Drunk in a Space Hulk

If you follow me over on Instagram, you’ll know that I’ve been a bit obsessed with a newly release game called Sun Rot. Created by Matt, the mind behind @totally_not_panicking and Smash Bash, it’s a card-flip driven, rules light combination of the best parts of a TTRPG and a miniature skirmish game. And for some unexpected reason, it’s managed to light a fire inside of me when it comes to games. I feel an urge to create in this world – a world left purposefully vague and minimalistic – to craft something out of the loose ideas and rules he’s presented. To explore it, share what I’ve found there and see what other players and GM’s have found in their own worlds.

It’s launched me into creating a board to represent my vision of this city in ruin (though getting me hyped to create terrain is not a challenge if I’m being real), dive deep into the piles of sprues to kitbash monsters and characters, start writing narratives I want to play out at the table and even trying new things like creating proxy cards for enemies I’ve thought of to use in games. There’s even more stuff I’m working on that I haven’t had a chance to start on yet, but as DOA once said “Talk -Action = 0” I’ll keep that to myself right now until I’ve got some work to show .To say I’ve been inspired is doing this a disservice; at this point I feel like it’s helped rewire my brain and how I think about the hobby in general.

I’ve been into The Hobby™ for as long as I can remember, being introduced to it in my preteen years by a friend’s older brother. Probably a path many of us have walked. Being young, it was something to have a bit of fun with – looking at models you probably couldn’t afford in stores, basking in artwork from artists you had no idea at the time would influence so much of what you find interesting, having some random assorted minis you built and painted to the best of your ability because you convinced your dad to buy you a 5^th edition Warhammer Fantasy starter box, and lining those miniatures up on a kitchen table with some books as hills and cups as watch towers so you could see how cool they looked– but never really played as a serious game following the actual rules. I dove headlong back into the world of The Hobby™ again about 5 years ago, as one in their mid 30’s is ought to do – and found that I was just as into it all as I had been as a child in that hobby store in cold Prince George, BC those many years ago.

This time around though, I was old enough to understand you technically can’t just push your little guys around the board. There are actual rules to follow. So many rules. Many confusing rules. Rules that sometimes take the fun out of what should be a fun activity. I understood that sometimes you spend more time with your head buried in a book (or three or four at once if you’re playing Necromunda) instead of doing what you should be – enjoying  time spent with like-minded friends. Still with me? I swear this is going to wind back around to Sun Rot really quick. I know I’m not the only one to experience this, and I don’t think that rules heavy games are wrong at all. I LOVE crunchy charts and rolling for the fate of your gang of dudes on esoteric charts. I play Old World, modern Warhammer 40k, a have piles of TTRPG books packed with charts and stat lines. Necromunda is initially what got me back into the hobby after so many years away and it takes up considerable space on my bookshelves. We love a chunky rulebook in this house. It’s just not something I want all the time.

I’ve played a handful of games now, each one a unique story driven not only by the narrative hooks I sprinkled in, but based on whim of the cards, dice and the miniatures you have on hand. One game, the characters had perform a ritual in an attempt cease the apocalypse unfolding in the city around them, but while they spent turn after turn performing the ritual that they were swarmed by a dozen monsters that were drawn to the sorcerous energies. AT fate would have it, the wizard pulled a card that allowed them to repeat the last spell they had cast – a fireball – the managed to wipe out over half of the monsters encroaching on them, which just so happened to wipe out another of the characters as well.

During another game, right at the end as things looked hopeless, the same wizard (they sure get up to some shenanigans) was the lone character left along with the Oracle – an NPC the game has charged you with escorting. The ritual had already been performed successfully at the cost of most of the wizards remaining wounds. Unfortunately, this ritual had summoned a Probability Devourer that now stood in the way of whatever victory looks like in this world. Chasing both of characters up a tree, as GM I decided the Oracle would mutter a prayer to whatever god might entertain helping them. A god did answer those prayers and I flipped a Divine Intervention card which damaged the Probability Devourer. Unfortunately it also damaged everyone else on the board, which killed the already heavily wounded wizard. With all of the playable characters dead, the game ended on a bleak note with the Oracle stuck on a treetop platform, a hungry Probability Devourer waiting at the bottom for her to descend.

Game of Sun Rot are built of unique narrative moments like these examples, which you just allow the cards and dice to take you on the story they want to tell you.I think that’s why Sun Rot has really been like this light to me, it’s illuminated what I want out of The Hobby™ 90% of the time – a way to push miniatures around cool terrain with my friends and tell a story with dice. It’s what that child version of me always thought these games were and being able to capture that feeling of “playing around your little guys” seems so powerful in the world we now exist in. That it provides an open slate, with a few parameters to guide your thoughts, has been wonderful and there’s so much space to be creative with it if that’s what you want out of it. I’ve got some more Sun Rot related stuff I’ll post in the future around how I’ve been playing the game and examples of the rules modifications/additions we’ve been playing around with, how I’ve tried to bake rules explanation for the players into the narrative narrative, as well as some other game related aides I’ve been working on. So go grab a copy , think about joining the Discord to check out all the inspiring work people are posting over there and most importantly support cool stuff so we get more unique projects and help grow this community.

Scott