"Looking for a decent system for SCIFi games" Topic

To start with just to deal with tracking the battles on the planet.

If it could be expanded later that may prove helpful.

Need to track units, and armies.
Movement on the planet.
Some form of logistics.

Looking for players having to decide how much to risk to try and win an objective, and needing to preserve the fighting force for future battles.

Tired of one offs where no one cares if 90% of the forces are disabled when the objective is done.

Anything out there these days?

GDW Invasion Earth

link

The Stars Without Number sci-fi RPG has some interesting sandbox campaign books (there are fantasy versions too), and I recently picked up "Starvation Cheap" as a scenario generator and background system for 6/15/28mm sci-fi battles.

I've been through the book and made some notes on how I'd adapt it for miniatures versus an RPG, and I think it'd work well. It does include things like having the players play multiple roles (high level decision makers and on-the-ground grunts). It doesn't have maps per se, more abstract movement to deal with crisis points.

Link is here: link

There's a space navy version too, but I haven't picked it up.

The key thing is for the players to realize that there is a tomorrow and you have to preserve your forces for it. I have been involved in five campaigns using the fairly basic campaign rules in LaserGrenadiers. A file of the rules is available at:
link
In each of these campaigns conserving your forces while depleting the enemy forces has been the key to success.

Our first campaign involved us competing against each other to be the first to pursue pirates and marauders across a large island to retrieve a stolen data module from a downed spacecraft. The campaign lasted six campaign days and required a lot of decision making on when to split up forces to broaden the search and when to concentrate them to fight a battle. Any major losses could unhinge the entire effort.

Another campaign took place on a large, sprawling island continent with several mountainous spines. It lasted 17 campaign days and included nine battlegroups on each side. The campaign ended with several battlegroups converging on the enemy forces making their final stand in their fortified base.

Two campaigns are on hold because my opponent now lives 800 miles away. We had a "starward" campaign going at his house and a "spinward" campaign going at my house. When we visit each other we can still have a game or two, but that has really fallen off due to family and work.

A current campaign takes place on a large peninsula divided in half by a civil war before the two major stellar coalitions took sides. A border incursion from the north led to all-out war. When the war began the players did not know what the enemy battlegroups had in terms of men and machines. So the first contacts had the effect of reconnaissance in force actions. When the opposing forces were about to meet in a space on the map both players revealed their strength. It was not unusual for one player to decide not to fight and concede that space on the campaign map. However, that player now knew what the enemy battlegroup contained and could attempt to maneuver his forces in future turns to defeat it. The campaign goal is to capture as much enemy territory as possible before a ceasefire is imposed. It is now Day Eight. The southern forces have pushed relentlessly into northern territory and are now facing fierce counterattacks. The northern forces are limited by their earlier losses, but the southern forces still have to take care to keep their stronger battlegroups at the points of their offensives. As the campaign has unfolded the coalitions have fed in additional forces (as reinforcements – gradually, as they get painted). The ceasefire could come at any time (when my wife remembers where she wrote it down).

I'd put in a recommendation for the booklet Wally Simon's Campaign Secrets of Wargame Design (#4 in the series), which offers a dozen different articles describing a variety of campaign mechanics -- including point to point, area, and other movement and a variety of point systems for production -- that can be adapted to most any campaign, including sci-fi.

Full disclosure: I edited and published the booklet, and there is no specific sci-fi campaign within, but a variety of Ancient to Zulu-era campaigns. Cost $19 USD from On Military Matters in US and (I think) 15 pounds from Caliver Books in UK.

I've run two sci-fi campaigns -- one based on ground battles across a galaxy of stars (spaceship FTL movement was via a spacebucks payment system to a star guild-ish monopoly) and another with player-as-emperor sending ships and troops across the galaxy. The latter used an Excel spreadsheet to track ships and troops. Both used economic points for captured planets, although the latter added cities as production centers. The former used tabletop battles to resolve combat. The latter (being that the players were space emperors) did not -- they just got the results of the combats.

