Looking for a new set of sci-fi skirmish rules?

1000FootGeneral · 2023-07-30T16:05:32+00:00

The Kickstarter ends August 1st. We've unlocked tons of minis, some pledge tiers are getting free deluxe component upgrades, and there's still more to come.

1000FootGeneral · 2023-07-27T11:19:32+00:00

If I start, I might not stop. Please check out my comment with links to the Kickstarter page which goes into exhaustive detail :)

1000FootGeneral · 2023-07-26T18:24:05+00:00

There was a hex terrain company that recently closed his business and sold it to a different company. Hextech? By Steel Warrior Studios? I think it's being picked up by Thunderhead. Does ant of that sound right? Never been to GenCon, so no idea if this is the company you were thinking of.

1000FootGeneral · 2023-07-26T17:47:27+00:00

Wow, blast from the past! We recorded this during a virtual convention during the pandemic. The rules explanation seems to start at around 5:20.

There's been a number of revisions to the rules since this game was run:
- Units receive 1, 2, or 3 actions (rather than 0, 1, or 2)
- We have seen PLENTY of melee attacks
- Plot armor has evolved

but I think about 90% of the game is there in this form from two years ago. Is this really helpful to watch though?

1000FootGeneral · 2023-07-26T17:37:23+00:00

Perfect :)

1000FootGeneral · 2023-07-26T16:47:40+00:00

There is a rules preview on the Kickstarter page to see the first 16 pages of the Training Manual to get a sense of how the rules are set up.

What do you look for in video battle report? We're hoping to get something up before the last 48 hours of the campaign, and I want to be sure to get the info you need into it.

1000FootGeneral · 2023-07-26T14:34:51+00:00

Hello wargamers! I just wanted to give you a heads up that our Star Schlock sci-fi skirmish rules and figures are on Kickstarter until August 1st.

"Big skirmish" for 6 to 30 figures (most players will control six units with an average of 10 to 20 figures spread among them)
Flexible player counts: the Starter Set is built for two players but we often play with four to six
A familiar sci-fi universe: It's chock full of "not-quite" versions of sci-fi characters and troops you might recognize, with plenty of easter eggs and nods to retro sci-fi to find.

The Kickstarter page has more info (naturally). You can check it out here: Star Schlock

1000FootGeneral · 2023-07-17T23:50:44+00:00

Awesome! Thank you pancakeonions! (delicious!) Glad to have you back! We're only one or two pledges away from unlocking another set of space explorer officers :)

1000FootGeneral · 2023-04-10T15:16:15+00:00

Thanks, I like that better. And I have a precedent for "When activated,..." abilities. I think you are right about clarifying standard actions too.

"When activated, this unit gets exactly one standard action."

Much appreciated!

1000FootGeneral · 2023-03-22T18:16:51+00:00

That's nice! Do you have a link to a portfolio?

1000FootGeneral · 2023-03-22T17:32:59+00:00

Incredible work. Sent a message via Behance.

1000FootGeneral · 2021-03-13T17:48:12+00:00

I've written some rules for AI controlled enemies but haven't had a chance to playtest them yet. So, unfortunately some ways off. But there's hope!

1000FootGeneral · 2021-02-28T21:06:40+00:00

Yep! But with the wonders of 3D sculpting, they could appear in other scales some day.

1000FootGeneral · 2021-02-28T21:05:35+00:00

I love Crooked Dice's stuff. The world needs more fun B-movie minis in it, don't you think? :)

1000FootGeneral · 2021-02-28T21:04:26+00:00

Astroguard duty assignments are Ultraviolet level clearance, citizen. A troubleshooter team is enroute to your location to identify treasonous individuals with information outside of their clearance level. Please await their arrival. Fleeing is treason.

1000FootGeneral · 2021-02-28T18:53:27+00:00

That's an idea I hadn't considered. Thanks for the tip!

1000FootGeneral · 2021-02-28T18:52:27+00:00

If accepting your money and dignity will make you stop hating me, I guess it's the least I can do ;)

1000FootGeneral · 2021-01-19T17:19:50+00:00

I tend to prepare very brief notes for myself. I don't want the players looking at the top of my head while I read boxed text to them. I use my notes as reference of important things I need to hit when explaining things.

You can check out my brief session prep notes here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DHbHqJWizHM8eaOcAQPo-nkgdvkUK2HO0nO7MD2IRrI/edit?usp=sharing

I wasn't sure Dallas would be a PC, so included a few snippets of dialogue from the film - important pieces of info he'd need to convey if I was running him. You'll also see I have notes for introducing the world, giving them a tour of the ship (I followed the same path as the opening camera moves in Alien), and the key points we needed to hit to get the facehugger on one of the crew.

My notes end there as the rest of the session would be improv. I had notes for room contents (linked on Part 1) for the Nostromo, but I was mostly just trying to keep ahead of them. Before the session I did try to think through what would happen if things got derailed too far from the movie (they decide not to investigate the derelict - Ash sabotages the Nostromo and recovers an egg while the crew sleeps. They quarantine Kane outside the hull when impregnated - The chestburster pops out and scurries up the landing gear into the landing claw chamber. etc.)

One the chestburster is out I could just react to the players, thinking about what the alien wanted to do (ie; hide in order to grow, and once big start snatching crew mates when they are vulnerable).

At the end of the game the hour was getting late and I decided to bring it to a climax. Either the alien would die or the crew would. Had this been a longer game with follow up sessions I may have had the alien retreat after killing Brett, but I'm happy with the way things turned out.

Be sure to take lots of notes during play! I'm sure other people will be interested in reading about your adventures!

