ACTA SF - Map Based Campaign?

[AdmiralGrafSpee]

I was looking over my old Federation and Empire rules last night and thinking about a map base campaign system for ACTA SF (which could I guess also be used for Federation Commander). However I think my group would like something simpler than F&E - and also one where we could use our own map.

In know there are lots of generic systems out there, but I love the flavour of F&E especially when it comes to rules about converting ships (race specific rules) and command levels (to keep fleet sizes reasonable and give you good reasons to have a few dreadnoughts).

Is anything like this already out there or in the works?

 

[Totenkopf]

Not that I know of, but if you want to develop something I'm sure it could be put to use for the public and would be great fun

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

You could always go back to B5:ACTA and hit its campaign rules with a hammer a few times to create something workable for Star Fleet. Not sure how well it'd go but it might be worth a try.

 

[Iain McGhee]

You've got Federation Admiral on the way from ADB which is supposed to be usable with ACTA and Starmada as well as SFB/FC.

 

[AdmiralGrafSpee]

You've got Federation Admiral on the way from ADB which is supposed to be usable with ACTA and Starmada as well as SFB/FC.

Tell me more.

I'd consider doing something myself but if something is already out there then I'd rather save the time for other projects!

-Tim

 

[Totenkopf]

You've got Federation Admiral on the way from ADB which is supposed to be usable with ACTA and Starmada as well as SFB/FC.

But the name...

 

[billclo]

There is a variant of Federation and Empire called "Early Beginnings" that is frequently played at Origins every year. It's basically Civilization meets Federation and Empire.

Each player starts off with a starting province, a few ships and some funds. They have to invest in research to get various technologies, and build ships.

I think the game would provide a workable create your own empires and get to it type of game. You could randomly generate the empires as is intended, playing the game until a set point, then use that as the start point for your game. Or you could use it as a basis to manually set up your own custom map.

It seems to tend to generate more small to medium sized battles, than huge fleet actions, though you certainly can do those as well later in the game.

I played a similar ruleset (there are 2 sets of rules, this one which is based upon the earlier ruleset by John Wong) that was geared towards a longer more gradual buildup your empire style of play, and by about Turn 25ish I was having some decent fleets and the fighting was really starting to get going. The ruleset here is geared towards faster action at the Origins convention, wherein we only have 5 days to play.

See the rules here if interested:

http://travellerdocs.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/eb_total_war_4-0_draft6.pdf

And get the Excel spreadsheet to make keeping track of everything much easier:
http://travellerdocs.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/blank-master-eco-sheet-total-war-v4-draft-4_1.xlsx

 

[Sgt_G]

Any chance of getting the spreadsheet uploaded as an XLS file instead of XLSX file? Some of us have not upgraded Office yet.

 

[AdmiralGrafSpee]

Thanks for sharing billclo. I must print that off and digest it. Without giving it proper consideration I can't really tell if its too complicated or not for our flavour.

Our group recently finished of a map campaign for another system. On the first read it seemed almost too simple. We tried it out just in board game mode and found it to be pretty engaging and simple enough that we could put all of the board game aspect online relatively easily.

The problem with that system is that it didn't track individual ships, which is something I think I'd want for ACTA (so you could use those experience/repair rules in the main rulebook). Also I'd want to add stuff in for command limits and SFU race specific stuff.

-Tim

 

[billclo]

Any chance of getting the spreadsheet uploaded as an XLS file instead of XLSX file? Some of us have not upgraded Office yet.

Sorry, that is all I have. You could email Tim Losberg over at the SFU; he could send you a copy. John Wong also has his significantly different version (seems oriented towards a longer empire building type game, whereas Tim's is geared towards Origins play).

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

I think I'll dig out my B5ACTA books are go over the campaign system, and see how feasibly elements of it might work.

 

[Totenkopf]

So guys...why don't we start a brain storming thread about an advanced campaign system using system maps, and have optional rules added fore increased complexity/strategical play or removed for simplicity/ease?

 

[Greg Smith]

I think I'll dig out my B5ACTA books are go over the campaign system, and see how feasibly elements of it might work.

There was a very similar system in early drafts of the rules. I assume it got cut for space.

ACTA NA uses pretty much the same system.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

I'd say a big question is one of scale. Just how big of a campaign map is desired?

A map that represents a local region of vague size?

Or one that spans entire empires? Like the F&E map.

Personally, I think I would lean towards the former.

 

[AdmiralGrafSpee]

Personally I like the hex based maps where you aren't confined to only go down certain lines. My preference would be that the system could handle something as large as F&E but could be playable on a smaller map as well (say 70 hexes in a 2-player game).

-Tim

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

Oh, I wasn't saying it had to be a line based game (that wouldn't make sense in Star Fleet), that map was just something I found real quick as an example of "only a few star systems".

Actually, as a better example of what I mean by "local region scale", how about an old Traveller map I made?

Though it should be condensed down to get rid of most of the empty space.

 

[Totenkopf]

Personally I like the hex based maps where you aren't confined to only go down certain lines. My preference would be that the system could handle something as large as F&E but could be playable on a smaller map as well (say 70 hexes in a 2-player game).

-Tim

What's the real difference between a bigger map and smaller sector maps? Book keeping. A good campaign system should be able to accomodate both, and let the players decide which they'd want to use for their campaign.

 

[Spence]

I'd say a big question is one of scale. Just how big of a campaign map is desired?

A map that represents a local region of vague size?

Or one that spans entire empires? Like the F&E map.

Personally, I think I would lean towards the former.

Personally I like the hex based maps where you aren't confined to only go down certain lines. My preference would be that the system could handle something as large as F&E but could be playable on a smaller map as well (say 70 hexes in a 2-player game).

-Tim

I think it would depend on the actual type of campaign being run. If it is a competitive mini-campaign run at the FLGS as an organized play thing, then a small map in the format like GalagaGalaxian's smaller local region map would be my choice. You would be able to balance the map and movement could be more clearly defined in 'turns".

But for a free flowing extended campaign that doesn't have a specifically defined end or goal is better represented by a map as suggested by AdmiralGrafSpee.

The type of map used is really defined by the type of game. At least IMO.

 

[Iron Domokun]

A hex-based map is simply a special case of a map where you have to follow certain lines (node-and-path type map). The only difference is that each hex has a "line" to each adjacent hex, and most of the nodes are simply empty with nothing of any interest in them. The most important battles will be in the nodes with something of strategic interest in them, so why not leave the other stuff out? If you want more freedom of maneuver, just put in more connecting "lines".

 

[AxisFan67]

You might want to look at our W@S campaign:

http://wascampaign.blogspot.com/

We took the skeleton of this system from SFB and altered the rules to fit with our War at Sea game. I believe this was the Captain's game from the SFB scenarios section of the rules. Let me know if you have any questions. It should be easy to convert to ACTA:SF.