An Example Of No Control Applied

After exercising great logic and control with Eldritch Horror, I have not been as successful with Star Wars Destiny.

The sales are coming and I have found some of the first three (black) blister packs for as low as $35au. That is about 15% of original or to put it another way, about 1 die and 5 cards for just under $1au.

So where have I ended up?

3 Spirit of Rebellion and Awakenings boxes and 2 Empire at war packs, 3 Draft boxes, 4 starters and a two player starter, several loose cards and some die from Big Orbit, that have already started to arrive totally about 400 dice and 1000 cards.

Wow, that was quick.

Only a part of it and more coming.

Did I win?

Still not sure as Vader eludes me but 5 of the boosters are still to come, so here is hoping. The two Awakenings boxes arrived (which makes 3 or to put it the other way, 108 dice, 168 cards), and still no Vader!

Need to stop.

Have enough.

No Vader is a shame, no actually, it is a lesson on the frutility of chasing single cards in this wilderness. Just happy I did not spend $500+ to get to the same place.

Ed. A Vader and a few other hard to gets have been found, all paid way too much for, but oh well swings and round-abouts. Also just orderred a Black Friday special Across The Galaxy blister box, with I guess about a 1:5 chance of getting that mean Vader.

An Example Of Applied Control

Like most of us some games sit on my shelves demanding attention, but not getting it. Eldritch Horror is one of those. It ticks all the boxes for theme, play options and eye candy, but I have just not made the effort.

Like many (most) games, it comes with a certain amount of ‘expansionitis”, offerring no fewer than 7 expansions, thankfully finished now, but still.

Four are small box, meaning they only add cards and rules options, no extra boards. These are generally considerred to be good value, one nearly mandatory.

Three are big box expansions adding more game with extra boards. These match the base game for cost and box size and make the core board 50% larger (each). They also change the core game dynamic and need more table room. It is generally not recommended to play all of these at once, but if you have the need for an epic game then go for it.

Enough. Chock full of cards and options, but not a huge table hog.

One is a big/small box expansion, which offers several extra rules options and mechanics including a campaign system and backgrounds, but no board so no extra table space is required. It also “completes” the cycle, which means it leaves some wasted resources or forces system completion, so assume this if waste bothers you.

I have chosen to take an Everdell approach* to this.

Two of the small box sets (Cities in Ruin and Foresaken Lore) are universally lauded as either the best or most necessary expansions to get. FL is a must, considered universally to be required to complete the core game (which is a little thin in some card stacks). You could leave it at that.

Cities in Ruin is the one single expansion that makes everyone’s top three favourites list. The other two add useful content and rules and generally make the game deeper, but not that much more complicated. Needed or not, these last two (Carcossa and Remnants) are never seriously criticised as useless or game breaking, just less compulsive purchases compared to the other two.

The rest are all over the place, never reaching close to universal agreement on ranking lists (two lists I found today had virtually polar opposite opinions on the bigger sets, but much the same take on the small box ones).

Pyramids, Madness and Dreamlands are the big three, but I am avoiding these as they break the “Everdell rule”, which is to say, they do not stick to the base board only, or are not all useable at once, nor do they protect the core mechanics or add needed or recommended improvements.

With Everdell, I have added the three small expansions (Extra Extra, Legendary and Rugwort) the bigger Bellfaire, which adds some board space but does so seamlessly (and replaces the clumsy tree). It also adds several game play elements that add balance and fix a few road-blocks from the core game and includes better Solo options (Rugwort realised*) all without clutter. I have just added Mistwood which further improves solo play and adds more core content without a board addition or a shift in overall “vibe”.

The 4 small box expansions are good, the 3 big ones creep into “obsessive” territory and if I get one…….. .

Nyarlathotep is the outlier. It has no board (tick), but adds elements that complete the full set, so holes are left if you don’t have it all. It also has a mixed rep for rules implementation and fun to complexity ratio.

What do I have if this is my hard cap?

8 Old Ones, 24 Investigators, several useful expansions to the core mechanics and a ton of depth in all card stacks. More would be just more, with added density (but not necessarily depth), more intimidation factor and to be frank, less appeal. The Focus mechanic from MoM is well liked, but I can download the rules and use some leftover X Wing Focus counters.

Control exercised, balance retained.

*Turns out Rugwort is also improved with a free fan made solo variant found on BGG called “Everdell Unrigged”. This makes 5 solo options total.

I Am Not A Retro Gamer, So What Gives?

I am not a huge OST gamer. I do not get overly nostalgic for games that have nothing going for them other than history, so what gives at the moment?

My last few purchases include an ebay grab of the old Marvel Saga card based super hero rpg, that fortuitously had the bits I lacked, a second rule book and only one of the smaller books I already had (and I have the cards), the even more ancient FASA Star Trek Combat Simulator, a Star Fleet Battles scenario book, even though I have Fed Commander, ACTA and Starmada, and the 30th Anniversary edition of the original d6 Star Wars RPG.

Like the bedroom floor of a 90’s teen.

Add to that my habit of tracking down and hoarding recently discontinued games and my stated preference for older RPG systems in general (d100 based usually), and I guess that well, I probably do have a problem and I suppose I am a bit of a retro gamer.

Something new that is old.

The reality is, old is not genrally worse. Some games grow and improve, some just grow and plenty of great games that people fondly remember simply disappeared for reasons other than poor quality.

I am not alone here either. Plenty of game makers are looking backwards intenting to either re-release stock product (Star Wars d6) or try to harmonise and perfect with minimum intrusion.

The 1st edition Pathfinder to Savage Worlds blend or Glorantha as 13th Age are highlights, plenty of OST d20 clones and the resurgence of d100 games generally have kept me interested in a space I have struggled with of late.

Some though have been expensive near misses. The 4e Warhammer system tried hard to revisit the classic feeling of the original and improve the system, but even though it now ranks as my most expensive recent RPG collection (I decided to finish the Enemy Within campaign that I missed first time around, companions and all), I will likely play it as either a Zweihander, WHFRPG1e or straight d100 game or just heavily truncate the system as provided.

X Wing is similar for me. The 2e rules suit the TFA period, but I actually prefer the 1e take on “classic” Star Wars.

Another is the One Ring. The changes seem to be just changes. I actually, and this hurts to say, like the 5e based AIME version more than either edition of TOR.

Newer is not always better. Marvel has had several classic RPG’s, the original still considerred a classic, the later ones also ground breaking, but the latest has mixed reviews.

A huge field with now a long and complicated history, one of whih I am happy to have been a part of, I just wished I had played more games.

In A Galaxy Far Far Away...........

My love of first edition X Wing is well documented here.

Old games are what they are, familiar, sometimes dated and often abandoned by their maker, if not their fans, but some are so well conceived, they deserve to be played on their merits, age and edition changes aside. Chess anyone?

Early 1e was well balanced, had a huge amount of depth and options from the start and did it’s job as it should simulating Star Wars-like dog fights without the need for too much cruft or density.

It went wrong as these things often do, as power creep and competitive evolution killed off the main players, making almost unheard of ships more popular than even the titular one and the current “Meta” became all. Action economy became the catch word, with older ships falling behind seemingly unable to be fixed, I feel the upgrade paradigm even became too much of a bandaid fix-all to be taken seriously.

There is no doubt that 2e is a cleaner, smarter game, but that is with the benefit of hindsight and it’s changes are evolutionary, not revolutionary in nature.

Looking at the core of the 1e game, there is a lot to like.

The Tie Advanced and X Wing are both good enough, their pilots as printed often make them outstanding.

The original game is one of prediction and maneouvre. The basic ships, the A,B,X,Y Wings, the Falcon, Lambda, Tie Interceptors, Fighters and Bombers and a few others (even Scum if wanted) have a feel that fits the game mechanics so well and take us to a Galaxy……...

They have 4 basic Actions, which are the things that define their differences and the base tactics of the game. You commit to a maneouvre based on your own needs and in an attempt to predict your opponents, but your Action, which is taken after you execute the mandatory move (assuming your Pilot does not change this), may allow some wiggle room, an ability to adjust or adapt.

No ship in the basic game has all 4 actions available to it out of the gate (a very few do with Pilot skills or Elite Pilot Talents and Modifications). In the later game and if all mods and upgrades are allowed, many ships can achieve all 4 and some can even manage repeats.

If these are reduced to more thematic and manageable choices, the true brilliance of the ships and their pilots comes through and the game becomes one of familiarity with tactics and play dynamic than the ship building sub-game.

These are specifically Elite Pilot Talents, Titles and Modifications.

EPT’s are handled well enough as pilot talents, which become far more outstanding without EPT’s to muddy the water. EPT’s are often the game breaking culprits, often at odds with the pilot themselves or if not, tend to exaggerate the pilot.

Mods fix things that do not need fixing. Ship limitations are what they should be, limitations.

Titles often make little sense. The people that fly them make them special, so why add another free evade? Generic titles are often just poorly disguised re-balancing attempts.

The Tie Interceptor is now the undisputed king of manoeuvre, the A Wing is the speed monster, the Bomber packs the most secondary armament, while the sluggish Y Wing has a turret, a Droid and ordnance, but must choose between a Droid for manoeuvre or other capabilities.

Action economy, which defined both the later 1e game and the re-design of the 2e version, is kept under control. Those with more or better Actions are stand-outs as they should be. The ability to use actions when stressed, to add an action not available on a ship are gold now, not just upgrade point savers.

This form of 1e, we like to call “Bare Bones”, sometimes Classic (with movie ships only), or even “Skeleton Crew” with fewer ships and upgrades, depending on the mix.

It limits ships to the basic 4 Actions and a reduced upgrade landscape, ordnance is often reduced or faction limited.

Vader, Wedge, Jake, Han etc are all top end pilots with special and quite powerful abilities. Remove EPT’s and they shine as such, often offering a skill no-one else comes close to having and one that defines them.

Wedge is the instinctive Predator (= reduces target Agility) , Vader has Force powered reflexes (= 2 Actions) and Luke has a survival instinct borne of a burgeoning Force awareness (= guaranteed Evade from Focus). Allow EPT’s in and they lose that uniqueness.

The designers did such a good job on one level to give us the feel of the individual pilots, then (to my mind), diluted that with less thematic upgrades for gaming purposes only.

The A Wing, B Wing, Interceptor and Advanced also have their unique characteristics, which again with Mods removed, allow them to be undisputed specialist. Use Mods and the all too rare Boost is attainable to most, as is the Roll or Evade. This makes most ships blend into the others.

Actions are the currency of X Wing, so any game level is fine as long as all ships fare equally, but in a reduced format, the feel of the ships becomes more succinct, more authentic and other upgrades gain in power. Running an Ordnance laden Bomber actually makes sense in a squad dynamic.

Jake can Boost or Roll, Soontir adds a Focus and Tycho can take Actions even when stressed and Focus, Lock or de-stress sharing is strong. Powerful, clean and easy to understand from the get-go, which is important in a heavily player reduced landscape.

The rock-paper-scissors elegance of the game is retained, the clean and inspired system is left to it’s original balance, which is good and enough.

Another benefit is the heightened feeling of accuracy to the original stories and the value of team work and tactics.

