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Let's Talk Dark Future

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22 Jul 2016 14:54 #230663 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
PM inbound

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27 Jul 2016 10:20 #230926 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
Alright, folks, I'm looking for two issues of Wargames Illustrated.

332 - post apoc gaming
341 - road warrior games (Dark future, car wars, route 666, etc)

If you have these and are willing to share, let a fella know.

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12 Sep 2016 18:14 - 12 Sep 2016 18:27 #234048 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
Double post
Last edit: 12 Sep 2016 18:27 by Mr. White.

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12 Sep 2016 18:15 - 12 Sep 2016 18:25 #234049 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
In a little over two months time I went from no future to a very Dark Future:



You're looking at:
* complete and unpunched box set
* unpunched box set only missing rulebook
* complete, mostly unpunched set with no box (thanks, Barnes!)
* white line fever in shrink
* white line fever opened
* every novel written for the setting (thanks, columbob!)
* pdfs of every rule from the core book, white line fever, white dwarf, and challenge mag (thanks, brewmeister!)

I never thought I'd get back into it after letting my last collection go, now I've got more than I've ever owned (minus any infantry).

Got a few more db and a bb team on my painting table, then I'm hitting this. I tend to go with my own colors and designs when painting, but with as many renegades as I now have I'm going to paint a large Maniax gang.

In 2017, I will begin the hunt for all the fantastic Alan Perry 20mm Dark Future character minis.

While you wait for painted shots...here's a cool read with Graeme 'WFRP' Davis chronicling his involvement with Dark Future.

graemedavis.wordpress.com/2015/12/22/my-...future-bibliography/
Last edit: 12 Sep 2016 18:25 by Mr. White.
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12 Sep 2016 18:38 #234051 by Michael Barnes
Replied by Michael Barnes on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
I painted all of those cars except those Afrika Korps ones. My friend did those.
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13 Sep 2016 08:35 #234095 by JEM
Replied by JEM on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
That's an excellent haul. I actually bought a bunch of the tiny pedestrians, and the bikes with sidecars, but lost those who knows where.

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13 Sep 2016 09:01 - 13 Sep 2016 09:11 #234096 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic And 1 (Dark Future)

JEM wrote: That's an excellent haul. I actually bought a bunch of the tiny pedestrians, and the bikes with sidecars, but lost those who knows where.


I had several as well. The 20mm GW minis by Alan Perry are still the sharpest 20mm post apoc minis on the market...yes, even almost 30 years later.

20mm seems to be a rare scale as there's not a whole lot out there. I used Stan Johansen's Road Warrior line before and will do so again. However, they are no where as crisp as the GW minis. Going to be fun going on that treasure hunt later, probably where most of my 2017 hobby dollars will go.

www.stanjohansenminiatures.com/Road.htm



solegends.com/citads1988c/198809wd105/wd...rkFutureBikes-01.htm
Last edit: 13 Sep 2016 09:11 by Mr. White.
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15 Sep 2016 08:39 - 15 Sep 2016 08:59 #234301 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
Though I’ve owned the Games Workshop game Dark Future on more than one occasion in the past, I had never actually owned or read any of the novels. Thanks again to Columbob, I've now got the full set. May as well write little reviews as I read them. Keep the Dark Future momentum going until I begin work on the models.

Many of the titles are stand alone, but there is a series or two and we’ll get into those in due time. For this Dark Future book report series, I’m going to read them in order of publication. Starting with…



The book that kicked started the series is the 1990 anthology compiled by David Pringle. There are nine short stories here from six authors. All of these gents are more talented than I, so it’s hard to critique how well written they are. The critic’s role never really suited me, so I’m going to give loose impressions of each story. That’s still more than I’ve found on the net for these stories, so ‘ere we go…

Route 666 (Jack Yeovil) – Jack Yeovil, pen name for the esteemed Kim Newman, is an author I’m very familiar with through his Warhammer Novels Drachenfels and Beasts in Velvet. Two of the finest novels I’ve read set in the Old World. I’ve also read his Anno Dracula which I enjoyed quite a bit. Sort of a pre-League of Extraordinary Gentlemen tale where various literary characters interact beyond their own tales. Back to Route 666….This story kicks off the Jack Yeovil series of Dark Future books and, no surprise, is the strongest tale in this anthology. We’re introduced to Sgt. Quincannon of the United States Road Cavalry as he and Co. escort series antagonist Elder Seth and his flock to Spanish Fork where all hell breaks loose….literally. We’re also introduced to Jazzbeaux of the Psychopomps gang who I believe we’ll see again down the road. Route 666 also begins the “maybe Dark Future is the beginning of the 40K universe” theories as it alludes to demons from the Realm of Chaos.

