Re: Single Ship Campaign.

----- Original Message -----
From: "MSN Renegade" <msnrenegade@cs.com>

> > I am thinking of running a campaign game at my local club
> > where each player has only one ship.
>
> That could be tricky. As plots go, FT is pretty simple.
> Ships meet, ships shoot at each other, one ship goes bang!
> Or did you have something else in mind?
>

I was thinking of having the sector to be explored as each system is a
single hex on a sheet. The ships would move a number of hexes each
campaign
turn equal to their thrust rating. There would be encounter tables
covering
distress calls, random anomalies and other sci-fi stuff I think up
later.

> Simple suggestions: Make FTL a core system. Allow micro-jumps so
> ships can escape into the outer system, and rendezvous with boats
> that have survived the battle. Defer ordinary damage control rolls
> until after the battle. Allow generous resupply and replacement.
>
> Problems: What will you do with players who are eliminated despite
> your efforts to keep them in the campaign? (Perhaps you can
> allocate them "non-player cruisers" if it will support the notion.)
> If you rig the rules as suggested to increase player survivability,
> what are they fighting over? How can a single ship (or a single
> force) hold multiple objectives?
>

I will be doubleing the number of hull boxes to make things last longer
per
battle.
Each side will have different objectives (hopefully conflicting with the
others, this is why I'm using my FASA Trek minis). So for the Federation
the
main thing will be to explore worlds & help the sick puppies.
Should a ship get knocked out each point of crew size will get a roll to
see
if they can abandon the ship (I'm thinking something simple like be
killed
on a 1 or 2). If the planet is inhabited then they can try to steal a
new
ride. I'll be knocking up some piracy & prisoner-taking rules as well (I
think that each friendly crew point should be able to take 2 enemies
prisoner as long as he isn't killed in battle)

> > I want to be able to keep track of what is damaged and where,
> > rather than the Full Thrust level of abstraction. Conversely
> > something like Brilliant Lances (GDW) dumps way too much
> > paperwork on the players (though has wonderfully detailed ships).
> > We do more than enough B5 Wars (AoG) as it is, this means I am
> > open to suggestions as to detailed systems?
>
> I'm afraid you want the best of both worlds. Many people play FT2
> precisely because there isn't a lot of paperwork. You can't add
> lots of extra detail without raising the clerical workload. I've
> never played B5wars, but from what I saw it's SLOW. StarFleet
> Battles is slow unless you use PF boats. Silent Death has an inane
> initiative / movement system, and for what you get it is slow.
> Unless your players are good, Renegade Legions is slow.
>
> Shooting Stars (Yaquinto) has an option for localised damage.
> Guess what? It slows the game down (and it's designed for boats
> rather than ships). The Star Trek Simulator (FASA) aka ST III
> does detailed damage, but not to the level you require.
>

Actually B5wars isn't that slow once you get used to it.
Someone recommended the Star Trek Simulator to me a while ago, I just
can't
find it anywhere. I'm thinking of a modified FT2 now, anyway.

> Stepping outside the SF genre, I've played numerous naval-type
> wargames and I don't think any of them went into Lensman-style
> "the meltdown in generator room four not only cut our tractor
> beam, it also dripped down into torpedo room six and caused the
> launcher to jam" detail. Battlewagon could handle counterflooding
> and variable armour scattered over the ship, but that was about
> its limit. For all practical intents and purposes, if it's
> possible to generalise a row of cannon or a bank of oars then any
> sensible designer will do this for the sake of speed.
>

Brilliant lances could do that. You could even use the isometric view
hit
location and see just where the beam goes over your ships hull. Sadly
you
also had ridiculously difficult rules and physics that only 2 people in
the
group could cope with.

<snip interesting rules>

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