As an aside, I just ordered the 30th anniversary Star Wars d6 RPG and Source book, which is in alignment with this thinking.

Impulse Buy

Star Wars Destiny popped up on my radar today via a sales notice from a favourite retailer.

I picked up the Kylo and Rey starters and the Awakening box of 36 upgrade packs for well under half retail with a mind to look and see. hey came quickly and off I went into another collection binge.

General feeling on this game boils down to;

• Great game, well liked even in a crowded space, innovative, thematic and clean.

• Starters are not enough as they do not add enough for even a base game (recommended you get 2 or a booster box of 36 blisters).

• Easy to drown in upgrade shenanigans, which are ultimately not needed.

• So, you need to know when to stop or be aware that stopping may be hard or expensive in the long run. Even sticking to clearance sets has proven expensive overall. I do now have, or have coming, 300 odd die and 1000 cards, for seemingly little, depending on how you look at it!

So, my line in the sand is to not buy anything that is not in clearance and try not to be a completist. Would be nice to start game off with Phasma, Black One etc, but not the end of the world if I don’t and I will not chase card packs until I get there (but may get them off a second hand retailer).

List is so far (all heavily reduced or slightly reduced if rarer);

• Rey and Kylo starters

• 2 player Rey and Kylo starter, which is different to above and only has 1 Die for the main characters.

• Luke starter

• Boba starter

• 1 box of 36 Spirit of the Rebellion boosters.

• 1 box of 36 Awakenings boosters.

• 1 box of 36 Empire at War boosters. All of these come in at under $2 a blister.

• Both draft packs.

• About a boosters worth of picked cards to make the above make sense.

Until the last two Awakenings booster boxes arrive, only a decent Darth Vader evades me, so here is hoping, otherwise I will let that go.

I will make period matched and thematic core sets with specific and generic upgrades. I have no player base for this so need to put together ready to go game sets. Unlike a lot of other games like this, there seems plenty of room in casual play for thematic sets.

So far I know I have Luke (2)/Leia/Han/R2, Dameron (2)/Rey (2)/Finn/BB8, Kylo (2)/Phasma/Trooper and Boba/Jabba sets, with more bits like Grievous, Veers etc to work out from as things arrive. Chasing Obi Wan, possibly Vader.

The game seems well liked from a player perspective, but many are wary of the blow-out that games like this can force, like for instance, the two starter packs do not actually offer enough cards to make two decks. This crap is common in this space, using the term “collectible” to hide “assume you will be collecting”, but with at least 80% of the cards in the 5 card/1 die x36 blister pack boxes usable I will have plenty to go on with.

Impulsive and possibly a frustrating road to travel, but if luck is with me, all done and time to get in if I am going to (less than half price).

X Wing And Attack Wing, The Differences Part 1; Actions

X Wing and Attack Wing share the same basic concepts and mechanical skeleton. They rely on a predict-commit-play and resolve mechanic, use almost identical gae components and effectively cover the big two camps of sci-fi fandoms.

To my mind, there a few main differences between the games (I will use 1e X Wing as my comparison as I am more familiar and feel it is the cleanest, most directly relevant comparison).

In 1e, some ships only have the near standard Focus and one other, some, but few have all four spaces filled.

In AW, Actions are basically the same core idea, but fighter style manoeuvres are dropped. Actionsa re also far more consistent. Most ships have 4, but there is some swapping out.

Actions

This is my number one, because actions determine core tactics, feel and even the scale of the game. Actions are so defining that the base line limitation placed on all our reduced forms of the X Wing 1e game is that only the base 4 actions are allowed.

These two games share a hard limit of 4 actions maximum per ship, which can be artificial limiting, especially in AW. XW 2e has moved on from this, which avoids the Action economy cascade through upgrades that 1e resorted to.

Big vs little has a genuine game dynamic in X Wing.

In X Wing (almost) all ships have Focus. This is the catch-all attack/defence versatile action. Not as strong as committing fully, it is a great action if unsure, is sometimes needed and often spins off into other effects.

Battle Stations is the equiv of Focus, allowing a basic attack or defence buff after roll.

The second most common action is Target Lock, which has a requirement for most secondary weapons. In X Wing most ships have Lock, but “lesser” or light fighters don’t and Huge ships lack it entirely (fixed in 2e) as they have other methods.

Same name, same function. Few ships lack the TL option, but with the hard limit of 4, some ships do drop it if they have Cloaking or Regeneration.

Scan is an AW only action, working a little like Focus/Target Lock (anti Evade) for attack only with a link to some other actions. Almost always found on ships without Cloaking, almost never on Cloaking capable ships, which is where that artificial limits can be annoying.

Barrel Roll is an Imperial speciality, fairly common in Scum fleets (often due to their later game introduction) and not common in Rebels. If played at a “clasic” or “bare Bones” level, this becomes even more exaggerated. Upgrades and the odd pilot can add it, tending to make the difference less pronounced, one of the reasons we don’t use them.

No Roll at all in AW, but generally the ships are significantly larger (would have been nice to have let the smaller ones do them I guess, but that is likely absorbed by the scale difference as just better manoeuvring).

Boost is less common than Barrel Roll and more evenly spread through the fleets. Only a very few ships have both, although it is a common upgrade, again dropped by us in Bare Bones games. Boost is quite powerful and it is felt in our games that it is a special little snow flake, best left to the ships built for it.

No Boost, but a few ships can do a natural 6 move.

Evade, like the two above tends to be small fighter weighted, but there are exceptions and in “Bare Bones” or similar, there is only one ship with the whole gammut, the Tie Interceptor, making it the manoeuvre/Action king, although it lacks TL, so no ship in XW 1e has a “perfect” Action bar without upgrades.

Nearly all AW ships have Evade, except for the really clumsy monster Borg Cubes and Spheres. This is also a point of scale difference as many larger AW ships have low or no natural Agility. In TNG Battle for example, Agility is rare meaning most ships hit their targets, but in skirmish, the ships are slower and more agile.

Coordinate. A late game addition and one we have dropped in most game forms. This is similar to a few pilot abilities, so it has space in the game, but like a lot of late game additions, it wrankles. On Huge ships it fits and if we use the 1 card one Huge vessels, it makes a lot of sense.

No Equivalent. Captains are the big difference.

Reload. This is a rare one and very powerful if upgrades like Extra Ammo are not allowed.

No equivalent, except that many weaons are disabled rather than spent, becoming available again under the same circumstances as an action.

Rotate. Shadow Hunter only, so not used in our games, although it was standardised in 2e.

No Equivalent in actions.

Jam. Again a late game addition, not used by us, unless Huge ships are used.

No Equivalent, although Scan ia a little like it I guess.

Cloak. This is a special we use in soe forms of the game and is also available to Scum as an Illicit (but with strings). An earlier introduction, it fits thematically and being severaly limited also feels right.

Attack Wing uses Cloaking regularly (faction defining for Romulans and later Klingons) with Sensor Echo as a second linked action. These two do tend to hog the action bar though, so other options fall away.

Huge ships have several other Actions, some limited to them only (Reinforce, Regenerate).

AW has Regenerate in some factions

X Wing ships tend to be defined by their Action Bars, very few in 1e getting a full range, but in AW, almost all have 4, often looking very same-same and with that hard cap, one is at the expense of another. For example, Romulan Ships have Cloak and Echo, but not Scan or Battle Stations. This wrankles a little, because it is not accurate to the source, but a game is a game and card real estate is what it is.

In X Wing 2e, the expanded Action bars and more open application make the most sense, but I also like the simple and clean early 1e feel. In AW, I find action options are often predictable or equally frustrating.

Unmatched And Impressive

Reviews aside, I would like to write how impressed I am with Unmatched.

The box is a work of art. Apart from the art, the layout is superb. Every token, dial and figure is perfectly housed and the cards are given enough room to be sleeved with good quality sleeves (which makes the deck over twice it’s original depth).

Even sleeved in top tier Katana sleeves (predicting a hammering for these cards), the stacks fit.

Every little bit of the game has a space. I had read the dials are sometimes loose. Just push harder is my advice. They all click flush, but take a little force to get there.

The boards are better than expected and I was not expecting much here, but they are nice and solid with more art on them than I thought.

The minis are lovely, well up to current standards in a world full of near perfect miniatures, but I am torn. I have orderred some minions and side kick minis, which were quite expensive, but I am now thinking, with over 24 figures coming, that this is not realistic, and I am impressed with the plastic token (would have been ok with tokens all round, the Hero ones a little bigger.

If I paint the figures in the same style as their matching discs, this would possibly be an acceptable compromise. I would go for a low colour range, quite a graphic look and stylised to make the disc more relevant, not less.

New Game Horizons

Meg and I went into town the other day, not to shop, but just to wander, but I got my gaming radar pinged by a few things that have been circling for a while.

The first was War of Whispers. This was soon researched down to The KIng Is Dead, which is similar, but not as expensive and probably more in my “sell-able” wheel house, but it fell away when I pondered the real chance of it being played.

The other game system was one I bounced off a while back, but did not click with the theme, nor the feel, but there were a few factors at play.

A break from the deliberately unmatched sets, this one struck a chord, because it made sense.

The system is Unmatched and the reason for it bouncing off my radar previously, even though the reviews are universally good to glowing was (a) I did not like the random mix of characters and (b) it came along too soon after I researched and rejected Disney Villainous. Somehow, it got caught up in the negative vibes I developed for DV, which is unfair, but I really did not take to the mix of characters.

What changed?

Cobble and Fog, which seems to be generally accepted as the best singe set for variety, theming and balance.

This was researched, ordered and I sat back happily. Then Etsy popped up, almost freakishly, almost feindishly, with some sidekick models, which I bought, costing nearly as much as the game itself.

Soon after, stimulated by more reading up, I found the Marvel Hells Kitchen expansion, which is a fave. This gave me an odd pairing of a modern supers and Victorian era Gothic horror sets.

I searched further afield and found the two Jurrassic Park sets (Raptors, Rex and those puny scientists). Apart from being thematically matched, they can also be swung as realistic opponents for both modern Supers and Victorian Sleuths and Vagabonds.

Vexed by choices I made a chart (always a theraputic thing). This chart showed me that there are several paths to expansion.

I could go down the path of the two Legends sets and the two, later three pairs boxes, which would put me into the mainstream tournament groove, but not a place I really get.

If I cut out the second Legends set, I would possibly miss out on 4 interesting characters, but they seem to be tournament faves, so maybe too strong. Legends 1 and the two satelite boxes keep the whole thing in the Ye Olde British fairytales and legends envelope, with a only a few exceptions (Sinbad and Medusa).

I could stick to themed sets only (as they come), giving me a mostly Marvel supers collection, with C&F as an alternate, maybe Buffy also*.

I could just stop here, with my favourite three sets, sidekicks inclued, some cross-over potential and bide my time (and actually play the game!). I do have my Heroclix figure supers game, X Wing, Attack Wing, Wings of War, Sails of Glory, Zombicide and my massive Malifaux sets to play also, so no shortage of 1 on 1 options.

