A Boardgame?!?!?

In this day and age of PC and platform games, why would I spend time, money, and energy on making a boardgame? Well, like many of us older gamers, I come from a time when if you wanted to play a video game at home, your choice was Pong and, well...Pong. Hell, I even remember a cabinet arcade game that had a little model of the lunar lander on a wire that you had to try and land on a rotating model of the lunar surface. So, when I was a kid my older brother brought home my first RPG, Gamma World. Most folks first played Dungeons & Dragons, but for me, it was their spinoff game of a post-apocalyptic future of mutants, killer plants, and runaway robots. So since then, gathering a group of friends to slog it out against some dastardly foe has been a welcome pastime of mine.

Fast forward to my 2nd attempt at college when I discover WizWar, a game of wizardly combat and shit-talking, played by a bunch of gamer geeks in the cafeteria. This is still one of the greatest beer & pretzels games ever. Its designed with fun and creativity that inspires players to make their own spells and beasties. For the most part, the game has stayed alive for 20 years on fan support. I got Smoke hooked on WizWar like he got me hooked on Halo. He went and made his own copy that kicks ass and our group of gamer friends gather for some bloody fun WizWar games. So one day I toss out the idea of making a sci-fi version of WizWar. Everyones eyes light up and actually start giving me money to do it! Well shit. I have to do something now.

Now, that same old college group had shown me a game called Space Hulk, a spin-off from WarHammer 40,000. I knew WH40k is still very popular today, so I went with this as a foundation for the game. A squad of armored marines cleaning out a derelict spaceship of an alien infestation. I bring in WizWars use of equipment/ability cards so players can customize how they arm themselves and coordinate with each other. So after buying and painting a couple hundred dollars worth of WH40k minis, XenoPWN! is born. Its like a squad based co-op video game, where each marine is controlled by a player and the alien Skerrg is controlled by a Game Master of sorts, who defines the game objectives, from simple seek & destroy missions, to rescue ops, to just getting off the fucking ship before the alien horde eats your ass.

Everyone in our group contributed to this most KICK-ASS boardgame. It has gone so far beyond my expectations and Im incredibly proud of what weve accomplished. We started out playing with 3x5 index cards with the equipment/abilities and number cards written in marker, and the boards were foamcore with the maps drawn on with that same marker. It was a total blast. Now, we have these beautiful color boards and laminated cards thanks to our Ahnold-talking buddy Paul (MojoBoogum). And Jacob,(elvendarkmage) has been putting together a sweet website for us. Now, the first thing most people ask is if were gong to sell it. Well, ysee when we started this little venture, we had no idea how awsome it would be. So, when we were making it, we swiped art and images from all over the internet because we wanted everything to be the best we could do. So, its likely wed at the very least get about a thousand "cease and dissist" orders if we released this to make a buck, and possibly still will when we release it as a free download. But, were still hoping enough people will be playing it for it to spread in the way WizWar has. Im even going to try and bring it to 2old2con in some form.

Heres a taste.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c377/darthcestual/BoomHeadshotFullCard2.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c377/darthcestual/MinigunFullCard.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c377/darthcestual/IMG_0138.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c377/darthcestual/IMG_0131.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c377/darthcestual/IMG_0123.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c377/darthcestual/TyranidBrainSporeFullCard.jpg