1,851 Reply by mj12games

(166 replies, posted in Starmada)

kehrer1701 wrote:

If you a second, what are the latest revision numbers for the SA products?  I want to compare the core rulebook, Hammer & Claw, etc...to the print versions I have to see if I should invest in the pdf versions.

SAE Rulebook: Revision 2
Imperial Starmada Sourcebook: Revision 1
Hammer & Claw: Revision 0
Dreadnoughts: Revision 0
Iron Stars: Revision 0

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1,852 Reply by mj12games

(9 replies, posted in Starmada)

MadSeason wrote:

Actually, what caught my attention is that the rule says: "If using Option B1: Armor Plating, note that this extra damage takes place even on a roll of 1."

You don't actually expect me to be consistent, do you?

If that's what the rule says as written, then it must be correct. The "extra" hull hit is NOT canceled out by armor plating.

Thus, EXTRA HULL DAMAGE vs. ARMOR PLATING:
Roll 1: H
Roll 2: E + H
Roll 3: H + S + H
Roll 4: S + H
Roll 5: H + W + H
Roll 6: W + H

I'm just not sure that's the way the rule SHOULD be. smile

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1,853 Reply by mj12games

(9 replies, posted in Starmada)

In addition to everything else, a weapon with the Extra Hull Damage trait inflicts one hull hit per damage die. So, in effect, the damage chart looks like this:

1: HULL + ENGINE + HULL
2: ENGINE + HULL
3: HULL + SHIELD + HULL
4: SHIELD + HULL
5: HULL + WEAPON + HULL
6: WEAPON + HULL

Armor Plating "negates" any damage die that comes up 1; thus, not only is the "normal" damage canceled, but the extra hull damage is also negated.

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1,854 Reply by mj12games

(166 replies, posted in Starmada)

kehrer1701 wrote:

Is buying the pdf from your site the same??

Practically speaking, yes. There have been no updates to the PDFs since we started selling direct from mj12games.com.

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1,855 Reply by mj12games

(166 replies, posted in Starmada)

kehrer1701 wrote:

Dan,
question about revision numbers. I see people that say they have one version, but there is another version newer. How do you get those?  Does your site have  funciton that if you buy a version and it gets updated, you can get the newer version?
Does this apply to all the Starmada products?

If you've bought the PDF, you have the most up-to-date version of the rules -- unless you selected the "do not receive update notices" option at RPGNow.com.

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1,856 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

thedugan wrote:

Which begs another question, is FTL communication possible - at least between major population centers - if not between ships?

I don't know ... I would assume so. A galaxy-wide empire would be difficult to maintain without some (a lot of) communication.

..and are there any subjugated races, or are we so enlighted at that point that it's not an issue?

Well, depending on who you talk to, it's either "subjugated" or "liberated"... smile

Seriously -- I see it as a heterogeneous grouping. Some of the subject states joined the Empire "willingly", while others were conquered.

Here's a thought:

The title of Emperor is not hereditary, but elected. There are precious few Electors, and very few of them are Human. This means the Human population in the galaxy (which just happens to be the majority smile) feels left out and marginalized -- so when the Fall happens, the Humans are among the first to see an opportunity. They are the driving force behind the Assembly. While they see this as more representative and "fair", many non-Humans fear being shut out of the power structure.

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1,857 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

go0gleplex wrote:

As demonstrated through history, once an empire expands beyond its communication ability it can no longer effectively govern leading to splintering, division, revolt, etc. Then we have the power hungry machovellians (sp) and intrigue...fleet commanders out on the fringe where the emporers authority is administered by his own fleet ships...

True -- I think there's plenty of reason to believe there will be internal strife that hastens the Empire's fall, but I want the trigger to be external.

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1,858 Reply by mj12games

(46 replies, posted in Starmada)

I'm not opposed to anything discussed here, so please don't consider this an attempt to squelch discussion... but I should remind everyone that the ultimate goal is not to recreate SFB/FC using Starmada game mechanics, but to represent Federation/Klingon ships in Starmada in a manner CONSISTENT with SFB/FC.

A fine, but important, distinction.

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1,859 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

murtalianconfederacy wrote:

Ah, damnit, its Kwahworc Ercnal. Backwards, its the Lancre Crowhawk, a species of hawk in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. If I remember correctly, its other name is the wowhawk, like a goshawk but less forceful. It is a carnivore always looking for the vegetarian option...:D

Yeah... not so sure about naming factions after stuff from other peoples' work, even if it is backwards. smile

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1,860 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

thedugan wrote:

Someone posted something about a guy named "Hitt", you even made a pun about it. That needs some work.

What needs work -- the name "Hitt", or my pun? (Which really wasn't a "pun", strictly speaking...)

