Playing Sci Fi with Sellswords and Spellslingers Rules

[Spinal Tap]

Really love the fantasy solo game Sellswords and Spellslingers and wanted to play it using guns, whether sci fi, modern, VSF etc.

Main problem is minions with guns will waste all your heroes in minutes, especially if you get a few bad rolls.

I've done a sort of partial reskin and most everything is as written except the minions ranged weapon rules. They read as a bit cumbersome but I think it plays easily.

Ran a scenario today and it went well, 2 of my 4 heroes went OOA but survived.

Really enjoyed it and will be playing more.

For those who don't know the game the enemies and events are all driven by a bespoke card deck, enemies are either loners with high stats or minions with lower stats and PC and NPC activations are by passing/failing on D20 rolls as per many of Andrea Sfiligoi games.

I've included the changes for anyone who knows the game and fancies trying the changes.

Here's my version of the Orcs and Slippery Stones scenario.


Stormtroopers and Slippery Containers



Stormtroopers have captured a goods yard close to the spaceport and are holding it until reinforcements arrive from a nearby space station.

The PC’s need to enter the area and perform a search and destroy mission on the Troopers and any supporting Droids.

Rules as per Orcs and Slippery Stones with the following changes -

Foes: 1 Attack Droid per player +1 per

         1 horde of 3 Stormtroopers per player

         2 individual Stormtroopers per player

Traps: Security Trap activates roll a DL11 test to evade. Damage 1 if trapped.
DL11 to escape, -1” movement until healed.

Morale: Stormtroopers will lose morale and start to move off the field with all their actions if all their supporting Droids are destroyed and they are outnumbered. This status can change if further reinforcements arrive or PC’s leave the field.

Scenario Event: A loose shot has activated a security protocol on one of the containers (select at random) and fires an electric charge at the closest figure (PC or NPC).

If the target is a foe then a D20 roll over it’s DL will kill it; if the nearest NPC is in a horde then the whole horde is classed as a single foe and the roll will be against the hordes DL; should they fail they all die.

If the target is a PC then dodge roll against a DL13 or lose 2HP (no armour/shield roll allowed).

Wandering Monsters: Roll D6, on a 1-3 deploy D3 Stormtroopers, on a 4-6 deploy an Attack Droid.

Mana Flux affects The Force.

Things Could Get worse: a storm (that fits the terrain eg. sand, snow etc.) occurs reducing visibility and all ranged attacks add 2DL.



Victory occurs when the field is cleared.








Shooting rules:

When a loner shoots the rules remain unchanged from the rule book shooting at the closest PC.

Rules for minions/hordes has changed significantly from the fantasy rule book.

When a minion or horde of minions shoots each must roll a D20 ‘Chance to Hit’ with an 8+ being a success. Then roll D20’s equal to the number of passed ‘Chance to Hits’ as per the rule book.

This mimics the uncanny ability of Stormtroopers to fire a lot and miss (and also real life where 100’s of rounds are expended per enemy kill).

PC’s in a group – if 2 or more PC’s are grouped together (under a 3” diameter template) within range of the horde then they are classed as a single target for the purpose of the Chance to Hit roll. For each PC over one the shooters add one more ‘Chance to Hit’ die. Once the number of shots on the group has been determined then the player(s) decide which PC’s are being shot at and the individual dodge rolls are made against the horde DL.

Examples:

A horde of 4 Stormtroopers with LOS shooting at a single PC roll 4 ‘Chance to Hit’ die. They get 2 successes at 8+ which affords them 2 on target shots at the PC. The PC will roll twice (dodge roll) against the Stormtrooper hordes DL to complete the attacks.

A horde of 4 Stormtroopers with LOS of a group of 3 PC’s will roll 6 (4+2) ‘Chance to Hit’ die. They get 4 successes at 8+ which affords them 4 on target shots at the group of PC’s. The player(s) decide which PC’s are to be targeted and they perform the dodge rolls against the hordes DL.

It is possible that some foes in a group may not have LOS and will not get a ‘Chance to Hit’ roll but they will still contribute to the overall DL of the groups on target shots:

2 Stormtroopers in a horde of 4 have LOS of a PC, they will roll 2 ‘Chance to Hit’ die. They get 1 success giving an on target shot using the whole hordes DL which the PC will defend as a dodge roll.

2 Stormtroopers in a horde of 4 have LOS of a group of 3 PC’s, they will roll 4 (2+2) ‘Chance to Hit’ die. They get 3 successes at 8+ so both Stormtroopers gets an on target shot using the whole hordes DL. The player(s) decide which PC’s are the target of the shots and make the dodge rolls.

Any excess successes on Chance to hit rolls are always discarded.

In all cases the PC’s may also have armour/shield rolls.



P1300079 by markndebs, on Flickr

P1300080 by markndebs, on Flickr

P1300075 by markndebs, on Flickr

P1300074 by markndebs, on Flickr

P1300073 by markndebs, on Flickr

[mweaver]

Now, that's an interesting idea!  Looks very promising - thanks!

Table and miniatures look great, by the way.

