"Log-less and Roster-less Spaceship Gaming" Topic

Every tactical space game I've played uses a detailed damage control roster for each ship and a movement plotting system. Some also include energy allocation.

Does anyone know if a system exists that uses neither rosters nor movement logs? Maybe just generic damage levels similar to casualty markers in other games?

MB

We use pegboards :)

Technically not different than a log, but for some reason they are more fun…

Plus we streamlined the rules to make the game play well even at a convention where many of the players are new.

These act as the system displays and the movement plots.

picture

Battlefleet Gothic is almost there. It uses a roster sheet, but the actual damage is pretty abstract, and could easily be tracked with counters. The only thing would be kepping upt with what command rating each ship has, because it can vary depending on the ship's captain.

There are games that go ultra big scale, so cap ships are alive, damaged (half stats) or dead, fighter swarms alive or dead and with depending on system either a pack of destroyers and frigates acting as a cap ship, or singles that are alive or dead.

But I've only seen them at shows.

Hyperspace Hack uses damage states, but is only really useful in very large games (40 ships or so). Any fewer than that and it isn't very much fun.

G.O.B.S.! (Generic Outlandishly Big Spacefleets!) should suit your request.

Movement is hands-on; there is no pre-plotting. The game does not use energy allocation, or ship charts, or anything beyond a single stat-line per vessel, as follows:

Name   Class    Size    Maneuver Value   Thrust Value    Shield Type   Weapons

Followed by the damage track:

 S W J/F M T Kaboom 

The damage for each turn is totaled and compared against a chart based on the target's size, and the results are applied to the vessel, in increasing order of severity, as: Shields (Down/Destroyed), Weapons (Damaged), Jamming System/Fighter Bays (Damaged/Destroyed), Maneuver (Halved/Destroyed), Thrust (Halved/Destroyed), or KABOOM! (Ship destroyed), and recorded on the track. However, the damage results from the previous turn don't matter when calculating further damage; hits are not accumulated, and the threshold to damage any given system remains the same. Only the affects on a ship's abilities matter from turn to turn. This means that if it takes 20 points of damage to destroy a vessel, it takes 20 points of damage in a single turn to destroy that vessel, regardless of whether the vessel was damaged in a previous turn or not. (The idea is to allow vessels to keep fighting to the bitter end, while also forcing the opponent to think carefully as to how to distribute his attacks; no matter how beat-up that Dreadnought is, a single fighter isn't going to dispatch it next turn with one measly laser.)

G.O.B.S.! is designed to operate at an admiral's level, which is why the level of detail is deliberately small. An admiral doesn't concern himself with the energy allocations or detailed damage levels of each ship in his fleet; he doesn't have time. He needs to know where the ship is and what tactical capabilities it offers the fleet. Everything else is the responsibility of the ship's commander, so I didn't include "everything else" in the game. The result is a fast, flexible system that can handle very large fleets with ease, since the players aren't bogged down in minutia.

G.O.B.S.! is a free download, so take a look for yourself: thegobspage.com

--- Howard Shirley, creator of Generic Outlandishly Big Spacefleets!

How about a cup full of chits and you pull one out for each successful hit that damages a ship? Bit like DS2 in space. Move doesn't have to be pre plotted at all, but keeping track of your current speed would be pretty essential I'd think.

Oh Garnhamghast, I hope that was a joke – you *know* how popular chits are . . .

Though it's not such a bad idea in some ways.

Haha yes I know but in this instance it's maybe workable, and the chits could go on the ships roster. So they won't litter the starfield :)

Why not use the system found in the board game, Imperium?

imperium's a great system to campaign in,,

but the closests system ive seen that comes cose is ASFOS
which looks very similar to the old general quarters

a very small footprint SSD

the kind of compact SSDs fullthrustanistas hav developed lately seem the best compromise to me

in this instance it's maybe workable, and the chits could go on the ships roster.

This is the same system Wings of War: Dawn of War uses in their WWII fighter game. Works great. Not one person I know of complains about pulling chits in that game. I love it. Check the rules online.

I wonder if maneuver cards could work in a space game with large ships? Hmmmm….

I like the WoW chits idea! I try to avoid them in my own games but it would almost certainly be better than a roster.

Imperium was my very first wargame (summer before 7th grade.) Had no idea what I was doing but came to love that game! That system could be modified for a more tactical game.

As for WoW maneuver cards in space, I've always been intrigued with the idea of using them with Star Wars fighters…

Thanks for the ideas!

MB

There is a very nice fan-made set of Star Wars maneuver cards, damage cards, and plane cards for WoW out on there, it might be on BGG.

I think the old GDW Traveller game Battle Rider was without record sheets. Ship stats were on the counters and damage was chits indicating system hits or Kabooms. Bigger weapons were more effective and more effective hits drew more chits.

G.