Re: Interplantery backgroud Full Thrust.

campbelr@pop3.kunsan.af.mil writes:

@:) An Idea I've had is using the board and maybe the background of
@:) the "Buck Rogers: Battle for the Solar System" game.

  My group did this for a short campaign.  We worked out some simple
rules for movement and combat and managed to get a halfway workable
campaign system together.  There were some problems that I would
remedy if we did it again, however.

  The Buck Rogers' map of the solar system consists of a number of
concentric circles, each representing an orbit.  Each circle has a
number of dots on it which are locations at which ships can be placed.
The outer orbits have more dots than the inner ones, and the dots are
connected in a regular spiral pattern with dots on the neighboring
orbits.  In addition to this, there are four "planetary displays"
representing Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.  The displays show a map
of the planet divided into sections.  Planets have far and near orbit
spaces as well as surface spaces.  There are also maps of twelve
asteroids, each of which consists of a surface space and a single
orbit space.

  We allowed ships to move a number of dots equal to their thrust in a
strategic turn, but ships with FTL could move d6 times their thrust.
Initiative rolls were made at the beginning of a strategic turn to
determine order of play, and then each player was allowed, in turn, to
move a ship or group of ships from one location to another.  Players
could move through each others' fleets only with permission.  When one
fleet entered the space of another without permission, a battle would
take place in that space.  Fighters were allowed to attack targets in
neighboring spaces, and were frequently used to support attacks by
ships without exposing the carrier to danger.  Cloaked ships were
allowed and were moved secretly while cloaked.

  Our fleets were generally quite small - we began the game with very
limited budgets (500 points?) and players gained points by capturing
and holding territories.  As the game progressed, we moved from
corvettes and frigates to cruisers and some carriers.  We also placed
random "native" forces in the territories, which kept the players from
running into each other too quickly.  Most dreaded among these was,
curiously enough, the "two heavy fighter groups" threat, because many
of us designed our ships with no fighter protection to save money.
Ship production times were based on number of territories held.

  We did not include any ground combat, but the game seems well suited
to it.	Overall, I think this campaign worked well, although we didn't
quite finish.  The forces involved increased steadily and as we ended
the game, a large battle was about to take place which would have
almost certainly decided the outcome of the game.  I think our victory
condition was similar to those in the original Buck Rogers game and
involved holding two planets or a planet and a number of asteroids.
This allowed some flexibility in the plans of the players and meant
that it wasn't always immediately clear what a player's strategy was.

  Anyway, I think it's a great idea, and the map is very useful for
Full Thrust games.  It's probably hard to find now but you should be
able to get it cheaply if you do find it.  I should think someone
could come up with an extremely similar but not copyright-infringing
map as well, if necessary.

-joachim