-Michael

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Excellent, thanks for sharing! Just earlier this week I thought about how to turn Sellswords&Spellslingers into a sci-fi thing. Didn't think of changing the shooting rules much, but I like the group shooting rules!

[Spinal Tap]

If either of you get to play the rules please let us know how you get on.

Just for reference one of my PCs was a Force user, not Jedi, no lightsaber. He used the Knockdown spell and the Teleport Friend spell which I extended to being able to teleport enemies and objects up to 2" cubed aprrox. as well as my teammates.

Most spells can easily adapt to the Force or technologies and potions can become single use enhancements.

Or the game can be played without magic, see Sunjester's VSF stuff.

[Mark]

Funnily enough, I did something very similar yesterday. Having started watching The Clone Wars with my 3 (nearly 4) year old, he wanted to play "star wars battlefields" so I caved and bought the Legion Clone Wars starter set.

We did "Orcs and Slippery Stones" with no changes other than the stones became barricades so didn't block los. Obi Wan, Cody and 3 clone troopers against a droideka and several battle droids to start.

I made droidekas pretty fearsome (DL 14, 3HP, 2 damage, 6" move, 3+ save) which made it tricky when 2 wandering monster cards came up in a row! Obi wan died due to some horrific dice rolling on my part and we also lost another clone. The others successfully withdrew.

[Spinal Tap]

Funnily enough, I did something very similar yesterday. Having started watching The Clone Wars with my 3 (nearly 4) year old, he wanted to play "star wars battlefields" so I caved and bought the Legion Clone Wars starter set.

We did "Orcs and Slippery Stones" with no changes other than the stones became barricades so didn't block los. Obi Wan, Cody and 3 clone troopers against a droideka and several battle droids to start.

I made droidekas pretty fearsome (DL 14, 3HP, 2 damage, 6" move, 3+ save) which made it tricky when 2 wandering monster cards came up in a row! Obi wan died due to some horrific dice rolling on my part and we also lost another clone. The others successfully withdrew.

Yeah, without making changes to shooting or having sci fi foes as melee only I don't think the rules are very playable; it's just too easy for your PC's to be killed.

The author said pretty much the same thing, he started on a post apocalyptic version and gave it up.

[Sunjester]

A great looking table.

[Spinal Tap]

A great looking table.

Thank you.

It's all really cheap stuff, the map is a paper one from Wizkids with an extension made from a ruined battlesystems mat I was given and cut up, and the MDF barricades were bought for about a fiver.

The rest is cardcraft, junk, or both.

[number1section1]

It's a great idea! I have been contemplating using Battlespace (a modern warfare solo wargame which is worth a look). Maybe you could loot that ruleset for ideas?
I think if I was to personally mod S&S I would use cards to dictate when the hostiles could shoot.

Great looking table!

[Spinal Tap]

It's a great idea! I have been contemplating using Battlespace (a modern warfare solo wargame which is worth a look). Maybe you could loot that ruleset for ideas?
I think if I was to personally mod S&S I would use cards to dictate when the hostiles could shoot.

Great looking table!

I'm going to run with this one for a few more plays to see how it goes. If it seems OK I'll stick with it for Sci Fi, if not I'll have to check Battlespace out.

For VSF, Sunjester is looking at alternative shooting rules which he may share over on that part of the forum and I have a few ideas for Black Powder games which may or may not work.

[Mark]

Yeah, without making changes to shooting or having sci fi foes as melee only I don't think the rules are very playable; it's just too easy for your PC's to be killed.

The author said pretty much the same thing, he started on a post apocalyptic version and gave it up.

Funnily enough, I didn't feel it was too bad - I had B1 Battle Droids as the other foes (minions) and they were shot down in droves by the Clones - plenty of cover and an armour roll meant this side worked quite well. I need to put some LOS blocking terrain on the table to get a bit more movement going on by the foes, though this was not helped by the fact that almost all foes appeared on the table edge we had entered from - either randomly or due to "They are at our backs!"

I will definitely try a couple more times, especially to see if I can get the jedi working properly. Obi Wan may have died first time out, but that was due to some horrific dice rolling on my part!

I went down this route as I wanted a game that dealt with the assymetrical nature of most Star Wars warfare - whether it be hordes of battle droids or Stormtroopers, it is usually the case our heroes are dramatically outnumbered! SS&SS does this quite well I think, and allows you to build the jedi as pretty deadly warriors.

[Arundel]

Another strange coincidence: I had spent a good bit of time this morning wondering if S&S would work for Battlestar Galactica (1978). It seems it would! Thank you for posting this!

[Mark]

So I had another couple of games this evening solo...

I played Orcs and Slippery Stones and In Search of Rare Herbs. The party won both.

The party was Obi Wan (acrobat 1, quick reflexes, shield 1, leader, danger sense, strong 1); commander Cody (archery 1, martial arts, armour 1, leader); water, boil and hevy (all armour 1).

