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mj12games.com/forum → Starmada → Starmada/Rocketmen
> I think it would be fun to do some retro space opera games
> using the Rocketmen CCG ships. Anyone working on this?
I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it, but no, I haven't started work on anything yet...
John Kantor wrote:> I think it would be fun to do some retro space opera games
> using the Rocketmen CCG ships. Anyone working on this?I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it, but no, I haven't started work on anything yet...
It's funny, when "Pirates" came out, I thought about doing a starship game along those lines - then they came out with 'Rocketmen'
;/
If I were to do a game along the lines of 'Rocketmen', I'd use modified ARES mechanics:
Beams, Point Defense, Armor, Missiles, Move, Cargo, Hull(HP), and Range
Beams and Missiles against armor, Missiles are reduced by Point Defense.
Missiles aren't tracked....ships have simple movement. Scale? We don't need no stinkin' scale....
Any Damage reduces one of the systems.
You could adapt this to the latest incarnation of SFO, actually....
> I've been watching a lot of Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers/Radar
> Men stuff lately, and these are the ideas I gleaned about the genre:
>
>
> Automation - No such thing. Anything that's going to be done
> has to be done
> by a person. Okay, you can have some automation to improve
> what they're
> capable of, but no independent robotic control of fire
> systems, little or
> not automated defenses. Everything is done by the hand of man.
>
> Crew sizes - Typically these ships seem to carry three. In
> Space Soldiers
> (1933), the first Flash Gordon serial with "Buster" Crabbe,
> the ships were
> quite narrow and cramped. In later series, they appear
> roomier, but you
> seldom see them carrying a crew greater than three. Maximum
> capacity seemed
> to be about 7 or 8 people. Think space Mini-Van.
>
> Obviously the reasons for these limitations probably had more
> to do with the
> filmmakers bugetary requirements than any reflection of how
> they thought the
> ships should work, but I'll take my limits where I can find them.
>
> Crew Complement - Again, they had to give each actor a bit of
> business, and
> the way that seemed to break down was Pilot, Gunner and
> Captain. Sometimes
> the Captain would grab a spare gun and shoot some roman
> candles at the other
> ship.
>
> Movement considerations - The ships definitely performed like
> aircraft. That
> was due in part to the fact the effects were achieved by
> puppeting models in
> front of a moving painting, but I think also because that's
> really what
> people were visualizing for rocket travel. I would go so far
> as to suggest
> that the rockets may even be thought of as having some
> anti-gravity drive.
> They took off without the need of runways, the rockets being
> used more for
> motive force than lifting capabilities. Again, this was a
> limitation of the
> filmmakers technology, but it's adorable and I'd include it
> if I could.
>
> Weapons / Defense systems - There is a sense of "ro-sham-bo"
> about the
> weapons systems. They may have magnetic resonance blasters,
> but as long as
> our shields were up, we were defended. Of course, they had no defense
> against our MegaWatt Blasters.
>
> What I'm getting at is that weapon and defensive systems seemed to be
> designed to counter one another. How to include that in a
> thrilling game of
> space combat without making the game a little tedious, I'm
> not sure, but I
> have some thoughts about it.
>
> What do you think, sirs?
What you're describing could be reflected by Starmada as-is, but the 'feel' would be lost.
Starmada is very much rooted in 80s-90s versions of sci-fi, not the pulp 20s-30s era... it would seem to me that in order to convey a lot of what you're talking about we would need something different -- or at least a host of new genre-specific rules for Starmada.
Not that I'm objecting to either possibility, mind you... I'm just sayin'...
If I were to do a game along the lines of 'Rocketmen', I'd use modified ARES mechanics:
Not a bad idea, actually...
You could adapt this to the latest incarnation of SFO, actually....
As if we don't have enough ideas for how to handle SFO...
thedugan wrote:If I were to do a game along the lines of 'Rocketmen', I'd use modified ARES mechanics:
Not a bad idea, actually...
You could adapt this to the latest incarnation of SFO, actually....
As if we don't have enough ideas for how to handle SFO...
I didn't know that the latest idea was that much of a sure thing yet.
We couldn't do the styrene cuttouts like they do, but we could do card easily enough - or 'print your own' cutouts. They might be easier than the things I was trying to do for Jim.....
hmmm...
cricket wrote:As if we don't have enough ideas for how to handle SFO...
I didn't know that the latest idea was that much of a sure thing yet.
Yeah, that's kinda the point...
Several ideas, none that rise to the top -- although that latest game was pretty fun...
> > Not that I'm objecting to either possibility, mind you... I'm just
> > sayin'...
>
> My thoughts exactly. I was sitting down with a friend and
> talking about this, and I thought I came up with an
> interesting idea for the turn sequence. Let me sketch and get
> comments.
>
> First off, you "plot" your movements. Three quarters of you
> stopped reading right there, which is too bad. Let me explain.
That shouldn't be enough to turn anyone off -- after all, you plot movement in Starmada...
> I'm figuring that you can't really have your ship do
> everything every turn.
> You can't maneuver, fire, run the defensive screens, all of
> that simultaneously. Remember, three man crew, that means too
> bad actors and one guy with lines.
What, the guy with lines isn't a bad actor? 
> So, what you're plotting is more general than actual
> maneuvers, fire points, etc. I imagined it taking place with
> cards. Spades = fire, Diamonds = maneuver, anything else = no
> change). You're playing about 3 "turns" behind your ship
> (they're moving at "ROCKET SPEED" you know - much faster than
> human reaction time!) First turn, you lay down three cards in
> the order you want to do them. When you're ready to move,
> both of you turn up the first card.
>
> If it's maneuver, you get to change your speed or direction.
> If it's fire, you get to pick a target and fire. Either way,
> your spaceship is still moving every turn (remember,
> aero-dynamic rocket flight - you can't stop or reverse, but
> you go faster or slower or turn).
>
> After you have turned up the card and performed your action,
> you lay down your next order. So your cards are constantly
> cycling forward.
>
> We discussed some mechanisms for damage and damage control,
> so as you took damage you had to "plot" more turns ahead. The
> idea is you're ship is less responsive, you have to think
> about making it respond.
>
> I honestly don't know how it would play out, we didn't try
> anything. I imagine that on average you could probably manage
> three ships, maybe up to five (again, consistent with Buck
> Gordon to the Moon Genre).
Coolness.
Write it up.
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