AAR - "The Great Escape" - first game!

[Manchu]

Played my first game of Rogue Stars yesterday and had a blast. I saw someone ask on the FB page whether a group of merchants would be worthwhile - so I tested it out!

A spy hiding out with some smugglers needs to catch a shuttle off-world. The only problem is, merciless robotic police are onto her and closing in. Can her rag tag buddies help her slip the noose this time?

Find out here:

http://lifeonjasoom.blogspot.com/2017/01/rogue-stars-aar-great-escape.html



We had a great time but it is obviously a game that takes some practice so you can get into the groove of it and remember the details. This game took us about three hours but we estimate that we could get it down to two with some experience under our belts.

[Suber]

That's a great display. Do you happen to know who makes those tiles? The board looks pretty appealing to me

[Manchu]

Tiles are from a Kickstarter by Games & Gears. I don't believe they make them any longer, as the KS was a bit tough on them.

[vodkafan]

 Manchu, I enjoyed your report, and the scenario was a challenging one. I noticed that in your game, as in our second game, critical failures and successes (which we had thought would statistically hardly ever happen) made unexpected things happen at absolutely crucial moments, adding a lot of flavour and fun. For instance, my friend's character teleported into a solid wall on a blind jump and was instantly killed, and was also carrying an important bit of equipment which was lost.
I agree that a 3 x 3 playing area can seem like a pretty big space to cross in this game when under stress and being fired at!   

[Manchu]

Yes, those natural 20s made a big difference for me! Mike and I both critically failed a number of activations but the biggest issue there was my Doc lost his cover because he ended up a sitting duck and took a wound and two pins. I have read the complaint that it is too hard to put opposing Characters OOA ... but after my first game I think that doing so is really not the point. Those three markers gave Mike a nice head start on seizing initiative whenever I was active player, making a very tough choice for me: pursue the mission objective or rally/heal Doc to blunt Mike's advantage in seizing initiative? In this case, I went with the latter and I like to think it made a difference, since Mike did not like the odds of trying to seize the initiative over reacting with some snap shots at the fleeing agent.

[wulfgar22]

Lovely looking table and game.

[Juan]

Fantastic game table and great battle report, really interesting and useful, because this is very "natural".

[Malebolgia]

Awesome report and good to see the G&G boards in use. A real shame they're not sold anymore...but the KS was a real disaster. Too bad.
The Deadzone scenery works very well with the Anime boards! Are you going to shade the boards? It's such a shame they sent bare plastic with painted chevrons and some black areas. The city board I have was not too hard to paint since the roads are just straight lines, so easy to mask. These Anime boards look like a real challenge to paint with those angles and curves!

[Daysman]

 very nice table !!

[Manchu]

Thanks for all the kind words!

@Juan - Can you explain more about what you mean by "natural"? That is a really intriguing comment!

As to the G&G tiles ... these belong to my gracious buddy Doug, same as all the terrain pictured. I think he wants to eventually put a wash on them but it's just not a high priority at the moment. I think he originally planned to use it as the hull of the SDF-1 for Robotech RPG Tactics (another rough KS).

I have a set of the G&G tiles, as well - the 28mm urban, seemingly the same as you Malebolgia. They will appear eventually once I get my post-apoc/zombie act together.

[Gabbi]

Great looking table, love the tiles.

[Juan]

@Juan - Can you explain more about what you mean by "natural"? That is a really intriguing comment!

Well, I can try... For me, it has been natural or neutral because, reading it, I have not found preconceived ideas about the ruleset, only your comments and opinion. Reading your AAR I can see the lot of potential "Rogue Stars" has.

Thanks!

[Manchu]

@Gabbi - cheers, the tiles are cool for sure; it really is a pity they are OOP

@Juan - thanks for the explanation; I am really glad this AAR came across that way; my goal is to just give people an idea of the kind of game we had using the rules - it's up to them whether they are looking for something similar

[supervike]

Nothing better than a game that tells a story.

Well done.

[racm32]

It really seams like the players who are enjoying these rules more are the ones who really take advantage of the mission generator to tell a story and play it from that perspective. Instead of say just rolling it up and going at it with no more thought put into it.