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Post by desertscrb on Mar 24, 2013 9:56:14 GMT -6
Since there's often some overlap between roleplayers and wargamers, I'd like to start a conversation about starship combat gaming (with miniatures or with counters). Does anyone play out space battles, either as part of a RPG campaign or separately? While the original Traveller set had its own rules for space battles, the publisher also came out with additional rules, both for Traveller and some standalone games. Then there's probably the most well-known starship combat game, Starfleet Battles (and that setting has spawned at least a couple of RPGs). Other setting-specific games include Battlefleet Gothic and Aerotech. On the generic side, Full Thrust is probably the best-known space battle game, and there are others like Starmada, Colonial Battlefleet, Galactic Knights, the old Starfleet Wars, and 5150: Star Navy (which I co-authored). Starship Combat News is a great resource for spaceship gamers. I'm curious, does anyone use some sort of wargaming starship combat rules as part of their RPG campaigns? Or do you just play those games as a separate pastime?
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Post by Stormcrow on Mar 24, 2013 12:58:55 GMT -6
I run a game of GURPS Tales of the Solar Patrol, in which there are occasional spaceship battles. I tried using the excellent rules from GURPS Spaceships, as well as my own rules for scaling up the normal vehicle rules, but in the end the style of the game demanded something much more free-form. We now simply make a few skill rolls and narrate what happens, as befitting the hand-wavey genre.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2013 16:56:44 GMT -6
The Star Trek Combat Simulator was pretty neat in how it broke up the responsibilities of the ship among the various PCs and I really like the display. Too bad my group never did like playing Star Trek all that much.
Speaking of Star Trek, there was a solitaire boardgame called Star Trek III as it had three games inside. One of the games was a Kobiyashi Maru scenario. What was cool about it was that it's starship battle portion used a first-person display instead of the usual top down hexes. If you turned left, all the ship counters on the display just moved to the right. It worked like the similar one in another solitaire game Patton's Best. I've never seen another starship game that used that sort of interface but it seems that it would be perfect for an RPG.
Anyone played Battlestations? I considered getting it a couple years ago but I haven't run a sci-fi game in a long time.
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Post by Sean Michael Kelly on Mar 24, 2013 19:43:29 GMT -6
...about the only real "space battles" game I've played is Star Frontiers Knight Hawks which is far from a realistic simulation, but it is kind of fun in its own right. I haven't tried the one with X-plorers yet.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2013 20:18:34 GMT -6
I seem to recall playing Full Thrust and some version of Starfleet Battles (don't know which flavor) at a game night. I enjoyed them both but have to confess the two-dimensional nature of the playing field sort of hampered suspension of disbelief. The games were most enjoyable in spite of this.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2013 20:21:59 GMT -6
How would those who play these games compare them to "Fight in the Skies" (or Dawn Patrol)? FitS seems to capture the tridee element reasonably well.
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Post by Sean Michael Kelly on Mar 24, 2013 22:40:42 GMT -6
How would those who play these games compare them to "Fight in the Skies" (or Dawn Patrol)? FitS seems to capture the tridee element reasonably well. A couple months ago, I re-purchased a like-new Dawn Patrol box. Everything in new condition minus the original shrink-wrap. Anyhow, I've sat down to play it several times since I hadn't played in 30 or so years and still haven't got my head wrapped around it again. I wish there was someone around that had interest in playing it. I think it was a heck of a lot of fun back in the day!
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Post by coffee on Mar 25, 2013 8:14:32 GMT -6
Anyone played Battlestations? I considered getting it a couple years ago but I haven't run a sci-fi game in a long time. Played it once at a convention, about a year ago. I'd play it again; it would be nice to build up a crew and get to really understand the game.
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Post by makofan on Mar 25, 2013 9:30:29 GMT -6
My miniatures rules are "A Sky Full of Ships", but I have not yet adopted these to my Traveller or my Star Wars campaign. In Star Wars I used to use the WEG "Star Warriors" board game for starship combat, but now I use the original WEG abstract rules as it is easier and saves time
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Post by kesher on Mar 25, 2013 11:54:08 GMT -6
desert, Be Thou Exalted! for starting this thread! Hey, makofan--can you say more about "A Sky Full of Ships"? What do you like about it? Does anyone know anything about Starfight? I'm looking for something that's easy to convert to Classic Traveller for small engagements.
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Post by makofan on Mar 25, 2013 14:27:46 GMT -6
The free rules can be found here web.295.ca/danabbott/fleet.htmlHe also has an expanded pay version. There are many Star Trek/Star Wars/etc conversions on the web. The rules are simple, the ship cards are elegant, and it plays quickly. I like the progressive damage system. Since it is easy to build super ships, the scenario designer needs to decide how the ships in its universe operates, then put their own constraints on Here is a sample Traveller conversion home.comcast.net/~steveosmanski/traveller-ASFoS.html
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Post by kesher on Mar 25, 2013 14:52:03 GMT -6
Be. Thou. Exalted!
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Post by Sean Michael Kelly on Mar 25, 2013 18:19:43 GMT -6
The free rules can be found here web.295.ca/danabbott/fleet.htmlHe also has an expanded pay version. There are many Star Trek/Star Wars/etc conversions on the web. The rules are simple, the ship cards are elegant, and it plays quickly. I like the progressive damage system. Since it is easy to build super ships, the scenario designer needs to decide how the ships in its universe operates, then put their own constraints on Here is a sample Traveller conversion home.comcast.net/~steveosmanski/traveller-ASFoS.htmlI'm going to echo Kesh here, EXALT! Looks cool! (I'll have to PDF this, I hate referencing websites)
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Post by xmanowarx on Mar 30, 2013 14:31:41 GMT -6
well, i run X-PLORERS for my sci-fi fix. my players just got their hands on a ship last session and now they're headed for space. i like the XP starship rules as they're fast and easy...i also made this stuff for the inevitable space conflicts that will occur next session:
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Post by thorswulf on Mar 30, 2013 15:50:44 GMT -6
NICE! Any chance you'd be willing to share that map with the rest of us?
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Post by xmanowarx on Mar 30, 2013 16:48:36 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2014 19:14:59 GMT -6
Just got the new (for me) X-Wing miniatures game. Apparently, it's the best selling game FFG has ever made. Seems like it would be perfect for a RPG starfighter combat system. There's a Star Trek version as well so the base rules might work at that scale as well (the verdict is out on that one).
It's making me want to run a Star Wars game. Something I swore I'd never do again.
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Torreny
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Post by Torreny on Apr 4, 2014 3:17:38 GMT -6
My experience in the genre is almost entirely through Knight Hawks and a smidgen of Full Thrust. Only ever ran into a couple people with interests in fleet scale games. Particularly, when it came to Star Frontiers, players vehemently loathed the idea of getting blown up aboard their expensive space bus, and they drove hard to avoid any combat on that front.
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Post by desertscrb on Apr 6, 2014 11:21:47 GMT -6
Just got the new (for me) X-Wing miniatures game. Apparently, it's the best selling game FFG has ever made. Seems like it would be perfect for a RPG starfighter combat system. I'm a big fan of X-Wing. Although it's mainly played as a tournament game, the rules include scenarios besides line up and shoot till the other guy's dead. And there are several sets of fan-made campaign rules out there.
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