Kid Zero And Snake Eyes (Brain Craig) – Kid Zero, young ganger with the Low Numbers falls for Snake Eyes, a regular of The Underground who has a bit of a reptilian look having been experimented on by the GenTech Bioproducts Division (GenTech, the biodivision that cares…). Seem she has altered eyes and scaly patches of skin. This was a short tale on Kid Zero going rouge taking his crusade against the Corp and anyone in he and Snake Eye’s way. This was a fun little tale told in a campfire tale manner, and it highlighted that there is a society in this setting and it’s not all wastelands and highways.

Ghost Town (Neil Jones) – Three Sanctioned Operatives defend a hideout hidden in an abandoned town. Wasn’t real memorable, but felt like an early 90’s Full Moon Features flick, so thinking of that was fun.

Duel Control (Myles Burnham) – Sheriff Jesse McHeath duels with a gang harassing New Carthage. Strong opening scene here of a gangcultist left for dead on the road. This tale also dropped a lot of corporation names from the rule-book, giving a strong tie to the setting.

Thicker Than Water (Brian Craig) – Two bounty hunter brothers, Carl and Bro, get caught up in a mission over their heads dealing with GenTech (GenTech, the biodivision that cares…) and a rogue experiment. I liked this one as it gave me some ideas for a proper game scenario.

Maverick Son (Neil McIntosh) – Blue Star Op, Joe Gold, gets sent on a mission to hunt down a former Op that’s now leading a gangcult. Despite the dusty, desert setting this was very much a Shadowrun tale…crooked ‘johnson’ and all…

Four-Minute Warning (Myles Burnham) – Three individuals hijack a televangelists’ taping and air all the dirty laundry of he and his wife. This was a good story and its inclusion is interesting. It had nothing to do with ops, gangs, V8s, or anything to do with life on the road. So, in that regard it felt completely out of place. However, it does seem like the sort of event that could take place in this world’s city and viewed on the telly. A good tale and a wake-up call that there’s more to the setting than highway dueling.

Only In The Twilight (Brian Craig) – Ever wonder what the story of Troy and the Trojan Horse would be like if it didn’t take place along the Mediterranean in the Ancient World, but in the dark future of the American Southeast? Wonder no more…and listen to Homer Hegarty tell it.

Uptown Girl (William King) – Mr. King is the other author I was familiar with going into this anthology as I had read Trollslayer and a few other Gotrek and Felix stories. This story gave me a Escape From New York/The Warriors vibe. Sanction Op Travis has to retrieve a captive Gruber heir while avoiding several gangs, a rival Op, and general bad attitude populations. This one also felt like there was more to come of the story, but I don’t recall ever seeing any of the names in any Dark Future backstory mention so I doubt that’s the case. We’ll see.

So there you have it. A rodeo roundup of the tales in Route 666.


(by John Blanche…is it Jazzbeaux?)

This post sponsored by GenTech. GenTech, the biodivision that cares…
Last edit: 15 Sep 2016 08:59 by Mr. White.
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15 Sep 2016 09:50 #234311 by Columbob
Replied by Columbob on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
Great to hear you enjoying them, especially if it synergizes with your gaming material. I knew those books would be in good hands. Your summaries also bring back memories...

I don't think Bill King ever got anything else published in the setting either, unless it was in the pages of WD or something else.
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27 Sep 2016 23:01 - 28 Sep 2016 08:06 #235064 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic And 1 (Dark Future)
Well, I'm now into the Demon Download Cycle proper...



Written by Jack Yeovil (Kim Newman) and published by Games Workshop in 1990, Demon Download is the first book in a quartet and continues the story that began in Route 666 anthology. Going into the book I thought it would star Sgt. Quincannon from Route 666, but it’s actually centered around other members of the US Road Cavalry. Well, actually the main character is a nun named Sister Chantal who I kept envisioning looked like a more well dressed Aeon Flux.

Anyway, Elder Seth is back and this time one of his acolytes is carrying around a demon in his gut that he uploads into Slim’s Gas ‘N’ BBQ, some gas station out in sandside (the desert wasteland). From there this creature possesses an interceptor, which it uses to drive to a hub in a rundown church in Welcome, Arizona..a well connected hub hosted by the Catholic Church. Much ensues in Welcome as the local priest, Father O’Pray, attempts to keep the possessed vehicle at bay. Unfortunately, the beast jacks into the hub and takes over the Fort Apache US Road Cavalry facility on its way to its objective in El Paso. If it can make El Paso all chaos will break loose between what’s functioning of the US of A and the countries of South and Central America. Sister Chantal and Trooper Nathan Stack attempt to thwart the demon before it gets out of Fort Apache.

