Gaming: Warhammer 40000 Kill Teams

I have long been a fan of this obscure little derivation of the the main line Warhammer 40000 tabletop wargame.  I have run Kill Teams on and off for years, mostly using the 4th edition rules, while creating and adapting new and interesting scenarios for players and teams to work their ways through.  The sad thing is that this is all about to change.

With the release of Warhammer 40000: Battle Missions, we finally have a 5th edition version of Kill Teams.  The rules are, at best, lackluster, and they really don't have the feel of the old game at all.  Are they fun?  Yes, but for the most part, you generally tend to feel as though you are playing a very strange, abbreviated form of the main game's ruleset instead of a different, squad-based game.  Is this a bad thing?  No, it is just different.

I am sure that you are wondering why I am bringing this up, though.  Well, here is the thing: I think that the old rules were good but not great, and the new rules are interesting but not as much fun, so I am about to embark on a project to make a new Squad-Level, Kill Teams-esque, game that takes everything that I love about both systems, and makes it easier to play a game with two or more players.

Project: Warhammer 40000 Special Ops
Goal: Create a small scale squad-based game that pits one or more players against each other or mission specific obstacles.
Timeline: I hope to have a working prototype available for use by mid-late May with a Rulebook available by the SFSNNJ King of Games Day.

Why am I doing this?  Well, as I said before, I think that there are a lot of great things to be said for both the new and old Kill Teams rules, but I think that a more coherent game can be made using rules that are easier to understand and more cinematic.  Will it succeed?  Who cares!  This is mainly for my personal and professional development as a game designer, and will likely get stuck in the same file as my new Renegade Legion rules, but it keeps my knife sharp, as it were.

Do you want to help?  If so, please feel free to get in contact with me through the SFSNNJ's website (http://www.sfsnnj.com), and let me know what you would like to do.  Testers and commentators are always welcome, as are folks who wish to contribute missions and scenarios (once I have the basic framework of the system down).