11/27/2024
Welcome back, Adventurers!
Archvillain Games is a miniature line producer that works with a lot of YouTube personalities to sell monthly STLs for custom D&D adventures and (tangentially) their homemade wargame BATTLERUNE.
A lot of their models are also analogous to Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k models so that they can be used for games like OnePageRules or similar miniature-agnostic games.
And the models are very high quality, and plentiful. I’ve printed many of them and they print easily, are fun to paint, and their bases are fantastic. Great way to spend money. Here’s some of my most recent prints:
I know that in the past their adventures were “okay,” but I’m under the impression that they got better over time.
However, their sci-fi miniatures line does not come with adventures!
Why this is a huge wasted opprotunity
Archvillain Games sci-fi miniatures line are almost exact parodies of Warhammer 40k factions. That is what they are their for. It’s pretty obvious.
Except, they put their own twists on some of them. Only some.
For example, here are Warhammer 40k’s Chaos Space Marines pulled from their website:
And here are Archvillain Games Orbita Hellscape: Legions pulled from their Patreon:
Fairly one-for-one.
However, some of Archvillain Games army releases do not directly line up with a 40k army, and instead are a bit more out there. For example, the Crimson Skies: Sanquitor Bloodlines I.
This set is supposed to be stand-ins to Warhammer 40k’s Genestealer Cults. However, these models are space vampires instead of a cult worshipping the alien from the movie Alien. They feel unique, and fun, and very very different. So different, their style doesn’t mesh with the Genestealer Cults style. Take their vehicles for example:
Crazy disc thing? Sick. I vibe with it, and the space vampires don’t sound too crazy with it.
However, Genestealer Cults are supposed to be essentially low-tech terrorists using mining equipment, IEDs, and guerilla tactics to get their way. For example, here’s their biggest vehicle the Goliath Earth-Mover, a mining truck repurposed into a cult vehicle. This image is taken from Goonhammer, great website, check it out:
Why that matters
Because these things are incongruous. They don’t match. You can’t use one for the other. Who are these made for?
CLEARLY they want to sell their own world but there’s nothing attached to it.
There’s no lore. I asked.
There’s no sci-fi adventures to go with these models. They’re just… making models and sending them into the void?
Sure, they also come with rules for BATTLERUNE, but their last TWO releases have not had rules released for them.
Even then, their fantasy miniatures line have adventures, lore, AND Battlerune rules. AND they have the same amount of models released each month AND cost the same amount of money to subscribe to.
Does that mean this is a waste of money?
Meganoita. By no means. May it never be. Absolutely not.
They’re still great for model agnostic sci-fi games, but they could be SO MUCH MORE.
Two Paths Diverge in the Forest
If Archvillain Games wants to grow their sci-fi line into the powerhouse that their fantasy line is, they have two obvious solutions to the problem:
Hang your hat on RPGs
There are a ton of good sci-fi tabletop RPG systems out there.
PICK ONE AND START WRITING ADVENTURES FOR YOUR MODELS IN THIS SYSTEM!!!
Seeing the zealotry many fans have for D&D5e, I’m sure there’s a sci-fi overhaul out there for the system. Making it 5e compatible could help bring over people from their fantasy audience.
Or, heck, make your own system!
Commission a handsome, young, patriotic RPG designer (please, you’re too kind) to create an RPG system for your sci-fi world full of dark magic and space vampires and people will LOVE IT.
Every month release new adventures, maybe new mechanics with each faction. What happens if a player becomes a SPACE VAMPIRE??? I don’t know, but I would love to find out! (Is it always day in space? How direct or close does sunlight need to be for it incinerate a space vampire? Distant stars on our planet don’t seem to effect our vampires. Maybe its only the star they were turned under?)
Or combine the two.
Hire an RPG designer to create a D&D5e sci-fi expansion for your setting. That would be cool too! They can release new adventures or sub-classes with each monthly release.
Lean into the Wargame Culture
Okay, so you don’t like space RPGs (weirdo), and you believe (perhaps rightfully) that your audience for the sci-fi line like wargames more than tabletop RPGs.
THEN MAKE YOUR WARGAME MORE ACCESSIBLE AND ITS RELEASES EXCITING!!!
Currently, all the Battlerune rules cost $5. Which means, you have to buy the models and then separately buy the rules. Why?
Why wouldn’t you make the rules free and the models cost money?
If you’re trying to make the wargame competitive, it would be annoying for me to have to buy the rules for each faction before knowing if I want to play them or not.
If you’re trying to make the wargame casual, casual players are not going to spend money on rules when they have other options like OnePageRules which is highly acclaimed and free.
The advantage you have by having your own miniatures line and in-house ruleset is you can make rules that are really specific and unique to your miniatures line. Lean into that.
Unlike in OnePageRules, which has to be generalist by design, you can have cool rules giving models small and unique bonuses for quirks that you can see ON THE MODEL. It’s fun! It’s one of the things most mentioned as something they miss by people who swap from Warhammer 40k to OnePageRules.
So much so that OnePageRules tried to fix this with their wide variety of weapon loadouts on models, but in my opinion that only made their physical sales market more difficult to keep up with (but that’s a post for another time).
Alright, now that we recognized that you NEED to focus on Battlerune, you also need to do the equivalent of adventures in the wargame sphere. Scenario packs.
Every month, with the release of your new army, make a mini campaign (three missions maybe) or a single great scenario with sick art that gives some lore and interactivity with the new army.
I will probably never play the Empire of the Stars army. I’m just not interested in Necron-look-alikes.
However, you talk about how humanity discovered a strange Templeship in deep space, opened it up and awakened an ancient space god and his necro-soldiers, and give me a few missions about having to activate the atomizer core at its center to save the sector from conquest, I’m super down! I’ll buy it just to play.
Having these scenario packs allows you to replace the microtransaction of the rules with the scenarios. Make the rules free, make the scenario packs ~$5. Easy fix.
In Summary
Archvillain Games needs to find something to do with its sci-fi miniatures line. I’m sure its making money from them, but it is missing a golden opportunity to make content for them and thus make them more desirable.
Art sells. But art with purpose sells a lot.
Thank you so much, everyone!
Until we meet again,
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR ADVENTURES
Ward Against Evil 
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