blank canvas in front of him, would begin. With the broad strokes. The big decisions. We start by setting the underlying assumptions upon which everything else we do will be based. The limits that we will initially impose on ourselves, so that our creativity doesn't take us off into left field and away from our goals.

Change Is Coming...

A.Mikhailov. Bitter bread

Can you feel it? There's a palpable sense of dread befalling 40K these days. A sort of unconscious collective understanding that 40K and it's creator, Games Workshop, cannot continue in their current form. That the game/company is, in some sense, doomed. That it's players are just biding their time until the hammer finally falls sometime in the next 2 years. After which our little competitive community might well die on the vine.