Moments of Sheer Terror: Core Rules. Mid 20th Century – Mid 21st Century

Warfare has been described as protracted boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

The core rules of Moments of Sheer Terror are focused on the individual infantry of the mid 20th century to the mid 21st century. Blaster weapons as well as conventional slug throwers are the stock in trade of the infantry in this time period. Fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft are included. Futuristic vehicles such as grav boards that hover 6 to 12 inches above the ground are available as well for individual troopers.

Moments of Sheer Terror is a skirmish level game that operates on an initiative based system for the troops to take action. When you take certain actions, such as firing a weapon, there is a chance that one of 64 random events will occur. Some events will help you, other events will help your opponent.

The rules are written to avoid vertical exaggeration by having the figure scale match the ground scale. Buildings, trees and other features are meant to be played as they are modeled. There are charts included for 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm and 28mm figures.

One turn equals 30 seconds. The combination of the ground scale and turn length means that air support is handled with elegant simplicity. (In 6mm scale a soldier figure moves 6 inches in one turn. A ground attack aircraft would move 88 feet.) Just choose the altitude; high or low. Then put the aircraft where you want it on the table.

The charts are where the detail is in the game. This means the core rules can be used for different eras with slight modification for that era.

—description from the publisher