A while back, I reviewed Bill Making Stuff’s Bangarang in the Gutterlands, which I enjoyed quite a bit.  I enjoy Bill’s YouTube channel, where he does a lot of scratch building and kit-bashing of strange critters and beadbots.  And, I enjoy the weird world he’s been building along with those videos.  The planet Tapu, the city of Respite, and the nasty Gutterlands.  It all has a gritty, weird, DIY vibe, like what drew me to Warhammer 40,000 back in the late 80s (and is sadly missing from 40K these days).  I’m not a miniatures gamer anymore.  Those days are behind me.  But I like the setting, and I like supporting independent creators.

Skirm! takes conflict out of the arena and into the wider world.  Here, Colonials, Rusters, D.E.A.P. Troopers, and the Big Red Mining Company slug it out in a quick, gritty little game.  This isn’t meant for big, clash of armies types of games like we used to play with Space Marines and Eldar.  No, this is the nasty, back-alley fights between small bands of cutthroats.  Life is cheap.  Bullets aren’t.  In the latter case, you literally have to keep a count on the number of shells you’ve got, or you’ll be left fighting with fists and a dream.  Looting bodies and scrap heaps for old tech and bullets is a key component of a battle.  

The rules are clearly meant to get right down to business.  I imagine games don’t take much time to go through.  And at only 52 pages, including covers & sometimes full page art, there’s not a lot to learn when it comes to rules.  

I really dig Bill’s art, much like I like his miniature work.  Like with Bangarang in the Gutterlands, I’m not in love with the ArtPunk aesthetic when it comes to layout.  I’m an old man with old man eyes, and it’s not always easy to read stuff that looks like someone spray painted with toxic waste.

As I said, I dig his world building, and there’s a bit more lore here.  Being me, I’d really love a full-on lore & art book.  But this is good in the meantime.  I’m putting it on the shelf with my Mutant Crawl Classics stuff, figuring I’ll draw from it if I’m running that game.  Though I could see myself drawing from this well of madness for several games.  You wouldn’t have to squint too hard to see Tapu as a lost world among the Fading Suns, for example.

I’m an independent author, so… If you like what I do, you can buy me a coffee. Check out my YouTube, and/or take a look at my Patreon page, where I’m working on a novel and developing a tabletop RPG setting. I’m also proud to be an affiliate of DriveThru RPG.