The competative circuit as of recently places the bulk of fighters below the top few from the second Legends and the Red Riding Hood/Beowulf packs, as much so as they rate the Buffy and original Legends sets as generally weak, so going themed release sets only, seems to have retained mid level game balance, while still giving me a good range of mechanics and it just feels right.

Each set can stand on it’s own two feet, but I can also make acceptable combos.

They are also good sets for 1v1v1, 2v2, 4 all in or even 3x3 games.

Foggy London slug-fests between Sherlock, Watson and The Invisible Man vs Rampant Dinoes, Modern Supers vs same, or Electra and her Ninjas or Dare Devil vs Dracula. Lots of options, with few top tier ranked fighters and none that have all the answers (or no answers at all).

Something I really like about this game is the depth and balance it seems to offer. Everyones top ”X” list is different. A loathed character by one reviewer is top tier with another. It really is that well designed.

*I did order the Buffy set, the one set that gets the least favourable tournament level reviews, but two things put me off, so I have requested a cancellation.

First, it is universally thought of as the weakest expansion with Buffy a simple, two dimensional brawler and the other three characters considered sub-par. I do not intend to play competitively, but even so, it is hard to get past the weakness of some of these characters compared to the more lethal or balanced ones I have coming. If it is too late I can deal, and the characters seem to play well within their own set.

Secondly, I cannot buy Etsy “sidekick” models for it, which just sucks. I could just cut my losses there with the Hells Kitchen and C&F sidekicks, but it is annoying.

Still Tinkering With X Wing 1e

Of the many X Wing 1e sub-variants we use, just to keep it alive for us, “Classic” is the clear favourite.

The primary objective of modifying 1e X Wing is to fix the over reach of later X Wing 1e and at the same time to try to capture the elegance of the early game, the rock-paper-scissors dynamic.

Classic does this by only using the elements drawn from the first three movies.

Crew slots are limited, but they make the ships that can take them all the more attractive, as are Droids and rare Systems.

Weapons are heavily reduced in availablilty and choice with several of the strongest ones dropped completely or faction limited.

The base of some of the really strong builds are there, but the known unbeatables are avoided (Palpatine/Soontir, The fully loaded Falcon) by not allowing Titles, Mods or EPT’s, just core ships, Pilots and limited Crew, Ordnance, Illicit, Mech and Systems upgrades.

No effort has been made to limit pilot options for the included ships except for the Scum, who are only allowed the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back, but these can be played also as mercs in the Imperial faction limited to a single ship, or as many as wanted if played as “Krayts Claw”.

The Empire

The Imperials get the usual suspects. The basic Tie, Tie Advanced, Tie Interceptor, Tie Bomber and Lambda. For crew, they are allowed the Emperor, Vader and the Fleet and Systems officers and Rebel Captive (who does nothing vs Scum).

Limited in options, the Imperials are allowed the Heavy Laser Cannon and Homing Missiles as their faction specific weapon edges, with the Cannon, most Systems and all Crew limited to the Lambda, with Advanced Targetting Comp, a Tie Advanced only upgrade at 5 pts. This makes the Lambda a useful addition as a support ship and heavy weapons platform as originally introduced and the Advanced truly Advanced.

The Bomber becomes the ordnance king of the table, again making it a point of tactical interest and variation for the fairly one dimensional Imperials (but with no Unguided Rockets).

As they were early in the game, these allow the Imperials some strong builds and become genuinely attractive in this space.

They have no Turret options, either built in or added.

• The Advanced gets the option of Advanced Targetting Comp and Homing Missiles and actually stands out as the true superiority/line fighter of the Imperials.

• The Lambda gets Crew, Systems and the Heavy Laser Cannon (which fits the model). A form of the classic Palp mobile, a Vader combo or a simple Gun platform are all possible.

• The Bomber is the only specialist Ordnance platform in this game, with Cluster, Concussion, Cruise or Homing Missiles available to it as well as Proton and Plasma Torps. It can also take 2 of the 3 Bombs included, Thermal Detonators and Proximity Mines.

• The Interceptor is the Action Bar supremo with no peer.

• The Tie Fighter is the only true swarmer in the game, no other ship offerring it’s price to power ratio. Weak as they are 8 Tie Fighters are a force in this game.

This fits well with the initial roll-out of the Imperials. The Lambda and Bomber add the wild card and support options, the rest are just different interpretations of the interceptor-pursuit fighter.

The Rebels

As you would assume, the Rebels get the A, B, Y and X wings, all multi role specialists and the named (no Title) Millenium Falcon. The Bomb Loadout option has not been included as that would open up the whole Rogue One thing, nor are Ion Weapons for simplicity.

Crew and Droid synergies are a strong area and they have the Y, X, B Wing and Falcon to house them. Team work is key with the Pilot/Droid/Crew or Pilot/System/Crew combinations.

The Rebels lack access to Bombs, but they get exclusive access to the Proton Rocket, Advanced Proton Torps and two Turret options (Synched and Auto-blaster).

• The B Wing is the Rebel platform for Systems, Crew and Cannon combinations. The B Wing is unique here as it can be the cheap thug, fielding 4, the support ship enabling Crew and the gunship/brawler.

• The Falcon is a crew support monster with a rare Turret primary and is the toughest ship in the game. Options are many with 2 crew slots making the Falcon a many striped beast. The thug, supporter, blocker, a mic=x of all of these, it is hard not to include it, but if used, it tends to limit the Rebels to 3 ships maximum.

• The Y Wing is the Turret and Torpedo king, balancing out it’s poor movement (although R2’s help). Droids do not include FAA or Targetting, just the core types and the bulk of period correct named ones. Fully loading these limits the Rebels to three in a squad, but to be honest, their best use is in a mixed squad.

• The A Wing is the Proton Rocket and speed master and Action king. A force thanks to exclusive access to Proton Rockets and good Pilot abilities. The A Wing is the only Rebel that can be fielded in a pack of 6 (2 with Proton Rockets) or used as a filler ship.

• The humble X Wing is stronger in this game, offering the option of Rebel-limited Advanced Proton Torps on a semi-manoeuvrable ship, it sits in a comfortable points range to always be the third ship of any squad. These can be some of the the hardest hitting ships and take plenty of punishment as well, but rely on Pilot/Droid combos for any edges they have. Adding the S-Foil option as a built in feature is an option here also.

So, the Rebels have the three core fighters (fast-fast/tough-versatile/tough-work horse) with a new tech superiority option and the Falcon as king of the table.

The Scum

The Scum in this game are actually the scum Pilots, ships and Crew of the movies. The ships are all the Titled ones (without Title upgrades) and crew are limited to direct connections to these and generics. Illicit upgrades are exclusive as you would expect, each ship getting one option.

The Scum have exclusive access to the nasty and cheap Flechette Torp and Mangler Cannon, which just seem to fit, being “lesser” weapons, but still lethal.

Crew choices can be limiting as the Pilots and Crew are often the same and limited to the actual characters, and Pilots are limited to one per ship except for the Mist Hunter, so taking interesting combinations often limits other ship combinations.

• The Mist Hunter gets System, Crew, Illicit and an Evade with two pilot options. This has the potential to be the sneaky one of the pack, being the natural home of the Cloaking Device and probably the Collision Detector or Advanced Sensors. Two pilots also gives it a range of roles.

• The Hound’s Tooth “party bus” is as advertised, with Bossk the sole Pilot option. All of the known faces can make this a surprise packet and like the Falcon, it plays a few roles. This is a tough and toothy ship with the highest Shields, a wide angle primary and another Cannon option (as well as a potentially a re-usable Illicit slot i.e. Hot-Shot Blaster or Cargo Drop), which may help it keep it’s enemies to the front.

• Punishing One (as originally printed) is a beast. The only other turreted Primary other than the Falcon, it is also the only one that can take a Salvaged Droid (which are kept to 4 Generics) and Crew. With its odd manoeuvre dial and S-Loop, it actually has the most mamoeuvre choices in the game.

• IG-2000 and IG88A is the slowest ship in the game, but has the best action bar and Evade in the Scum faction the most green manoeuvres in the game and the rare and Scum limited S-Loop making it the Scum manoeuvre monster. It also has dual Cannons and Systems which can lead to some devastating combinations. The close Brawler of the game.

• Slave-1, with only Boba Fett, is versatile, brutal and tough, with the destincion of being the second dearest Scum ship in this game. Without Title still makes the Slave-1 a decent ordnance platform and like the other Scum ships, it is tricky and unpredictable.

The Scum generally build either a 2 ship “maxed out” squad or a 3 ship “Bare Bones” one. Either are tough, but 100 Pts, with only a single version of each ship tends to push them, so often 120pt sqauds are used (The Mist Hunter is the only ship that generally comes in under 35 pts). The Empire may take a single Merc in their squad, which really mixes things up, especially when they are pitted against a Scum squad.

Other Upgrades

No generic crew are available, just the faction specific ones, mostly named characters with a few thematically faction specifics like Gonk, System Officer etc (or who would Vader scare the S*#t out of?), which is not a real issue as the slots are limited.

I have 2 Lambda’s , but even then, there is always a left-over crew option and the Rebels can field a maximum of 4 in a squad so their relatively huge cast are always varied (especially with a few being shared Droid/Pilot options).

The Scum have a few Crew specific characters, but otherwise most share Pilot and Crew roles, but again, they rarely field more than 2-3 ships a game even if the Empire take their option of a single Merc in their squad.

• Cluster, Concussion and Cruise missiles are generic as available as are Plasma Torps, Auto-Blaster Cannons, Proximity mines and Thermal Detonators.

• The Empire get the toothy Heavy Laser Cannon for the Lambda and Homing Missiles for the Advanced.

• The Rebels get Advanced Proton Torps, Proton Rockets.

• The Scum get Flechette Torps, Seismic Charges and Mangler Cannons as “cheap and nasty” options. We had Ion weapons in the Rebel arsenal, but they added complication and too much advantage, but may be slotted back in.

• All Turrets are limited to the Y Wing and the Rebels get no Bombs.

It still amazes me, that even with over three quarters of the game stripped away and severe limitations imposed, there are near infinite options available. What has happenned of course is “lesser” upgrades, rarely used ships, Pilos and squad builds have been re-enabled, proving again that X Wing is a layered game, that does not change at it’s core when a different layer is used.

We have seen for a while now that the game has many faces, the “full noise”, all options applied one is only one and the one most likely to loose sight of the games’ elegance and strong roots.

Two Birds, One Savage Stone

Pathfinder.

Savage Worlds.

Both good systems and both, at one time or another, large parts of my RPG collection.

Both were also, for my uses, quite flawed so they are mostly gone now.

Think of them like two family friends you like, but never really mesh with on any level beyond distant admiration, positive here-say from other friends and the occassional gathering.

My massive 1e Pathfinder collection went to another gamer a few years ago. I liked it in a way, but knew I would never play it. Too much of too much, especially when I have never been a strong d20 advocate. As an E6 vehicle (D&D limited to 6th level characters, more in keeping with a true Tolkien inspired level of power and avoiding the issues of higher level play), it was intriguing, but by definition mostly a wasted resource, so it went in favour of my d100 games and the even more OTT, but far less crufty 13th Age.

Pathfinder to me was a light feeling game that was far from light. 13th Age manages to be lighter effortlessly and my collection of d100 games ranges from very lite to very heavy and realistic, but Pathfinder was to me, a brick laden faux-light experience.

