First games of Rogue Planet - and thoughts on using it for Middle Earth

[Hobgoblin]

I picked up the Rogue Planet rules by Brent Spivey some time ago, but hadn't played the game. This week, though, I gave them a read through and statted up some sample units. And yesterday morning, my son and I played through a couple of games.

And what games they were! We started with a 200-point "patrol" game. One side consisted of lizardmen with axes and shields, lesser lizardmen with bows, a dinosaur rider and a higher-tech leader with a blaster. The other had only three models: a giant ape with power glove and machine gun, a humanoid (ork) leader with chainsword and blaster, and a small humanoid with a pistol (counting as a "fantasy weapon" like a bow). For the second game, we gave each leader a pair of "pawns" - fire support for the humanoid and defenders for the lizard, and added a giant robot and a tyranid on one side and two more dinosaur lancers on the other.

The rules are "science fantasy", but more fantasy than SF. By design, close combat is as effective as missile fire, which gives the game a fantastical, heroic vibe. As in Ganesha's (excellent) Battlesworn, movement is limited only by straight lines and scenery. Weapon ranges are unlimited.

We were most impressed by how the game played out. Here are my initial thoughts on it.

It's fast. The free movement means that engagements happen very quickly, even on a scenery-dense table.

Although Rogue Planet is notionally IGOUGO, it breaks up the conventional turn as well as any game I can think of. Because the player without the initiative can spend action points in his opponent's turn (intercepting, counter-charging, opportunistic fire, etc.), the non-active player is never not involved. And because counter-actions often drain the active player of action points, turns are usually very short in any case. Very often, both sides use up their action points in the first player's turn.

Resource management is a key part of the game. You have action points (either a default 3 or best of however many D6 you are entitled to roll) to manage (do you use all of yours or save some for your opponent's turn?), and you also have energy points. These are basically collective "lives" for your force - you can use them to negate kills. But you don't get many, and you have constantly to weigh up the risks of taking early casualties with saving energy for later. So although the mechanism is abstract in the extreme, it's a very engaging and effective one.

Suppression is handled very well with the "opportunistic fire" rule and various other weapon-specific effects. A well-placed shooter can frustrate your opponent's plans nicely.

There are some really unique rules. Pawns are miniatures that represent a hero's henchthings: enforcers, guards, familiars, etc. They don't have a concrete existence in the game (other than visually), but give the hero extra powers and "lives" that are stripped from him as he takes damage. It's a somewhat odd concept, but we found that it worked very well. It certainly adds to the heroic feel of the game, as loyal guardsmen die protecting their lord.

Groups (of four models) work in a similar way - they're effectively single individuals that have four "lives" represented by miniatures on the tabletop. This sounds a bizarre abstraction, but it's a terrific way to handle asymmetrical games. So you could quite easily pit 40 orcs against a handful of heroes and have a perfectly well-balanced game. The integration with the movement rules is also done simply and seamlessly.

The interaction with terrain is terrific. Certain units can throw others into scenery, and you can activate dangerous scenic items to attack your opponent's forces. There's plenty of scope here for Old Man Willow or the Sarlacc or any number of similar things. And collisions play a big part in the game. Much glee came from the successive charges of the dinosaur riders, which had devastating effects until they charged a big, heavy robot ...

I've played the same designer's Mayhem and Havoc, and enjoyed both. Although Rogue Planet is conceptually similar to Havoc, the rules are much more akin to Mayhem in their accessibility. And I think it improves on both in one key way: "time to table". You have to stat up all units yourself (as in Mayhem), but this is really easy - three stats, an armour rating and any weapons or special traits.

My son tells me that our next game will be played with his Nexo Knight Lego people ...

[Grumbledook]

Great to see a bit of a battle report for this ruleset, even if it's just to illustrate some of the key aspects of the game. I also bought the rules quite a while ago and have yet to play a game.

At only 24 pages long these are very much my kind of rules and the sheer scope and variety of options possible make for a pretty huge range of scenarios. The cover image of a guy with pistols and a sword blazing away at a gun wielding barbarian riding a pterodactyl pretty much sold it for me!

My favourite quote in the book has to be:

"Because it's cool and lends itself to awesomeness"

Works for me.

I also always like the provisio that battles are to be playable at any scale with any miniatures.

