Not Space Hulk

Since the first time I saw the Space Hulk board at Adepticon, I have wanted to try and emulate it. I have yet to play Space Hulk proper, but the idea of it is incredibly appealing. So appealing that I wrote some rules for what I imagined Space Hulk would look like if using One Page Rules – Star Quest. I’ve included the rules at the end of this post, but you can find them in printed form in issue 7 of Under the Dice.

THE BOARD

For the past 3~ months I’ve been working on printing and painting these Dragonrest Hvac Tunnels. Printed in small batches, and painted in one big manic session using oils. This started with no intention other than I thought they’d be fun to play some games on. But as Adepticon drew closer, I thought this could be a great way to get some friends together during the convention to slow down and just play a game. So I coordinated with a few friends, and picked up some extras along the way, and we carved out some time during the busy schedule to sit down and game for a few hours. The only requirement, bring an inquisitor or a terminator on a base no bigger than 32mm, as anything bigger wouldn’t fit in the tunnels.

THE CREW

We ended up with a crew of 9. Cosmic Mike, Dan, Zack, Paul, Jay3, TJ, Mike “1-hunnit demons”, Scott & Andy. My good pal Dillon even agreed to set up some insanely cool strobing effects to sell the “emergency protocol” lights. He already had the lights out to test for the Bro Pro event that we were doing the following day, so a test run with the Space Hulk board was a bit of fun. I think it really added to the experience.

*Explaining that this is the most bullshit set of rules but we are here to have fun.*

The story goes; a strike team of Inquisitors & Space Marine Terminators investigating a ship involved in potential heretical research. A piece of darktech on the ship needs to be destroyed and to recover whatever crew they can find left on board. This obviously did not go to plan. What the players ended up finding was gene splicing and a severe containment breach. The mission quickly changed to a rescue mission to save ships remaining crew members caught cornered by the horrors of the experiments and engaging the self destruct protocol. Add in Dark Angel sub plot revolving around searching for one of the Fallen, who they believe to be one of their fellow strike team members.

The crew was:

Cosmic Mike – Dark Angel Terminator

Paul – Dark Angel Terminator

Scott – Dark Angel Terminator

Dan – Terminator

Andy – Terminator

Mike – Terminator

Zack – Inquisitor

Kev – Inquisitor

TJ – Arbite security force

THE GAME

The game began with the 3 Dark ~~dickheads~~ Angels conspiring in the shadows of the room together about what they were doing. The inquisitors were informed the Dark Angels are looking for something or someone on the ship, and should have an eye kept on them.

*Cosmic Mike, Zach & Paul clearing the halls leading to the Navigator.*

Unfortunately for Zack, he was the Fallen the Dark Angels were searching for. The Dark Angels had their target and approached Zack with a smiling face, offering an escort to the mission objective. Zack having no idea eagerly accepted the hulking body guards. And with that the players deployed on one side of the board.

As the game began, the group entered the halls with alarms sounding throughout the ship. The chaos turned ship crew that patrolled the halls hadn’t noticed the players yet but the players immediately started a firefight. TJ discovered a computer terminal and began opening locked doors. He also used the ships cameras to reveal unexplored areas of the map. One of them revealing a navigator and security forces being swarmed by gene-stealers!

*The computer reveals a Navigator + security being swarmed by Genestealers!*

The Dark Angels made their way to the room, and grabbed the Navigator. Unfortunately for the security forces the door was shut in their face and an airlock was opened by TJ to deal with bug problem. Mike finds a chainfist upgrade for his powerfist.

*Seeing the genestealers has Mike rethinking his gameplan.*

For whatever reason when Mike came across the Dark Angels, he decided to throw multiple grenades at them, and then sawed the Navigator they rescued in half with his newly acquired chainfist. This prompted a firefight involving Zack & his Dark Angel entourage against Mike & Dan. Scott makes Mike “mind his business” and Mike goes down. A truce is formed. Dan revives Mike and the groups go their separate ways and move to the second part of the ship to find the archeotech. The whole time this is going on the Dark Angels are conspiring against Zack and waiting for the right moment to betray him. Unbeknownst to them though, Zack had opened a crate looking for gear and became infected with a gene virus, causing him to begin working against the team in secret. He secretly transferred the virus to nearly all the other players with a healing ability he had by the end of the game. Funnily enough, most of the group seemed to be against the idea of working together anyway so nothing seemed amiss!

*Mike learning to mind his business while Dan watches.*

Andy showed up later and deployed deeper in the ship, completely unaware of half the drama between the rest of the crew and was carving through waves of genestealers.

*Andy arrived via an emergency access hatch (he was late to the game).*

The self destruct system was activated and the players began moving towards a Valkyrie that was docked in the hanger. Unfortunately it was already being loaded by the chaos cultists. The players exchanged gunfire and wiped out the cultists, just in time for a Carnifax to arrive on scene. The players managed to board the Valkyrie without actually fighting the big bug, but not before the Dark Angel drama finally came to a head. Their inquisitor “companion” was dealt with. The ship took off just as Mike plunged his powerfist into the side of the hull in attempt to sabotage the departure. He failed and found himself with a powered down fist stuck in the side of the ship as it took off, taking him with it. The space hulk seemingly self destructed as they flew off.

I wish I got photos of the latter half of the event with the ship in the hanger but we were all so locked in we missed it!

REFLECTIONS

Looking back, we all had a great time. Half roleplaying. half playing what amounted to a made up ruleset and on the fly GM calls. In hindsight I would not have told the Dark Angels who their target was. I would have changed rules on movement and facing & being attacked in the back. If playing the game with the Dragonrest Hvac terrain, you could definitely switch all movement to; each inch is a square moved, and each facing change is an inch. Last thing I would have changed was made it more deadly. I didn’t have nearly enough genestealers hit the board due to not wanting to overwhelm the players, but I think thats where the fun and stress of Spacehulk lies. Oh well! Next time.

space hulk Download