Savage Worlds has held a much different place in my gaming life. I have never warmed to it, but have stayed open minded and until recently had a decent Explorers/Deluxe Edition collection. This went also in several drafts, but is now reduced to the new base book of the latest (slickest) SWADE edition, kept just in case.

I have an unscratched itch left over from my last SW collection. I liked, but failed to use the Sci Fi and Supers companions to do a Guardians of the Galaxy like mash-up. Maybe if they release improved and updated versions of these, I will try again.

Savage Worlds is basically the opposite of Pathfinder. Too light and gimmicky for me to be take seriously, but also too crunchy and abstract to be mindless fun, used as a foil to my d100 games, it was far too successful, being basically the opposite of what I like in most ways. I especially struggled with many of the SW themed games I had. Some were excellent fits, many near misses and some, just not a fit.

Solomon Kane for example, should have been (can be/is) a great theme for a d100 game based on CoC, Clockwork and Chivalry or Pendragon. It just fits those systems and more importantly the feel of these far better than the limited scope and gamey, abstract feel of SW.

I can play light games with d100, but still retain a logic and realism. Shifting to a more abstract platform is fine, as long as it delivers what it says it will, simplicity, fun and the right feel. In most cases SWs’ simplicity just seems overly abstract and mechanically obvious. To me, only pulpy supers-sci-fi and pulp-fantasy games fit it well and only some of those. Horror themes just seem to lack that brooding menace.

Achtung Cthulhu is a great example here. It came with both SW Deluxe and 6e CoC stats in every book, but I never felt like using the SW version. You cannot do pulpy as well with CoC, but the horror and real fear factor are largely lost with SW’s “cute” mechanics. All d100 games share one thing in common, a feeling of character fragility, which helps add menace to realistic horror themed games immensely.

What it does do though is provide a more lethal and unpredictable game than the regular d20 system.

So, why the sudden interest in Pathfinder for Savage Worlds?

If you take the undisputedly wonderful art and deeply fleshed out world that is the Pathfinder legacy, strip back the massive rules density, using the realitively slick and playful SW rules (the other game system that heroes all those polyhedral die), then you potentially have a match made in heaven.

SW gets its parameters defined and is relatively clean and lighter systemically, while Pathfinder gets a friendlier game engine using a clean core and flexibility instead of layers of detail.

I have received the PDF for the Advanced Players Guide and it is all there. The highly inspirational art, all the classic Pathfinder conventions and the genuine Savage Worlds feeling of playability that make such a super cohesive pair. A bit like 13th Age, this combination is over the top fun, rather than dense rules based on old school abstractions.

Where 13th Age takes the d20 system and candidly dumps all the bits gamers tend to house rule out of the way anyway, SW-Pf uses the SW system in much the same way and one I feel works best for pulp fantasy (Wayne Reynolds illustration style pulp). I still find it extrordinary that much of the Pathfinder 1e cruft is handled by such a simple system in a few undersized books.

Gone are all those levels, using only 5 tiers of play with 20 incremental advances (realistic, constrained and workable “levelling”). Like a d100 game it is largely skills based, quite lethal at any power level and very open in character development. There are classes, but they are more like career paths, not restricting life parameters and your character is not confined to them.

Like a d20 game, it uses simple abstractions to get some things done and still adheres to the feel of a levels style game. Unlike a d20 game, it feels light and casual.

It just feels like a perfect combination of the two systems strengths.

Would I buy Pathfinder again in another, d20 form?

No, that road has been taken and rejected. I have plenty of fantasy games that either feel better or do it’s job in a way that is more to my liking.

How about SW?

A very tentative maybe, but limited to just what works for the system for me. The afore mentioned Supers and Sci-Fi companions, maybe a pulpy game, but otherwise, just Pathfinder.

Many of the map packs from the adventure paths (not the adventures, just the maps), kept from my old Pathfinder set because you never know when a good map will come in handy. These are gold along with….

I also have a wealth of useful maps and other bits I kept when I sold the bulk of my d20 stuff.

I have the Pathfinder and 3-4e map packs, 4e card and paper battle maps and counters and some other fluff. This all fits perfectly into a Savage Worlds style Pathfinder game.

……….6 boxes of 4e character, monster and terrain counters, terrain panels, dozens of 3-4e small maps. Everything a hybrid SW-Pathfinder gamer could need.

I always wanted to like SW and Pathfinder for that matter, but cast them aside in favour of a semi-unified collection based on variations of the d100 core.

So, getting back to my analogy above, these two friends have started dating and guess what? Everyone now finds the pair of them much more likeable and approachable as a couple.

SW-PF allows me to dip a toe back into two old ideas at the same time with the salve each needs and all that collateral I have hoarded gets used……finally.

Attack Wing By The Generations pt2.

Now we come to the “Big guns”.

The later series' are split into two scale classes, “Skirmish” (Voyager and DS9) and “Battle” (TNG, Dominion war). This is for making sense of the highy exaggerated scales in these ranges and to show the quite different feel the two scales have. I just cannot handle the 890m Scimitar facing off against a 15m Delta flyer (the models are only about 1:10 apart) on the table. Even taking gaming abstractions into account, they just look ridiculous. Also, the two scales play differently so doing them separately seems right.

many upgrades can be often be used in either (though not always), so there is great depth of options.

TNG

Battle Scale

The Federation. This is a massive fleet coming in at over 300pts with generic ships. 3 Galaxy class, 1 Sovereign, 2 Nebula, the Promethius, 3 older Excelsiors, an Akira, Constellation and 2 Attack Fighter squadrons (as squadrons each). It goes without saying, there are a ton of upgrades as well with several Picards, Rikers etc and a ton of weapons and tech. Scale is a little vague here, especially with the Oberth and Akira, but they slip in-just, simply because of generally unclear actual size perceptions and their roles in the series. The Defiant, Voyager, Equinox however, do not. The little Constellation is great to add a feeling of scale.

Romulan/Reman. The amazing Scimitar, 3 fighter swarms (represent squadrons), 3 D’Deridex, 2 Valdore make for a tough fleet with a ton of upgrades. Hypothetical Reman control is one option, or as the enemy is another, or just fielding the regular Romulans is still pretty strong.

The Dominion allied fleet. The Jem’hadar have 3 battleships, 2 Battle cruisers, the Breen 3 Cruisers and the Cardassians 2 Keldons and 3 Galors, with a Dreadnaught and 3 fighter wings for depth. At a minimum of about 400 pts, even the full Federation fleet needs some help. If split up (Cardassian separate), they are each capable on their own and can give each other a scare. The little patrol ships are kept for the skirmish scale.

The Klingons are at thier strongest, if least interesting in this group. a single Negh’Var commands 4 Vor’Cha, 3-4 K’Vort (the big BoP), and a few D-7’s from the reserve if needed. Their full Klingon fleet is a match for the Romulan/Remans, close to the Feds and even the Borg.

The Borg. Coming in at 250 pts just for generic ships, seems a little under done when you are actually facing a Queen vessel, 3 Spheres, a Tac Cube, a Scout and the Soong vessel. Regeneration and Drones make for interesting tactical choices and this strong fleet is competitive against all comers with the exception of………

Species 8742. The Borg hate these guys, but my fleet of 4 Bioships is not strong enough to take them all on. Point for point though, these guys beat out the Borg as they are ideally suited to combat them and are another interesting option against the other fleets.

Ferengi. A late inclusion, I have three ships for this faction and the extra card pack. Maybe a minor, unreliable ally?

This is really the “big batlle” game, often played without damage cards (just hull hits) and with base ship types only for big fights. It ideally suits solo play using cards for activation sequence. Any single faction can be strong, several fleets allied are monstrous and a yet to be played head to head game (Borg and Dominion vs all comers?) is beaconing.

DS9/TNG

Skirmish

Apart from the Dominion war, much of DS9 was small scale and so are the ships. Many upgrades from this and the battle set can be shared, meaning upgrade options far outnumber the ships available.

Federation. The Federation get 2 Defiant class (unfortunately not the Valiant, but an ISS ring-in), the Robinson-possibly up to 3 captured ships, 2 Nova class, the dominant Intrepid class, Oberth, Akira and 2 Attack Fighters (as wings). The Oberth and Akira feel better scaled here, but either option works. Still the strongest fleet by far, they have variety and options.

Up to three of the patrol ships could be pressed into service as Feds.

Dominion. The Dominion fleet is a clutch of up to 4 patrol vessels and 3 Cardassian fighter squads. Solid, is the word here, not exciting. These guys also benefit from a huge backlog of characters from the larger scale.

Bajoran. The second biggest single faction, a Scout leads out 4 Interceptors and the Lightship. The last is a scenario driver, but adds some good upgrades and a little colour to the table.

Marquis. The Marquis can field 3 raiders which is barely competitive against the other factions, but their hit and run underdog status suits this. If the Voyager linked crew are used, they get even better.

Romulan/Reman. Combined, this is a decent swarm of 3 fighter flights with 4 scout/science ships and a few nasty tricks. I have fattened it up with some excess upgrades from the larger scale fleet.

A couple of a near endless supply of B’Rel BoP available (seems like most factions have one somewhere), The Romulans have managed to provide 4 (!) different paint jobs for their scout/science ship, but their scary little fighters are uniformly stealth-black. The Fegengi have another Shuttle coming and their own BoP.

The Ferengi. Not a huge fan of these guys and I felt scatterred personalities through the other factions and the Shuttle expansion could represent them well enough. In the “battle” scale game I felt it would have been hard to build up a competitive fleet and did not really want to, but at this scale, the shuttle is another good scenario driver and the upgrades in this one pack are legion! It has now been joined by a B’Rel and second shuttle.

Update; bought more mainly because in a brain fade moment I bought the expansion card pack (thought it was Vulcan!?) and because I already had a shuttle, I went looking for the Kreetcha to use it. I found a decently priced Ferengi boxed set (and the Kreetcha). I now have 2 Shuttles, 3 Marauders and a Bird of Prey with the extra card pack. So much for not wanting to do these guys!

Klingon. The smaller B’Rel BoP is a monster at this scale. Hitting as hard as the Intrepid class, moving like the Defiant, but much cheaper than either, which means the Klingon player can field a decent 100pt fleet with some depth and real punch.

Borg. Throwing the Borg in seems a bit much at this scale, but my single Tac cube as an oversized (correctly scaled?) scout, would put the wind up most of these fleets.

Species 8742. Same goes here. Two Bioships would be a match for most, and 4 could wipe the floor with even the full Fed list.

ISS. A theoretical 2-3 ship list (using Fed dials). Not sure here, but at least I picked up a second Defiant class.

Much smaller and cheaper fleets than the “Battle” option, this is a great scenario space and it has Sisko for the Feds, some of the Voyager crew as Marquis the rest potentially on the Voyager with Worf as a Klingon or Fed!

