In Her Majesty's Name: The World of SMOG
A couple of years back, I backed a game on Kickstarter called The World of SMOG: Rise of Moloch. It wasn't a smash hit in the same way that many other projects by the same company (Cool Mini or Not) have been, and continue to be, but the theme and setting hold a special place in my heart, which I have to travel about ten years back in time to explain.
Rewind to me, a teenager, just getting into the hobby of miniatures painting and gaming, and devouring all the related content I could find. I came across a line of miniatures called SMOG 1888 (interestingly enough, on CMON's website), and was immediately intrigued. As I recall, they were 54mm resins without a set of rules behind them, geared towards collectors. (A ruleset for a game called SMOG, The Thirteenth Hour would come out later, but the high price point and nonstandard size of the miniatures was a huge entry barrier, from what I read.) I was already interested in the steampunk theme, but SMOG also had an alternative feel to it thanks to Victorian aliens, clockwork monstrosities, and faerie oddities that kept me coming back to window-shop. Having very little disposable income at the time, and no desire to spend it on anything I couldn't use for a game I already played, I never picked up any SMOG 1888 figures, and within a few years the line was defunct, but every so often I would check online to ogle them again for old times' sake.
Returning to 2017, I saw the Kickstarter for Rise of Moloch, and it quickly became a must-back. Here were the iconic SMOG figures I loved, rendered in my preferred 28mm scale, and paired with a solid set of rules! On top of that, the game's artwork was stunning (and, I would later realize, came from one of my favourite artists, Keith Thompson. I have a similar vaguely interesting story about running across his work about a decade earlier and stumbling on it again by chance, which I'll save for now), and that's all it took for my hard-earned cash to become CMON's.
Two years later, however, SMOG has hit the table twice for me, and the second time I had hardly finished setting up and explaining the rules before my friends were bored and exhausted. See, I have a lot of patience for bloated rules. D&D 3.5 is still my favourite edition, and I played Warhammer Fantasy and 40k for years. Not everyone is the same degree of rules masochist, so SMOG has gathered lots of dust. Still, my only regret with SMOG is not having picked up all the expansions when I could (I'm still trying to get my hands on The Wheel), but more and more recently, I've been finding myself wanting to get it back on the tabletop, but without the slog of setup and teaching.
Since day 1, when I first handled those miniatures, I thought to myself that there must be a way to use them outside of the board game. I let that thought rest for months before acting on it, seeking out a set of rules for a steampunk miniatures game. Sometime in 2018, I came across In Her Majesty's Name (published by Osprey, of course, like so many other favourites of mine), and while it initially seemed strange to my Warhammer-influenced brain, I've come to realize just what an amazing fit it is.
Not only is the rule set clear and concise, it's incredibly transparent. Customization is so encouraged that the developers included point-value breakdowns for almost every major aspect of the game, and a multitude of options across the core rules and three expansions that I've gradually bent to my purposes, constructing a framework to use along with the SMOG miniatures. I've included a link to a version of these rules at the end of this post, as well as a list of sample starting Companies for each faction. While I imagine that this will only be useful to a minority of people, and an even smaller minority of people who read what I write, I wanted to put it out there anyway.
Before reading, however, it's important to note that this is not my first draft. My initial attempt ended up bloated by IHMN standards, as a result of me trying to make the system conform more closely to the board game's mechanics. I fully intend to finish that version, adapting the IHMN rules to make a SMOG skirmish game, but for now this is a prototype version that's more compatible and comparable to the original rules. I've kept some touches of my own design in there, and approximated point values for them, but for the most part I've balanced the Companies using the standards set in IHMN and its expansions.
If these rules interest you, take a look. If you try them out, let me know. If not, that's fine. I've enjoyed the writing process up until now, and I'll continue to enjoy editing and expanding on this project.