I've done a fair bit of trawling on the interwebs and have so far found little in the way of AARs, which us a shame since I think the system could really produce some pretty exciting and fun narratives and campaigns. Deserves much more attention I think.

[Vermis]

I've done a fair bit of trawling on the interwebs and have so far found little in the way of AARs, which us a shame since I think the system could really produce some pretty exciting and fun narratives and campaigns. Deserves much more attention I think.

Trouble is it's not the object of a kickstarter with a spam campaign, concept art like something out of a 90's Rob Liefeld comic, a billion not-GW/not-Halo PVC gummy bears for 3p, a zillion stretch goals and freebies funded by happy thoughts and thin air, and some breathless fanboy in a Beasts of War video doing an 'unboxing' and looking like that time Mr Bean got a model ship for Christmas and crooned 'look at all the gunnns...!'

Ahem. Yes. Thanks Hobgoblin. Nice to read a good description of the game. It all sounds like something I'd enjoy.

[Hobgoblin]

I also always like the provisio that battles are to be playable at any scale with any miniatures.

Yes, that's something that this system does really well. It's a perfectly decent ruleset for "medieval" fantasy battles too - it's suggested in the rules that the flamer rules could be used for breath weapons and so on, so you could play excellent low-tech games with it too. There are as probably as many rules for low-tech weapons as for high-tech ones.

I've done a fair bit of trawling on the interwebs and have so far found little in the way of AARs, which us a shame since I think the system could really produce some pretty exciting and fun narratives and campaigns. Deserves much more attention I think.

Couldn't agree more.

Vermis: yes, there's an echo or two of Mayhem in the rules: default or danger in the action-point roll, for example.

[Hobgoblin]

One more thought on Rogue Planet: with its built-in mechanism ("groups") for numerically asymmetrical games, it would be a great system for doing something like Boromir's last stand at Amon Hen. You could very feasibly have Boromir as a (relatively) superpowered hero (with "power" weapons to give him an extra edge and more energy points) and the two hobbits as either pawns or lesser-powered units.

If they were pawns, Merry would probably give a close-combat benefit (brute? After all, he cut off some orcish hands and arms) while Pippin could just be a defender. Their loss would represent capture by the orcs.

If they were individual units, they could be relatively powerful to reflect that orcish orders to take them alive (and Merry's prowess with his barrow-sword). And the orcs wouldn't be allowed to target them with missile fire (which might actually be an argument for them to be pawns instead).

Meanwhile, the orcs would largely be groups - the Isengarders more powerful than the Northerners - with perhaps just Ugluk as an individual leader. He could have a couple of "fire support" pawns to reflect his ability to control orcish archery (see, for example, his attempts to stop arrow wastage in Rohan).

I think this would work pretty well, so long as the table was densely packed with thick-trunked trees, boulders and slopes.

[Argonor]

This all sounds rather interesting.

I may have to check out those rules, as I am in a kind of dry spot regarding futuristic gaming at the moment (lots of fantasy/semi-historical projects going on).

[Argonor]

So, I've purchased and downloaded the bundle.

What's the difference between the e-book and the 'derelict planet edition', please??

[Hobgoblin]

I bought the print version of the original from Amazon. The "Derelict Planet" version is a lot more lavishly illustrated and (so I'm told) has a better layout. So it's the latest version. Did you get the QRS in the bundle? If so, it's worth joining Boardgame Geek to get it, as it really helps.

[Argonor]

QRS is there, check! 

[Jagannath]

I love Rogue Planet! It's a ruleset that I've only tinkered with - I really want to make some specific models for it, it's the set I've got earmarked for an 'inspired by Masters of the Universe' project I'd like to do one day. Really inspirational rules.

[Comsquare]

I love Rogue Planet! It's a ruleset that I've only tinkered with - I really want to make some specific models for it, it's the set I've got earmarked for an 'inspired by Masters of the Universe' project I'd like to do one day. Really inspirational rules.

What about using it for "Tomorrow Kings" 

I used my "Dark Age" minis to play Rogue Planet, for my they fit perfectly 

[Jagannath]

Oh god, don't remind me - I still have some wargames factory sprues sitting in the 'box of guilt' awaiting that project! D'you know, when I was shopping for Rogue Planet minis I thought Dark Ages would probably be a great fit. Rogue Planet is one of the few things tempting me away from 15mm at the moment - i love the scale but will admit that it doesn't cater well to over-the-top dynamic minis well,