Grimdark Future

"In the grim dark future of the hobby there is only Grimdark Future" - onepageanon

Grimdark Future is a single-page ruleset made for 28mm miniatures, namely Warhammer 40,000. Legend says that a long time ago the people at One Page Rules used to make a game called 1p40k, but once they got scared of getting the C&D hammer they re-named everything and now we are here. They also launched a patreon page to make some money, so probably that's why they changed the names in the first place.

The fluff of Grimdark Future is pretty simple: humanity on earth split into two major factions, one faction believed in jesus and one believed in science. They had a great war and threatened to blow the whole place up, so colonization ships were shot far into space to escape this madness. The ships landed in a place called the sirius sector, where humanity met other alien species and realized they were fucked (and still hated each other), so back to war it is.

Differences from 40k

The gameplay is basically 40k-lite, units have only two stats (quality and defense) and things are streamlined to the core. The primary difference from 40k that isn’t a case of simplification is that Grimdark Future features alternating activations. Even though things are kept pretty simple the battles feel like 40k and each army has its own distinct play style. The game is very portable as the rules fit on one sheet and the armies fit on another sheet, so no more carrying 9000 books around. Other notable differences include:

• No Force Organization Charts: GDF has no restrictions or requirements on what units you can, can't, or have to field. You don’t need to field an HQ unit, or any Troops. You make a gentleman's agreement on a points limit and fill it with whatever. If you want to field an army of nothing but Dreadnoughts/Attack Walkers, there’s nothing stopping you. There are competitive rules to limit what you can field so you aren't spamming too many of the same units or taking too many heroes, but that implies that you have enough people together playing that you need more hard rules for organization (and to prevent someone from being That Guy).

• No Special Characters: Because 40K characters like Abaddon, Guilliman, Maugan Ra, and Ghazghkull are GW’s IP, GDF does not provide direct counterparts for them in the rules. If you previously included these characters in your 40K forces, you'll have to either downgrade them to their generic equivalents (e.g. counting Ghaz as a Big Boss) or just go without.

• Higher Point Costs: OPR calculates points values differently than GW does, and this results in everything, from units to upgrades, having a much higher cost than it would in 40k (A 1,000 point army in 40k would cost about 2,000 in GDF), so the ideal points cap for games is a lot higher too. Average mid-size games in GDF are probably close to 2,500 points. 400 works well for Firefight.

• Weapons Rebalanced: Many weapons are more or less expensive and/or powerful than they are in 40k. Plasma in particular, rather than an expensive high-risk-high-reward, is actually among the cheapest weapon upgrades you can get in GDF, and there is no Gets Hot or Supercharged to potentially blow up your Boyz. On the flip side, Plasma has no special effect beyond being AP4.

Firefight

Grimdark Future's Kill Team equivalent. Mechanically, Firefight plays pretty much identically to regular GDF, with just a few extra rules to account for a small team of individual models (ie rules that spread from heroes to their squads now just cover anyone within 12" of the hero) and more in-depth movement around terrain. The factions are also pruned of vehicles/monsters/titans and the more expensive and powerful heroes.

