In space, only Cthulhu can hear you scream

Greg and I ran a short Rayguns! session last night, partially to test out a couple of ideas, partially just for the fun or it, but mostly because I wanted to spring this Aliens themed idea at him. The Rayguns! rules seemed to work fine: turn activation and combat worked as designed, generating plenty of opportunities for the models to do interesting things, generating turnovers quick enough to keep the action rolling, and showing that flow between Rating and Combat points that makes the system flexible. We did finalise a couple of point regarding leaping, so we did some work while we played.

So, a ship in deep space finds itself in trouble. In the passenger section the main bulkheads lock and contact is lost with the crew. The passengers decide to arm themselves from the storage lockers…

And discover that a Xenomorph is running loose int he corridors, appearing from the roofs to surprise, slaughter and then disappear again, carrying the body.

First to experience the terror, the Mysterious Emissary did not have time to demonstrate what his secret power/knowledge was. He was left behind, isolated, and ‘something big’ dropped from the ceiling. He screamed and then was gone.

Not having any Alien models in 28mm I substituted Great Cthulhu. I don’t know what effect it had on Greg, but it scarred the willies out of me.

Next to go was the Trainee Mystic (suck that, Anakin Skywalker – the future of the galaxy is safe from Darth Vader now).

Alert to what was happening, the two Battle Monks set up a perimeter without he two civilians and then attempted to assemble the battle droids. This took a long time, and once assembled turned out to be clunky things that could not keep up with the running and screaming and never once warmed up their lasers.

However, while in the assembly room, the mother alien had a go at the Lead Battle monk. Bad move, as his lightsaber made short work of the monster. But by this time two daughters had spawned, and a lively fight occurred in the corridors. Both the Battle Monk and the civilian went down, but not until they had carved up several daughters.

Alarms started ringing and a countdown began to ship self destruct. At every alien turnover we rolled for a fifty/fifty reduction of six timers. When all counters were gone, we reasoned, the ship went boom. With three to spare, the surviving Monk and civilian crowded into the escape pod, leaving the droids to lumber after squawking, ‘Master, master…’

Was there an alien/cthulhu in the escape pod? Probably, but by that stage we were talking about other things.

So a good and simple game. Not too heavy…

Battle Monk (*2)  6/4 (10), Agile, Seasoned, Inspiring, Multiple attacks. Energised sword +3

Trainee Mystic 3/2 (5), Agile, Energised sword +3. Stun pistol +1

Mysterious Emissary 3/3 (6), Expert, Camouflage suit (did him no good), Needler +1

Battle droid (*2) 2/2 (4), Laser rifle +3

Civilians (*2), 3/2 (5).

*********

Mother Alien 5/5 (10), Multiple attacks, Terrifying, (stealth – special)

Alien spawn (*5) 4/4 (8), Multiple attacks, Terrifying, (stealth – special)

Behaviour rules for the aliens: 1) attack the most isolated human, 2) Reproduce (by taking Stunned or Out of Action bodies away), 3) get out of line of sight.

Rules for alien movement and combat: 1) Spend 1 Opportunity to appear anywhere on board, 2) Spend 1 Opportunity to disappear, but can only do so when out of line of sight, 3) When a foe is defeated, and out of line of sight of any other foe, can disappear, taking body for parasitic reproduction, 4) Newly spawned creatures are subject to all the preceding rules.

Geonosians for Rayguns!

I use the term Geonosian advisedly here – without intention to infringe anyone’s copyright. It is the name of some WOTC (Wizards of the Coast) pre-painted miniatures depicting insect creatures from the Star Wars universe.

As models of generic insect creatures, say the Selenites of the Moon, they are pretty good. They’re usable for that purpose.

Here are the quick stats I have worked out for them using Rayguns!

Soon, I hope to pit some square-jawed adventurers against them. This reminds me: I need to get some of those nifty GW craters.

Geonosian Overseer
Value 4. Rating 3, Combat 1.
Leader
Flying (airmobile). Natural armour +1.

Geonosian Warrior
Value 4. Rating 3, Combat 1.
Move and Shoot
Flying (airmobile). Natural armour +1. Stun gun +1.

Geonosian Drone
Value 4. Rating 3, Combat 1.
Extra
Spear +2. Natural armour +1.

Space Opera – from the Dictionary of TV Tropes

It’s an epic saga of rebellion and romance.
— Trailer for Star Wars: A New Hope

A space opera is a work set in a far future space faring civilisation, where the technology is ubiquitous and entirely secondary to the story. It has an epic character to it: The universe is big, there are lots of sprawling civilizations and empires, there are political conflicts and intrigues galore. Frequently it takes place in the Standard Sci Fi Setting. In perspective, it is a development of the Planetary Romance that looks beyond the exotic locations that were imagined for the local solar system in early science fiction (which the hard light of science revealed to be barren and lifeless) out into an infinite universe of imagined exotic locations.

Space opera has a lot of romantic elements: big love stories, epic space battles, oversized heroes and villains, spectacular places.

Note that this is quite different from the original definition of space opera, which was a derogatory term. It was a variant in a long line of terms for substandard genre fiction: ‘horse opera’ was bad Western fiction, whereas a ‘soap opera’ (so named because they began as hour-long ads for soap) was a hackneyed drama. The phrase was coined in 1941 by Wilson Tucker to describe what he called “the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space-ship yarn”. Weirdly, this means that today many works which were originally touted as examples of ‘serious’ science fiction, such as the Lensman series, are today held up as prime examples of Space Opera. As more authors and writers came to embrace the space opera style, the term has largely lost its negative connotations. Assisted by writers who regarded all tales of action and adventure in space as bad, and so tried to label it all “space opera” in pejorative sense; they succeeded with the label, but not with keeping it pejorative.

