Generic ACTA

[Rick]

I have to admit, I do like ACTA as a rule system - it's fast, fun and is a really good game. On the other hand, there are loads and loads of spaceship manufacturers out there that do some amazing models that are not linked to any one rule system.
Why not produce a set of ACTA rules and a design system to allow a generic, open starship game? Mongoose could take out the rules from, say, the NA or B5 sets (without the setting-specific rules), then use general sorts of weapons (such as lasers, plasma weapons, missiles, etc.) - have points 'upgrades' for extended range, special traits etc. that would allow players to modify the weapons, hulls and equipment, for example.
It wouldn't have to be a massive undertaking - most of the issues associated with the existing ACTA games have been with tweaking the fleet lists to get them balanced - with a more generic set all that would be taken care of by the players - just have some design rules to cover the construction of the ships and let them come up with the fleets.
Given that a number of rule systems have started to emerge that aren't tied to a single miniatures line, this could be quite good. An added bonus is that it still wouldn't prevent Mongoose from producing 'setting-specific' ACTA products in the future, it would just add to the ACTA range.

 

[Greg Smith]

That might be cool.

Might be a bit tricky to balance.

 

[Greg Smith]

I'm already thinking about this.

Certain rules might be preferred by different people.

Which movement: B5 & NA or SF

Shields: none, Abbai, NA or SF.

Crew: yes or no. Which affects how boarding is done.

Range modifiers?

Hull score?

Double damage or Multi-hit 2?

Crits: B5 or NA/SF?

 

[Rick]

My thinking is that ACTA:SF is a separate set and the movement/turning rules are fairly specific to that setting, as are shields, phasers, photons and plasma weapons. I think the critical system shared by NA and SF is a good step forward and could be used quite easily; one change might be to have one of the critical tracks as a more general 'special tech' track which might affect shields, command or carrier functions (if fitted). NA's shields, grapples and specific setting weaponry should also be specific to that setting.
As to the weapons ranges and traits, I can quite see an entry for, say; Pulse Cannon - R10/1AD/1 Arc - 3pts: +1 point for Long-range targeters (+2"), +2 points to add twin-linked.
Again, for the Hull scores (I think they should be varied), turning and traits - these would be paid for by the points system, depending on what sort of ship you picked. Perhaps at the start of the fleet building step you could choose one or two racial traits that would be applied (at a points cost or multiplier) across the whole fleet.
I think it might be a very fun and interesting set of rules.

 

[AdrianH]

It occurs to me that Mongoose already has a sort of mechanism for designing your own "ship" - the space station design rules from "Powers & Principalities". You start with a core based on the station's priority level, which has a certain damage score, a few abilities built in, and a number of hardpoints. In a points-based ship design system, you could either have a few preset hulls with fixed damage and hardpoint values, or have the points value of the basic hull calculated from the damage and hardpoint values.

You can then add your choice of modules to give the station its capabilities. Each module takes up a certain number of hardpoints, which keeps the finished product balanced and also means you don't end up with a station that has more guns than could physically fit on it. A ship design system would need to include drive modules. Their hardpoint or points cost would need to be related to the ship's size - a drive capable of moving something the size of a Blue Star at speed 16 would barely move an Omega at all! Additional drive modules could increase either the ship's speed or turn rating. Also add in FTL drive modules. Either have different technologies to choose from; or have a generic FTL drive which can be any of warp drive, jump drive (B5), jump drive (Traveller) or any other - write your own description, it still costs the same.

 

[Da Boss]

I'm already thinking about this.

Certain rules might be preferred by different people.

Which movement: B5 & NA or SF

Shields: none, Abbai, NA or SF.

Crew: yes or no. Which affects how boarding is done.

Range modifiers?

Hull score?

Double damage or Multi-hit 2?

Crits: B5 or NA/SF?

You could do it like a Building Blocks Book - so offer all of the above and allow people to pick and choose the elements that they would like to include - bit of a pain to work out the points costings etc............but could be an interesting book...........?

 

[mojo]

That would be cool- there's a certain galaxy far far away that had some prepainted minis come out only to be saddled up to rules for a two year old... make the book...

 

[AdmiralGrafSpee]

This would be very cool indeed.

I've been trying out a lot of generic systems over the past couple of years. Starmada, Colonial Battlefleet and Full Thrust. They all have their strengths and weaknesses - and have some cool design features.

In colonial battle fleet the "size" of your ship determines how much space/mass you can allocate to it - of course the bigger you get the proportionally more some things cost like shields/armour and drives. Every ship has the same number of weapon locations, but your size determines how many weapons you can put in each location and some weapons can only be mounted on larger ships. There are also "roles" - each ship gets to pick one and it comes with a "package" of abilities and/or bonuses/penalties.

I really like ACTA for the simple movement system (I like the NA more than the SF one) and for the special actions. No doubt both are inspired by BFG, but hey, why not?

I like the point system from Full Thrust. Not overly mathy and it gets the job done. I think they also figured out how to price weapons and how to make it incrementally more expensive (but not overly so) for expanded arcs of fire.

Our go to game for ship design right now is Starmada. Its fun, but man its prone to abuse. I think where things get carried away are the "design your own weapons" and "tech". Tech lets you break the rules about how much stuff you can fit on a ship (i.e. miniaturization) and it usually leads to glass cannons (i.e. not fun). I'm sure you can imagine how crazy things can get if you let everyone deign their own weapons!

What of course is needed is a BIG list of weapons. The more the better - you just can't have enough different kinds and of course they should come in all sorts of varieties!

Too bad I'm years late on B5 - would love to see all the stuff that was in that system.

-Tim