Rogue star ,osprey sci fi skirmish rules

[sespe]

Has anyone in the USA received their Northstar Rogue Star yet? I was hoping to get it this week

 

Yes, actually.  Except my Dear Wife wrapped it and hid it under the tree, while telling me daily, "Nope, not today...".  Now that I explained the folly of making me wait, I have a rule book!  First read-through done.

[Dr Mathias]

Mine arrived today, looks good so far.

[Cory]

Got our first game in today. The number of modifiers isn't an issue, but the game desperately needs a reference sheet - I will have to finish mine before Monday's game.

The activation system flows well and after the first turn we all had a handle on it. We used the first two sample crews from the back of the book, all in all things went well.

We did find the lack of vehicle rules odd as there are several references in the rules.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Sorry, I posted in the wrong thread

[Predatorpt]

This may come in handy to anyone who still hasn't played the game:

Let's Play! Ep 28 - Rogue Stars from Osprey Wargames

[Manchu]

Thanks for posting that, I love Ash's batreps.

[Predatorpt]

And here's a follow-up on that battle report, from another channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJztZzDi9hs&feature=youtu.be

[horridperson]

Ordered my hard copy today .  It should arrive in mid January.  I'll get at some painting before the rules arrive and worry about building stats around cool models I rustle up.  Thanks for linking the battle report Predatorpt;  That looks like fun.

[Gabbi]

Waiting for official ones, I've made a couple of reference sheets for the game. Nothing too fancy, just copy/pasted all the tables I felt relevant on two PDF sheets. Probably a lot better could be done both in aesthetics and space efficiency. Anyway, I feel they'll get the job done. Since I don't feel confident in distributing them (it's Osprey material, after all) I'm a bit reluctant about uploading them and making them openly available. But if any LAF user will pm me asking for them, I'll be happy to share

[DivisMal]

Downloaded it via Amazon. It looks pretty nice, but also quite fiddly.
Yet from my first reading through the rules, I have the impression that a profile (instead of "skills" ranging from 0-+3), and more ideas for standard races/professions could have massively helped to make it better playable plus the already mentioned quick reference sheet.

[Kamandi]

I've had to a chance to read it but not play yet. I have to echo the sentiments above. I have two thoughts.

I respect Andrea very much and I can see what he is going for here - I really want to try it out - but (you knew there was a but coming) Osprey's one-size-fits-all template does not serve these rule well. Without charts, counters, QRS and character sheets these rules are more than I can handle.

I do have to wonder about the current trend to define characters as a collection of modifiers rather than offer a definitive stat line. Surely "Bob: Activation 5" is easier than "Bob: Hero, [Lets see activation roll target number start at 8 and Hero means +3 ...is that + to the target number or die roll? ...Die Roll? Ok then I actually subtract from my target number so I really need to roll a 5]"

[Manchu]

Stat lines are great when the units in a game can only do a very limited amount of things: move, melee, shoot. Abandoning the stat line allows for more open-ended play - which in turn is suitable to the zoomed-in RPG scale of Rogue Stars.

Also - Don't worry QRS from Osprey is on the way!

[Kamandi]

Stat lines are great when the units in a game can only do a very limited amount of things: move, melee, shoot. Abandoning the stat line allows for more open-ended play - which in turn is suitable to the zoomed-in RPG scale of Rogue Stars.

I wrote something longer, but I think I'm just going to say I disagree Manchu. I'm not sure what "open ended play" is or why it's desirable. Not having a stat line does not necessarily makes a better game. It usually requires an excess of modifiers and special case rules.

I've played most of Andrea's other "Songs of" rules and I understand what he is attempting. I'm just dubious because of the presentation. I'm going to try RS and hopefully enjoy it.

[Manchu]

Sure Kamandi, a ruleset isn't necessarily "better" because it doesn't use - or for that matter, because it does use - a stat line to represent a figure.

Maybe "open-ended" is the wrong phrase? I was just referring to the RPG scale of Rogue Stars, where the rules seem designed to handle whatever comes up as the story unfolds, as opposed to a game where all the options are predetermined by the rules. Anything a Character could want to attempt in Rogue Stars is resolved by rolling TN or higher on a d20, where TN is almost always 10. It's simple but robust.

The price is, there are tons (well, at least "tens") of situational modifiers and the upcoming QRS will be very welcome along those lines. I guess the other thing is, you have to be okay with Traits but if you are a Ganesha Games fan then that shouldn't be a problem.

I came to miniatures gaming from RPGing so Rogue Stars is exactly to my taste. I'm not really surprised that other folks are more skeptical.

[spect_spidey]

I like it, but I really think it could benefit from standard stats. For example, a crew member could have the following stats:

Shoot
Melee
Tech
First Aid
Sneak
Spot
Move
Leadership
PSI

These would cover the majority of the rolls. They would all start at zero and modified by the traits you have. Does your character have marksman level 2? Well he now has a shoot stat of +2. Doing this would allow the model modifiers to be easily calculated prior to rolls. Then the remaining modifiers wouldn't seem so daunting for most people. This is how I have thought about making my crew cards/sheet.