From: Ground Zero Games <jon@g...>
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 18:16:29 +0100
Subject: FMA Draft part 1A - third time lucky.....?
Well, all the responses so far seem positive, so I'm going to take a chance and send this now..... <grin> OK everyone, here we go: No, I haven't written all this in the last couple of hours - it is cobbled together (rather hastily!) from half-a-dozen different bits of draft material written over the last three years or so! So, no apologies for it being a bit disjointed in places; if something isn't covered, try using the relevant bits from Stargrunt II and let us know what happens! If you are interested in this sort of game, please wade through it and give us some feedback - if not, then feel free to delete the whole lot now!! Jon (GZG) Legal Bit: All material in this draft is copyright July 1999 by Jon Tuffley and Ground Zero Games; all rights reserved; FMA is a trademark of Ground Zero Games. 1) This material is for list members' eyes only at this stage; it must NOT be put up on anyone's website, and while it may be used for test games with your own immediate player groups it is NOT for distribution outside this in any manner or form without prior permission; if anyone wants to use it for any kind of public demo or participation game (eg: at shows, stores or other gatherings) then this should be possible, but I'd appreciate you checking with me by email first. IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY TO ABIDE BY THIS CONDITION, PLEASE DELETE THIS EMAIL NOW! 2) Any ideas or supplementary material posted to the list as a result of the discussions may get used in any final printed or published form of the rules (as per the standard terms of the GZG list), and while I'll certainly be giving credit to the list membership as a whole it will probably be impossible to individually mention each person contributing ideas... it will probably just have to be along the lines of a thank-you to the whole list, with a "you know who you are" line! 3) Everything in this post is still fairly rough draft material, and should be treated accordingly; the present version has seen a bit of in-house testing (very successfully to date), but has not yet been tested in the heat of battle in the hands of the List Grunts... <grin> Don't be surprised to find contradictions and missing bits - we'd like to know about these when you do find them. Regarding feedback to the list or direct to us, PLEASE use a bit of discretion and common sense to avoid swamping the list and upsetting the non-interested members - if it is a minor error or inconsistancy that can simply be fixed, then it will be best to email this direct to us - only use the list itself for points that genuinely need major discussion. --------------------- FMA PLAYTEST DRAFT, July 1999 This is a test version of the basic FMA core rules (Near Future/SF version); to play, you will need a selection of counters/markers from Stargrunt II (preferred) or Dirtside II. Rules copyright GZG 1999. FMA is a trademark of GZG. INTRODUCTION: FMA is a generic skirmish rules system to simulate individual and small-unit combat; this version of the system is set up for a "Near-Future Sci-Fi" environment, but the core rules will work just as well for almost any SF, fantasy or historical setting from cavemen up to far future enhanced humans! This adaptability is due to the way the FMA system approaches small unit combat - that morale, leadership and control are much more important than the hardware that your troops are carrying. That isn't to say that FMA ignores the hardware - you'll find a wide selection of weapons, armour and equipment of varying effects to outfit your troops with, plus full rules on how to design your own if what we provide isn't enough - but don't expect to win just because you have the biggest guns; the most wonderful weapon in the known universe is of very little use if the trooper carrying it is too scared to poke his head out of cover and fire it.... So, why is FMA different from other skirmish rules on the market? Well, it is fast without ignoring important variables, and simple to play without being simplistic. While some other systems sacrifice important factors in the search for speed and playability (decent morale rules are usually the first to go!), FMA provides a "realistic" system that actually works as a game while keeping the feel of leading a small unit into battle. Your figures are not all little telepathic, fearless superheroes - the won't always do what you want them to, and if they think things are turning nasty they may well not hang around to get killed! You need to lead them from the front, push them hard where necessary and use all your command skills to get the job done.... One of the great strengths of FMA is the ease of set-up, especially in the basic game. At the simplest level, there is NO paperwork or written records to keep, no troop rosters to complete (though that is an option later on) and in fact no need to plan anything in advance. Simply choose a half-dozen or so miniatures for each player, pick a