I’m not sure how much background Newman was given on the setting, or perhaps how much leeway he was allowed, because there’s a slight difference in tone between the novels and the fluff in the Dark Future rulebook as I read it. Where the rulebook focuses on the ‘state of the world’ and has fun adverts from megacorps of dystopia 1995, Newman’s tale is centered around cultists, demons, and those fighting to keep them at bay. Very much a post-apocalyptic Warhammer Old World fighting against chaos rather than Mad Max versus the Humongous. The ‘Dark Future’ title font isn’t even the same between the novels and game components. Not sure how this happened. Maybe GW wanted these tales to be more widely read and not just seen as game literature?

I’m not saying this tale couldn’t, or shouldn’t, take place in Dark Future, it’s just not what I was expecting. Sanctioned Ops, road gangs, etc are mentioned but more as dressing in the background. We do get mentions of Nurgle and Khorne though…

Another bit of disconnect is looking at the governing law enforcement. The GW police minis by Alan Perry have a sort of 1940s retro vibe. The US Road Cavalry in Demon Download look like they belong on horseback defending the western frontier. I like how Newman has them up like this as they are essentially defending the wasted frontier, but again, it’s just a bit different than the aesthetic of the game pieces.



This all makes sense when reading Graeme Davis’ recollection on Dark Future . It seems it was an rpg setting developed by Jervis Johnson and Marc Gascoigne bolted onto a game of road combat that Richard Halliwell had put together.

No matter though, its a great read. We learn a lot more interesting tidbits about the world, but interestingly not a lot on how it came to be. It’s almost as if the world as we know it went a bit off the rails decades ago, say the 1960s, rather than just taking a hard turn in the 90s. Newman incorporates lots of pop culture references but with a twist and these are fun to spot. There is a bit with a horseman helping out Stack while stranded in the desert. I couldn’t make out who he was supposed to be though…Eastwood’s Man with No Name?



I know this book was later republished in the 00s and I think the timeline was then advanced a bit, so maybe instead of 1999 it takes place in 2023 or something? I’m not sure. I also have no idea if Newman updated any of the pop references in the latter edition, if some GW ghostwriter did, or if there were no changes at all.

How will this impact my return to the Dark Future game? I do like the chaos tint so will likely incorporate a little of that in some future scenarios. Forces of chaos are definitely the big antagonist of GW’s settings, so it wouldn’t be out of place here. Again, I’ll probably not go overboard. I’ll also likely update the timeline and look of the US Road Cavalry compared to the General Custer look of these guys. Maybe a bit more armored a la Judge Dredd. Or maybe use the colonial marines from Stan Johansen . Demon Download includes some battle droids employed by the US Road Cavalry. These droids are golden and nicknamed ‘Oscars’…from the trophy. I do like this and will see I can find some decent ones at 20mm scale when I hunt down infantry for this game in a few months.

Finally, the book sleeve fancies the tale as ‘Arcane cybergoth fiction set in the nightmare world of the near future’. I knew cybergoth was a subculture, but I don’t think it’s related to this book series. Well, I doubt it sprang from here. Despite my initial setting confusion, this was a fun tale and am looking forward to continuing the story of Sister Chantel and Trooper Stack…though if the mortality rate of characters in this book is any indication…they may not be long in the next one…
Last edit: 28 Sep 2016 08:06 by Mr. White.
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04 Nov 2016 08:19 - 04 Nov 2016 15:17 #237435 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic Let's Talk Dark Future

(1990 Original)

I recently finished off the second book in Jack Yeovil’s Demon Download cycle.

To be honest, this one took me a little longer to get through as it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for in a Dark Future tale. It’s not that it was bad, but there wasn’t too much in the way of Sanctioned Ops vs Gangcults vs US Road Cavalry action.

Krokodil Tears actually takes place after the events in the Route 666 Anthology, but prior to the previous book in the cycle, Demon Download. Last surviving member of the Psychopomps street gang, Jessamyn 'Jazzbeaux' Bonney, is on the run from Nguyen Seth’s minions – a Californian surfer Op, a serial killer that’s a parody of Hannibal Lector, and some outer dimensional Lovecraftian beast. Jessamyn, herself a cyborg, ends up a vassal for some spiritual force becoming an ultimate weapon of sorts…Krokodil.

