A WIP Skirmish Ruleset, TinyD6 Dice, and a Slavic Mythology Space Western?
We had one of those hobby chats that instantly makes us want to open a notebook and start scribbling ideas.
This time the spark was a work-in-progress ruleset that Michał shared with us. The important caveat came immediately: it is not balanced yet, and the abilities and traits list still isn’t finished. So this was very much a look behind the curtain rather than a polished reveal — and honestly, we love seeing games at this stage.
A ruleset in motion
There is something really fun about reading early rules when they are still flexible enough to change. You can see what the designer is excited about, what kinds of moments the game is trying to create, and where future ideas might still fit.
In this case, one of the first things that stood out to us was the dice system.
TinyD6 inspiration and why it clicked
Stas immediately picked up on the fact that Michał had transplanted a TinyD6-style dice mechanic into the project, and that landed very well. We have a soft spot for systems where the core resolution is clean and fast, especially in skirmish games where momentum matters.
That kind of mechanic can do a lot of heavy lifting: keep turns moving, make outcomes easy to read, and leave more room for the narrative bits around the action. For a story-driven skirmish game, that feels like a very promising foundation.
A bit of Warcry energy too
At the same time, Stas mentioned another angle he really enjoys: the more Warcry-like approach that allows for a bit more planning ahead.
That is a cool tension in design, and one we always like talking about. On one side, you have immediacy and speed. On the other, you have a layer of forward planning that gives players interesting decisions before the action even fully unfolds. Neither is automatically better — it just changes the rhythm of the game.
And rhythm matters a lot in small-scale, campaign-friendly systems.
Citizen Sleeper, daily dice, and the narrative of rest
The conversation then drifted into a very interesting comparison: Citizen Sleeper.
Stas brought up its idea of rolling a set of dice at the start of the day and then spending them across different actions as the day unfolds. It is a mechanic that naturally creates planning, trade-offs, and a feeling that your resources are limited in a very tangible way.
What we especially liked in that comparison was the observation that this kind of system can tie mechanics and narrative together in a neat way. Rest, preparation, and the passage of time stop being just abstract phases and start becoming part of the story the rules are telling. In that sense, it echoes what many RPGs do well — D&D being the obvious point of reference — where recovery and pacing are not just bookkeeping, but part of the fiction.
Stas was very clear that this was not a criticism of the current WIP. It was more of a design nudge: this game is aiming for a different tempo, but maybe there is still something here worth stealing for inspiration. And honestly, that is one of our favorite kinds of hobby conversation.
Then the setting ideas got delightfully weird
And because no brainstorm stays contained for long, Michał then threw out a pitch that immediately changed the mood of the whole discussion:
Slavic mythology space western.
Yes. That one made us stop for a second.
The idea was to take figures from a bestiary and reimagine them in a science-fiction setting. That is exactly the kind of mash-up that sounds slightly unhinged in the best possible way. Weird folklore energy, dusty frontier vibes, and SF aesthetics? There is definitely something there.
Would it be serious? Would it be pulpy? Dark? Strange? Probably all of the above, depending on how far the concept goes.
Not quite Everydayers
Of course, once a concept gets playful, someone has to push it one step further — so Stas jokingly suggested Everydayers.
Michał’s response was immediate and very fair: Everydayers is a bit of a parody, and it would be hard to roleplay something like that.
And that feels like an important distinction. There is a big difference between a setting that is imaginative and genre-bending, and one that tips fully into parody. If the goal is a story-driven skirmish game with room for atmosphere and character, then keeping at least one foot on the serious side probably matters.
Why we like conversations like this
Nothing is final here yet. The rules are still WIP. Balance is still ahead. Parts of the system still need to be written. The setting is still just a spark.
But this is exactly the stage of game design we love following: when mechanics, tone, and setting are all still talking to each other.
A borrowed dice idea from one system. A planning layer inspired by another. A narrative thought pulled from a video game. A setting pitch that sounds like it appeared at 1 AM and somehow still works.
That is hobby energy in its purest form.
We are very curious where Michał takes this next.