Modiphius Entertainment

I had a chance to sit down with Chris Birch from Modiphius at Expo, who was kind enough to take myself and my compatriot Rich through their forthcoming Fallout Miniatures and Star Trek Adventures games.

We kicked off with a wide ranging discussion of the Fallout Minis game, their forthcoming tabletop skirmish game set in the world of Fallout 4. Although the initial releases will be set in this version of the computer game, Chris mentioned that they have plans to go backwards into the previous games to pick out fan favourite factions. The only one they won’t be visiting is the Vegas expansion for Fallout 3 due to licensing being a bit different for that particular property.

Nice minis!

It will follow a similar model to a lot of games with a starter set featuring Dogmeat, mutants and one of the sets of armour out of Fallout 4. The rules will cover a wide variety of play including competitive, cooperative and even a solo mode for those who want to explore the wastelands alone much as you do in the computer game. The game sounds extremely scaleable and Chris mentioned that those who wanted to could easily have large scale battles more akin to 40k should they so desire.

On top of these modes you will be able to indulge in long winding campaigns as you build up your own town, upgrade your gear and venture out into the surrounding landscape, scavenging for supplies and fighting the other denizens of the world. Although fighting may be the solution to a lot of things, you can also rely on Charisma to manipulate and charm your way through the world. I really interesting twist on a traditional skirmish game that I look forward to trying.

They have a really exciting hook up with Battle Systems who are working with them to produce terrain pieces starting with Sanctuary Hills and then expanding out into the wider universe. I love the Battle Systems terrain and if I could have some of it I would. They produce beautiful cardboard terrain and I am sure they will do the game proud. Can’t wait to see it all.

During our interview Chris mentioned that they had involved the fans right from the off, running surveys and the like to figure out where they should steer the property first. They sound like real fans of the property and I can only imagine they are going to do a great job with a property long sought after by Tabletop gamers.

Once Rich had stopped salivating over Fallout minis, we got a sneak peek of some of the early models, we moved onto Modiphius’ other big upcoming property, Star Trek!

I’ll be honest this was the one I was more interested in, as much as I enjoyed playing Fallout 3, Star Trek is a property I grew up with and have always loved. The pre-orders are now live for the game and there are some very nice looking products, check out that Borg Cube for a starter!

My god, it’s full of things

So there is a vast swathe of Star Trek history to play with, where are they going to be setting things. The core books will be set in the original, read not film cannon, timeline just pre-Dominion war (spoilers if you haven’t watched DS9, sorry). The game will mostly be set in an area of space that Modiphius are creating with the permission of the Star Trek folks, so it will be cannon! This is a really interesting thing as it basically allows fans of the game to carve out their own stories in an area of the world that may, or may not, connect to the shows you love, depending on your preference.

The system itself will be Modiphius’ own 2d20 one that runs through their other game lines. Every player will have a bridge officer but also a secondary character that will go on missions when their ‘main’ character is stuck on the ship, an idea I have always liked the sound of having come across it in other games.

They sound like they have a bunch of bases covered with this game and I look forward to seeing if it can cover the individual sci-fi focused episodes of Trek or the large sweeping battles you see towards the end of DS9 and everything in between.

There are some minis accompanying the release and you can get floorplans and the like of various different locations, but I generally avoid such things in the games I run so I’ll probably just take the dive with the corebook and see how it goes. I am a pretty low prep kind of GM so I don’t know whether this game will suit me ideally, but I will definitely be able to get it to my table even if it’s only a short campaign.

The PDF of the core rulebook is now live on Drivethru and I have picked it up. I’ll be doing a First Thoughts review of that soon as I finish a read through of it, create characters etc.

Modiphius seem to be gathering pace every year and the addition of two such large properties to their catalogue can only be good for them in the future. It’s an exciting time in the Tabletop world and it’s good to see some homegrown talent doing well and expanding as the hobby grows.