Introducing Dekatropik: Rules-Light, 10mm Fantasy Skirmishes

I’ve been taken with a certain thought about my wargaming over the past year: particularly when toting around all The Stuff (R).

It’s too much.

Tubs and tubs full of terrain. Warbands and monsters and other bits and bobs kept in other, additional tubs. Heavy help me when I have to make multiple trips to load up terrain and warbands to take to a gaming event.

I look at my small scale pike and shot project and – while I do think it’s pretty awesome – an daunted by the enormity of it all. Fielding two complete armies is more of a commitment than I think my ADHD brain can realistically commit to.

And even the comparatively lightweight rules in the Joseph McCullough space of Frostgrave and Stargrave seem like too much of an ask when I’m playing every other month at most. (And let’s set aside any pretense I have of finishing my Warhammer 40,000 or Age of Sigmar armies. The Drukhari and Nighthaunt are going to continue to languish.)

It’s too much.

Easy to Remember Rules that Play and Store in a Compact Space

Dekatropik is the current working title of my attempt to scale down – in size and rules complexity – an approach to miniature gaming that may be better sized for players like me:

Guys who are busy, don’t want to lug around a ton of crap to game with, and want easy to remember rules that allow us to tell a story at the table about our warbands, throw some dice around, and have a social time with friends and fellow gamers.

Core Game Principles for Dekatropik

• Dekatropik’s target players are busy folks who love the idea of miniatures games, but are not playing with great frequency. So when they do get a chance to play, it shouldn’t be a burdensome rules or list-writing experience.
• Rules-light mechanics (similar in weight to games such as Space / Sword Weirdos, Forbidden Psalm, Planet 28, etc.)
• Narrative focus without fiddly and annoying campaign and advancement mechanics
• Designed for 10mm scale miniatures, mostly multi-based, on 40mm and 20mm round bases
• Played on a 16x16in (~400x400mm) board with streamlined terrain rules and classifications: no rules for swimming or jumping or climbing
• Miniatures agnostic with a hint of worldbuilding
• Warband lists composed of few, more meaningful fantasy archetypes – versus a myriad of options of granular differences
• Points for warbands and units are kept simple and low: a Dekatropik warband is 12 points and four to eight “groups,” no 100, 500, or 1,000+ points of various number values
• Special rules and options selected at a warband level
• No distracting tokens or need for a pencil and bookkeeping during play (we’ll see to what degree I can manage this!)

That’s the overview. Now let’s look at some pictures.

Proof of Concept Warbands

I’ve taken the current rules draft to create the following proof of concept warbands to playtest the game. The game will be miniatures-agnostic, so don’t consider these concepts as implying any manner of faction choices beyond what seemed interesting at the time.

(You should know I remain a pretty poor miniatures photographer.)

Photos from Recent Dekatropik Playtests

I’m beginning playtesting the rules locally to see if the core gameplay loop works. Here are a few pics from the games so far so you can see how it looks at the table.

I must admit: for what it is (10mm scale, no verticality or complex terrain / terrain rules), I think it works pretty well!

What’s Next for Dekatropik?

1. I’m playtesting the core gameplay loop with friends over the next few weeks.
   
2. If that goes well, I’ll be releasing an Alpha playtest of the rules in August. Not complete, but enough to build a warband and play a game with.
   
3. I’ll create a Facebook group at that time to coordinate interested players. I’ll post in the various Facebook groups and forums – and email the playtesters – when that time comes.

If a 10mm skirmish game may be of interest, please do fill out the playtest form! Will be sharing Alpha rules later in August.

https://forms.gle/j3HdbCjhm7BFdMZh9