Rail Gun space ship gaming

[Nathaniel Weber]

Hi, I have a few updates for the spaceship game I’m working on, called Rail Gun. It’s been in development hell for a while, to borrow a phrase from Hollywood, but I’ve had some design breakthroughs and am well on my way to finishing out the playtesting for the basic game.

I wanted a space ship game that took crew quality and training into account and make it a major factor, if not the dominant factor, of the game. Ships are all assigned “Crew Quality,” which determines their movement order, how effectively they hit targets, and how well they avoid damage/repair damage. I’m using a general concept called “Stress” to represent all sorts of minor damage/crew casualties/confusion and limiting actual tracking of damage to a ship by “Damage Points,” which represent the main bulk of the ship.

A typical game has 2-10 ships a side and at the lower end, six or so ships a side, can be played pretty quickly. There is light book keeping, but most of what you have to track comes down to speed, stress, and crew quality. Movement is done by “vector” (to impart that space-y feel) but is 2-d. Dice rolls are done with D6s. Measurements can be in inches or centimeters, depending on your preference and table size. It uses only a couple counters to track effects during a game (mainly, electronic counter measure deployment and the use of high acceleration), keeping the table relatively free of gaming impedimenta. Each fleet must test morale if it is too shot up, and may retreat and then be subject to enemy pursuit.

The game is not intended as a simulation and has what would charitably be called TV physics, but has enough “space” feel, to me at least, to make it feel distinctive from a naval or air combat game.

I have a couple of detailed posts on my blog about the game, including one on crew quality and the basics of ship design, and another covering how fire combat works. More posts will follow as I get closer to finishing playtesting. Thanks for looking.

http://thedogsbrush.blogspot.com/2016/10/rail-gun-crew-quality-and-ships-data.html

http://thedogsbrush.blogspot.com/2016/10/rail-gun-fire-combat.html

[Thuseld]

I have a sneaking suspicion my Christmas money will be used to purchase a couple of fleets of space craft. Or I might rummage in my bits box to throw something together.

Experiments here: http://inexperiencedmodelmaker.blogspot.co.uk/

Tranquil Stars updates: https://tranquilstars.wordpress.com

[Nathaniel Weber]

I made mine out of bits—guns work especially well. I did fold and buy fighters from Brigade, though.

 

Find the Fw-190 fuselage! 🙂

 

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