RainOfSteel
SOC-14 1K
I wouldn't describe what I do as, "Solo-play."
I'd call it, "World-building without an end-purpose in mind."
No more UWP
- Thread starter robject
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I'd call it, "World-building without an end-purpose in mind."
Not sure what standardization means really, but most of the systems need to be re-done with Malenfant's stellar gen system. 'Twould also be nice to comb over the UWPs, but that's Big Juju.
</font>[/QUOTE]Well, I know that MT underwent several interpetations on the placement of the numbers for Gas Giants & Asteroid Belts & Alien Resident populations...how does this fair with the other versions of Traveller and which generally accepted as the final word...if that could ever be employed with a sentence that has Traveller in it.
Thanks for the suggestions regarding proto-stars, I guess it would apply only to "young" stars whereas off main sequence could be T-Tauri or Flare Stars.
</font>[/QUOTE]robject,
I doubt there's any demand for this, but it's what I'd like to see....
There are three basic levels of gaming... strategic, tactical, and individual (or rpg.)
There are two basic types of wargames: Gigantic and Mini-Game. Mini-Games fit in a ziplock bag. Gigantic games take days to play and years to learn. IMO, the perfect game (in terms of complexity/playability) is Ogre. It's been thoroughly debugged and the two expansions (G.E.V. and Shockwave) are both logical and optional.
What I'd like to see for the Ultimate Space game is a set of fast-playing easy-to-learn minigames (with optional expansions) at all levels of play.
There's the Space Wars game (Ogre in space) played on an enlarged sector or subsector map. The production values and combat modifiers would be derived from the UWP's in some sort of consistent way.
Then there's the Corporate Wars game. I want to play as the CEO of Oberlinde Lindes and compete against other companies somehow. Again, key values are derived from the UWP.
Then there's the System Wars game. The playing board is big enough to show planets and moons in their orbits. Fleets jockey for position. This would be good for double blind play. Fleets resolve combat according to a simple system or the battle can be played out in detail in the...
The fleet combat game. As simple and fast playing as possible but still retaining as many tactical options as can be crammed into it.
There's also the Lone Trader game. Again, as simple and fast playing as possible but still retaining as many tactical options as can be crammed into it.
There's Planet wars covering the strategic level of surface warfare along with an Ogre-like game to (optionally) cover each engagement.
Finally... there should be a set of campaign rules that allow all of these mini-games to interlock. That way one club consisting of an Admiral, a CEO, a few Generals & captains & free traders could team up and play against the other side. (Do you follow me?)
That's the holy grail: Interlocking mini-games with distinct layers of optional expansions.
Just my wishlist. And yes I know, there's probably no market for it, yadda yadda yadda.
Well, SJG seems to agree, since they changed the format drastically in Rim of Fire (to a system in which you have a table, with labelled columns).
Which is basically a modestly expanded UWP, with additional columns for data they decided they wanted in the table which isn't in a classic UWP.
As a side point, why is having UWPs for an entire sector even all that useful? You're not going to be visiting any significant fractions of the worlds.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I wonder if Marc can be persuaded to retcon T5 to the "small Imperium variant"?
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
There's at least a market of two, I'd buy into it.
Totally strategic. Similar to Fifth Frontier War or Imperium, perhaps, with careful attention to consistency?
Cutthroats and Cartels in Space. Interstellar MULE. Railroad Tycoon in Space. Or?
A high-level fleet combat system, more detailed than Fifth Frontier War, but more abstract than High Guard's combat system? Counters for individual capital ships, and conglomerate counters for things like fighter clouds, perhaps?
Probably no vector movement, but rather a localized, strategic game.
Probably High Guard-level of play, then. The movement tactics ( = very high-level ) are the main thing that makes the game playable.
This type of game could re-use the sector or subsector map from the Space Wars game, or simply a normal map with a UWP list, pencil, paper, and dice. Traveller has had this type of thing from the beginning.
Risk and Ogre, respectively.
Book 4 has a good high-level ground unit combat system, but doesn't take orbital or air units into account. It is very nicely high, level, though. Something like it could work for surface war.
Strategic planet-taking could possibly be like a miniature version of Risk, using Traveller tasks.
Actually, if just a few design elements are used, such as separating weapon penetration from damage, then creating conglomerate units of any type to any scale becomes possible -- the combat model becomes generic, more or less. Hence, you get combat at any level of abstraction for free, and the wargame scenarios you envision (sectorwide, systemwide, orbital, planetary, regional, local, single-ship, person-to-person) are simpler to define, learn, and run.
Ask aramis about it.
I was so taken by Jeffr0's interlocking games concept, I put up a summary page here with a couple of potential counters (thanks BeRKA!):
http://home.comcast.net/~downport/rules/minigames.html
http://home.comcast.net/~downport/rules/minigames.html
The part I don't know about is how to apply damage back to the individual ships; for example, if a squadron takes 50% damage, how is that distributed? This may require defining the total penetration of the damage inflicted; for instance, 20% damage with high penetration may kill 20% of the total unit tonnage, while 20% damage with low but effective penetration may simply cripple 20%, and a moderate pen would kill 10% and cripple the other 10%.
Or perhaps all attacks inflict kill damage, and defenses get a "defensive reaction" which inflict crippling damage. That sounds interesting...
Maybe there's a better way to do this. Anyway, applying damage is only needed after combat is done.
Or perhaps all attacks inflict kill damage, and defenses get a "defensive reaction" which inflict crippling damage. That sounds interesting...
Maybe there's a better way to do this. Anyway, applying damage is only needed after combat is done.
P
Pickles
Guest
Where can Malefant's stellar gen system be found? Pardon the ignorance, my excuse is newness to this site.
http://www.evildrganymede.net/rpg/traveller/traveller.htm
The link is "Revised Stellar Generation Tables (v2.3)"
The link is "Revised Stellar Generation Tables (v2.3)"
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I can give you a paypal address to send...
just kidding
Welcome aboard Eric
Check out what rob has put together - it's free.
just kidding
Welcome aboard Eric
Check out what rob has put together - it's free.
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