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Author Topic: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?  (Read 4606 times)

Offline Freddy

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Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« on: 23 February 2023, 09:35:24 PM »
So, this one is not about models, but a question of mine (but maybe others are interested too). Do you know a good scifi dungeon crawler system? It must be

-scifi, so lasers and power armour, not swords and spells (ok, we can have psykers :))
-dungeon crawler, so about getting into a weird place, going forward, exploring, killing enemies, gather loot. I look something about classic dungeons (like Space Hulk), but working in an open environment is a plus.
-about a party (3-6 figures) against a dungeon, so not two parties fighting somewhere (like Stargrave or Necromunda)
-good solo/coop system
-good campaign
-tactical (so you have to play the battles on the terrain with tactical decisions, options, etc)
-does not need specific terrain (ok, we will need dungeon terrain, but do not want to to redo my terrain collection for 7 sided magnetic grid with LEDS :))
-does not need specific figures (surely needs figures, but can be played with an existing figure collection)
-not (too) specific for a given setting (you use d20 because the game is explicitly about The Great War Of 20 Legged Spiders From Outer Space)

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks in advance :)
« Last Edit: 23 February 2023, 10:30:27 PM by Freddy »

Offline EdAllen

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #1 on: 23 February 2023, 10:37:51 PM »
For solo sci fi dungeon crawling, I'd go to
1) Space Station Zero - most tightly focused on this theme
2) Five Parsecs from Home, with the Freelancer's Handbook PDF expansion
3) Stargrave, with solo and crawl expansions
All are excellent games, all figure agnostic.
Oh yeah, and
4) Core Space, which includes printed cardboard terrain, good for itself or any of the above

Rogue Stars from Osprey would be another good mechanics system, but you would need to do your own crawl scenario generation, if I remember it right.

« Last Edit: 23 February 2023, 10:41:42 PM by EdAllen »

Offline Khusru2

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #2 on: 23 February 2023, 11:11:30 PM »
Take a look at Geek Gamers on YT. She covers lots of dungeon crawl and RPG rules and games.

Offline Raedwald

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #3 on: 24 February 2023, 06:26:50 AM »
Rogue Stars from Osprey would be another good mechanics system, but you would need to do your own crawl scenario generation, if I remember it right.

Rogue Stars is an option, as it has rules for ‘space wrecks’, including an exploration table to generate random events / encounters as you move from room to room, plus the ‘ship collateral damage’ table to create various potential effects from stray shots from powerful weapons.

Offline zemjw

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #4 on: 24 February 2023, 09:33:52 AM »
Star Saga from Mantic should be added to the list, as it is pretty much their Dungeon Saga in Spaaace rules.

I bought it on sale a year or so ago, should really think about playing a game at some point ;D

Offline ithoriel

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #5 on: 24 February 2023, 09:37:06 AM »
I'll chuck in "Enderain" as an option for solo play.

Mars: Aurora Code is PvP oriented. Nice game but would need work to play solo.
There are 100 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data.

Offline Freddy

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #6 on: 25 February 2023, 10:19:56 AM »
Thank you for the suggestions, guys! Some of these rules I already know, but I will check all of them!

Offline madman

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #7 on: 26 February 2023, 03:09:06 AM »
So what does The Freelancers Handbook bring to the game? Also when I see dungeon crawl I think the old AD&D DM's guide random dungeon generator. How would these games handle something akin to that or do you have to have a dungeon/starship deck plan/etc. already and these games just populate that? I would be interested in a sci fi dungeon crawl but curious how that would compare with what I am used to. Thank you.

Offline shadowbeast

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #8 on: 26 February 2023, 08:09:43 AM »
NOT buying a 28mm WW2 army for the foreseeable. Deal with it.

Offline zemjw

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #9 on: 26 February 2023, 10:47:39 AM »
So what does The Freelancers Handbook bring to the game?

From their page.  The races are basically dwarfs and skaven

Quote
This 66-page PDF-only expansion includes:

Character Options:

Meet two new crew species - the Skulkers and the Krag - and discover how to integrate psionics into your campaign.
New Kit - psionics, new Bot upgrades, new ship parts, and new training options.

Game Options:

No-Minis Combat Resolution - Play Five Parsecs without miniatures or a map.
Expanded Ways to Play - Expanded missions, expanded quest progression, and expanded connections.
Dramatic combat - New combat and weapon tweaks to make your firefights more exciting and action packed.

Scenarios & Settings:

Fringe World Strife - Add chaos and unpredictability to the worlds of the Fringe.
Loans: Who Do You Owe? - Expanded detail for your ship loans.
Salvage Jobs - A new type of mission that lets you explore a site full of unknown riches… and dangers.

I'm sure you could use 5 parsecs for dungeon style games, but it's designed much more with Traveller style gaming in mind

Offline Freddy

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #10 on: 26 February 2023, 11:25:02 AM »
Quote
So what does The Freelancers Handbook bring to the game? Also when I see dungeon crawl I think the old AD&D DM's guide random dungeon generator. How would these games handle something akin to that or do you have to have a dungeon/starship deck plan/etc. already and these games just populate that? I would be interested in a sci fi dungeon crawl but curious how that would compare with what I am used to. Thank you.
A dungeon generator might be a good idea, but since everyone has his own style of tiles/rooms, I am curious how that could work properly.
The dungeon missions from the Freelancers Handbook were available before for 5P.

Offline zemjw

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #11 on: 27 February 2023, 11:41:19 AM »
Also when I see dungeon crawl I think the old AD&D DM's guide random dungeon generator. How would these games handle something akin to that or do you have to have a dungeon/starship deck plan/etc. already and these games just populate that? I would be interested in a sci fi dungeon crawl but curious how that would compare with what I am used to. Thank you.
I had a look at the Star Saga rules and they come with missions and the corresponding layout for them. There was no random generator, which quite surprised me.

However, the corridors and rooms are individual pieces, so there's no reason you couldn't just use a dungeon generator, as Freddy suggested.

Offline Cacique Caribe

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #12 on: 28 February 2023, 05:19:54 AM »
Last time I played D&D was back in 1979, so I’m having a hard time remembering how that is.  Lol.

Dan

Offline ithoriel

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #13 on: 28 February 2023, 05:20:17 PM »
I first played D&D in 1976 and could still navigate you round the first dungeon I ever played in!  :o

Offline fred

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Re: Best scifi solo dungeon crawler?
« Reply #14 on: 28 February 2023, 06:28:24 PM »
If you want to use your own terrain - then my suggestion would be to make a deck of cards to allow you to randomly choose the rooms. I did this for my dungeon terrain - using squared paper it was fairly easy to draw out the rooms and corridors. I then put those on some spare mini playing cards, and sleeved them.

I discard a few cards at the start of a game, then deal a card for each room the party enters, roll for doors, monsters and furniture. Works well.

 

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