few Activation Markers (which indicate the quality and nerve of your troops) at random and assign one to each figure, agree between yourselves what each figure's weapons and armour represent (just to avoid arguments later!), then put your troops out on the table and start playing! SCENARIOS: Of course, it makes the game much more interesting if you have some kind of scenario and objective rather than just advancing across the table and shooting the opposition (not that there is anything wrong with this - for an introduction to the rules or a quick "no-brainer" game before going down the pub, a "Kill everything on the board" scenario is just fine!). Scenarios don't have to be complicated, or even written down in advance. They can be as simple as "I'll take six troops and defend this command post, you take a dozen and try to capture it" - voila, a scenario, objective and victory conditions in one line! At the other end of the scale, a scenario can be as complex and detailed as you want to make it, with additional rules for special occurences, alternative objectives, pre-prepared defences, off-table support and anything else you want. SIZE OF GAME: Because it focusses on individual figures rather than units of troops, FMA works best for low-level skirmishes with up to a dozen or so troops per player. A game doesn't have to be big to be fun, and battles with just a handful of figures can be as exciting (and often more tactically challenging) as those with huge forces on the table. The system will quite happily handle larger forces, though we'd recommend grouping the figures into small teams and using the optional "units" rules if you want to use a lot - turns may get quite long if each player has to activate twenty or more figures individually. If you want to go a level up and do actions with platoon or company sized forces, then we'd recommend you try our STARGRUNT II rules which are specifically designed for this level of game. DICE: One of the key elements of the FMA system is its use of five different types of polyhedral dice to reflect different circumstances and chances of success. The dice are D4, D6, D8, D10 and D12, and as a bare minimum you will need one of each to play the game. However, as there are many times when you and/or your opponent will need to roll more than one of the same kind of dice at the same time, having only one set will mean you have to remember your earlier score while you roll again - it is much better, in practice, to have at least two or three sets of the five dice handy so you can roll all the necessary ones simultaneously. Though most experienced gamers will already have a good collection of dice, we strongly recommend going out and buying a few especially for this game, in the correct colours. This really isn't a very large outlay - two or three full sets of good quality solid-colour dice (leave those fancy pearl and sparkly ones to the roleplayers!) will not set you back much more than the cost of a couple of figures, and they will really pay dividends in ease of play. So, what do we mean by the "correct colours"? Well, because a lot of rolls in the game are related to each figure/character's "QUALITY RATING", which is denoted by the COLOUR of the activation marker by the figure, if you have the relevant die handy in the same colour as the marker then picking up the right die becomes much more intuitive. So, an ELITE character, who has a RED marker, has a D12 Quality Die - thus you use RED D12s. Similarly D10s are ORANGE (Veteran quality), D8s are BLUE (Regulars), D6s GREEN (Greens) and finally D4s are YELLOW for the lowly Untrained characters. Need to make a roll that requires the Quality die? Just grab a die of the same colour as the figure's marker! It may seem an obvious and pretty basic point, but believe us, in the heat of battle it really does make things much easier. SCALES AND DEFINITIONS: GROUNDSCALE: For most games, in whatever setting, we strongly recommend a groundscale of 1" on the table represents 2 YARDS* - all distances in the rules are given in inches assuming this scale. If you are using 25mm scale figures, this groundscale is near enough the same as the figure scale that you can assume everything on the tabletop is "in proportion" to the figures; thus a building, vehicle or anything else actually takes up the same space as its model does. If this sounds a bit obvious, remember that many wargame systems use a distorted groundscale/figure scale relationship in order to accommodate larger combats and ranges, so in such games a single building model can indicate a whole group of structures, vehicles are "really" much smaller than the models used to represent them and so on; in FMA, everything is as it appears to be on the table - if you can hide your figure behind something, he is hidden - if not, then he isn't! * If you prefer to use metric units, you can take the groundscale as 25mm (ie: approximately 1") on the table is equivalent to 2 METRES of real distance - wherever a distance in inches is specified in the rules, count this as units of 25mm, eg: 4" = 100mm, 6" = 150mm and so on.