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1,861 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

thedugan wrote:

Now, tell me more about the mechanics of how the military arms co-ordinate, and the nature of the threat that destroyed the Old Republic.

"Old Republic"--probably should stay away from that; I think it's trademarked by Lucasfilm. smile

Military arm cooperation: don't know, yet. But I am leaning towards the idea of an "aristocratic" officer class that owes its allegiance to the Assembly itself, with the rank-n-file contributed by member states. The effectiveness of this setup varies with the quality of the officers...

Another thought would be to have a core of "elite" Assembly troops, supported by contributed state troops.

And how advanced/retarded are the successor states in regard to the old republic?

Varies ... but not by much. Merely being part of the Empire conferred a technological benefit, through trade, cooperation, etc. At the same time, the lack of (or reduced) inter-factional competition likely retarded advancement to some extent.

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1,862 Reply by mj12games

(12 replies, posted in Discussion)

thedugan wrote:

Isn't Twitter just a different sort of Blog?

And a blog is just a web page, that happens to be updated more regularly...

Honestly, I don't really "get" the whole "share everything going on in my life with the entire world" thing -- I have no blog, I have never been on Facebook/MySpace... but I might actually twitter. It seems pretty low maintenance, and I think I agree with the apparently counter-intuitive claim that twitter is a "modern antidote to information overload."

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1,863 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

thedugan wrote:

So, this is post-invasion....

I would assume that the strength of whatever central cohesive force/nation(s) has been spent repelling the threat.

FWIW, I'd say that at least one of the main players in the old empire has been "bombed back to the stone age" - that would give us the removal of a main player so that it's collapse is more believeable.

See below -- the Imperial homeworld was sacked/destroyed/whatever. "Back to the stone age" might be appropriate...

I"d have robotic types being led by normals, but having implants is commonly done afte war injuries. Hitt's okay, but I'm not that enamored of some of the details.

Not following you, here...

I can't see an "Emperor" actually existing. Kingships are based on "The Divine Right of Kings", and their assumed superiority. Historically, it's a religious construct.

No offense, but this isn't accurate -- while the Divine Right of Kings did exist in many cultures, it was not a universal concept. Heck, many countries have a King in modern times; few of them still claim to have been divinely appointed. It was abandoned in Great Britain, for example, over 300 years ago, yet there have been lots of Kings since then.

And even if it were true, why would you assume that religion will play any less of a role in the future than it has in the past?

As far as "Emperor" goes, historically the title is given to a King to whom other Kings owe allegiance. Besides, Empires are a sci-fi opera staple...

The UN or NATO without US firepower.....

I'm still thinking about this, but I have always been fascinated by the idea of a neo-feudal military, where vassal states are required to contribute a certain number of troops to the collective defense. It can lead to some interesting balancing acts; for example, the central authority would want to get as much support as possible from each vassal, but not so much from an individual state that its loss would cripple the central military.

Another possibility would be to have the central authority limited to an officer corps -- it would still have to rely on contributions from the vassal states for the rank-and-file...

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1,864 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

murtalianconfederacy wrote:

I nominate the Benevolent and Righteous Empire of the Kwarworc Ercnal (doffs cap to Terry Pratchett)

That looks so much like it should be something spelled backwards, but Lancre Crowrawk doesn't mean anything to me. smile

And why are we doffing a cap to Mr .Pratchett?

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1,865 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

thedugan wrote:

So, rather than develop SFO, we're writing a new setting?

Not necessarily instead of ... but yes, I would like effort to go into this first. Mainly because I'm not sure what I want to do with SFO, and I don't want people getting too far ahead of me. wink

Might SFO be a PART of this new setting? The government you describe isn't that far away.

I suppose it's possible -- but then again, the SFO setting is more situation-specific (collapse of the wormhole network) that would short-circuit a lot of what I'd like to see in this one.

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1,866 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

go0gleplex wrote:

Are followers of Fuzhen Hitt called Hittlers?

That'd be a no...

Hittites, maybe. smile

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1,867 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

First on the list of things to flesh out... the "cybroid" forces of Magistrate Fuzhen Hitt:

Hitt rose to prominence during the wars, having been governor of one of the outlying provinces. While many of his counterparts were content to stay out of harm's way, citing the need to protect their own borders in order to resist Imperial calls for assistance, Hitt not only responded to his liege, he personally led his forces into battle. It was he who directed the defense of Thellas Minor in CR 2288, where his entire retinue was all but annihilated protecting the evacuation of thousands of Imperial troops.

For many years, Hitt was thought to have been killed at Thellas, hailed throughout the Empire as a fallen Hero. But in CR 2291, after the evacuation of the capital, Hitt resurfaced at the Second Battle of the Rim, at the head of his mechanical army -- the origin of which is still a mystery. Hitt and his armies played a crucial role in driving the Invaders out of the galaxy. Once victory was assured, only the treachery of one of his most trusted Generals prevented Hitt from claiming the Imperial throne for himself -- giving the Assembly time to consolidate its power.