Jack Yeovil, again a pen name for Kim Newman, loves pop culture references, so there’s a lot to spot. In fact, my favorite chapters were the ones about media news outlets broadcasting events around the world. The actual story of Krokodil v Seth wasn’t as engaging and with its focus on demon action felt more like something from a twisted World of Darkness novel rather than what I was wanting to explore in the Dark Future setting.

I understand in the next book, Comeback Tour, Krokodil teams up with retired Sanctioned Op Elvis Presley, yes him, so I’m hoping we get into more road war there.

One thing that does jump out at me from the Dark Future setting, as told through these novels, is that there are no shortage of strong, female protagonists. In fact, the main characters of the setting (outside of Seth) are all female: Vatican hitwoman Sister Chantal Juillerat, former ganger turned spiritual warrior Jessamyn/Krokodil, and Sanctioned Op Redd Harvest. For the past 20 years, it’s felt like GW’s universes lacked leading female characters. I can only think of the vampire Genevieve in the Warhammer Fantasy universe from the early 90s…another character created by Kim Newman.


(2006 Reprint)

Edit: The book has inspired me to resurrect the Psychopomps as an underhive gang the next time I play Necromunda.
Last edit: 04 Nov 2016 15:17 by Mr. White.
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04 Nov 2016 11:51 #237447 by Thrun
Replied by Thrun on topic Let's Talk Dark Future
I know you love your max max and dark future Jeff, what do you make of this announcement of the "Thunder Alley" guys releasing "Apocalypse Road" which sounds like some kind of Mad Maxy style car racing game.
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04 Nov 2016 13:01 - 04 Nov 2016 13:35 #237451 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic Let's Talk Dark Future
I'm sure Apocalypse Road is going to be a great time at the table, maybe I'll play it one day, but I won't buy it.

Mainly because there's no hobby component or world building going on.

This is a partial answer to your 'Why Blood Bowl?' as well. For me, the tabletop hobby also includes modelling and painting. Any game I get to do that in, I'll enjoy over a game where I can't.

I mean, even if Apocalypse Road has A+ game play, requires no work (ie "pull and play"), I'll still choose Dark Future and its B- game play if I can create my own cars and drivers. I'm getting to interact with the game outside of game nights, so feel like I'm getting more bang for the buck. In Dark Future, I can create my own scenarios, to include skirmish battles with people on foot (there are rules for that). I'm gaming in a world created by the likes of Jack Yeovil, Graeme Davis, Richard Halliwell, Carl Critchlow, and Pete Knifton. My games are part of that tapestry. There's a buy-in and joy I find in these sorts of titles that I just don't feel from standard board games.

Personal thing I guess, but yeah, being able to create is a large part of the appeal.

Same with Blood Bowl.
Last edit: 04 Nov 2016 13:35 by Mr. White.
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04 Nov 2016 14:14 #237458 by Thrun
Replied by Thrun on topic Let's Talk Dark Future
oh yeah I get that, I didnt mean "why blood bowl" in a general sense, I just meant its not for me compared to Heroscape. And I pointed out that I have less than zero interest in modelling, painting and all that stuff (or to correct myself, I think it looks like a lot of fun and amazing when it works but I dont have the time, energy, or inclination to get into that, part of the reason I liked Heroscape to begin with).

I can definitely feel the creation vibe though Jeff, I have that too but for me that avenue is usually just jotting down game ideas or "designing" variants and options for games I like, think thats why I like system games in general, they provide a lot of scope for creating (and even just the idea of creating is enough, it doesnt even need to become an actual thing, I have so many notepads stuffed with ideas and sketches and thoughts for various games)

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04 Nov 2016 15:32 #237460 by barrowdown
Replied by barrowdown on topic Let's Talk Dark Future

Bojack wrote: oh yeah I get that, I didnt mean "why blood bowl" in a general sense, I just meant its not for me compared to Heroscape. And I pointed out that I have less than zero interest in modelling, painting and all that stuff (or to correct myself, I think it looks like a lot of fun and amazing when it works but I dont have the time, energy, or inclination to get into that, part of the reason I liked Heroscape to begin with).


I completely understand this viewpoint and I was totally there pre-minihuman when I was able to get more gameplay. As it is now, I can get way more modelling and painting in, so that is what I focus on. I still enjoy talking about games, but I would always prefer to do the ancillary activities (I have always modeled/painted off and on, so I might be an outlier). It's hard (for me) to find someone that wants to really dig into the same game for a long time and at this point in time I'd rather avoid the Cult of the New NEW GAME EVERY WEEK style of gaming.

I've been slowly selling off a lot of my collection and eliminating variety. Most of the funds are then converted either into more stuff for modelling/painting or for depth within something I already enjoy (Combat Commander scenario packs, more COIN games, etc.).

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