"Star Wars skirmish rules needed ..." Topic

I'm after some skirmish rules, character driven. Have messed around with 7TV, 5150 and my flying lead but not happy. So before I write some anyone know of a decent set/variant out there. Please don't say fubar or the wotc rules as fubar is a mass skirmish and I don't like the wotc rules. Can't get hold of a set of the Weg rules so they are out as well.

Cheers

Savage Worlds a miniatures heavy RPG, Savage Showdown is the express Miniatures rules (and they are free), plus there are a couple of very serviceable Star Wars Fan conversions available…

Pretty sure I have them somewhere. Any links to the fan conversions please :)
Wasn't over impressed with the rules if I remember rightly but worth a look :)

Here is the link for the conversions
link

A lot of folks like Infinity for Sci Fi skirmish. Maybe it would work?

Jake

Infinity is very hard sci fi, brutal – and based on ranged combat. Cinematic close combat is not really it's thing.

A ruleset that is a bit cinematic is the Rezolution rules – I never liked the fluff and official figures but the rules are decent.

I have my own sci fi rules etc not after a new set. Just a set I don't have to do any work with to play SW. :)

Thanks for the links. :)

Flying Lead by Ganesha Games is a really nice game at a great price and a fellow on the Ganesha Games Yahoo group has created stats for many of the basic troopers in both of the main Star Wars Era. He also come up with some serviceable rules for Jedi as well.

As for Flying Lead itself, it's very much a skirmish game where each player takes a squad or so of troops and it generally lasts around a hour once you get the feel for it. The rules use two main stats: Quality and Combat to represent troops. Plus there are quite a number of special rules that you can attach to the troops to give them flavor.

A nice plus is Ganesha Games has a very nice troop editor on their website. You can sit down and come up with the stats for new troopers and weapons rather easily.

Here are some links to check out:

A blog with comments on the game and a short AAR: link

The same blog where the author plays the base rules, Songs of Blades and Heroes, with his daughter- very cute! link

It's not Flying Lead, but it does give you insights into the basic Ganesha engine and how flexible it is.

A link to the game itself and how to get it: ganeshagames.net/modern

A link to the various editors, heck, it's a lot of fun just toying around with them!: ganeshagames.net/download

And finally here is the list for Star Wars: PDF link

You'll have to subscribe to the Songs of Blades and Heroes yahoo group to get them, but that's not a big deal.

Give it a look-see. It's a great engine that is very flexible and is easy to learn.

I wrote flying lead :)

LOL!! Sorry, when I skimmed the original post I missed your reference to Flying Lead. !

That adaption on the yahoo group seems to be workable. Did you write it by chance? I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to. I've tried out several rulesets for Star Wars too and haven't been very happy with them yet, so oddly enough, your rules are the one I'm going to try out next.

But if you're burned out on them then how about Force on Force/Tomorrow's War? You'll have to do the grunt work for Jedi, but the rules themselves would be fairly easy to adapt to Star Wars. Just decide on the Troop Quality for the troops and off you go. Only thing is that Force on Force might be too gritty. The tactics used in the movies would result in a real blood bath in Force on Force. Although, maybe low troop quality would work? Also, tweak armor/defense dice perhaps? Something like a special rule; Stormtrooper Gunnery: troops are poorly trained marksmen and take a -1 die step when shooting. So a trained d8 stormtrooper would shoot at d6? That might be satisfying.

By the way, great job on the rules. I've been reading them over the last few days and I think I've found a simple, but satisfying, rules set for casual gaming with my boys and for quick pick-up games with other gamers. They are great stuff!

Hats off to you, Andrea, and everyone else who put them together!

I know that you know all about FUBAR (have seen you in the message boards) but have you looked at In the Emperor's Name (ItEN), also by Craig Cartmell? It's an individual-level skirmish game, and while the initial offering is 40K themed, there is a new version coming out which will offer a more generic sci fi gaming experience. It is not quite out yet, but you could get an idea of how the rules work by looking at ItEN. Also, a major update to the system is coming out in the next few weeks which should seriously improve many aspects of the game. Last, I know that the generic version will support Star Wars gaming because I wrote the force supplements for those.

2 Thumbs up for ITEN or FUBAR!

Surferdude – what don't you like about 7TV/5150/FL regarding Star Wars?