Voyager

Skirmish

Federation (aka Delta quadrant alliance). The Voyager on her own is a strong ship (always played as named), but fights with just her are predictable and single faceted, even with a ton of upgrade available. If some hypotheticals are applied, the Federation presence becomes a “motley fleet” dynamic, a little like Battlestar Galactica. The Delta Flyer (or two?), Dauntless taken on as an ally, a more open and honest Equinox, a repaired Val Jean, even a long lost D-7 Klingon, all offer possibilities to grow the fleet (The Voyager and any 2 others makes a good 100pt fleet).

The Delta fleet could theoretically be this big. More repainting of Kazons, probably the dull orange of the top right raider. Scaling is still an issue, but bearable.

Kazon. The poor Kazon, not even of interest to the Borg, can field 1 Predator and 3 raiders. This is actually pretty tough for a single dimensional fleet, giving the Kremin or Hirogens a run.

Hirogan. I have 4 hunters and the extra card expansion. The Hirogens are now a match for the Voyager fleet or even another allied ship.

The gorgeous Hyrogen wins the “most fragile” award. Just after I glued on a wing spar for this shoot, I noticed another had lost a top bracket. Still nice though. The Kremin have two ships for depth and they came with two captains. A token Sp 8742 ship is harbinger of a full fleet of 4 if wanted.

Kremin. I bought 2 time ships to make them a viable faction and make the most of the two captains. Not yet put them through their paces, but interesting potential and cool models. You can just squeak a 90pt fleet out of them.

Species 8742 gets a special mention here as this is their origin series. Two make for a tough match up for most and 4 are probably too much even for the full hypothetical Fed fleet. They can take on the Borg though with the same dynamic as the TNG “battle” set, so some type of big battle game is possible.

The Borg are fully developed and to some extent de-clawed/mystified in Voyager. Even a little bit is still too much for Voyager alone, but with the Delta Flyer or another ally, a single Sphere can be beaten. Used sparingly, they are once again the “big bad” of the Delta Quadrant and scenario options are many.

Another favourite and the ships are generally well scaled and presented. The Vidiians were avoided (not a fan), but otherwise the Delta Quadrant is a full and lethal environment. 100pt squads usually top out your options, but then again, Klingons and Romulans are present in small numbers, even the Dominion might have a look in.

Attack Wing By The Generations Part 1.

My Attack Wing collection, rather than shrinking, is growing with the bargains available at the moment. This is it for the game I feel. Wizkids are releasing their boxed sets, but most are simply rehashing old ships with new cards and annoyingly new paint jobs (pick one and stick to it guys!). Expensive way to continue for someone with a decent set now and they are selling through quickly, seemingly never to return.

Looking at the periods and scale mix limits I have imposed on the ships I have, the question has to be I guess, can they stand on their own or are they a little too thin to be viable. The reality that quickly becomes apparent is, each period needs a fully evolved fleet with as many options as you can find to fill them out. One of each ship will often not make the grade here. I am a great fan of the depth of AW for one on one ship battles, but this is by no means Star Fleet Battles. One on one fights quickly grow tiresome, so 100pt fleets minimum need to be addressed. In the earlier periods, this is often not as easy as it looks. It takes 5 Tholian vessels to get even close to that figure.

Lets see what I have to offer. My collection is not exhaustive, because I was slack or unaware and missed some.

The first, because it has to be, is;

The original TV series or TOS

The Federation has up to 4 Constitution class ships (1 is the ISS Enterprise, but they can be played either way), the famous crew and several support cast. The ships are physically small but powerful, the upgrades even more so and the crew dominates as they should. This period has some very powerful elite talents, good enough to warrant the purchase of the relatively weak ship for tournament play, but when limited to their own universe, they are real game breakers. The Federation seem to be the strongest and most advanced, not the soft or defensive minded option like later periods.

The Gorn. I have 4 Gorn ships and the extra card pack. The ship is cheap enough (especially if you accept the adjusted point values in the Gorn card expansion) and it is not rubbish with the best shields in TOS at 3 and 3 attack and the array of upgrades rivals the Federation.

The Tholians have 5 ships for balance and it seems to fit. Webs are a pain to play against in most periods, especially in scenario games, but in TOS they are brutal. Five ships weaving webs in this set are a bit like playing against an electrified Chinese puzzle, as long as there is a point and a plan to it.

The Klingons also have 4 ships, all D-7’s. The old enemy are here in force. Sans ridges and roughness, they are a wall of simple but tough aggression, if maybe a little more cunning and quaint than later on.

I have some re-painting to do, getting a few D-7’s into dull grey for the Klingons (or lighter grey for the Roms) and the two Constitution class into off white, but the Romulans are covered.

The Romulans have 5 ships, with the nasty oddity that is a cloaking Klingon D-7 (x2) and their own Bird of Prey (3). Because of the hard limit of 4 actions for any ship, they are less battle oriented, but are tricky and complicated, and they do pack the Plasma torpedo. They are as mysterious and dangerous as they were in the shows. The Romulan D-7 is arguably the Federations’ biggest threat if well used.

The ISS can have two ships and their upgrades can be wild cards in a game where the enemy is expecting squeaky clean Feds. Maybe 2 Feds vs 2 ISS would be interesting, with some allies for fun.

With the exception of the ISS, each faction can play a balanced 80-100pt list and each has their defined “thing”. If only generic ships are used, there are enough to spread a selection of their upgrades through a fleet, but if named ships are used, pretty much all the upgrade options can be used and squads reach closer to 100-120 pts. Even allied fleets can be fielded for less than 200pts.

The Original Movies or TOM

This hasless width in factions, but is deeper within them, pitting the Federation against only Khan and the Klingons with D-7’s and Birds of Prey. The Klingons now have cloaking and Khan could conceivably be fielded on any ship and take on, or ally with, either enemy. This set screams scenario play to me.

The Federation has more choice here. The Excelsior class (3), refit or original Constitution (3), a Miranda, Constellation and an Oberth (The Oberth card expansion back-dates the ship to the periods’ Grissom).

The Klingons, now with cloaking, can take on the roles of both the Romulans and their brutal, war-like selves with a choice of newer Birds of Prey and older but slighly better than the previous K’T’inga D-7’s. With cloaking they are tricky and mean and they have the hardest hitting ships. This is where the Klingon theme of fragile, but agile and “toothy” ships starts to show through.

Khan Sing. Hypotheticals abound here. What if Khan captured an Excelsior class or a BoP? Changs’ BoP with Khan at the helm and torpedoes while cloaked? He can even fight Klingons or what about Khan on the Enterprise vs Kirk on the Miranda? Fun times. In the non-tournament world, this is a rare case of acceptable cross-polinating*.

For this period, a few other elite upgrades have been added from the TOS and later (from a huge surplus) and the house rule of all upgrades are hidden until used. This adds back in the cat-and-mouse feel of the movies and beef’s up the slender games. I also like the multiple card captain/crew “flip” option like the Kelvin set and even the “buy them as you use them” upgrade point pool house rule.

Enterprise

One of my favourites, which like lovers of Voyager puts me in a minority, this period brings us a range of early antagonists, some flavourful, emerging favourites and the Xindi as a whole universe of hurt. The ships are generally well scaled, look great and are factionally flavoured. None are super fast, but agility is high and lower point costs balance these generally weaker ships offensively and defensively.

Terran (not the Federation yet). Three ships (1 ISS version). I am not a huge fan of the choices Wizkids made, such as obvious captain choices missed, but there is enough to crew all three ships for early fleet actions. A lack of shields is off-set by top of the period agility and some awesome crew. Their role is quite different to the TOS dynamic. The NX curiously has the same base stats as an X Wing Tie fighter (2-3-3-0) even with a similar dial (except speed, but even better turns), but unlike the Tie it can take a huge array of upgrades, especially as the Enterprise, which make for a different style of game and unique Fed style ship. I would assume, three Tie Fighters would be needed to beat the fully crewed Enterprise.

I do have two more of the bigger Vulcan ships coming, but I think these may be used as alternate, later period Vulcans for the TOS set (reasonable?), as they unbalance my fleet and are guess what….. painted differently.

Andorian. Two cruisers makes for a decent showing, three would have been better (Motley Fleet expansion would be ideal, but all gone). Stronger individually than the Terrans, the Andorian ships make useful allies or lethal enemies.

Vulcan. The Vulcans get 4 ships and the strongest single fleet outside of the combined Xindi, with 2 smaller Suurok and 2 (or 4) bigger D’Kyr. As tough as the Andorians, the Vulcans fatten out an allied fleet against the Xindi or can take on any others in the period on their own.

Xindi. I missed the Weapon Zero expansion, but have 2 Reptilian, 3 Insectoid and 2 Aquatic ships, which makes for a powerful and varied fleet (with the Aquatic standing out as the one really poorly scaled ship in this range, more a fish bowl than a lake). Hypothetically, they can also fight amongst themselves, but either way, they add the bulk the period needs and each feels quite different to the others.

No Weapon Zero, but still a match for any other allied faction.

Romulans. My fleet for the mysterious early Romulans is actually quite big. Two Drones with card expansion (like the show) and 2 BoP, again, like the show. Drones take the prize as the best ships made by Wizkids and it is a truly scary beast. Competitive even in later periods, it is just a harbinger of doom in this period. The upgrades available are many and the fleet, if fielded all at once, is very tough. Early Cloaking, Drone manoeuvring and good captains mean this small fleet can even give the Xindi a scare.

Decent fleets, lots of diversity for the Romulans, but a bit thin for the Klingons.

Klingons. Like the Romulans, the Klingons probably get a bigger fleet than their very occassional appearances in the series deserve, but after picking up the bonus card expansion, it became possible to field 4 ships with a choice of applications. They are also dirt cheap and relatively weak, so several are needed to make a decent showing.

ISS. The mirror universe can be fielded with all three NX ships if Terran dials and a base token are used, so a full “we hate the universe” alternative game is possible. Archer vs Archer is also tempting, maybe with alternate allied fleets or Borg/8742/Tholians (as was). Either way, a little fun. The mirrior universe fleets are often a bit of a waste as they are never fleshed out (and often can’t be), but they are a good way of getting some card variety, scenario ideas and cheap ships (they are universally unpopular, so are ofetn on clearance) and I usually throw in a few other MU upgrades just for fun.

Hypotheticals. Technically the Tholians did make an appearance, but in the ISS universe. That aside, I find it very plausible to let the time travelling Borg, Dimension traversing Species 8472 and the enigmatic Tholians into this period. The Tholians can field their whole 5 ship fleet, the others should be limited to single ship “first contact” scenarios, or small representative fleets against entire allied fleets, but as a decent replacement to the Weapon Zero option, my single Borg Tac Cube or even a single sphere can be a “Weapon Zero” like fleet killer.

Kelvin Timeline

This is a tough one.

2 Federation ships, 2 Klingons with mostly hypothetical crew, the options are limited, but if you like the new movies (I do) and the massive, gorgeous ships (I do) and the double sided cards (I do and have house ruled multi purchases of various crew and captains to be used similarly), then there is some hope.

I have added to the upgrade options just a little, to help with depth and a little cross-over theming. A good introductory game option. Like the Enterprise series, I wish they would add a little more to this (The Romulan mining vessel as a huge ship, Kralls’ mining drone ships, the massive Vengence and a Khan option, maybe even the little Klingon patrol ships), but I doubt there will be anything coming and to honest even as I write this I cannot see many realistically balanced scenarios playing out.

