Tabletop Babylon 5 War game?

[Traveller-61]

i was wondering if you could have a scale to this part,
that is; if all player characters were on larger ships, then fighters fights could be resolved at a more simplistic level,
but if characters were piloting fighters or other small craft a more detailed set of damage rules could be slotted into it for that situation.

in FT/EFSB you just rolled a die to determine number of fighters destroyed, in B5Wars you had to destroy several systems per fighter for a kill,... a relaible way of swithing between the two, depending on wether any characters were involved, might help the speed of play for the game.

I think this is a great idea!

A friend of mine used to run all NPC ships on a simple light/medium/heavy damage system (stolen from JB007) and PC ship on the charts from Renegade Legion: Interceptor - it worked very well with quick battle results but detailed effects on the PC ship.

Perhaps Mongoose can work on a dual system - simple for big battles or dealing quickly with NPC ships and something more detailed for the PCs.

(and please don't go for the PPGs just because I want to give you even more work! :lol: )

DW

 

[Jal]

I think this is a great idea!

A friend of mine used to run all NPC ships on a simple light/medium/heavy damage system (stolen from JB007) and PC ship on the charts from Renegade Legion: Interceptor - it worked very well with quick battle results but detailed effects on the PC ship.

Perhaps Mongoose can work on a dual system - simple for big battles or dealing quickly with NPC ships and something more detailed for the PCs.

glad to know i wasn`t talking gibberish! :lol:

i suddently had this image of three large ships plus twelve flights of fighters (six fighters to a flight) all involved in a battle and only having two to six PCs (all flying fighters) involved in it.

the amount of damage allocation for all of those other fighters would be a real pain in the neck to work through, tying up a lot of time and possibly disrupting the flow of the game.

 

[redlaco]

I actually designed a spreadsheet for randomising Initiative, adding modifiers, and then sorting the list of ships by initiative order (with the player's name next to it) but not everybody can bring a lap-top to the table.

I would love to see that spreadsheet; it sounds really useful.
Is it available somewhere on the net ?
TIA

 

[ronbogard]

Mayhem wrote:

but not everybody can bring a lap-top to the table.

Thats why I am getting one.

 

[El Cid]

What I do to speed play is run the PCs ship(s) in detail and apply damage to the rest of the forces proportianally based on the PCs success.

 

[Mayhem]

I actually designed a spreadsheet for randomising Initiative, adding modifiers, and then sorting the list of ships by initiative order (with the player's name next to it) but not everybody can bring a lap-top to the table.

I would love to see that spreadsheet; it sounds really useful.
Is it available somewhere on the net ?
TIA

I've got it kicking around somewhere, but, to be honest it isn't hard to write your own.

You need a colum for Player Name, Ship ID, Permanent Init Mod, Temporary Init mods, Dice Roll, and Total.

Permanent Init mods are for things like ship modifers. Temporary modifiers are for things like speed modifiers. The dice roll column is for a D20 simulating formula. The total is obviously the sum of the 2 inits mods and the D20.

Then all you need is a screen-button, set up using one of Excels nice easy macro wizards, that recalcs the sheet and then sorts the list into ascending "Total" order.

Mine also included an automatic turn counter (just shows a number that is incremented by one every time init is recalculated.

****

I'll add it to my site when I can, but my ability to make an FTP connection with m host seems somewhat intermittent.

 

[redlaco]

I've got it kicking around somewhere, but, to be honest it isn't hard to write your own...

Many thanks Mayhem for the cues, guess I'll be preparing my own version for the upcoming game then.

 

[ronbogard]

I can not wait for this to come out. I have a huge vorlon fleet.

 

[Mayhem]

Here you go:

http://homepages.manx.net/mayhemsmaps/init.xls

It can only handle 35 ships in its current form, but that was enough for most games, I found. It was written more for playing with several players each with a small fleet, rather than 2 players each with a humungous one.

If you change the name of the spreadsheet, you will need to change the name in the "First Turn" macro (which does a random roll, but sets the turn counter to 1).

 

[redlaco]

Hey Mayhem, you just made my day by providing your spreadsheet!
Thank you so much for saving me a few hours.
As I'm not that familiar with Excel macros, it would have taken me that long to figure it all by myself). 8)

 

[Mayhem]

Hope it works for you - I didn't use it much.

 

[Traveller-61]

Hmmm...just a thought....

Will you guys need any playtesters for this wonderous new game????

[ME! ME! ME! :lol: ]

DW

 

[Dag'Nabbit]

Oh...wait, :shock: let me secong that motion. I definitely want to be involved in the playtesting for this!

 

[E Nicely]

Sign me up!

 

[ShadowScout]

Same here - I'd also like to do some playtesting for this one.

 

[LoneStranger]

Yeah me and some people I know around here would be interested in playtesting the combat system as well. One group of people could test the combat system on its own, and another group could test how the combat system interacts with the RPG.

 

[August]

Gee... Poeple wanting to playtest a new game? How odd.

I'll get back to people as soon as the project is a little further along. Right now, it's still in the planning stages only. I have this little thing called Lone Wolf to finish first...

-A

 

[LoneStranger]

What? Playtesting? Never happens. :lol:

 

[E Nicely]

Gee... Poeple wanting to playtest a new game? How odd.

I'll get back to people as soon as the project is a little further along. Right now, it's still in the planning stages only. I have this little thing called Lone Wolf to finish first...

-A

Thanks for responding. I could muster a group that would be drooling over the idea to try new B5 space combat.

 

[Dag'Nabbit]

...I could muster a group that would be drooling over the idea to try new B5 space combat.

What do you mean 'would be?' I'm all ready having to wear a bib, and I'm well past that stage of my life. At least I thought I was. :wink: