Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Eureka! Space Battles R Us!

Okay…so I spent much of today figuring out how I wanted space ship combat to work. The good news? I got it done. The even better news? It makes me excited to play the damn thing.

Hoo-boy!

Right now, the rules aren’t in a “completed” form, just 5 or 6 pages of detailed notes and random tables….who knows how many pages this will blossom into once I’ve typed it up in a readable (and hopefully learnable format). I’m hoping it will take fewer than 8 pages (I’d sure like room for some examples!). However, they’re pretty simple, as well as fast…even faster than the old WEG Star Wars, if I did it correctly!

Wow…the boarding actions are cool, by the way. Not only does it model tractor beams with the same simple system as gun combat, I’ve got boarding actions a la Battlestar Galactica (the revised version)…you know, landing a squad of Colonial marines on an enemy ship with a Raptor transport? Dig it!

[MY Jedi don’t need no stinking R2 units to fight the “Clone Wars!”]

Anyhoo, I do have to write up the vehicle stats and run some scenarios to make sure it works all well and good. Getting the stats right will be important, as I don’t plan on including “vehicle creation” rules but want to have an adequate selection of models for people that want to do their own thang. One thing that helps…each vehicle has only three STATS and one CLASS. And there aren’t that many classes of vehicles (um, three to be exact). Well, each also has a number of weapon batteries, but I might even streamline that particular deal-i-o…we’ll see. Tomorrow, I’ve got the day off, so I’m thinking of putting together some LISTS for the game (specifically VEHICLES, MONSTERS, and EQUIPMENT). I mean, I have lists already, but I need to “fill in some blanks.”

Ooo-oo! It’s coming together, folks! Thanks to everyone who provided input on the subject over the last couple days.

: )

3 comments:

  1. Awesome, I hope we get to read them soon. My friends used to play out planetary assaults and such with Battletech. They used every expansion and type of unit. After an hour or so, they'd forget to move units or attack. They would just claim, "those guys are in shock and out of action." Sounds like you have taken care of that in your system.

    For what it's worth, I second those people in the previous post who expressed the PC's actions should have a greater effect on the battle and the battle itself should serve as a background.

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  2. I look forward to finding out more. It's definitely a challenge to keep something simple and fun, but with bite and the sense that it reflects a possible reality.

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  3. Thanks, guys...more info will be forthcoming.

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