Armchair Reviews: Starmada Nova Edition

I've posted about this before. Surprise! There's a new edition out, I haven't gotten anywhere with the old edition beyond creating ships!

In any case here's my review as it appears on RPGNow.com:

This edition of Starmada has all the strengths of prior editions:

(a) a sort of elegance in the ruleset that allows for deep tactical options, while retaining a clarity of statement and explanation. Plus, the guiding rule of simple, but not simplistic, rules is still very much evident;

(b) the ability to not only custom-build your own ships, but also the options to custom-build your ruleset with Advanced Rules and Alternate Movement Systems in order to reflect the type of starship combat reality you want to emulate

(c) really clean and functional ship displays to help you keep track of your ship capabilities and damage;

(d) my favorite -- the default movement rules that reflect the inertia rules in space without having to keep track of two or three Delta V values for each ship.

I like the improvement in the diagrams, particularly the firing arcs. They go a long way to clarifying rules without lengthy discussions. I like the retention of clear examples for each rule. And I like the amount of fleet lists available to get a game going right away!

For those of you who weren't aware, in 2009 Majestic XII announced a collaboration with Amarillo Design Bureau and planned a release of books set in the Star Fleet Universe. Yes, official Klingon, StarFleet and Romulan ships for use with Starmada.

Klingon Armada already has Federation, Klingon, Tholian, Orion, and Kzinti (the StarFleet universe is a separate bit of intellectual property, and basically is the Original Star Trek series, including the cartoons and early writings, but ignoring the Next Generation stuff -- if you're wondering what those Niven Kzinti are doing in the lineup) ready for your tactical pleasure.

According to this current version, those books will be updated to the current ruleset as well. Can't wait!

Some Games I'd Run

Following up my last post, here's a list of some of the games I'd be interested in running:

Fading Suns

No surprise there, I've posted a lot on the attraction of this kitchen sink setting.

It also allows me a fair amount of latitude in terms of the types of game sessions I can run, and gives me any number of excuses to take away high technology away from the players when I need to have the isolated, out of touch, and without any wonderful tech devices.

It also grants some rationale for a Science Fantasy campaign where swords and guns can be used.

D&D (of some kind)

Whether it's Labyrinth Lord (or one of the retro-clones), D&D 3E or one of the D20 spin-offs (like True20), or one of the neoclones like Castles & Crusades, I'd be up for running a short campaign of around 3 months or so.

It'd be one part exploration of dungeons, one part exploration of the world, and one part killing monsters. I wouldn't really take it too much in the direction of a city-based adventure, as my knowledge of medieval technology and life is somewhat challenged; I would do what I feel D&D excels at: helping players -- through their PCs -- explore the unknown, kill the nasty monsters that inhabit it, and claim the best of that dark wilderness (below or above ground) for their own.

Star Hero

I've not mentioned this at all, but I'm quite fond of Star Hero. I'd probably run a military-based campaign rather than a trader-oriented one. Missions, politics, espionage, and a heavy amount of combat. It's the kind of thing that I feel the Hero System excels in -- a set of flexible tactical options that can handle a wide variety of special effects.

Like the campaign that inspired it, I'd have players make two characters -- one for the ground forces and one for the space-based battles -- and let the discoveries and progress of the campaign unfold from those two vantage points.

For ship-to-ship combat, I might use the rules for Starmada: Admiralty Edition.

Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition / DC Adventures

Yeah, I know I'm expected to say Champions given my history with the Hero System. But the sad fact is that there aren't that many players who are willing to tinker with the system themselves and build new characters. Hence the Mutants & Masterminds ruleset which is similar enough to the rulesets most of them know (D20) and a lot of templated archetypes to get started quickly.

If there were some like-minded Hero players, I'd run Champions though.

Or give alternative supers rule systems like Icons or G-Core a try. I think BASH! is another system I'd take a look at, although the classics like Mayfair's DC Heroes and the TSR Marvel Super-Heroes RPG would also spark my interest.

Wars Among the Stars

I hardly ever get to play Science Fiction games. When I do, it tends to be the type of Science Fiction that's mixed with rubber science or even mystical abilities (which I also enjoy, but that's really Science Fantasy and I have Fading Suns for that).

But I do buy and read a fair amount of them (more and more of them in electronic form)! I have stuff from Hero Games and stuff for GURPS. I've got Traveller stuff and the Stars Without Number stuff. I used to have all the Star Wars D6 stuff and all the Cyberpunk stuff. I was going to try to collect all the Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, and Blue Planet stuff but realized I just didn't have that much money.

And I didn't get to complete my collection of Mongoose Babylon 5 stuff before their license ran out, gosh darn it.

RPGs

Here are a couple of games that I'm looking at picking up, even if it's likely that I'll never run them:

I already picked up the Thousand Suns RPG before, and enjoyed its approach toward creating a space opera type campaign setting with a semi-toolkit approach. The d12-based mechanic is interesting as well, though I will say that I'm biased towards bell curve dice mechanics for resolution. I'm looking at picking this supplement up, which gives even more material on fleshing out your own very special space opera setting -- even if I know that there's a new edition of Thousand Suns in the works.

I guess I'm just interesting in things that will help flesh out the verisimilitude of a space-based campaign setting: the trading, the politics, the logistics of daily life on colonies and space stations and starships. And I'll admit that I've often used these details on adventures set on different Fading Suns planets.

Another RPG of interest is primarily on my wishlist due to curiosity. Some of my favorite Science Fiction RPG adventures in the past have been largely military campaigns (hence my interest in the Stars Without Number supplement Skyward Steel), and this particular RPG -- called 3:16: Carnage Amongst The Stars is really just that ("Out-Veerhoeven's Veerhoeven!" said Robin D. Laws).

Not only that, it's been nominated for, and has won several industry awards, so that speaks well for its quality and hopefully playability.

The copy says: "This high-octane Science-Fiction role-playing game for 2 or more players has your Space Troopers killing bugs all across the Cosmos. You’ll advance in rank, improve your weapons, slay civilization after civilization and find out who you are through an innovative 'Flashback' mechanic."

War Games

Fortunately, I do stand a decent chance of actually playing in a war game. There's a local group of gamers interested in playing them (mostly historical though open to new games) that get together on occasion for one-off gameplay. For that occasion, I'm looking at the following:

Noble Armada: A Call to Arms is a wargame that I've mention in this blog before, primarily due to its chosen game setting(s). The old incarnation of A Call to Arms was set in the Babylon 5 setting (which is in fact where it got its title). I was fascinated by the ruleset's flavor, particularly the manuevers -- which were named using the actual commands of the commanding officers of the ships ("Ramming Speed!").

And now that the new ruleset is out, set in the Fading Suns universe -- taking over where the old Noble Armada miniatures game left off, and adding rules for things like boarding actions, I'm getting ready to jump in! I have no idea what I'll use for miniatures and definitely have no budget for that. But coins and cardboard can be used I suppose.

In another corner, a more generic ruleset known as Starmada -- with fantastically lean yet plausible rules for ships that don't mysteriously stop in space when their thrusters cut out (inertia is retained) -- rules for fleet actions have come out in the very clearly titled Starmada: Fleet Ops.

I've only managed to read through the Starmada: Admiralty Edition rules and tried out some solo simulations, but what I read was enough to sell me on the other material for the game.

I want to get more experience in building ships under the rules (which is actually quite easy to do, but getting the feel of the ships right is similar to any type of point-build system) especially since there are many rules (core and optional) to build most of the types of SF ships you see in fiction. You try to get the ships to play as you envision them. But then again, one could think of these new ships as pathfinders for new lines of ships.

Perhaps someday, who knows?