Orcs and Slippery Stones
As I haven't bought any B2 droids for the Orc Brute level monsters I used 2 minions for each. The party fought their way to the centre of the table, outnumbered the enemy on a number of occasions but reinforcements arrived before an enemy activation! No droidekas turned up, just further B1s and eventually the last droids retreated. Obi Wan, Cody and Boil took a wound each, Hevy took two.

In Search of Rare Herbs
The three herb markers fell kindly, with two being around 6" from the entry edge. However, so were a lot of battle droids! It took a bit of time to get off the table edge but the party dispatched the battle droids and moved up to the markets... both rolls to find the herbs failed! Now they needed to get to the market on the far side of the board. The "hunter" (another clone trooper) showed up and was successfully befriended and the party destroyed all enemies on the table before moving forward. The "hunter" got pretty close to the last marker and all was looking rosy. Then a droideka appeared, right next to Obi Wan! As in the first trial, the droideka took out Obi Wan due to a succession of awful dice rolls. It then turned on Waxer and took him out too! Luckily the "hunter" had taken the herbs and the withdrawal began. Boil managed to get to Obi Wan, who was comatose (phew!) and carried him off the board. The "hunter", Cody and Hevy also extracted, but Waxer was left behind! Everyone in the party had taken at least one wound.

Both games were enjoyable, though I think to make a jedi as fearsome as they should be they need more XP spent on them. As before, monster shooting did not seem overpowered - the clone taken out by the droideka was in the open, so that seemed "realistic" and most shooting by the B1s either missed or was deflected by the clone armour/lightsabre.

[Spinal Tap]

So I had another couple of games this evening solo...

I played Orcs and Slippery Stones and In Search of Rare Herbs. The party won both.

The party was Obi Wan (acrobat 1, quick reflexes, shield 1, leader, danger sense, strong 1); commander Cody (archery 1, martial arts, armour 1, leader); water, boil and hevy (all armour 1).

Orcs and Slippery Stones
As I haven't bought any B2 droids for the Orc Brute level monsters I used 2 minions for each. The party fought their way to the centre of the table, outnumbered the enemy on a number of occasions but reinforcements arrived before an enemy activation! No droidekas turned up, just further B1s and eventually the last droids retreated. Obi Wan, Cody and Boil took a wound each, Hevy took two.

In Search of Rare Herbs
The three herb markers fell kindly, with two being around 6" from the entry edge. However, so were a lot of battle droids! It took a bit of time to get off the table edge but the party dispatched the battle droids and moved up to the markets... both rolls to find the herbs failed! Now they needed to get to the market on the far side of the board. The "hunter" (another clone trooper) showed up and was successfully befriended and the party destroyed all enemies on the table before moving forward. The "hunter" got pretty close to the last marker and all was looking rosy. Then a droideka appeared, right next to Obi Wan! As in the first trial, the droideka took out Obi Wan due to a succession of awful dice rolls. It then turned on Waxer and took him out too! Luckily the "hunter" had taken the herbs and the withdrawal began. Boil managed to get to Obi Wan, who was comatose (phew!) and carried him off the board. The "hunter", Cody and Hevy also extracted, but Waxer was left behind! Everyone in the party had taken at least one wound.

Both games were enjoyable, though I think to make a jedi as fearsome as they should be they need more XP spent on them. As before, monster shooting did not seem overpowered - the clone taken out by the droideka was in the open, so that seemed "realistic" and most shooting by the B1s either missed or was deflected by the clone armour/lightsabre.

I'm either not as lucky as you or I'm just no good at tactics, probably the latter.

I tried Through the Badlands yesterday as just a standard game to see how it would go with 4 characters.

By halfway through the game I had about 20 Stormtroopers and 4 Large Droids (orc warrior and orc brute stats) as well as a Huge Battle Droid (troll stats) a long way away though and no concern.

I then drew 'They are at our Backs' for another 4 Stormtroopers followed by 'Monster Frenzy', 18 troopers had LOS as did 3 droids.

That was 21 shots at my 4 PCs and enough to take out 3 and leave the other wounded.

Next turn I got 'Horde Activates' and that was that.

I'm not sure I find low level armour trait that useful and may try something else. If a character has Armour +1 against a PC shooting with DMG 2 I've still got to roll over 14 for it to deflect the shot. If a character is subject t 4 shots then it's a stretch to roll 14+ four times.

Strikes me that Dodge, though more expensive what with having to combine it with Acrobat, might be the better trait to power up in shooter games.

It was fun while it lasted though.

[Mark]

I decided against trying Through the Badlands due to the number of reports I have read about how hard it is to win!

Tactically, I have found using Obi Wan to be very hard due to the long threat range of the enemies - I have to hop him cover to cover and ambush enemies when confident of getting into combat. As a result, most of the threat tends to be dealt with through blaster fire rather than a swinging lightsabre...

LOS blocking is really important too... although the photos don't really show it well due to my need to build some proper Star Wars terrain, the rocks blocked LOS and were distributed less evenly to cut down long fire lanes. Adding in some barricades so cover wasn't too far away meant most shots from the B1s were dodged - and with only DL8, D1 shots, the armour wasn't useless if a shot did sneak through. Droidekas are a different matter, but that is true to the source material!