Re: [GZG] Campaign rules

>Hi Simon,

>

>Like the rules - very detailed. How did you handle all the record
keeping? 

>This seems to be a problem with more detailed campaign rules and
systems - 

>they generate enormous amounts of data and you can end up playing 

>"Bureaucrats in Space" rather than actual tabletop gaming - though you
guys 

>seem to come from a role-playing background so perhaps the UN meetings
were 

>as much fun as the actual battles?

>

>Lots of neat ideas, though!  I like the UN concept and the
auditing/voting 

>system - also the trade nodes. And the fleet/task force structure. (A 

>problem I'm having in the campaign I'm running is that we're now
getting 

>fleets of 3000 - 5000 points running around and a game can take 10
hours 

>with forty plus ships a side).

>

>Did you ever get to play Ver 2, or did everybody graduate and get
mortgages? 

We played the FTCampv0.1 for a year, then stopped after we all agreed it
had stagnated - no one was going to attack anyone and we finished for
the summer break from uni.

Over the summer I revised the rules, thus FTCampv0.2, which is the one
typed on on my web page. We played that for another whole year, making
it to round 38 if memory recalls.

The book keeping did become a bit of a problem, we all developed a
method of only listing changes from turn to turn, thus I have a sheet
per round that notes the differences from last round and all the
movement this round (I might scan one in to show - developed a very
compact notation).

I'll say that running a fighter heavy fleet was a pain to keep
supported.

We did enjoy the UN, we had a weekly meeting on wednesday afternoons,
normally for about an hour or two depending if any fleets meet. We
averaged three rounds a week, which was good fun. Most of us enjoyed the
logistics and book keeping (I certainly do, I'm at strategist at heart).
Over the year I think there were less than 10 actual table top battles,
in the final round there were about 15 (my ally and I launched a large
scale assault on three other players) but sadly many of those games were
never played.

I have written ideas for v0.3, but no one wants to devote another year
to a new campaign on that scale. Things that are still wrong with my
rules are the distances to actually attack. It can take 10 rounds to
build, supply and move a fleet group to attack someone else - for 5 of
those rounds they can see you coming and build up their defences. Even
with simultaneous movement it wasn't possible to do surprise attacks.

Also, part of the design philosophy (read the engage orders phase) is
that if you don't want to fight odds are you can escape [space is big;
really, really big]. Many a potential battle was halted when one side
ran away.

This was also a consequence of the map, having weaker worlds meant you
left them mostly undefended. For v0.3 I would get rid of the free form
map and use a node style map - with lots of interconnections, but still
nodes.

We never got the universal exchange to work either, after a few rounds
we all decided to cripple the exchange rate and then no one wanted to
make it better again.

The major change for v0.3 is the removal of static builders - they were
such large investments of points and time (mine took 7 rounds to build)
and were to easy to destroy. Instead building is abstracted so that each
system has a build rate, which you can combine similar to trade bubbles,
with combined build bubbles getting bonuses.

I learnt a lot from writing and running the campaign. I was lucky to
have a group of 6 dedicated players who turned up every week for two
whole years. It was a lot of fun at the start and middle, the end got a
bit hard as we all juggled upwards of 20 systems, and thousands of
points worth of ships. We all had different back stories and ideas for
our fleets, which was interesting in itself, a lot of role playing at
the meeting made it good fun.

One day I'll type up v0.3 and post it for others to use if they want -
it is greatly reduced in certain areas, still focusing on the macro
scale of running your empire. I don't think I'll personally get a group
together to play it though, which is a shame.

Sorry, that turned into quite a long response. I hope to play more one
off battles of FT this year - using all the designs for ships we all
made last year.

Oh, final thing - for campaign inspiration I used games I love:

Diplomacy (simultaneous resolution of phases),

Space Dreadnought 3000 (nice two player campaign system),

Roads and Boats (I do love logistics, anyone who likes that sort of
thing should play this game - it's great).

Simon

-- 

Experience is the fool's best teacher; the wise do not need it.

http://fullthrust.2-72.co.uk

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