Rover? Star Rover? Traveller's Arduin.

[Morninman]

During a class reunion last week the old gaming gang got back together and reminisced, as grognards are wont to do.

One of the subjects that came up was my vague memory of there being a game called "Rover" or "Star Rover" that had the same relationship to Traveller as Hargrave's Arduin had to DnD- an over the top take on the same material that was compatible with the original game. It had to have been released somewhere around 1979-1981, and I seem to recall the prominent mention of chainsaws as weapons in the ad copy in "Dragon". Part of the recollection is that there was some kind of lawsuit involving it's use of "usable with Traveller" or something along those lines.

My Google-fu hasn't found anything, so I throw it out to you. Does anyone else remember this game?

 

[navanod]

It's mentioned under Hargraves' wiki entry (he was one of the designers), and I found a brief blurb about it here -

http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/encyclopedia/alphabetical/S.html

Star Rovers
1st ed by Stocken, Hoffman, Hoffman, Hargrave, Huey, Lortz (1981) Archive Miniatures and Game Systems
A spacefaring sci-fi RPG, with a fairly detailed system covering possibilities from zero-gee combat to diseases and their effects. It was released with a set of sci-fi miniature figures. Action resolution is based on rolling sets of d6's with sixes read as zeroes (resulting in a range from 0 to 5). Reviewed in Space Gamer #44.

Amazon also has a listing for it -
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Rovers-RPG-Module-BOX/dp/B000JR827C


Here's a partial review with discussion of mechanics
http://www.mrlizard.com/characters/46-science-fiction/189-star-rovers-part-ii

And that's about all I found. Sounds like an interesting game; given the complexity of chargen, I'd have hated to see the ship construction rules.
o:

 

[Morninman]

Holy smokes. I thought the Arduin comparison was just a bit of descriptive shorthand for the niche the game occupied. I never even considered that Hargrave was actually involved with it.

My sincere thanks for your help. With proof that I didn't just imagine it I'm now entitled to free drinks at the next reunion in 2020. Sure, they might have to inject the drinks into my IV, but it's the thought that counts.

 

[ShapeShifter]

Giant alien...somethings... that chew through ENTIRE STARCLUSTERS! Biomorphs! Starknights! Ancient artifacts! Galactic secrets! Holes in TIME AND SPACE! Some sort of outer space dragon men, or something! Whatever! It's cool! This game certainly isn't about whipping out your HP Scientific Calculator that does RPN and trying to figure out the fuel requirements for the jump drive and if you'll show a 15 credit profit on that load of dried beans you're hauling from one planet to another. This game is about things that eat galaxies, man! Whatever they are! Didn't you read it, dude? They, like, eat galaxies! Or they're running from something that eats galaxies. Or... something. Whatever. Dragonspawn!!!!

:rofl:

Must. Find. This. NOW!

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

Hokey smokes, indeed! The old grognard from that game review only began writing those articles a few weeks ago himself - and he wrote his 'final' encore article on Star Rover barely a few hours ago. Talk about yer synchronicity!

It's Carl Jung's universe. We only live in it.

 

[Morninman]

:rofl:

Must. Find. This. NOW!

At the age when a razor was a strange and mysterious device that was awesome stuff.

One of the reasons the ad for that game stuck in my head is the "Why be a Traveller when you can be a Rover?" tagline, or something similar to that. It promised MOAR OF EVERYTHING!!!111!!!!

 

[Lizard_SF]

During a class reunion last week the old gaming gang got back together and reminisced, as grognards are wont to do.

One of the subjects that came up was my vague memory of there being a game called "Rover" or "Star Rover" that had the same relationship to Traveller as Hargrave's Arduin had to DnD- an over the top take on the same material that was compatible with the original game. It had to have been released somewhere around 1979-1981, and I seem to recall the prominent mention of chainsaws as weapons in the ad copy in "Dragon". Part of the recollection is that there was some kind of lawsuit involving it's use of "usable with Traveller" or something along those lines.

My Google-fu hasn't found anything, so I throw it out to you. Does anyone else remember this game?

Well, I've already been scooped on my own article, so let me just note that, yes, chainsaws are in the game. They do ridiculous damage but have a short power cord, and they have a "difficulty level" of 7, which is one of the highest lists, but, unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me find what "difficulty level" actually does in play.

If you've read the article, you'll realize this is, sadly, not atypical

 

[saundby]

I played the game at Hargrave's shop for several hours once, it was a younger guy running the game but Dave was kibitzing from behind the register. It played about like Arduin played (at least as I experienced it, same location, with Dave or one of his groupies running the game.) Basically, if by some chance you survive your first few encounters, you become insanely powerful. Lots of cheese.

There was lots of fun creative bits and pieces in both, though, that could be used in a more moderate game. I ended up never buying Star Rovers. I bought the first three Arduin books, but most of my gaming cash went into SSI and Metagaming games.

 

[Finarvyn]

Very interesting. I'm an old-time gamer and vaguely recall seeing advertisements for Star Rover but that's pretty much all I know about it. This thread has been very enlightening.