Rules: Steampunk

Imperial Mars Miniatures Rules

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Imperial Mars is a set of free miniatures rules for games set in a Mars that has been colonized by the imperial powers. The author writes:

The level we have set for these actions is fairly small scale, the idea being that the transportation of large armies to the red planet is far too expensive to consider. A company of earthling infantry works out to about 24 figures, which gives a good level of playability. The Martians we use, and thus those used in the body of the rules, are either humanoid or reptilian, this is due to the selection of figures available. For simplicity I will refer to them as regular and large Martians (with or without fries!).

Whilst we cannot claim that these rules are “generic”, how could they be? We like to think that the system is so simple and open ended that any “new” races or weapons can be quickly slotted in. This seems to be so simple that most of our games involve some rule modification for the scenario. Anyway I hope that you enjoy them and at least find something in them of use.

These rules were developed initially for 10mm figures though I can see no reason why they cannot be used for other scales.

Aeronef Logs

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Similar in spirit to the late, lamented Space:1889 cloudships rules, Aeronef is about Victorian era armored flying gunships. There are some outstanding ships’ logs for the game here.

Fistfull of Tripods Rules

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Ty Beard’s Fistfull of Tripods is a set of free wargames rules for fighting battles from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. It is a tactical level game, where one stand is a platoon. I’ts designed for 1/300 (6mm) scale figures.

NOTE: This is an updated URL. The old one was no longer working.

Alan’s Landship Game

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Alan’s Landship Game  is a set of free wargames rules that pits Victorians against Martians.

Iron Stars demo rules

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Majestic 12 Games has these demo rules for their Iron Stars miniatures wargame. I’ll let them explain:

Iron Stars is a game of space combat in an age of steam and steel. Set in a fictional universe based loosely on the writings of H. G. Wells and other fantasists, it provides a back story and ship designs from an alternate history in which the Martian Invasion actually happened, the ether is all?pervasive, and Cavorite is a reality. But, as with Starmada and other Majestic Twelve Games products, the focus is on players’ imaginations; a clear and concise ship construction system is provided so you can pit your own space dreadnoughts against the likes of the Royal Navy Ether Squadron or the German Aethermarine.