Rad Pirates of the Toxic Sands is a game of post-apocalyptic piracy upon the Mediterranean desert sands. Command a small flotilla of junkers as you attack tanker caravans, raid oil rigs and plunder the black gold.
You are a Rad Pirate captain with a small flotilla of sandships. You make a living trading with rigs or raiding them if they hike their prices up too high), salvaging scrap and fuel from wrecks and abandoned rigs, and attacking other sandship and tanker flotillas.
Rad Pirates of the Toxic Sands is my entry to the inaugural One Box Wargame Challenge. The rules were simple: make a tabletop game that required only the contents of a single box of miniatures. To play Rad Pirates with two players, you’ll need a single box of the Black Seas Frigates and Brigs from Warlord Games. You get six ships in the box, and you split them between you.
You can buy RAD PIRATES OF THE TOXIC SANDS as a PDF from Itch today. If you are a BRONZE level patreon or higher, you can have for free by clicking the other button.
The Making of…
I didn’t start my entry into the One Box Wargame challenge until two day before the deadline. For this video I captured the whole process of making a miniatures game from start to finish. From the initial inspiration, through kitbashing the miniatures, kitbashing, painting and photographing the miniatures, prototyping the game, writing the rulebook, designing the ship cares, playtesting and publishing the game … all in 48hrs!
I hope you enjoy this longer-form video, and the in-depth behind the scenes view of the my process. There are a few fun moments in the video where you can see the penny drop on this or that design challenge: it was fun for me to see those moments where an idea springs to life.
Shout outs
1. The sails on my ships are all cut from Time & Tide beer cans. I had a chance to meet the artist, Greg Stobbs, a few months ago and teach him Gaslands! Check his work out at https://squirlart.org/
2. Malev for coming up with this killer idea for a game jam, and for him and Glenn Ford (my Rule of Carnage co-host) for putting in the hours and making this game jam sing.
3. Wargames Atlantic for sponsoring the One Box Wargame Challenge!
Feedback Wanted!
This game is in early access. If you read it or play it, I’d love to hear what you make of it. You can find me in the Planet Smasher Games Discord server and I’d love to hear your thoughts: https://discord.gg/hTxHGupY9r
Thanks!
Mike