Tag: frag

FRAG: The Elves Get Pissed

I’ve finished the first pass of the fourth army for FRAG – the Sidhe.The Sidhe (‘shee’) hail from a distant, magical dimension. After their world was annihilated by powerful arch-demons, the reminders of the Sidhe race turned their considerable might towards hunting demons and monsters across the cosmos. While ostensibly allies to the Earth Defence Force and the Lost Battalion, they remain mysterious and aloof.

More so than the Lost Battalion or the Forces of Hell, the Sidhe really rely on their characters to deliver their deadliest abilities. Most Sidhe pepper the enemy with amber wand fire; they depend on mages to deliver them to the right spot and increase their firepower, cardinals to support them defensively, and lords to rip the throats out of the biggest bads on the battlefield.

The Sidhe also have a few important differences to other armies. For one, they need to declare which artifacts they are using at the beginning of the turn (they have a lot). Secondly, many Sidhe are Slippery (they can leave close combat without triggering attacks). Careful planning, alongside the brute force expected from a FRAG army, will ensure they win the day.

FRAG: The Next Faction

Tried to do some work on the next update…. let’s call it the Sidhe update. They’re a new army for FRAG, my tabletop rulebook project. There’s not been much progress. Perhaps there’s been too much Real Life Work stuff on my mind.

When I started writing FRAG, I just wanted to make a simple but fun game about some of the cool stuff that’s gone on in the Doom / Id fan community. I also wanted people to be able to use pretty much whatever miniatures they liked – the fantasy list has a dual purpose of letting people use fantasy models as well as scratching that Heretic / Hexen itch.

Of course, it’s a bit tricky balancing that against armoured space marines shooting plasma guns at bulletproof demon-cyborgs in a simplified d6 system.

FRAG: New Faction

Currently writing rules for the “Not-Wolfenstein” SS Paranormal Division, now renamed to the New Order. They should play quite differently to the other lists. While running about firing heavy weapons is the standard in FRAG, these alt-history Nazis are (mostly) only human and have to carefully deploy weapon teams instead.

Mid-write I went looking for reference pics for the army list to help guide artists and play testers. I really shouldn’t have been surprised at what’s available for the SS Elite Guard. In the end I used screenshots from Return to Castle Wolfenstein but I’m pretty sure I’m on a watch list now.

FRAG: First Draft of New Rulebook

Below are screengrabs showing a first pass at my next rulebook FRAG. FRAG is a simple d6 based wargame where squads of FPS heroes fight hordes of monsters.  The artwork is just stuff found online and added to look pretty for my gaming group, so I’ll be looking for commissioned pieces of art closer to final release.

Current armies are: Space Marines, Hell, and the Old Ones. The Old One list is only half-done, and the list is already so huge it’ll probably end up pruned or split off.

Work on the system is ongoing. Future updates will add The Order (Heretic/Hexen) and the SS Paranormal Division. I also want to make a list of themed NPC-type characters who live on the worlds each faction visits, like cops/guards/WW2 GIs, etc.

28mm Doomguys

You can make Doomguys pretty easily using Maelstrom’s Edge plastics and Pig Iron’s system trooper helmets. I’ve gone one step further and used Hasslefree weapons to equip mine with shotguns, chainguns, plasma rifles, rocket launchers (minor converting required) and super shotguns. There are also engineer and medic variants, and an officer with an oversized pistol. I’m still painting the 7 objective markers – 3 skulls, 3 key cards, and a small pet rabbit.

These guys are being used for my wargame FRAG, a mass battle system inspired by 90s FPS games.