(COMMERCIAL!) We're BAAAAAACK! And We're Having a 20% Off Sale Too!

[BlackWidowPilot]

So let the word go forth! Let your friends, colleagues, best frenemies you love to blow to atoms over a game of Silent Death, and random strangers alike know that we're back, Silent Death is still kickin' it, and to make things even crazier, we rediscovered some lost treasures that have us dusting off an unpublished manuscript, and starting up some very serious machinations to build upon the trend started by the successful release of Bladestorm! 2nd edition, and bring out the first new Silent Death product in over a decade!

So without further ado and just in time for the holidays, here's the sale code to use on checkout for 20% off of the miniatures in our Metal Express online store:    sdgrandreopening

Well don't just stand there gawking at me, people! Grab yer helmets and scramble!*evil grin*



Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
www.silent-death.mx

[robh]

It looks like your website is aimed solely at "preaching to the converted", people who already know the system, know the factions, which ships relate to each other and what each class of ship is for.

As a person who never played Silent Death and know nothing about the game or the factions or models I took a look at the site, admired the large selection of ship models (at least those with working pictures).....and left.

I could find nothing about starter sets, nothing about faction based forces, nothing relating the size or classification of the myriad of ships to each other. Nothing telling me which ships fulfil which role (apart from a tiny snippet in the fluff story) and most importantly no idea what sort of cost I would be looking at should I decide to get into the game.

Which ships there would replace the Heinkels, Dorniers and Messerschmits or the Spitfires and Hurricanes If I decided to game a starship version of the Battle of Britain?  Can you even play dogfight combat with Silent Death??

I think you need to look at the website as an outsider, and consider if that is really going to draw in potential customers who would otherwise look to Star Trek or Star Wars, Babylon 5, Galactica, Space Above and Beyond (I would love to game with those ships) to have a go at gaming starship combat.

[BlackWidowPilot]

It looks like your website is aimed solely at "preaching to the converted", people who already know the system, know the factions, which ships relate to each other and what each class of ship is for.

As a person who never played Silent Death and know nothing about the game or the factions or models I took a look at the site, admired the large selection of ship models (at least those with working pictures).....and left.

I could find nothing about starter sets, nothing about faction based forces, nothing relating the size or classification of the myriad of ships to each other. Nothing telling me which ships fulfil which role (apart from a tiny snippet in the fluff story) and most importantly no idea what sort of cost I would be looking at should I decide to get into the game.

Which ships there would replace the Heinkels, Dorniers and Messerschmits or the Spitfires and Hurricanes If I decided to game a starship version of the Battle of Britain?  Can you even play dogfight combat with Silent Death??

I think you need to look at the website as an outsider, and consider if that is really going to draw in potential customers who would otherwise look to Star Trek or Star Wars, Babylon 5, Galactica, Space Above and Beyond (I would love to game with those ships) to have a go at gaming starship combat.

Rob,

thank you for the constructive feedback! We are a work in progress, that's for sure! Concerning your first point that you know nothing about the game (and at the risk of sounding like the village idiot!), did you read this particular page: http://silent-death.mx/about-silent-death/

That page at least provides a reasonably full history of the game from its original publication in 1990 (at least I hope the silly thing does!). Concerning starter sets, that is a project down the road due to resource constraints. We are reviewing our options including a possible crowd funding effort, but we're forced to continue to operate in proverbial baby steps and half a boot lace budgetary constraints. My personal objective is to get an updated boxed set edition with the core rulebook containing the revised ship design rules and updated faction backgrounds. I do take your point that a better set of clearly stated guidelines needs to be posted concerning what one needs to play, and where to get same.

I like your point that the ships need to be better explained in terms that a new person such as yourself can follow, and I will be actioning that ASAP (and I promise to blame you for adding to my punchlist as you deserve!). We were planning to have a brief bio of each ship in the online store, and photos are being taken as soon as I can round up examples of the remaining ship minis, paint them up decently enough, shoot some pix, and get them over to Sheldon for posting (Dr. Greaves knows the guts of the online store. I am learning the guts of the website and forum systems, along with further delving into the mysteries of my digital camera). So like much of the site at the moment, it is a work in progress, a labor of love, and a part time enterprise as we are all afflicted with fairly demanding real world occupations (phooey!).