Factions

• Alien Hives: The Not-Tyranids. Though initially threatened with oblivion, the DAO managed to parley a ceasefire to keep them in the sector, where they now find themselves questioning why they're a bunch of atrocious insectoids.
• Battle Brothers: The Not-Space Marines, genetically-enhanced supersoldiers who serve to preserve the Founder's dream of a unified mankind.
  • Detachments: Certain detachments of them have come to adopt local customs so much that they've become identical to certain chapters of Space Marines.
• Blessed Sisters: The Not-Sisters of Battle, who worship a revolutionary woman who called herself the God-Queen. Not allied with the Battle Brothers due to the God-Queen staging a revolt against the Founder.
• Custodian Brothers: The Not-Adeptus Custodes and Not-Sisters of Silence. Even rarer super-soldiers who serve as the bodyguards for the Founder's clone-son.
• DAO Union: The Not-Tau Empire, specifically the part that's focused on giant robots
• Dark Elf Raiders: The Not-Dark Eldar. Rather than being the debauched former ruling class, these Dark Elves are more a bunch of lower and middle-class pirates and bandits desperate to survive.
• Elven Jesters: The Not-Harlequins. No longer bound to any clown-gods, this takes something of a role between entertainers and mercenaries akin to the Eldar Corsairs, a faction never truly at home with the High Elves or Dark Elves.
• Eternal Dynasty: The part of the Not-Tau Empire that's more focused on being weeb and cosmopolitan.
• Dwarf Guilds: The Not-Squats. Had a massive tech-surge through mining until they came across subterranean monstrosities. The ensuing fight with these things pretty much doomed the planet and forced the dwarves off-world in pursuit of a new home.
• Gangs of New Eden: The Not-Necromunda gangs.
• Havoc Brothers: The Not-Chaos Space Marines. Largely similar except for the fact that these were part of the initial survey fleets and got corrupted via the dark gods tempting them, and that this said betrayal didn't result in a galaxy-spanning civil war.
  • Disciples: Because of course, the gods of Havoc are fourfold, just like the other guys.
• High Elf Fleets: The Not-Craftworld Eldar. Still desperately clinging to their old traditions despite seeing those traditions failing when their robot slaves revolted against them.
• Human Defense Force: The Not-Imperial Guard.
  • Feudal Guard: A variant army that's more elite and better able to fight in melee thanks to remembering to fix bayonets.
• Human Inquisition: NOBODY EXPECTS THE NOT-INQUISITION!
• Infected Colonies: An army made of plague zombies. Turns out that these zombies are hosts to intelligent parasites and they aren't even that evil to begin with.
• Jackals: The Not-Kroot, being split off from the DAO. Aside from being more lupine than avian, they're also a lot more scavenger-like.
• Machine Cults: The Not-Adeptus Mechanicus. Generally focused on merging with machines in order to reach a point called the Singularity, where they can determine the fate of mankind.
  • Machine Cult Defilers: The Not-Dark Mechanicus. Was discontinued because they were just evil machine cults.
• Orc Marauders: The Not-Orks. Were actually nearly driven to extinction when fighting the DAO and being subjected to the equivalent of fucking FOXDIE in order to cull the booming population to non-invasive levels.
• Prime Brothers: The Not-Primaris Marines. Rather than being the new model, the Primes are super-powerful variants of brothers whose enhancements see them burn out a lot sooner and a lot more disastrously. Also get Detachments.
• Ratmen Clans: The Not-Skaven in space. The end result of the Founder experimenting on rats enough that they became intelligent humanoids. Currently hiding from any extermination squads and desperate to prove their worth.
  • Vile Rattus Clan: A variant army that's more militant than squads of rabble. Was made in partnership with 3D modeler, but has since been discontinued.
• Rebel Guerillas: Something akin to the Renegades & Heretics, but not necessarily aligned to Havoc in any way. Actually ran from their home system in hopes of building up a force big enough to help overthrow their foes at home.
• Robot Legions: The Not-Necrons. Originally built as slaves to the Elves before a bug granted them sentience and they sparked off a revolution for their independence.
• Saurian Starhosts: The Not-Lizardmen in space, acting in service to their Not-Slann but beginning to doubt their Great Plan considering how things have turned out.
• Soul-Snatcher Cults: The Not-Genestealer Cults. While still subservient to the Alien Hives, these cults aren't necessarily on the hives' dinner menus, with some cults actually trying to overthrow the hives' influence.
• Titan Lords: The Not-Imperial Knights. A bunch of rich, bored, foppish mercenaries who sell their services to whoever pays them the best.
• Wormhole Daemons: The Not-Chaos Daemons. Unlike in 40K, you can't really make a mixed-up army of daemons without grabbing allied detachments.

Tactics

Grimdark Future Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
Alien Hives:	Alien Hives - Soul-Snatcher Cults
Aliens:	Dwarf Guilds - Eternal Dynasty - Jackals - Orc Marauders Robot Legions - Saurian Starhost - TAO Coalition
Battle Brothers:	Battle Brothers - Custodian Brothers - Prime Brothers
Elves:	Dark Elf Raiders - Elven Jesters - High Elf Fleets
Havoc:	Havoc Brothers - Machine Cult Defilers - Wormhole Daemons
Humans:	Battle Sisters - Feudal Guard - Gangs of Hive City Human Defense Force - Human Inquisition - Infected Colonies Machine Cult - Titan Lords - Rebel Guerillas
Ratmen:	Ratmen Clans - Vile Rattus Cult