A Kelvin Enterprise vs Borg campaign might be fun.

*In a faction limited environment, chances to share, on a very limited basis, Captains or upgrades in non-canon combinations is limited, but in some scenarios, allied fleets may share, such as Terran-Andorian and Terran-Vulcan vs Xindi, Federation-Romulan-Klingon in the Dominion War etc.

A Good Game Deserves....... A Good Game

We caught up with friends of ours the other week and had a great game of “Cartographer”. The game was partly print and play and partly home made as the PnP is not complete.

Lots of fun and seeing as the actual game has hand-drawn mapping as the theme, a PnP version changed little.

I felt in the mood for another board game, one that was in my realm of interest, but also very play-able for others.

Two that have been circling for a while are Star Wars Rebellion and The Battle of Five Armies.

Rebellion is a long game and one that needs two reasonably well versed players, but I have heard great things about it. Nick, a gaming friend of huge proportions (in games, not girth….), said after two games, both had come down to the last turn. Rare and precious that.

TBoFA on the other hand is a smaller, shorter game, one I wanted from day one, but when I discovered it, it was long out of print.

Well, it is back and today I will be getting a copy.

The smaller, more tactical cousin of the War of the Ring, I like the theming, scale and time commitment more, so it was a no-brainer. I also like the reviews that pointed out some small refinements were made and the game has deeper combat mechanics.

Painting is the thing that often brings me down with games like this. I find it hard to love a game with nicely done figs, that are unsightly bright red, blue or green*, but on the other hand, I am still only half way through painting Zombicide, so another 100+ figures does not appeal.

Cunning plan.

I think I may try a metallic look for the figs. The “good” side can be silver based, with bright silver for heroes, down to dull metallic-tin for minor players, the baddies can be more dirty-copper-bronze-brass, all with a wash to look like metal collectibles, that should match well with the board graphics and theme. This means the whole lot can be done in a day! If I then want to go further, I can add what is needed to this base cote of metallics.

Not sure till I see it, but it is a plan!

ed. On arrival I am torn. The figs are gorgeous, well moulded and proportioned coming in at about 20mm head to foot (claw), but I think I will still do this, as following through with more detail would be even easier.

*My copy of Cthulhu Pandemic and some of Zombicide are done, Batman Talisman is on the list and my Armada fighters are started, but far from finished. I tend to shy away from games with nice figs if I can because of this, but sometimes my resolve breaks down.

ACTA:SF Rises To The Top (With Help)

It looks like ACTA:SF is the favoured option (until the FASA game comes anyway).

The yellow one, front right. Crummy image taken to sell the lot, but thankfully I did not.

What I Like;

• Dilithium chambers are mentioned. ADB filled a lot of holes as needed early on and had little to work with, but some things are just mandatory.

• The game is not purely energy allocation based, but has “orders” which do a good job of folding in energy and other actions without tracking and feels a lot more Trek to me. This seems more Kirk on the bridge than energy accountant.

• It uses minis on a table, but can use counters on a map or a combo of either.

• It is flexible and has room for changes, unlike many of the other ADB games that rely on printed resources and are structured around inflexible mechanics that generally lack a looseness that is needed. These I will play as they come, ACTA feels less fixed in stone.

• The movement rules are more straight forward and intuitive.

But;

• The rules are a hot mess. Specialist functions and terminology are scatterred around the book, seemingly unlinked to their subject matter and the index is not as helpful as it could be. There’s not a lot to the rules, but they still take some wrangling. I have 17 (!) post-it tabs and dozens of hand written notes in my copy and still cannot find some things when needed. You tend to come across a refence to something you were not aware of, back-track to find the rule, give up in frustration, then stumble over it somewhere else.

• Things are still more SFU than Trek canon. For example Drones will be dropped from most factions, reserved for Kzinti and/or maybe Gorn. This adherence to the SFU is not unexpected, but I have several games that are linked to it and this is the one that can shift easily enough.

Fixes;

• A single well organised weapons table*, even a faction specific one, can absorb about 90% of the key word exceptions. “Accurate”, “Energy Bleed”, “Devastating”, “Multiple Damage” etc are all just overly wordy descriptions for simple mods found not in the combat section, but under “Special Traits”. Some ships can have a half dozen of these and sure they add flavour, but they also clag up the works (why the ship rosters don’t just have pre-modified weapon stats is an oversight easily fixed). When I first gave this game a go back in the day, my opponent and I spent the bulk of the game searching for and applying mods that more often than not netted a big fat “0”. It will also drop some redundency because it seems most weapons have “Accuracy”, so the exceptions are the rule If the designers just shifted the “To Hit” value down one, this entire mod would often be unnecessary. I understand the +/- of mods can stretch past the maximum and minimum range, but this is rare enough to be ignored or these can be the exceptions.

• Another unified table of orders, movement and other bits* will effectively make the rules book redundant after the first read. A good table can never be under estimated as a practical resource and this accounts for the other 10% of exceptions. When making my own games I often start here, fleshing out the game in reverse. basically, if the charts are useless and the numbers don’t match up, then there is no point in going further and a good chart or charts should be all you need after a few games.

It turns out everything needed will fit on a single double sided sheet (I will do one for each faction). How hard would it have been to include that and make the whole game vastly easier to pick up and play? The games’ core is clean and simple, but the application of exceptions is excessive when often the paragraph of words represent a simple +/- mod.

• Change some ship stats to make the ships less warlike (reduce weaponry). The SFU is a war game in a warlike universe. I want to wind this back a tad to allow for more “Kzinti and mouse” tactics, where a clever captian of a small ship does not get creamed in the first exchange by a bigger ship. This will also allow me to reduce the number or ship variations andm increase the spread between them.

• Simplify the facing rules to four, 90 degree angles (F/S/P/A), using square bases, which allow for Fed Comm 1” counters on a smaller mat as a travel or large fleet version and re-align the weapon facings to fit these. I can also use Attack Wing ships on their supplied bases. This will generally simplify measurements and movement gauges.

• Expand the orders mechanic and choices to include repairing of systems taken off-line etc and add in some faction specific tactics to add flavour and depth (ala Attack Wing).

• Add in Kzinti gunboats (fighters) because I “mistakenly” bought a carrier :). Basically these will be armed shuttles or small police-like ships.

• Change the messy and random “Boost Energy To Shields” order and tracking to a replacement of lost shields (possibly a fixed number if the core is on line) up to the current maximum, because shields could recover, but there must be limitations imposed like slower speed, no other special maneouvres or energy weapon fire etc.

• I will add in shield emitter damage by facing, effectively giving the game shield “facings” without having to use four different facing tracks. This is a system on/off line or emitter destruction.

• Change the crew tests to 2d6, so they are not so twitchy.

• The crit table with have a “7” column, so the more lethal weapons have a truly devasting option (which was the 6 column), but removing them from lesser weapon crit ranges. Removing the “tiny ship blew up my Dreadnaught” with a lucky roll. The table will also have some changes of effect and a smoother spread with multiple effects per entry. Precise will also be a shift on the crit table, which is closer to “Target X”.

• Toss the book. Just kidding, no but really, when your done…..toss the book.

*The second path was to just do a set of charts with all terms consolidated, but that still required qualifications that amounted to re-wording and repeating much of the book.

Star Trek Games Stocktake

Not despatched yet, but assuming it is, I have a new Star Trek game coming, it is probably time to look at my options and what this means and see how they pass the “Miranda test” (how well they can do the battle in Wrath of Khan).

Attack Wing

This covers nearly every Star Trek franchise apart from Discovery/Strange New Worlds, but that is fine as I do not count Discovery as a thing and Strange New Worlds is basically TOS.

The game play is thematic if a little simplified, but to give it it’s due, this mechanic also powers X Wing and both have had world championship level tournaments, so it is clearly a thing.

Miranda Test; Quite well with some house rules, but can be predictable without these if you stick to only the actual options available. My house rule is to allow the respective captains to take all their possible upgrades (one Captian, one maximum of each other), but be limited to a points pool for what they can choose in a single game. This means all crew, elite and weapon choices are available, but not all at once.

Star Fleet Battles

I have the basic rules, probably will never play them, but they are there. This is the polar opposite to AW. Deep, very deep, rewarding players who delve into tomes of rules and master their fictional space ships to a level second only to their make believe avatars. A lifestyle choice for some and a tiny bit of me gets it, but no time for just one game in my life and who would play it with me?

Miranda Test; Ok tactically, except the actual ships and their capabilities need to change to match the movie.

Many options, but all limited in some form or other.

Federation Commander

SFB “modernised”. Enough for many, too much for some and not enough for others, FC has the un-enviable job of drawing in new players, keeping and converting old ones and generally flying the flag for a niche within a niche a niche. I like it, but still find it a little clunky for my tastes. Energy management is the key as with many Trek games. This has been supported by way too much support materiel, but thankfully, it has other uses.

Miranda Test; As above, but less involved for better or worse.

A Call To Arms Star Fleet

I must admit I am torn with this one. I only have the first book, but I have the metal minis to cover it nearly perfectly (basiclly the same as the first sets of Fed Comm). This uses minis on an open mat, but can be done with counters and/or hexes. The book itself does my head in. So many hard roads and odd oversights when easier ones could have been taken, but it is a vastly simplified and nicely thematic version of FC’s universe. I like this as a WW2 ship combat game, but the ADB processes are clumsily applied with mods negating other mods, when each ship could simply have a better stat sheet designed with mods built in.

Miranda Test; Better than the other SFB based games, but still needs a replacement Miranda.

Starmada Engine

A generic system, like ACTA, properly converted but not as cleanly done. The rules come in the generic form, then you apply the exceptions. If you are only interested in the Trek version, this seems to be a lot of double dipping including changes of terminology you jus learned (Shields > Screens > Shields), but the play can be fast and decisive even with squadrons a side. If you want to go even bigger, I have Fleet Ops, but this has zero conversions, so you need to go from scratch (as does everyone else I guess), which is ironically easier than the learn/unlearn dynamic of Starmada. I intend to re-write the rules for Trek only, learning as I go and having a better share-able resource at the same time. This will also allow me to try some later periods.

Miranda Test; Poor. Not granular enough, needs substitute Miranda and has some non-Trek feeling mechanics.

FASA Star Trek Tactical Simulatior

From their RPG and seamlessly compatible, this is often compared to SFB, coming from the same period, sharing the same style of energy allocation system, but with much simpler mechanics and thanks to a short lived but comprehensive licence, it stick closer to true Trek. The community is active and capable and includes some updates through to the latest movies, so for a more Trek style game, this one kicks goals. I can also do this with AW ships.

Miranda Test; Good to perfect from the ships to the play. This is close to post TOS Trek reality and the RPG element could even add more in.

M-Space

An RPG that has a very flexible ship design system, this one could work, using the above for info.

Miranda Test; Potentially excellent I guess, but specifics will have to be taken on face value.

Star Trek Adventures

The elephant in the room is the newer Star Trek RPG. I am curious how this handles ship battles just as a tactical game. A big commitment if it is too RPG reliant and not an area I am keen to go into.

*

Overall I have saturated this genre, but have I actually got what I want?