Star Wars is probably the most famous modern example of space opera. In Star Wars, technology is either magic (the Force) or slightly faster versions of today’s gadgets (blaster rifles, hovercars, space ships) and the characters would be right at home in a fantasy novel (evil emperor, farmboy, princess).

The opposite of Space Opera is Hard Science Fiction.

New toys for wargaming

Once a movie property has run its initial course, the toys end up in bargain basement stores. What can be $50 when it first comes out can be $10 or less six months later. The following come from Monsters versus Aliens, and also Astroboy (the floating eyes). Both had cute eyes, so I immediately saw the potential for a consistent theme army. I see these matching well with classic ‘Grey’ aliens – bug-eyed little devils that want our women. The big robot was around $5, I think. The little guys were $2.

All have been repainted. I am particularly proud of the eyes.

The mole comes from GI Joe. It’s just great for VSF, or any classic pulp themed game. I forget his price but it was less than $10.

This has been repainted as well, as the original had a clear canopy so you could see the (90mm) figure – no use to me. But at 28mm it looks like an impressive mole. It would fit Thunderbirds as well.

Less exciting, from a discovery point of view, is the Star Wars escape pod from DeAgostini. It is what it is. There was nothing else that I needed to do. But it is a perfectly scaled model of an escape pod, as the AT-43 guys show.

In the background are two aquarium decorations that I picked up as well. These were $20 each, which is still pretty cheap for war-game terrain. And they look just fine. As Second Son declared, ‘you could hide behind the columns, you could shoot between them. You could use your rocket pack and get on top. These are SO cool.’

The slow process of changing religion

Played a SWCMG with second son last night. The difference was that this time I persuaded him to use the turn sequencing mechanism from Song of Blades and Heroes. No more ‘two of yours move, then two of mine, then your next two move’, and so on. We used the one to three d6 roll, making everyone Q4 for simplicity. Everything else was vanilla d20 SWCMG, though I had to interpret a few of the Specials – but having done that already it was no drama.

Within a couple of turns he declared it a much better system. Now he had control of what troops to move and when, flavoured with the thrill of the irregular turnover. Enough luck to thrill the gambler, enough control to satisfy the player.

He still thrashed me, little swine. But at least I felt as if I was playing a game, rather than watching a game that could play itself.

He is still addicted to Hit Points; no matter how much it can make no sense that a character can be shot in the chest over and over again and it have only an incremental deletive effect, I expect I’ll be stuck with d20. But still, slowly but surely I will erode the system and replace the pieces with Songs until it becomes a playable tactical game.

Assassination at the Palace

Zach demanded we use the new Paizo Flip Maps, but refused to use any of the Song of Blades and Heroes rules as he cannot see how anyone gets killed. For my part, I can’t see how Star Wars COllectable Miniatures Game (SWCMG) is anything other than line-em-up-and-knock-em-down. I just cannot figure out any tactical options in that game.

Zach likes it, though, and I’m prepared to play it if it means getting to play anything at all.

So here are a couple of shots of my group of mercenaries kicking in the doors of the Pathfinder’s Lodge. And then getting slaughtered. Much to Zach’s delight.

Paizo Flip Maps – a good thing

Terrain is what makes the difference between a good game and an ordinary game. Beautifully painted figures on a crap amateur board look far worse than pathetic figures on an attractive board. It’s a fact.

I don’t play big battles in 28mm any more, or any scale (except perhaps sci-fi in 10mm, but that’s another story). I have bought Warhammer Ancients, and Warmaster (even built the armies and then sold them), but I do not play them. If I want the big battles I use the hex and block system spearheaded by GMT. Nor do I play D&D miniatures as there are too many rules. Role playing, for me, is an almost entirely verbal story-telling exercise. I have no time for rules.

What I do play in 28mm is skirmish games, and now I have found I play exclusively using rules from the Song of Blades and Heroes suite from Ganesha Games. These are generic to the point of triviality, but what they do have is just enough variability in the turn structure and just enough softness in the actions available that I can breathe life into a game. It is the cross between role-playing and wargaming that I desire – that D&D minis and SWCMG, or anything in the d20 stable cannot offer.

But what of it?

The guts is that it always comes down to terrain. I use a standard 4′ by 4′ table, more than enough for a game. 12′ by 8′ is just showing off: you never use more than the two or three feet in the middle anyway. I build terrain in preference to painting, but no matter how much I get I always feel that one game looks similar to another. Two pipe dream possibilities present themselves: 1) terrain that is so modular that it can serve in a variety of situations, or 2) terrain that is rich but cheap so it does not matter if it only gets used once. Despite my abhorrence of waste, the second option is aesthetically more pleasing.

D&D minis and SWCMG use the printed battle mats. I like this. I like that many are available free – though printing and mounting is a challenge to the company equipment. What reduces the utility of the official product is that they usually come packed with a whole bunch of rules and crap that have no use to me.

Discovery: Paizo have a product called GameMastery Flip Mats that are a good size – 30″ by 24″ and are not packaged with any other nonsense. A size like that sits perfectly in the usable area of my 4′ by 4′ foot board. Around it can be placed linking terrain such as hills, trees, rivers and roads and just by its presence it focuses the eye to the objective of the game. I love them.

Today I picked up Bandit Outpost: company promo shot attached.

What I would like to know is how to take part in the Paizo subscription for more of these maps here in Australia. The product is known here but try and get copies… oi!

Vader stalks rebels on primitive planet

Your lack of faith disturbs me