Tabletop or miniature wargaming has always appealed to me from the dual creative and technical nature of play. I got my start in wargaming with Warhammer 40k miniatures. I painted far more than I ever played, but enjoyed immensely the small skirmishes that I played. My brother and I also played some paper RPGs such as Palladium's Rift sci-fi role playing system. On and off we also played our own imaginary games and essentialy LARPed something we called "K-Bots". It was our own version of a Mech Warrior style RPG. I have revived that idea numerous times, but it just never took enough hold for me to finish the rule set. Finally one day while looking at glide cardiods for space craft glider reentry I was inspired to put all that past experience into creating my own ruleset for tabletop spaceship war-game Empires of Dust. The game is based on many different rule sets like Full Thrust and some of the aspects from Star Sonata 2 gameplay (an MMORPG I did graphics for).
Empires of Dust has some fairly unique aspects. The first of which is the fast play rules; these are designed to make the game managble for beginers to the ruleset or wargaming in general as well as create a fast paced engaugment. The carefully balanced way in which each ship in the fleet can be outfitted to change its role in a mission is extensive with stat modifiers, specializations, equipment, weapons and augmentations. This allows players to adopt unique styles of play and create interesting scenarios. The armour penetration system also creates an interesting dynamic where heavily armoured and armed ships each have survivability and lethality without making invicible or omnipotent ships. Overall it is a system designed for fun, so if something doesn't work for you, make a change. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to contact us.