Laserburn

Laserburn is a set of skrimish wargaming / roleplaying rules written by Bryan Ansell in 1980 and published by TTG and illustrated by Tony Yates.

Written for use with 15mm scale, the Laserburn set of rules, is set in a universe where man has reached the stars and the highest pinnacles of technology and is well on his way back to barbarism. It was orignally offered to Games Workshop for publication, which was turned down in favour of the Spacefarers ruleset. Subsequently Bryan set up with TTG to publish the game and miniatures range through Asgard miniatures, while the Spacefarers range were released through Citadel.

The rules were influenced by Mike Blake's Old West Skirmish Rules and Once Upon a Time in the West by John D. Spencer and Ian S. Beck, also published by TTG. Bryan also cites Heavy Metal Magazine, Tony Yates and Philippe Druillet as influences.

Miniatures Range

A range of 15mm metal figures were produced for use with Laserburn and are currently available from [15mm.co.uk]

• Adventurers & Star Soldiers
• Starship Crews
• Imperial Troopers
• Redemptionist Rebels
• Mercenaries
• Vehicles

Rulebook & Supplements

Title	Author	Illustrator	Year	Description
Laserburn	Bryan Ansell	Tony Yates	1980	Core rulebook
Laserburn Record Sheets	Chris Elliott and Richard Edwards	???	1980	Character sheet for Laserburn
Advanced Laserburn & Aliens	Tony Ackland	?	?	Advanced rules for laserburn and aliens
Imperial Commander	Richard Halliwell & Bryan Ansell	Tony Yates	1981
Forces of the Imperium	Bryan Ansell	Tony Yates	1982	...being details of the organisation, equipment and vehicles of the Emperor and his Lord Knights. Includes Infantry, Black Guard, Scouts, Law Officers & Mercenaries.
Robot	Ian Terry	Ian Terry	1983	rules for robots
Sea Prison Siege	?	?	?	scenario
Tarim Towers Heist	Richard Edwards	?	?	scenario
Sewerville Shootout	David Kelly	?	?	scenario
Assault on Bunker 17	Bryan Ansell	?	?	Scenario
Scavenger	David Kelly	?	?	Scenario

Imperial Commander is a mass combat game, rather than skirmish / roleplaying game.

Influence on Warhammer 40,000

Some elements of the Laserburn universe, such as power armoured Space Marines, dreadnought armour, bolt guns and jet cycles were recycled into Warhammer 40,000 by Rick Priestly while at Games Workshop (then owned by Bryan Ansell). The Red Redemptionists originally appear in the comic book series Lone Sloane by Phillipe Drulliette and published in Heavy Metal magazine, and the Redemptionist faction of religious fanatics is a recurring theme though much of Bryan Ansells projects, including Warhammer and Warhammer 40k.

Confrontation

Laserburn was repackaged and published serially in White Dwarf Magazine as Confrontation. Set in the Warhammer 40,000 millieu, focusing on civilian gang conflict in the Hive Worlds of a corrupt and decadent human space Empire. Confrontation uses the core Laserburn task resolution and combat, then added rules for generating specific gang (warband) types and imported many of the weapons from Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader.

White Dwarf 130	Introduction	Background to the planet and hives
White Dwarf 131	Necromunda Gangs	Background to the hive gangs
White Dwarf 132	Creating a Gang	Background and rules for creating a gang including generating equipment, a stash and skills, with a short story
White Dwarf 137	Combat Rules 1	Game rules for characters, group coherency, game sequence, turns phase, actions, visibility, firing and rules for trading equipment
White Dwarf 138	Combat Rules 2	Game rules for hand-to-hand combat, hit locations, damage and injuries
White Dwarf 142	Weapons	Game rules, weapon profiles

Despite persistent internet rumour, Necromundas rules are based on Warhammer, and are not a development of Confrontation / Laserburn, despite using the same Hive World background setting.

Links

15mm.co.uk The current publisher of Laserburn