I should have posted this a long time ago. I want to bring to the attention of all my readers the brave and original efforts of the crew at the M42 Project. This site is an attempt to build a set of balanced, simple wargaming rules in order to provide a directly competing alternative to the behemoth that is the 40k rulebook.
The site's progenitor is Sandwyrm, one of the contributors to The Back 40k; an excellent 40k blog that I have been following for years. I always liked his content there and so when he dropped the bombshell that he was making a serious attempt to write an alternative rule set for his 40k armies it got me excited. I quickly subscribed to the new blog he set up to document this endeavour.
It started off with a couple of dozen posts, discussing generally what the scope and philosophical grounding of the rules should be - and then went quiet. Ah well, I thought to myself, looks like Sandwyrm has bitten off more that he could chew. But six months later all hell has broken loose.
There is a prolific amount of development going on at the site at the moment, and people are joining in and taking ownership of various parts of the project. Basic rules for movement and combat have been proposed and evolved. Fluff, army lists, project management and some kind of graphic design are all in progress. Anyone can post their own opinions on the rules as they progress. I feel guilty that I haven't directly participated, but hey - at least I'm doing my bit to spread the word :)
With the 6th edition of 40k on the brink if birth its going to be an interesting time for the M42 project. Who knows whether it will lose momentum or get bigger and bigger. Perhaps there will be a pause whilst the new rules are digested, before the needs that caused the launch of M42 resurface. Stay tuned...