For a single planet, another fellow used a Games Workshop boardgame (forget what it was called, but long out of print) that had areas and cities, each with point values. As I recall, grab an areas and grab the points, funneling them to a supplied city (which took one turn to 'repair' after capture) for production. Simple, but it generated a number of games that had ramifications.

The biggest problem is when a player gets zapped in a game or games early. Then, with little chance of winning, he essentially resigns. Or, the players turn turtle and the campaign goes on and on until they lose interest. Problem with multi-player campaign games all around.

Many Thanks all.

Will look over all the suggestions.

Goal is to have 4-6 players, have a starting political lines drawn, and each player have a set of Objectives.

Not just take the planet.

They will gain more clout from the "Home Worlds" as they complete objectives, some are long term some will be like:
A crashed recon droid is in the area your action is taking place, retrieve the data core as well as all other current missions.

My hope is using these Objectives for replacements and new units, rather than Mines and Cities would help keep folks in the long term game.

One could lose many battles but still have met the needs and be only sightly behind.

If Neither are being met the GM could give that faction a few easier Tasks or a Special Unit to get things back on track, that could be reassigned at any time, like during a battle.

Such a fine line of enough record keeping to make it work but not so much it becomes a chore.

Thinking one might just need to make a board game for it almost.

Thanks again for ideas all.

Some long years back there was a very good space campaign game called Imperium. Out of print now I think (worse luck) which handles budgets, land & space battles, simply and well. if only you could get a copy now !

Thess might be the Imperium rules parrskool is referring to, the old GDW Traveller boardgame:

link

If so, they might be a bit beyond the operational scale the OP is looking for, as these are for multi-system/star sector level operations. Ground combat and movement is very abstract.

Willing to look at any and all.

Leaning towards a board game style one atm, with GM for story, events and such.

I don't think my suggestion will really work for what you're aiming for now that I see more on what you want to do. Stars Without Number and its supplements is pretty abstract, using qualitative tags for things, with some quantitative stats for force sizes. The main rules have a free version to give you some idea of how the Starvation Cheap system would work: link

Just bought Strike legion. skimed it looks good.

link

The vault has a blue book version that is free. and the core rules are cheap for battles.

There is also no end in sight and Five core at the vault with Sci Fi variants.

@Boy wundyr x,

Picked it up,seems to have some good ideas.

Only issue was no PDF in the download just ebooks.

Stars without number is avb. from drivethrurpg in PDF

Thess might be the Imperium rules parrskool is referring to, the old GDW Traveller boardgame:

If so, they might be a bit beyond the operational scale the OP is looking for, as these are for multi-system/star sector level operations. Ground combat and movement is very abstract.

At least, you have large military units moving across a planetary map. 7-37 hexes for a hemisphere is abstract, but a start.

Prefect for Renegade Legions did this, sort of, with a lot more hexes per planet.

When you get to the planetary/star empire size, take a look at Victory by Any Means.

Doug

Beast,

The version of Imperium I linked to doesn't have planetary maps like the ones you describe. The ground (and space) combat is very absract – basically each player has a stack of chits representing combat units (ground forces are represented at the level of Divisions…) and the players take turns facing them off against each other, then rolling on a combat results table to find out the results. It gets the job done for finding outcomes of planetary invasions, but there is very little detail.

I think we must be talking about two different sets of rules. I've never seen rules for the Traveller setting like what you describe, using the geodesic planetary maps for large scale troop movements.

I would love to get a set of rules like that – if you have any links or anything please share!

I agree about Victory by Any Means providing a good set of rules for empire-level campaigns. I haven't seen the new version, but I have the previous version and it had lots of good ideas.

5th Fontier war: Invasion Earth is the Traveller universe boardgame that has hex-based strategic warfare on planetary surfaces, which is the game TNE2300 pointed out in the first response to the OP…

It is available through RPGNow:

link

Belated apology. Imperium Third Millennium has the 'hexed' planets. I'd seen them for a long time in JTAS, so was confused into thinking it was a carryover from the original.

Invasion Earth's display of Earth is on a par with RL's Prefect's. I don't think Fifth Frontier War had any.

Ah, they have the FFW cover in the sales page. Dopey them.

Doug