Can I do Star Trek with the feeling of the genre (AW, ACTA, FASA) and tactical depth to make it absorbing (FC, FASA) and play larger games (Starmada, ACTA)? My hope is to either clean up ACTA or hopefully when the FASA game arrives use that as my primary.

FC also has some house rules that slightly streamline play and you can drop non canon Drones and other bits to stream line play (although some factions would whither on the vine).

Starmada went from a front liner to a reserve with the doubling up of learning the game, then unlearning many aspects and terminology to suit Trek, still no idea why.

I am also looking at a home made game using the bits I like from each, but that is in line with lots of other projects and flies in the face of all this work done by others.

The Sales And Tidying Up Loose Ends

X wing 1e, Malifaux 1 and 2e, Attack Wing, Armada, are all in run-out mode with most suppliers. Pickings are slim, but the prices are tempting.

I have been grabbing those things that are nice to add, but not justifiable at full price, like another AW USS Robinson so it can be represented separately and fight the squadron of 3 Jem H’adar Raiders I can field.

Ships like the Bajoran Light Ship, Ferengi Shuttle, a fourth Hirogen Hunter, two more Klingon Raptors for Enterprise, to balance points or add interest, then a mass of bits from others just to get them while they are around (16 ships in total and 2 card boosters for about $200au). I am not as interested in the later sets because they have changed the paint jobs (again), so to me they are just expensive card packs.

Also my lust for 1e Malifaux figs is far from exhausted, although the choices seem to nearly be. I have managed to get the whole 2e landscape of cards and rules to support my figures, but i have a feeling, they will end up being pressed into my own game.

A recent find and on my long term wish list was Klingon Attack for Fed Commander. This is one of the “big four” box sets. Annoyingly hard to get for a long time due apparently to a lack of hard board cutting facilities. I have most of the ships from booster packs, but the maps, scenarios and some extras for depth are always welcome.

When grabbing this from Noble Knight, I picked up Legend RPG Gladiators, the one theme book missed. I actually wanted Invictus for CoC for Rome, with Mythras Rome as a support source, but Gladiators completes the set and will add lots of useful detail to a Legend sandbox. I also have a three era suppliment for some ancient Cthulhu love (hate?).

Just grabbed a copy of the FASA Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator, 2003 edition. It’s used and the box is quite worn but the game itself nearly all unpunched. This was expensive in a way, but not much dearer than buying it new now and it is a well respected take on the more traditional TOS and later periods. I was surprised how well supported this game is even now and it ties into their RPG seemlessly.

Unlike ADB Trek games, this one is tied more closely to canon Trek.

Not bad for such an old game.

Fun stuff, with slightly mixed feelings as I have come to realise most of my favourite games are falling off the radar. Still good games worth playing then, are worth playing now, but the industry seems to have become more fickle and transient lately, always moving to the next big thing. Friends are into Crisis Protocol and similar, but I will stick with past projects until they are exhausted, as much to save money and get off the “hamster wheel”.

The Home Brew RPG Continues To Evolve

The core of my RPG is evolving naturally. It feels good.

I had a close call with (horror of horrors) a 3d6 roll over variant, simply to reduce the math, and this is still lurking as an option, but otherwise, all is on track.

The characteristic tree is something I have been playing with for what seems like an eternity, but is finally stable and seems pretty bullet proof. This is a re-hash of an earlier article, just a little more settled.

These are not necessarily locked in as the one option for the core of each skill, but more a test type option. Firearms for example may have several applications such as Reflexes for quick draw, Wisdom for interpreting danger posed by a weapon in a situation or Perception for determining it’s condition or preciousness, Prowess for auto fire and Balance for aimed fire.

Using the basis of 2x chrs as the “familiar” or “basic training” base level of all tests, they roll out like this.

Paired in connected opposites;

Strength/Dexterity. Gross force and fine motor skills.

Endurance/Agilty. Physical conditioning and build, also indicating health and stature.

Reason/Intuition. Logic and instinct based mental prowess.

Will/Presence. Personality and character.

From here, at the leisure of the players or as needed (and in obscurity if needed by the GM) are the following groupings. More can be used as desired, but these are the logical and therefore most common ones.

First up, the pures (2x the primary above);

2x Str = Might. Strength, pure, brute strength for things that do not move easily.

2x Dex = Manipulation. Fine motor skills for fiddly things.

2x End = Stamina. Pure physical endurance. This is expected to be a fairly dynamic attribute as fitness and health change.

2x Agl = Flexibility. General elasticity, again quite dynamic.

2x Rsn = Wisdom. Analytical thought, no emotions invited.

2x Int = Instinct. The opposite of above, a “thin” stat for some games and even some players. This may get a re-name in some games, like Luck or if the skill spread does not fit (a bit like Power in most d100 games).

2x Will = Discipline. Like Stamina and Wisdom, this is rigid resolve without flexibility.

2x Pre = Charisma. Unfettered outward projection of personality. It may or may not mask a lack of personal depth, with surface veneer of impressiveness.

*

ok, now lets look at combining these within their matched pairs (Str+Dex, Rsn + Int etc). These are important and often compromised as the generation system is a sharing of random die between the two, so unless unusually lucky, the average character will wind up average here.

Str + Dex = Control. This is the combining of gross and fine motor skills. An example may be the focussed lethal strike of a master martial artist or the thrusting of a weapon into a precise location with force.

Agl + End = Conditioning. The overall finess and healthiness of the character. Both these chrs are quite dynamic, being effected by life style effort and age, so this one will change a lot.

Rsn + Int = Perception. A characters ability to notice and interpret the world around them. This juggling match is what defines a persons’ awareness (which was an optional title).

Wil + Pre = Passion. If Will and a projection of self are combined, they are interpreted as a passion for a task or sometimes aggression if the situation fits. Immersive acting, artistic obsession or charismatic leadership come to mind.

*

Now, we mix the pairs of chrs from the physical or non-physical groups. These are some of my favourite combos and cover a few of the core attributes from many other systems.

End + Str = Constitution. This regular in gaming is better represented I feel as a combined attribute.

Str + Agl = Prowess. This is a chr I have often used in smaller spreads to represent all things physical, but the mix of strength and agility is a better defined thing. This separates the more skillful Conan for the Brutish thug.

Agl + Dex = Coordination. Combining the bodies overall flexibility with fine motor skills. This is often ust covered by Dex as Con covers overall robustness, but I feel it falls short with characters like adroit gamers, not in the best of health or Olympic acrobats who are a little clumsy and ham fisted.

Rsn + Will = Concentration. Mental focus and application. Just one or the other falls short of this chr, both are needed to make it work.

Rsn + Pre = Persuasion. Talking people into things can take some charisma, but also needs some smarts.

Pre + Int = Empathy. The softest and most flexible of mental attibutes, Empathy covers emotional connections with other living creatures, but may also include artistic appreciation and a sixth sense for things.

*

Now for some common combinations that are a mix of physical and mental attributes, but may at first seen ounter intuitive. Lets see what comes from them. Each chr is represented twice, but others are likely possible.

Rsn + Str = Leverage. The application of brute strength intelligently.

Int + Dex = Reflexes. Instinct and hand speed. This is probably a common one in combat based campaigns.

Wil + Str = Tenacity. Strength aplied with that less obvious perconal grit that often splits the try-hards from the winners in tests of strength.

Pre + Dex = Finesse. An odd one maybe, but a representation of the smooth confidence and skill someone can exibit when performing some hand based tasks that require a little something to impress or confuse, like a sleight of hand magician, thief, grafter, seductress or cocky cocktail bar tender.

Rsn + End = Determination. Sticking to a task, staying physically alert, resisting distractions or temptations to achieve a specific task. May come in handy in an already crowded field.

Will + End = Resilience. Different to Tenacity which is an application of strength, or Determination which is more about choosing to apply one’s logical self pro-actively, this is more about passive resistance to physical stresses and discomfort, as well as healing and restraint. I guess the easiest way to look at it is, an unconsciuos person could test their inner Resilience, where Determination requires active thought.

Int + Agl = Balance. A crucial one for many acrobatic tasks Balance combines the physical and instictive self for Balanced skill and general calmness. It will be a staple for weapons handling, acrobatics, jumping etc.

Agl + Pre = Poise. Like Finesse, but more athletic, Poise is the skill a character moves with, their Deportment, also eluding to the characters’ physical stature and build. Like Finesse, this is more about impressing others with actions than the actual practical result of the action which brings to mind a secondary or combined test process (did it, but well enough to impress?). Again like Dex vs Agl, Poise vs Grace can be extremely different to each other due to physical considerations.

Balance, Finesse, Poise, Coordination? All in the story telling.

This is the core of the system in action.

Determine the test needed, the skill and the chrs that are applicable and test. Skills are generalised (like General Practice Medicine), tests more specificly aligned to personal abilites, which I hope will result in a more realistic system. Unlike a lot of RPG’s characters will be less defined, more maleable and careers less about specific skills, more about their application.

Example;

Determine if the rope will suffice for a tight-rope style negotiation of an alley;

Acrobatics or climbing and Perception.

Use the rope to cross the gap;

Same skills and Balance.

React to a fired arrow while doing the above;

Dodge and Reflexes.

Regain balance after dodging the arrow;

Acrobatics or climbing and Balance.

Do it with some panache;

Acrobatics and finesse

If any failed attempt, test to grab the rope or other option, or land well.

Acrobatics or climbing and Prowess.

One reason I was tempted to switch to a 3d6 roll over system was simply to reduce the math invlved. Simple +/- values are quick to add up, but the system overall lacked the smooth d100 simplicity, but I will still continue to look at this.

X Wing 2e, A New Hope?

AMG have effectively scrapped the Armada game (except they did reprint the Raider allowing me to complete my set!), but they do seem to be interested enough in the X Wing game to keep working on it. Realistically, X Wing is on the decline. For example of the two main stream games shops in Hobart I visited this week, only one actually stocked anything and that was not front and centre.

With fresh eyes, the game is being changed fairly dramatically at its roots and apart from the resentful sniping of the early weeks, things seem to be starting to be accepted.

ROAD (Random initiative Order After Dial selection) has its good and bad points, but every argument against it seems to highlight dissatisfaction with the current system or the bulk of the alternatives.

Constant discussion keeps the game in the minds of the gaming community, but too much and it may seem unfixable….again.

My take, for what it is worth.

I really, really like the 20 point squads with limited loadouts. This brings the game back into the same place for me as 1e’s simpler form, simpler even, which is something I can accept for casual and tournament games. If anything, it seems to be the more logical way of representing the specifc pilots within the system and a perfect balance between the “quick pick” cards and the 1e points dynamic.

I even made a 1/5th scale point system myself, but this was rudimentary, time consuming and not ideal. This should also reduce constant micro managing of points lists, while still leaving room to correct unforseen “super” builds. The previous system seems in retrospect like trying to control a car by only using the accelerator, the new one is more gas and breaks together.

Scenarios are more in line with my play style, but time will tell. More scenarios would be cool, but I understand the balance that has to be struck.

Play has been changed with new obstacle rules, so good flying is more important than ever. Less predictability equals fairer play, less funnelling of builds into “one fits all” and allows the game mechanic itself to add variety, without having to add more and more ships into the mix.

