Looking for small team rules suggestions.

[Dentatus]

I've had fun with Pulp Alley in the past. Easily adaptable to SF setting.

[eMills]

Maybe Void Pirates? Excellent rules set for cool cinematic games.

http://www.four-colorstudios.com/void-pirates.html

Blasters and Bulkheads is also a good option.

[n815e]

Oh, Pulp Alley is a contender for sure.

[racm32]

I'd rather not have to modify any existing rules just yet. Galactic Heroes sounds like the best option. I'll give it ago and if it does not quit scratch the itch I'll look at some of these other fine suggestions.

[n815e]

Not that I’m trying to be a salesman or anything, but Pulp Alley is good straight out of the box for just about any setting where you want to play out heroic, action hero types of games.

[racm32]

Okay then pulp alley will sit as my backup option.

[Maniac]

Like others have said, Galactic Heroes.  I've run it with my kids and easily incorporated Flash Gordon Hawkmen, Imperial Storm Troopers+Vader, Halo ODST, and others.

For Christmas they'll each get a crew (Captain Kirk and crew for my son, and a jedi with clone troopers for my daughter) of their own.

[mkultra99]

Galactic Heroes
Does what you want and is fun and cinematic to play 


It has a campaign?

[Pattus Magnus]

Galactic Heroes does have some basic rules for campaign play. Victory points from scenarios (called Reputation Points, maybe? I’ve forgotten the term used in the rules) can be spent to add figures to the crew, or abilities to existing crew members. There is also a roll to see whether or not out of action figures return to the crew for later games. It wouldn’t be difficult to bolt on more chrome to the campaign, if that’s your preference.

I get the impression that the campaign rules were meant to support the narrative, following a crew through multiple games, rather than focus on individual characters’ stat increases. It doesn’t seem to be a ‘rpg-lite’, level-up sort of system.

[racm32]

Are there any downloadable markers for Galactic Heroes?

[Skullhamma]

The markers can be printed out from the rules PDF.

I agree that GH is a very good system for your needs.

Void Pirates and Blasters and Bulkheads also fit the bill.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Somehow Rogue Stars seems to get a bad rep. I bought the rulebook at a show, but haven't tried it yet. Should fit what you're looking for really well, and I really like the SoBH system (including Sellswords and Spellslingers).

I'd like to throw in 5150:Star Army and/or Chain Reaction in general. Excellent set of rules, suited for coop or solo play as well.
Or just use Flying Lead or Mutants and Ray Guns.

[Pattus Magnus]

Based on my experience with Rogue Stars, I think there are two main things that put people off.

First, there are a few example characters and crews statted up in the rule book, but nothing really “general purpose”, so the players have to sink time into creating profiles for every figure they want to use. In my case, my opponent was my kid, so I ended up spending a lot of time coming up with profiles before we could have a game.

Which brings me to the second thing - Rogue Stars added a lot of chrome/finicky details onto the SoBH game engine and it plays much more slowly. I played lots of SoBH with kiddo and we like how fast it plays; it feels cinematic. At the end of our first game of Rogue Stars, kiddo said to me, “you know, if we were watching a movie where that game was a scene, what we took an hour and a half to play would have been two minutes”. The second game was much the same, with a different scenario - not very cinematic.

At that point, we both lost interest and went back to SoBH... and we’re looking at Galactic Heroes for sci-fi Games.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Fair enough. Seems like I'm putting that first Rogue Stars game off even longer.

SoBH (or ASoBH for me, because there are really good bits in there) is a great system and always is a good laugh.

[has.been]

PM you are correct. Rogue Stars IS very fiddly & involves a lot of stating up. I have found it
slow to play, however if you only want to play with one team, investing the time is fun. The other
bonus of sticking with just one team, is you start to remember all the intricate bits (rules & factors) that apply to YOUR team. Things that I have forgotten during my games include:-
Don't teleport the only guy who has the lock picking equipment as no-one else can get in;
Let the figures who DON'T need to breath go past the poison gas plants;
Keep the only medic AT THE BACK, so he doesn't get shot &
(My personal favourite, which amused my opponent) Keep the expert on
aliens occupied trying to hack a robot while (at the same time) while the high
level tech expert wrestled alien flora AND fauna.

Galactic Heroes is much more my style.
1) Paint up 3 to 6 Sci-Fi figures (ANY)
2) Work out that 'team' (5 minutes tops)
3) Play game (with like minded friends)
4) Laugh a lot & feel like playing again (Maybe with 3 to 6 new figures)