How about Warengine (formally Shockforce). Very customizable. Fan and Author supported on Yahoo groups. I believe there already is a SW variant on the Yahoo group board also.

Warengine wiki link

Warengine blog darktortoise.com

8)

I've been looking at Gaslight for a conversion, started on it a while ago but haven't gotten further.

Wait a little longer and Scott Pyle (designer of the Goalsystem engine, Supersystem, and the Chaos in Cairo/Carpathia/etc. games) should be releasing Blasters & Bulkheads, a scifi skirmish rules set that will fit your needs perfectly. He did open demo games at Origins, and you can see more on his blog here:

link

Been working on the playtest/editing on this one – I think Scott's got a real winner here. He's really got a good feel for the genre.

How about Forge of War? I'm sure I read a post a while back about a Star Wars mod that someone had written for it.

Yeh B&B looks good :)

Sharkbait – while all three conversions work they don't quite give the feel of SW:
7TV – love the game and have the SW stats I did for them on my blog but the lightsaber duelling just doesn't do it for me. Also would need to SW up all the cards and gadgets don't fit really …
Flying Lead – obviously my favourite skirmish game … BUT again the die v die combat system leaves me cold for SW action .
5150 – closest, esp when taken back to the original format. But not got enough characterisation in for what I want … the new character set may well do though :)

Just going to have to put one together I think …

I would also try WarEngine, or use one of the Star Wars RPG's

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestions for you since mine would have been 5150 & Flying Lead.

As far as 5150 is concerned, I haven't purchased Star Army yet. I'm waiting to see how the new book is received. I like the diversity of the original.

Based on your comments I'd say Star Wars Miniatures Battles by WEG.

John

Yeh B&B looks good :)

Plays even better. I particularly like the way it handles masses of grunt troops, very much like a certain series of movies. The mods he's made to the main Goalsystem engine for B&B really streamline play and character building. You guys are going to love it for Star Wars, Firefly, and pulp/space opera scifi skirmish gaming.

@Surferdude I saw you don't have the WEG rules, assuming Miniatures Battles. Are you seeking same? I think I saw-or-have one at the store, and could put it up on Marketplace.

Edit: Nevermind. They've been going for dirt cheap on eBay, though none up for DC at the moment.

Doug

If you can't even see fit to use your own rules perhaps the problem isn't the rules!

My feelings on rules are – no matter what is shown on TV or in the movies, using rules will show you what should have really happened. Try and recreate any of the skirmish battles in "Pearl Harbor" when they crash land and fight off the Japanese to see what I mean. In the movie they are dropping guys with rifles at 30 yards while on the move using only pistols. I mean, they weren't even aiming,just running and gunning!

You'll never capture the feel without a set of rules that reads like it was generated by alien minds.

5150: New Beginnings. Check your email mate.

Cheers Obi Wan Ed :)

WEG doesn't handle the movie main characters well. No stats for Luke, Han, and others in the books. Good game for grunts. I have all the books.

Rules have moved on a lot since WEG IMHO …

Between 5150 NB and B&B I think we have the SW universe covered :)

Off to roll some force dice :)

"WEG doesn't handle the movie main characters well. No stats for Luke, Han, and others in the books. Good game for grunts. I have all the books".

That's probably reasonably simple to rectify, e.g. either they are invincible, and at most can be wounded or stunned, taking them out of the fight; or there should be a very, very small chance for them to die when hit, say on the order of 10%, or so (otherwise again, they are wounded, stunned, or just made more angry and motivated).

See last night I forgot to ask the key question Light Jedi or Heavy Jedi.

Which is Heavy Jedi then you need super Hero rules, Light Jedi not so much.

Ended up doing my own :)
surfshackgames.blogspot.com

If you know me and want a copy send me an email :)

Hee hee maybe Fantasy Flight need a set now they have the licence :)

If you're still looking six years later, my two suggestions are

1) Rogue Star, it's a sci if skirmish by Andrea Sfiligoi. Similar to Flying lead and his songs games.

2) Gruntz. Though it's really formaomething larger than skirmish it's not bad and it has rules and tools to easily stay up your own minis.

I ended up adapting Frostgrave for Star Wars. Works surprising well.