Rules:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0obtw30vgwkm1k5/In%20Her%20Majesty%27s%20Name%20-%20SMOG%201888%20v1.pdf?dl=0
Starting Companies:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bnpfvuo81i7u2w0/IHMN%20SMOG%20v1%20Starting%20Companies.pdf?dl=0
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| Promo image from the original line of miniatures. |
Rewind to me, a teenager, just getting into the hobby of miniatures painting and gaming, and devouring all the related content I could find. I came across a line of miniatures called SMOG 1888 (interestingly enough, on CMON's website), and was immediately intrigued. As I recall, they were 54mm resins without a set of rules behind them, geared towards collectors. (A ruleset for a game called SMOG, The Thirteenth Hour would come out later, but the high price point and nonstandard size of the miniatures was a huge entry barrier, from what I read.) I was already interested in the steampunk theme, but SMOG also had an alternative feel to it thanks to Victorian aliens, clockwork monstrosities, and faerie oddities that kept me coming back to window-shop. Having very little disposable income at the time, and no desire to spend it on anything I couldn't use for a game I already played, I never picked up any SMOG 1888 figures, and within a few years the line was defunct, but every so often I would check online to ogle them again for old times' sake.
 |
| Stunning cover art by Keith Thompson. |
Returning to 2017, I saw the Kickstarter for Rise of Moloch, and it quickly became a must-back. Here were the iconic SMOG figures I loved, rendered in my preferred 28mm scale, and paired with a solid set of rules! On top of that, the game's artwork was stunning (and, I would later realize, came from one of my favourite artists, Keith Thompson. I have a similar vaguely interesting story about running across his work about a decade earlier and stumbling on it again by chance, which I'll save for now), and that's all it took for my hard-earned cash to become CMON's.
 |
| A couple of law-abiding guys who definitely aren't up to anything shady. |
Two years later, however, SMOG has hit the table twice for me, and the second time I had hardly finished setting up and explaining the rules before my friends were bored and exhausted. See, I have a lot of patience for bloated rules. D&D 3.5 is still my favourite edition, and I played Warhammer Fantasy and 40k for years. Not everyone is the same degree of rules masochist, so SMOG has gathered lots of dust. Still, my only regret with SMOG is not having picked up all the expansions when I could (I'm still trying to get my hands on The Wheel), but more and more recently, I've been finding myself wanting to get it back on the tabletop, but without the slog of setup and teaching.
 |
| Those Victorian aliens I mentioned. |
Since day 1, when I first handled those miniatures, I thought to myself that there must be a way to use them outside of the board game. I let that thought rest for months before acting on it, seeking out a set of rules for a steampunk miniatures game. Sometime in 2018, I came across In Her Majesty's Name (published by Osprey, of course, like so many other favourites of mine), and while it initially seemed strange to my Warhammer-influenced brain, I've come to realize just what an amazing fit it is.
Not only is the rule set clear and concise, it's incredibly transparent. Customization is so encouraged that the developers included point-value breakdowns for almost every major aspect of the game, and a multitude of options across the core rules and three expansions that I've gradually bent to my purposes, constructing a framework to use along with the SMOG miniatures. I've included a link to a version of these rules at the end of this post, as well as a list of sample starting Companies for each faction. While I imagine that this will only be useful to a minority of people, and an even smaller minority of people who read what I write, I wanted to put it out there anyway.
Before reading, however, it's important to note that this is not my first draft. My initial attempt ended up bloated by IHMN standards, as a result of me trying to make the system conform more closely to the board game's mechanics. I fully intend to finish that version, adapting the IHMN rules to make a SMOG skirmish game, but for now this is a prototype version that's more compatible and comparable to the original rules. I've kept some touches of my own design in there, and approximated point values for them, but for the most part I've balanced the Companies using the standards set in IHMN and its expansions.
If these rules interest you, take a look. If you try them out, let me know. If not, that's fine. I've enjoyed the writing process up until now, and I'll continue to enjoy editing and expanding on this project.
Rules:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0obtw30vgwkm1k5/In%20Her%20Majesty%27s%20Name%20-%20SMOG%201888%20v1.pdf?dl=0
Starting Companies:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bnpfvuo81i7u2w0/IHMN%20SMOG%20v1%20Starting%20Companies.pdf?dl=0
I got to know Steampunk thanks to the writer Paul Di Filippo. And it was love of the genre. Like you I accidentally discovered the SMOG 1888 line and like you I didn't have the money to buy those gorgeous oversized miniatures. And every now and then I would go back to the site to look at them too. Then after many years the Rise of Moloch kickstarter arrives and I rediscover all that world with the difference that now I can afford it and in fact I have taken everything ... Even the Artbook. I will definitely try the rules having already played Osprey's In Her Majesty's Name even if the rules are too cumbersome for a simple regulation. Much funnier Dracula's America even if the theme is a Weird Western Horror but in my opinion adaptable. I will follow your work for sure.
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