Space Weirdos

What is Space Weirdos

Space Weirdos is a sci-fi skirmish game by Casey Garske, published as Garske Games. He calls it a “skirmish heartbreaker.” His pitch is that a bunch of old-school D&D nerds got into wargaming and found minis games have the same edition creep as RPGs, so he wrote a short set of rules instead.

There’s no setting to buy into. Use any minis you have. A warband is five to ten models or so, and there’s a points system, but he says you shouldn’t worry about it too much.

The whole game fits in one 16-page zine. It was funded on Kickstarter as a Zine Quest project, with 333 backers. Its fantasy sequel is Sword Weirdos, and by the time that one launched in 2023, Space Weirdos was a Mithral best seller on Wargame Vault.

How it plays

Stats are dice. A model doesn’t have fixed numbers. Each stat is a die type, and effects can push it up or down during a game.
Opposed rolls. The attacker rolls, the defender rolls, and the higher roll wins.
Hits go to a table. A hit sends the target to a table to see what happens, and a big roll makes the result worse. Some results let the target shoot back.
Alternating activations. Players take turns activating one model at a time.
Command Points. A small pool you spend on things like overwatch shots, diving into cover, better aim, or initiative.
Sticks, not tape. All movement and ranges are measured with 5” sticks.
All your RPG dice. Everything except the d20.

How to start

Get the zine. $5 or more on itch.io, or from Wargame Vault.
Look at what’s in the download. The rules zine, a separate 4-page solo rules PDF, and a PDF with tokens, hobby advice, and a warband sheet.
Pull five to ten minis off the shelf. Whatever sci-fi models you’ve got.
Cut some 5” sticks. That’s your measuring kit.

Want more solo games like this? Space Weirdos is on our solo and co-op gaming resources list.