It's not difficult to stat up your favourite gaming troupes using the system, so whilst it isn't giving everything to every player on the plate, it's hardly huge barrier to playing. If BS wanted to invest his efforts into a whole setting etc, I am sure he could have come up with something. I ended up creating many of the W40k factions, including game cards, and they've served me well.
That's very true. And I certainly don't think the game needs a setting (I tend to think that no game does unless that setting's on the Glorantha or Tekumel level). On top of that, I love the 'stat things up to suit the model' approach.
My point, though, is that it's slightly harder to get a game of Rogue Planet going on a whim in the way that you can with Song of Blades and Heroes or Hordes of the Things. It's a small barrier, but it's not an insignificant one. And that means I tend to play it less than I would like. The same's true of Pulp Alley (another terrific game).
The barrier doesn't matter much or at all if you're planning a game with friends at the weekend, but it does count a bit if you decide on a whim to roll some dice with the kids. That's how I do 90% of my gaming, though, so it probably distorts my perspective!
What would really help, I think, is something like Codex Galactica for Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes. That has a list of sample profiles that are in no way restrictive or prescriptive, but do mean that you can decide to play the game
and start playing almost right away. I've had FFoL for only a year, I think, but I've played it much more than Rogue Planet for precisely that reason (I must remedy that in upcoming holidays!).
I think the problem's worse for Mayhem. I love the game, but have probably played it four times in around as many years. It's not that it's a huge hardship to stat up a couple of armies; it's just that it probably takes an hour or two, and you could have had two games of Hordes of the Things in that time. (I know there's a Battlescribe list, but it's hugely cumbersome, I find).
https://southernbermanblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/R40k.html
People are welcome to take 'em, modify them and/or print them up. I've even gone and included pictures :-)
Ah, yes - I referred to your site (but couldn't remember its name) in the thread on Rogue Stars. I cheerfully plundered it last time we played Rogue Planet and will do so again! Many thanks!
One of BS's games I have kept finding myself going back to time-after-time is The Battlefield. So many good ideas in there for gaming.
Aha - I'd overlooked that one. I'll buy the PDF tonight. I don't do any real-world miniature games, but I'm on the lookout for a ruleset that would give a suitably 'gritty' game with my 15mm Traveller stuff. That looks like it might fit the bill nicely. Thanks for the recommendation!
Have you played Havoc at all? I keep meaning to mine out the core of the game from the rulebook, as I suspect it's a brilliant game. I think there was an official QRS floating around at one point, but it no longer seems to be available.
25 October 2014, 05:33:28 AM
