Kryomek!

Hi!

I've been spending a little time thinking on some of the games I liked back when I first abandoned the GW hobby and struck out on my own. back in the mid 90s, the only non GW store in Edinburgh was Macs Models which stocked an eclectic range of figures ranging from historicals to Flintloque, Leviathan and Kryomek (on a related note, there is now no non GW store in Edinburgh which is a real shame!)

I picked up a copy of Kryomek and some of the figures, mostly down to the rather lovely cover and interior artwork produced by some of the leading lights in the UK comic industry at the time:

What really captivated me was the background, instead of the Grimdark cartooniness of the mid 90s Warhammer 40000, Kryomek seemed a lot more believable and revolved around a setting where mankind had expanded throughout much of the galaxy by using high tech gateways to travel faster than the speed of light.

On one such expedition they jumped into a system inhabited by the Kryomek, a xenomorphic race of monsters, somewhat like the creature from Alien but with the ability to use all sorts of gribbly firearms and swords too!

The idea of mankind in a fight for survival, but with lots of high tech and an actual chance of winning was quite a revelation for someone who had been immersed in the GW Grimdark for years. To be honest the whole background was like the film Aliens and that was a real pull too with dodgy megacorps sending out colonial marines to do battle with implacable alien foes and the writing was very interesting too as it covered all sorts of randomness from first encounters to how the Nexus government dealt with rebellions, convicts and even colonisation and terraforming.

The result was a very rich setting that had lots of plot hooks for campaigns and some really original ideas. The rules themselves were solid but the rulebook was let down somewhat by some slightly unclear elements which were only somewhat resolved by the release of Hivestone, the first and only supplement to Kryomek.

Sadly as with so many of my projects, it went the way of the dodo when I got out of the hobby entirely soon after. Step forward to 2009 and I found myself at University and discovered that the company that made the stuff for my Leviathan project also still produced the original range. Soon after a FORUM was set up and quite a few folks posted interest and Scotia Grendel even made some noises about releasing some new stuff for the game but as time went on, interest waned and Kryomek once again found itself languishing in the unloved list of forgotten games other than the excellent work a chap called Bagpuss who runs a blog called HIVESTONE INCURSION and has pretty much singlehandedly kept the flag flying for Kryomek.

Which brings me to the present. To date, Kryomek is still available along with a lovely range of figures and the rules themselves can even be downloaded for free from Scotia Grendel but there has been no new releases so both the Marines and the Kryomek are incomplete. I am hoping to try and collect a couple of small forces with the hope of getting some skirmishes played in the Kryomek universe and see if I can inspire folks to give the game a try!

I would highly recommend downloading the books HERE. They are free and are worth taking a peek at for the background and artwork alone and who knows, if enough folks show interest, maybe Kryomek will get a much needed shot in the arm from Scotia Grendel too but if for no other reason, it will be fun to paint up some Marines and send them on a bug hunt!

What Kryomek needs is a revised rulebook that covers all the niggles that the original had (interestingly the mechanics were actually based on Stargrunt!) and the range needs completing and expanding a little too and if folks are interested then please feel free to start posting over on the forum with suggestions and ideas!

All the best!