A Warp War Campaign

I was poking around over at BoardGameGeek and discovered there's a play-by-forum game of Warp War going on. They're using a variant of the rules and playing on a larger map from Stellar Conquest which should provide a little more scope to the game.

There are four factions slugging it out for galactic domination

1. B.A.S.H. Boskone Aeronautical Space Horde
2. P.O.T.W. People of The Wind
3. RHON Rhones
4. S.M.I.R.S Space Marines in Red Spandex

I'm rooting for the Space Marines in Red Spandex.

And I also discovered that Warp War is still in print. I don't know how this current version compares to the old Metagaming copy I have, but it's good to know it's still available.

Science Police Helmet

Some game stats for that helmet I posted pics of yesterday. In DC terms this is pre-Crisis, Silver Age stuff. The capabilities are conjectural but seem like what future cops would have.

Science Police Helmet (Major Gadget)

15 points Armor (head only); Police-Band Radio; Global Positioning System; Anti-Glare Visor and Ear Protectors (+6 bonus to checks to avoid the effects of Flare attacks and Flash-Bang Grenades.)



These stats are for the free Tri-Stat dX game, but will also work for BESM. To use it with BESM 2nd ed. change the "+6" to a "-3".

Wild '70's helemt

When Mike Grell was working on The Legion of Super-Heroes, he gave the Science Police these groovy helmets. I think the flash-back display is optional, but I bet they have a kick-ass set of built-in headphones.

Space Opera eye candy

By Paul Alexander

Nuclear Winter

Greg Costikyan loves taking the piss out of his fellow gamers. He skewered the mentality underlying most hack-and-slash gamers with Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed. He also took on the post-holocaust genre with this short gem.

Nuclear Winter

The Realistic After-the-Holocaust Game

Credits
Design: Greg Costikyan
Development: Joe Balkoski, John M. Ford, and Nick Quane

(1.0) The 90-Minute War Table

1-4 You survive the first strike; roll on table 2.0.
5-6 You are killed in the fireball.

(2.0) Fallout Table

1-5 You survive the fallout with only minor radiation sickness; roll on table 3.0.
6 You are killed by the radiation.

(3.0) Collapse of Civilization Table

1-3 You survive the collapse of the food distribution network, the marauding bands, etc.; roll on table 4.0.
4-6 You die at the hands of looters, from starvation, etc.

(4.0) Nuclear Winter Table

1-6 A cloud of dust encircles the globe. Global temperatures drop by several degrees. Most plant life dies because it does not receive enough light. The glaciers advance. All animals larger than the rat become extinct. You die.

(5.0) Optional New Jersey Rule

If you live in New Jersey, add one to all die-rolls.

(6.0) Optional Breathing Rule

Each time you take a breath, mark off one breath box. When all six boxes have been marked off, you are dead.

Designer's Notes

For some reason, after-the-holocaust games seem real popular right now. Why is beyond me; I can think of few more depressing environments in which to live. In addition, most such games are patently ludicrous; a few years after a full-scale nuclear exchange, nothing will be left by the rats and the roaches. However, I might as well cash in on the trend, too.

Coming Soon from Costikyan Publishing Empire

RAT AND ROACH WAR

The sequel to Nuclear Winter

Hordes of the Things!

Yesterday James M. posted the good news that the mass combat wargame, Hordes of the Things! (2nd ed.) is available as a free download for personal use. HOTT! is a really fun abstract wargame based on Wargames Research Group's popular DBA/DBM ancient & medieval rules. (I think the name comes from the BBC radio series Hordes of the Things that was a parody of LotR.)

Because they're abstract and use several figures mounted on a single base to represent huge hordes of troops, you can have entire armies using just a handful o figures. The abstract nature of the rules also means you can make an army based on just about anything you can dream up, like a Dr. Who army.

The premiere resource for HOTT was The Stronghold website which had a bunch of army lists and stuff, but it seems to have gone 404. (Here's a link to the archived copy).  If you do play you might want to use these rule tweaks that come from the mailing list:

HOTT is a very well balanced game. There are no uber-elements that are game winners in all circumstances. General opinion, however, is that if there is an elements that's good value for the points it's the Shooter. Likewise Warbands are regarded as a little underpowered.

There is a substantial minority (and a clear majority of the regular contributors to this list) who are using the following modified rules:

Shooters' move in good/bad going reduced to 200 paces

Warbands' move in good/bad going increased to 300 paces.

This makes a surprising difference to the perceived usefulness of the two elements.

Richard C

And don't worry if you don't have models on hand. You can always play HOTT without miniatures.

Keep on Truckin'...

DAD-3A Daedalus