Dark Future is a post-apocalyptic miniatures wargame published by Games Workshop in 1988.
Dark Future is a post-apocalyptic miniatures wargame published by Games Workshop in 1988.
Dark Future is a Mad Max -like game of vehicular combat set in an alternate world. [1]
The game is set in a fictional alternate world United States in 1995, ten years after the American government privatised all police forces. The country has been divided into Policed Zones — mainly large cities — and Non-Policed Zones, mainly the highways and areas between cities. Ecological disaster has overtaken the country as well, with the Great Lakes having shrunk to a fraction of their size, and the Midwest turned into a desert. The players take on the role of mercenaries called "Sanctioned Operatives" or "Ops", who are hired for a variety of missions on the unpoliced highways. [2]
The large 36" box comes with: [2]
Vehicles can move at their rated speed each turn, and can accomplish a variety of actions while moving including drifting, U-turning, accelerating, braking, reversing, regaining control, ramming, and firing weapons. [2]
The book includes eight scenarios of increasing tactical complexity. [2]
In the late 1980s, GW game designer Marc Gascoigne was designing a post-apocalyptic role-playing game called Dark Future that was set in the United States. At the same time, Richard Halliwell was designing a miniatures vehicular combat board game using many of the rules he had developed for the Judge Dredd board game Slaughter Margin . When Gascoigne's role-playing game project was shelved, his post-apocalyptic setting in the United States was grafted onto Halliwell's vehicular combat game. The merger, featuring artwork by Tony Ackland, Dave Andrews, John Blanche, Mark Craven, Carl Critchlow, Colin Dixon, David Gallagher, Pete Knifton, Mike McVey, Tim Pollard, Bil Segwick, Andrew Wildman, and Nick Williams, was published by GW in 1988 as Dark Future. At the same time, Citadel Miniatures released a line of metal miniatures that could be used with the game.
Later the same year, GW also published a game expansion, White Line Fever, that featured more vehicles and weapons, and more tactics.
Several more rules expansions and scenarios were also published in various issues of White Dwarf .
In 1990, GW published an anthology of Dark Future short stories titled Route 666, and then published a number of Dark Future novels, supposedly penned by a Sanctioned Operative named "Jack Yeovil", but actually written by Kim Newman. In 1993, Boxtree Ltd published a number of new Dark Futures novels, also written by Newman under the name "Jack Yeovil". In 2005, Black Flame published a number of new novels as well as republishing some of the original GW and Boxtree novels.
In May 2019, the game was released as a video game called Dark Future: Blood Red States. [3] According to the review aggregate website Metacritic, it received "generally favorable reviews". [4]
In the September 1989 edition of Dragon (Issue 149), Jim Bambra admired the physical components of the game, which he called "impressive." He concluded, "gamers looking for a fast-playing game of highway combat will find the Dark Future game worthy of recommendation." [1]
In the April–May 1990 edition of Challenge (#43), John Theisen liked the simple game mechanics and the high-quality game components. But, considering the very high price of the game ($48 in 1990), he was disappointed "by a lack of versatility in design. There are only three types of vehicle and only 16 types of weapon." He pointed out that more vehicles and weapons were available in the White Line Fever supplement, but said, "as a customer, I'd be pretty perturbed to find myself shelling out 48 bucks only to find out that I need to spend another $16(!) to get what should have been included in the first place." Theisen concluded, "All in all, Dark Future is a good game — but not a great one." [2]
In the February–March 1989 edition of Games , Matthew Costello called it "fast-paced, straight-forward in its Mad Max confrontations. And I hope that all of this automotive mayhem is therapeutic. Because it certainly is fun". [5]
A final book, United States Calvary, was promised in Comeback Tour (2007) but was never produced. A finished manuscript for a novel titled Violent Tendency by Eugene Byrne was lost when the writer's computer crashed. [8]
Gamma World is a post-apocalyptic science fantasy role-playing game in which player characters explore Earth centuries after the collapse of civilization, searching for artifacts from the time before "The Great Upheaval". The game was originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrows heavily from Ward's earlier role-playing game, Metamorphosis Alpha.
Twilight: 2000 is a 1984 post-apocalyptic military tabletop role-playing game published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW). Set in the aftermath of World War III, the game operates on the premise that the United States/NATO and the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact have fought a lengthy conventional war followed by a limited nuclear war with all its consequences. The player characters are survivors of said war.
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of some military operation. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to study the nature of potential conflicts. Many wargames re-create specific historic battles, and can cover either whole wars, or any campaigns, battles, or lower-level engagements within them. Many simulate land combat, but there are wargames for naval and air combat, as well.
Car Wars is a vehicle combat simulation game developed by Steve Jackson Games. It was first published in 1980. Players control armed vehicles in a post-apocalyptic future.
Warhammer 40,000 is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, and the tenth and current edition was released in June 2023.
Games Workshop Group is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.
Kim James Newman is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternative history. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award and the BSFA award.
BattleTech is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The trademark is currently owned by Topps and, for video games, Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios; Catalyst Game Studios licenses the franchise from Topps.
The Morrow Project is a science fiction role-playing game created by Kevin Dockery, Robert Sadler and Richard Tucholka and published by Timeline Ltd. It is set after a devastating nuclear war. It was first released in the 1980s, and it still has a loyal following. The fourth edition was released as of December 15, 2013 by Chris Morrell and Robert O'Connor.
Warhammer is a tabletop miniature wargame with a medieval fantasy theme. The game was created by Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley, and first published by the Games Workshop company in 1983.
Space Hulk is a board game for two players by Games Workshop. It was released in 1989. The game is set in the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000. In the game, a "space hulk" is a mass of ancient, derelict space ships, asteroids, and other assorted space debris. One player takes the role of Space Marine Terminators, superhuman elite soldiers who have been sent to investigate such a space hulk. The other player takes the role of Tyranid Genestealers, an aggressive alien species which have made their home aboard such masses.
Advanced HeroQuest is a board game published by Games Workshop in 1989, a sequel to HeroQuest.
Battlesystem is a tabletop miniature wargame designed as a supplement for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The original Battlesystem was printed as a boxed set in 1985 for use with the first edition AD&D rules. For the second edition of AD&D, a new version of Battesystem was printed as a softcover book in 1989.
GURPS Autoduel is the GURPS genre toolkit book which details the post-apocalyptic world of one of SJG's other popular games, Car Wars. The initial publication was in 1986.
Adeptus Titanicus is a tabletop science fiction mecha game published by Games Workshop (GW) in 1988 for use with the rules of Warhammer 40,000. Several revised and expanded editions were released from 1994 to 2018.
Recon is a military role-playing game where players assume the role of American soldiers during the Vietnam War. The first edition featured a wargame with role-playing elements, somewhat like Behind Enemy Lines and Twilight 2000, then gradually evolved into a full role-playing game.
Battlebikes is a supplement published by Games Workshop in 1984 for the near-future post-apocalyptic combat board game Battlecars.
Richard Fretson Halliwell was a British game designer who worked at Games Workshop (GW) during their seminal period in the 1980s, creating many of the games that would become central to GW's success.
| Core games |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Spinoff games | ||
| Role-playing games | ||
| Discontinued games |
| |
| Publications | ||
| Non-Warhammer video games | ||
| Company | ||
| Events | ||
| People | ||
| Related products | ||