Hitt is one of the few Successors who openly refutes the Assembly's right to rule -- he claims to act on behalf of the Emperor in exile, even though his forces have fought with the Golden Legions on several occasions. As a result, he has few allies; and there are few other powers in the galaxy whose differences are so great as to preclude them from joining forces against Hitt when necessary.

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1,868 Reply by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

go0gleplex wrote:

General outline works. Sort of a galactic wide low key civil war of sorts...with the proponents generally generated from the internal crash of the empire, tech levels would be an even keel 0 for development I assume? Or a bump one lower one sort of thing?

This isn't specifically for Starmada -- but yes, that would be the idea. No real powerful factions (otherwise, the political instability wouldn't last very long).

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1,869 Topic by mj12games

(129 replies, posted in Game Design)

With the flurry of activity around SFO lately, and the recent talk of an "official" background for Starmada, I've been giving a little thought to universe development (never my strong suit... I tend to get distracted by shiny things... smile)

With the snow coming down again today (over a foot, with more tomorrow) I've had plenty of time to sit around and think about this. Here's what I've got:

I'm thinking of this as a "Star Wars" type setting, with far-flung empires and vast numbers of peoples and races; so much so that it can only be described in sweeping arcs rather than specific details.

Forgive the vagueness of what follows: very little is fixed in my mind...

A thousand-year empire has collapsed under the advance of an extra-galactic threat. That threat has been eliminated (we hope), but those who remain aren't exactly sure that they want to reinstate the empire as it was. Old rivalries and even older ambitions see an opportunity. A new government of a sort has been put in place, but it is deliberately weak and ineffectual.

Among the factions now at large, the most powerful (and thus the most threatening to the others) is that of the NAME? Think of a conflation of the Borg from Star Trek, the droid army from Star Wars, the Cylons from the original Battlestar Galactica -- fully robotic foot soldiers (or are they?), led by cyborg-type officers, directed by ... WHO?

Another faction of note is the Emperor in exile -- when the capital was sacked by the invaders, the seat of government was moved far away. Most of his old subjects don't recognize the legitimacy of this Emperor -- they consider the exile to be a completely different entity -- but the Emperor believes himself to be the legitimate successor to the old Empire. He plans to reclaim his birthright...

The Assembly is the newly-constituted centralized structure, but it has no power of its own. Although many of the old members of the empire send representatives to maintain appearances, it has not been invested with any real authority. It has managed to establish a military of sorts, but it is little more than a collection of member-contributed units (think the blue helmets of UN peacekeepers).

The remaining factions are ... ? I don't see them as all fitting a particular mold. Some are the noble houses of the old Empire, others are subject kingdoms getting their first taste of freedom in a thousand years, still others are corporate entities who see the chance to make a buck (or a credit).

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1,870 Reply by mj12games

(12 replies, posted in Discussion)

Yeah, but do you twitter?

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1,871 Topic by mj12games

(2 replies, posted in Discussion)

Somebody's squatting on "majestic12games.com". smile

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1,872 Reply by mj12games

(46 replies, posted in Starmada)

thedugan wrote:

Well, Klingon Armada is about the "Star Fleet Battles" (shortened to SFB a lot of places) universe, not the "Star Trek" universe. A fine point, but a contractually significant one.

Yeah... ADB is not allowed to use the word "Trek" in any context.

So I may have to add it to the banned words on the forum... smile

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1,873 Reply by mj12games

(60 replies, posted in Starmada)

Hmm... uploading worked for me first try...  :?:

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1,874 Reply by mj12games

(7 replies, posted in News)

elsyr wrote:

Ok - so tell me - how does Starmada: Dreadnoughts compare to/contrast with Grand Fleets?

The short answer is that Dreadnoughts is a modification of a space combat game meant to give the "feel" of historical wet-navy battles; but it is most definitely a Starmada supplement. For example, every rule in Dreadnoughts is portable to any other Starmada setting with a minimum of fuss. Grand Fleets, on the other hand, is a purpose-built game designed for battleship-era combat.

The two have much in common, to be sure, but also significant differences. For example, Starmada has been (and always will be) concerned primarily with game balance and customizability. Grand Fleets, as an historical game, concerns itself with simulation first.

Part of the reason I did Dreadnoughts, though, was to call attention to the similarities -- if you like the one game, you're probably going to like the other. Dreadnoughts is meant to bridge the perceptual gap; i.e. many historical gamers might not think to try spaceship combat, and vice versa.

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1,875 Reply by mj12games

(7 replies, posted in Discussion)

I didn't say the movie's gonna suck... or that there should be a general boycott.

I'm just ... worried.

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