Costs of the minis of course you can find in the online store; when I update the About section I'll provide a quick Getting Started section listing basic materials and costs/estimated costs. On this point, we're researching hex mats to see which are the most viable in terms of size of hexes and durability, and are open to working out an agreement with a manufacturer to put the Silent Death logo on one of their mats. Again, a work in progress...

Regarding your idea to adapt Silent Death to the Battle of Britain, I've been playing around with the idea of a WW1, interwar, and WW2 version for years now at least in the concept stage of the matter. The short answer to your question is that fighters would of course provide you with the templates for the BF-109E, the Spitfire Mk.s I and II, and the Hurricane Mk.s I and II (and the Defiant, and the Whirwind). The gunboat templates would handle the bombers, including the Blenheim Mk. IF and Mk. IVF. Pulse lasers would be analogous to rifle caliber (.303 in. and 7.9mm) machine guns. The splattergun is analogous to the 12.7mm heavy machine gun such as the U.S. Browning .50 cal. machine gun. The 20mm cannons of the period are a bit trickier due to the Target Speed Restriction rules in Silent Death. These could be dispensed with or the penalties reduced to allow for the 20mm weapons to engage faster single-seat aircraft, in which case the Autocannon or the Blatgun could fulfill this role. As each weapon has a unique Attack Die and Damage Modifier rating, some logical analysis to create a proportionate outcome that at least give the feel of the period would be in order. Not an insurmountable task, but one that would require some time, careful forethought, and thorough playtesting. i would suggest that the best results would be to use the Silent Death mechanics tailored to the specific combatant aircraft as they related to one another in the specific combat environment.

The other bugaboo would be handling 3 dimensional maneuvering, as Silent Death is a two dimensional "Hollywood space opera" style boardgame. If you don't mind this, then the job of converting the system to 20th century aerial combat is that much easier. If you incorporate a simplified system of tracking altitudes and deflection shooting, you'll probably get a playable if not 100% perfect result. Having worked on a number of conversions for the Metal Express Dice Engine that drives Silent Death and its precursor Bladestorm! including a set of historical WW2 "tank-centric" tabletop ground combat rules, I can confirm that it is a highly adaptable system.

Yes, I and my partners in crime are very much in agreement with you on the importance of looking from the outside in. What you see thus far is just the initial launch to low orbit if you will. We lost our original website maddeningly enough in such a way as to lose all of the accumulated forum conversations, playtester feedback, ideas, and fan contact information in a very sudden fashion (and through no fault of our own). We are therefore in the process of starting anew on many levels, reconstructing or salvaging whatever we can from our respective private archives, and reaching out to the fan base by every practical means at our disposal. We are not quitters, and we will keep fighting the good fight to preserve this fine game, and reestablish it to the level of recognition Silent Death: The next Millennium deserves.

Thank you again for your feedback, Rob. It is appreciated. 

[The_Beast]

...(and at the risk of sounding like the village idiot!)...

Certainly has never caused you to falter before... 

I certainly would never speak FOR Rob, I will point out that I see the word 'about' in a link title, and have come to expect a company history. Kind of thing I would be selectively, and unconsciously, blind about it. Might suggest the wording 'About the game', but that might be problematic as well.

Robh, I'm sure Leland is sincere about appreciating the the feedback, but have to rise to his defense: as he says in the last paragraph, while fully engaged in a day job, they've been fighting for months trying to get a lapsed site registration fixed. Can steal large parts of mind and soul. I speak from personal experience.

Me, I regularly re-purpose SD figs for a number of things, so need less game knowledge, and more piccies! 

REALLY glad they're available!

Doug

[BlackWidowPilot]

Certainly has never caused you to falter before... 

I'm INVINCIBLE!!

I certainly would never speak FOR Rob, I will point out that I see the word 'about' in a link title, and have come to expect a company history. Kind of thing I would be selectively, and unconsciously, blind about it. Might suggest the wording 'About the game', but that might be problematic as well.

Robh, I'm sure Leland is sincere about appreciating the the feedback, but have to rise to his defense: as he says in the last paragraph, while fully engaged in a day job, they've been fighting for months trying to get a lapsed site registration fixed. Can steal large parts of mind and soul. I speak from personal experience.