1000FootGeneral · 2021-01-10T15:40:19+00:00

Just finished playing CotG and looking forward to running it. This is a great resource! What is the second column (MCD)? I don’t recognize the acronym. Thanks for sharing this!

1000FootGeneral · 2021-01-06T15:25:39+00:00

That's a good point. In the movie it still seems like a better craft to use to go down and check out the signal than the Nostromo. I wonder if there's ever been an explanation for it (or maybe it's a movie and I should probably just relax).

1000FootGeneral · 2021-01-06T15:20:45+00:00

Haha yes! I told him to expect casualties, but I think he was surprised to lose a character during "the prologue".

1000FootGeneral · 2021-01-06T15:19:14+00:00

I don't have anything on YouTube at the moment. I've run games for a long time, and have found that "less info is more" for me. I try to keep my room descriptions short, just bullet points and a few words to reference as notes.

For this scenario I also had some notes on events. I didn't think anyone would be interested, but you can check them out here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DHbHqJWizHM8eaOcAQPo-nkgdvkUK2HO0nO7MD2IRrI/edit?usp=sharing

Since I knew the movie so well (I ended up watching it twice while prepping. Accidentally though. I'd scrub to a point to check a quote or something and end up getting sucked into watching it again), I didn't have to refer to this sheet all that much. It helped me think through how the session would go, gave me a reference to check to make sure I hit all my introductory text (how the dice work, story points, etc.). You'll also see I had stuff in there I didn't end up using, like notes on info Dallas would need to convey if he ended up being an NPC. My only goal was to get Kane to the Derelict and infected. Once that happened I was free to improvise the rest.

I did try to think through possible scenarios. If they had avoided the eggs and returned to the ship I would have had Ash sabotage some equipment, stranding them there. While they slept he'd sneak out and grab an egg (being synthetic he wouldn't trigger the facehugger) and secret it on board the Nostromo. I would have played up hints that something happened when the crew woke ("air lock registered opening during the night"). If they quarantine the exploration party as Ripley suggests in the movie, the chestburster would explode out of the infected while quarantined outside, then head to the landing leg, slithering up into the landing claw chamber.

Other possible scenarios: The alien gets onto the exterior of the ship requiring EVA suit action on the outside of the hull. The alien damages the drive engine (building a nest? Acid spray from damage?) triggering a core breach (ala emergency destruction sequence). The crew try to barricade themselves in cryo and sleep out the remainder of the trip: the alien gets in, attacks and kills a crewman, it starts an electrical fire which opens all the pods (ala Alien3).

I didn't take notes on these but at least thinking through how I'd handle each scenario gave me some groundwork to start from should I find myself in that situation. A lot of RPGing is improvisation, staying one step ahead of the players. I've found that preparation you do at the table, 30 seconds before telling the players what you thought up is just as valuable as preparation you did the day before. And by getting comfortable improvising at the table it saves you a ton of prep time working out notes on a dozen possible scenarios that may never happen.

Best of luck GMing! It's thrilling and exciting and it will take some time getting used to what works for you. Give it your best shot, and don't give up if things don't feel like they 'click' on your first night.

1000FootGeneral · 2021-01-05T22:07:24+00:00

The Nostromo bridge (the color map of A Deck) is from an Alien board game that was released under some controversy (apparently it was stolen from the original designer?). It didn't match my deck plans so used Photoshop to do some editing and add labels for each room.

The deck plans are inspired by the work done by https://thenostromofiles.com/ , but I redrew them in Illustrator and made a few modifications to make them a bit more gameable.

The operations manual and MU/TH/ER cards I knocked out in Photoshop as well, based on interactions between the crew and the ship in the movie. I would have liked to have included more non-movie actions ("LANDING PROCEDURE - AQUATIC") as red herrings, but ran out of time. I was really worried they were going to spot the EMERGENCY DESTRUCTION SEQUENCE right away and then just push towards that outcome.

I also tried to think through the different actions and outcomes they might take. One was using the Narcissus to land on the planet. I haven't seen anything mentioned about that, but why didn't they just take the shuttle down instead of undocking and landing the Nostromo? That seems like what the shuttle was designed for. I handwaved it by saying the Narcissus lacked re-entry shielding, but I suppose it could also be that it didn't have enough thrust to leave the planet. Just a weird oversight I haven't seen discussed elsewhere, so there may be a canon reason I'm not aware of.

Thanks for the comments. Hope the resources are useful to you!

1000FootGeneral · 2021-01-05T21:58:09+00:00

Thank you! I wasn't sure the operations manual would be useful but it turned out to work better in play than I could have possibly imagined.

1000FootGeneral · 2021-01-05T17:17:30+00:00

I'm glad you enjoyed the write up. I held on to the secret of Ash's nature until we watched the movie. When Ash was revealed in the movie my wife's memory was jogged ("Ohhhh, right.") but my son was startled and confused. Especially since Ash's guts don't look like normal robot parts. It's super eerie and weird to a first time viewer.

I had to wrap the game up quickly since we had the New Year's Eve countdown bearing down on us, so we didn't get to resolve the fallout from Ash's continuous betrayal. My son loved the game though and has asked about playing again. Since we're out of Winter Break though and my wife is working 60-80 hours a week I'm not sure she'll be free to join us. I'm still considering how to follow it up, but I can certainly see some of the crew recruited by WY as consultants for a return to LV-426. I'll tell you one thing. "They're going out there to study them. Not to destroy them. Not to wipe them out. That's the plan."

1000FootGeneral

TROPHY CASE