Change the field and you change the team.

As to the new rules for bumping etc, I cannot really comment as I am no expert. They seem to be well intentioned, but I worry AMG is re-learning the lessons their predecessors learned, going down the rabbit hole, maybe never to come back. KISS principal is probably the best way here.

Love them to death in 1e, but 2e has its own appeal.

Crabbok on his YouTube channel has pointed out that overall, the changes seem at odds with the companies statement to “take the game back to it’s roots”, but aside from that specific complaint, I feel the changes are mostly good.

Overall, the desire to fix and change is mostly good and seems to be addressing the communities spoken and sometimes unspoken desires.

*

On another note, I may be dipping my toe into the earlier period of X Wing. I cannot and will not force myself to go down the Clone Wars road entirely (although with my time over, I would have instead of the curtailed Armada route!), but I have intentions of collecting all the ships with Scum connections.

This allows me to cover all the in-fighting through the entire scope of the Star Wars saga, without having to field the main players and lets face it, the rogues are where the fun lies. I can have the Razor Crest, the Rogue fighter and others and they can all basically fight each other. Outer Rim, X Wing style if you will.

Few other ships are appealing, although I will keep getting new TFA era ships as I am only doing these only in 2e as representatives of the best mechanics, coverage and in turn these are I feel the better factions to call these out, but Scum keep adding in names and ships with a fun element I would like to tap and time in this space is less defined.

Attack Wing Reversal, Dreadful Pennies And Lucky Finds.

The bulk of my Attack Wing collection was up for sale recently and if it were not for distance and freighting the large collection, it would have gone, but I did suffer some regrets when packing it up.

I was splitting out a decent little Delta Quadrant and Enterprise era set, neither wanted by the buyer. This would be seeded with some hypotheticals and variants (Species 8472, Tholian and Borg who tend to get everywhere) and as much of their own stuff as I had along with any duplicate mission or upgrade cards not needed in the sold portion.

Like a lot of things, I got the jitters about selling it so cheaply, but more than that, I started to actually fall back into full fan mode.

Yesterday I managed to pick up a few ships that have been only mildly desirable until now, but with sale prices about, it was time to go forwards, not backwards. These were all about $10au.

The Donerios Lightship, a scenario driver and source of some decent Bajoran upgrades. This is it for Bajor, a major player in DS9.

Quarks Treasure. Another scenario driver, a small, but usefull representative of the Ferengi and their role in the game. Not my favorite faction, but this ship fits into the game nicely for me and effectively covers these nasty little guys.

These two add variety to my skirmish scale DS9/TNG set.

Another Nistrim Raider. This makes three raiders, which in the relatively lethal Delta Quadrant, is reasonable and brings the Kazon closer to the same level as the other factions.

ISS Avenger. A third NX, but with a twist. These guys are the ones who encountered the Tholians, so it fits and the chance of playing three regular or two mirror NX’s is tempting.

If I could get them, the Montgolfier and Valiant would also be good, both for the skirmish level game, but I think these are now long gone.

Maybe not now travelling back to an empty Quadrant?

*

Following on in the sale period of bargains, my wife and I hit the stores in Hobart and I picked up 4 of the 7 wave 1 Malifaux 2e arsenal packs, the rules, a Penny Dreadful, 2 sets of Shifting Loyalties campaign pack and 2 of the wave 2 packs for $3 each! Best $30 I have ever spent and full retail came in at about $300au.

My figs are 1e and I intended to re-purpose them, but the 2e system and cards appeal and now I have an official upgrade from 1e. The rules and suppliments are free on the Wyrd website, but for $3, the cards are cheaper than printing the book pages on plain paper and cutting them out! I then spent a little too much at Noble Knight on the missing ones, just getting the full set, all for about $200au, including the above. Not too bad.

*

In a final pair of wins, although the Osprey RPG’s have bitten me before, I got Sigil and Shadow, the DWD based modern occult game that is a fusion of Bare Bones Fantasy and Covert Ops, both favourites and a project that caught my attention a year or so ago, then seemed to disappear.

I went in looking for “Jackals”, an Openquest derivative, set in a stylised version of Ancient fantasy, but even at the same price for a bigger page count, it was not as instantly appealing as S & S. I still bought Jackals.

For modern cross-over games though, S & S will add something to a more favoured period. I have The Laundry Files (as itself), Delta Green (like the X Files), After the Vampire Wars (like The Dresden Files), Seasons of the Dead (like The Walking Dead, War of the Worlds or Skyfall) but this one is a different beast, a bit more like “Supernatural” or “Fright Night”.

For Bronze Age games I do have the original Mythras range, all basically set in this earlier period, including Runequest Essentials 6e, Mythras Rome and the long promised Greece suppliment coming and to be frank, this is enough, but Jackals called and the art is gorgeous.

Like all D100 games, anything added can cross boundaries to other games easily enough. It could even be re-aligned to real Greek history.

Jackals scratches an itch, S & S was a gift from the ether.

D100 Systems And The "Retro" Label

I often read reviews on D100 RPG’s, partly because I may be interested in buying them, sometimes because I have them and I am interested in someone else’s point of view and sometimes, just becasue I like them.

The term “retro” tends to come up a lot and it makes me bristle. It should not, but from a D100 fans perspective, thsi terminology, possibly a deterent to others, is both redundant and misleading.

The reasons for this calling out a difference between a modern and retro RPG system eludes me.

You sit arounfd a table with friends, play the roles of some made up characters, and roll dice (or occassionally play some cards) to resolve the effects of your and other characters’ actions. Conceptually, no RPG strays from this paradigm, even if the actual mechanic changes slightly;

Player intent > character action > random element > effect > interpret for story.

There are variations that change player role, remove the GM even, but at the end of the day, that is it.

As retro as they come, but still fully valid, only slightly different to and compatible with more recent releases.

So, why is a D100 system considered “retro” or old fashioned?

If it comes to the “bones” themselves, D6’s and the like mostly pre-date d10’s, and “The Worlds First/Favourite RPG” uses all available die including d100’s, so mechanically D100 systems are as relevant as any. I guess it may be a “stigma” attached to it’s lineage. So why does “TWFRPG” not get the same treatment when it is (1) older, (2) more dated and abstract in mechanics and concept and (3) less consistant over time, just to end up close to where it started?

Traveller, one of the original “genesis” games uses 2d6 (with some mid 90’s exceptions) and many “new” style games have simply moved to a dice “pool” style to soften the curve a little, but other than that die are die, so again “retro” or not is not about the tools used. For these games, a small change to process like advantage die seems to be earth shattering enough for most, so why can’t the same be said for a more stable mechanic when something similar happens.

If not the die, as assumed by the title of the post, them maybe the mechanics themselves?

Fair play, there are older and newer systemic evolutions or in some cases de-volutions involved. Keep in mind though, the negative comments made by some reviewers are a direct result of the systems’ over arching robustness, something that other systems, TWFRPG in particular have never been able to achieve. D100 systems work, make sense and are more grounded than many others and that is a bullet proof fact. Teaching d100 games is as simple as a game can be and then the concepts can be transferred to other similar games, periods and feels.

Something I really appreciate about them is the “invisibleness” of the system. Once understood, the actual role playing can be gotten on with, the system just moves out of the way. On a personal note, overly mechanical or systemic games tend to put me off. Role playing is a simple task, made harder by games that try to own the space in the name of story telling support or proxy. The One Ring is a good example of a game that forces processes on the GM and players to make them game Tolkein as it should, in their opinion, be played. If you want to play it true to theme, then play it that way, if not make it your game. Converting the game to d100 or another format means nothing unless you want it to.

The latest Runequest for example has revived not only the ancient games’ thematic feel, but also some of its mechanical clumsiness. The resistance table is a relic, but it is also part of the heritage of the game system, so forgiveable. It also works fine and fixes a few problems, but there are newer ways to achieve the same.

The things that for me mechanically separate “retro” d100 games from new ones are;

• Critical results on doubles (good and bad), giving a more logical spread of a 10% chance of extraordinary results, tied to skill level not just set at fixed values.

• Die arrangement, which can reduce or remove the need for hard mod levels, which in turn can lead to imbalance in chance spread. A +20% mod to a 10% skilled character is proportionately enormous compared to a 70% skilled character.

• “Failing forward” or a similar mechanic to soften the hard pass/fail dynamic, which D100 games with their linear non-curve are known for. Good role playing aside, this is a reality of most games. Some fixes have been too complicated (Warhammer 4e), but there are simpler ones such as halving or doubling hard pass/fails, the grey area used as pass/fail results “with complications”. At some point all systems have to make a stand here, D100 systems are not exceptions.

• Limiting character growth towards the top end, sometimes capping skills at 99%.

• Add a meta currency. This means no means yep, ok you spend a “x” and get a “get out of jail” pass. This ties in directly to new games as a true call out to player control.

Some of these are simply logical evolutions, some are there to remove partly erroneous interpretations. The linnear nature of d100 rolling is something I have been aware of since day one, but when you look at it, the “curve” some die systems use is actually an irrelevance.

2d6 rolls have 36 result combinations, 6 of which result in a 7 and only 1 each for 2 and 12 . This curve gives the player a feelng of a semi predictable average, which only actually makes any difference to a 50% chance on d100’s when applying mods. In curve based games, mods have a massive effect. A mod of +1 in a 2d6 system shifts the entire curve one digit to the right and it is only 11 number wide. 8 is now the average, 3 and 13 the extremes. In a d100 game +5% is a flat +5%. More importantly, +1% is not irrelevant, just very granular.

Don’t get me started on the d20 vs d100 argument. The d20 is simply a d100 limited to 5% levels. The actual difference in mechanics is a “roll over” rather than “roll under” system base, although there are exceptions to both. The psychological effect of roll over systems, where all good things are plusses is genuine and the open ended-ness of that system is seen as a good thing, but it also leads to impossible odds for some tests. The flat 5% auto fail/crit of d20 games is identical to the 10% crit range of modern d100 games, but less flexible and far less representative of true skill. A skill level of 70% has 6 chances of a good critical, 4 of a bad one and even that can be granular with the very extremes being “soft” crits, the middle values, where skill makes a real difference, is where the “hard” crits hide.

Personally, I have come to prefer the high % percentage = good over high mods added to a die roll = good, feel.

Ok, so after lookng at the percieved bad sides of d100, lets look at the positives.

D100 games are very granular, but in a simple, logical way. No other game system can offer an easy to interpret system with 100+ range of results. 3D6 has more, but needs simple arithmetic and again has the curve effect with mods (and often uses roll under) and some pool based games are just clumsy or overly “flat”.

The only time a d100 game becomes cumbersome is when a roll over system is used, requiring mod to be added to large numbers like Role Master (Harn), or a system that allows skill levels of over 100, with mods applied then another variant like die arrangement. This is still logcal to explain and interpret, just loess clean in process.

Alternatives in “modern” games can offer up monsters like the Star Wars dice pool system where you have not only a lot of bespoke die to interpret, but then have to interprtet their meanings in relation to each other. This is a mechanical replacement for role playing and although cool in concept, does not actually add anything new.