<groans piteously at the mere mention of the fragged site registration debacle completely outside of their control>

Me, I regularly re-purpose SD figs for a number of things, so need less game knowledge, and more piccies! 

REALLY glad they're available!

Doug

More piccies are coming, lots more, with the goal being every ship in the online store has multiple views, and in the case of those officially adapted to the Star Fleet Battles canon, photos of sample ships painted up in their SFB universe attire. Each ship will receive a short bio, and where applicable, it's SFB bio as well.

All works in progress. As Frank Herbert so sagely observed, one solves problems like peeling an onion. One layer at a time....

[robh]

Robh, I'm sure Leland is sincere about appreciating the the feedback........

Oh, I don't doubt that, we have had a discussion about it since.  I have also been hunting out old forum posts and reviews about Silent Death, there is a lot of coverage over the years.

Sounds like a spaceship game that is not Napoleonic Naval in Space and that really interests me. I will be giving it a try.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Oh, I don't doubt that, we have had a discussion about it since.  I have also been hunting out old forum posts and reviews about Silent Death, there is a lot of coverage over the years.

Sounds like a spaceship game that is not Napoleonic Naval in Space and that really interests me. I will be giving it a try.

It's a space fighter dogfight game played on a hex map. 2D movement alas, but the game mechanics center around initiative which directly affects movement, so you do get some serious jockeying for optimal firing positions especially in multi-player games. The system is far from perfect, but it has an elegant dice mechanic (the Metal Express Dice Engine) that uses a single roll to determine both whether or not a hit has been scored and how much damage has been delivered if a hit occurs. The core rules themselves are about as difficult to master as Monopoly for example. I've taught non-gamers how to play and had them functioning with little to no input from me in about two turns of actual game play. Silent Death is in my own experience just about the smoothest running system for mass multi-player convention games I've encountered (Wings of War/Glory being a close second).

The fantasy tabletop skirmish precursor to Silent Death, Bladestorm!, runs off of the same dice mechanic, and yields much the same practical outcome. Just like in its fantasy parent, in Silent Death every weapon has an Attack expressed as two of the same die type: ie., "2D8."

This may have a modifier for having a greater degree of accuracy/volume of fire for having multiple guns in the same mount, so a quad Splattergun mount is expressed as "2D6+3 Medium" as its Attack value. The "Medium" refers to how you read the dice roll if an attack is successful. Every Attack dice pair is rolled with a third dice reflecting the accuracy and skill of the shooter. This is based on the Gunnery Skill of the pilot or gunner taking the shot. So our quad Splattergun battery is being fired by an veteran gunner, so their Gunnery Skill is an "8" for purposes of our example. This means they add a single D8 to those two D6s every time they take a shot with the quad Splatterguns. So the player rolls 2D6 and 1D8, and comes up with results of a 5 and a 4 on the D6s, and a 7 on the D8. This totals 16, and for our purposes we'll say the intended target has a Defensive Value of less than 16, so a hit is scored.

Now, this is where the "Medium" rating comes in. All weapons have a damage rating of either Low, Medium, High, or All. This can be further modified by an additional Damage bonus of +1, +2, etc. Our quad Splatterguns have a Damage rating of Medium +6.

So, having scored a hit, we read the "Medium" meaning middlemost number of the three rolled to determine the base damage delivered, which in our example is a 5. so the total damage delivered is 5 + 6 = 11. Ouch. If you're a small single seat fighter, that is gonna hurt.

[robh]

Are you doing the ship models yourselves now or are they still coming from RAFM?

[BlackWidowPilot]

Are you doing the ship models yourselves now or are they still coming from RAFM?

Still coming from RAFM. Our plastics come from our U.S. fulfillment center. If you're in the EU/UK you can get the plastic Core Ships from EM4 Miniatures, whose parent company is our manufacturing source (and EM4 is authorized to sell the models retail as "generics").

Hope this helps!

[The_Beast]

Heck, more than I knew, and I thought I was following along really well... 

Doug

[BlackWidowPilot]

Heck, more than I knew, and I thought I was following along really well... 

Doug

I've warned you before about getting target fixation and not watching yer six, Beastie!