> How aspects of the campaign (governments, research, abstracted ground
I'm coming to the conclusion that what you are giving, i.e. strategic
campaigns, are best left for long time committed groups, say, scientists at
the south pole. Unless LEGALLY committed...
An operational campaign, similar to that described in the pre-FB FT,
perhaps punched up just a little, or even a set of tourney-style
meet-ups,
might be how you move out of the one-offs.
Again, that's from someone that botched his first couple of attempts.
The_Beast
Beast,
Quit reading my mind. :-)
[quoted original message omitted]
***
One off games as part of a campaign narrative thread, so a game or series of
game's may inspire the next, but there is no bookkeeping or anything like
that. In the past we did do massive campaigns from first space launch to
galactic supremacy, but personal circumstances of all involved make
campaigning in a proper way impossible. Besides we found that a full on
Campaign just turns into Cost Accountancy in Space. We prefer well scripted,
if logistically unsound, carnage.
***
As I pointed out a long time ago, a similar thing could be done in a tourney
setting but describing it as only part of a large space battle. Used in teams,
you could claim winning locally could be added to a
'side's'
total.
If you assume normal space movement insystem, a week's or month's or even
longer campaign can indicate travel between local battles, giving time for
repair and resupply. However, if I could get something like this going, I'd
prefer to move to persistant damage, which makes for cautious play if you have
to save SOMETHING for the next go. This can be a problem if it means
stand-back 'safe' play, but working the victory terms can ameliorate.
A grand battle even suggests PSB for closed tables, assuming a ship wandering
off into another battle will be almost useless until synching with the area
command net.
The_Beast
The campaign narrative arose out of the two full "campaigns" our group carried
out out uni, both taking a year to complete. Post uni we scattered back across
the country, so the campaign narrative we use allows any memebers of the
group, when they meet up, to immediatly leap into a game set in our
background. We try our best to act as our nations would, not as we would
neccesarily wish, when playing games, an elememt of roleplaying which means
some sides will attempt to disengage before suffering too much damage, whilst
others will fight to the death no matter what. The results of individual games
are used to reflect the overall fortunes of each galactic power, after games
players discuss the results and explain how they see it effecting their
nation.
To be honest the narrative system has produced much more dynamic and
interesting games and "historical development" than the original "proper"
campaign system. In those days we spent more time keeping track of damage
points, resupplying etc, etc, they we often ended up with no time to actually
fight any battles. No doubt our own fault for using an overly complicated set
of campaign rules (unfortunately I used Federation & Empire as my inspiration
for those rules...and complicated them further...my only excuse is
insanity...).
To sum up our system, it is a combination of wargaming and galactic
realpolitik roleplaying. It works for us but it is in no way suitable for any
kind of competitive or tournament gaming. It is very suitable, though, for
just having a good time.
And rolling a d6, 1= really bad upto 6= really good helps to add a nice random
elememt when we are unsure how certain events might transpire.
Regards,
Matt Tope
[quoted original message omitted]
> On Thursday, December 4, 2003, at 07:18 PM, Doug Evans wrote:
> How aspects of the campaign (governments, research, abstracted ground
Power Projection: Fleet has three levels of more strategic stuff:
1. Tournament rules (which is basis for squadron designs and comes from
Trillion Credit Squadron). 2. Clash of Empires (a somewhat abstracted
economics system based upon
a pre-selected overall budget linked to the local planetary systems
economies, plus logistics and maintenance). 3. Pocket Empires (basically, the
Trillion Credit Squadron economics rules integrated to Power Projection).
Options 2 and 3 are managed within the strategic turn system, which is a
development of that seen originally in Fifth Frontier War by GDW.
I'm hoping to set up something using Option 2...