FT Campaign System (In early Playtest)

> I couldn't agree more - some very well-expressed sentiments. The

Jon,

Perhaps you would be interested in what our small gaming group is doing with
the campaign game I've developed that addresses some of the points you've
mentioned above.

First, I would like to state that your original approach to the FT game engine
is what attracted me to this wonderful system. The fact that I can so easily
twiddle with weapon statistics, game mechanics and other rules without
"breaking" the basic game is one of the reasons why I enjoy FT so much. Please
continue with your original premise of game design for future FT supplements.

That being said... I've designed and am currently playtesting a campaign
system for FT that is, IMHO, very different from other campaign systems I've
seen so far. It was designed with the following premises:

        1) Simple Game mechanics for 3-8 players
(more if you can find the people). 2) Simultaneous player actions to speed
play. (Very little "waiting for your turn" situations). 3) Supply and Demand
Economic rules that require NO record keeping. 4) Research and Development
that requires NO record keeping.
        5) Merchant/Fleet support game mechanics requiring supply lines
(again with NO record keeping).
        6) Simple Build/Repair/Reload rules.
(No record keep... Oh, you get the idea;) 7) Commodity trading and Resource
development. 8) Random Events. 9) Trade between players including ships! 10)
Abstract Combat system to use for huge fleet engagements (only if both players
agree). Mostly useful for campaign games played at one sitting. Good for
getting people interested in the "Judged" version of the game with the Full
Thrust tactical game. 11) Diplomacy (no rules... just sorta happens in this
kind of game)
        12) Spying / Corporate Espionage.
13) Smuggling. 14) Surveying and Exploration of Uncharted space. 15) Warp
points.

etc... the list goes on.

Most IMPORTANTLY, all of the above can be TWEAKED to the player's liking!

We are still getting the bugs out of the game. Oh, when I say that there is no
record keeping what I'm really saying is that you don't have to write anything
down. We're using playing chits to take care of everything. We've also
designed an economic system that encourages balenced fleets. So far,
we've had very good results with the ship building/economic system.  No
min/maxing of killer ship designs, at least not yet.  There's no easy
way to do it in our game.

The only drawback (I don't consider it one though) is that each player has to
do quite a bit of work BEFORE the game actually starts, designing his Fleets
for all Tech Levels (oh yeah, we have that too), but how many FT players do
you know that don't like to design their own ships? Still, we've got a few
predesigned fleets for people who don't have the time or inclination to build
their own.

There is no way to design a fleet with every type of system available. You
have to specialize. During play, if you need ships with certain
defensive/offensive capabilities that you can't build yourself
('cause you don't have the tech) you need to buy them prebuilt from other
players. Yeah, kind of a hose if one of your enemies has a mix of ship designs
that you're vunerable to but we felt that anything that
encourages player interaction/treaties is a good thing in a campaign
game...

Soapbox Mode: OFF