"Quick (Non-Play) Review of Hyperspace Hack" Topic

ok! Just got my copy of Hyperspace Hack and Speed-read it.

Here are my initial impressions.

Combat should be straightforward and easy to play. Emphasis on fleet Morale is an interesting mechanic. Terrain mechanics are simple, and there are a few optional rules for "Sci Fi" weapons that should be fun.

I imagine large battles should be playable very swiftly with a fair amount of hooting and hollering.

Now the Bad news.

Very, Very expensive for what you get ($30).

At roughly a Dollar A Page I expected at least a dense amount of content, scenarios and, perhaps copy and print markers and a Cardstock Resolution chart. No such luck.

Large type, a huge amount of freebie cut and paste art (with one piece that takes 1/4th of a page used as a header
18 times).

No rules for space stations or static system defenses.

This is bad because they state:

"If "it" is not mentioned in the rules, you cannot do it, No matter how you argue."

The system appears only to be useful to play out large fleet vs fleet battles. There are no Ship design rules, being limited to only what you are presented with.

No Scenarios to speak of. Very vanilla.

as it is, I cannot recommend this game for $30. USD If it were scaled like Wessex games "Aeronef" game rules in a smaller format for $10-15 with most of the filler art culled out (Because most of it is bad and REALLY does not add to the flavor, in my opinion) I would give this a nod as an interesting set of rules to try out. As it is, I am very disappointed and actually wish I had not ordered it (And I am a rules junkie, as many of you know).

I had initially thought I would give a soft review, but i gotta call it as I see it. $30 USD is 50% too much for this game.

If you want to see what can be done for less than $30, check out Majestic 12 games Starmada AE as an example. Chocked FULL of goodness for $24. USD

My 2 cents.

I would also like to add that I am a BIG believer in 1-man small press efforts. Finding the "Diamond in the rough" small press gem is one of my favorite delights as a gamer.

Once I play a game or two I'll post again to see if my no-purchase recommendation stands.

I'd also like to make a general commentary as a professional Game Designer.

Don't get chatty and cute with the people who are reading your rules (or playing your video game). At best it gets old quick, at worst it wastes people's time and valuable space in your game. Burying personalized "cute" narrative inside rules descriptions does not help. It hinders.

Don't get chatty and cute with the people who are reading your rules

Save that for the Designer's Notes or some portion that is not in the rules

Exactly, Saber6.

In this case the rules devotes 3 of it's 30 pp to Chatty non-game-rules designer stream-of consciousness in addition to the chat buried inside almost every rule section.

I really (really) want to like the game but it violates almost every credo I hold dear as a designer.

Make your customer feel like he got a Bargain, no matter how much he spends. If you do that, you have won.

The customer does not care how you personally feel about ANYTHING.

Another violator of my somewhat anal Chattiness rule, IMO, is STARSHIP! by Flagship games.

However, they make up for it by having a TON of depth in the rules and support everything up to and including a whole strategic system.

I forgive them their "Zorlak says" bits because they make up for it by providing tremendous value for the $$.

There are other faults with the STARSHIP! rules (such as no pre-made ships or scenarios to aid in your initial rules run-throughs) that cause it to have a steep learning curve to put the players through. Once you make 6 or 7 ships, though you can grok the system pretty well.

Sounds like there may be no rules for bombarding planets into submission then either.

If true, that takes all the fun out of taking enemy solar systems.

Wow. For a game I've heard so many people get excited about, that does sound like extremely poor value for the money if its as described.

Be interested to hear some post-play thoughts to see if the system's brilliance makes up for its shortcomings.

There are no rules dealing with planets, gravity wells, or anything, other than a "Hazardous terrain check" that range from "Nuisance" to "Impassable" and all that does is increase the move cost and interfere with firing.

Planetary bombardment (or any interaction with a planet) does not exist in the rules. I suppose you could easily rules-lawyer something together, but for $30 USD you should at least get a 3-sentence rule like:

"If in range of a planet, you may fire on it, automatically hitting. Each planet has a number of Damage Points assigned by the GM. Once the Damage points are gone by applying your ship's Attack Factors, the planet surrenders."

That took me 20 seconds to make up and write.

Only Warlock –

Any chance of a real review of Starships…?

You put more on Starships in the review of Hyperspace Hack than I have seen to date.

Thanks for this review as well!
Art

LOL ok, Strap in.

STARSHIP! is by Flagship games and has been out for many years now.

it advertises itself as a 3D Starship combat game and it is (Sort of).

It treats Fire arcs as 2D constructs and height as if every ship involved is level to each other. No pitch up or down.

That can be good or bad. Actually, on balance I think not having tilt negates any benefit of 3D maneuver. Much simpler at that point to play 2D (Which you can with the system)

Where the game's strength lies is it's starship construction depth, it's "Race generation" rules and its overall strategic system.

The construction system is pretty deep with lots and lots of weapons. Energy weapons (About 10 variations), kinetic weapons, Missiles, Torpedoes (Physical and energy), Spinal Mounts Fighters and Mecha are included.

Having said that, it has a very curious weakness. There are no examples of ships. They tell you how to construct them, but there are no example ship sheets. There are no scenarios in the game either. Considering the complexity of ship construction it is a glaring weakness.

They take a leaf from the old Renegade Legion games by having rows of armor you have to blow through (after you get through shields). every class has 10 columns of armor, with light ships only having a depth of a couple rows, to Dreadnaughts which might go 10 rows deep. every weapon has a width and depth of armor penetration. It gives a chance of obtaining a lucky hit in a weak spot that I've never seen in any space combat game except some of the Renegade Legion series by FASA.

I would recommend buying the game simply for the empire construction system and Race construction system. It's fun and really adds character. Want to play the Borg? you can. Want to play Space above and Beyond? You can.

It's pretty slow though. Don't count on playing more than 4-5 ships on a side and getting through a game in an afternoon.

If anyone wants more detail, ask away.

Also, I'm only going to say this once to all of you.

You know who you are.(lol)

If you play space games, you should own the following games.

Full Thrust (It's free now, but worth $30 USD at least. Get More thrust and the fleet books, too.)
WarpWar (old pocket game by Metagaming. So much fun.)
Starmada: Admiralty Edition (Trust me. Download the free ship generation spreadsheet, too.)

Games I love, and highly recommend, but you need to be a Grognard to appreciate:

Star Fleet Battles/Federation Commander
Starfire 1st/2nd edition (simple game, but is really Brutal. Don't get attached to your ships)
Attack Vector (Ad Astra Games. Ken, i love your stuff, but these games scare my engineering staff. LOL)
Squadron Strike (Ad Astra. More approachable than Attack Vector, but similar hurdles for the faint of heart)

Just found the thread…thanks for the feedback. To reply…

So…have you played Hyperspace Hack?

I had four, new, never-saw-the-rules-before admirals play at Historicon -- did 21 ships each (84 total) in 52 minutes for the basic game (no optional rules, Average crew). After the first turn, none of them needed me for rules mechanics, just a measurement ruling or two.

We've played a lot of the other rules sets you mentioned above, but all of them are tactical. Hyperspace Hack makes you think like an Admiral, not a Captain.

Nothing wrong with tacticals -- we game Full Thrust and SFB too -- just that if you have a box of 25 or 50 ships, they're going to stay in the box most of the time.

Hyperspace Hack puts them all out on the table for massive battles (great for campaign games, too -- optional rule 16.9).

As for price, publisher LMW Works is small press with about 20 titles (one of which is mine, of which I get royalties every time a HH is sold). Yes, LMW has to compete with GW and others with larger budgets that can print thousands of copies versus print on demand, which is much more expensive than offset.

As for a consumer choise, HH competes with all the others for your gaming dollar. I make the same purchase decisions, too.

But I will ask how much money do you have tied up in lead/pewter/plastic ships and how much time painting them up? And how much time do they spend sitting in a box?

Hyperspace Hack gets them on the tabletop.

The "genius" of any rules set is not how many pages it is, but how clear it is, how many times you can pull them out for a game, and how enjoyable it is. Is it adaptable to your ships? Does it have room to grow beyond the basic game with optional rules?

HH's focus is "Ultrafast Spaceship Fleet Battles with Miniatures" like the subtitle says. The basic game is indeed ultrafast when 84 ships battle in under an hour.

True, no design-your-own-ship rules. No individual weapons. No charts showing every system on a ship. It wasn't made for that -- "Think like an Admiral, not like a Captain."

No space stations? Hmm. That would have been an intersting optional rule -- shooting up Babylon 5 might be interesting. Divvy it into sections of differing Attack Factors. Have to noodle on that.

As for: "Planetary bombardment (or any interaction with a planet) does not exist in the rules."

Try page 28, rule 16.14 Big Assault Laser (BAL). You don't need to keep track of any firing points when your AnnihilOrb (ANO) can blow up Alderan. Ultrafast way to deal with rebels.

On the other hand, if you ran 21 ships in FT or SFB, how long would it take? How much time would you spend flipping through stat sheets trying to cross off just the right box? Or trying to look up a rule for one special weapon per ship?

Hyperspace Hack cuts through all that and lets you game with all your spaceships. All of them. In an evening.

It's obvious you like tactical spaceship games. No problem. Plenty to choose from.

And if you are looking for a tactical game, HH isn't it. I do include optional rules for restricted fields of fire, turning radius, ammo, fuel, miracle engineers, and so on for those that wish to add it. But it will lengthen the game time.

But if you're looking for big battles playable in an hour or two, then Hyperspace Hack is the only rule set I found that will do that. The tagline remains: "Think like an Admiral, not a Captain."

Happy Holidays to all from deep space…